Book 3 — APPENDIX I. AN ESSAY ON THE ANCIENT MINSTRELS IN ENGLAND. (continued 2)
Reading edition
The same clauses are renewed in the last act on this subject, passed in the present reign of George III.
"In festo Pentecostes Rex filium suum armis militaribus cinxit, & cum eo Comites Warenniæ & Arundeliæ, aliosque, quorum numerus ducentos & quadraginta dicitur excessisse. Eodem die cum sedisset Rex in mensa, novis militibus circumdatus, ingressa Ministrellorum Multitudo, portantium multiplici ornatu amictum, ut milites præcipue novos invitarent, & inducerent, ad vovendum factum armorum aliquod coram signo."
"Edward by the grace of God, &c. to sheriffes, &c., greetyng. Forasmuch as ... many idle persons, under colour of mynstrelsie, and going in messages, and other faigned busines, have ben and yet be receaved in other mens houses to meate and drynke, and be not therwith contented yf they be not largely consydered with gyftes of the Lordes of the houses, &c.... We wyllyng to restrayne such outrageous enterprises and idlenes, &c. have ordeyned ... that to the houses of prelates, earles, and barons, none resort to meate and drynke, unless he be a mynstrel, and of these minstrels that there come none except it be three or four minstrels of honour at the most in one day, unlesse he be desired of the Lorde of the house. And to the houses of meaner men that none come unlesse he be desired, and that such as shall come so, holde themselves contented with meate and drynke, and with such curtesie as the maister of the house wyl shewe unto them of his owne good wyll, without their askyng of any thyng. And yf any one do agaynst this ordinaunce, at the firste tyme he to lose his minstrelsie, and at the second tyme to forsweare his craft, and never to be receaved for a minstrell in any house.... Yeven at Langley the vi. day of August, in the ix yere of our reigne."
These abuses arose again to as great a height as ever in little more than a century after; in consequence, I suppose, of the licentiousness that crept in during the civil wars of York and Lancaster. This appears from the charter, 9 E. IV. referred to in p. xlv. "Ex querulosâ insinuatione ... Ministrallorum nostrorum accepimus qualiter nonnulli rudes agricolæ & artifices diversarum misterarum regni nostri Angliæ, finxerunt se fore ministrallos, quorum aliqui liberatam nostram eis minime datam portarent, seipsos etiam fingentes esse minstrallos nostros proprios, cujus quidem liberatæ ac dictæ artis sive occupationis ministrallorum colore, in diversis partibus regni nostri prædicti grandes pecuniarum exactiones de ligeis nostris deceptive colligunt, &c."
Abuses of this kind prevailed much later in Wales, as appears from the famous commission issued out in 9 Eliz. (1567) for bestowing the silver harp on the best minstrel, rythmer, or bard, in the principality of North Wales: of which a fuller account will be given below in note [Bb3].
It may be observed here, that minstrels and others often rode on horseback up to the royal table, when the kings were feasting in their great halls. See in this vol. book I, No. 6.
The answer of the porters (when they were afterwards blamed for admitting her) also deserves attention. "Non esse moris domus regiæ histriones ab ingressu quomodolibet prohibere, &c." Walsingh.
That Stow rightly translated the Latin word histrio here by minstrel, meaning a musician that sung, and whose subjects were stories of chivalry, admits of easy proof; for in the Gesta Romanorum, chap. cxi. Mercury is represented as coming to Argus in the character of a minstrel; when he "incepit, more histrionico fabulas dicere, et plerumque cantare." (T. Warton, iii. p. li.) And Muratori cites a passage, in an old Italian chronicle, wherein mention is made of a stage erected at Milan: "Super quo histriones cantibant, sicut modo cantatur de Rolando et Oliverio." Antich. Ital. ii. p. 6. (Observ. on the Statutes, 4th edit. p. 362.)
See what is said in p. 371 concerning the "sisters of the fraternity of minstrels;" see also a passage quoted by Dr. Burney (ii. 315) from Muratori, of the chorus of women singing thro' the streets accompanied with musical instruments in 1268.
Had the female described by Walsingham been a tombestere, or dancing-woman (see Tyrwhitt's Chaucer, iv. 307, and v. Gloss.) that historian would probably have used the word saltatrix (see T. Warton, i. 240, note M.)
