Popular Music of the Olden Time. A Collection of Ancient Songs, Ballads, and Dance-Tunes, Illustrative of the National Music of England. With Short Introductions to the Different Reigns, and Notices of the Airs from Writers of the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries. Also, a Short Account of the Minstrels. By W. Chappel, F.S.A. The whole of the Airs harmonized by G. A. McFarren. 2 vols. pp. 384, 439. London: Cramer, Beale, & Chappell. New York: Webb & Allen.

In tracing the history of the English nation, no line of investigation is more interesting, or shows more clearly the progress of civilization, than the study of its early poetry and music. Sung alike in the royal palaces and in the cottages and highways of the nation, the ballads and songs reflect most accurately the manners and customs, and not a little of the history of the people; while, as indicating the progress of intellectual culture, the successive changes in language, and the steady advance of the science of music, and of its handmaid, poetry, they possess a value peculiarly their own.

The industry and learning of Percy, Warton, and Ritson have rendered a thorough acquaintance with early English poetry comparatively easy; while in the work whose comprehensive title heads this article the research of Chappell presents to us all that is valuable of the "Popular Music of the Olden Time," enriched by interesting incidents and historical facts which render the volumes equally interesting to the general reader and to the student in music. Chappell published his collection of "National English Airs" about twenty years ago. Since that time, he tells us in his preface, the increase of material has been so great, that it has been advisable to rewrite the entire work, and to change the title, so that the present edition has all the freshness of a new publication, and contains more than one hundred and fifty additional airs.

The opening chapters are devoted to a concise historical account of English minstrelsy, from the earliest Saxon times to its gradual extinction in the reigns of Edward IV. and Queen Elizabeth; and while presenting in a condensed form all that is valuable in Percy and others, the author has interwoven in the narrative much curious and interesting matter derived from his own careful studies. Much of romantic interest clusters around the history of the minstrels of England. They are generally supposed to have been the successors of the ancient bards, who from the earliest times were held in the highest veneration by nearly all the people of Europe, whether of Celtic or Gothic origin. According to Percy, "Their skill was considered as something divine; their persons were deemed sacred; their attendance was solicited by kings; and they were everywhere loaded with honors and rewards." Our Anglo-Saxon ancestors, on their migration into Britain, retained their veneration for poetry and song, and minstrels continued in high repute, until their hold upon the people gradually yielded to the steady advance of civilization, the influence of the printing-press, and the consequent diffusion of knowledge. It is to be borne in mind that the name, minstrel, was applied equally to those who sang, and accompanied their voices with the harp, or some other instrument, and to those who were skilled in instrumental music only. The harp was the favorite and indeed the national instrument of the Britons, and its use has been traced as far back as the first invasion of the country by the Saxons. By the laws of Wales, no one could pretend to the character of a freeman or gentleman, who did not possess or could not play upon a harp. Its use was forbidden to slaves; and a harp could not be seized for debt, as the simple fact of a person's being without one would reduce him to an equality with a slave. Other instruments, however, were in use by the early Anglo-Saxons, such as the Psaltery, the Fiddle, and the Pipe. The minstrels, clad in a costume of their own, and singing to their quaint tunes the exploits of past heroes or the simple love-songs of the times, were the favorites of royalty, and often, and perhaps usually, some of the better class held stations at court; and under the reigns of Henry I. and II., Richard I., and John, minstrelsy flourished greatly, and the services of the minstrels were often rated higher than those of the clergy. These musicians seem to have had easy access to all places and persons, and often received valuable grants from the king, until, in the reign of Edward II., (1315,) such privileges were claimed by them, that a royal edict became necessary to prevent impositions and abuses.

