Chapter XVII: Masks and Misrule (2)

[45] _D. C. A._ s. vv. _Actor_, _Theatre_; Bingham, vi. 212, 373, 439; Alt, 310; Prynne, 556. Some, however, of the pronouncements of the fathers came to have equal force with the decrees of councils in canon law. The _Code_ of Gratian (†1139), besides 3 _Conc. Carth._ c. 35 ‘scenicis atque ystrionibus, ceterisque huiusmodi personis, vel apostaticis conversis, vel reversis ad Deum, gratia vel reconciliatio non negetur’ (_C. I. Can._ iii. 2. 96) and 7 _Conc. Carth._ (419) c. 2 (Mansi, iv. 437) ‘omnes etiam infamiae maculis aspersi, id est histriones ... ab accusatione prohibentur’ (_C. I. Can._ ii. 4. 1. 1), includes two patristic citations. One is Cyprian, _Ep._ lxi. (_P. L._ iv. 362), which is ‘de ystrione et mago illo, qui apud vos constitutus adhuc in suae artis dedecore perseverat,’ and forbids ‘sacra communio cum ceteris Christianis dari’ (_C. I. Can._ iii. 2. 95); the other Augustine, _Tract. C. ad c. 16 Iohannis_ (_P. L._ xxxv. 1891) ‘donare res suas histrionibus vitium est immane, non virtus’ (_C. I. Can._ i. 86. 7). Gratian adds Isidorus Hispalensis, _de Eccl. Off._ ii. 2 (_P. L._ lxxxiii. 778) ‘his igitur lege Patrum cavetur, ut a vulgari vita seclusi a mundi voluptatibus sese abstineant; non spectaculis, non pompis intersint’ (_C. I. Can._ i. 23. 3).

[46] Sathas, 7; Krumbacher, 644. Anastasius Sinaita (bp. of Antioch, 564) in his tract, _Adversus Monophysitas ac Monothelitas_ (Mai, _Coll. Nov. Script. Vet._ vii. 202), speaks of the συγγράμματα of the Arians as θυμελικὰς βίβλους, and calls the Arian Eunomius πρωτοστάτης τῆς Ἀρείου θυμελικῆς ὀρχήστρας. I doubt if these phrases should be taken too literally; possibly they are not more than a criticism of the buffoonery and levity which the fragments of the Θάλεια display. Krumbacher mentions an orthodox Ἀντιθάλεια of which no more seems to be known.

[47] Alt, 310; Bingham, vi. 273; Schaff, v. 106, 125; Haigh, 460; Dill, 56; P. Allard, _Julien l’Apostat_. i. 230. The _Codex Theodosianus_, drawn up and accepted for both empires †435, contains imperial edicts from the time of Constantine onwards.

[48] _Spectacula_ are forbidden on Sunday, unless it is the emperor’s birthday, by _C. Th._ xv. 5. 2 (386), which also forbids judges to rise for them, except on special occasions, and _C. Th._ ii. 8. 23 (399). The exception is removed by _C. Th._ ii. 8. 25 (409) and _C. Iust._ iii. 12. 9 (469). The Christian feasts and fasts, Christmas, Epiphany, the first week in Lent, Passion and Easter weeks are added by _C. Th._ ii. 8. 23 (400) and _C. Th._ xv. 5. 5 (425). According to some MSS. this was done by _C. Th._ ii. 8. 19 (389), but the events of 399 recorded below seem to show that 400 is the right date.

[49] _C. Th._ xv. 7. 1, 2 (371); xv. 7. 4 (380); xv. 7. 9 (381). Historians have seen in some of these rescripts which are dated from Milan the influence of St. Ambrose. _C. Th._ xv. 7. 13 (414) seems to withdraw the concessions, in the interest of the public _voluptates_, but this may have been only a temporary or local measure.

[50] _C. Th._ xv. 7. 11 (393); xv. 7. 12 (394); xv. 13. 1 (396).

[51] _C. Th._ iv. 6. 3 (336) ‘scenicae ... quarum venenis inficiuntur animi perditorum’; xv. 7. 8 (381), of the relapsing _scenica_, ‘permaneat donec anus ridicula, senectute deformis, nec tunc quidem absolutione potiatur, cum aliud quam casta esse non possit.’

[52] _C. Th._ xv. 7. 12 (394).

[53] _C. Th._ xv. 6. 2 (399) is explicit, ‘ludicras artes concedimus agitari, ne ex nimia harum restrictione tristitia generetur.’

[54] _C. Th._ vi. 4. 2 (327); vi. 4. 4 (339); vi. 4. 29 (396); vi. 4. 32 (397). It appears from the decree of 396 that the ‘theatralis dispensio’ of the praetors had been diverted to the building of an aqueduct; they are now to give ‘scenicas voluptates’ again. Symmachus, _Ep._ vi. 42, describes his difficulties in getting _scenici_ for his son’s praetorship, which cost him £80,000. They were lost at sea; cf. Dill, 151.

[55] See Appendix A.

[56] _C. Th._ xv. 7. 5 (380); xv. 7. 10 (385); _C. Iust._ xi. 41. 5 (409).

[57] _C. Th._ xv. 7. 8 (381); xiv. 7. 3 (412).

[58] _C. Th._ xvi. 10. 3 (346). But _C. Th._ xvi. 10. 17 (399) forbids ‘voluptates’ to be connected with sacrifice or superstition.

[59] A. Puech, _St. Jean Chrysostome et les Mœurs de son Temps_ (1891), 266, has an interesting chapter on the _spectacula_. He refers to _Hom. in Matt._ 6, 7, 37, 48; _Hom. in Ioann._ 18; _Hom. in Ep._ 1 _ad Thess._ 5; _Hom. de Dav. et Saul_, 3; _Hom. in Prisc. et Aquil._ 1, &c. Most of these works belong to the Antioch period; cf. also Allard, i. 229. In _de Sacerdotio_ 1, Chrysostom, like Augustine, records his own delight in the stage as a young man.

[60] _P. G._ lvi. 263.

[61] _C. I. C. Nov. Iust._ cv. 1 (536) ‘faciet processum qui ad theatrum ducit, quem pornas vocant, ubi in scena ridiculorum est locus tragoedis et thymelicis choris’; cf. Choricius, _Apology for Mimes_, ed. Ch. Graux, in _R. d. Philologie_, i. 209; Krumbacher, 646.

[62] _C. Th._ iv. 6. 3 (336); _C. Iust._ v. 5. 7 (454).

[63] _C. Iust._ v. 4. 23 (520-3) allows the marriage on condition of an imperial rescript and a _dotale instrumentum_. _C. Iust._ i. 4. 33 (534) waives the rescript. It also imposes penalties on _fideiussores_ or sureties of actresses who hinder them from conversion and quitting the stage. For similar legislation cf. _Nov._ li; lxxxix. 15; cxvii. 4. By _Nov._ cxvii. 8. 6 a man is permitted to turn his wife out of doors and afterwards repudiate her, if she goes to theatre, circus, or amphitheatre without his knowledge or against his will.

[64] Gibbon, iv. 212, 516 (with Prof. Bury’s additions); C. E. Mallet in _E. H. Review_, ii. 1; A. Debidour, _L’Impératrice Théodora_, 59. Neither Prof. Bury nor the editor of the _C. I. C._ accepts M. Debidour’s dating of _C. Iust._ v. 4. 23 under Justinian in 534.

[65] Mansi, xi. 943. Canon 3 excludes one who has married a σκηνική from orders. C. 24 forbids priests and monks θυμελικῶν παιγνίων ἀνέχεσθαι, and confirms a decree of the council of Laodicea (cf. p. 24, n. 4) obliging them, if present at a wedding, to leave the room before τὰ παίγνια are introduced. C. 51 condemns, both for clergy and laity, τοὺς λεγομένους μίμους καὶ τὰ τούτων θέατρα and τὰς ἐπὶ σκηνῶν ὀρχήσεις. For clergy the penalty is degradation, for laity excommunication. C. 61 provides a six-years’ excommunication for bear-leaders and such. C. 62 deals with pagan religious festivals of a semi-theatrical character; cf. ch. xiv. C. 66 forbids the circus or any δημώδης θέα in Easter week.

