of their heads, and the manner in which they were made to move, evinced the ignorance and inattention of the managers; the dialogues were mere jumbles of absurdity and nonsense, intermixed with low immoral discourses passing between Punch and the fiddler, for the orchestra rarely admitted of more than one minstrel; and these flashes of merriment were made offensive to decency by the actions of the puppet. In the reign of James II. there was a noted merry-andrew named Philips; "This man," says Granger, "was some time fiddler to a puppet-show; in which capacity he held many a dialogue with Punch, in much the same strain as he did afterwards with the mountebank doctor, his master upon the stage. This zany, being regularly educated, had confessedly the advantage of his brethren."

XX. PUPPET-PLAYS SUPPRESSED BY PANTOMIMES.

The introduction, or rather the revival of pantomimes, which indeed have long disgraced the superior theatres, proved the utter undoing of the puppet-show men; in fact, all the absurdities of the puppet-show, except the discourses, are retained in the pantomimes, the difference consisting principally in the substitution of living puppets for wooden ones; but it must be confessed, though nothing be added to the rationality of the performances, great pains is taken to supply the defect, by fascinating the eyes and the ears; and certainly the brilliancy of the dresses and scenery, the skilful management of the machinery, and the excellence of the music, in the pantomimes, are great improvements upon the humble attempts of the vagrant motion-master

XXI. THE MODERN PUPPET-SHOW MAN.

In the present day, the puppet-show man travels about the streets when the weather will permit, and carries his motions, with the theatre itself, upon his back! The exhibition takes place in the open air; and the precarious income of the miserable itinerant depends entirely on the voluntary contributions of the spectators, which, as far as one may judge from the squalid appearance he usually makes, is very trifling.

A few years back," a puppet-show was exhibited at the court end of the town, with the Italian title Fantoccini, which greatly

1 Biogr. Hist. vol. iv. p. 350.

* [Before 1801.]

attracted the notice of the public, and was spoken of as an extraordinary performance: it was, however, no more than a puppet-show, with the motions constructed upon better principles, dressed with more elegance, and managed with greater art, than they had formerly been.

XXII.-MOVING PICTURES.

Another species of seenic exhibition with moving figures, bearing some distant analogy to the puppets, appeared at the commencement of the last century. Such a show is thus described in the reign of queen Anne, by the manager of a show exhibited at the great house ʼn the Strand, over against the Globe Tavern, near Hungerford Market; the best places at one shilling, and the others at sixpence each: "To be seen, the greatest Piece of Curiosity that ever arrived in England, being made by a famous engineer from the camp before Lisle, who, with great labour and industry, has collected into a moving picture the following figures: first, it doth represent the confederate camp, and the army lying intrenched before the town; secondly, the convoys and the mules with prince Eugene's baggage; thirdly, the English forces commanded by the duke of Marlborough; likewise, several vessels, laden with provisions for the army, which are so artificially done as to seem to drive the water before them. The city and the citadel are very fine, with all its outworks, ravelins, hornworks, counter-scarps, half-moons, and palisados; the French horse marching out at one gate, and the confederate army marching in at the other; the prince's travelling coach with two generals in it, one saluting the company as it passes by; then a trumpeter sounds a call as he rides, at the noise whereof a sleeping centinel starts, and lifts up his head, but, not being espied, lies down to sleep again; besides abundance more admirable curiosities too tedious to be inserted here." He then modestly adds, "In short the whole piece is so contrived by art, that it seems to be life and nature." These figures, I presume, were flat painted images moving upon a flat surface, like those frequently seen upon the tops of clocks, where a carpenter's shop, or a stone-mason's yard, are by no means unusually represented. A juggler named Flockton, some few years back, had an exhibition of this kind, which he called a grand piece of clock-work. In this machine the combination of many dif

ferent motions, and tolerably well contrived, were at one time presented to the eye.

Pinkethman's Pantheon mentioned in the Spectator, was, I presume, an exhibition something similar to that above described, and probably the heathen deities were manufactured from pasteboard, and seated in rows one above the other upon clouds of the same material; at least I have seen them so fabricated, and so represented, about 1760, at a show in the country, which was contrived in such a manner, that the whole group descended and ascended with a slow motion to the sound of mus.c.

