230 Figures on the Frizes in Anglo-Saxon Churches. [Oct. Ay 
‘known, as the story of Polyphemus, the the tambourin, shawm, and a kind of 
lurge fiddle applied to ihe side of the face,, 
wilh a bow, that instrument being much, 
Cyclops, Pliny’s stories, &c. 
The fourth figure is a double head 
male and female; old and young. It is. 
certainly not a Janus. I believe it to 
be a2 personification of Summer and Win. 
ter: or of day and night: most proba- 
bly the latter. The seasons have been 
personified trom tne earliest aras to the 
fourteenth century ;* and ina very singu- 
lar achievement of Le SeneschaldeBurtcn, 
Seneschul of Bourdeaur, temp. Ric. Ut 
is a representation of Day and Night, in 
which the former is depicted as a young 
man, the latter as old; it being an anci- 
ent opinion that night was older than 
day, and of course the oldest of all 
things, 
Then follow several monsters, a human 
head with the breasts of a woman, and 
the double body of a fish, the tail in each 
hand; ahead covered with a skin, the 
feet hanging down; a monster with the 
head of an animal at one end, and that 
of a bird at the other; a squinting vizor; 
another with ears, &c. Besides these 
are several figures, playing upon musical 
uistruments. 
All these figures appear to me, to 
admit of the most decisive application. 
In the games of the heathens upon the 
feasts of the calends of January, it was 
the custom to assume the forms of beasts, 
cattle, monsters, &c. a practice, which 
still obtains in the north under the name 
of goose-duncing. ‘These practices, how- 
ever reprobated in several councils, con- 
tinued among the christians; and even in 
the mummings of far later wras, we find 
that persons disguised themselves like 
bears and unicorns. Sce Du Cange, Gloss. 
wv. GCeraula, Kalende. Antig. Vulgar. 
Strutt’s Gliggamena 261. of Mummings, 
189, 90. 
There cannot be a doubt, I think, 
that some of the figures refer to these 
sports, or to the pastimes of the Gleemen, 
of which next. That they appear upon 
churches is not extraordinary, for even 
to Stubbe’s time, the herds of the May 
played the most indecent pranks in the 
church. The passage from his Anatomy 
of Abuses has been often quoted. 
Besides these are several figures. play- 
ing upon several musical instruments, as 
*See Montiaucon L. Antig. expliq. Sup- 
plem. vol. i. b. i, c. 11. Strutt’s Dresses, 
vo}. ii. p) Ixix. 
Engraved at the end of Betham’s Baro- 
netage, vol. iv. 
more ancient than Sir Richard Hoare 
has made it, Gerald. Cambrens. 1. p. 297- 
On the figures to be seen in the French 
Church at Canterbury, we have (inter 
alia)/T. A man riding on another’s. head, 
supporting a bowl in one hand, and a 
fish in\anotber. IL. An ass playing on a 
violin, a goat riding and blowing a pipe; 
a monster playing upon the harp, ec. 
See the Antiquarian Repertory, i.57. 
T trust that I shall make it satisfactorily 
appear, that these figures refer to the 
Anglo-Saxon gleemen, the predecessors of 
minstrels and jugglers. In plate 19 of 
Strutt’s Gliggamena, we havea girl dang. 
cing upon the shoulders of a jester, who 
at the same time plays upon the bagpipe 
and walks; and we tind ( Antig. Repert. . 
i, 120) that it was a sport, to throw; up 
a cup, three or four times, and every 
time to catch it upon astump. These 
passages come near to the figure marked 
I, As to No, IL. we hear in the Specta- 
tor of a hare beating a drum, and 
in the wood cuts of Mygidit Betshrugié 
Opusculum de centesima Usurd, 4to. Paris, 
1522, fol. vii. we have an initial of a 
pig playing upon a bag-pipe. It would 
be useless to quote more mstances, but 
whoever examines these capitals, and 
compares them with Strutt’s accounts hy , 
his Sports and Pastimes of the ancient 
Jesters; aud Professor Beckmaun’s Paper 
on Jugglers, in his History of Inventions, © 
neither of them scarce books, will, it is. 
conceived, see that these monsters in 
many instances, represent the disguises, 
tricks, and sports of the Anglo-Saxon_ 
gleemen 
There > other capitals helonging to 
neither of the above descriptions. I 
mean such as ocenr in the crypt of St. 
Peter's, Oxford. engraved in Lelandi Col- 
lectanea, i. pref. xxviii, From the studded 
lines down the bodies, they appear to be 
of that grotesque fashion, which we | 
know has prevailed from the most ancient 
to the present zra in mouldings. 
It has been often conceived that coarsee 
ness or delicacy are characteristics of 
general manners and periods. So far as 
Jaws and an established system of arti- 
ficial manners prevail, the position may , 
-be wue; but, whoever has visited convie 
vial meetings of the present day, where 
the society is not vulgar, whoever sees 
the filthy inscriptions upon walls, &c. 
will be convinced that it is no test what- 
ever 
