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.[1098] From the expression of squire minstrel above, we may conclude there were other inferior orders, as yeomen minstrels or the like.
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. book i. No. 3.
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,[1099] a statute was passed by which "minstrels, wandering abroad," were included among "rogues, vagabonds, and sturdy beggars," and were adjudged to be punished as such. This act seems to have put an end to the profession.[Ee2]
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 [Ff] wherein a minstrel or harper appears, but he is characterized by way of eminence to have been "of the North countreye:"[1100] and, indeed, the prevalence of the Northern dialect in such compositions shews that this representation is real.[1101] On the 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 ye frae the Border?"[1102] 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 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
| Countrìe | harpèr | battèl | mornìng |
| Ladìe | singèr | damsèl | lovìng, |
instead of coùntry, làdy, hàrper, sìnger, &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 rhymes for literary publication, and probably never committed them to writing themselves; what copies are preserved of them were doubtless taken down from their mouths. But 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. 3 and 4 of book iii. in this volume. Lower than these I cannot trace the old mode of writing.
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 phraseology, and are commonly descriptive of more modern manners. To be sensible of the difference between them, let the reader compare in this volume No. 3 of book iii. with No. 11 of book ii.