Note K — APPENDIX I. AN ESSAY ON THE ANCIENT MINSTRELS IN ENGLAND.

[Comes from the pen of Geoffrey of Monmouth.] Geoffrey's own words are: "Cum ergo alterius modi aditum [Baldulphus] non haberet, rasit capillos suos et barbam,[1117] cultumque joculatoris cum cythara fecit. Deinde intra castra deambulans, modulis quos in lyra componebat, sese cytharistam exhibebat." Galf. Monum. Hist. 4to. 1508, lib. vii. c. 1.—That joculator signifies precisely a minstrel, appears not only from this passage, where it is used as a word of like import to citharista or harper (which was the old English word for minstrel), but also from another passage of the same author, where it is applied as equivalent to cantor. See lib. i. cap. 22, where, speaking of an ancient (perhaps fabulous) British king, he says: "Hic omnes cantores quos præcedens ætas habuerat & in modulis & in omnibus musicisinstrumentis excedebat; ita ut Deus Joculatorum videretur." Whatever credit is due to Geoffrey as a relater of facts, he is certainly as good authority as any for the signification of words.