VI. ing pounds; a sword, bound with purest gold; CHA P. two small images of the purest gold; four dishes of silver gilt; two palls of silk, with golden clasps; with other silk dresses, and gold clasps, and hangings. To the bishops, priests, deacons, and other clergy, and to the great at Rome, he distributed gold, and among the people small silver. 58 A few years afterwards, we learn from the same author, that the English then at Rome presented to the oratory in the pontifical palace, at Frescati, a silver table weighing several pounds. 59 In the age before this, we read of gold and silver vessels sent presents to Rome." Gold and silver roods, or crosses and crucifixes, are frequently mentioned;" also a silver graphium, or pen." The crown of the Anglo-Saxon kings is described by the contemporary biographer of Dunstan as made of gold and silver, and set with various gems." They used iron very commonly, and often tin. The Anglo-Saxons seem to have been acquainted with the precious stones. In the MSS. Tib. A. 3. twelve sorts of them are thus described: "The first gem kind is black and green, "which are both mingled together, and this is called giaspis. "The other is saphyrus; this is like the sun, and in it appear "like golden stars. The third is calcedonius; this is like a 66 burning candle. Smaragdus is very green. Sardonix is "likest blood. Onichinus is brown and yellow. Sardius is like "clear blood. Berillus is like water. Crisoprassus is like a green leek, and green stars seem to shine from it. Topazius " is like gold; and carbunculus is like burning fire." 66 The odoriferous productions of India and the East were known to our ancestors, and highly valued. They frequently formed part of their presents. Boniface sent to an abbess a 58 Anastasius Bibliot. de Vit. Pontif. p. 403. ed. Rom. 1718. 59 Ibid. 418. Besle, iv. c. i. 6 Wulf. Will ap. Hickes Diss. Ep. 54. 62 Mag. Bib. xvi. p. 51. VIII. BOOK little frankincense, pepper, and cinnamon, 64 to another per son some storax and cinnamon. 65 So he received from an archdeacon, cinnamon, pepper, and costus. A deacon at Rome once sent him four ounces of cinnamon, two ounces of costus, two pounds of pepper, and one pound of cozombri. "7 66 The Anglo-Saxons used the luxury of hot baths. Their use seems to have been common; for a nun is mentioned, who, as an act of voluntary mortification, washed in them only on festivals. 68 Not to go to warm baths, nor to a soft bed, was part of a severe penitence." The general practice of this kind of bath may be also inferred, from its being urged by the canons, as a charitable duty, to give to the poor meat, mund, fire, fodder, bed, bathing, and clothes." But while warm bathing was in this use and estimation, we find cold bathing so little valued as to be mentioned as a penitentiary punishment. 71 The washing of the feet in warm water, especially after travelling, is often mentioned. " It was a part of indispensable hospitality to offer this refreshment to a visitor; and this politeness will lead us to suppose, that shoes and stockings, though worn in social life, were little used in travelling. The custom of walking without these coverings in the country, and of putting them on when the traveller approached towns, has existed among the commonalty in North Britain even in the present reign. Among the gifts of Boniface to an AngloSaxon prelate, was a shaggy or woolly present, to dry the feet after being washed. 73 To wash the feet of the poor was one of the acts of penance to be performed by the rich. 74 Mag. Bib. xvi. p. 50. 65 Ibid. 51. Ibid. 119. 67 Ibid. 120. Costus, a kind of shrub growing in Arabia and Persia, and having 100t of a pleasant spicy smell.. 68 Bede, iv. c. 19. 69 Wilk. Leg. Anglo-Sax. p. 94. 72 Bede, 234. 251. 257. 73 16 Mag. Bib. 52. & ib. IN CHA P. VII. Their Conviviality and Amusements. the ruder states of society, melancholy is the prevailing CHAP. feature of the mind; the stern or dismal countenances of VII. savages are every where remarkable. Usually the prey of want or passion, they are seldom cheerful till they can riot in excess. Their mirth is then violent and transient; and they soon relapse into their habitual gloom. As the agricultural ftate advances, and the comforts of civilization accumulate, provident industry secures regular supplies; the removal of want diminishes care, and introduces leisure; the softer affections then appear with increasing fervour; the human temper is rendered milder; mirth and joy become habitual; mankind are delighted to indulge their social feelings, and a large portion of time is devoted to amusement. The Anglo-Saxons were in this happy state of social improvement; they loved the pleasures of the table, but they had