[66] Sathas, _passim_; Krumbacher, 644.

[67] Jerome, _in Ezechiel_ (410-15) ‘a. spectaculis removeamus oculos arenae circi theatri’ (_P. L._ xxv. 189); Augustine, _de Fide et Symbolo_ (393) ‘in theatris labes morum, discere turpia, audire inhonesta, videre perniciosa’ (_P. L._ xl. 639); cf. the sermon quoted in Appendix N, N^o. x.

[68] Ausonius, _Idyl._ iv. 46; Sidonius, _Ep._ iv. 12 ‘legebamus, pariter laudabamus, iocabamurque.’

[69] Augustine, _Conf._ iii. 2, 3 (_P. L._ xxxii. 683). The whim took him once ‘theatrici carminis certamen inire.’

[70] Aug. _de Civ. Dei_, ii. 8 (_P. L._ xli. 53) ‘et haec sunt scenicorum tolerabiliora ludorum, comoediae scilicet et tragoediae; hoc est, tabulae poetarum agendae in spectaculis, multa rerum turpitudine sed nulla saltem sicut alia multa verborum obscoenitate compositae; quas etiam inter studia quae honesta ac liberalia vocantur pueri legere et discere coguntur a senibus.’

[71] Jerome, _Ep._ 21 (_alii_ 146) _ad Damasum_, written 383 (_P. L._ xxii. 386) ‘at nunc etiam sacerdotes Dei, omissis evangeliis et prophetis, videmus comoedias legere, amatoria bucolicorum versuum verba canere, tenere Vergilium, et id quod in pueris necessitatis est, crimen in se facere voluptatis’ (_C. I. Can._ i. 37. 2).

[72] Orosius, _Hist. adv. Paganos_ (417), iv. 21. 5 ‘theatra incusanda, non tempora.’ On the character of the treatise of Orosius cf. Dill, 312; Gibbon, iii. 490. Mr. Dill shows in the third book of his admirable work that bad government and bad finance had much more to do with the breakdown of the Empire than the bad morals of the stage.

[73] Dill, 58, 137; Hodgkin, i. 930. Salvian was a priest of Marseilles, and wrote between 439 and 451.

[74] Salvian, vi. 31 ‘quae est enim in baptismo salutari Christianorum prima confessio? quae scilicet nisi ut renuntiare se diabolo ac pompis eius et spectaculis atque operibus protestentur?’ The natural interpretation of this is that the word ‘spectaculis’ actually occurred in the _formula abrenuntiationis_. Was this so? It was not when Tertullian wrote (†200). He gives the _formula_ as ‘renunciare diabolo et pompae et angelis eius,’ and goes on to argue that visiting ‘spectacula’ amounts to ‘idolatria,’ or worship of the ‘diabolus’ (_de Spectaculis_, c. 4). Nor is the word used in any of the numerous versions of the _formula_ given by Schaff, iii. 248; Duchesne, 293; Martene, i. 44; Martin von Bracara, _de Caeremoniis_ (ed. Caspari), c. 15.

[75] Salvian, vi. 69, 87.

[76] Augustine, _de Cons. Evang._ i. 33 (_P. L._ xxxiv. 1068) ‘per omnes pene civitates cadunt theatra ... cadunt et fora vel moenia, in quibus demonia colebantur. Unde enim cadunt, nisi inopia rerum, quarum lascivo et sacrilego usu constructa sunt.’

[77] This point was made also by Chrysostom in the Easter-day sermon, already cited on p. 15.

[78] Salvian, vi. 39, 42, 49.

[79] Sidonius, _Ep._ i. 10. 2 ‘vereor autem ne famem Populi Romani theatralis caveae fragor insonet et infortunio meo publica deputetur esuries’; cf. _Ep._ i. 5. 10.

[80] Sidonius, _Carm._ xxiii. 263 (†460); cf. _Ep._ ix. 13. 5.

[81] Cassiodorus, _Variae_, iii. 51 ‘quantum histrionibus rara constantia honestumque votum, tanto pretiosior est, cum in eis probabilis monstratur affectus’; this is illustrated by the conduct of one ‘Thomas Auriga’; _Var._ ii. 8 ‘Sabinus auriga ... quamvis histrio honesta nos supplicatione permovit’; _Var._ vi. 4 ‘tanta enim est vis gloriosae veritatis, ut etiam in rebus scenicis aequitas desideretur.’

[82] Schaff, v. 122; Dill, 55. The rescript of Constantine is _C. Th._ xv. 12. 1 ‘cruenta spectacula in otio civili et domestica quiete non placent; quapropter omnino gladiatores esse prohibemus (325).’

[83] Cassiodorus, _Var._ iv. 51. Of the mime is said ‘mimus etiam, qui nunc modo derisui habetur, tanta Philistionis cautela repertus est ut eius actus poneretur in litteris’ (cf. p. 4, n. 1); of the pantomime, ‘orchestrarum loquacissimae manus, linguosi digiti, silentium clamosum, expositio tacita.’

[84] Cassiodorus, _Var._ i. 20, 31-3.

[85] Cf. Appendix A.

[86] Cassiodorus, _Var._ ix. 21 ‘opes nostras scaenicis pro populi oblectatione largimur.’

[87] Du Méril, _Or. Lat._ 13, quotes from Mariana, _Hist. of Spain_, vi. 3, the statement that Sisebut, king of the Visigoths, deposed Eusebius, bishop of Barcelona, in 618, ‘quod in theatro quaedam agi concessisset quae ex vana deorum superstitione traducta aures Christianae abhorrere videantur.’ Sisebuthus, _Ep._ vi (_P. L._ lxxx. 370), conveys his decision to the bishop. He says, ‘obiectum hoc, quod de ludis theatriis taurorum, scilicet, ministerio sis adeptus nulli videtur incertum; quis non videat quod etiam videre poeniteat.’ But I cannot find in Sisebut or in Mariana, who writes Spanish, the words quoted by Du Méril. For ‘taurorum’ one MS. has ‘phanorum.’ I suspect the former is right. A bull-fight sounds so Spanish, and such festivals of heathen origin as the _Kalends_ (cf. ch. xi) were not held in theatres. A. Gassier, _Le Théâtre espagnol_ (1898), 14, thinks such a festival is intended; if so, ‘theatriis’ probably means not literally, ‘in a theatre,’ but merely ‘theatrical’; cf. the ‘ludi theatrales’ of the Feast of Fools (ch. xiii). In any case there is no question of ‘scenici.’

[88] Isidorus Hispalensis, _Etymologiarum_ (600-636), xviii. 42 (_P. L._ lxxxii. 658).

[89] Macrobius, _Saturnalia_, ii. 1. 5, 9.

[90] Chrysostom, _Hom. in Ep. ad Col. cap._ 1, _Hom._ i. cc. 5, 6 (_P. G._ lxii. 306).

[91] Jerome, _Ep._ 117 (_P. L._ xxii. 957) ‘difficile inter epulas servatur pudicitia’; cf. Dill, 110.

[92] _Conc. of Laodicea_ (†343-81) can. 54 (Mansi, ii. 574) ὅτι οὐ δεῖ ἱερατικοὺς ἢ κληρικούς τινας θεωρίας θεωρεῖν ἐν γάμοις ἢ δείπνοις, ἀλλὰ πρὸ τοῦ εἰσέρχεσθαι τοὺς θυμελικοὺς ἐγείρεσθαι αὐτοὺς καὶ ἀναχωρεῖν. _Conc. of Braga_ (†572) c. 60 (Mansi, v. 912), _Conc. of Aix-la-Chapelle_ (816) c. 83 (Mansi, vii. 1361); and finally, _C. I. Can._ iii. 5. 37 ‘non oportet ministros altaris vel quoslibet clericos spectaculis aliquibus, quae aut in nuptiis aut scenis exhibentur, interesse, sed ante, quam thymelici ingrediantur, surgere eos de convivio et abire.’ It is noteworthy that ‘scenis’ here translates δείπνοις.