In the fourteenth century music was an almost universal accomplishment, and we learn from Chaucer, in whose poetry much can be learned of the music of his time, that country-squires could sing and play the lute, and even "songes make and well indite." From the same source it appears that then, as now, one of the favorite accomplishments of a young lady was to sing well, and that her prospects for marriage were in proportion to her proficiency in this art. In those days the bass-viol (viol-de-gamba) was a popular instrument, and was played upon by ladies,--a practice which in these modern times would be considered a violation of female propriety, and even then some thought it "an unmannerly instrument for a woman." In Elizabeth's time vocal music was held in the highest estimation, and to sing well was a necessary accomplishment for ladies and gentlemen. A writer of 1602 says to the ladies, "It shall be your first and finest praise to sing the note of every new fashion at first sight." That some of the fair sex may have carried their musical practice too far, like many who have lived since then, is perhaps indicated in some verses of that date which run in the following strain:--

     "This is all that women do:
     Sit and answer them that woo;
     Deck themselves in new attire,
     To entangle fresh desire;
     After dinner sing and play,
     Or, dancing, pass the time away."

To many readers one of the most interesting features of Chappell's work will be the presentation of the original airs to which were sung the ballads familiar to us from childhood, learned from our English and Scotch ancestors, or later in life from Percy's "Reliques" and other sources; and the musician will detect, in even the earliest compositions, a character and substance, a beauty of cadence and rhythmic ideality, which render in comparison much of our modern song-music tamer, if possible, than it now seems. Here are found the original airs of "Agincourt," "All in the Downs," "Barbara Allen," "The Barley-Mow," "Cease, rude Boreas," "Derry Down," "Frog he would a-wooing go," "One Friday morn when we set sail," "Chanson Roland," "Chevy Chace," and scores of others which have rung in our ears from nursery-days.

The ballad-mongers took a wide range in their writings, and almost every subject seems to have called for their rhymes. There is a curious little song, dating back to 1601, entitled "O mother, a Hoop," in which the value of hoop-skirts is set forth by a fair damsel in terms that would delight a modern belle. It commences thus:--

     "What a fine thing have I seen to-day!
                         O mother, a Hoop!
      I must have one; you cannot say Nay;
                         O mother, a Hoop!"

Another stanza shows the practical usefulness of the hoop:--

     "Pray, hear me, dear mother, what I have been taught:
      Nine men and nine women o'erset in a boat;
      The men were all drowned, but the women did float,
      And by help of their hoops they all safely got out."

The fashion for hoops was revived in 1711, in which year was published in England "A Panegyrick upon the Late, but most Admirable Invention of the Hoop-Pettycoat." A few years later, (1726,) in New England, a three-penny pamphlet was issued with the title, "Hoop Petticoats Arraigned and Condemned by the Light of Nature and Law of God," by which it would seem that our worthy ancestors did not approve of the fashion. In 1728 we find hoop-skirts and negro girls and other "chattels" advertised for sale in the same shop!

The celebrated song, "Tobacco is an Indian weed," is traced to George Withers, of the time of James I. Perhaps no song has been more frequently "reset"; but the original version, as is generally the case, is the best.

One of the most satisfactory features of Chappell's work is the thoroughness with which he traces the origin of tunes, and his acute discrimination and candid judgment. As an instance of this may be mentioned his article on "God save the Queen"; and wherever we turn, we find the same evidence of honest investigation. So far as is possible, he has arranged his airs and his topics chronologically, and presented a complete picture of the condition of poetry and music during the reigns of the successive monarchs of England. The musician will find these volumes invaluable in the pursuit of his studies, the general reader will be interested in the well-drawn descriptions of men, manners, and customs, and the antiquary will pore over the pages with a keen delight.

The work is illustrated with several specimens of the early style of writing music, the first being an illuminated engraving and fac-simile of the song, "Sumer is icumen in,"--the earliest secular composition, in parts, known to exist in any country, its origin being traced back to 1250. It should have been mentioned before this that the very difficult task of reducing the old songs to modern characters and requirements, and harmonizing them, has been most admirably done by McFarren, who has thus made intelligible and available what would otherwise be valuable only as curiosities.

1. Folk-Songs. Selected and edited by John Williamson Palmer, M.D. Illustrated with Original Designs. New York: Charles Scribner. 1861. Small folio. pp. xxiii., 466.

2. Loves and Heroines of the Poets. Edited by Richard Henry Stoddard. New York: Derby & Jackson. 1861. Quarto, pp. xviii., 480.

