ABSTRACT
An important component of the National Eisteddfod of 1894, held in Caernarfon, was an evening concert presided over by the 31-year-old David Lloyd George. The climax of the concert was orchestral, ‘the first performance of a new overture, Caractacus, composed by Mr J. H. Roberts’, which was ‘accorded a hearty reception’. The recruitment drive in Wales had been extraordinarily successful. Historians of sport have noted the central role played by rugby ‘in the popular incorporation of Welsh indigenous and British Imperial personas into the new definition of Welshness’, a definition carefully crafted to transcend class identities. The triumph of the Caractacus story at the 1906 Eisteddfod in both spoken drama and sung cantata inspired a decade of amateur performances in schools and town halls across Wales.
