In The Northern
District Of Britain, Beyond The Humber, And On The Borders Of
Yorkshire, The Inhabitants Make Use Of
The same kind of symphonious
harmony, but with less variety; singing only in two parts, one
murmuring in the base,
The other warbling in the acute or treble.
Neither of the two nations has acquired this peculiarity by art,
but by long habit, which has rendered it natural and familiar; and
the practice is now so firmly rooted in them, that it is unusual to
hear a simple and single melody well sung; and, what is still more
wonderful, the children, even from their infancy, sing in the same
manner. As the English in general do not adopt this mode of
singing, but only those of the northern countries, I believe that
it was from the Danes and Norwegians, by whom these parts of the
island were more frequently invaded, and held longer under their
dominion, that the natives contracted their mode of singing as well
as speaking.
CHAPTER XIV
Their wit and pleasantry
The heads of different families, in order to excite the laughter of
their guests, and gain credit by their sayings, make use of great
facetiousness in their conversation; at one time uttering their
jokes in a light, easy manner, at another time, under the disguise
of equivocation, passing the severest censures. For the sake of
explanation I shall here subjoin a few examples. Tegeingl is the
name of a province in North Wales, over which David, son of Owen,
had dominion, and which had once been in the possession of his
brother. The same word also was the name of a certain woman with
whom, it was said, each brother had an intrigue, from which
circumstance arose this term of reproach, "To have Tegeingl, after
Tegeingl had been in possession of his brother."
At another time, when Rhys, son of Gruffydd, prince of South Wales,
accompanied by a multitude of his people, devoutly entered the
church of St. David's, previous to an intended journey, the
oblations having been made, and mass solemnised, a young man came
to him in the church, and publicly declared himself to be his son,
threw himself at his feet, and with tears humbly requested that the
truth of this assertion might be ascertained by the trial of the
burning iron. Intelligence of this circumstance being conveyed to
his family and his two sons, who had just gone out of the church, a
youth who was present made this remark: "This is not wonderful;
some have brought gold, and others silver, as offerings; but this
man, who had neither, brought what he had, namely, iron;" thus
taunting him with his poverty. On mentioning a certain house that
was strongly built and almost impregnable, one of the company said,
"This house indeed is strong, for if it should contain food it
could never be got at," thus alluding both to the food and to the
house. In like manner, a person, wishing to hint at the avaricious
disposition of the mistress of a house, said, "I only find fault
with our hostess for putting too little butter to her salt,"
whereas the accessory should be put to the principal; thus, by a
subtle transposition of the words, converting the accessory into
the principal, by making it appear to abound in quantity. Many
similar sayings of great men and philosophers are recorded in the
Saturnalia of Macrobius. When Cicero saw his son-in-law, Lentulus,
a man of small stature, with a long sword by his side: "Who," says
he, "has girded my son-in-law to that sword?" thus changing the
accessary into the principal. The same person, on seeing the half-
length portrait of his brother Quintus Cicero, drawn with very
large features and an immense shield, exclaimed, "Half of my
brother is greater than the whole!" When the sister of Faustus had
an intrigue with a fuller, "Is it strange," says he, "that my
sister has a spot, when she is connected with a fuller?" When
Antiochus showed Hannibal his army, and the great warlike
preparations he had made against the Romans, and asked him,
"Thinkest thou, O Hannibal, that these are sufficient for the
Romans?" Hannibal, ridiculing the unmilitary appearance of the
soldiers, wittily and severely replied, "I certainly think them
sufficient for the Romans, however greedy;" Antiochus asking his
opinion about the military preparations, and Hannibal alluding to
them as becoming a prey to the Romans.
CHAPTER XV
Their boldness and confidence in speaking
Nature hath given not only to the highest, but also to the
inferior, classes of the people of this nation, a boldness and
confidence in speaking and answering, even in the presence of their
princes and chieftains. The Romans and Franks had the same
faculty; but neither the English, nor the Saxons and Germans, from
whom they are descended, had it. It is in vain urged, that this
defect may arise from the state of servitude which the English
endured; for the Saxons and Germans, who enjoy their liberty, have
the same failing, and derive this natural coldness of disposition
from the frozen region they inhabit; the English also, although
placed in a distant climate, still retain the exterior fairness of
complexion and inward coldness of disposition, as inseparable from
their original and natural character. The Britons, on the
contrary, transplanted from the hot and parched regions of Dardania
into these more temperate districts, as
"Coelum non animum mutant qui trans mare currunt,"
still retain their brown complexion and that natural warmth of
temper from which their confidence is derived. For three nations,
remnants of the Greeks after the destruction of Troy, fled from
Asia into different parts of Europe, the Romans under AEneas, the
Franks under Antenor, and the Britons under Brutus; and from thence
arose that courage, that nobleness of mind, that ancient dignity,
that acuteness of understanding, and confidence of speech, for
which these three nations are so highly distinguished. But the
Britons, from having been detained longer in Greece than the other
two nations, after the destruction of their country, and having
migrated at a later period into the western parts of Europe,
retained in a greater degree the primitive words and phrases of
their native language.
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