BALANCING.
(From MS. in the Bodleian Library, Oxford.)
Music was cultivated by our ancestors from a very remote period. Among the English the music on which most attention was bestowed was that employed in the services of religion. Singing in churches is said to have been introduced into England in the fourth century.
Among the northern nations the Scalds were at once the poets and musicians. Like the bards of the Britons, they celebrated the deeds of the great and brave in heroic poems, which were sung to the sounds of the lyre or the harp. After the conquest of Britain by the English, these minstrels remained in high favour among the people, and were received with respect and veneration in the courts of kings and the halls of the nobles. In the English language they were known by two appellations, the one equivalent to the English word gleemen, or merry-makers, and the other harpers, derived from the instrument on which they usually played.
MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS.
(From the Cædmon MS., Oxford.)
The gleemen were jugglers and pantomimists, as well as minstrels, and they were accustomed to associate themselves in companies, and amuse the spectators with feats of strength and agility, dancing, and sleight-of-hand tricks.
DANCE WITH LYRE AND DOUBLE FLUTE.
(From "The Psychomachia," or
"Battle of the Soul," of Aurelius
Prudentius, MS. of Eleventh Century.)
Among the minstrels who came into England with William the Conqueror was one named Taillefer, of whom it is related that he was present at the battle of Hastings, and took his place at the head of the Norman army, inspiriting the soldiers by his songs. Before the battle commenced he advanced on horseback towards the English lines, and casting his spear three times into the air, he caught it each time by the iron head and threw it among his enemies, one of whom he wounded. He then drew his sword and threw it into the air, catching it, as he had done the spear, with such dexterity, that the English who saw him believed that he was gifted with the power of enchantment.