These saltatrices were prohibited from exhibiting in churches and church-yards along with joculatores, histriones, with whom they were sometimes classed, especially by the rigid ecclesiastics, who censured, in the severest terms, all these sportive characters (vid. T. Warton in loco citato, and vide supra not. E, F, &c.).
And here I would observe, that although Fauchet and other subsequent writers affect to arrange the several members of the minstrel profession under the different classes of troverres (or troubadours), chanterres, conteours, and jugleurs, &c. (vid. p. 385) as if they were distinct and separate orders of men, clearly distinguished from each other by these appropriate terms, we find no sufficient grounds for this in the oldest writers; but the general names in Latin, histrio, mimus, joculator, ministrallus, &c. in French, menestrier, menestrel, jongleur, jugleur, &c. and in English, jogeleur, jugler, minstrels, and the like, seem to be given them indiscriminately. And one or other of these names seem to have been sometimes applied to every species of men, whose business it was to entertain or divert (joculari) whether with poesy, singing, music, or gesticulation, singly, or with a mixture of all these. Yet as all men of this sort were considered as belonging to one class, order or community (many of the above arts being sometimes exercised by the same person), they had all of them doubtless the same privileges, and it equally throws light upon the general history of the profession to shew what favour or encouragement was given, at any particular period of time, to any one branch of it. I have not therefore thought it needful to inquire whether, in the various passages quoted in these pages, the word minstrel, &c. is always to be understood in its exact and proper meaning of a singer to the harp, &c.
That men of very different arts and talents were included under the common name of minstrels, &c. appears from a variety of authorities. Thus we have menestrels de trompes and menestrels de bouche in the suppl. to Du Cange, c. 1227, and it appears still more evident from an old French rhymer, whom I shall quote at large:
"Le Quens[1128] manda les Menestrels; Et si a fet[1129] crier entre els, Qui la meillor truffe[1130] sauroit Dire, ne faire, qu'il auroit Sa robe d'escarlate nueve. L'uns Menestrels à l'autre reuve Fere son mestier, tel qu'il sot, Li uns fet l'yvre, l'autre sot; Li uns chante, li autre note; Et li autres dit la riote; Et li autres la jenglerie;[1131] Cil qui sevent de jonglerie Vielent par devant le Conte; Aucuns ja qui fabliaus conte Il i ot dit mainte risée," &c.
Fabliaux et Contes, 12mo. tom. ii. p. 161.
And what species of entertainment was afforded by the ancient juggleurs we learn from the following citation from an old romance, written in 1230:
"Quand les tables ostees furent C'il juggleurs in pies esturent S'ont vielles, et harpes prisees Chansons, sons, vers, et reprises Et gestes chantè nos ont."
Sir J. Hawkins, ii. 44, from Andr. du Chene. See also Tyrwhitt's Chaucer, iv. p. 299.
All the before mentioned sports went by the general name of ministralcia ministellorum ludicra, &c.—Charta an. 1377, apud Rymer, vii. p. 160. "Peracto autem prandio, ascendebat D. Rex in cameram suam cum Prælatis Magnatibus & Proceribus prædictis: & deinceps Magnates, Milites & Domini, aliique Generosi diem illum, usque ad tempus cœnæ, in tripudiis, coreis & solempnibus Ministralciis, præ gaudio solempnitatis illius continuarunt." (Du Cange, Gloss. 773.) This was at the coronation of K. Richard II.
It was common for the minstrels to dance, as well as to harp and sing (see above, note [E], p. 389); thus in the old Romance of Tirante el Blanco, Val. 1511, the 14th cap. lib. 2, begins thus: "Despues qui las Mesas fueron alçadas vinieron los Ministriles; y delante del rey, y de la Reyna dançaron un rato: y despues truxeron colacion."
They also probably, among their other feats, played tricks of slight of hand, hence the word jugler came to signify a performer of legerdemain; and it was sometimes used in this sense (to which it is now appropriated) even so early as the time of Chaucer, who in his Squire's Tale, (ii. 108) speaks of the horse of brass, as:
"——like An apparence ymade by som magike, As Jogelours plaien at thise festes grete."
