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

[Successors of the ancient bards.] That the minstrels in many respects bore a strong resemblance both to the British bards and to the Danish scalds, appears from this, that the old monkish writers express them all without distinction by the same names in Latin. Thus Geoffrey of Monmouth, himself a Welshman, speaking of an old pagan British King, who excelled in singing and music so far as to be esteemed by his countrymen the patron deity of the bards, uses the phrase Deus Joculatorum; which is the peculiar name given to the English and French minstrels.[1108] In like manner, William Malmesbury, speaking of a Danish king's assuming the profession of a scald, expresses it by professus mimum; which was another name given to the minstrels in middle latinity.[1109] Indeed, Du Cange, in his Glossary, quotes a writer who positively asserts that the minstrels of the middle ages were the same with the ancient bards. I shall give a large extract from this learned glossographer, as he relates many curious particulars concerning the profession and arts of the minstrels; whom, after the monks, he stigmatizes by the name of scurræ; though he acknowledges their songs often tended to inspire virtue.