3. A Forest Hymn. By William Cullen Bryant. With Illustrations of John A. Hows. New York: W. A. Townsend & Co. 1861. Small quarto, pp. 32.

We have no great liking for illustrated books. Poems, to be sure, often lend themselves readily to the pencil; but, in proportion as they stand in need of pictures, they fall short of being poetry. We have never yet seen any attempts to help Shakspeare in this way that were not as crutches to an Indian runner. To illustrate poetry truly great in itself is like illuminating to show off a torchlight-procession. We doubt if even Michel Angelo's copy of Dante was so great a loss as has sometimes been thought. We have seen missals and other manuscripts that were truly illuminated,--

       "laughing leaves
     That Franco of Bologna's pencil limned ";

but the line of those artists ended with Frà Angelico, whose works are only larger illuminations in fresco and on panel. In those days some precious volume became the Laura of a poor monk, who lavished on it all the poetry of his nature, all the unsatisfied longing of a lifetime. Shut out from the world, his single poem or book of saintly legends was the window through which he looked back on real life, and he stained its panes with every brightest hue of fancy and tender half-tint of reverie. There was, indeed, a chance of success, when the artist worked for the love of it, gave his whole manhood to a single volume, and mixed his life with his pigments. But to please yourself is a different thing from pleasing Tom, Dick, and Harry, which is the problem to be worked out by whoever makes illustrations to be multiplied and sold by thousands. In Dr. Palmer's "Folk-Songs," if we understand his preface rightly, the artists have done their work for love, and it is accordingly much better done than usual. The engravings make a part of the page, and the designs, with few exceptions, are happy. Numerous fac-similes of handwriting are added for the lovers of autographs; and in point of printing, it is beyond a question the handsomest and most tasteful volume ever produced in America. The Riverside Press may fairly take rank now with the classic names in the history of the art. But it is for the judgment shown in the choice of the poems that the book deserves its chief commendation. Our readers do not need to be told who Dr. Palmer is, or that one who knows how to write so well himself is likely to know what good writing is in others. We have never seen so good and choice a florilegium. The width of its range and its catholicity may be estimated by its including William Blake and Dibdin, Bishop King and Dr. Maginn. It would be hard to find the person who would not meet here a favorite poem. We can speak from our own knowledge of the length of labor and the loving care that have been devoted to it, and the result is a gift-book unique in its way and suited to all seasons and all tastes. Nor has the binding (an art in which America is far behind-hand) been forgotten. The same taste makes itself felt here, and Matthews of New York has seconded it with his admirable workmanship.

In Mr. Stoddard's volume we have a poet selecting such poems as illustrate the loves of the poets. It is a happy thought happily realized. With the exception of Dante, Petrarch, and Tasso, the choice is made from English poets, and comes down to our own time. It is a book for lovers, and he must be exacting who cannot find his mistress somewhere between the covers. The selection from the poets of the Elizabethan and Jacobian periods is particularly full; and this is as it should be; for at no time was our language more equally removed from conventionalism and commonplace, or so fitted to refine strength of passion with recondite thought and airy courtliness of phrase. The book is one likely to teach as well as to please; for, though everybody knows how to fall in love, few know how to love. It is a mirror of womanly loveliness and manly devotion. Mr. Stoddard has done his work with the instinct of a poet, and we cordially commend his truly precious volume both to those

      "who love a coral lip
     And a rosy cheek admire,"

and to those who

     "Interassured of the mind,
       Are careless, eyes, lips, hands, to miss";

for both likings will find satisfaction here. The season of gifts comes round oftener for lovers than for less favored mortals, and by means of this book they may press some two hundred poets into their service to thread for the "inexpressive she" all the beads of Love's rosary. The volume is a quarto sumptuous in printing and binding. Of the plates we cannot speak so warmly.

The third book on our list deserves very great praise. Bryant's noble "Forest Hymn" winds like a river through edging and overhanging greenery. Frequently the designs are rather ornaments to the page than illustrations of the poem, and in this we think the artist is to be commended. There is no Birket Foster-ism in the groups of trees, but honest drawing from Nature, and American Nature. The volume, we think, marks the highest point that native Art has reached in this direction, and may challenge comparison with that of any other country. Many of the drawings are of great and decided merit, graceful and truthful at the same time.

