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quainted with the Scandinavian scalds. I mean before their communications with Armorica, mentioned at large above. The prosody of the Welsh bards depended much on alliteration. Hence they seem to have paid an attention to the scaldic versification. The Islandic poets are said to have carried alliteration to the highest pitch of exactness in their earliest periods; whereas the Welsh bards of the sixth century used it but sparingly, and in a very imperfect degree. In this circumstance a proof of imitation, at least of emulation, is implied'. There are moreover strong instances of conformity between the manners of the two nations; which, however, may be accounted for on general principles arising from our comparative observations on rude life. Yet it is remarkable that mead, the northern nectar, or favourite liquor of the Goths, who seem to have stamped it with the character of a poetical drink, was no less celebrated among the Welsh'. The songs of both nations abound with its praises; and it seems in both to have been alike the delight of the warrior and the bard. Taliessin, as Lhuyd informs us, wrote a panegyrical ode on this inspiring beverage of the bee; or, as he translates it, De Mulso

of the habitations of the separate conventual societies, which were under his immediate orders and inspection. Among these is TRER BEIRD, or, as they call it to this day, the HAMLET OF THE BARDS. Rowland's Mona, p. 83. 88. But so strong was the attachment of the Celtic nations, among which we reckon Britain, to poetry, that, amidst all the changes of government and manners, even long after the order of Druids was extinct,and the national religion altered, the bards, acquiring a sort of civil capacity, and a new establishment, still continued to flourish. And with regard to Britain, the bards flourished most in those parts of it which most strongly retained their native Celtic character. The Britons living in those countries that were between the Trent or Humber and the Thames, by far the greatest portion of this island, in the midst of the Roman garrisons and colonies, had been so long inured to the customs of the Romans, that they preserved very little of the British; and from this long and habitual intercourse, before the fifth century, they seem to have lost their original language. We cannot discover the slightest trace, in the poems of the bards, the Lives of the British saints, or any other ancient monument, that they held any correspondence with the Welsh, the Cornish, the Cumbrian, or the Strathcluyd Britons. Among other British institutions grown obsolete among them, they seem to have lost the use of bards; at least there are no memorials of any they had, nor any of their songs remaining: nor do the Welsh or Cumbrian poets ever touch upon any transactions that passed in those

countries, after they were relinquished by the Romans.

And here we see the reason why the Welsh bards flourished so much and so long. But moreover the Welsh, kept in awe as they were by the Romans, harassed by the Saxons, and eternally jealous of the attacks, the encroachments, and the neighbourhood of aliens, were on this account attached to their Celtic manners: this situation, and these circumstances inspired them with a pride and an obstinacy for maintaining a national distinction, and for preserving their ancient usages, among which the bardic profession is so eminent. See vol. ii. p. 106. noted.

i I am however informed by a very intelligent antiquary in British literature, that there are manifest marks of alliteration in some druidical fragments still remaining, undoubtedly composed before the Britons could have possibly mixed in the smallest degree with any Gothic nation. Rhyme is likewise found in the British poetry at the earliest period, in those druidical triplets called ENGLYN MILWR, or the WARRIOR'S SONG,in which every verse is closed with a consonant syllable.

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seu HYDROMELI. In Hoel Dha's Welsh laws, translated by Wotton, we have, "In omni convivio in quo MULSUM bibitur'." From which passage, it seems to have been served up only at high festivals. same constitutions, at every feast in the king's castle-hall, the prefect or marshal of the hall is to receive from the queen, by the hands of the steward, a HORn of mead. It is also ordered, among the privileges annexed to the office of prefect of the royal-hall, that the king's bard shall sing to him as often as he pleases". One of the stated officers of the king's household is CONFECTOR MULSI: and this officer, together with the master of the horse", the master of the hawks, the smith of the palace, the royal bard P, the first musician, with some others, have a right

* Tanner Bibl. p. 706.

Leg. Wall. L. i. cap. xxiv. p. 45.
Ibid. L. i. cap. xii. p. 17.

