So that, it seems, the fabulous history of Geoffrey of Monmouth was to have been the platform of his sublime poetical structure; but this project, whether wisely or not, he abandoned. Pope likewise had an intention of writing a poem on the subject of Brutus.* § 4.-MINSTRELS AND MINSTRELSY. Homer, who, as it hath been already observed, composed romances in Greek verse, was a rhapsodist bard or minstrel, who resorted to feasts, at which he sung his compositions to the lyre. He says of himself, in one of his hymns: "Hail, heavenly powers, whose praises I sing; let me also hope to be remembered in the ages to come, and when any one, born of the tribe of men, comes hither, a weary traveller, and inquires, Who is the sweetest of singing men that resort to your feasts, and whom you most delight to hear? then do you make answer for me: It is the blind man that dwels in Chios; his songs excell all that can ever be sung."† An anecdote, communicated to Herodotus by the Lesbians, savours, likewise, very strongly of the minstrel character. Arion of Methymna (near three hundred years after Homer), who was second to none of the harpers of his age, and made, and named, and taught, the dithyrambick at Corinth, having desired to sail into Italy and Sicily, and wishing, much money being acquired, to return back to Corinth; and whereas he was about to go to Tarentum, because he trusted none more than the Corinthians, hired a ship of some of those men. When, therefore, they were out at sea, these conspired against A rion, that, he being got rid of, they might enjoy his money. He, understanding this, prayed, the money being offered to them, that his life might be spared. Not prevailing upon the mariners, they ordered that he should either lay violent hands upon himself, that so he might obtain sepulture upon the shore, or, immediately, leap into the sea. Arion, at this difficulty, besought that forasmuch as such was their pleasure, they would suffer him to sing, standing upon the deck; and when he should have sung, he promised that he would lay violent hands upon himself. These, therefore (for the desire of hearing the most excellent performer had seized them), retired from * See his Life, by Ruffhead. Huet to the same † Blackwell's Enquiry into the Life of Homer, p. 110. purpose observes," It is necessary to remark, for the honour of the troubadours, that Homer has been one before them, and that he went about reciting his verses from town to town" (De l'origine des romans, Paris, 1678, p. 128). Dr. Bentley says, "He wrote a sequel of songs and rhapsodies, to be sung by himself, for small earnings and good cheer, at festivals and other days of merriment; the Ilias he made for the men, and the Odyssëis for the other sex. These loose songs were not collected together in the form of an epic poem till Pisistratus's time, about five hundred years after," (Remarks upon a late Discourse of Free- Thinking, p. 18). This ancient bard, as it is supposed by some learned men, could neither write nor read. the poop to the midst of the ship. He, being dressed with every ornament, and the harp taken up, standing upon the deck, awaked the song which is called Orthian; and that being sung, he cast himself, as he was with all his finery, into the sea; and these, truly, held their course for Corinth; but he, received, they say, by a dolphin, was carried to Tænarus; and, when he had descended from the dolphin, he went in that same habit to Corinth, and when he arrived there he related everything that had happened. These things the Corinthians and Lesbians were wont to say; and there was extant at Tænarus the moderate gift of Arion, in brass, a man above, carried by a dolphin.* It is highly probable, as Huet has remarked, that other illustrious poets of Greece imitated Homer; he particularly mentions Simonides, who, he expressly says, exercised the profession of a trouveur and chanteur.† The histriones of the Romans were theatrical performers, who delivered the oral parts; the mimi dumb actors, who expressed everything by dancing and gestures; neither of these, of course, bore the least resemblance to a minstrel; except that it has been suggested by mister Ledwich to doctor Percy upon a reference of Salmasius (Notes to Historiæ augustæ scriptores, Paris, 1620, fo. p. 385); whence the latter infers that the imitative minstrel of Geoffrey of Monmouth shaved himself by classical authority.‡ Both names, however, seem, after the decline of the empire, to have been, erroneously, conferred upon the minstrels or musical performers of those times. Since at least the mimes, or jugglers, are allowed, by the laws of James II., King of Majorca, to be lawfully admissible in courts, as their office affords pleasure; wherefor that prince ordains, that in his palace the number of mimes should be five, of whom two were to be trumpeters, and the third, a tabourer; so that the minstrel who made use of the phrase “ Mimia et cantu victum acquiro" must, necessarily, have intended two distinct functions.§ Whether the Lombards brought the minstrel arts into Italy, or acquired them from the old inhabitants, is a question of difficult solution: but, in the year 774, it happened that a joculator, or juggler, came to Charles the emperour, usually called Charlemagne, and, *Clio., § 24. † De l'origine, etc., as before. Dio, indeed, in the time of Nero, says, that "It was most filthy and grievous to see, that men and women, not only of the equestrian, but, even, of the senatorial order, entered into the orchestra, and circus, and amphitheatre, like the vilest men ; and some of them sung to pipes, danced, acted tragedies and comedies, sung to the harp, etc. Even Nero himself, frequently at the voice of the common crier, in the habit of a harper, sung to the harp. (Refer to the article Citharoedos in the index to Reimar's edition). Reliques, etc., I. lxxiv. turning round in the sight of his followers, sung a song composed by himself.* Philip Mouskes, in the time of Philip the august, feigns this emperour to have formerly given, to his parasites and mimes or mimicks (scurris et mimis suis), the county of Provence; whence, afterward, so great a number of poets grew up in this country: "Quar quant li buen rois Karlemaigne Ot toute mise à son demaine, Le donna toute & departa."