Chapter XXIV: Appendix: I (4)

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.

[Gg] [_The term minstrel was not confined to a meer musician in_ _this country any more than on the Continent._] The discussion of the question, whether the term minstrel was applied in England to singers and composers of songs, &c. or confined to the performers on musical instruments, was properly reserved for this place, because much light hath already been thrown upon the subject in the preceding notes, to which it will be sufficient to refer the reader.

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_.]

FOOTNOTES:

[1103] The Anglo-Saxon and primary English name for this character was Gleeman (see below, note [I], sect. 1), so that wherever the term minstrel is in these pages applied to it before the Conquest, it must be understood to be only by anticipation. Another early name for this profession in English was jogeler, or jocular, Lat. _joculator_. (See p. 353, as also note [V2] and note [Q].) To prevent confusion, we have chiefly used the more general word minstrel, which (as the author of the _Observ. on the Statutes_ hath suggested to the editor) might have been originally derived from a diminutive of the Lat. _minister_, scil. _ministerellus_, _ministrellus_.

[1104] Ministers seems to be used for minstrels in the account of the Inthronization of Abp. Neville (An. 6, Edw. IV.). "Then all the Chaplyns must say grace, and the ministers do sing." Vid. _Lelandi_ _Collectanea_, by Hearne, vol. vi. p. 13.

[1105] It has, however, been suggested to the editor by the learned and ingenious author of _Irish Antiquities_, 4to. that the ancient _mimi_ among the Romans had their heads and beards shaven, as is shown by Salmasius in Notis ad _Hist. August. Scriptores VI. Paris_, 1622, fol. p. 385. So that this peculiarity had a classical origin, though it afterwards might make the minstrels sometimes pass for ecclesiastics, as appears from the instance given below. Dr. Burney tells us that _histriones_ and _mimi_ abounded in France in the time of Charlemagne (ii. 221), so that their profession was handed down in regular succession from the time of the Romans, and therewith some leading distinctions of their habit or appearance; yet with a change in their arts of pleasing, which latterly were most confined to singing and music.

[1106] Yet in St. Mary's church at Beverley, one of the columns hath this inscription: "Thys Pillar made the Mynstrylls;" having its capital decorated with figures of five men in short coats; one of whom holds an instrument resembling a lute. See Sir J. Hawkins' _Hist._ ii. 298.

[1107] Vid. infra, not. [Aa].

[1108] Vid. Not. [B] [K] [Q].

[1109] Vid. Note [N].

[1110] The minstrels in France were received with great magnificence in the fourteenth century. Froissart describing a Christmas entertainment given by the Comte de Foix, tells us, that "there were many mynstrels, as well of hys own, as of straungers, and eache of them dyd their devoyre in their faculties. The same day the Erle of Foix gave to haraulds and minstrelles the som of fyve hundred frankes: and gave to the Duke of Tourayns mynstreles gownes of clothe of gold, furred with ermyne, valued at two hundred frankes." B. iii. c. 31. Eng. Trans. Lond. 1525. (Mr. C.)

[1111] Et vid. Policraticon, cap. 8, &c.

[1112] Vid. Nicolson's _Eng. Hist. Lib._ &c.

[1113] Gleeman continued to be the name given to a minstrel both in England and Scotland almost as long as this order of men continued.

In De Brunne's metrical version of Bishop Grosthead's _Manuel de Peche_, A.D. 1303 (see Warton, i. 61), we have this,

"----Gode men, ye shall lere
When ye any _gleman_ here."

Fabyan (in his Chronicle, 1533, f. 32.) translating the passage from Geoffrey of Monmouth, quoted below in p. 397 note [K] renders _Deus Joculatorum_, by God of Gleemen. (Warton's _Hist. Eng. Poet._, Diss. i.) Fabyan died in 1592.

Dunbar, who lived in the same century, describing in one of his poems, intitled, _The Daunce_ what passed in the infernal regions "amangis the Feyndis," says:

"Na menstralls playit to thame, but dowt,
For gle-men thaire wer haldin out,
Be day and eke by nycht."

See Poems from Bannatyne's MS. Edinb. 1770, 12mo. p. 30. Maitland's MS. at Cambridge reads here _glewe-men_.

[1114] To gleek is used in Shakespeare for "to make sport, to jest," &c.

[1115] The preceding list of Anglo-Saxon words, so full and copious beyond any thing that ever yet appeared in print on this subject, was extracted from Mr. Lye's curious _Anglo-Saxon Lexicon_, in MS. but the arrangement here is the Editor's own. It had however received the sanction of Mr. Lye's approbation, and would doubtless have been received into his printed copy, had he lived to publish it himself.

It should also be observed, for the sake of future researches, that without the assistance of the old English interpretations given by Somner, in his _Anglo-Saxon Dictionary_, the Editor of the book never could have discovered that _glee_ signified minstrelsy, or _gligman_ a minstrel.

