BARD, a professional poet and musician of an cient times, whose office it was to celebrate, in song, the mighty deeds of the heroes of his nation, or to la ment, in pathetic strains, their untimely loss, or any great public calamity. The term, according to Fes tus and Carnbden, is pure British or Celtic, and de notes a singer. The Celtic bards were a particular class of the Druids, or ministers of the national reli gion ; but, taken in its more general acceptation, the term bard denotes any professed musician and poet, or minstrel, of ancient times.
We have very satisfactory evidence, that, during the heroic ages of Greece, the profession of a min strel, or bard, was in the highest esteem. Homer makes honourable mention of Thamyris and Tiresias, two celebrated bards of those ages: and he describes,as one of the highest gratifications at the court of King Alcinous, the bard Demodocus, pouring forth, to the sound of the lyre, his lofty strains. Phcmius, another bard, is introduced by Homer, as depreca ting the wrath of Ulysses, in the following terms : " 0 king! to mercy be thy soul inclined, And spare the poet's ever gentle kind: A deed like this, thy future fame would wrong; For dear to gods and men is sacred song." Onrss. 8. It can scarcely be considered as derogatory to this divine poet himself, to enrol him among a class of men anciently so highly hononepd, na ic 3,1qtly his due, we place him foremost in the list of all the ce lebrated bards of antiquity.
Among the ancient Scandinavians and Germans, the recital of martial deeds, by the bards or minstrels, was a gratification which was very highly prized. Such recitals, according to Tacitus, inflamed the courage of the ancient Germans, and served them as omens of future warfare. Nor was it so much by the charms of harmony, as by the display of heroism, that the hearers were delighted ; for, according to that author, a harshness of tone was affected, and the voice was rendered deeper, and more resounding, by the application of a shield to the mouth of the bard. " Sun! illis hex quoque carmina quorum rc latio quern barditum vocant, accendunt animos, fu tura'quc ipso,cantu augurantur ; ter rent (mint, trcpidantvc, prout sonuit acies. Nec tam vocis ille quant virtutis concentus videtur. Affeciatur pra'cipue asperitas soni, et fiacttim murmur oyectis ad os scutis, quo plenior ct gravior vox rcpercussu intnmescat." De Mor. Germ.
With respect to the honour in which the ancient inhabitants of Scandinavia held their bards, or scalds, as they were there denominated, we have the most ample testimony in their old chronicles. From them
it appears, that the kings of Denmark, Sweden, and Norway, were constantly attended by their scalds or scalders, who were always treated with the highest respect. Harold Harfager placed these minstrels over all his other officers, and employed them in ne s gociations of the greatest importance. Haco, earl of Norway, in celebrated engagement against the warriors of Tomsburg, was attended by five bards, each of whom animated the courage of the soldiers, when about to engage, by a war song. Mention is made by Saxo-Graminaticus, in his description of a battle between Waldemar and Sueno, of a scald or bard belonging to the former, who advanced to the front of the army, and, in a pathetic strain of poetry, reproached Sueno for the unnatural murder of his father. Regnar, king of Denmark, was no less dis tinguished in poetry than in war ; and Harald, the valiant, who flourished in the eleventh century, has immortalised himself by a beautiful poem, in which he complains, that, notwithstanding his numerous at chievements, he is unable to subdue the scorn of a beauteous Russian princess.
Among the Celtic nations, the bards enjoyed equal, or still higher honours, and formed a branch of the religious establishment and administration of the state. In the ancient British kingdoms, they enjoy ed, by law or custom, many honourable distinctions, and valuable privileges. They, as well as the Druids, were exempted from taxes and military services, even in times of the greatest danger. Their persons were held sacred and inviolable ; and the most cruel and bloody tyrants dared not to offer them any injury. When they attended their patrons into the field, to record and celebrate their great actions, they had a 'ruard assigned them for their protection ; and at all festivals and public assemblies, they were seated near the king or chieftain, and sometimes even above the greatest nobility and chief officers of the court. Nor was the profession of the bard less lucrative than it was honourable. For, besides the valuable presents which they occasionally received from their patrons, they had estates in land allotted for their support. Such was the respect in which the bards were held, that, by a law of Howel Dha, it was enacted, that whoever struck any one of this order, must compound for his offence, by paying to the party aggrieved one-fourth more than was necessary to be paid to any other person of the same degree.