ABSTRACT
Panegyrics to the British state are read, in response or reaction to Colley's thesis, either as complex encodings of resistance or expressions of what appear to be passive assimilation into an Anglo-British center'. Lewis Morris's bardic protg, Evan Evans, was a far more outspoken critic of the British state than his mentor, especially regarding the Anglican Church and its policies in Wales. Images drawn from the history of the Ancient Britons', pre-union Wales, and the Tudor polity were often used not to highlight racial difference, but to add a Welsh dimension to the new Britishness. Indeed, the entire scene appears as though taking place in a Princely mead-hall rather than in Georgian London, reinforcing the modern company's links with their Ancient British ancestors. Mirroring English attempts to naturalize the Hanoverians, but with a Cambro-British cast, was an important tool in Welsh loyalists' ability to reconcile two potentially conflicting allegiances.