"When the king makes a present of a horse, this officer is to receive a fee; but not when the present is made to a bishop, the master of the hawks, or to the Mimus. The latter is exempt, on account of the entertainment he afforded the court at being presented with a horse by the king: the horse is to be led out of the hall with capistrum testiculis alligatum. Ibid. L. i. cap. xvii. p. 31. MIMUS seems here to be a MIMIC, or a gesticulator. Carpentier mentions a "JOCULATOR qui sciebat TOMBARE, to tumble." Cang. Lat. Gloss. Suppl. Verb. TOMBARE. In the Saxon canons given by king Edgar, about the year 960, it is ordered, that no priest shall be a POET, or exercise the MIMICAL or histrionical art in any degree, either in public or private. Can. 58. Concil. Spelman, tom.i. p. 455. edit. 1639. fol. In Edgar's Oration to Dunstan, the MIMI, Minstrels, are said to sing and dance. Ibid. p. 477. Much the same injunction occurs in the Saxon Laws of the Northumbrian Priests, given in 988. Cap. xli. ibid. p. 498. MIMUS seems sometimes to have signified THE FOOL. As in Gregory of Tours, speaking of the MIMUS of Miro a king of Gallicia: "Erat enim MIMUS REGIS, qui ei per VERBA JOCULARIA LETITIAM erat solitus EXCITARE. Sed non cum adjuvit aliquis CACHINNUS, neque præstigiis artis suæ," &c. Gregor. Turonens. Miracul. S. Martin. lib. iv. cap. vii. p. 1119. Opp. Paris. 1699. fol. edit. Ruinart.

He is to work free: except for making the king's caldron, the iron bands, and other furniture for his castle-gate, and the iron-work for his mills. Leg. Wall. L. i. cap. xliv. p. 67.

D By these constitutions, given about the year 940, the bard of the Welsh kings is a domestic officer. The king is to allow him a horse and a woollen

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robe; and the queen a linen garment. The prefect of the palace, or governor of the castle, is privileged to sit next him in the hall, on the three principal feast days, and to put the harp into his hand. the three feast days he is to have the steward's robe for a fee. He is to attend, if the queen desires a song in her chamber. An ox or cow is to be given out of the booty or prey (chiefly consisting of cattle) taken from the English by the king's domestics and while the prey is dividing, he is to sing the praises of the BRITISH KINGS or KINGDOM. If, when the king's domestics go out to make depredations, he sings or plays before them, he is to receive the best bullock. When the king's army is in array, he is to sing the Song of the BRITISH KINGS. When invested with his office, the king is to give him a harp, (other constitutions say a chessboard,) and the queen a ring of gold: nor is he to give away the harp on any account. When he goes out of the palace to sing with other bards, he is to receive a double portion of the largesse or gratuity. If he ask a gift or favour of the king, he is to be fined by singing an ode or poem; if of a nobleman or chief, three; if of a vassal, he is to sing him to sleep. Leg. Wall. L. i. cap. xix. p. 35. Mention is made of the bard who gains the CHAIR in the hall. Ibid. Artic. 5. After a contest of bards in the hall, the bard who gains the chair, is to give the JUDGE OF THE HALL, another officer, a horn, (cornu bubalinum) a ring, and the cushion of his chair. Ibid. L. i. cap. xvi. p. 26. When the king rides out of his castle, five bards are to accompany him. Ibid. L. i. cap. viii. p. 11. The Cornu Bubalinum may be explained from a passage in a poem, composed about the year 1160, by Owain Cyveiliog, prince of Powis, which he entitled HIRLAS, from a large drinking-horn so called, used at feasts in his castle-hall. "Pour out, O cup-bearer, sweet and pleasant mead (the spear is red in the time of

to be seated in the hall. We have already seen, that the Scandinavian scalds were well known in Ireland: and there is sufficient evidence to prove, that the Welsh bards were early connected with the Irish. Even so late as the eleventh century, the practice continued among the Welsh bards, of receiving instructions in the bardic profession from Ireland. The Welsh bards were reformed and regulated by Gryffyth ap Conan, king of Wales, in the year 1078. At the same time he brought over with him from Ireland many Irish bards, for the information and improvement of the Welsh. Powell acquaints us, that this prince "brought over with him from Ireland divers cunning musicians into Wales, who devised in a manner all the instrumental music that is now there used: as appeareth, as well by the bookes written of the same, as also by the names of the tunes and measures used among them to this daiet." In Ireland, to kill a bard was highly criminal: and to seize his estate, even for the public service and in time of national distress, was deemed an act of sacrilege". Thus in the old Welsh laws, whoever even slightly injured a bard, was to be fined six cows and one hundred and twenty pence. The murtherer of a bard was to be fined one hundred and twenty-six cows". Nor must I pass over, what reflects much light on this reasoning, that the establishment of the household of the old Irish chiefs exactly resembles that of the Welsh kings. For, besides the bard, the musician, and the smith, they have both a physician, a huntsman, and other corresponding officers. We must also remember, that an intercourse was necessarily

need) from the horns of wild oxen, covered with gold, to the souls of those departed heroes." Evans, p. 12.

