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was at this time 2 necessary attendant on a royal

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Prince Edward, in his crusade to the Holy Land, in 1271, was rescued from a Saracen assassin by his harper, a fact proving him to have been officially very near the royal person. Though this prince is said in his reign to have treated the Welsh bards with great severity, in his own court the minstrels appear to have been in high favor. The king of the minstrels was, both in England and on the Continent, a usual officer in the court of princes, and was on the same footing with the king at arms. In the reign of Henry IV. the statute-book shows a severe law passed against the Welsh bards. "This act," observes Percy, "shows that, far from being extirpated by the rigorous policy of Edward I., this order of men were still able to alarm the English Government, which attributed to them many diseases and mischiefs in Wales,' and prohibited their meetings and contributions." When in 1473 King Henry V. prepared his great voyage to France, an express order was given to his minstrels, fifteen in number, to attend him, and to each of them he allowed 12d. per day, when that sum was more than ten times the value it is at present. Yet we are told that at his triumphant entry into London, after the battle of Agincourt, "he would not allow any ditties to be made, and sung by his minstrels of his glorious victory, for that he would wholly have the praise and thanks given altogether to Almighty God."

In the reign of Henry VI. we read of a commission for impressing boys and youths to supply vacancies by death among the king's minstrels; "who shall be elegant in their limbs, and well-instructed in the minstrel art, for the solace of his Majesty."

In all the establishments of royal and noble households

ample provision was made for the minstrels, and their situation is known to have been both honorable and lucrative. In the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, the name of minstrel was gradually appropriated by the musician only.

In the time of Henry VIII. it was a common entertainment to hear verses recited by a set of men who obtained their livelihood by repeating them, and who intruded without ceremony into all companies, not only in taverns, but in the houses of the nobility themselves; and it is recorded that long after, in the reign of Elizabeth, it was usual in places of assembly for the company to be desirous to hear of "old adventures, and valiances of noble knights in times past," as those of King Arthur, and his Knights of the Round Table.

When the Earl of Leicester entertained Queen Bess at Kenilworth Castle, in 1575, an ancient minstrel was one of the personages introduced into the pageant. Bishop Percy gives us a passage, quoted from a writer there present, which affords a distinct idea of the character, "a character which," as he remarks, "is far superior to anything we can at present conceive of the writers of old ballads." It may be found in Percy's "Reliques," vol. i. p. 44.

In the thirty-ninth year of Elizabeth - though romances sung to the harp were still the delight of the common people—this class of men, who appear to have lost all credit, and to have become strolling jugglers, had sunk so low in public opinion that a statute was passed, by which minstrels wandering abroad were included among rogues and vagabonds and sturdy beggars, and were adjudged to be punished as such. This act seems to have put an end to the profession. So long as the minstrels subsisted, like the old Scalds, they seem never to

have designed their rhymes for literary publication; and it is supposed that they never committed them to writing themselves. What copies were preserved of them were doubtless taken down from their own mouths. As most of the minstrels are represented to have been of the "North Countryee," the old ballads are in the Northern dialect. 66 They abound in antique words and phrases, are extremely incorrect, and run into the utmost license of metre; they have also a romantic wildness, and are in the true spirit of chivalry." The heroic song of "Chevy Chase," which dates as far back as the time of Henry VI. and had originally some foundation in fact, is perhaps the most familiar and popular of all the old ballads. "The Nut-Brown Maid" an antique ballad, assigned, I think, to the fourteenth century has more beauty of sentiment than can be discovered in any other composition of the ancient minstrels; and it has been remarked that "if it had no other merit than having afforded the groundwork of Prior's' Edwin and Emma,' this ought alone to preserve it from oblivion."

The old romantic tale of "Sir Cauline" might be commended as less gross than most of the antique ballads, which are for the greater part marred by coarse allusions and indelicate passages, sanctioned by the usage of that ruder age, yet offensive to modern taste and refinement. The ballad of "The Cruel Sister," compiled by Sir Walter Scott, from a copy in manuscript, intermixed with a beautiful fragment transcribed from the memory of an old woman who had no recollection of the preceding or concluding stanzas, though savoring of the marvellous, is highly pathetic, chaste, and musical. It is supposed to have been very popular, and may be regarded as a fair specimen of the most refined of the old ballads.

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THE CRUEL SISTER.

THERE were two sisters sat in a bower,
Binnorie, O Binnorie!

There came a knight to be their wooer,

By the bonny mill-dams of Binnorie.

He courted the eldest with glove and ring,
Binnorie, O Binnorie !

But he lo'ed the youngest abune a' thing,
By the bonny mill-dams of Binnorie.

He courted the eldest with brooch and knife,
Binnorie, O Binnorie!

But he lo'ed the youngest abune his life,
By the bonny mill-dams of Binnorie.

The eldest she was vexèd sair,

Binnorie, O Binnorie!

And sore envied her sister fair,

By the bonny mill-dams of Binnorie.

The eldest said to the youngest one,
Binnorie, O Binnorie!

"Will ye go see our father's ships come in ?”
By the bonny mill-dams of Binnorie.

She has ta'en her by the lily hand,
Binnorie, O Binnorie!

And led her down to the river strand,
By the bonny mill-dams of Binnorie.

The youngest stude upon a stone,
Binnorie, O Binnorie!

The eldest came and pushed her in,
By the bonny mill-dams of Binnorie.

1 Pronounced Binnōrie.

She took her by the middle sma',
Binnorie, O Binnorie!

And dashed her bonny back to the jaw,
By the bonny mill-dams of Binnorie.

"Oh, sister, sister, reach your hand,
Binnorie, O Binnorie!

And

ye

shall be heir of half my land,
By the bonny mill-dams of Binnorie."

"Oh, sister, I'll not reach my hand, Binnorie, O Binnorie!

And I'll be heir of all your land,

By the bonny mill-dams of Binnorie.

"Shame fa' the hand that I should take, Binnorie, O Binnorie !

It's twin'd me and my world's make,

By the bonny mill-dams of Binnorie."

"Oh, sister, reach me but your glove, Binnorie, O Binnorie!

And sweet William shall be your love,

By the bonny mill-dams of Binnorie."

"Sink on, nor hope for hand nor glove! Binnorie, O Binnorie!

And sweet William shall better be my love, By the bonny mill-dams of Binnorie.

"Your cherry cheeks and your yellow hair Binnorie, O Binnorie !

Gau'd me gang maiden evermore,

By the bonny mill-dams of Binnorie."

Sometimes she sank, and sometimes she swam, Binnorie, O Binnorie!

Until she came to the miller's dam,

By the bonny mill-dams of Binnorie.

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