[93] Muratori _Antiq. Ital. Med. Aev._ ii. 847, traces the _pantomimi_ in the Italian _mattaccini_.

[94] Cf. Appendix B.

[95] Ten Brink, i. 11; P. Meyer in _Romania_ (1876), 260; G. Paris, 36; Gautier, ii. 6; Kögel, i. 2. 191.

[96] Tacitus, _Ann._ i. 65; iv. 47; _Hist._ ii. 22; iv. 18; v. 15; _Germ._ 3; Ammianus Marcellinus, xvi. 12. 43; xxxi. 7. 11; Vegetius, _de re militari_, iii. 18; cf. Kögel, i. 1. 12, 58, 111; Müllenhoff, _Germania_, ch. 3. The _barditus_ or _barritus_ of the Germans, whatever the name exactly means, seems to have been articulate, and not a mere noise.

[97] Tacitus, _Germ._ 2 ‘quod unum apud illos memoriae et annalium genus est.’

[98] Jordanis, _de orig. Getarum_ (in _M. G. H._), c. 4 ‘in priscis eorum carminibus pene storico ritu in commune recolitur.’

[99] Tacitus, _Ann._ ii. 88 ‘canitur adhuc barbaras apud gentes.’

[100] Cassiodorus, _Var._ viii. 9.

[101] Kögel, i. 1. 122, quoting Paulus Diaconus, i. 27.

[102] Kögel, i. 1. 122; i. 2. 220; Gautier, i. 72; G. Paris, _Hist. Poét. de Charlemagne_, 50; cf. _Poeta Saxo_ (†890) in _M. G. H. Scriptores_, i. 268 ‘est quoque iam notum; vulgaria carmina magnis laudibus eius avos et proavos celebrant. Pippinos, Karolos, Hludiwicos et Theodricos, et Carlomannos Hlothariosque canunt.’

[103] Gautier, i. 37; Gröber, ii. 1. 447. The shades of opinion on the exact relation of the _cantilenae_ to the _chansons de gestes_ are numerous.

[104] _Vita S. Willelmi_ (_Acta SS. Maii_, vi. 801) ‘qui chori iuvenum, qui conventus populorum, praecipue militum ac nobilium virorum, quae vigiliae sanctorum dulce non resonant, et modulatis vocibus decantant qualis et quantus fuerit’; cf. Gautier, i. 66. The merest fragments of such folk-song heroic _cantilenae_ are left. A German one, the Ludwigslied, on the battle of Saucourt (881) is in Müllenhoff und Scherer, _Denkmäler deutscher Poesie und Prosa_ (1892), N^o. xi; cf. Kögel, i. 2. 86; Gautier, i. 62. And a few lines of a (probably) French one on an event in the reign of Clotaire (†620) are translated into Latin in Helgarius (†853-76), _Vita S. Faronis_ (_Historiens de France_, iii. 505; Mabillon, _Acta SS. Benedictinorum_, ii. 610). Helgarius calls the song a ‘carmen rusticum’ and says ‘ex qua victoria carmen publicum iuxta rusticitatem per omnium pene volitabat ora ita canentium, feminaeque choros inde plaudendo componebant.’ The _Vita S. Faronis_ in _Acta SS._ lx. 612, which is possibly an abridgement of Helgarius, says ‘carmine rustico ... suavi cantilena decantabatur’; cf. Gautier, i. 47; Gröber, ii. 1. 446.

[105] Ten Brink, i. 148, quotes from _Hist. Ely_, ii. 27 (†1166), a fragment of a song on Canute, ‘quae usque hodie in choris publice cantantur,’ and mentions another instance from Wm. of Malmesbury. Cf. _de Gestis Herewardi Saxonis_ (Michel, _Chron. Anglo-Norm._ ii. 6) ‘mulieres et puellae de eo in choris canebant,’ and for Scotland the song on Bannockburn (1314) which, says Fabyan, _Chronicle_ (ed. Ellis), 420, ‘was after many days sungyn in dances, in carolles of ye maydens and mynstrellys of Scotlande’; cf. also Gummere, _B. P._ 265.

[106] It is important to recognize that the _cantilenae_ of the folk and those of the professional singers existed side by side. Both are, I think, implied in the account of the St. William songs quoted above: the folk sung them in choruses and on wake-days, the professional singers in the assemblies of warriors. At any rate, in the next (twelfth) cent. Ordericus Vitalis, vi. 3 (ed. _Soc. de l’Hist. de France_, iii. 5), says of the same Willelmus, ‘Vulgo canitur a ioculatoribus de illo cantilena.’ M. Gautier (ii. 6) will not admit the filiation of the _ioculatores_ to the _scôpas_, and therefore he is led to suppose (i. 78) that the _cantilenae_ and _vulgaria carmina_ were all folk-song up to the end of the tenth cent. and that then the _ioculatores_ got hold of them and lengthened them into _chansons de gestes_. But, as we shall see (p. 34), the Franks certainly had their professional singers as early as Clovis, and these cannot well have sung anything but heroic lays. Therefore the _cantilenae_ and _vulgaria carmina_ of the Merovingian and Carolingian periods may have been either folk-song, or _scôp_-song, or, more probably, both (Gröber, ii. 1. 449). _Cantilena_ really means no more than ‘chant’ of any kind; it includes ecclesiastical chant. So Alcuin uses it (e.g. _Ep._ civ. in Dümmler, ii. 169); and what Gautier, ii. 65, prints as a folk-song _cantilena_ of S. Eulalia is treated by Gröber, ii. 1. 442, as a sequence.

[107] Gummere, _G. O._ 260.

[108] Grein, i. 1.

[109] Grein, i. 278.

[110] _Beowulf_, 89, 499, 869, 1064, 1162, 2106, 2259, 2449.

[111] William of Malmesbury, _de gestis Pontif. Angl._ (R. S.), 336 ‘quasi artem cantitandi professum, ... sensim inter ludicra verbis scripturarum insertis.’

[112] Grein, ii. 294.

[113] Grein, i. 284. A similar poem is _The Sea-farer_ (Grein, i. 290).

[114] Cynewulf, _Elene_, 1259 (Grein, ii. 135); _Riddle_ lxxxix (Grein, iii. 1. 183). But A. S. Cook, _The Christ_ (1900), lv, lxxxiii, thinks that Cynewulf was a thane, and denies him the _Riddle_.

[115] Cynewulf, _Christ_ (ed. Gollancz), 668; _Gifts of Men_ (Grein, iii. 1. 140); _Fates of Men_ (Grein, iii. 1. 148).

[116] William of Malmesbury, _Gesta Reg. Angl._ (R. S.), i. 126, 143.

[117] Asserius, _de rebus gestis Alfredi_ (Petrie-Sharp, _Mon. Hist. Brit._ i. 473). Alfred was slow to learn as a boy, but loved ‘Saxonica poemata,’ and remembered them. His first book was a ‘Saxonicum poematicae artis librum,’ and ‘Saxonicos libros recitare et maxime carmina Saxonica memoriter discere non desinebat.’

[118] Haddan-Stubbs, iii. 133 ‘Statuimus atque decernimus ut episcopi vel quicunque ecclesiastici ordinis religiosam vitam professi sunt ... nec citharoedas habeant, vel quaecunque symphoniaca, nec quoscunque iocos vel ludos ante se permittant, quia omnia haec disciplina sanctae ecclesiae sacerdotes fideles suos habere non sinit.’

[119] _Ibid._ iii. 369 (can. 20) ‘ut monasteria ... non sint ludicrarum artium receptacula, hoc est, poetarum, citharistarum, musicorum, scurrorum.’ Can. 12 shows a fear of the influence of the _scôp_ on ritual: ‘ut presbyteri saecularium poetarum modo in ecclesia non garriant, ne tragico sono sacrorum verborum compositionem et distinctionem corrumpant vel confundant.’ Cf. the twelfth-century account of church singers who used ‘histrionicis quibusdam gestis,’ quoted by Jusserand, _E. L._ 455, from the _Speculum Caritatis_ of Abbot Ælred of Rievaulx.

