or on the side of some mountain, where their harpers and crowthers sing them songs of the doings of their ancestors. Nor is this ballad style of poetry confined to our side of the Atlantic; for even the North American savages, when first discovered by our people, had their rude and warlike songs, in which they sung the praises of those who had died on the battle-field. And from another independent source we learn that a like system of national ballads prevailed among the original inhabitants of Peru.

Doubtless what was true in one country was true more or less in every other; as the manners of each people became more refined, their ballads came to embrace a wider range of subjects. The songs were no longer confined to the rehearsal of deeds of valour, but began to include all sorts of tales of adventure, wild and marvellous, and occasionally became the vehicle of sentiment and passion; and "no festivity was esteemed complete among our ancestors in the eleventh, twelfth, and thirteenth centuries which was not set off with the exercise of the minstrel's talents, who usually sang his ballad to his own or some other harp, and was everywhere received with respect.'

As a higher intellectual taste began to prevail, however, these rude performances gradually lost their attraction with the upper ranks of society, and the bard's office fell into desuetude and comparative neglect. 'When," writes Dr. Aikin,† "language became more refined, and poetical taste elevated by an acquaintance with the Greek and Latin authors, the subjects of the Epic Muse were no longer dressed in the homely garb of the popular ballad, but assumed the borrowed ornament and stately air of heroic poetry, and every poetical attempt in the sublime and beautiful Cas was an imitation of the classic models. The native poetry of the country was reserved merely for the humorous and burlesque, and the term ballad was brought by custom to signify a comic story told in low familiar language, and accompanied by a droll trivial tune. It was much used by the wits of the time as a vehicle for laughable ridicule and mirthful satire, and a great variety of the most pleasing specimens of this kind of writing is to be found in the witty era of English genius, which I take to be between the beginning of Charles the Second's reign and the times of Swift and Prior. Since that period, the genius of the age has chiefly been characterized by the correct, elegant, and tender; and a real or affected taste for beautiful simplicity has almost universally prevailed."

As time went on, these compositions, being quite out of date and fashion, came naturally to be regarded as objects of curiosity, chiefly on account of the insight which they afforded as to the manners, customs, and habits of thought which prevailed in the times to which they related; while the strokes of nature with which they abounded, and the artless simplicity and force of their language, excited the admiration of such critics as were not utterly prejudiced in favour of the classical as contrasted with the romantic school. When therefore they had ceased to be current in song or recitation, they came to be carefully sought after and treasured by learned antiquaries, and illustrated by historical notes; and thus a secondary importance was attached to them scarcely inferior to that which they possessed when chanted to the harp of the minstrel. If Sir Walter Scott in his day did good service in rescuing from oblivion the "minstrelsy of the Scottish Border," it should always

• Penny Cyclopædia, vol. iii. p. 329.

Essays on Song-Writing, 1779.

be remembered that was Bishop Percy from whom he first learned to appreciate such rhymes.

No doubt by far the greatest portion of the ballads once current and familiar in this country have perished irrevocably, for very few specimens exist of an earlier date than the reign of our first Stuart king. Being printed on single sheets, they would naturally fall chiefly into the hands of the lower orders, who would paste them not into scrap-books, but on the walls of their cottages. A few of them, however, were gleaned and stored away in little penny collections known as Garlands, several specimens of which are to be seen in the Pepys Library at Cambridge.

The earliest ballad now remaining in the English language, if we may accept the statement of the writer in the Penny Cyclopædia already quoted, is believed to be a "Cuckow Song" of the latter part of the reign of Henry III. It runs thus:

"Sumer is icumen in,

Lhudè sing cuccu;

Groweth sed and bloweth med,

And spingeth the wdè nu.

Sing cuccu.

Awe beteth after lamb,

Llouth after calvè cu,

Bulluc sterteth,

Buckè verteth,

Murie sing cuccu.

Сисси, сисси,

Wel singes thou, cuccu,

Ne swik thou never nu.

This is simple and pastoral enough; it means—

"Summer is come in,

Loud sings the cuckoo,

Now the seed grows and the mead blows,

And the wood springs anew.