The Works of Lord Bacon, etc., etc. Vols. XI. and XII. Boston: Brown & Taggard. 1860.

We have already spoken of the peculiar merits which make the edition of Messrs. Heath and Spedding by far the best that exists of Lord Bacon's Works. It only remains to say, that the American reprint has not only the advantage of some additional notes contributed by Mr. Spedding, but that it is more convenient in form, and a much more beautiful specimen of printing than the English. A better edition could not be desired. The two volumes thus far published are chiefly filled with the "Life of Henry VII." and the "Essays"; and readers who are more familiar with these (as most are) than with the philosophical works will see at once how much the editors have done in the way of illustration and correction.

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FOOTNOTES:

[1]
Some time after, the Bey of Tunis ordered Eaton to send his ship, the Gloria, with despatches to the United States. Eaton sent her to Leghorn, and sold her at a loss. "The flag of the United States," he wrote, "has never been seen floating in the service of a Barbary pirate under my agency."

[2]
The Administration was saturated with this petty parsimony, as may be seen in an extract from a letter written by Madison to Eaton, announcing the approach of Dale and his ships:--"The present moment is peculiarly favorable for the experiment, not only as it is a provision against an immediate danger, but as we are now at peace and amity with all the rest of the world, and as the force employed would, if at home, be at nearly the same expense, with less advantage to our mariners." Linkum Fidelius has given the Jeffersonian plan of making war in two lines:--

     "We'll blow the villains all sky-high,
     But do it with e-co-no-my."

[3]
About this time came Meli-Meli, Ambassador from Tunis, in search of an indemnity and the frigate.

[4]
Massachusetts gave him ten thousand acres, to be selected by him or by his heirs, in any of the unappropriated land of the Commonwealth in the District of Maine. Act Passed March 3d, 1806

[5]
He remained in Sicily until 1809, when he was offered the Beyship of Derne by his brother. He accepted it; two years later, fresh troubles drove him again into exile. He died in great poverty at Cairo. Jusuf reigned until 1832, and abdicated in favor of a son. A grandson of Jusuf took up arms against the new Pacha. The intervention of the Sultan was asked; a corps of Turkish troops entered Tripoli, drove out both Pachas, and reannexed the Regency to the Porte.

[6]
The scene of Mr. Jefferson's celebrated retreat from the British. A place of frequent resort for Federal editors in those days.

[7]
In attempting to describe my own sensations, I labor under the disadvantage of speaking mostly to those who have never experienced anything of the kind. Hence, what would he perfectly clear to myself, and to those who have passed through a similar experience, may be unintelligible to the former class. The Spiritualists excuse the crudities which their Plato, St. Paul, and Shakspeare utter, by ascribing them to the imperfection of human language; and I may claim the same allowance in setting forth mental conditions of which the mind itself can grasp no complete idea, seeing that its most important faculties are paralyzed during the existence of those conditions.

[8]
The recent experiments in Hypnotism, in France, show that a very similar psychological condition accompanies the trance produced by gazing fixedly upon a bright object held near the eyes. I have no doubt, in fact, that it belongs to every abnormal state of the mind.

[9]
See The Famous Historie of Fryer Bacon containing the Wonderful Things that he did in his Life, also the Manner of his Death; with the Lives and Deaths of the Conjurors Bungye and Vandermast. Reprinted in Thom's Early English Romances.

[10]
Historia Crit. Phil. Period. II. Pars II. Liber II. Cap. iii. Section 23.

[11]
A barbarous distich gives the relations of these two famous divisions of knowledge in the Middle Ages:--

     "Gramm loquitur, Dia verba docet, Rhet verba colorat,
     Mus canit, Ar numerat, Geo ponderat, Ast
          colit astra."

[12]
See Hauréau, De la Philosophie Scolastique, II. 284-5.

