BAR 
you have had the maidenhead of this bench, and'you mtift 
nay me three kilfes for it. The demand was fatisfied. 
Some time after, his wife died, whereon he went to Lon¬ 
don ; leaving his filter-in-law, now marrijed, and her huf- 
band, in poffeffion of the houfe. He entered into the ar¬ 
my of Oliver Cromwell, wherein he had a commiifion ; 
and was in the army of general Monk at the redoralion 
of Charles II.- After having been from home a great ma¬ 
ny years, and grown old, he returned to his native coun¬ 
try ; and, going to his own houfe in a fine fummer’s even¬ 
ing’ he faw his’fifter-in-law, her hufband, and children 
(all grown up), fitting on the fione-bench, eating flumme¬ 
ry and milk (llym.ru a llaeth ); he afked them in Englifli if 
they would lodge him that night ? but none of them knew 
a word of Englifh ; they, however, conjecturing what lie 
wanted, fhevved him a bed, the belt in the houfe, and afk¬ 
ed him to partake of their fare; which lie did; and, be¬ 
ing fatisfied, he, in Welfh, recited tlse above Englyn. 
\Vhat, then you are a Welfliman, my good friend? exclaim¬ 
ed his Wider-in-law. Yes, laid he, I am; it is many years 
fince I had three kifles from the lady who firft fat on this 
bench! This made him known, and all was joy. He 
then took out of his pocket a large p.urfe filled with gold, 
and gave it to his fifter-in-lavv. Here, faid he, take this, 
as a reward for your hofpitality to the old Englifh firanger, 
who is now more than fourfeore years of age ; he requires 
no more for it than a bed every night, and flummery and 
milk every day, whilft he lives.” See Leges Wallica , and 
Jones’s Relics of the Weljh Bards. 
The bards in Britain, as well as the druids, were ex¬ 
empted from taxes and military fervice, even in times of 
the greatefl danger ; and when they attended their patrons 
in the field, to record and celebrate their great actions, 
they had a guard afligned them for their protection. At 
all feftivals and public aflemblies they were feated near 
the perfon of the king or chieftain, and l'ometimes even 
above the greatefl nobility and chief officers of the court. 
Nor was the profeffion of the bards lefs lucrative than it 
was honourable. For, befides the valuable prefents which 
they occasionally received from their patrons when they 
gave them uncommon pleafure by their performances, they 
had eftates in land allotted for their fupport. Nay, fb 
great was the veneration which the princes of thefe times 
entertained for the perfons'of their poets, and fo highly 
were they charmed and delighted with their tuneful drains, 
that they fometimes pardoned even their crimes for a fong; 
whence the old faying, “ He had it, or he bought it, for 
a f on g-” 
Though the ancient inhabitants of the fouthern parts of 
Britain had originally the fame take and genius for poetry 
with thofe of the north, yet none of their poetical com- 
pofitions of this period have been preferved. Nor have 
we any reafon to be furprifed at this; for, after they had 
fubmitted to the Roman government, yielded up tlieir 
arms, and had loft their free and martial fpirit, they could 
take little pleafure in hearing or repeating the fongs of 
their bards in honour of the glorious atchievements of 
their anceftors. The Romans too, if they did not prac¬ 
tice the fame barbarous policy which was adopted by Ed¬ 
ward I. of putting the bards to death, they would at lead 
difeourage them, anddifcountenance the repetition of their 
poems for very obvious reafons. Thefe fons of the fong 
being thus perfecuted by their conquerors, and neglected 
by their countrymen, either abandoned their country or 
their profeffion; and their fongs, being no longer heard, 
were foon forgotten. 
It is probable that the ancient Britons, as well as many 
other nations of antiquity, had no idea of poems that were 
made only to be repeated, and not to be fung to the found 
of mufical indruments. In the fird ftages of fociety in all 
countries, the two fider-arts of poetry and rnufic feem to 
have been always united; every poet was a mufician, and 
fung his own verfes to the found of fome mufical indru- 
inent. This, we are told by two writers of credit, was 
the cafe in Gaul, and confequently in Britain at this pe- 
Vol. II. No, 9 .8. 
riod'. The bards'(fays Diodorus Siculus) fung'their po¬ 
ems to the found of an indiument not unlike a lyre.” 
