52 JOURNAL AND PROCEEDINGS. 
‘¢ Somewhat he lisped for his wantonness 
‘To make the English sweete upon his tongue ; 
‘« And in his Harping when that he had songe, 
‘¢ His Eyen twinkled in his Head aright, 
“ As don the Sterres in a frosty night.” 
In the middle ages minstrels were often well rewarded. ‘The 
Chroniclers record that some of them built churches and founded 
religious houses. ‘Their attractions sometimes excited the clergy to 
jealousy; for in the olden time many liked songs better than sermons, 
and preferred to be pleased than instructed. 
Of the pre-Christian, heathen literature of Britain, time has left 
but little trace. The ordeal of modern criticism has reduced the 
heathen remains of the Celtic period to a few fragments. ‘‘ Beowulf,” 
an Anglo-Saxon poem of the VIII century, is, in spirit, more 
Christian than heathen. The ‘“ Traveller’s Song,” which is assigned 
to the latter half of the VI century, recites the poet’s experiences as 
a travelling gleeman. Another piece “ Deor’s Complaint,” which is 
held to be of about the same age, is the lament of a bard whom 
another had supplanted in his lord’s favor. The scholarship of 
England in Anglo-Saxon times was practically confined to the clergy, 
and the literature of that period is characteristically religious. 
Translations and paraphrases of the Gospels and narrative portions 
of the Scriptures, homilies, pastorals, legends, and annals, and 
chronicles by monastics, are the chief treasures bequeathed to 
posterity by writers of the middle ages. An interesting list of the 
best writings of that time, and a summary of their contents may be 
found in Ten Brinks History of English Literature. 
Ballads were originally dancing songs ; but, as now understood, 
they are lyrical poems, in which some popular story is pointedly 
told. A ballad may, indeed must, include sentiment or passion, or 
both; but it is essential for these to be coupled with succinct 
graphic narration of outward action. Sentiment and passion, 
unaccompanied by narrative, when poetically expressed, fall under 
some of the infinite varieties into which songs of war, sentiment, and 
love, and religious hymns may be subdivided, rather than to ballad 
poetry. 
Many of the older ballads of our collections have been orally 
handed down, till recent times; and nobody knows their exact age 
or authorship. There is indeed a growing belief that the vital por- 
