12mo.-- In the preface to this romance the editor has given another song of Blondel de
Nestle, as also a copy of the song written by King Richard, and published by Mr.
Walpole, mentioned above; yet the two last are not in Provençal like the sonnet
printed here; but in the old French, calledLangage Roman.
- The words of the original, viz. "Citharisator homo jocosus in GESTIS antiquorum
valde peritus," I conceive to give the precise idea of the ancient Minstrel. -- See note
(V 2). ThatGestawas appropriated to romantic stories, see note (I) part iv. - See Dugdale (Bar. i. 42, 101), who places it after 13 John, A.D. 1212.-- See also
Plot's Staffordsh. Camden's Britann. (Cheshire ) - See the ancient record in Blount's Law Dictionary. (Art. Minstrel.)
- Bar. i. p. 101.
- Leland's Collectanea, vol. i. pp. 261, 266, 267.3
- This old feudal custom of marrying an heiress to the knight who should vanquish
all his opponents in solemn contest, &c., appears to be burlesqued in the Turnament
of Totenham (see below), as is well observed by the learned author of Remarks, &c.,
inGent. Mag.for July, 1794, p. 613. - "John, sun to King Henry, and Fulco felle at variance at Chestes [r. Chesse]; and
John brake Fulco'[s] hed with the Chest borde: and then Fulco gave him such a blow,
that he had almost killid hym."-- Lel. Coll. i, p. 264. A curious picture of courtIy
manners in that age! Notwithstanding this fray, we read in the next paragraph, that
"King Henry dubbid Falco & 3 of hie brethrene Knightes at Winchester:"--Ibid. - Burney's Hist. ii. p. 355.-- Rot. Pip. An. 36 H. III. "Et in uno dollo vini empto &
dato MAGISTRO RICARDO Citharistæ Regis, xl. sol. per br. Reg. Et in uno dollo
empto & dato Beatrici uxori ejusdem Ricardi " - Walter Hemmingford (vixit temp. Edw. I.) in Chronic. cap. 35, inter V. Hist. Aug.
Scriptores, vol. ii. Oxon. 1657, fol. p. 591. - "Accurrentes ad hæc Ministri ejus, qui a longe steterunt, invenerunt eum [scil.
Nuntium] in terra mortuum, et apprehendit unus eorum tripodum, scilicet
CITHAREDA SUUS, & percussit eum in capite, et effundit cerebrum ejus.
Increpavitque eum Edwardus quod hominem mortuum percussisset." Ibid. These
Ministrimust have been upon a very confidential footing, as it appears above in the
same chapter, that they had been made acquainted with the contents of the letters
which the assassin had delivered to the prince from his master. - See Gray's Ode; and the Hist. of the Gwedir Family in "Miscellanies by the hon.
Daines Barrington," 1751, 4to, p. 336; who in the Laws, &c., of this monarch, could
find no instances of severity against the Welsh.-- See his Observations on the Statutes,
4to, 4th edit. p. 358. - Hnst. of Staffordshire, ch. 10, § 69-76, p. 433, et seqq. of which see extracts in Sir
J. Hawkins' Hist. of Music, vol. ii. p. 14; and Dr. Burney's Hist., vol. ii. p. 360, et
seqq.
N.B. The barbarous diversion of bull-running was no part of the original
institution, &c., as is fully proved by the Rev. Dr. Pegge, in Archæologia, vol. ii. no.
xiii. p. 86.