The ewe bleats after the lamb,

The cow loweth after the calf,

The bullock starts, the buck verts,
Merrily sing cuckoo.

Well singest thou, cuckoo !

Mayest thou never cease now."

The earliest specimen of Scottish song, after the Scotch adopted the English tongue, is preserved in the Rhyming Chronicle of Andrew Wyntown, Prior of Lochleven, written, as is generally supposed, about the year 1420, in which he relates the song made on King Alexander III., who was killed by a fall from his horse in 1286.

The earliest English song, separately printed on a single sheet, is believed to be one on the downfall of Thomas, Lord Cromwell, A.D. 1540.

The effects of ballad poetry in rousing the warlike passions of the people have been felt even in the modern prosaic times. The Irish song of "Lillyburlero," mentioned by Macaulay in his History of England; the "Marseillaise Song or Hymn ;" and Burns's song, "Scots wha hae wi' Wallace bled," are sufficient proofs of the truth of this assertion.

The Scotch have got the credit for many of our best ballads, simply because they were called northern. But by the north country was denoted not only Scotland, or Northumberland, but all the land north of the Humber. The real fact is, that they were far more generally English than Scotch; and for this plain reason. Whilst Puritanism and Calvinism reigned or rather tyrannized over Scotland, it was not likely that that land, though in many ways a "meet nurse of a poetic child," would have produced many ballads; for we read in Chambers's Domestic Annals of Scotland (vol. i. p. 394), that under the Regent Morton death was the penalty for printing a ballad, and that two "poets" were actually hanged in 1579 for making ballads. Indeed, at one time no licence for a marriage could be issued north of the Tweed, unless the parties deposited £10 as a pledge that they would not have minstrels to play at it.

PREFACE TO THE PRESENT EDITION.

THE object of the present Edition has been to simplify the Reliques for general reading. It professes to be nothing but a popular edition, popularly arranged, with notes that simplify and explain without entering into abstruse speculations, which, instead of enlightening, only increase the difficulties of the ordinary reader, who desires to read the ballads as a matter of amusement, and of information as to the old metrical romances, with as little effort as may be.

In order to assist without confusing, a Glossary of the very difficult words has been made. The words to be found in the Glossary are all printed in italics.

A German told me that when he first came to England, he could read Chaucer easily long before he could manage modern English, on account of many of the old words assimilating so closely to the German.

It seems to me, in looking at many of the iootnotes to doubtful words, that this element is not sufficiently considered; and therefore in the Glossary I have occasionally suggested extra meanings founded on the German.

For instance, sheene, used as an adjective, I find shining, and I suggest fine as agreeing with the German schön, the pronunciation of which through the modified vowel comes not far off the English sheene. For stiffe and stark (the meaning of the latter word in some glossaries being given as stiff), I should suggest cruel and strong, from the German stief, cruel; stark, strong; and I find that stark is given in Percy's folio as strong. Renisht, for which glittering or shining is given, may, I think, come from the same root as renigen, to clean: it would be easy to get renidged or renisht from this; and purified, cleansed, made all clean and presentable, appears to be the sense in which the word renisht stands.

In the "Sturdy Rock," a madrigal set to music, we find the word sliae, now used as a slang term, meaning "let it pass.' It is found in Shakespeare also, and it is curious that the word which in this sense appears to have been lost to the language, was revived as a slang term by the Americans-I think the Bostonians, who pride themselves on the correctness of their English.

There are other words that differ in orthography, but which differ so slightly that it has not been thought well to burden the Glossary with them. Instead of this, a few remarks are offered.

Many words beginning with z must have the z turned into y, as zour, ze, your, ye. Z also sometimes stands for gh, in such words as dozter, daughter; fyzt, fight; ryzt, right; doz-trough, dough-trough. D and t are almost synonymous; alsof and v. Indeed, one can perceive in many of the old words the German v, which is equal to our English f-fele, many, German viel, viele. D sometimes answers to th, as Bednall, Bethnall: v and u are also used synonymously, giue, give; loue, love.

With these remarks in view, it will be easy to understand those words that have not been considered of sufficient difficulty to add to the Glossary.

