Note I — APPENDIX I. AN ESSAY ON THE ANCIENT MINSTRELS IN ENGLAND.
Reading edition
[The word glee which peculiarly denoted their art, &c.] This word glee is derived from the Anglo-Saxon Glιᵹᵹ, (Gligg) musica, music, minstrelsy (Somn). This is the common radix, whence arises such a variety of terms and phrases relating to the minstrel art, as affords the strongest internal proof, that this profession was extremely common and popular here before the Norman Conquest. Thus we have