SOURCE: Fulton, Helen. “Living the Good Life: A Medieval Fantasy.” The Anglo-Welsh Review 80 (1985): 76-85.

In the following essay, Fulton correlates Dafydd with Colin Muset, a thirteenth-century French poet and musician, citing similarities in their themes of the “good life” and their functionality in addressing social inequalities.

Dafydd ap Gwilym and Colin Muset are two poets distanced in place and time. Colin Muset was singing in eastern France in the first half of the thirteenth century, while Dafydd was a Welsh bard composing in the second half of the fourteenth century.

The work of the two poets is comparable, however, in two ways—because of their similar status as entertainers, and because of their social contexts. Colin Muset was a professional jongleur, dependent on noble patrons for a living, and moving from court to town to entertain audiences. Little is known of Colin's life, but he addressed his poems...