MAY.
* * * * *
BARDS, OR POETS OF THE ANCIENT BRITONS.
(_For the Mirror._)
Hail! to the Bards, who sweetly sung
The praises of dead peers
In lofty strains, thus to prolong
Their fame for many years. LUCAN.
This sect appears to have descended from _Bardus_, son of _Druis_, king
of Britain; he was much esteemed by the people for inventing songs and
music, in praise of meritorious actions; and established an order, in
which such of the people were admitted as excelled in his art,
distinguishing them by the name of _bards_, after his own name. Julius
Caesar reports, that on his arrival he found some of them. Their
business was to record the noble exploits of their warriors in songs and
ditties, which they sung to their instruments at the solemn feasts of
their chiefs; and in such high estimation were they held, that, when two
armies were ready to engage, if a bard stept in between them, both sides
delayed the attack till he was out of danger.
As these bards were neither repugnant to the Roman authority nor the
Christian religion, they alone, above all other sects, were suffered to
continue long after the birth of Christ; and it is said that some of
them are still to be found in the isle of Bardsey, (so named from them).
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