[13]
Mr. Brewer has in most respects performed his work as editor in a satisfactory manner. The many difficulties attending the deciphering of the text of ill-written manuscripts and the correction of the mistakes of ignorant scribes have been in great part overcome by his patience and skill. Some passages of the text, however, require further revision. The Introduction is valuable for its account of existing manuscripts, but its analysis of Bacon's opinions is unsatisfactory. Nor are the translations given in it always so accurate as they should be. The analyses of the chapters in side-notes to the text are sometimes imperfect, and do not sufficiently represent the current of Bacon's thought; and the volume stands in great need of a thorough Index. This omission is hardly to be excused, and ought at once to be supplied in a separate publication.

[14]
This sum was a large one. It appears that the necessaries of life were cheap and luxuries dear at Paris during the thirteenth century. Thus, we are told, in the year 1226, a house sold for forty-six livres; another with a garden, near St. Eustache, sold for two hundred livres. This sum was thought large, being estimated as equal to 16,400 francs at present. Sixty livres were then about five thousand francs, or a thousand dollars. Lodgings at this period varied from 5 to 17 livres the year. An ox was worth 1 livre 10 sols; a sheep, 6 sols 3 deniers. Bacon must at some period of his life have possessed money, for we find him speaking of having expended two thousand livres in the pursuit of learning. If the comparative value assumed be correct, this sum represented between $30,000 and $40,000 of our currency.

[15]
Opus Tertium. Cap. iii. pp. 15-17.

[16]
Opus Tertium. Cap. xx. p. 65.

[17]
Opus Tertium. Capp. xvi., xvii. Roger Bacon's urgency to the Pope to promote the works for the advancement of knowledge which were too great for private efforts bears a striking resemblance to the words addressed for the same end by his great successor, Lord Bacon, to James I. "Et ideo patet," says the Bacon of the thirteenth century, "quod scripta, principalia de sapientia philosophiae non possunt fieri ab uno homine, nec a pluribus, nisi manus praelatorum et principum juvent sapientes cum magna virtute." "Horum quos enumeravimus omnium defectuum remedia," says the Bacon of the seventeenth century, " ...opera sunt vere basilica; erga quae privati alicujus conatus et industria fere sic se habent ut Mercurius in bivio, qui digito potest in viam intendere, pedem inferre non potest."--De Aug. Scient. Lib. II. Ad Regem Suum.

A still more remarkable parallelism is to be found in the following passages. "Nam facile est dicere, fiant scripture completae de scientiis, sed nunquam fuerunt apud Latinos aliquae condignae, nec fient, nisi aliud consilium habeatur. Et nullus sufficeret ad hoc, nisi dominus papa, vel imperator, aut aliquis rex magnificus, sicut est dominus rex Franciae. Aristoteles quidem, auctoritate et auxiliis regum, et maxime Alexandri, fecit in Graeco quae voluit, et multis millibus hominum usus est in experientia scientiarum, et expensis copiosis, sicut historiae narrant." (Opus Tertium, Cap. viii.) Compare with this the following passage from the part of the De Augmentis already cited:--"Et exploratoribus ac speculatoribus Naturae satisfaciendum de expensis suis; alias de quamplurimis scitu dignissimis nunquam fiemus certiores. Si enim Alexander magnam vim pecuniae suppeditavit Aristoteli, qua conduceret venatores, aucupes, piscatores et alios, quo instructior accederet ad conscribendam historiam animalium; certe majus quiddam debetur iis, qui non in saltibus naturae pererrant, sed in labyrinthis artium viam sibi aperiunt."

