character far superior to anything we can conceive at present of the singers of old ballads, I think, may be inferred from the following representation. When Queen Elizabeth was entertained at Killingworth Castle by the Earl of Leicester in 1575, among the many devices and pageants which were contrived for her entertainment, one of the personages introduced was to have been that of an ancient Minstrel ; whose appearance and dress are so minutely described by a writer there present,* and give us so distinct an idea of the character, that I shall quote the passage at large. (Ee.) "A person very meet seemed he for the purpose, of a xlv years old, apparelled partly as he would himself. His cap off; his head seemly rounded Tonsterwise : + fair kembed, that with a sponge daintily dipt in a little capon's greace was finely smoothed, to make it shine like a mallard's wing. His beard smugly shaven : and yet his shirt after the new trink, with ruffs fair starched, sleeked and glistering like a pair of new shoes, marshalled in good order with a setting stick, and strut, that every ruff stood up like a wafer. A side [i. e. long] gown of Kendal green, after the freshness of the year now, gathered at the neck with a narrow gorget, fastened afore with a white clasp and a keeper close up to the chin; but easily, for heat to undo when he list. Seemly begirt in a red caddis girdle: from that a pair of capped Sheffield knives hanging a' two sides. Out of his bosom drawn forth a lappet of his napkin edged with a blue lace, and marked with a true love, a heart, and a D for Damian, for he was but a batchelor yet. "His gown had side [i. e. long] sleeves down to *See a very curiers "Letter: whearin part of the entertainment untoo the Queenz Maiesty, at Killingwoorth Castl, in Warwick Sheer, in this soomerz Progress 1575, iz signified," &c. bl. 1. 4to. vid. p. 46 & seqq. (Printed in Nichols's Collection of Queen Elizabeth's Progresses, &c. in 2 vol. 4to. We have not followed above the peculiar and affected orthography of this writer, who was named Ro. Laneham, or rather Langham; see p. 84. "tonsure-wise," after the manner of the monks. So in Shakspeare's "Othello" passim + I suppose midleg, slit from the shoulder to the hand, and lined with white cotton. His doublet-sleeves of black worsted upon them a pair of poynets* of tawny chamlet laced along the wrist with blue threaden points, a wealt towards the hand of fustian-a-napes. A pair of red neather stocks. A pair of pumps on his feet, with a cross-cut at the toes for corns: not new indeed, yet cleanly blackt with soot, and shining as a shoing-horn. "About his neck a red ribband suitable to his girdle. His harp in good grace dependent before him. His wrest† tyed to a green lace and hanging by. Under the gorget of his gown a fair flaggon chain (pewter, for) silver, as a Squire Minstrel of Middlesex, that travelled the country this summer season, unto fairs and worshipful mens houses. From his chain hung a scutcheon, with metal and colour, resplendant upon his breast, of the ancient arms of Islington." This Minstrel is described as belonging to that village. I suppose such as were retained by noble families wore the arms of their patrons hanging down by a silver chain as a kind of badge.§ From the expression of Squire Minstrel above, we may conclude there were other inferior orders, as Yeomen Minstrels, or the like. * Perhaps, points. The key, or screw, with which he tuned his harp. The reader will remember that this was not a real Minstrel, but only one personating that character: his ornaments therefore were only such as outwardly represented those of a real Minstrel. § As the House of Northumberland had anciently three minstrels attending on them in their castles in Yorkshire, so they still retain three in their service in Northumberland, who wear the badge of the family, (a silver crescent on the right arm) and are thus distributed; viz., one for the barony of Prudhoe, and two for the barony of Rothbury. These attend the court leets and fairs held for the Lord, and pay their annual suit and service at Alnwick castle; their instrument being the ancient Northumberland bag-pipe (very different in form and execution from that of the Scots; being smaller, and blown, not with the breath, but with a small pair of bellows.) This, with many other venerable customs of the ancient Lord Percys, was revived by their illustrious representatives the late Duke and Dutchess of Northumberland. This Minstrel, the author tells us a little below, "after three lowly courtsies, cleared his voice with a hem... and... wiped his lips with the hollow of his hand for 'filing his napkin, tempered a string or two with his wrest, and after a little warbling on his harp for a prelude, came forth with a solemn song, warranted for story out of King Arthur's acts," &c.-This song the reader will find printed in this work, Vol. iii. pag. 51. Towards the end of the sixteenth century this class of men had lost all credit, and were sunk so low in the public opinion, that in the 39th year of Elizabeth,* a statute was passed by which "Minstrels, wandering abroad," were included among 66 rogues, vagabonds, and sturdy beggars," and were adjudged to be punished as such. This act seems to have put an end to the profession. (E e. 2.) VII. I cannot conclude this account of the ancient English Minstrels, without remarking that they are most of them represented to have been of the North of England. There is scarce an old historical song or Ballad, (F f.) wherein a Minstrel or Harper appears, but he is characterized by way of eminence to have been "of the North Countreye: "+ and indeed the prevalence of the Northern dialect in such compositions, shows that this representation is real. On the دو * Anno Dom. 1597. Vid. Pult. Stat. p. 1110, 39° Eliz. See this Vol. Song vi. v. 156. 