Notwithstanding the many penal enactments against Irish minstrels, all the great Anglo-Irish nobles of the Pale retained an Irish harper and piper in their service.

But come, my sonso lead me by the hand To hear the sweetest harper in the land The wild, free wind of Spring; all o'er the hills And under, let us go, by tuneful rills We'll wander, and my heart shall sweetened be With echoes of the moorland melody

Under date of 1480, we find Chief Justice Bermingham having an Irish harper to teach his family, as also "to harp and to dance."

The accident, it is said, of seeing a blind Welsh harper performing on a harp, excited him to finish his "Bard," which in MS. appears to have divided the opinion of his friends, as it still does that of the critics.

I had my sleep, however; and when I awoke and re-entered the house, a merry group of guests had surrounded the harper in the hall, and were singing Penillion at full stretch, to the now unsteady and somewhat discordant accompaniment of the minstrel; the laugh was of course against me, but good-nature, rather than contempt, characterised the bantering, and I bore it all in good part.

it is not the King of England who now comes to you, but Alain the harper.

THE NIGHTINGALE Now will I tell you a story, whereof the Breton harper already has made a Lay.

Now quench my silver lamp, prythee, And bid the harpers harp that tune Fairies which haunt the meadowlands Sing clearly to the stars of June.