+ The anecdote, at the same time, seems to require more ancient testimony than that of Philip Mouskes. Sainte-Palaye is of opinion that chivalry, considered merely as a ceremony by which young persons, destined to the military profession, received the first arms they were to carry, was known from the time of Charlemagne: but that, regarded as a dignity which gave the first rank in the military order, and which was conferred by a species of investiture, accompanied by certain ceremonies, and a solemn oath, it would be difficult to carry it higher than the eleventh century.‡ Henry I. however, emperour of Germany, surnamed The fowler, appears to have established tournaments in 930.§ There is likewise an instance of a just or single combat, on horseback, at Paris, in 978, between Grey-coat, Earl of Anjou, and Bertold, brother to the Duke of Saxony. Chivalry and minstrelsy, it is generally thought, had some sort of connection, and, possibly, a coetaneous origin; but little or nothing is known for a certainty respecting the latter, till about a century after the establishment of the former. According to a contemporary historian, Henry III., surnamed The Black, or Blackbeard, emperour of Germany, celebrating his nuptials with Agnes, daughter of William earl of Poictou, at the town of Ingelenheim, in 1043, permitted an infinite multitude of minstrels and jugglers, to the accumulation of his praise, empty and hungry, without food and rewards, to depart sorrowing.¶ * Muratori, Antiquitates Italiæ, ii., 2. † Du Cange,"Ministrellus et Lecator." ‡ Memoires sur l'ancienne chevalerie, i., 65. § See his Leges Hasti ludiales, sive de torneamentis in Goldasti Imperatorum recessus, Hanoviæ, 1609, fo. II., 41. | R. de Diceto, 459. ¶ Hermanni Contracti chronicon. Basileæ 1529, fo. 218, b. John Bromto, abbot of Jervaux, says, that the money which he had been before accustomed to give to the minstrels, he distributed to the poor: but this was robbing Peter to pay Paul. "The minstrels," as defined by the ingenious and respectable author of an essay on the ancient English ones prefixed to Reliques of Ancient English Poetry, were an order of men in the middle ages, who united the arts of poetry and music, and sung verses to the harp of their own composing. They also appear to have accompanied their songs, he says, "with mimicry and action; and to have practised such various means of diverting as were much admired in those rude times, and supplied the want of more refined entertainments." Thus stood the passage in the first, second, and third editions; but the learned author not having brought any proof that these characters composed their own songs, and still less that the singers themselves used mimicry and action, it appears in the last edition, thus altered, "who subsisted by the arts of poetry and music, and sang to the harp verses composed by themselves or others." But that those minstrels, who sung to the harp, "accompanied their songs with mimicry and action," still appears to stand in need of authority. Maistre Wace, in his account of the coronation feast of King Arthur, is careful to enumerate the various orders of minstrelsy, which he supposes to have been present on that occasion : "Mult ost à la cort jugleors Lires, tempes, et chalemealx Symphoniez, psalterious, Monacors, des cymbes, chorous, Assez i ot tregetours, Joieresses, et joieors, Li uns disoent contes et fables, etc." : The manners of a company of minstrels are thus described in an old fabliau, probably of the thirteenth century : "Li quens manda les menestrels ; Et si a fet crier entre els, Many juglers had they at the court, singers, and rimers; many songs might you hear, Rote-songs (see Fabliaux ou contes, B, 323), and vocal songs, fiddlers, lays and notes; Lays for fiddles, lays for rotes, lays for harpes, lays for sytols; lyres, and corn-pipes; symphonies, psalteries, monochords, cymbals, choirs. Enow there were of tregetours, female and male performers (joueurs, F.). Some said tales and fables, etc." Sa robe d'escarlate nuove. In another extract from a romance, written in 1230, we are told that: "Quand les tables ostées furent The minstrels certainly were not always an order of men "who united the arts of poetry and music and sung verses to the harp of their own composing," as the worthy divine who formerly made that assertion has been compelled to acknowledge. At the nuptials of Robert, brother to St. Lewis, in 1237, "those who are called minstrels," according to Alberic, "in this spectacle of vanity did many things there; as he who on a horse rode upon a rope in the air; and as those who rode two oxen clad in scarlet, blowing their horns at the several messes which were served up to the king at table.‡ In the ancient Roman de Berthe au grand pied, written by King Adenés, a well-known poet, so-called, in the thirteenth century, it is related that during the grand feast given by Pepin on his marriage there was executed a magnificent concert composed by three minstrels, of whom one played upon the vielle (or fiddle), another upon the harp, and the third upon the lute.§ *Fabliaux et contes, ii., 161. "The count commanded the minstrels, and so he has caused to be cried among them, that he who should say or do the best gibe should have his new scarlet robe. Some of the minstrels prayed another to do his business such as he knew. Some sung, others noted, and others had recourse to scolding, and others to raillery; those who knew juglery fiddled before the count Some they were told fabliaus. There was said many a laughable thing." + "When the tables were taken away, the juglers stood up on their feet, so have they taken violins and harps, and we had songs, tunes, verses, and reprises, and gests sung." ‡“Illi qui dicuntur ministelli (l. ministrelli) in spectaculo vanitatis multa ibi fecerunt, sicut ille qui in equo super cordam in aere equitabat, et sicut illi qui duos boves de scarlate vestitos equitabant cornitantes ad singula fercula quæ apponebantur regi in mensa."-Chro., p. 562; Memoires sur l'ancienne chevalerie, i., 245. I. Bib. des Romans Avril, 1777, p. 147. |