And with thar weapons meete for warre,
These vaunting foes they cloute.”
Then, when the battle was over, the piper having been killed:—
“The bagpipe cease to plaie,
The piper lyes on grounde;
And here a sort of glibbed theeves
Devoid of life are found.”
It is difficult to see how an instrument like the present Irish bagpipe could be of any use in war; but in 1601 a traveller, visiting the same country, confirms the statement that it belonged to the military.
In 1584 a man named Cockran “played on his bagpipe in a dramatic performance in Coventry.” An Irish bagpipe has been seen in London theatres on various occasions, and, of course, often enough in Scottish concert rooms. In 1798 a Mr. Courtney “played a solo on the union pipes in the quick movement of the overture with good effect” in a performance founded on Ossian’s poems.
A.D. 1594.—At the Battle of Balrinnes, a witch who accompanied the Earl of Argyll referred in a prediction to the bagpipe as the principal military instrument of the Scottish mountaineers.