[120] Bede to Egbert in 734 (Haddan-Stubbs, iii. 315) ‘de quibusdam episcopis fama vulgatum est ... quod ipsi ... secum habeant ... illos qui risui, iocis, fabulis ... subigantur.’

[121] Gutberchtus to Lullus in 764 (Dümmler, _Epist. Mer. et Car._ in _M. G. H._ i. 406).

[122] Alcuin, _Ep._ 124 (797) ‘melius est pauperes edere de mensa tua quam istriones vel luxuriosos quoslibet ... verba Dei legantur in sacerdotali convivio. ibi decet lectorem audiri, non citharistam; sermones patrum, non carmina gentium. quid Hinieldus cum Christo? angusta est domus; utrosque tenere non poterit ... voces legentium audire in domibus tuis, non ridentium turbam in plateis.’ The allusion to a lost epic cycle of Hinieldus (Ingeld) is highly interesting; on it cf. Haupt in _Z. f. d. A._ xv. 314.

[123] The _Vitae of Dunstan_ (Stubbs, _Memorials of Dunstan_, R. S. 11, 20, 80, 257) record that he himself learnt the ‘ars citharizandi.’ One day he hung ‘citharam suam quam lingua paterna hearpam vocamus’ on the wall, and it discoursed an anthem by itself. Anthems, doubtless, were his mature recreation, but as a young clerk he was accused ‘non saluti animae profutura sed avitae gentilitatis vanissima didicisse carmina, et historiarum frivovolas colere incantationum naenias.’

[124] _Anglo-Saxon Canons of Edgar_ (906), can. 58 (Wilkins, i. 228), _sic Latine_, ‘docemus artem, ut nullus sacerdos sit cerevisarius, nec aliquo modo scurram agat secum ipso, vel aliis’; _Oratio Edgari Regis_ (969) _pro monachatu propaganda_ (Wilkins, i. 246) ‘ut iam domus clericorum putentur ... conciliabulum histrionum ... mimi cantant et saltant.’

[125] Strutt, 172 and _passim_.

[126] Wright-Wülker, 150, 311, 539. A synonym for _scôp_ is _leodwyrhta_. On 188 _lyricus_ is glossed _scôp_. But the distinctive use of _scôp_ is not in all cases maintained, e.g. _tragicus vel comicus unwurð scôp_ (188), _comicus scôp_ (283), _comicus id est qui comedia scribit, cantator vel artifex canticorum seculorum, idem satyricus, i. scôp, ioculator, poeta_ (206). Other western peoples in contact with Latin civilization came to make the same classification of poet and buffoon. Wackernagel, i. 51, says that the German _liuderi_ or poet is opposed to the _skirnun_ or _tûmarâ_, _scurra_ or _mimus_. The buffoon is looked askance at by the dignified Scandinavian men of letters (Saxo Grammaticus, _Hist. Danica_, transl. Elton, vi. 186); and Keltic bardism stands equally aloof from the _clerwr_ (cf. p. 76). Of course Kelts and Teutons might conceivably have developed their buffoons for themselves, independently of Roman influence, but so far as the Germans go, Tacitus, _Germ._ 24, knows no _spectaculum_ but the _sweorda-gelác_ or sword-dance (ch. ix).

[127] Brooke, i. 12; Merbot, 11. The _gleómon_, according to Merbot, became mixed with the _plegman_ or _mimus_. In the glosses _pleȝa_ = _ludus_ in the widest sense, including athletics; and _pleȝ-stowe_ = _amphitheatrum_ (Wright-Wülker, 342). A synonym of _pleȝa_ is the etymological equivalent of _ludus_, _lâc_ (cf. ch. viii). _Spil_ is not A. S., _spilian_, a loan-word (Kögel, i. 1. 11).

[128] _Scôp_, the O. H. G. _scopf_ or _scof_ is the ‘shaper,’ ‘maker,’ from _skapan_, ‘to make’; it is only a West-German word, and is distinct from _scopf_, a ‘scoff,’ ‘mock,’ and also from O. N. _skald_. This is not West-German, but both ‘sing’ and ‘say’ are from the same root _seg_ (Kögel, i. 1. 140). _Gleómon_ is from _gleo_, _gleow_, _gliw_, _glig_ = ‘glee,’ ‘mirth.’ The harp, in _Beowulf_ and elsewhere, is the ‘glee-beam,’ ‘glee-wood.’

[129] Jordanis, _de hist. Get._ (in _M. G. H._), c. 5 ‘ante quos etiam cantu maiorum facta modulationibus citharisque cantabant.’

[130] Cassiodorus, _Variae_, ii. 40, 41. Kögel, i. 1. 130, thinks that the professional singer, as distinct from the _chorus_, first became known to the Franks on this occasion. But one may rather infer from Theodoric’s letter to Boethius that the _citharoedus_ was to replace barbaric by civilized music.

[131] Priscus, _Hist. Goth._ (ed. Bonn) 205 ἐπιγενομένης δὲ ἑσπέρας δ̂ᾷδες ἀνήφθησαν, δύο δὲ ἀντικρὺ τοῦ Ἀττήλα παρελθόντες βάρβαροι ᾄσματα πεποιημένα ἔλεγον, νίκας αὐτοῦ καὶ τὰς κατὰ πόλεμον ᾄδοντες ἀρετάς ἐς οὓς οἱ τῆς εὐωχίας ἀπέβλεπον, καὶ οἱ μὲν ἤδοντο τοῖς ποιήμασιν, οἱ δὲ τῶν πολέμων ἀναμιμνησκόμενοι διηγείροντο τοῖς φρονήμασιν, ἄλλοι δέ ἐχώρουν ἐς δάκρυα, ὧν ὑπὸ τοῦ χρόνου ἠσθένει τὸ σῶμα καὶ ἡσυχάζειν ὁ θυμὸς ἠναγκάζετο. μετὰ δὲ τὰ ἄσματα Σκύθης τις παρελθὼν φρενοβλαβής, ... ἐς γέλωτα πάντας παρεσκεύασε παρελθεῖν. μεθ’ ὃν ... Ζέρκων ὁ Μαυρουσιος ... πάντας ... ἐς ἄσβεστον ὁρμῆσαι γέλωτα παρεσκεύασε, πλὴν Ἀττήλα. Cf. Gibbon, iii. 440; Hodgkin, ii. 86; Kögel, i. 1. 114.

[132] Procopius, _de bell. Vandal._ ii. 6; Victor Vitensis, _de persec. Vandal._ i. 15. 47.

[133] Sidonius, _Ep._ i. 2. 9 ‘sane intromittuntur, quamquam raro, inter coenandum mimici sales, ita ut nullus conviva mordacis linguae felle feriatur.’ There are no musicians, ‘rege solum illis fidibus delenito, quibus non minus mulcet virtus animum quam cantus auditum.’ In _Carm._ xii Sidonius mentions Gothic songs, without specifying whether they are professional or choric.

[134] Alcuin, _Ep._ cclxxxi (793-804), to a disciple in Italy, ‘melius est Deo placere quam histrionibus, pauperum habere curam quam mimorum’; _Ep._ ccl (†801), to the monks of Fulda, ‘non sint [adulescentuli] luxuriosi, non ebrietati servientes, non contemptuosi, non inanes sequentes ludos’; _Ep._ ccxliv (†801), to Fredegis, master of the palace school, ‘non veniant coronatae columbae ad fenestras tuas, quae volant per cameras palatii, nec equi indomiti inrumpant ostia camerae; nec tibi sit ursorum saltantium cura, sed clericorum psallentium.’ The ‘coronatae columbae’ were Charlemagne’s wanton daughters. Dümmler (_Ep. Mer. et Car._ ii. 541) prints a _responsio_ of Leidradus, Abp. of Lyons, to Charles. This is interesting, because it contrasts the ‘mobilitas histrionum’ which tempts the eye, with the ‘carmina poetarum et comediarum mimorumque urbanitates et strophae,’ which tempt the ear. This looks as if _histriones_, in the sense of _pantomimi_, were still known, but the piece also mentions ‘teatrorum moles’ and ‘circenses,’ and is, I suspect, quite antiquarian.

