upon whom the honour was conferred from his loud voice. In later ages, horns, trumpets, and, after the Crusades, drums, and latterly fifes, were added 1. BARDS. Homer's bards never move without a herald; sit at the royal table; are helped to the first cut; and are a kind of duennas to the women. Strabo says, our bards were singers and poets. It appears, from the Laws of Howel Dha, and Gen. de Vallancey, that they were clothed and fed in kind by their lords. Spenser says that they would praise even a thief for a trifle; and in the middle of the last century, though skilled in the genealogy of the Highlands, and sometimes preceptors to the young laird, and composers of heroic poems on the origin of the tribe, and the warlike actions of the successive chieftains, they only drank ale with the Highlanders at the lower end of a long table.-The Eistedhfa was a session of the poets, musicians, and bards; a silver harp was bestowed upon the winner. The last held by royal authority was 9th Elizabeth. It has been recently revived. Our Anglo-Saxon bards were divided into glee-men, or merry-andrews, or harpers, not limited to that instrument. The bards who attended the Norman Kings were descendants of the Scandinavian Scalds. Mr. Owen ascribes to our British bards the invention of the Triads. See DRUIDS, CHAP. XV. MINSTRELS. These musicians were regular descendants of the old bards. They were of every kind, and stationed in receptacles for guests. Among them were jesters, who related tales of mirth and glee; excellent players upon the harp; and others of inferior kind, seated below, who mimicked the performances, like apes, to excite laughter. Behind them, at a great distance, was a prodigious number of others, making great sounds with cornets, shaulms, flutes, horns, and pipes of various kinds; some of them even made with green corn, such as those used by shepherds' boys. There were also Dutch pipers, to assist those who chose to dance either love-dances, springs, or rayes. Apart from these were stationed the trumpeters and players on the clarion, jugglers, magicians, and tregetours 3. They were the immediate successors of the Anglo-Saxon harpers, gleemen, &c. the Norman rhymers of the Scandinavian scalds, and were called minstrels soon after the Conquest. Some of them composed their own songs 4, or pretended to do so, as the Troubadours, or Trouvers, a term derived from Trobar, to invent, and Conteurs. They were originally natives of the South of France, who travelled from castle to castle singing and making love 5. Some minstrels used the compositions of others, as the Jugleours and Chanteurs. These were famous for playing upon the pretended Vielle (see p. 638), an instrument sounded by a wheel within, resembling a hurdygurdy, and accompanying the songs of the troubadours. These last introduced the Roman language, which was commonly used in the eleventh and twelfth centuries, and then esteemed the most perfect in Europe. It evidently originated from the Latin, and was the parent of the French tongue. Contours and Jestours recited tales and jokes, without any restraint from propriety or decency. Jestors, called Japours, frequented alehouses, and are sup posed to be the same as the Bourdours, or Rybauders, an inferior class of minstrels. Ridiculous words and actions, to occasion mirth, were used among them. The courts of princes swarmed with minstrels. Gleemaidens were the female minstrels of the Anglo-Saxons. Those who danced and tumbled thus acquired the name of Tomble 'Burn. i. 340, 383, 477; ii. 275. Grose, ii. 43, &c. Burn. Mus. i. 357. Odyss. i. 265 seq. Coll. Reb. Hyb. No iv. &c. Hoare's Girald. ii. 161, 162. Spens. View of Irel. 114. Birt's Lett. ii. 161, 162. Owen, Pref. Swyareh Hen. Strutt's Hord. i. 20. Sports, 130 seq. Du Cange, v. Ministelli. 3. Chaucer in Strutt's Sports, xxiii. 4 Strutt, 136. In Sir Joseph Banks's Letters on Iceland are some particulars of the Old Scalds. Brit. Monach, 483. steres and Saylours in Chaucer's time. The King of the Minstrels was changed into Marshall temp. Edward IV. Vestments, gold and silver chains, and richly-harnessed horses, were given to them. Being generally retainers to the nobility, they wore their lord's livery or badge upon their sleeves. Martin Baraton, an aged minstrel of Orleans, was accustomed to play upon the tambourine at weddings, festivals, &c. His instrument was of silver, decorated with small plates of the same metal, on which were engraved the arms of those whom he had taught to dance. They had servants to carry their trumpets. There were schools for minstrels in parts beyond the Seas; they were called heralds; and the incorporation of them by Edward IV. resembled that of the flute-players among the Romans. The term was often applied to instru⇒ mental performers only. To lead about apes was a part of their ancient profession. They blew trumpets to supper, and by them warned the King's household to mount on horseback. They also played at the Lord's chamber door on the morning of New Year's day. They began their songs with an address to the people; and these songs, through want of the caesura usual in modern versification, chime like a ring of bells. They received, temp. Edward I. 40s. for attendance on a marriage. The monks often wrote for them, admitted them to their festivals, and sometimes maintained them on purpose. The Statutes of Winchester College permitted the recreation of them after dinner and supper. They travelled about. Those of