See also the Frere's Tale, i. p. 279, v. 7049.
"The lady, that was so faire and bright, Upon her bed she sate down ryght; She harped notes swete and fine. (Her mayds filled a piece of wine.) And Syr Degore, sate him downe, For to hear the harpes sowne."
The 4th line being omitted in the pr. copy, is supplied from the folio MS.
In the Squyr of lowe Degree (No. 24, iii. appendix) the king says to his daughter (Sign. D. i.):
"Ye were wont to harpe and syng, And be the meryest in chamber comyng."
In the Carle of Carlisle, (No. 10. iii. appendix) we have the following passage (folio MS. p. 451, v. 217).
"Downe came a lady faire and free, And sett her on the Carles knee: One whiles shee harped another whiles song, Both of paramours and louinge amonge."
And in the Romance of Eger and Grime (No. 12, iii. appendix), we have (ibid. p. 127, col. 2) in part i. v. 263:
"The ladye fayre of hew and hyde Shee sate downe by the bed side Shee laid a souter (psaltry) vpon her knee Theron shee plaid full lovesomelye. ... And her 2 maydens sweetlye sange."
A similar passage occurs in part iv, v. 129 (p. 136.)—But these instances are sufficient.
That this was a most respectable officer, both here and on the continent, will appear from the passages quoted below, and therefore it could only have been in modern times, when the proper meaning of the original terms ministraulz, and histriones was forgot, that he was called king of the fidlers; on which subject see below, note [Ee2].
Concerning the king of the minstrels we have the following curious passages collected by Du Cange, Gloss. iv. 773:
"Rex Ministellorum; supremus inter ministellos: de cujus munere, potestate in cæteros ministellos agit Charta Henrici IV. Regis Angliæ in Monast. Anglicano, tom. i. p. 355. Charta originalis an. 1338. Je Robert Caveron Roy des Menestreuls du Royaume de France. Aliæ ann. 1357. & 1362. Copin de Brequin Roy des Menestres du Royaume de France. Computum de auxiliis pro redemptione Regis Johannis, ann. 1367. Pour une couronne d'argent qu'il donna le jour de la Tiphaine au roy des menestrels.
"Regestum Magnorum Dierum Trecensium an. 1296. Super quod Joannes dictus Charmillons Juglator, cui dominus Rex per suas literas tanquam Regem Juglatorum in civitate Trecensi Magisterium Juglatorum, quemadmodum suæ placeret voluntati, concesserat." Gloss. c. 1587.
There is a very curious passage in Pasquier's Recherches de la France, Paris, 1633, folio, liv. 7. ch. 5, p. 611, wherein he appears to be at a loss how to account for the title of Le Roy assumed by the old composers of metrical romances; in one of which the author expressly declares himself to have been a minstrel. The solution of the difficulty, that he had been Le Roy des Menestrels, will be esteemed more probable than what Pasquier here advances; for I have never seen the title of prince given to a minstrel, &c. scil.—"A nos vieux Poetes ... comme ... fust qu'ils eussent certain jeux de prix en leurs Poesies, ils ... honoroient du nome, tantot de roy, tantot de prince, celuy qui avoit le mieux faict comme nous voyons entre les archers, arbalestiers, & harquebusiers estre fait le semblable. Ainsi l'autheur du Roman d'Oger le Danois, s'appelle Roy.
"Icy endroict est cil Livre finez Qui des enfans Oger est appellez Or vueille Diex qu'il soit parachevez En tel maniere kestre n'en puist blamez Le Roy Adams (r. Adenes) ki il' est rimez.
"Et en celuy de Cleomades,
"Ce Livre de Cleomades Rimé-je le Roy Adenes Menestre au bon Duc Henry.
"Mot de Roy, qui seroit tres-mal approprié à un menestrier, si d'ailleurs on ne le rapportoit a un jeu du priz: Et de faict il semble que de nostre temps, il y en eust encores quelque remarques, en ce que le mot de jouingleur s'estant par succession de temps tourné en batelage nous avons veu en nostre jeunesse les Jouingleurs se trouver à certain jour tous les ans en la ville de Chauny en Picardie, pour faire monstre de leur mestrier devant le monde, à qui mieux. Et ce que j'en dis icy n'est pas pour vilipender ces anciens Rimeurs, ainsi pour monstrer qu'il n'y a chose si belle qui ne s'aneantisse avec le temps."
