338 



indolence and neglect of the other accomplishments, excepts music* 

 Paulus Jovius, the contemporary of Vergil, in his description of Ire- 

 land, concedes the same praise. And Peter Lombard writes " musicii. 

 delectantur et poesi/'-f- Giraldus describes the musical instruments 

 used there as the cythara and tympanum,;]; which probably refer to two 

 different species of the harp, for Brompton says the Irish had two 

 kinds of harps, the one bold and rapid, the other soft and soothing; the 

 latter and smaller was used by females and by ecclesiastics, as an ac- 

 companiment to their songs and hymns, while the former was sounded 

 only in the public assemblies of the people. 



It has been already mentioned§ that the Welsh received their 

 music from Ireland, and that, according to Warton, " in 1078 Gryf- 

 fith ap Conan brought over with him from Ireland many Irish bards 

 for the information and improvement of the Welsh. "|| Innumerable 

 authorities could be also adduced to shew the admitted pre-eminence 

 of the music of Ireland during the middle and subsequent ages. 

 John de Fordun, a Scottish priest, who was sent over to this king- 

 dom in the fourteenth century, to collect materials for a history of 

 Scotland, expressly says that Ireland was the fountain of music in his 

 time, whence it then began to flow into Scotland and Wales. John 

 Major, in his panegyric on James the First of Scotland, calls that 

 prince " another Orpheus, who touched the harp more exquisitely 



* "Musicam, cujus peritissimi sunt, canunt enim cum voce turn fidibus eleganter, sed 

 vehementi quodam impetu, sic ut mirabile sit in tanta vocis linguaeque atque digitorum velo- 

 citate, posse artis numeros conservari, id quod illi ad unguem faciunt." — Hist. Angl. lib. 13. 

 p. 223. 



t See post, section 6 of this Period. 



X Hibemia quidem tantum duobus utitur et delectatur instrumentis, cythara scilicet et 

 lympano. JEneis quoque magis utuntur chordis Hibemi quam de corio factis." — Top. Hib. 

 Dist. 3. c. 1 1. 



§ Ante, p. 281. J Hist. Engl. Poetry. Dissert. 1. 