[135] _Ep._ clxxv (799), to Adalhart, Bp. of Old Corbey, ‘Vereor, ne Homerus [Angilbert] irascatur contra cartam prohibentem spectacula et diabolica figmenta. quae omnes sanctae scripturae prohibent, in tantum ut legebam sanctum dicere Augustinum, “nescit homo, qui histriones et mimos et saltatores introducit in domum suam, quam magna eos immundorum sequitur turba spirituum.” sed absit ut in domo christiana diabolus habeat potestatem’ (the quotation from Augustine cannot be identified): _Ep._ ccxxxvii (801), also to Adalhart, ‘quod de emendatis moribus Homeri mei scripsisti, satis placuit oculis meis ... unum fuit de histrionibus, quorum vanitatibus sciebam non parvum animae sui periculum imminere, quod mihi non placuit, ... mirumque mihi visum est, quomodo tam sapiens animus non intellexisset reprehensibilia dignitati suae facere et non laudabilia.’ Angilbert also seems to have had relations unbecoming an abbot with one of the ‘coronatae columbae.’

[136] _Capit. of Mantua_ (Boretius, i. 195), can. 6 ‘neque ulla iocorum genera ante se fieri permittant quae contra canonum auctoritatem eveniunt.’

[137] _Capit. Generale_ (Boretius, i. 64; _P. L._ xcvii. 188), c. 31 ‘ut episcopi et abbates et abbatissae cupplas canum non habeant, nec falcones, nec accipitres, nec ioculatores.’ If this is the _carta_ of Alcuin’s _Ep._ clxxv, and I know of no other which it can be, Dümmler’s date for the letter of 799 seems too late. Mabillon’s 791 is nearer the mark.

[138] _Capit. Gen._ (Boretius, i. 96), can. 23 ‘cleri ... non inanis lusibus vel conviviis secularibus vel canticis vel luxuriosis usum habeant.’

[139] _Conc. of Tours_ (Mansi, xiv. 84), c. 7 ‘histrionum quoque turpium et obscoenorum insolentiis iocorum et ipsi [sacerdotes] animo effugere caeterisque sacerdotibus effugienda praedicare debent.’

[140] Einhard, _Vita Caroli Magni_, c. 29 ‘barbara et antiquissima carmina, quibus veterum regum actus et bella canebantur, scripsit memoriaeque mandavit.’

[141] Alcuin, _Ep._ cxlix (798), to Charlemagne, ‘ut puerorum saevitia vestrorum cuiuslibet carminis dulcedine mitigaretur, voluistis’; Alcuin, who doubtless had to _ménager_ Charlemagne a little, is apparently to write the poem himself.

[142] Kögel, i. 2. 222. The _Chronicon Novaliciense_, iii. 10, describes how after crossing Mt. Cenis in 773, Charlemagne was guided by a Lombard _ioculator_ who sung a ‘cantiunculam a se compositam de eadem re rotando in conspectu suorum.’ As a reward the _ioculator_ had all the land over which his _tuba_ sounded on a hill could be heard. The _Monachus S. Galli_ (Jaffé, _Bibl. rer. Germ._ iv), i. 13, tells how (†783) a _scurra_ brought about a reconciliation between Charlemagne and his brother-in-law Uodalrich. The same writer (i. 33) mentions an ‘incomparabilis clericus’ of the ‘gloriosissimus Karolus,’ who ‘scientia ... cantilenae ecclesiasticae vel iocularis novaque carminum compositione sive modulatione ... cunctos praecelleret.’

[143] Philippe Mouskes, _de Poetis Provincialibus_ (quoted Ducange, s. v. _leccator_):

‘Quar quant li buens Rois Karlemaigne
Ot toute mise à son demaine
Provence, qui mult iert plentive
De vins, de bois, d’aigue, de rive,
As lecours, as menestreus,
Qui sont auques luxurieus,
Le donna toute et departi.’

[144] Kögel, i. 2. 220.

[145] Theganus, _de gestis Ludovici Pii_ (_M. G. H. Scriptores_, ii. 594), c. 19 ‘Poetica carmina gentilia, quae in iuventute didicerat, respuit, nec legere nec audire nec docere voluit,’ and ‘nunquam in risu exaltavit vocem suam, nec quando in festivitatibus ad laetitiam populi procedebant thymelici, scurrae, et mimi cum choraulis et citharistis ad mensam coram eo, tunc ad mensuram ridebat populus coram eo, ille nunquam vel dentes candidos suos in risu ostendit.’ The ‘carmina gentilia,’ so much disliked by Louis, were probably Frankish and not classic poems.

[146] Benedictus Levita, vi. 205 (_M. G. H. Leges_, ii. 2. 83), ‘ne in illo sancto die vanis fabulis aut locutionibus sive cantationibus vel saltationibus stando in biviis et plateis ut solet inserviant.’ On this collection see Schaff, v. 272.

[147] This capitulary is of doubtful date, but belongs to the reign either of Louis the Pious, or Lothair (Boretius, i. 334; Pertz, i. 324; Ben. Levita, ii. 49) ‘ut in palatiis nostris ad accusandum et iudicandum et testimonium faciendum non se exhibeant viles personae et infames, histriones scilicet, nugatores, manzeres, scurrae, concubinarii, ... aut servi aut criminosi’; cf. R. Sohm, _Die fränk. Reichs-und Gerichtsverfassung_, 354.

[148] For ninth-century prohibitions see _Statutes_ of Haito, Bp. of Basle (807-23), c. 11 (Boretius, i. 364); _Conc. of Maintz_ (847), c. 13 (Boretius, ii. 179); _Conc. of Maintz_ (852), c. 6 (Boretius, ii. 187); _Capit._ of Walter of Orleans (858), c. 17 (Mansi, xv. 507), _Capit._ of Hincmar of Rheims (_P. L._ cxxv. 776); and cf. Prynne, 556. Stress is often laid on the claims of the poor; e.g. Agobardus (†836), _de Dispens. Eccles. Rer._ 30 (_P. L._ civ. 249) ‘satiat praeterea et inebriat histriones, mimos, turpissimosque et vanissimos ioculares, cum pauperes ecclesiae fame discruciati intereant.’

[149] Otto Frisingensis, _Chronicon_, vi. 32, records of the Emperor Henry III in 1045 that ‘quumque ex more regio nuptias Inglinheim celebraret, omne balatronum et histrionum collegium, quod, ut assolet, eo confluxerat, vacuum abire permisit, pauperibusque ea quae membris diaboli subtraxerat, large distribuit.’ After the death of the Emperor Henry I of Germany his widow Matilda ‘neminem voluit audire carmina saecularia cantantem’ (_Vita Machtildis Antiquior_ in _M. G. H. Scriptores_, iv. 294).

[150] Honorius Augustodunensis, _Elucidarium_ (†1092), ii. 18 (_P. L._ clxxii. 1148) ‘Habent spem ioculatores? nullam; tota namque intentione sunt ministri Satanae’; on the vogue of this book cf. _Furnivall Miscellany_, 88.