We see here that in the time of Pasquier the poor minstrel was sunk into as low estimation in France, as he was then or afterwards in England: but by his apology for comparing the jouingleurs, who assembled to exercise their faculty, in his youth, to the ancient rimeurs, it is plain they exerted their skill in rhyme.
As for king Adenes, or Adenez (whose name in the first passage above is corruptly printed Adams), he is recorded in the Bibliothèque des Romans, Amst. 1734, 12mo. vol. i. p. 232, to have composed the two romances in verse above-mentioned, and a third intitled Le Roman de Bertin: all three being preserved in a MS. written about 1270. His Bon Duc Henry I conceive to have been Henry Duke of Brabant.
It is also submitted to the reader, whether the same application of the terms does not still more clearly appear in the commission issued in 1567, and printed in Evan Evans's Specimens of Welsh Poetry, 1764, 4to. p. v. for bestowing the silver harp on "the chief of that faculty." For after setting forth "that vagrant and idle persons, naming themselves minstrels, rythmers, and bards, had lately grown into such intolerable multitude within the Principality in North Wales, that not only gentlemen and others by their shameless disorders are oftentimes disquieted in their habitations, but also expert minstrels and musicians in tongue and cunynge thereby much discouraged, &c." and "hindred [of] livings and preferment," &c. it appoints a time and place, wherein all "persons that intend to maintain their living by name or colour of minstrels, rythmers, or bards within five shires of North Wales, shall appear to show their learnings accordingly," &c. And the commissioners are required to admit such as shall be found worthy, into and under the degrees heretofore in use, so that they may "use, exercise, and follow the sciences and faculties of their professions in such decent order as shall appertain to each of their degrees." And the rest are to return to some honest labour, &c. upon pain to be taken as sturdy and idle vagabonds, &c.
"Of the noumbre of all my lords servaunts."
"Item, Mynstrals in Houshold iii. viz. a taberet, a luyte, and a Rebecc." (The rebeck was a kind of fiddle with three strings).
"Sect. XLIV. 3.
"Rewardes to his lordship's Servaunts, &c.
"Item, My lord usith ande accustomith to gyf yerly, when his lordschipp is at home, to his minstrallis that be daily in his houshold, as his tabret, lute, ande Rebeke, upon New Yeresday in the mornynge when they do play at my lordis chamber dour for his lordschip and my lady, xxs. viz. xiiis. ivd. for my lord; and vis. viiid. for my lady, if sche be at my lords fyndynge, and not at hir owen; And for playing at my lordis sone and heire's chamber doure, the lord Percy, iis. And for playinge at the chamber doures of my lords yonger sonnes, my yonge masters, after viiid. the pece for every of them.—xxiiis. iiiid.
"Sect. XLIV. 2.
"Rewards to be geven to strangers, as Players, Mynstralls, or any other, &c.
"Furst, my lorde usith and accustomyth to gif to the kings jugler; ... when they custome to come unto hym yerly, vis. viiid.
"Item, my lorde usith and accustomyth to gif yerely to the kings or queenes Bearwarde, if they have one, when they custom to come unto hym yerly, vis. viiid.
"Item, my lorde usith and accustomyth to gyfe yerly to every erles mynstrellis, when they custome to come to hym yerely, iiis. iiiid. And if they come to my lorde seldome, ones in ii or iii yeres, than vis. viiid.
"Item, my lorde usith and accustomedeth to gife yerely to an erls mynstralls, if he be his speciall lorde, friende, or kynsman, if they come yerely to his lordschip.... And, if they come to my 'lord' seldome, ones in ii or iii years...."
* * * * *
"Item, my lorde usith and accustomyth to gyf yerely a dookes or erlis trumpetts, if they come vi together to his lordschipp, viz. if they come yerly, vis. viiid. And, if they come but in ii or iii yeres, than xs."
"Item, my lorde usith and accustometh to gife yerly, when his lordschip is at home, to gyf to the kyngs shawmes, when they com to my lorde yerely, xs."
