Note H — APPENDIX I. AN ESSAY ON THE ANCIENT MINSTRELS IN ENGLAND.

[Minstrels and harpers.] That the harp (cithara) was the common musical instrument of the Anglo-Saxons, might be inferred from the very word itself, which is not derived from the British, or any other Celtic language, but of genuine Gothic original, and current among every branch of that people: viz. Ang.-Sax. Ðeaꞃpe, Ðeaꞃpa; Iceland. harpa, haurpa; Dan. and Belg. harpe; Germ, harpffe, harpffa; Gal. harpe; Span. harpa; Ital. arpa. (Vid. Jun. Etym., Menage Etym. &c.) As also from this, that the word Ðeaꞃpe is constantly used, in the Anglo-Saxon versions, to express the Latin words cithara, lyra, and even cymbalum: the word psalmus itself being sometimes translated Ðeaꞃp ꞅanᵹ, harp song (Gloss, Jun. R. apud Lye Anglo-Sax. Lexic.)