The word Editor, in reference to the poems, stands for Bishop Percy himself, the notes being partially abridged from his notes to the Reliques. Some original notes and remarks have been added.

A long disquisition on the word Termagaunt or Termagant appears in the Reliques in conjunction with Mahmoud; which latter word appears in one or two of the ballads, and Bishop Percy in his remarks says: "Termagaunt is the name given to the god of the Saracens, in which he is constantly linked with Mahmoud or Mahomet." He goes on to say that the word is derived by the editor of Junius from the Anglo-Saxon Typ, very, and mazan, mighty. But Bishop Percy suggests that the derivation seems too sublime for the Saracenic deity; he says: "Perhaps Typ-mazan, or Termagant, has been a name originally given to some Saxon idol before our ancestors were converted to Christianity, or had been the peculiar attribute of one of their false deities; and therefore the first Christian missionaries rejected it as profane and improper to be applied to the true God."

In answer to this, we would further suggest that probably Termagant alludes to the Teutonic Mars. Tyr, Tiw, Zio; why should not the derivation be Tyr, Mars; Mazan, Magan, mighty, the mighty Mars?

Grimm says of TyrZio: "Represented in the Edda as Odin's son, he may seem inferior to him in power and moment; but the two really fall into one, inasmuch as both are directors of war and battle, and the fame of victory proceeds from each of them alike." The old Norse name for Tuesday was Tysdagr, from the god Tyr (gen. Tys), the Anglo-Saxon Tiwesdag. The French Mardi brings us to Dies Martis, and we see in each the god of war as the patron of the day; therefore as Termagant or Termagaunte is always spoken of in connection with battles, may not the derivation be Tyr mazan, the mighty Tyr, the Mars of the northern nations, the equal in that sense to the god Wuotan or Odin? E. W.

AN ESSAY ON THE ANCIENT MINSTRELS IN ENGLAND.

I. The Minstrels were an order of 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 accompanied their songs with mimicry and action; and

* Grimm's Teutonic Mythology, translated by James Steven Stallybrass, p. 196.

+ 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. The term "minstrel" was not confined, as some contend, to a mere musician in this country, any more than on the Continent.

practised such various means of diverting as were much admired in those rude times, and supplied the want of more refined entertainment. 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, 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 Gothic race; but by none more than by our own Teutonic ancestors, particularly by all the Danish tribes. Among these they were distinguished by the name of Scalds, a word which denotes "smoothers and polishers of language." The origin of their art was attributed to Odin or Woden, the father of their gods; and the professors of it were held in the highest estimation. Their skill was considered as something divine; their persons were deemed sacred; their attendance was solicited by kings; and they were everywhere loaded with honours and rewards. In short, poets and their art were held among them in that rude admiration which is ever shown by an ignorant people to such as excel them in intellectual accomplishments.

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 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 establishment in this island, were converted to Christianity; in proportion as literature prevailed among them, this rude admiration would begin to abate, and poetry would be no longer a peculiar profession. Thus the Poet and the Minstrel early with us became two persons. Poetry was cultivated by men of letters indiscriminately, and many of the most popular rhymes were composed amidst the leisure and retirement of monasteries. But the Minstrels continued a distinct order of men for many ages after the Norman Conquest, and got their livelihood by singing verses to the harp at the houses of the great. There they were still hospitably and respectfully received, and retained many of the honours shown to their predecessors the Bards and Scalds. And though, as their art declined, many of them only recited the compositions of others, some of them still composed songs themselves, and all of them could probably invent a few stanzas on occasion. I have no doubt but most of the old heroic ballads in this collection were composed by this order of men. For although some of the larger metrical romances might come from the pen of the monks or others, yet the smaller narratives were probably composed by the Minstrels who sang them. From the amazing variations which occur in different copies of the old pieces, it is evident they made no scruple to alter each other's productions; and the reciter added or omitted whole stanzas according to his own fancy or convenience.

In the early ages, as hinted above, the profession of oral itinerant poet was held in the utmost reverence among all the Danish tribes; and therefore we might