* * * * *
I cannot conclude this note without observing that in this enumeration the family minstrels seem to have been musicians only, and yet both the earl's trumpets and the king's shawmes are evidently distinguished from the earl's minstrels, and the king's jugler. Now we find jugglers still coupled with pipers in Barklay's Egloges, circ. 1514. (Warton, ii. 254.)
On this head, it may be sufficient to add the following passage from the Fleta, lib. ii. c. 23: "Officium Elemosinarij est ... Equos relictos, Robas, Pecuniam, et alia ad Elemosinam largiter recipere et fidelitur distribuere; debet etiam Regem super Elemosinæ largitione crebris summonitionibus stimulare & præcipue diebus sanctorum, et rogare ne Robas suas quæ magni sunt precij histrionibus, blanditoribus, adulatoribus, accusatoribus, vel menestrallis, sed ad Elemosinæ suæ incrementum jubeat largiri." Et in c. 72: "ministralli, vel adulatoris."
Sir Lancelot, having been affronted by a threatening abusive letter which Mark, king of Cornwal, had sent to Queen Guenever, wherein he "spake shame by her and Sir Lancelot," is comforted by a knight, named Sir Dinadan, who tells him "I will make a lay for him, and when it is made, I shall make an harper to sing it before him. So anon he went and made it, and taught it an harper, that hyght Elyot; and when hee could it, hee taught it to many harpers. And so ... the harpers went straight unto Wales and Cornwaile to sing the lay ... which was the worst lay that ever harper sung with harpe, or with any other instrument. And [at a] great feast that king Marke made for joy of [a] victorie which hee had ... came Eliot the harper; ... and because he was a curious harper, men heard him sing the same lay that Sir Dinadan had made, the which spake the most vilanie by king Marke of his treason, that ever man heard. When the harper had sung his song to the end, king Marke was wonderous wroth with him, and said, Thou harper, how durst thou be so bold to sing this song before me? Sir, said Eliot, wit you wel I am a minstrell, and I must doe as I am commanded of these lords that I bear the armes of. And Sir king, wit you well that Sir Dinadan a knight of the Round Table made this song, and he made me to sing it before you. Thou saiest well, said king Marke, I charge thee that thou hie thee fast out of my sight. So the harper departed, &c." (Part ii. c. 113, ed. 1634. See also part iii. c. 5.)
In this sense it is used in an ordinance in the times of Cromwell (1656), wherein it is enacted that if any of the "persons commonly called fidlers or minstrels shall at any time be taken playing, fidling, and making music in any inn, ale-house, or tavern, or shall be taken proffering themselves, or desiring, or intreating any ... to hear them play or make music in any of the places aforesaid" they are to be "adjudged and declared to be rogues, vagabonds, and sturdy beggars."
This will also account why John of Gaunt's king of the minstrels at length came to be called, like le roy des violons in France (v. note [Bb2]), king of the fidlers. See the common ballad intitled The Pedigree, Education, and Marriage of Robin-hood with Clorinda, queen of Tutbury Feast: which, though prefixed to the modern collection on that subject,[1132] seems of much later date than most of the others; for the writer appears to be totally ignorant of all the old traditions concerning this celebrated outlaw, and has given him a very elegant bride instead of his old noted Lemman, "Maid Marian:" who together with his chaplain "Frier Tuck," were his favourite companions, and probably on that account figured in the old morice dance, as may be seen by the engraving in Mr Steevens's and Mr. Malone's edition of Shakespeare: by whom she is mentioned, 1 Hen. IV. act iii. sc. 3. (See also Warton, i. 245, ii. 237.) Whereas from this ballad's concluding with an exhortation to "pray for the king," and "that he may get children," &c. it is evidently posterior to the reign of Queen Elizabeth, and can scarce be older than the reign of K. Charles I. for K. James I. had no issue after his accession to the throne of England. It may even have been written since the Restoration, and only express the wishes of the nation for issue on the marriage of their favourite K. Charles II., on his marriage with the Infanta of Portugal. I think it is not found in the Pepys collection.
