21 The Distracted Lover. Mad Song the 2 John Anderson my Jo. A Scottish Song. 211123 Lilli-Burlero. By Lord Wharton 10 The Beggar's Daughter of Bednal Green. BOOK THE first. Essay on the Ancient Metrical Romances PAGR AN ESSAY ON THE ANCIENT MINSTRELS IN IN ENGLAND. own Teutonic ancestors,† particularly by all 1. THE MINSTRELS (A) were an order of | Gothic race; but by none more than by our men in the middle ages, who subsisted by the arts of poetry and music, and sang to the harp verses composed by themselves or others. They also appear to have accompanied their songs with mimicry and action; and to have practised such various means of diverting as were much admired in those rude times, and supplied the want of more refined entertainment. (B) These arts rendered them extremely popular and acceptable in this and all the neighbouring countries; where no high scene of festivity was esteemed complete, that was not set off with the exercise of their talents; and where, so long as the spirit of chivalry subsisted, they were protected and caressed, because their songs tended to do honour to the ruling passion of the times, and to encourage and foment a martial spirit. The Minstrels seem to have been the genuine successors of the ancient Bards, (C) who under different names were admired and revered, from the earliest ages, among the people of Gaul, Britain, Ireland, and the North; and indeed, by almost all the first inhabitants of Europe, whether of Celtic or (A) The larger Notes and Illustrations referred to by the capital letters (A) (B), &c., are thrown together to the end of this Essay. * Wedded to no hypothesis, the Author hath readily corrected any mistakes which have been proved to be in this Essay; and, considering the novelty of the subject, and the time, and place, when and where he first took it up, many such had been excusable. That the term Minstrel was not confined, as some contend, to a mere Musician, in this country, any more than on the Continent, will be considered more fully in the last note (G g) at the end of this Essay. As these honours were paid to Poetry and Song, from the earliest times, in those countries which our Anglo-Saxon ancestors inhabited before their removal into Britain, we may reasonably conclude, that they would not lay aside all their regard for men of this sort immediately on quitting their German forests. At least so long as they retained their ancient manners and opinions, they would still hold them in high estimation. But as the Saxons, soon after their establish * Vid. Pelloutier Hist. des Celtes, tom. 1, 1. 2, c. 6, 10. †Tacit. de Mor. Germ. cap. 2. Vid. Bartholin. de Causis contemptæ a Danis Mortis, lib. 1, cap. 10.--Wormij Literatura Runic. ad finem.-See also "Northern Antiquities, or, a Description of the Manners, Customs, &c., of the ancient Danes, and other Northern Nations: from the French of M. Mallet." London, printed for T. Carnan, 1770, 2 vols. 8vo. Torfæi Præfat. ad Orcad. Hist.-Pref. to "Five Pieces of Runic Poetry," &c. |