“ The bards (according to Marcellinus) celebrated the 
brave actions of illuflrious men in heroic poems, which 
they fung to the fweet founds.of the lyre.” This account 
ot thefe. Greek and Latin writers isr confirmed by many 
paflages in the poems of Offiah. “ Beneath his own free, 
at intervals, each, bard fat down with his harp. They 
railed the fong, and touched the firing, each to the chief 
he ioved.” 
The introdudtipn of writing made a confideiable change 
in the bard profeffion. It is now an agreed point, that no 
poetry is fit to be accompanied with muiic but what is fitu¬ 
ple: a complicated thought or defciiption-requires the tu¬ 
rned attention, and leaves none for the muiic ; or, if it di¬ 
vide the attention, it makes but a faint impreUio'n. The 
fimple operas of Quinault hear away the palm from every 
thing of the kind comp.ofed by Boileau or Racine. But 
when a language, in its progrefs to maturity, is enriched 
with variety of phrafes (It to exprefs the mod elevated 
thoughts, men of genius afpired to the higher drains of 
poetry, leaving rnufic and fong to the bards : which diltin- 
guifhed the profeffion of a poet from that of a bard. Ho¬ 
mer, in a lax fenfe, may be termed a bard ; forbn that 
character he drolled from fealt to fead. But he was not 
a bard in the original fenfe: he, indeed, recited his poems 
to crowded audiences; but his poems are too complex for 
rnufic, and he probably did not ling them, nor accompany 
them with the lyre. The Trovadores of Provence were 
bards in the original fenfe, and made a capital figure in 
the days of ignorance, when few could read, and fewer 
write. In later times, the fongs of the bards were taken 
downin writing, which gave every one accefs to them 
without a bard; and thus the profeffion funk by degrees 
into oblivion. It is not however improbable, but that the 
prefent office of poet laureat is a remnant of the old cul- 
tom of celebrating royal birth-days, and great feltivals, 
with the fongs and praifes of. the bards. 
BAR'DA, or Par'tha, a town of Germany, in the 
circle of Upper Saxony, and circle of Leipfic : two miles 
fouth-wed of Grimma. 
BARDACH', or Barda'ca,^ f bardoche , Fr. laradaj- 
cio, Ital.] A boy kept for pleafure, to be abated contrary 
to nature. 
BARDA'NA, or Bur'dock. See Arctium. 
BARDARIO'T^E,yi in antiquity, were a kind of guard 
attending the Greek emperors, armed with rods, where¬ 
with they kept off the people from crowding,too near the 
prince when on horfeb.ack. Their captain, or command¬ 
er, was denominated primivergius. The word was proba¬ 
bly formed from the bardc, or houfings on tlieir horfes. 
BAR'DAS, the brother of the emprefs Theodora, and 
uncle of the famous Photius, is faid to have had no other 
good quality but that of loving tire fciences and polite li¬ 
terature, which he edablidied in the eadern empire ; for 
he was treacherous, cruel, and ambitious. In the year 
856, he alfadinated Tlieoftides, general of tlye emperor 
Michael's forces,' and obtained his pod. At length he 
cattfed the difgra.ee of the emprefs Theodora; and St. ig- 
natiits, patriarch of Condafttinople, reproaching him for 
his vices, he had him depofed in 858, to make room for 
Photius- Bardas was aliltflinated by Bafilius the Mace¬ 
donian, in 866. 
B ARD'ED, adj. in heraldry, is u fed in fpeakingof a horfe 
that is caparifoned. Fie bears fable, a cavalier d’or, the 
horfe. barded, argent. 
BARDE'SANISTS, a feet of ancient heretics, thus 
denominated from their leader Burdefanes, a Syrian of 
Edelfa in Melbpotamia. Bardefanes, born in the middle- 
of the fecond century, became eminent, after his convec¬ 
tion to Chridianity, for his zeal againlt heretics; againft 
whom, we are informed by St. Jerome and Eufeb’ius, he 
wrote a multitude of books: yet he had the misfortune to 
fall, himfelf, into the errors of Valentinus, to which he 
added feme others of his own. He adopted the oriental 
S U philofophy 