180. &c. Giraldus Cambrensis, writing in the reign of K. Henry II. mentions a very extraordinary habit or propensity, which then prevailed in the North of England, beyond the Humber, for symphonious harmony" or singing "in two parts, the one murmuring in the base, and the other warbling in the acute or treble." (I use. Dr. Burney's Version, Vol. ii. p. 108.) This he describes, as practised by their very children from the cradle ; and he derives it from the Danes [So Daci signifies in our old writers] and Norwegians, who long over-run and in effect newpeopled the Northern parts of England, where alone this manner of singing prevailed. (Vide" Cambria Descriptio," cap. 13. and in Burney ubi supra.Giraldus is probably right as to the origin or derivation of this practise, for the Danish and Icelandic Scalds had carried the Arts of Poetry and Singing to great perfection at the time the Danish settlements were made in the North. other hand the scene of the finest Scottish Ballads is laid in the South of Scotland; which should seem to have been peculiarly the nursery of Scottish Minstrels. In the old song of "Maggy Lawder," a Piper is asked, by way of distinction, "Come ze frae the Border?”*. The martial spirit constantly kept up and exercised near the frontier of the two kingdoms, as it furnished continual subjects for their Songs, so it inspired the inhabitants of the adjacent counties on both sides with the powers of poetry. Besides, as our Southern Metropolis must have been ever the scene of novelty and refinement, the northern countries, as being most And it will also help to account for the superior skill and fame of our Northern Minstrels and Harpers afterwards: who had preserved and transmitted the arts of their Scaldic Ancestors. See "Northern Antiquities," Vol. i. c. 13. p. 386. and "Five pieces of Runic Poetry," 1763. 8vo.--Compare the original passage in Giraldus. as given by Sir John Hawkins, i. 408, and by Dr. Burney, ii. 108. who are both at a loss to account for this peculiarity, and therefore doubt the fact. The credit of Giraldus, which hath been attacked by some partial and bigotted antiquaries, the reader will find defended in that learned and curious work, " Antiquities. of Ireland by Edward Ledwieh, LL.D. &c. Dublin, 1790," 4to p. 207. & seqq. *This line being quoted from memory, and given as old Scottish Poetry is now usually printed, (see pag. 283. N.) would have been readily corrected by the copy published in "Scottish Songs, 1794." 2 Vol. 12mo. i. p. 267. thus, (though apparently corrupted from the Scottish Idiom,) "Live you upo' the Border? had not all confidence been destroyed by its being altered in the "Historical Essay" prefixed to that publication (p. cx.) to "Ye live upo' the Border." the better to favour a position, that many of the Pipers might live upon the border, for the conveniency of attending fairs, &c. in both kingdoms." But whoever is acquainted with that part of England, knows that on the English Frontier rude Mountains and barren Wastes reach almost across the island, scarcely inhabited by any but solitary Shepherds; many of whom durst not venture into the opposite border on account of the ancient feuds and subsequent disputes concerning the Debatable Lands, which separated the boundaries of the two kingdoms, as well as the estates of the two great families of Percy and Douglas; till these disputes were settled, not many years since, by arbitration between the present Lord Douglas, and the late Duke and Dutchess of Northumberland, distant, would preserve their ancient manners longest, and of course the old poetry, in which those manners are peculiarly described. The reader will observe in the more ancient ballads of this collection, a cast of style and measure very different from that of contemporary poets of a higher class; many phrases and idioms, which the Minstrels seem to have appropriated to themselves, and a very remarkable licence of varying the accent of words at pleasure, in order to humour the flow of the verse, particularly in the rhimes; as Countrie harpèr singèr battèl morning instead of "country," "làdy," "hàrper," "singer," &c.-- -This liberty is but sparingly assumed by the classical poets of the same age; or even by the latter composers of Heroical Ballads: I mean by such as professedly wrote for the press. For it is to be observed, that so long as the Minstrels subsisted, they seem never to have designed their rhimes for literary publication, and probably never committed them to writing themselves: what copies are preserved of them were doubtless taken down from their mouths. as the old Minstrels gradually wore out, a new race of Ballad-writers succeeded, an inferior sort of minor poets, who wrote narrative songs merely for the press. Instances of both may be found in the reign of Elizabeth. The two latest pieces in the genuine strain of the old Minstrelsy that I can discover, are No. iii. and iv. of Book iii. in this volume. Lower than these I cannot trace the old mode of writing. But The old Minstrel-ballads are in the northern dialect, abound with antique words and phrases, are extremely incorrect, and run into the utmost licence of metre; they have also a romantic wildness, and are in the true spirit of chivalry. The other sort are written in exacter measure, have a low or subordinate correctness, sometimes bordering on the insipid, yet often well adapted to the pathetic; these are generally in the southern dialect, exhibit a more modern phraseo |