[151] The following passages of the _Decretum Gratiani_, besides those already quoted, bear on the subject: (_a_) i. 23. 3, _ex Isid. de Eccl. Officiis_, ii. 2 ‘His igitur lege Patrum cavetur, ut a vulgari vita seclusi a mundi voluptatibus sese abstineant; non spectaculis, non pompis intersint’: (_b_) i. 44. 7, _ex Conc. Nannetensi_ ‘Nullus presbyterorum ... quando ad collectam presbyteri convenerit ... plausus et risus inconditos, et fabulas inanes ibi referre aut cantare praesumat, aut turpia ioca vel urso vel tornatricibus ante se fieri patiatur’; I cannot identify the Council of Nantes referred to: the canon is not amongst those supposed to belong to the Council of 660, and given by Mansi, xviii. 166: (_c_) i. 46. 6, _ex Conc. Carthag._ iv. c. 60 [398. Mansi, iii. 956] ‘Clericum scurrilem et verbis turpibus ioculatorem ab officio retrahendum censemus’: (_d_) ii. 4. 1. 1, _ex Conc. Carthag._ vii (419) ‘Omnes etiam infamiae maculis aspersi, id est histriones ... ab accusatione prohibentur.’ The _Decretum Gratiani_ was drawn up †1139. The _Decretales_ of Gregory IX (1234) incorporate can. 16 of the _Lateran Council_ (Mansi, xxii. 1003), held in 1215 (_Decr. Greg. IX_, iii. 1. 15) ‘[Clerici] mimis, ioculatoribus, et histrionibus non intendant’; and the _Liber Sextus_ of Boniface VIII (1298) adds the following decree of that Pope (_Sext. Decr._ iii. 1. 1) ‘Clerici qui, clericalis ordinis dignitati non modicum detrahentes, se ioculatores seu goliardos faciunt aut bufones, si per annum artem illam ignominiosam exercuerint, ipso iure, si autem tempore breviori, et tertio moniti non resipuerint, careant omni privilegio clericali.’

[152] Wilkins, i. 585. For can. 16 of the Lateran council see last note. The prohibition is again confirmed by can. 17 of the Synod of Exeter in 1287 (Wilkins, ii. 129).

[153] _Constitutiones_ of Bp. Grosseteste in his _Epistolae_ (R. S.), 159 ‘ne mimis, ioculatoribus, aut histrionibus intendant.’ In 1230, Grosseteste’s predecessor, Hugh of Wells, had bid his archdeacons inquire, ‘an aliqui intendant histrionibus’ (Wilkins, i. 627).

[154] _Annales de Burton_ (_Ann. Monast._ R. S. i. 485) ‘histrionibus potest dari cibus, quia pauperes sunt, non quia histriones; et eorum ludi non videantur, vel audiantur, vel permittantur fieri coram abbate vel monachis.’

[155] _Const._ of Roger de Mortival, § 46 (Dayman and Jones, _Sarum Statutes_, 76) ‘licet robustos corpore, laborem ad quem homo nascitur subire contemnentes, et in delicato otio sibi victum quaerere sub inepta laetitia saeculi eligentes, qui “menestralli” et quandoque “ludorum homines” vulgari eloquio nuncupantur, non quia tales sunt, sed quia opus Dei nostramque naturam conspicimus in eisdem, nostris domibus refectionis gratia aliquotiens toleremus,’ yet no money or goods convertible into money may be given them; ‘nec ad fabulas quas referunt, et quae in detractationibus, turpiloquio, scurrilitate consistunt, ullus voluntarium praebeat auditum, nec ad eas audiendas aures habeat prurientes, sed per obauditionem ab huiusmodi relatibus, quin potius latratibus, in quantum fieri poterit, excludantur, tamen nemo libenter invito referat auditori.’ They may, if they are not women, have their dole of bread, and keep peace from evil words. ‘Nec debet de huiusmodi personarum, quae infames sunt, laude, immo verius fraude, seu obloquio, aut alias vanae laudis praeconio, ecclesiasticus vir curare, cum nihil eo miserius sit praelato, qui luporum laudibus gloriatur.’ The statute is headed ‘De maledicis, adulatoribus, histrionibus, et detractoribus respuendis.’

[156] Thomas Walsingham, _Gesta Abbatum S. Albani_ (ed. Riley, R. S. ii. 469) ‘illicita spectacula prorsus evitent’ (1326-35).

[157] J. T. Fowler, _Memorials of Ripon Minster_, ii. 68 (Surtees Soc.); the charge was that ‘vicarii, capellani, et caeteri ministri ... spectaculis publicis, ludibriis et coreis, immo teatricalibus ludis inter laicos frequentius se immiscent.’

[158] The _Statutes_, i. 5. 4, of St. Paul’s, as late as †1450, direct the beadles ‘quod menestrallos coram altaribus Virginis et Crucis indevote strepitantes arceant et eiiciant’ (W. S. Simpson, _Register of St. Paul’s_, 72).

[159] John of Salisbury, _Polycraticus_ (†1159), i. 8 (_P. L._ cxcix. 406) ‘satius enim fuerat otiari quam turpiter occupari. Hinc mimi, salii vel saliares, balatrones, aemiliani, gladiatores, palaestritae, gignadii, praestigiatores, malefici quoque multi, et tota ioculatorum scena procedit.’

[160] Cf. _Representations_, s.v. London.

[161] R. Mannyng de Brunne (†1303), _Handlyng Synne_ (ed. Furnivall), 148. ‘Here doyng ys ful perylous’ he translates William of Wadington’s ‘Qe unt trop perilus mester’; and tells a tale of divine judgement on ‘a mynstralle, a gulardous,’ who disturbed a priest at mass.

[162] _Piers the Plowman, C. text_, viii. 97:

‘Clerkus and knyȝtes · welcometh kynges mynstrales,
And for loue of here lordes · lithen hem at festes;
Muche more, me thenketh · riche men auhte
Haue beggars by-fore hem · whiche beth godes mynstrales.’

[163] _Cant. Tales_ (ed. Skeat), § 69 ‘Soothly, what thing that he yeveth for veyne glorie, as to minstrals and to folk, for to beren his renoun in the world, he hath sinne ther-of, and noon almesse.’

[164] e.g. Stubbes, _Anatomy_, i. 169.

[165] _Aucassin et Nicolete_ (†1150-1200), ed. Bourdillon (1897), 22. The term ‘caitif’ has puzzled the editors. Surely the minstrel has in mind the abusive epithets with which the clergy bespattered his profession. See Appendix B.

[166] See especially _Le Tombeor de Notre Dame_ (_Romania_, ii. 315). Novati (_Rom._ xxv. 591) refers to a passage quoted by Augustine, _de Civ. Dei_, vi. 10, from the lost work of Seneca, _de Superstitionibus_, ‘doctus archimimus, senex iam decrepitus, cotidie in Capitolio mimum agebat, quasi dii libenter spectarent quem illi homines desierant.’ Somewhat similar are _Don Cierge qui descendi au Jougleour_ (Gautier de Coincy), _Miracles de Nostre Dame_ (†1223, ed. Poquet, 1859), and _Le Harpeor de Roncestre_ (Michel, _Roms., Contes, Dits, Fabl._ ii. 108). _Saint Pierre et le Jongleur_ (Montaiglon Raynaud, v. 117) is a witty tale, in which a minstrel, left in charge of hell, loses so many souls to St. Peter at dice, that no minstrel has been allowed there since. B. Joannes Bonus (_Acta SS. Oct._ ix. 693) was a minstrel in his youth, but the patron saints of the minstrels were always St. Genesius the mime (cf. p. 10), and St. Julian Hospitator (_Acta SS. Jan._ iii. 589), who built a hospital and once entertained an angel unawares.

[167] Paris, 113; Bédier, 333.

[168] Brooke, _Eng. Lit._ 305; Ten Brink, i. 149.

[169] Sophus Bugge, in _Bidrag til den aeldste Skaldedigtnings Historie_ (1894; cf. L. Duvau in _Rev. Celt._ xvii. 113), holds that Skaldic poetry began in the Viking raids of the eighth and ninth centuries, under the influence of the Irish _filid_. The tenth-century skald as described in the _Raven-Song_ of Hornklofi at the court of Harold Fair-hair is very like the _scôp_ (_C. P. B._ i. 254), and here too tumblers and buffoons have found their way. Cf. Kögel, i. 1. 111; E. Mogk, in Paul, _Grundriss_^2, iii. 248.

[170] Guy of Amiens, _de Bello Hastingensi_ (†1068), 391, 399:

‘Histrio, cor audax nimium quem nobilitabat ...
... Incisor-ferri mimus cognomine dictus.’