Coventry were most famous 1. VOICE. SINGING. The Classical Ancients had a notation for the voice, even in declamation. In the early times of Counterpoint, human voices of different compass were classed and divided into four distinct kinds, at the distance only of a third above each other 2. Singing (Anaphonesis) was considered a healthy exercise, and prescribed by Hippocrates to be used after dinner 3, at which time it was also customary in our Universities, temp. Charles I.4; and in the Regulations of the Inns of Court, we find," after cheese is served to the table, not any is commanded to sing 5." Singing of hymns was also usual at Anglo-Saxon entertainments 6, and in the Courts of Lewis XII. and other Kings, by professional men also. In the last half of the sixteenth century singing was the amusement of the well-bred of both sexes 7.-Song. The Scholia, or Greek Festive Songs, were pæans or hymns, and the singer at table held a myrtle rod, called Aiaxos, which he passed to the next, and so on. They had also love and drinking songs, like ourselves. The most ancient English song with the musical notes, perhaps any where extant, is the "Sumer is i cumen." The date is about the middle of the fifteenth century 9 Ballads. Plutarch mentions Prophetick Ballads, sold to servants and silly women, and Vossius gives us another kind, in rhyme, Mille Francos. Mille Sarmatas, semel occidimus. Mille, Mille, Mille, Mille, Mille Persas quærime Street singing was common in the Anglo-Saxon æra, and the itinerants used to stan the ends of bridges, like the Roman beggars. Ballads were made to vilify Pericle both libels and panegyricks made by hired foreigners were sung about on Our ancient ballad singers also sang to a fiddle, upon a barrel head and tem taverns upon stools, and attended wakes and fairs. The ballads were → 1 Strutt's Sports, 136–151. Burn, Mus. ii, 275, 429, - Hawk. ;* Warton's Engl. Poetr. i. 18, 87-92, 116, Douce, i. 352, * copious account of Minstrels, in an Essay annex circumstances requisite for an arti ⚫ Burney, i. 170; ii. 456 ubi 6 Scriptor. p. Bed. 27 b. the Song of Roland with Par .320. pas, Bevis of Southampton, &c. (See p. 641.) Cromwell silenced them. Ballads were, till the beginning of the seventeenth century, printed in the black letter, and chiefly sold in stalls. They were set to old and well-known tunes1.-Psalm-Singing was much practised by the Anglo-Saxon Clergy, Laity, and our ancestors; indeed was the common employ of the devout, when alone; the whole psalter, which was got by heart by children, being sung over sometimes every night, and before eating on Sundays and Festivals. The Monks used to sing psalms when travelling, and under other employments; and there was formed for the study and meditation of travellers a tablet of the Psalms. Our ancient Kings joined in the Church-service, and sung the offices in surplices. Divine songs were also sung. These were very curious, such as songs sung by Christ, when on the Cross, adjuring his hearers by the nails, thorns, &c. Beggars sung a Salve Regina, Chaucer's Absalom, an Angelus ad Virginem. Luther, Huss, and other Reformers, not Marot, as Warton and Hawkins, were the means of introducing modern Psalmody. The custom of singing psalms at church began in 1559 and 1560 sometimes at Paul's Cross six thousand persons sung together; and on Sunday evenings the people were wholly occupied in singing psalms, or reading the Book of Martyrs. The ancient practice in church was, on account of those who could not read, for the clerk to repeat each line three times before the commencement and after the conclusion of the morning service; likewise, when there was a sermon, before and after that. It was nearly banished by the Puritans; but still it is noted that the singing at the siege of York, in 1644, was better than had been known for ages. These severe reformers applied profane tunes to sacred uses, which they called robbing the Devil of them 2. WAITS, originally musical watchmen, the word implying oboes. They were minstrels at first annexed to the King's Court, who sounded the watch every night, and in towns paraded the streets during winter, to prevent theft, &c. They were set up with a regular salary at Exeter in 1400, and, though suppressed by the Puritans, were restored in 16603. Plut. de Pythia. Vopisc in Aurelian. XV. Scriptor. 342. Scriptor. p. Bed. 400. XV. Script. 280. Plut. in Pericles. Strutt's Horda, 318; iii. 118, 263. 2 Dec. Scriptor. 130, 2367, 2370, 2432. Scriptor. p. v. Tabula Peregrinantium. Henry's Gr. Brit. iv. 307. 89; iii. 488, 506; iv. 476. Nares, v. Puritans. Hawk. Mus. iii. 410. Turner's Angl. Sax. iii. 315. Bed. 148 a. M. Paris, 401, 519, 818. Du Cange, Burney, iii. 26, 35, 49, 50, 62. Hawkins, ii. 432, Hawk. ii. 107, 291; v. 2. Izacke's Exeter, 68, 169. Stage before the use of Scenes. (See p. 592; and also p. 329) From Roigny's Terence, 1539, Act III. Sc. iii. Simo and Chremes are before the Curtain, and Davus entering from behind. Badge of the Plantagenets. Badge of Edward IV. See p. 652. Badge of Edward IV. CHAP. XIV. DISTINCTIONS OF RANK AND HONOUR-HERALDICK MATTERS. SELDEN'S "Titles of Honour" is a book so well known, cheap, and accessible, and a very large portion of its matter such a mere distinction of terms, that it is better to take new ground, at least that to which some historical interest is to be attached. The Republicks of the Greeks and Romans were governed of course by elective magistrates, and of their