CHAPTER III.
1. The British Bards.—II. The Northern Scalds.—III. The Anglo-Saxon Gleemen.—IV. The Nature of their Performances.—V. A Royal Player with three Darts.—VI. Bravery of a Minstrel in the Conqueror's Army.—VII. Other Performances by Gleemen.—VIII. The Harp an Instrument of Music much used by the Saxons.—IX. The Norman Minstrels, and their different Denominations, and professions.—X. Troubadours.—XI. Jestours.—XII. Tales and Manners of the Jesters.—XIII. Further Illustration of their Practices.—XIV. Patronage, Privileges, and Excesses of the Minstrels.—XV. A Guild of Minstrels.—XVI. Abuses and Decline of Minstrelsy.—XVII. Minstrels were Satirists and Flatterers.—XVIII. Anecdotes of offending Minstrels, Women Minstrels.—XIX. The Dress of the Minstrels.—XX. The King of the Minstrels, why so called.—XXI. Rewards given to Minstrels.—XXII. Payments to Minstrels.—XXIII. Wealth of certain Minstrels.—XXIV. Minstrels were sometimes Dancing Masters.
I.—THE BRITISH BARDS.
The Britons were passionately fond of vocal and instrumental music: for this reason, the bards, who exhibited in one person the musician and the poet, were held in the highest estimation among them. "These bards," says an early historian, "celebrated the noble actions of illustrious persons in heroic poems which they sang to the sweet sounds of the lyre;" [574] and to this testimony we may add another of equal authority; "The British bards are excellent and melodious poets, and sing their poems, in which they praise some, and censure others, to the music of an instrument resembling a lyre." [575] Their songs and their music are said, by the same writer, to have been so exceedingly affecting, that "sometimes when two armies are standing in order of battle, with their swords drawn, and their lances extended upon the point of engaging in a most furious conflict, the poets have stepped in between them, and by their soft and fascinating songs calmed the fury of the warriors, and prevented the bloodshed. Thus, even among barbarians," adds the author, "rage gave way to wisdom, and Mars submitted to the Muses."
II.—THE NORTHERN SCALDS.
The scalds [576] were the poets and the musicians of the ancient northern nations; they resembled the bards of the Britons, and were held in equal veneration by their countrymen. The scalds were considered as necessary appendages to royalty, and even the inferior chieftains had their poets to record their actions and indulge their vanity.