Page:The Granite Monthly Volume 8.djvu/182

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��Early English Poetry.

��discuss one inconsiderable yet important clement of modern civilization, \vhich is often entirely overlooked. I refer to " Lyric Poetry."

The lyre is one of the oldest of mu- sical instruments. Its invention is ascribed to a god. Its Saxon name is harp. It was' the favorite instrument of the ancient Hebrews, as well as of the Greeks. The Saxons, Britons and Danes regarded it with veneration, and protected by legal enactments those who played upon it. Their persons were esteemed inviolable and secured from injuries by heavy penalities. By the laws of Wales, slaves were forbidden to practice upon it ; and no creditor could seize the harp of his debtor. That minstrels were a privileged class is manifested from king Alfred's pene- trating the Danish camp (878) disguised as a harper. Sixty years after a Danish king visited King Athelstan's camp in the same disguise. It was also said of Aldhelm, one of the leading scholars of the eighth century : " He was an excel- lent harper, a most eloquent Saxon and Latin poet, a most expert chanter, or a singer, a doctor egregius, and admira- bly versed in scriptures and liberal sci- ences." The minstrel wasaregular and stated officer of the Anglo-Saxon kings. Poetry is always the earliest form of lit- erature ; song the earliest form of poetry. The Muse adapts her lessons to the na- tion's infancy and adds the charm of melody to verse. No nation is desti- tute of lyric poetry. Even the North American Indians have their war songs, though their individual worship of their gods has prevented the creation of any national poetry for associated worship. The Scandinavians have but one term for the poet and the singer. The North- em scald invented and recited his own songs and epics. In other countries the poet l,nd minstrel performed separ-

��ate duties. "The Minstrels," says Bishop Percy, " were an order of men in the Middle Ages who subsisted by the arts of poetry and music, and sang to to the harp verses composed by them- selves and others. They appear to have accompanied their songs with mimicry and action. They are called in Latin of the day histriones, Mimi and Scur- rae. Such arts rendered them exceed- ingly popular in this and in neighbor- ing countries, where no high scene of festivity was esteemed complete that was not set off with the exercise of their talents ; and where so long as the spirit of chivalry existed, they were protected and caressed, because their songs tended to do honor to the ruUng passion of the times, and to encourage and foment a martial spirit."

They were the legitimate successors of the bards and scalds of early times whose art was considered divine and their songs worthy of regal patronage. They were the historians, genealogists, poets, and musicians, of the land. The word minstrel is derived from the Latin minister, a servant, because they were classed among the King's attendants. An earlier Saxon name for this class of performers was "Gleeman," in rude English, a Jogeler or Jocular; Latin, " Joculator." The word " glee " is from the Saxon "ghgg," meaning music ; and the meaning now attached to that word shows how intimately associated were pleasure and music in the national mind. The harp was the most ancient of Saxon musical instruments. It continued in use for a thousand years. It was well known in the time of Chaucer. His Frere could play upon it and sing to it ; the merry "wife of Bath" had fre- quently danced to it in her youth. It was an ordinary accompaniment of rev- els and tavern festivals. It continued in use till the reign of Elizabeth. In

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