No passion can excite.
Yet still I patient see
While all are shun'd like me.
No nymph my heart can wound
If favor she divide,
And smiles on all around
Unwilling to decide;
I'd rather hatred bear,
Than love with others share."

Edward I had a harper in his train, in his crusade to the Holy Land, who
stood by his side in battle.

That same king in his conquest of Wales is said to have murdered all the
bards that fell into his hands lest they should rouse the nation again
to arms. Gray's poem, "The Bard," was written upon that theme. I will
quote a few lines:

"Dear lost companions of my tuneful art,
Dear as the light that visits these eyes,
Dear as the ruddy drops that warm my heart,
Ye died amidst your dying country's cries--
No more I weep. They do not sleep.
On yonder cliffs a griesly band,
I see them sit; they linger yet,
Avengers of their native land."

That the minstrel was a privileged character in England down to the
reign of Elizabeth is proved by history, by frequent allusions to them
in the current literature of the times, and by the large body of songs,
ballads, and metrical romances, still extant which are ascribed to them.
They were essential to the complete education of a knight as tutors: for
no accomplishment was more valued in the days of chivalry than the
playing of the harp and the composition of songs in honor of the fair.
Before the origin of printing they acted as publishers of the works of
more renowned poets by public recitations of their works. The period of
their greatest celebrity was about the middle of the fifteenth century.
The minstrel chose his own subject and so long as he discoursed to
warriors of heroes and enchanters, and to gay knights of true love and
fair ladies, he would not want patient and gratified listeners.

The great sources of Gothic romance are a British History of Arthur and
his wizzard, Merlin, by Walter, Archdeacon of Oxford, translated into
Latin by Geoffrey of Monmouth; the history of Charlemagne and his twelve
peers, forged by Turpin, a monk of the eighth century; the History of
Troy, in two Latin works, which passed under the names of Dares Phrygius
and Dictys Cretensis; and the History of Alexander the Great, originally
written in Persic and translated into Greek by Simeon Seth, A.D. 1070,
and again turned into Latin by Giraldus Cambrensis about the year 1200.
These four works with variations, additi