Note 323 — Chapter IV · THE MINSTREL REPERTORY

A ‘japer’ is often an idle talker, like a ‘jangler’ which is clearly sometimes confused with a ‘jongleur’; cf. Chaucer, Parson’s Tale, 89 ‘He is a japere and a gabber and no verray repentant that eft-soone dooth thing for which hym oghte repente.’ Langland uses the term in a more technical sense. Activa Vita in Piers Plowman, xvi. 207, is no minstrel, because ‘Ich can not ... japen ne jogelen.’ No doubt a ‘jape’ would include a fabliau. It is equivalent etymologically to ‘gab,’ and Bédier, 33, points out that the jougleurs use gabet, as well as bourde, trufe, and risée for a fabliau.—The use of ‘pleye’ as ‘jest’ may be illustrated by Chaucer, Pardoner’s Tale (C. T. 12712) ‘My wit is greet, though that I bourde and pleye.’—The ‘japis’ of the Tretise are probably the ‘knakkes’ of the passage on ‘japeris’ in Parson’s Tale, 651 ‘right so conforten the vileyns wordes and knakkes of japeris hem that travaillen in the service of the devel.’