But the word appears to have had an earlier origin: for in the decline of the Roman empire, these trivial songs were called ballistea and saltatiunculæ. Ballisteum, Salmasius says, is properly ballistium, Gr. Βαλλιστεῖον. "ἀπὸ τοῦ Βαλλίζω ... Βαλλιστία saltatio ... Ballistium igitur est quod vulgo vocamus ballet; nam inde deducta vox nostra." Salmas. Not. in Hist. Ang. Scriptores, iv. p. 349.
In the life of the Emperor Aurelian by Fl. Vopiscus may be seen two of these ballistea, as sung by the boys skipping and dancing, on account of a great slaughter made by the emperor with his own hand in the Sarmatic war. The first is:
"Mille, mille, mille decollavimus, Unus homo mille decollavimus, Mille vivat, qui mille occidit. Tantum vini habet nemo Quantum fudit sanguinis."
The other was:
"Mille Sarmatas, mille Francos Semel & semel occidimus. Mille Persas quærimus."
Salmasius (in loc.) shows that the trivial poets of that time were wont to form their metre of trochaic tetrametre catalectics, divided into distichs. (Ibid. p. 350.) This becoming the metre of the hymns in the church service, to which the monks at length superadded rhyming terminations, was the origin of the common trochaic metre in the modern languages. This observation I owe to the learned author of Irish Antiquities, 4to.
1. A Crowne Garland of Goulden Roses gathered out of England's Royal Garden, &c., by Richard Johnson, 1612. [In the Bodleyan Library.] 2. The Golden Garland of Princely Delight. 3. The Garland of Good-will, by T. D., 1631. 4. The Royal Garland of Love and Delight, by T. D. 5. The Garland of Delight, &c., by Tho. Delone. 6. The Garland of Love and Mirth, by Thomas Lanfier. 7. Cupid's Garland set round with Guilded Roses. 8. The Garland of Withered Roses, by Martin Parker, 1656. 9. The Shepherd's Garland of Love, Loyalty, &c. 10. The Country Garland. 11. The Golden Garland of Mirth and Merriment. 12. The Lover's Garland. 13. Neptune's fair Garland. 14. England's fair Garland. 15. Robin Hood's Garland. 16. The Maiden's Garland. 17. A Loyal Garland of Mirth and Pastime. 18. A Royal Garland of New Songs. 19. The Jovial Garland, 8th edit. 1691, &c. &c. &c.
This sort of petty publications had anciently the name of Penny Merriments: as little religious tracts of the same size were called Penny Godlinesses. In the Pepysian Library are multitudes of both kinds.
That on the Continent the minstrel was understood not to be a meer musician but a singer of verses, hath been shown in notes [B], [C], [R], [Aa], &c.[1133] And that he was also a maker of them is evident from the passage in [C] p. 386, where the most noted romances are said to be of the composition of these men. And in [Bb] p. 417, we have the titles of some of which a minstrel was the author, who has himself left his name upon record.
The old English names for one of this profession were gleeman,[1134] jogeler,[1135] and latterly minstrel; not to mention harper, &c. In French he was called jongleur or jugleur, menestrel or menestrier.[1136] The writers of the middle ages expressed the character in Latin by the words joculator, mimus, histrio, ministrellus, &c. These terms, however modern critics may endeavour to distinguish and apply them to different classes, and although they may be sometimes mentioned as if they were distinct, I cannot find after a very strict research to have had any settled appropriate difference, but they appear to have been used indiscriminately by the oldest writers, especially in England, where the most general and comprehensive name was latterly minstrel, Lat. ministrellus, &c.
Thus joculator (Eng. jogeler, or juglar) is used as synonymous to citharista (note [K] p. 397), and to cantor (p. 397), and to minstrel (vid. infra, p. 425). We have also positive proof that the subject of his songs were gestes and romantic tales ([V2] note).
So mimus is used as synonymous to joculator ([M] p. 399). He was rewarded for his singing ([N] p. 400) and he both sang, harped, and dealt in that sport [T2] which is elsewhere called ars joculatoria ([M] ubi supra).
Again histrio is also proved to have been a singer ([Z] p. 412) and to have gained rewards by his verba joculatoria ([E] p. 388). And histriones is the term by which the Fr. word ministraulx is most frequently rendered into Latin ([W] p. 410, [Bb] p. 416, &c.)
The fact therefore is sufficiently established that this order of men were in England, as well as on the Continent, singers: so that it only becomes a dispute about words, whether here under the more general name of minstrels, they are described as having sung.