[1116] Neven, _i.e._ name.

[1117] Geoffrey of Monmouth is probably here describing the appearance of the _joculatores_ or minstrels, as it was in his own time. For they apparently derived this part of their dress, &c. from the _mimi_ of the ancient Romans, who had their heads and beards shaven (see above p. 383 note [1105]), as they likewise did the mimickry, and other arts of diverting, which they superadded to the composing and singing to the harp heroic songs, &c. which they inherited from their own progenitors the bards and scalds of the ancient Celtic and Gothic nations. The Longobardi had, like other northern people, brought these with them into Italy. For "in the year 774, when Charlemagne entered Italy and found his passage impeded, he was met by a minstrel of Lombardy, whose song promised him success and victory. _Contigit_ joculatorem _ex_ Longobardorum _gente ad Carolum venire, et_ cantiunculam a se compositam, _rotando in conspectu suorum, cantare_." Tom. ii. p. 2. _Chron. Monast._ Noval. lib. iii. cap. x. p. 717. (T. Warton's _Hist._ vol. ii. Emend. of vol. i. p. 113.)

[1118] _Natus_, 1030; _scripsit_, 1091; _obit_, 1109. Tanner.

[1119] _Obit, Anno_ 1142. Tanner.

[1120] See above, p. 394. Both Ingulph. and Will. of Malmesb. had been very conversant among the Normans; who appear not to have had such prejudices against the minstrels as the Anglo-Saxons had.

[1121] Thus +Leod+, the Saxon word for a poem, is properly a song, and its derivative _lied_ signifies a ballad to this day in the German tongue. And _cantare_ we have seen above is by Alfred himself rendered, +Be hearpan singan.+

[1122] The tabour or tabourin was a common instrument with the French minstrels, as it had also been with the Anglo-Saxon (_vid._ p. 393): thus in an ancient Fr. MS. in the Harl. collection (2253, 75), a minstrel is described as riding on horseback, and bearing his tabour.

"Entour son col porta son _tabour_,
Depeynt de Or, e riche Açour."

See also a passage in Menage's _Diction. Etym._ (v. _menestriers_,) where _tabours_ is used as synonymous to _menestriers_.

Another frequent instrument with them was the viele. This, I am told, is the name of an instrument at this day, which differs from a guitar, in that the player turns round a handle at the top of the instrument, and with his other hand, plays on some keys, that touch the chords, and produce the sound.

See Dr. Burney's account of the vielle, vol. ii. p. 263, who thinks it the same with the _rote_ or wheel. See p. 270 in the note.

"Il ot un Jougleor a Sens,
Qui navoit pas sovent robe entiere;
Sovent estoit sans sa _viele_."--_Fabliaux & Cont._ ii. 184, 5.

[1123] "Romanset Jutglar canta alt veux ... devant lo senyor Rey."--_Chron. d'Aragon_, apud Du Cange, iv. 771.

[1124] It ought to have been observed in its proper place in No. 31, vol. iii. appendix, that Amys and Amylion were no otherwise "Brothers" than as being fast friends: as was suggested by the learned Dr. Samuel Pegge, who was so obliging as to favour the essayist formerly with a curious transcript of this poem accompanied with valuable illustrations, &c: and that it was his opinion that both the fragment of the _Lady Bellesent_ mentioned in the same No. 31, and also the mutilated tale No. 37, were only imperfect copies of the above romance of _Amys and Amylion_, which contains the two lines quoted in No. 37.

[1125] Whenever the word _Romance_ occurs in these metrical narratives, it hath been thought to afford decisive proof of a translation from the _Romance_, or French language. Accordingly it is so urged by T. Warton (i. 146, note), from two passages in the pr. copy of _Sir Eglamour_, viz., Sign. E. i.

"In Romaunce as we rede."

Again in fol. ult.

"In Romaunce this cronycle is."

But in the Cotton MS. of the original the first passage is:

"As I herd a Clerke rede."

And the other thus:

"In Rome this Gest cronycled ys."

So that I believe references to "the Romaunce," or the like, were often meer expletive phrases inserted by the oral reciters; one of whom, I conceive, had altered or corrupted the old _Syr Eglamour_ in the manner that the copy was printed.

[1126] The harp (Lat. _cithara_) differed from the sautry, or psaltry (Lat. _psalterium_) in that the former was a stringed instrument, and the latter was mounted with wire: there was also some difference in the construction of the bellies, &c. See _Bartholomæus de proprietatibus_ _rerum_, as Englished by Trevisa and Batman, ed. 1584, in Sir J. Hawkins's _Hist._ vol ii. p. 285.

