Note 294 — Chapter IV · THE MINSTREL REPERTORY
Reading edition
Chaucer, House of Fame, 1197:
‘Of alle maner of minstrales, And gestiours, that tellen tales, Bothe of weping and of game.’
Cf. Sir Thopas, 134; and Gower, Confessio Amantis, vii. 2424:
‘And every menstral hadde pleid, And every disour hadde seid.’
The evidence of Erasmus is late, of course, for the hey-day of minstrelsy, but in his time there were certainly English minstrels who merely recited, without musical accompaniment; cf. Ecclesiastes (Opera, v. col. 958) ‘Apud Anglos est simile genus hominum, quales apud Italos sunt circulatores, de quibus modo dictum est; qui irrumpunt in convivia magnatum, aut in cauponas vinarias; et argumentum aliquod, quod edidicerunt, recitant; puta mortem omnibus dominari, aut laudem matrimonii. Sed quoniam ea lingua monosyllabis fere constat, quemadmodum Germanica; atque illi studio vitant cantum, nobis latrare videntur verius quam loqui.’