Page:The Granite Monthly Volume 8.djvu/184

 i64

��Early E?2giish Poetry.

��Yet still I patient see While all are shun'd like me. No nymph my heart can wound

If favor she divide, And smiles on all around,

Unwilling to decide; I'd rather hatred bear. Than love with others share."

Edward I had a harper in his train, in his crusade to the Holy Land, who stood by his side in battle.

That same king in his conquest of Wales is said to have murdered all the bards that fell into his hands lest they should rouse the nation again to arms. Gray's poem, "The Bard," was written upon that theme. I will quote a few lines :

" Dear lost companions ot my tuneful art. Dear as the light that visits these eyes,

Dear as the ruddy drops that warm my heart. Ye died amidst your dying country's cries —

No more I weep. They do not sleep. On yonder cliffs a griesly band,

I see them sit; they linger yet, Avengers ot their native land."

That the minstrel was a privileged character in England down to the reign of Elizabeth is proved by history, by frequent allusions to them in the current literature of the times, and by the large body of songs, ballads, and metrical romances, still extant which are ascribed to them. They were essential to the complete education of a knight as tu- tors : for no accomplishment was more valued in the days of chivalry than the playing of the harp and the composition of songs in honor of the fair. Before the origin of printing they acted as publishers of the works of more re- nowned poets by public recitations of their works. The period of their great- est celebrity was about the middle of the fifteenth century. The minstrel chose his own subject and so long as he discoursed to warriors of heroes and enchanters, and to gay knights of true love and fair ladies, he would not want patient and gratified listeners.

��The great sources of Gothic romance are a British History of Arthur and his wizzard, Merhn, by Walter, Arch- deacon of Oxford, translated into Latin by Geoffrey of Monmouth ; the his- tory of Charlemagne and his twelve peers, forged by Turpin, a monk of the eighth century; the History of Troy, in two Latin works, which passed under the names of Dares Phrygius and Dictys Cretensis ; and the History of Alexander the Great, origi- nally written in Persic and translated into Greek by Simeon Seth, a. d. 1070, and again turned into Latin by Giraldus Cambrensis about the year 1200. These four works with variations, ad- ditions, and dilutions, formed the staple of romantic fiction in verse in the Dark Ages.

The minor songs and ballads which were called forth by passing events were usually amorous, sportive, gay, and often gross, yet suited to a rude age.

Ellis in his specimens of the early Eng- lish poets has given us sketches of one hundred and sixty-one writers of songs from the year 1230 to 1650, after a care- ful search through this whole period for literary gems. The first edition of his work consisted almost entirely of love songs and sonnets ; the revised edition has greater variety; but our circle of ideas is so enlarged, our habits are so different from those of by-gone cen- turies, that we look over this rare col- lection of old poems, rather to learn the manners of the people, than to en- joy the diction of their songs. We cannot doubt that this species of poetry excited an important influence when it was the staple of popular education and amusement.

A maxim is current among us which has been successively ascribed to many great thinkers, which shows the value usually set on compositions of this kind.

�� �