ON WAITS.
(To the Editor of the Mirror.)
MR. EDITOR,—It may not be unacceptable to many of your readers to receive some elucidation of a custom which is still prevalent at the present season. I allude to the waits, who visit us in the month of December, with instrumental music, going from house to house.
Waites, or waits, formerly wayghtes is derived from the latter noun, and originally signified hautbois, (or hautbois, as we have it in English,) of which it is not unworthy remark, there is no singular number. From the instrument its signification was, after a time, transferred to the performers themselves; concerning whom, it is well known,.the appellation is now applied to all who follow the practice above adverted to, especially those who, at the approach of. Christmas, salute us with their nightly concerts.
The wayghtes of ancient times were, as some historians say, so called, because they attended or waited on potentates, judges, magistrates, and bodies corporate, pomp and processions, &c.; they were also sometimes appointed to keep a sort of Watch at night, and were then generally decorated with superb dresses, splendid cloaks, &c. In Rymers' Fardera there is an account of such an establishment, of the minstrels and waites who were in the service of the court of Edward IV., wherein is mentioned "a waite that nighteleye, from Michaelmas to Shrove Thorsday, pipeth the watch within this court;" "i. fewer times, in the somere nightes iij. times." Todd derives the term waits from wahts, (Goth.) nocturnal itinerant musicians, (Beaumont and Fletcher;) Bayley, on account of their waiting on magistrates, &c.; or of guet, a watch; or from the French guetter, to watch, because anciently they kept a sort of watch a night. From what I have narrated, then, it appears that the persons formerly called waites, or waits, were musical watchmen, the word implying obees. They were, in fact, minstrels, at first annexed to the king's court, who sounded the watch every night; and in towns paraded the streets during winter, to prevent theft, &c. At Exeter they were set up, with a regular salary, in 1400; and although suppressed by the Puritans, were reinstated in 1660. M.A. Boyer, in his French and English Dictionary, Rivington. 1747, under the word waits, s. has the following: "in the French, sorte de hautbois, (ho-boy,) corresponding with the signification of the term waits, as itinerant or wandering (music or) musicians. These nocturnal perambulators, it seems, were anciently called, as they now are, waits; and persons, bearing the same name, still go about our streets during the month of December, (previous to the 25th.) Whatsoever may be the reasons or the motives of those (maunderers) who now call themselves waits, I must leave for the consideration of such as are favoured with their visits. I am of opinion it can have neither allusion nor similitude to the Christmas carol as some have suggested, which was an imitation, however humble, of 'The glory to God on high,' &c., as sung by the angels who hovered over the fields of Bethlehem on the morning of our Saviour's nativity." It is true, indeed, that our modern angels, the waits of 1897, have hovered about, and they may (without a pun) be styled angels (of darkness), not only on account of the watch they keep a nights, but on account of those spirit-uous propensities, for the attainment of which, principally, some have supposed, we are indebted to them for their waits, and also for their wait-ing upon us on the day ycleped boxing-day.
But to return to our subject; independent of the origin of the waits, or of the persons so called, as relates to the institution in England, which is, comparatively, of modern date, it appears there were peculiar to the Romans a description of individuals, who, in their offices and character, answered to our waits, and from whom there is no doubt the latter were derived; these, among the Romans, were called spondaulae, from which I conceive the waightes, or waites, of our ancient kings were borrowed. The Roman waites, or spondaulae, were a description of vocal and instrumental musicians, who performed a hymn, whose measure consisted of spondees, (a poetic foot, formed of two long syllables,) which was sung, accompanied by the flute, or other wind instrument, while the priest offered the sacrifice, and the incense was burning, to procure the favour of the gods; the waits, or spondaulae, continuing their music, to prevent the priest from hearing sounds of ill omen, which might disturb the ceremony, or divert his attention. It has been suggested, in this view of the origin of the waits, which many writers consider to be the real source of the custom, that they are altogether anti-christian, and of heathen and idolatrous foundation, and of consequence have neither allusion to, nor connexion with, our festivities at Christmas at any period.
City Road.