But in proof of this we have only to turn to so common a book as T. Warton's History of Eng. Poetry: where we shall find extracted from records the following instances:—
"Ex Registr. Priorat. S. Swithin Winton (sub anno 1374). In festo Alwyni Epi.... Et durante pietancia in Aula Conventus sex ministralli, cum quatuor citharisatoribus, faciebant ministralcias suas. Et post cenam, in magna camera arcuata dom. prioris cantabant idem Gestum in qua Camera suspendebatur, ut moris est, magnum dorsale Prioris habens picturas trium Regum Colein. Veniebant autem dicti joculatores a Castello domini Regis & ex familia Epi." (vol. ii. p. 174). Here the minstrels and harpers are expressly called joculatores, and as the harpers had musical instruments, the singing must have been by the minstrels, or by both conjointly.
For that minstrels sang we have undeniable proof in the following entry in the Accompt Roll of the Priory of Bicester, in Oxfordshire (under the year 1432). "Dat. Sex ministrallis de Bokyngham cantantibus in refectorio Martyrium Septem Domientium in festo Epiphanie, ivs." (vol. ii. p. 175).
In like manner our old English writers abound with passages wherein the minstrel is represented as singing. To mention only a few:
In the old romance of Emaré (No. 15, vol. iii. appendix), which from the obsoleteness of the style, the nakedness of the story, the barrenness of incidents, and some other particulars, I should judge to be next in point of time to Hornchild, we have:
"I have herd menstrelles syng yn sawe."—Stanza 27.
In a poem of Adam Davie (who flourished about 1312) we have this distich:—
"Merry it is in halle to here the harpe, The Minstrelles synge, the jogelours carpe."
T. Warton, i. p. 225.
So William of Nassyngton (circ. 1480) as quoted by Mr. Tyrwhitt (Chaucer, iv. 319):—
"I will make no vain carpinge Of dedes of armys ne of amours As dus Mynstrelles and Jestours [Gestours] That makys carpinge in many a place Of Octaviane and Isembrase, And of many other Jestes [Gestes] And namely whan they come to festes."[1137]
See also the description of the minstrel in note [Ee] from Morte Arthur, which appears to have been compiled about the time of this last writer. (See T. Warton, ii. 235).
By proving that minstrels were singers of the old romantic songs and gestes, &c. we have in effect proved them to have been the makers at least of some of them. For the names of their authors being not preserved, to whom can we so probably ascribe the composition of many of these old popular rhimes, as to the men who devoted all their time and talents to the recitation of them: especially as in the rhimes themselves minstrels are often represented as the makers or composers.
Thus in the oldest of all, Hornchild having assumed the character of a harper or jogeler, is in consequence said (fo. 92). to have
"made Rymenild [his mistress] a lay."
In the old romance of Emaré, we have this exhortation to minstrels, as composers, otherwise they could not have been at liberty to chuse their subjects (st. 2):—
"Menstrelles that walken fer and wyde Her and ther in every a syde In mony a dyverse londe Sholde ut her bygynnyng Speke of that ryghtwes kyng That made both see and sonde," &c.
And in the old song or geste of Guy and Colbronde (No. 4, vol. iii. appendix), the minstrel thus speaks of himself in the first person:
"When meate and drinke is great plentye Then lords and ladyes still wil be And sitt and solace lythe Then itt is time for mee to speake Of keene knights and kempes great Such carping for to kythe."
We have seen already that the Welsh bards, who were undoubtedly composers of the songs they chanted to the harp, could not be distinguished by our legislators from our own rimers, minstrels (vid. note [Bb3], p. 418).
And that the Provençal troubadour of our King Richard, who is called by M. Favine jongleur, and by M. Fauchet menestrel, is by the old English translator termed a rimer or minstrel, when he is mentioning the fact of his composing some verses (p. 359).
And lastly, that Holinshed, translating the prohibition of K. Henry V., forbidding any songs to be composed on his victory, or to be sung by harpers or others, roundly gives it, he would not permit "any ditties to be made and sung by minstrels on his glorious victory," &c. (vid. p. 370 and note [Bb4]).
