[126] Wright-Wülker, 150, 311, 539. A synonym for _scôp_ is _leodwyrhta_. On 188 _lyricus_ is glossed _scôp_. But the distinctive use of _scôp_ is not in all cases maintained, e.g. _tragicus vel comicus unwurð scôp_ (188), _comicus scôp_ (283), _comicus id est qui comedia scribit, cantator vel artifex canticorum seculorum, idem satyricus, i. scôp, ioculator, poeta_ (206). Other western peoples in contact with Latin civilization came to make the same classification of poet and buffoon. Wackernagel, i. 51, says that the German _liuderi_ or poet is opposed to the _skirnun_ or _tûmarâ_, _scurra_ or _mimus_. The buffoon is looked askance at by the dignified Scandinavian men of letters (Saxo Grammaticus, _Hist. Danica_, transl. Elton, vi. 186); and Keltic bardism stands equally aloof from the _clerwr_ (cf. p. 76). Of course Kelts and Teutons might conceivably have developed their buffoons for themselves, independently of Roman influence, but so far as the Germans go, Tacitus, _Germ._ 24, knows no _spectaculum_ but the _sweorda-gelác_ or sword-dance (ch. ix). [127] Brooke, i. 12; Merbot, 11. The _gleómon_, according to Merbot, became mixed with the _plegman_ or _mimus_. In the glosses _pleȝa_ = _ludus_ in the widest sense, including athletics; and _pleȝ-stowe_ = _amphitheatrum_ (Wright-Wülker, 342). A synonym of _pleȝa_ is the etymological equivalent of _ludus_, _lâc_ (cf. ch. viii). _Spil_ is not A. S., _spilian_, a loan-word (Kögel, i. 1. 11). [128] _Scôp_, the O. H. G. _scopf_ or _scof_ is the ‘shaper,’ ‘maker,’ from _skapan_, ‘to make’; it is only a West-German word, and is distinct from _scopf_, a ‘scoff,’ ‘mock,’ and also from O. N. _skald_. This is not West-German, but both ‘sing’ and ‘say’ are from the same root _seg_ (Kögel, i. 1. 140). _Gleómon_ is from _gleo_, _gleow_, _gliw_, _glig_ = ‘glee,’ ‘mirth.’ The harp, in _Beowulf_ and elsewhere, is the ‘glee-beam,’ ‘glee-wood.’ [129] Jordanis, _de hist. Get._ (in _M. G. H._), c. 5 ‘ante quos etiam cantu maiorum facta modulationibus citharisque cantabant.’ [130] Cassiodorus, _Variae_, ii. 40, 41. Kögel, i. 1. 130, thinks that the professional singer, as distinct from the _chorus_, first became known to the Franks on this occasion. But one may rather infer from Theodoric’s letter to Boethius that the _citharoedus_ was to replace barbaric by civilized music.