Wace, _Roman de Rou_ (†1170) (ed. Andresen, iii. 8035):

‘Taillefer, ki mult bien chantout,
Sor un cheval ki tost alout,
Devant le duc alout chantant
De Karlemaigne et de Rolant
Et d’Oliver et des vassals
Qui morurent en Rencevals.’

Cf. Freeman, _Norman Conquest_, iii. 477.

[171] Domesday Book, _Gloc._ f. 162; _Hants_, f. 38 (b). Before the Conquest, not to speak of Widsith and Deor, Edmund Ironside had given the hills of Chartham and Walworth ‘cuidam ioculatori suo nomine Hitardo’ (Somner-Battely, _Antiq. of Canterbury_, app. 39). Hitardus, wishing to visit Rome, gave it to Christ Church, Canterbury.

[172] Bernhard, iii. 378, gives a thirteenth-century regulation for the Petit Pont entry of Paris: ‘Et ausi tot li jougleur sunt quite por i ver de chançon.’

[173] Gautier, ii. 124.

[174] There were 426 at the wedding of Margaret of England with John of Brabant in 1290 (Chappell, i. 15, from _Wardrobe Bk._ 18 Edw. I).

[175] Rigordus, _de gestis Philippi Augusti_ (1186) ‘vidimus quondam quosdam principes qui vestes diu excogitatas et variis florum picturationibus artificiossisimis elaboratas, pro quibus forsan viginti vel triginta marcas argenti consumpserant, vix revolutis septem diebus, histrionibus, ministris scilicet diaboli, ad primam vocem dedisse.’

[176] 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.

[177] Strutt, 189, has a fourteenth-century story of a youth rebuked for coming to a feast in a coat bardy, cut German fashion like a minstrel’s; cf. the complaint against knights in _A Poem on the times of Edward II_ (Percy Soc. lxxxii), 23:

‘Now thei beth disgysed,
So diverselych i-diȝt,
That no man may knowe
A mynstrel from a knyȝt
Wel ny.’

The miniatures show minstrels in short coats to the knees and sometimes short capes with hoods. The _Act of Apparel_ (1463, 3 _Edw. IV_, c. 5) excepts minstrels and ‘players in their interludes.’ The Franciscan story (p. 57) shows that some of the humbler minstrels went shabby enough.

[178] Klein, iii. 635; Du Méril, _Or. Lat._ 30; Gautier, ii. 104; Geoffrey of Monmouth, _Historia Britonum_, ix. 1 ‘rasit capillos suos et barbam, cultumque ioculatoris cum cithara cepit.’ Cf. the canon quoted on p. 61 requiring Goliardic clerks to be shorn or shaven, to obliterate the tonsure. The flat shoe had been a mark of the _mimi planipedes_ at Rome.

[179] Gautier, ii. 105. Thus Nicolete (_Aucassin et Nicolete_, ed. Bourdillon, 120) ‘prist une herbe, si en oinst son cief et son visage, si qu’ele fu tote noire et tainte. Et ele fist faire cote et mantel et cemisse et braies, si s’atorna a guise de jogleor’; cf. _King Horn_ (ed. Hall, 1901), 1471-2:

‘Hi sede, hi weren harpurs,
And sume were gigours.’

[180] Roger de Hoveden, _Chronicon_ (R. S.), iii. 143 ‘De regno Francorum cantores et ioculatores muneribus allexerat, ut de illo canerent in plateis; et iam dicebatur quod non erat talis in orbe.’

[181] Ten Brink, i. 314.

[182] Malory, _Morte d’Arthur_, x. 27, 31. Even King Mark let the minstrel go quit, because he was a minstrel.

[183] Cf. p. 40.

[184] Ordericus Vitalis, _Hist. Eccles._ xii. 19 ‘pro derisoriis cantionibus ... quin etiam indecentes de me cantilenas facetus choraula composuit, ad iniuriam mei palam cantavit, malevolosque mihi hostes ad cachinnos ita saepe provocavit.’ Lucas de Barre seems to have been of noble birth, but ‘palam cantavit cantilenas.’

[185] Cf. p. 30.

[186] _Speculum Perfectionis_ (ed. Sabatier), 197. When Francis had finished his Canticle of the Sun, he thought for a moment of summoning ‘frater Pacificus qui in saeculo vocabatur rex versuum et fuit valde curialis doctor cantorum,’ and giving him a band of friars who might sing it to the people at the end of their sermons: ‘finitis autem laudibus volebat quod praedicator diceret populo: “Nos sumus ioculatores Domini, et pro his volumus remunerari a vobis, videlicet ut stetis in vera paenitentia.” Et ait: “Quid enim sunt servi Dei nisi quidam ioculatores eius qui corda hominum erigere debent et movere ad laetitiam spiritualem.”’ Cf. Sabatier, _Life of St. Francis_, 9, 51, 307. Perhaps Francis may have heard of Joachim of Flora, his contemporary, who wrote in his _Commentary on the Apocalypse_, f. 183. a. 2 ‘qui vere monachus est nihil reputat esse suum nisi citharam.’

[187] The MS. of the famous thirteenth-century canon _Sumer is icumen in_ has religious words written beneath the profane ones; cf. Wooldridge, _Oxford Hist. of Music_, i. 326. Several religious adaptations of common motives of profane lyric are amongst the English thirteenth-century poems preserved in Harl. MS. 2253 (_Specimens of Lyrical Poetry_: Percy Soc., 1842, no. 19, and ed. Böddeker, Berlin, 1878).

[188] Jusserand, _E. W. L._ 195, 199, 215; Strutt, 194-5, 210, 227; Hazlitt-Warton, ii. 119; Chappell, i. 15; Collier, i. 22; _Wardrobe Accounts of Edward I_ (Soc. Antiq.), 163, 166, 168.

[189] Cf. Appendix C.

[190] Cf. Appendix D.

[191] This cannot be the famous Adan de le Hale (cf. ch. viii), known as ‘le Bossu,’ if Guy, 178, is right in saying that his nephew, Jean Mados, wrote a lament for his death in 1288. He quotes _Hist. Litt._ xx. 666, as to this.

[192] Gautier, ii. 103; Bédier, 405, quote many similar names; e.g. Quatre Œufs, Malebouche, Ronge-foie, Tourne-en-fuie, Courtebarbe, Porte-Hotte, Mal Quarrel, Songe-Feste a la grant viele, Mal-appareillié, Pelé, Brise-Pot, Simple d’Amour, Chevrete, Passereau.

[193] William of Malmesbury, _Gesta Reg. Angl._ (R. S.), ii. 494.

[194] Ordericus Vitalis, v. 12, &c. On one occasion ‘ad ecclesiam, quia nudus erat, non pervenit.’

[195] Bédier, 359.

[196] Gautier, chs. xx, xxi, gives an admirable account of the _jougleur’s_ daily life, and its seamy side is brought out by Bédier, 399-418. A typical _jougleur_ figure is that of the poet Rutebeuf, a man of genius, but often near death’s door from starvation. See the editions of his works by Jubinal and Kressner, and the biography by Clédat in the series of _Grands Écrivains français_.

[197] Morley, _Bartholomew Fair_, 1-25, from _Liber Fundacionis_ in _Cott. Vesp. B. ix_; Leland, _Collectanea_, 1, 61, 99; Dugdale, _Monasticon_, ii. 166; Stow, _Survey_, 140; C. Knight, _London_, ii. 34; Percy, 406. No minstrels, however, appear in the formal list of Henry I’s Norman Household (†1135), which seems to have been the nucleus of the English Royal Household as it existed up to 1782 (Hall, _Red Book of Exchequer_, R.S., iii. cclxxxvii, 807).

[198] Gautier, ii. 47, 54; G. Paris, § 88; Ambroise, _L’Estoire de la Guerre Sainte_, ed. G. Paris (_Documents inédits sur l’Hist. de France_, 1897).

[199] Percy, 358.

[200] Madox, _Hist. of Exchequer_, 268.

[201] Percy, 365.

[202] Walter Hemmingford, _Chronicon_, c. 35 (_Vet. Hist. Angl. Script._ ii. 591).

[203] Chappell, i. 15, from _Wardrobe Book_, 18 Edw. I.