By these laws the king's harp is to be worth one hundred and twenty pence; but that of a gentleman, or one not a vassal, sixty pence. The king's chessboard is valued at the same price and the instrument for fixing or tuning the strings of the king's harp, at twenty-four pence.

His drinking-horn, at one pound. Ibid. L. iii. cap. vii. p. 265.

There are two musicians: the Musicus PRIMARIUS, who probably was a teacher, and certainly a superintendent over the rest; and the HALL-MUSICIAN.

Leg. ut supr. L.i. cap. xlv. P. 68.

8.46 Jus cathedræ." Ibid. L. i. cap. x.

p. 13.

See Selden, Drayt. Polyolb. S. ix. pag. 156. S. iv. pag. 67. edit. 1613. fol.

u

W

Hist. of Cambr. p. 191. edit. 1584.
Keating's Hist. Ireland, pag. 132.

Leg. Wall, ut supr. L. i. cap. xix. pag. 35. seq. See also cap. xlv. p. 68. We find the same respect paid to the bard in other constitutions. "QUI HARPATOREM, &c. Whoever shall strike a HARPER who can harp in a public assembly, shall compound with him by a composition of four times more, than for any other man of the same condition." Legg.

Ripuariorum et Wesinorum. Lindenbroch.
Cod. LL. Antiq. Wisigoth. etc. A.D. 613.
Tit. 5. § ult.

The caliphs, and other eastern potentates, had their bards, whom they treated with equal respect. Sir John Maundeville, who travelled in 1340, says, that when the emperor of Cathay, or great Cham of Tartary, is seated at dinner in high pomp with his lords, "no man is so hardi to speak to him except it be MustCIANS to solace the emperor." chap. lxvii. p. 100. Here is another proof of the correspondence between the eastern and northern customs: and this instance might be brought as an argument of the bardic institution being fetched from the east. Leo Afer mentions the Poeta curia of the Caliph's court at Bagdad, about the year 990. De Med. et Philos. Arab. cap. iv. Those poets were in most repute among the Arabians, who could speak extemporaneous verses to the Caliph. Euseb. Renaudot. apud Fabric. Bibl. Gr. xiii. p. 249. Thomson, in the Castle of Indolence, mentions the BARD IN WAITING being introduced to lull the Caliph asleep. And Maundeville mentions MINSTRELLES as established officers in the court of the emperor of Cathay.

See Temple, ubi supr. p. 346.

produced between the Welsh and Scandinavians from the piratical irruptions of the latter: their scalds, as I have already remarked, were respected and patronised in the courts of those princes, whose territories were the principal objects of the Danish invasions. Torfæus expressly affirms this of the Anglo-Saxon and Irish kings; and it is at least probable, that they were entertained with equal regard by the Welsh princes, who so frequently concurred with the Danes in distressing the English. It may be added, that the Welsh, although living in a separate and detached situation, and so strongly prejudiced in favour of their own usages, yet from neighbourhood, and unavoidable communications of various kinds, might have imbibed the ideas of the Scandinavian bards from the Saxons and Danes, after those nations had occupied and overspread all the other parts of our island.

Many pieces of the Scottish bards are still remaining in the highlands of Scotland. Of these a curious specimen, and which considered in a more extensive and general respect, is a valuable monument of the poetry of a rude period, has lately been given to the world, under the title of the WORKS OF OSSIAN. It is indeed very remarkable, that in these poems, the terrible graces, which so naturally characterise, and so generally constitute, the early poetry of a barbarous people, should so frequently give place to a gentler set of manners, to the social sensibilities of polished life, and a more civilised and elegant species of imagination. Nor is this circumstance, which disarranges all our established ideas concerning the savage stages of society, easily to be accounted for, unless we suppose, that the Celtic tribes, who were so strongly addicted to poetical composition, and who made it so much their study from the earliest times, might by degrees have attained a higher vein of poetical refinement, than could at first sight or on common principles be expected among nations, whom we are accustomed to call barbarous; that some few instances of an elevated strain of friendship, of love, and other sentimental feelings, existing in such nations, might lay the foundation for introducing a set of manners among bards, more refined and exalted than the real manners of the country; and that panegyrics on those virtues, transmitted with improvements from bard to bard, must at length have formed characters of ideal excellence, which might propagate among the people real manners bordering on the poetical. These poems, however, notwithstanding the difference between the Gothic and the Celtic rituals, contain many visible vestiges of Scandinavian superstition. The allusions in the songs of Ossian to spirits, who preside over the different parts and direct the various operations of nature, who send storms over the deep, and rejoice in the shrieks of the shipwrecked mariner, who call down lightning to blast the forest or cleave the rock, and diffuse irresistible pestilence among the people, beautifully conducted indeed, and heightened, under the skilful hand of a master bard, entirely correspond with the Runic system, and breathe the spirit of its poetry. One fiction in particular, the most EXTRAVAGANT in all Ossian's poems, is founded on an essential article of the

