(_To the Editor of the Mirror_.)
MR. EDITOR,--It may not be unacceptable to many of your readers to
receive some elucidation of a custom which is still prevalent at the
present season. I allude to the waits, who visit us in the month of
December, with instrumental music, going from house to house.
_Waites_, or _waits_, formerly _wayghtes_ is derived from
the latter noun, and originally signified _hautbois_, (or hautbois,
as we have it in English,) of which it is not unworthy remark, there is
no singular number. From the instrument its signification was, after a
time, transferred to the performers themselves; concerning whom, it is
well known,.the appellation is now applied to all who follow the
practice above adverted to, especially those who, at the approach of.
Christmas, salute us with their nightly concerts.
The _wayghtes_ of ancient times were, as some historians say, so
called, because they attended or _waited_ on potentates, judges,
magistrates, and bodies corporate, pomp and processions, &c.; they were
also sometimes appointed to keep a sort of Watch at night, and were then
generally decorated with superb dresses, splendid cloaks, &c. In Rymers'
_Fardera_ there is an account of such an establishment, of the
minstrels and _waites_ who were in the service of the court of
Edward IV., wherein is mentioned "a _waite_ that nighteleye, from
Michaelmas to Shrove Thorsday, pipeth the watch within this court;" "i.
fewer times, in the somere nightes iij. times." Todd derives the term
waits from _wahts_, (Goth.) nocturnal itinerant musicians,
(Beaumont and Fletcher;) Bayley, on account of their waiting on
magistrates, &c.; or of _guet_, a watch; or from the French
_guetter_, to watch, because anciently they kept a sort of watch a
night. From what I have narrated, then, it appears that the persons
formerly called waites, or waits, were _musical_ watchmen, the word
implying _obees_. They were, in fact, minstrels, at first annexed
to the king's court, who sounded the watch every night; and in towns
paraded the streets during winter, to prevent theft, &c. At Exeter they
were set up, with a regular salary, in 1400; and although suppressed by
the Puritans, were reinstated in 1660. M.A. Boyer, in his _French and
English Dictionary_, Rivington. 1747, under the word _waits_, s.
has the following: "in the French, _sorte de hautbois_, (ho-boy,)
corresponding with the signification of the term waits, as itinerant or
wandering (music or) musicians. These nocturnal perambulators, it seems,
were anciently called, as they now are, waits; and persons, bearing the
same name, still go about our streets during the month of December,
(previous to the 25th.) Whatsoever may be the reasons or the motives of
those (maunderers) who _now_ call _themselves waits_, I must
leave for the consideration of such as are favoured with their visits. I
am of opinion it can have neither allusion nor similitude to the
Christmas carol as some have suggested, which was an imitation, however
humble, of 'The glory to God on high,' &c., as sung by the angels who
hovered over the fields of Bethlehem on the morning of our Saviour's
nativity." It is true, indeed, that our modern angels, _the waits_
of 1897, have _hovered about_, and _they may_ (without a pun)
be styled angels (of darkness), not only on account of the watch they
keep _a nights_, but on account of those _spirit-uous propensities_,
for the attainment of which, principally, some have supposed, _we_ are
_indebted_ to _them_ for _their waits_, and also for their _wait-ing_
upon us on the day ycleped boxing-day.
But to return to our subject; independent of the origin of the waits, or
of the persons so called, as relates to the institution in England,
which is, comparatively, of modern date, _it appears there were
peculiar to the Romans_ a description of individuals, who, in their
offices and character, answered to our waits, and from whom there is no
doubt the latter were derived; these, among the Romans, were called
_spondaulae_, from which I conceive the _waightes_, or _waites_,
of our ancient kings were borrowed. The _Roman waites_, or _spondaulae_,
were a description of vocal and instrumental musicians, who performed a
hymn, whose measure consisted of spondees, (a poetic foot, formed of two
long syllables,) which was sung, accompanied by the flute, or other wind
instrument, while the priest offered the sacrifice, and the incense was
burning, to procure the favour of the gods; the waits, or spondaulae,
continuing their music, to prevent the priest from hearing sounds of ill
omen, which might disturb the ceremony, or divert his attention. It has
been suggested, in this view of the origin of the waits, which many
writers consider to be the real source of the custom, that they are
altogether anti-christian, and of heathen and idolatrous foundation, and
of consequence have neither allusion to, nor connexion with, our
festivities at Christmas _at any period_.
City Road.