CHAPTER III.

1. The British Bards.-II. The Northern Scalds.-III. The Anglo-Saxon Gleemen.IV. The Nature of their Performances.--V. A Royal Player with three Darts.— VI. Bravery of a Minstrel in the Conqueror's Army.-VII. Other Performances by Gleemen.-VIII. The Harp an Instrument of Music much used by the Saxons. -IX. The Norman Minstrels, and their different Denominations, and professions.-X. Troubadours.-XI. Jestours.-XII. Tales and Manners of the Jesters. -XIII. Further Illustration of their Practices.-XIV. Patronage, Privileges, and Excesses of the Minstrels.-XV. A Guild of Minstrels.-XVI. Abuses and Decline of Minstrelsy.-XVII. Minstrels were Satirists and Flatterers.-XVIII Anecdotes of offending Minstrels, Women Minstrels.--XIX. The Dress of the Minstrels.-XX. The King of the Minstrels, why so called.-XXI. Rewards given to Minstrels.-XXII. Payments to Minstrels.-XXIII. Wealth of certain Minstrels. XXIV. Minstrels were sometimes Dancing Masters.

I. THE BRITISH BARDS.

1

THE Britons were passionately fond of vocal and instrumental music for this reason, the bards, who exhibited in one person the musician and the poet, were held in the highest estimation among them. "These bards," says an early historian, "celebrated the noble actions of illustrious persons in heroic poems which they sang to the sweet sounds of the lyre;" and to this testimony we may add another of equal authority; "The British bards are excellent and melodious poets, and sing their poems, in which they praise some, and censure others, to the music of an instrument resembling a lyre." Their songs and their music are said, by the same writer, to have been so exceedingly affecting, that "sometimes when two armies are standing in order of battle, with their swords drawn, and their lances extended upon the point of engaging in a most furious conflict, the poets have stepped in between them, and by their soft and fascinating songs calmed the fury of the warriors, and prevented the bloodshed. Thus, even among barbarians," adds the author, "rage gave way to wisdom, and Mars submitted to the Muses."

Ammianus Marcell. lib. xv. cap. 9.

2 Diodorus Siculus, lib. v. cap. 31.

II. THE NORTHERN SCALDS.

The scalds were the poets and the musicians of the ancient northern nations; they resembled the bards of the Britons, and were held in equal veneration by their countrymen. The scalds were considered as necessary appendages to royalty, and even the inferior chieftains had their poets to record their actions and indulge their vanity.

III. THE ANGLO-SAXON GLEEMEN.

Upon the establishment of the Saxons in Britain, these poetical musicians were their chief favourites; the courts of the kings, and the residences of the opulent afforded them a constant asylum; their persons were protected, and admission granted to them without the least restraint. In the Anglo-Saxon language they were distinguished by two appellations; the one equivalent to the modern term of gleemen or merry-makers, and the other harpers, derived from the harp, an instrument they usually played upon. Glip or Gligman; hence Gliggamen, glee-games, are properly explained in Somner's Lexicon, by merry tricks, jests, sports, and gambols, which were expressive of their new acquirements: Deanpene, the appellation of harper, was long retained by the English rhymists. The gleemen added mimicry, and other means of promoting mirth to their profession, as well as dancing and tumbling, with sleights of hand, and variety of deceptions to amuse the spectators; it was therefore necessary for them to associate themselves into companies, by which means they were enabled to diversify their performances, and render many of them more surprising through the assistance of their confederates. In Edgar's oration to Dunstan, the mimi, or minstrels, are said to sing and dance; and, in the Saxon canons made in that king's reign, A.D. 960, (Can. 58,) it is ordered that no priest shall be a poet, rceop, or exercise the mimical or histrionical art, in any degree, public or private.2 Lye renders the words "ne ænige Viran glipige," nec ullo modo scurram agat. Upon this subject we shall have occasion to speak more fully hereafter.

1 Bartholin de causis contemp. a Danis Mortis, lib. i. cap. 2, et Wormii Lit. Run. ad finim.

2 Spei. Concil. tom. i. p. 455.