the wisdom to unite with them more intellectual diversions. At their cheerful meetings it was the practice for all to sing in turn; and Bede mentions an instance in which, for this purpose, the harp was sent round. The musicians of the day, the wild flowers of their poetry, and the ludicrous jokes and tricks of their buffas, were such essential additions to their conviviality, that the council of Cloveshoe, which thought that more solemn manners were better suited to the ecclesiastic, forbad the monks to suffer their mansions to be the receptacle of the "sportive arts, that is, of poets, harpers, “musicians, and buffoons." A previous council, aiming to produce the same effect, had decreed, that no ecclesiastic 2 VIII. BOOK should have harpers, or any music, nor should permit any jokes or plays in their presence.' In Edgar's speech on the expulsion of the clergy, the histriones, or gleemen, are noticed as frequenting the monasteries: "There are the dice, there "are dancing and singing, even to the very middle of the "night." Among the canons made in the same king's reign, a priest was forbidden to be an eala-scop, or an ale poet, or to any wise gliwige, or play the gleeman with himself, or with others. Strutt has given some drawings of the Saxon gleeman from some ancient MSS. I will add his description of the figures. "We there see a man throwing three balls and three knives alternately into the air, and catching them one by one as they fall, but returning them again in rota"tion. To give the greater appearance of difficulty to this "part, it is accompanied with the music of an instrument 66 66 resembling the modern violin. It is necessary to add, that "these two figures, as well as those dancing, previously men"tioned, form a part only of two larger paintings, which, in "their original state, are placed as frontispieces to the "Psalms of David; in both, the artists have represented that "monarch seated upon his throne, in the act of playing upon the harp or lyre, and surrounded by the masters of "sacred music. In addition to the four figures upon the "middle of the plate, and exclusive of the king, there are "four more, all of them instrumental performers; one play 66 66 ing upon the horn, another upon the trumpet, and the other "two upon a kind of tabor or drum, which, however, is "beaten with a single drum-stick. The manuscript in which "this illumination is preserved, was written as early as the eighth century. The second painting, which is more mo"dern than the former by two full centuries, contains four figures besides the royal psalmist: the two not engraved 66 46 * Spel. Concil. 159. Ethel. Ab. Riev. p. 360. 5 Spel. Concil. 455. • Strutt's Sports and Pastimes, 132, 133. This book was the last publication of this worthy and industrious man. 4 are musicians; the one is blowing a long trumpet, sup- CHAP. ported by a staff he holds in his left hand, and the other is "winding a crooked horn. In a short prologue immediately preceding the Psalms, we read as follows: David, filius Jesse, in regno suo quatuor elegit qui Psalmos fecerunt, id "est Asaph, Æman, Æthan, et Iduthan; which may be thus "translated literally: David, the son of Jesse, in his reign, "elected four persons who composed psalms, that is to say, Asaph, Æman, Æthan, and Iduthan. In the painting these "four names are separately appropriated, one to each of the "four personages there represented. The player upon the "violin is called Iduthan, and Æthan is tossing up the knives "and balls." 7 Another passage may be cited from the same industrious and worthy author. "One part of the gleeman's profession, as early as the "tenth century, was teaching animals to dance, to tumble, "and to put themselves into variety of attitudes at the com"mand of their masters. Upon the twenty-second plate we 66 see the curious though rude delineation, being little more " than an outline, which exhibits a specimen of this pastime. "The principal joculator appears in the front, holding at "knotted switch in one hand, and a line attached to the bear " in the other; the animal is lying down in obedience to his "command; and behind them are two more figures, the one playing upon two flutes or flageolets, and elevating "his left leg while he stands upon his right, supported by σε a staff that passes under his arm-pit; the other dancing: "This performance takes place upon an eminence resembling a stage, made with earth; and in the original a vast concourse are standing round it in a semicircle as spectators "of the sport, but they are so exceedingly ill drawn, and "withal so indistinct, that I did not think it worth the pains to copy them. The dancing, if I may so call it, of the 66 "Strutt's Sports and Pastimes, p. 134. |