the

Runic belief. It is where Fingal fights with the spirit of Loda Nothing could aggrandise Fingal's heroism more highly than this marvellous encounter. It was esteemed among the ancient Danes the most daring act of courage to engage with a ghosty. Had Ossian found it convenient to have introduced religion into his compositions", not only a new source had been opened to the sublime, in describing the rites of sacrifice, the horrors of incantation, the solemn evocations of infernal beings, and the like dreadful superstitions, but probably many stronger and more characteristical evidences would have appeared, of his knowledge of the imagery of the Scandinavian poets.

Nor must we forget, that the Scandinavians had conquered many countries bordering upon France in the fourth century. Hence the Franks must have been in some measure used to their language, well acquainted with their manners, and conversant in their poetry. Charlemagne is said to have delighted in repeating the most ancient and barbarous odes, which celebrated the battles of ancient kings. But we

So

y Bartholin. De Contemptu Mortis apud Dan. L. ii. c. 2. p. 258. And ibid. p. 260. There are many other marks of Gothic customs and superstitions in Ossian. The fashion of marking the sepulchres of their chiefs with circles of stones, corresponds with what Olaus Wormius relates of the Danes. Monum. Danic. Hafn. 1634. P. 38. See also Ol. Magn. Hist. xvi. 2. In the Hervarar Sega, the sword of Suarfulama is forged by the dwarfs, and called Tirfing. Hickes, vol. i. p. 193. Fingal's sword was made by an enchanter, and was called the son of LUNO. And, what is more, this Luno was the Vulcan of the north, lived in Juteland, and made complete suits of armour for many of the Scandinavian heroes. See Temora, B. vii. p. 159. Ossian, vol. ii. edit. 1765. Hence the bards of both countries made him a celebrated enchanter. By the way, the names of sword-smiths were thought worthy to be recorded in history. Hoveden says, that when Geoffrey of Plantagenet was knighted, they brought him a sword from the royal treasure, where it had been laid up from old times, "being the workmanship of Galan, the most excellent of all sword-smiths." Hoved. f.444. ii. Sect. 50. The mere mechanic, who is only mentioned as a skilful artist in history, becomes a magician or a preternatural being in romance.

[The sword-smith here recorded, is the hero of the Volundar-quitha in Sæmund's Edda. He is called Weland in the poem of Beowulf; Welond by king Alfred in his translation of Boethius; and Guielandus by Geoffrey of Monmouth. Mr. Ellis affirms that he is also spoken of in the Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border. This has escaped me; but it is to this circumstance, perhaps, that we are indebted for

the introduction of his name in the novel of Kenilworth.-PRICE.]

[The preposterous introduction of this venerable mythic personage into a novel, the time of which is laid in the reign of Elizabeth, may be ascribed to Scott's 's eagerness to turn every thing thriftily to account in his wholesale literary manufactory.-R.T.]

[See on the subject of the Smith Velant, an article by G. B. Depping, in the New Monthly Magazine for 1822, p.527, and the same paper very much augmented in "Veland le Forgeron; Dissertation sur une tradition du moyen age; par G. B. Depping et Francisque Michel." 8vo. Par. 1833.-M.]

This perplexing and extraordinary circumstance, I mean the absence of all religious ideas from the poems of Ossian, is accounted for by Mr. Macpherson with much address. See Dissertation prefixed, vol. i. p. viii. ix. edit. 1765. See also the elegant critical Dissertation of the very judicious Dr. Blair, vol. ii. p. 379.

a Hickes. Thes. i. part ii. p. 4.

b

Eginhart. cap. viii. n. 34. Bartholin. i. c. 10. p. 154. Diodorus Siculus says, that the Gauls, who were Celts, delivered the spoils won in battle, yet reeking with blood, to their attendants: these were carried in triumph, while an epinicial song was chanted, παιανίζοντες και αδον TES VμVOV εTIViktov. Lib. v. p. 352. See also P. 308. "The Celts," says Elian, "I hear, are the most enterprising of men: they make those warriors who die bravely in fight the subject of songs, των Ασματων. Var. Hist. Lib. xxii. c. 23. Posidonius gives us a specimen of the manner of a Celtic bard. He reports, that Luernius, a Celtic chief, was accustomed, out of a desire of popularity, to gather crowds of his people together, and to throw them

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