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, additions, and dilutions, formed the
staple of romantic fiction in verse in the Dark Ages.

The minor songs and ballads which were called forth by passing events
were usually amorous, sportive, gay, and often gross, yet suited to a
rude age.

Ellis in his specimens of the early English poets has given us sketches
of one hundred and sixty-one writers of songs from the year 1230 to
1650, after a careful search through this whole period for literary
gems. The first edition of his work consisted almost entirely of love