Other similar parallelisms of expression on this topic are to be found in these two authors, but need not be here quoted. Many resemblances in the words and in the spirit of the philosophy of the two Bacons have been pointed out, and it has even been supposed that the later of these two great philosophers borrowed his famous doctrine of "Idols" from the classification of the four chief hindrances to knowledge by his predecessor. But the supposition wants foundation, and there is no reason to suppose that Lord Bacon was acquainted with the works of the Friar. The Rev. Charles Forster, in his Mahometanism Unveiled, a work of some learning, but more extravagance, after speaking of Roger Bacon as "strictly and properly an experimentalist of the Saracenic school," goes indeed so far as to assert that he "was the undoubted, though unowned, original when his great namesake drew the materials of his famous experimental system." (Vol. II. pp. 312-317.) But the resemblances in their systems, although striking in some particulars, are on the whole not too great to be regarded simply as the results of corresponding genius, and of a common sense of the insufficiency of the prevalent methods of scholastic philosophy for the discovery of truth and the advancement of knowledge. "The same sanguine and sometimes rash confidence in the effect of physical discoveries, the same fondness for experiment, the same preference of inductive to abstract reasoning pervade both works," the Opus Majus and the Novum Organum.--Hallam, Europe during the Middle Ages, III. 431. See also Hallam, Literature of Europe, I. 113; and Mr. Ellis's Preface to the Novum Organum, p. 90, in the first volume of the admirable edition of the Works of Lord Bacon now in course of publication.

[18]
Opus Tertium. Cap. xv. pp. 55, 56.

[19]
Id. Cap. x. p. 33.

[20]
The famous Grostête,--who died in 1253. "Vir in Latino et Graeco peritissimus," says Matthew Paris.

[21]
Comp. Studii Phil. Cap. vi.

[22]
Opus Minus, p. 330.

[23]
This was Michael Scot the Wizard, who would seem to have deserved the place that Dante assigned to him in the Inferno, if not from his practice of forbidden arts, at least from his corruption of ancient learning in his so-called translations. Strange that he, of all the Schoolmen, should have been honored by being commemorated by the greatest poet of Italy and the greatest of his own land! In the Notes to the Lay of the Last Minstrel, his kinsman quotes the following lines concerning him from Satchell's poem on The Right Honorable Name of Scott:--

     "His writing pen did seem to me to be
     Of hardened metal like steel or acumie;
     The volume of [his book] did seem so large to me
     As the Book of Martyrs and Turks Historie."

[24]
Comp. Studii Phil. Cap. viii. p. 472.

[25]
Comp. Studii Phil. Cap. viii. p. 469.

[26]
Comp. Studii Phil. Cap. viii. p. 473.

[27]
Opus Tertium, Cap. xxiv. pp. 80-82.

[28]
Opus Tertium. Capp. xiv., xv., pp. 48-53.

[29]
Id. Cap. xiii. pp. 43-44.

[30]
Id. Cap. xxviii. p. 102.

[31]
Opus Majus. pp. 57, 64.

[32]
Opus Tertium. Cap. iv. p. 18.

[33]
See Hauréau: Nouvel Examen de l'Édition des Oeuvres de Hugues de Saint-Victor. Paris, 1869. p. 52.

[34]
Jourdain: Recherches sur les Traductions Latines d'Aristote. Paris, 1819. p. 373.

[35]
Opus Tertium. Cap. xii. p. 42.

[36]
Id. Cap. ii. p. 14.

[37]
Reprinted in the Appendix to the volume edited by Professor Brewer. A translation of this treatise was printed at London as early as 1597; and a second version, "faithfully translated out of Dr. Dee's own copy by T. M.," appeared in 1659.

[38]
"Sed tamen sal petræ LURU VOPO VIR CAN UTRIET sulphuris; et sic facies tonitruum et coruscationem, si scias artificium. Videas tamen utrum loquar ænigmate aut secundum veritatem." (p. 551.) One is tempted to read the last two words of the dark phrase as phonographic English, or, translating the vir, to find the meaning to be, "O man! you can try it."

[39]
This expression is similar in substance to the closing sentences of Sir Kenelm Digby's Discourse at Montpellier on the Powder of Sympathy, in 1657. "Now it is a poor kind of pusillanimity and faint-heartedness, or rather, a gross weakness of the Understanding, to pretend any effects of charm or magick herein, or to confine all the actions of Nature to the grossness of our Senses, when we have not sufficiently consider'd nor examined the true causes and principles whereon 'tis fitting we should ground our judgment: we need not have recourse to a Demon or Angel in such difficulties.

"'Nec Deus intersit, nisi dignus vindice nodus Inciderit.'"

[40]
Nullity of Magic, pp. 532-542.

[41]
Comp. Stud. Phil. p. 416.