Towards the end of Queen Elizabeth's reign (as is mentioned above), the genuine old minstrelsy seems to have been extinct, and henceforth the ballads that were produced were wholly of the latter kind, and these came forth in such abundance that in the reign of James I. they began to be collected into little miscellanies, under the name of Garlands, and at length to be written purposely for such collections. [Ff2]
P.S. By way of postscript should follow here the discussion of the question whether the term Minstrels was applied in English to singers and composers of songs, &c. or confined to musicians only. But it is reserved for the concluding note.[Gg]
THE END OF THE ESSAY.
FOOTNOTES:
[1031] The larger Notes and Illustrations referred to by the capital letters [A] [B] &c. are thrown together to the end of this essay.
[1032] 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.—That the term Minstrel was not confined, as some contend, to a meer musician in this country, any more than on the Continent, will be considered more fully in the last note [Gg] at the end of this essay.
[1033] Vid. Pelloutier, Hist. des Celtes, tom. i. l. 2. c. 6. 10.
[1034] Tacit. de Mor. Germ. cap. 2.
[1035] Vid. Bartholin. de Causis contemptæ a Danis mortis, lib. 1. cap. 10.—Wormij Literatura Runic. ad finem.—See also Northern Antiquities, or, A Description of the Manners, Customs, &c. of the ancient Danes and other northern nations: from the French of M. Mallet. London, printed for T. Carnan, 1770, 2 vols. 8vo.