[1127] Jogeler (Lat. _joculator_) was a very ancient name for a minstrel. Of what nature the performance of the joculator was, we may learn from the register of St. Swithin's Priory at Winchester (T. Warton, i. 69): "Et cantabat Joculator quidam nomine Herebertus Canticum Colbrondi, necnon Gestum Emme regine a judicio ignis liberate, in aula Prioris." His instrument was sometimes the fythele, or fiddle, Lat. _fidicula_: which occurs in the Anglo-Saxon lexicon. On this subject we have a curious passage from a MS. of the _Lives of the Saints_ in metre, supposed to be earlier than the year 1200 (T. Warton's _Hist._ i. p. 17), viz.:

"Christofre him served longe
The kynge loved melodye much of fithele and of songe:
So that his Jogeler on a day beforen him gon to pleye faste,
And in a tyme he nemped in his song the devil at laste."

[1128] Le Compte.

[1129] fait.

[1130] _Sornette_, a gibe, a jest, or flouting

[1131] _Janglerie_, _babillage_, _raillerie_.

[1132] Of the 24 songs in what is now called _Robin Hood's Garland_, many are so modern as not to be found in Pepys's collection completed only in 1700. In the folio MS. are ancient fragments of the following, viz.: _Robin Hood and the Beggar_, _Robin Hood and the Butcher_, _Robin Hood and Fryer Tucke_, _Robin Hood and the Pindar_, _Robin Hood and Queen Catharine_, in two parts, _Little John and the four Beggars_, and _Robine Hoode his Death_. This last, which is very curious, has no resemblance to any that have been published; and the others are extremely different from the printed copies; but they unfortunately are in the beginning of the MS. where half of every leaf hath been torn away.

[1133] That the French minstrel was a singer and composer; &c. appears from many passages translated by M. Le Grand, in _Fabliaux ou Contes, &c._ see tom. i. p. 37, 47, ii. 306, 313, & _seqq._ iii. 266, &c. Yet this writer, like other French critics, endeavours to reduce to distinct and separate classes the men of this profession under the precise names of _fablier_, _conteur_, _menetrier_, _menestrel_, and _jongleur_ (tom. i. pref. p. xcviii.) whereas his own tales confute all these nice distinctions, or prove at least that the title of _menetrier_ or minstrel was applied to them all.

[1134] See p. 392.

[1135] See p. 409.

[1136] See p. 359, note [1051].

[1137] The fondness of the English (even the most illiterate) to hear tales and rimes, is much dwelt on by Rob. de Brunne, in 1330 (Warton, i. p. 59, 65, 75). All rimes were then sung to the harp: even _Troilus and Cresseide_, though almost as long as the _Æneid_, was to be "redde ... or else songe." l. ult. (Warton, i. 388).

[1138] Gests at length came to signify adventures or incidents in general. So in a narrative of the journey into Scotland of Queen Margaret and her attendants, on her marriage with K. James IV. in 1503 (in appendix to _Leland. Collect._ iv. p. 265), we are promised an account "of their gestys and manners during the said voyage."

[1139] The romance of Richard Coeur de Lion (No. 25) I should judge to be of English origin, from the names Wardrewe and Eldrede, &c. iii. appendix (sect. ii.). As is also _Eger and Grim_ (No. 12), wherein a knight is named Sir Gray Steel, and a lady who excells in surgery is called Loosepaine or Losepain; these surely are not derived from France.

[1140] See the romance of _Sir Isenbras_ (No. 14) sign. a.

"Harpers loved him in Hall
With other Minstrels all."

[1141] T. Warton, ii. 258, note (a) from Leland's _Collect._ vol. iv. append. edit. 1774, p. 267.

[1142] The curious author of the _Tour in Wales_, 1773, 4to. p. 435, I find to have read these words, "in toune and contrey;" which I can scarce imagine to have been applicable to Wales at that time. Nor can I agree with him in the representation he has given (p. 367) concerning the _Cymmorth_ or meeting, wherein the bards exerted their powers to excite their countrymen to war; as if it were by a deduction of the particulars he enumerates, and, as it should seem, in the way of harangue, &c. After which, "the band of minstrels ... struck up; the harp, the _crwth_, and the pipe filled the measures of enthusiasm, which the others had begun to inspire." Whereas it is well known that the bard chanted his enthusiastic effusions to the harp; and as for the term minstrel, it was not, I conceive, at all used by the Welsh; and in English it comprehended both the bard and the musician.

[1143] "Your ordinarie rimers use very much their measures in the odde, as nine and eleven, and the sharpe accent upon the last sillable, which therefore makes him go ill favouredly and like a minstrels musicke." (Puttenham's _Arte of Eng. Poesie_, 1589, p. 59.) This must mean his vocal music, otherwise it appears not applicable to the subject.

[1144] By this phrase I understand new tales or narrative rymes composed by the minstrels on the subject of true and faithful lovers, &c.