- T. Warton, ii. 258. Note (a) from Leland's Collect. (vol. iv. Append. edit. 1774, p.
267). - The curious author of the "Tour in Wales, 1773," 4to. p. 435, I find to have read
these words "in toune and contrey;" which I can scarce imagine to have been
applicable to Wales at that time. Nor can I agree with him in the representation he has
given (p. 367) concerning theCymmorthor meeting, wherein the Bards exerted their
powers to excite their countrymen to war; as if it were by a deduction of the
particulars he enumerates, and as it should seem in the way of harangue, &c. After
which, "the band of Minstrels... struck up; the harp, thecrwth, and the pipe filled the
measures of enthusiasm, which the others had begun to inspire." Whereas it is well
known, that the Bard chanted his enthusiastic effusions to the harp; and as for the term
Minstrel, it was not, I conceive, at all used by the Welsh; and in English it
comprehended both the Bard and the Musician. - "Your ordinarie rimers use very much their measures in the odde, as nine and
eleven, and the sharpe accent upon the last sillable, which therefore makes him go ill
favouredly and like 'a MINSTRELS MUSICKE.'"--(Puttenham's Arte of Eng. Poesie,
1589, p. 59.) This must mean his vocal music, otherwise it appears not applicable to
the subject. - By this phrase I understand, new tales or narrative rhymes composed by the
Minstrels on the subject of true and faithful Lovers, &c.
barry
(Barry)
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