66 "the spouse of a king, nor any fon of man can repeat; -one of them is called the HELPER: it will HELP thee "at thy need, in ficknefs, grief, and all adverfities. I "know a Song, which the fons of men ought to fing, if they would become skilful phyficians. I know a Song, by which I foften and enchant the arms of my enemies; and render their weapons of none effect. I "know a Song, which I need only to fing when men have " loaded me with bonds; for the moment I fing it, my "chains fall in pieces, and I walk forth at liberty. I “know a Song, useful to all mankind; for as foon as "hatred inflames the fons of men, the moment I fing it they are appeafed. I know a Song, of fuch virtue, "that were I caught in a storm, I can hush the winds, "and render the air perfectly calm (115)." He likewise knew a Song, by which, with the affistance of his Runic characters, he could compell the dead to rife and converse with him. An adventure of this fort is related of him in a very ancient ode, beautifully tranflated by mr. Gray. The Scalds were believed to poffefs the fame power. Regner Lodbrog was a great prince, poet, and pirate, in the ninth century. He invaded the dominions of Ella king of Northumberland, who took him prifoner, and caufed him to be thrown into a deep dungeon, where he was killed by ferpents. In the midst of his tortures he compofed his Death-Song, which is still extant, and has frequently appeared in English (116). It is conjectured, however, that but a few stanzas were the actual compofition of Regner, and that the reft were added by his attendant Scald, whofe duty it was to celebrate the death and heroifm of his lord. There is a love-fong by Harald the Valiant, a famous adventurer of the eleventh age, in which, reciting his extraordinary accomplishments, and feats in arms, he complains that they were not able to make any impreffion on the heart of a Russian princess. Examples of this nature are numerous. Many (115) Northern Antiquities, II. 217. (116) See the Five pieces of Runic poetry; the Northern Antiquities; Wartons poems, 1748; and a quarto pamphlet, by one Downman, 1781. of of the ancient Scaldic fongs are faid to be yet chanted by the peafantry of Denmark and Sweden. the The Saxons, a mixture of Germans and Danes, were, toward the clofe of the fifth century, invited into this country by Vortigern, king of the Britons, to affist him in repelling the hoftile attacks of the Picts and Scots; and, having fubdued these barbarians for HIM, they, in a very fhort time, completed the conqueft of his dominions for THEIRSELVES. Though we are very little acquainted with the genius, manners, and amufements of thefe our Pagan ancestors for fome ages after their arrival, we cannot doubt that they retained the fondnefs of their predeceffors for poetry and fong. Of this, in fact, a remarkable and fatisfactory inftance is afforded by Bede, in his Ecclefiaftical biftory: where, fpeaking of the facred poet Cædmon, who lived in feventh century, he tells us, that fo far from having ever compofed any idle fongs he had never learned any; and that, therefor, frequently, at feafts, when, for the fake of conviviality, it was agreed that all the guests fhould fing in their turn, as foon as he faw the harp approach him, he would rife, for fhame, from the table, and go immediately home (117). And that a harper, or gleeman, by profeffion, was no uncommon character among the Saxons, is evident from a curious hiftorical fact. For we learn that their king Alfred, one of the greateft, wifeft, and beft princes that ever fate upon a throne, was fo much a master of the mufical, and, it may be, the poetical, art, that, in the difguife of fuch a character, he explored the camp of his Danish enemies, and thence projected the plan which enabled him to defeat them (118). Indeed, this monarch is exprefsly af ferted, by one who well knew him, not only to have liftened night and day to the popular fongs of his country(117) 1. 4. c. 24. Percy, I. ). (118) See Percy I. xxv. and the authorities there cited. A fimilar proceeding is recorded of Anlaff, king of the Danes, who, thus difguifed, went among the Saxon tents, and having been permitted to fing and play before king Athelftan, was difmiffed with a liberal reward. But being obferved, on his return, to bury the money, his character was fufpected, and his tratagem, of course, defeated. Percy, Ibi, men > men and fubjects, but to have taken great pains to get them by heart, and commanded others to do the fame (119). It is rather unfortunate that among the tolerably numerous relics of Saxon literature ftill extant, we find no fongs. In the Saxon chronicle, indeed, there are two or three poetical pieces, the principal one being in celebration of the victory gained by king Athelftan over Anlaff the Dane, which may be specimens of their ode, and were poffibly fung to the harp. But even this cannot be inferred with any degree of certainty. And it is, after all, very probable that these poems were composed by the writers of the hiftory, who have in many other places evinced a difpofition for fuch poetical flights: a practice which appears to have prevailed for many ages; fo low, at leaft, as our Henry V. (120) and would certainly