Note 176 — Chapter III · THE MINSTREL LIFE
Reading edition
The Annales (†1330) of Johannes de Trokelowe (R. S.), 98, tell s. a. 1317, how when Edward II was keeping Pentecost in Westminster ‘quaedam mulier, ornatu histrionali redimita, equum bonum, histrionaliter phaleratum, ascensa, dictam aulam intravit, mensas more histrionum circuivit.’ She rode to the king, placed an insulting letter in his hands, and retired. The ‘ianitores et hostiarii,’ when blamed, declared ‘non esse moris regii, alicui menestrallo, palatium intrare volenti, in tanta solemnitate aditum denegare’; cf. Walsingham, Hist. Angl. (R. S.). i. 149.