BARD ( Irish bard, Welsh ba•dd, Breton bar:). A name connnonly given to poets and singers among the Celtic peoples, and mentioned by classical historians as early as the Second Century my. The bards disappeared early among the Gauls of the Continent; at all events, not much is known to us of their activity. But among the insular Celts they formed an important social class throughout the Middle Ages, and under modified conditions, the order exists to this day.
In the old Welsh laws, bards were recognized as important members of the community, with special rights and duties. They were organized in sonic fashion into a separate order, and it is traditionally believed that Grutl'ydd ap Kynan, King of Gwynedd, made rules for their govern ment. But on this last point there is no satis factory proof. It should be also said that there is no evidence at all for the claim that the bardic organization of the Twelfth Century was a Jur vival of the ancient Druidic hierarchy. Mr. Stephens, in his Literature of the liymry, has made it clear that the Druidism of the Middle Ages was confined to the bards, and was of very recent origin; and the Druidism of the modern Gorscdd appears to be a later development still. The writings of the Welsh bards, which dealt with a large variety of subjects, both secular and religious, are treated elsewhere in the article on WELSH LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE. The order
of bards is still regularly maintained in Wales in connection with the Druids and ovates.
In Ireland, the rank and privileges of poets were not dissimilar to those established in Wales. But the name bard was at first applied in Irish only to the lower order of popular rhymesters, while the poets of the schools were known as fi/id (singular tili). This distinction disap peared, however, in the course of time. and the name bard came to be applied to all poets in Ireland as it was in Wales. Professional bardie schools were maintained down through the Seventeenth Century, and the old classical metres were taught in them to the end. (See the article on IRISII LITERATURE.) But English rule was always unfavorable to the bards, and they prac tically disappeared in the course of the Eigh teenth Century.
In Scotland, the 'bard' has been applied freely to poets down to the present time, but there does not appear to have been any regular bardic organization in the modern period.