coft the Saxon hiftorian very little trouble. There is, however, a fhort poem in praife of the city of Durham, enumerating the faints interred, and the relics preferved in that holy place, which has, likely enough, been written for the harp, and may, not improperly, be confidered as a Saxon fong. The ancient manufcript which contained it is now deffroyed, but it is printed in the The faurus, and begins thus: Ir deor bunch breome. Leond breoren nice. i. e. This city is famous Beyond the Britons kingdom. We have, likewife, the fragment of a fong, reported to have been made extempore by Canute the Great, who, as he approached by water to Ely abbey, where, attended with his queen and court, he was going to hold a folemn (119) Saxonica poemata die no&uque... audiens... memoriter retinebat. ASSERIUS, (edi. 1722) p. 160. Again :-Rex inter bella, &c. Saxonicos libros recitare, & maxime carmina Saxonica memoriter difcere, aliis imperare, & folus affidue pro viribus, ftudiofiffin e non definebat. p. 43. (120) In a MS. of the Cotton library, an old chronicler, defcribing the battle of Agincourt, is feized with a poetic furor, and infenfibly runs his narrative into a kind of fong or poem. Perhaps this method, of which there are many other inftances, might be adopted as more eafy or captivating for public recitation. feaft, feaft, was fo much delighted at hearing the monks chant their hours, that he is faid, " in the joy of his heart," infpired with a fort of poetic rapture, to have broke out into a fong of which the following lines, all that is preferved, are the firft ftanza: the only fpecimen, perhaps, now remaining of the Saxon vulgar fong, though the lines fhould, in fact, feem to have come rather from the monks than from the king. Menie rungen de Munecher binnen Ely. noped eniter noen the lant. and here pe per Munecher ræng (121). That is: The monks in Ely fweetly fung Whilft Cnute the king there row'd along; Row near the land, knights, [quoth the king] We are not without fufficient evidence that the common people had their favourite fongs, though none of them has had the good fortune to defcend to us. Ingulphus mentions ballads in praise of Hereward, the Saxon hero, who fo gallantly oppofed and harraffed the Conqueror, which were fung about the streets in his time (122). And William of Malmesbury, in his hiftory, refers to "Cantilena per fucceffiones temporum detrita," which were, no doubt, in the vulgar tongue (123) and, elfewhere, notices a Carmen triviale of Aldhelm, who dyed in 709, and whom king Alfred has pronounced without an equal in English poetry, as adhuc vulgo cantitatum (124). Other old and popular rimes, concerning Gryme, the fisher, 66 (121) Benthams Hiftory of Ely, p. 94. It may, from this little piece, be conjectured, that rime had been introduced by the Danes: certain it is, that no rimed poetry of the earlier Saxons is now to be found. Their poetic mode confifts in fhort fentences in a pompous and affected ftile: the words uncommon, frequently jingling together, and thrown out of their natural order. Indeed it is not always easy to distinguish between their poetry and their profe (122) Hif. Croy. p. 68. Tyrwhitts Chaucer, IV. 63. "the "the founder of Grymefby, Hanelock the Dane, and "his wife Goldeburgh, daughter to king Athelwold," are mentioned by Robert of Brunne (125) of all which, though none of them is, certainly, now retrievable, we cannot but regret the lofs. : It is not unreasonable to attribute the fuppreffion of the romantic poems and popular fongs of the Saxons, to the monks, who seem not only to have refufed to commit them to writing, which few others were capable of doing, but to have given no quarter to any thing of the kind which fell into their hands. Hence it is, that, except the Saxon chronicle, and a few other hiftorical fragments, together with many of their laws, and a number of charters, deeds, &c. all which are to be fure of some confequence, we have little or nothing original, in the language, but lying legends, gloffes, homilies, charms, and fuch-like things, which evidently fhew the people, from their converfion, at least, to have been gloomy, fuperftitious, and prieft-ridden. What advantages Chriftianity brought them, how much it enlightened their understandings, or improved their morals, to counterbalance the destruction of their national genius and spirit, is not, perhaps, at this distance of time, altogether fo eafy to be discovered. Having got below the Conqueft, we are now to commence our view of English fong. But, however interesting an enquiry into this fubject may be to ourselves, we are not here to expect the full and fatisfactory information fo easily obtained on the ancient finging poetry of the Greeks and the French. Materials are very fcanty, and the purfuit almoft, if not altogether, new. The Saxon language continued to be spoken by the old inhabitants for near a century and a half after their subduction, but, by a rapid, though, doubtlefs, gradual corruption, from an intermixture of Norman words, and the adoption of Norman idioms and modes of fpeaking, we may, in fome, probably the earlyer part of the long and turbulent reign of Henry III. pronounce it to (125) Tyrwhitt, IV. 46. have |