offices the school-books give ample information. After the fall of the Republick, the title of Carros, in Latin Augustus, was given to the Emperors, and the heirs or associates of the Empire were called Cæsars. The commencement of the title of Augustus was in the year U. C. 726, and the word implied a place or person consecrated by some augury or religious ceremony. The nations which succeeded the Romans gave their sovereigns the title of Augustus. About the year 1080 the title of Cæsar in the Eastern Empire no longer signified the heir-apparent, and new distinctions, of Despotes, Sebastocrators, &c. were created 2. After the patrician families of Rome had been nearly lost, Constantine founded a dignity of the same name highest in rank; and this became the chief dignity in France, and among the Anglo-Saxons 3. Count, or Comes, was certainly derived from the Comites Augusti, in the decline of the Empire, who were usually chosen out of such men as were of consular, prætorian, or senatorial dignity; and these and Dukes were synonimous 4. "The Commission for a Duke," says Selden, "gave the same authoritie as that before shewed for the Count of a Province. And hee that had a province so committed to him with militarie government, being not a Count, was called Dux only 5." So that Dux, or Duke, had a distinct military allusion; but of this more hereafter, and here unnecessary, because Selden is reproached with having paid more attention to the dig. nities of other countries than of his own. When the Romans left Britain the Imperial magistrates were deposed, and the Country was divided into thirty independent Republicks, governed by elective magistrates, which, as such, have no relation to our subject. They had Reguli, or petty kings, to whom the government of provinces was consigned. The emblems of supreme authority among them were golden torques worn round the neck, armis, and knees1. There were also chiefs of clans, with subordinate officers; the equites and clients of Cæsar. The people in general were in two divisions, the free and the servile 2. Among the Anglo-Saxons the members of the blood-royal were styled Clitones (from xaros), Clitunculi, and Ethelings, or Athelings, from aethel, nobilis, and ing, a descendant. The next rank was that of Eolderman, the ancestor of Earl, which began in the later days of the Anglo-Saxons; and Heretogas, or Dukes. The next distinction was that of Thane, to whom succeeded the Norman Baron 4. Of these in order. Selden says that the Aldermen of the Counties were the successors of the British Reguli. The word was a general term for any civil dignity, as Dux and Heretoga for the military 5. Du Cange says that the word was first applied to nobles of various ranks, and then transferred to governors of provinces, &c. who represented the King in judicial matters. The Archbishops or Bishops were called Aldermen, The Alderman of the Hundred was elected by the people; and was, Du Cange thinks, inferior to the King's Alderman, who presided in the County Court. The Alderman of all England Spelman thinks the Chief Justiciary. There were also Aldermen of Gilds, Hospitals, &c. 6-The title of Duke commenced in the Lower Empire, from being given to governors of provinces in time of war, as Dukes, but continued in peace. The first governor so called was that of the Grisons, mentioned by Cassiodorus. There were thirteen in the Eastern, twelve in the Western Empire, among them a Duke of Great Britain. Most of them were either Roman Generals, or descendants of Kings of the Country, purposely deprived of the royal title. The Goths and Vandals abolished the ducal rank, but the Franks, to please the Gauls, retained their old custom 7. Selden says, that from hence it became feudal in Germany, and was imitated in Poland, France, &c. being, on the Roman system, military and official, first for life, at least in France, and afterwards hereditary. In England Duke and Earl were synonimous till the 11th Edward III. when the Black Prince was created Duke of Cornwall. The first instance of the creation of a Duchess is 21st Richard II. of Margaret Duchess of Norfolk for life: the first coronet a circle of gold and pearls. The word was long used in England in the Roman sense of leader. When the title of Archduke commenced is uncertain 8.-The Earl was the successor of the AngloSaxon Eolderman. Earl, Comes, Consul (obsolete about the reign of Stephen), and Dux, rare among the Normans, were synonimous. The title, since the Norman æra, is either local, or personal; local from territory, divided into Palatine, or with regal jurisdiction, or without; and personal, from office, as Earl Marshal, &c. The local Earls, not Palatine, were created with some profit from the County, or other source, expressed in the patent. About the reign of Henry VIII. began the custom of first creating the Earl a Baron 9. Earls were anciently addressed by the title and surname, as "Earl Pembroke 10."-The dignity of Thane had various acceptations; but, in the most honourable sense, it denoted tenure by grand sergeanty 11. It was essential to a Thane that he should have five hides of land, a church, a kitchen, bell-house, a judicial seat at the Burgh-gate, and a distinct office or station in the King's Hall. It is not clear whether this means an office in the King's household, or a seat in the Wite 'Turner, i. 383, note. 4 Id. 604 seq. • Turner, ub. supr. ⚫ Selden, 600. 6 Du Cange. Spelman in voce. ii. c.i.§ 30. Douce, i. 179. |