bard (1), baird

[In Sw. and Dut. bard; Dan., Ger., & Fr. barde: Port. bardo; Lat. bard us; Gr. βάρδος (bardos), all from Irish & Gael. bard; Wel. bardd, barz; Arm. barz.] Cognate with Ir. bard a = a satire or lampoon; Wel. bardhas =philosophy; bardgan = a song; barrage, enthusiasm; Ir. & Arm. bar = brilliant, glo y, learned, literary.] 1. Originally: A poet by profe ion, specially one whose calling it was to celebrate in verse, song, and play the exploits of the chiefs or others who patronised him, or those of contemporary heroes in general. Bards of this character flourished from the earliest period among the Greeks, and to a le er extent among the Romans. Diodorus and Strabo, in the first century B.C., allude to them under the name of βάρδοι ( bardo i ), and Lucan, in the first century A.D., under that of bard i . Tacitus seems to hint at their existence among the Germanic tribes. It was, however, above all, among the Gauls and other Celtic nations that they flourished most. 438 According to Warton, they were originally a constitutional appendage of the Druid hierarchy. At Llanidan, in Angle sea, formerly inhabited by Druidical conventual societies, vestiges exist of Tre'r Dryn = the Arch-Druid's mansion; Bodrudau the abode of the inferior Druids; and near them Bod - owyr the abode of the Ovades, i.e., of those pa ing through their novitiate; and Tre'v Beirdd = the hamlet of the bards. They may be even considered as e ential constituents of the hierarchy, if the division of it into priests, philosophers, and poets be accurate. The bards did not pa away with the Druids, but flourished, especially in Wales, honoured at the courts of princes, and figuring up to the present day at the Eisteddfods or gatherings of bards and minstrels. They were similarly honoured throughout Ireland, and indeed among the Celts everywhere. "There is amongst the Irish a kind of people called bards, which are to them instead of poets: whose profe ion is to set forth the praises or dispraises of men in their poems or rhine; the which are had in high regard and estimation among them."-Spenser: State of Ireland. 12. Later : A vagrant beggar, who could not or would not work, and who, moreover, pretended to be wanting in understanding, if, indeed, he were not so in reality. (0. Scotch .) That nane sall be thoiled to beg, neither to burgh nor to land betwixt fourteen and seventy yeares, that sike as maks themselves fules or bairtes , or uthers siklike runners about, being apprehended sall be put in the king's ward or irones, sae lang as they have any gudes of their awne to live on."- Scottish Acts, 1. 413. (S. in Boucher.) 3. Now : A synonym for a poet. Conquerors and kings, Founders of sects and systems, to whom add Sophists, bards , statesmen, all unquiet things Which stir too strongly the soul's secret springs, And are themselves the fools to those they fool; Envied, yet how unenviable! Byron: Childe Harold, iii. 43.