Now that this order of men, at first called gleemen, then juglers, and afterwards more generally minstrels, existed here from the Conquest, who entertained their hearers with chanting to the harp or other instruments, songs and tales of chivalry, or as they were called, gests[1138] and romances in verse in the English language, is proved by the existence of the very compositions they so chanted, which are still preserved in great abundance, and exhibit a regular series from the time our language was almost Saxon, till after its improvements in the age of Chaucer, who enumerates many of them. And as the Norman French was in the time of this bard still the courtly language, it shows that the English was not thereby excluded from affording entertainment to our nobility, who are so often addressed therein by the title of lordings: and sometimes more positively "lords and ladies" (p. 427).
And tho' many of these were translated from the French, others are evidently of English origin[1139] which appear in their turns to have afforded versions into that language; a sufficient proof of that intercommunity between the French and English minstrels, which hath been mentioned in a preceding page. Even the abundance of such translations into English being all adapted for popular recitation, sufficiently establishes the fact that the English minstrels had a great demand for such compositions, which they were glad to supply, whether from their own native stores or from other languages.
We have seen above that the joculator, mimus, histrio, whether these characters were the same, or had any real difference, were all called minstrels; as was also the harper,[1140] when the term implied a singer, if not a composer of songs, &c. By degrees the name of minstrel was extended to vocal and instrumental musicians of every kind: and as in the establishment of royal and noble houses, the latter would necessarily be most numerous, so we are not to wonder that the band of music (entered under the general name of minstrels) should consist of instrumental performers chiefly, if not altogether; for as the composer or singer of heroic tales to the harp would necessarily be a solitary performer, we must not expect to find him in the band along with the trumpeters, fluters, &c.
However, as we sometimes find mention of "Minstrels of Music:"[1141] so at other times we hear of "expert minstrels and musicians of tongue and cunning" (B b. iii. p. 418)[1142], meaning doubtless by the former singers, and probably by the latter phrase composers of songs. Even "minstrels music" seems to be applied to the species of verse used by minstrels in the passage quoted below.[1143]
But although from the predominancy of instrumental music minstrelsy was at length chiefly to be understood in this sense, yet it was still applied to the poetry of minstrels so late as the time of Queen Elizabeth, as appears in the following extract from Puttenham's Arte of Eng. Poesie, p. 9, who, speaking of the first composers of Latin verses in ryme, says, "all that they wrote to the favour or prayse of princes, they did it in such manner of minstralsie; and thought themselves no small fooles, when they could make their verses go all in ryme."
I shall conclude this subject with the following description of minstrelcy given by John Lidgate at the beginning of the fifteenth century, as it shows what a variety of entertainments were then comprehended under this term, together with every kind of instrumental music then in use.
"Al maner Mynstralcye. That any man kan specifye. Ffor there were Rotys of Almayne, And eke of Arragon, and Spayne: Songes, Stampes, and eke Daunces; Divers plente of plesaunces: And many unkouth notys new Of swiche folke as lovid treue.[1144] And instrumentys that did excelle, Many moo than I kan telle. Harpys, Fythales, and eke Rotys Well according to her [i.e. their] notys, Lutys, Ribibles, and Geternes, More for estatys, than tavernes: Orgay[n]s, Cytolis, Monacordys.— There were Trumpes, and Trumpettes, Lowde Shall[m]ys, and Doucettes."
T. Warton, ii. 225, note [1144].
☛ The foregoing essay on the ancient minstrels has been very much enlarged and improved since the first edition, with respect to the Anglo-Saxon minstrels, in consequence of some objections proposed by the reverend and learned Mr. Pegge, which the reader may find in the second volume of the Archæologia, printed by the Antiquarian Society: but which that gentleman has since retracted in the most liberal and candid manner in the third volume of the Archæologia, No. xxxiv. p. 310.
And in consequence of similar objections respecting the English minstrels after the Conquest, the subsequent part hath been much enlarged, and additional light thrown upon the subject; which, to prevent cavil, hath been extended to minstrelsy in all its branches, as it was established in England, whether by natives or foreigners.
[Ritson made a searching examination of this essay, and dissented from many of the propositions contained in it. His essay "On the Ancient English Minstrels" will be found in his collection of Ancient Songs and Ballads.]