[204] _Wardrobe Accounts of Edw. I_ (Soc. Antiq.), 323.

[205] Anstis, _Register of Order of the Garter_, ii. 303, from _Pat. de terr. forisfact._ 16 Edw. III. Cf. _Gesta Edw. de Carnarvon_ in _Chron. of Edw. I and II_ (R. S.), ii. 91 ‘adhaesit cantoribus, tragoedis, aurigis, navigiis et aliis huiuscemodi artificiis mechanicis.’

[206] Strutt, 194; _Issue Roll of Thomas de Brantingham_ (ed. Devon), 54-57, 296-8.

[207] _Household Ordinances_, 4, 11.

[208] Rymer, vii. 555.

[209] Ibid. ix. 255, 260, 336.

[210] Ibid. x. 287; xi. 375.

[211] _Household Ordinances_, 48.

[212] Rymer, xi. 642; cf. Appendix D.

[213] Ibid. xiii. 705; Collier, i. 45; Campbell, i. 407, 516, 570; ii. 100, 224.

[214] _Wardrobe Accounts of Edw. I_ (Soc. Antiq.), 7, 95; _Calendar of Anc. Deeds_, ii. A, 2050, 2068, 2076.

[215] Strutt, 189.

[216] Collier, i. 46; Campbell, i. 407, 542, 572; ii. 68, 84, 176.

[217] The entry ‘ad solvendum histrionibus’ occurs in 1364 (_Compoti Camerarii Scot._ i. 422). The Exchequer Rolls from 1433-50 contain payments to the ‘mimi,’ ‘histriones,’ ‘ioculatores regis’; and in 1507-8 for the ‘histriones in scaccario’ or ‘minstrels of the chekkar’ (_Accounts of Treasurer of Scotland_, i. xx, cxcix; ii. lxxi).

[218] Cf. Appendix C.

[219] Collier, i. 21, from _Lansd. MS._ 1. Two of this lord’s _menestriers_ were entertained by Robert of Artois, who also had his own (Guy, 154).

[220] Gautier, ii. 51; cf. the extracts from various _computi_ in Appendix E. There are many entries also in the accounts of King’s Lynn (_Hist. MSS._ xi. 3. 213); Beverley (Leach, _Beverley MSS._ 171), &c.

[221] L. T. Smith, _Derby Accounts_ (C. S.), xcvi.

[222] Percy, _N. H. B._ 42, 344.

[223] Stowe, _Survey_, 39 (London); Smith, _English Guilds_, 423, 447 (Bristol, Norwich); Davies, 14 (York); Kelly, 131 (Leicester); Morris, 348 (Chester); Civis, No. xxi (Canterbury); Sharpe, 207 (Coventry); _Hist. MSS._ xi. 3. 163 (Lynn); Leach, _Beverley MSS._ 105, &c. (Beverley); for Shrewsbury cf. Appendix E. On _Waits’ Badges_, cf. Ll. Jewitt, in _Reliquary_, xii. 145. Gautier, ii. 57, describes the communal _cantorini_ of Perugia, from the fourteenth to the sixteenth century. The usual Latin term for the Beverley waits is _speculatores_; but they are also called _ministralli_, _histriones_ and _mimi_. Apparently waits are intended by the _satrapi_ of the Winchester Accounts (App. E. (iv)). Elsewhere _histriones_ is the most usual term. The signatories to the 1321 statutes of the Paris guild include several _guètes_ (Bernhard, iii. 402).

[224] _Household Ordinances_, 48 ‘A Wayte, that nyghtly, from Mighelmasse till Shere-Thursday, pipeth the watche within this courte fower tymes, and in the somer nyghtes three tymes.’ He is also to attend the new Knights of the Bath when they keep watch in the chapel the night before they are dubbed.

[225] The Lynn waits had to go through the town from All Saints to Candlemas. Those of Coventry had similar duties, and in 1467 were forbidden ‘to pass this Cite but to Abbotts and Priors within x myles of this Cite.’

[226] The six minstrels of the Earl of Derby in 1391 had a livery of ‘blod ray cloth and tanne facings’ (Wylie, iv. 160).

[227] _Household Ordinances_, 48: ‘Mynstrelles, xiii, whereof one is verger, that directeth them all in festivall dayes to theyre stations, to bloweings and pipynges, to suche offices as must be warned to prepare for the king and his houshold at metes and soupers, to be the more readie in all servyces; and all these sittinge in the hall togyder; whereof sume use trumpettes, sume shalmuse and small pipes, and sume as strengemen, comyng to this courte at five festes of the yere, and then to take theyre wages of houshold after iiij^d ob. a day, if they be present in courte, and then they to avoyde the next day after the festes be done. Besides eche of them anothyr reward yerely, taking of the king in the resceyte of the chekker, and clothing wynter and somer, or xx^s a piece, and lyverey in courte, at evyn amonges them all, iiij gallons ale; and for wynter season, iij candels wax, vj candells peris’, iiij talwood, and sufficiaunt logging by the herberger, for them and theyre horses, nygh to the courte. Also havyng into courte ij servauntes honest, to beare theyre trumpettes, pipes, and other instrumentes, and a torche for wynter nyghts, whyles they blowe to souper, and other revelles, delyvered at the chaundrey; and allway ij of these persons to continue in courte in wages, beyng present to warne at the kinge’s rydinges, when he goeth to horse-backe, as ofte as it shall require, and by theyre blowinges the houshold meny may follow in the countries. And if any of these two minstrelles be sicke in courte, he taketh ij loves, one messe of grete mete, one gallon ale. They have no part of any rewardes gevyn to the houshold. And if it please the kinge to have ij strenge Minstrelles to contynue in like wise. The kinge wull not for his worshipp that his Minstrelles be too presumptuous, nor too familier to aske any rewardes of the lordes of his londe, remembring De Henrico secundo imperatore [1002-24] qui omnes Ioculatores suos et Armaturos monuerit, ut nullus eorum in eius nomine vel dummodo steterint in servicio suo nihil ab aliquo in regno suo deberent petere donandum; sed quod ipsi domini donatores pro Regis amore citius pauperibus erogarent.’

[228] Percy, _N. H. B._ (†1512), 339. The king’s shawms, if they came yearly, got 10_s._, the king’s jugler and the king’s or queen’s bearward, 6_s._ 8_d._; a duke’s or earl’s trumpeters, if they came six together, also got 6_s._ 8_d._, an earl’s minstrels only 3_s._ 4_d._ If the troupe came only once in two or three years, and belonged to a ‘speciall Lorde, Friende, or Kynsman’ of the earl, the rate was higher.

[229] Gautier, ii. 107, from _Bibl. de l’Arsenal MS._ 854; e.g. ‘_Deprecatio pro dono instrioni impendendo_. Salutem et amoris perpetui firmitatem. R. latorem praesentium, egregium instrionem qui nuper meis interfuit nuptiis, ubi suum officium exercuit eleganter, ad vos cum magna confidentia destinamus, rogantes precibus, quibus possumus, quatinus aliquid subsidium gracie specialis eidem impendere debeatis.’ Collier, i. 42, gives a letter of Richard III for his bearward.

[230] Collier, i. 41.

[231] Strutt, 194; Gautier, ii. 173-8; H. Lavoix, ii. 198. They are called _Scolae ministrorum_, _Scolae mimorum_. They can be traced to the fourteenth century. Genève and Bourg-en-Bresse also had them. The Paris statutes of 1407 (cf. Appendix F) require a licence from the _roi des ménestrels_ for such an assembly. A Beauvais _computus_ (1402) has ‘Dati sunt de gratia panes ducenti capitulares mimis in hac civitate de diversis partibus pro cantilenis novis addiscendis confluentibus.’

[232] Hearne, _Appendix ad Lelandi Collectanea_, vi. 36; Percy, 367. The proclamation is dated Aug. 6, 9 Edw. II (i. e. 1315).

[233] No technical term seems, however, intended in _Launfal_ (ed. Ritson), 668:

‘They hadde menstrales of moch honours,
Fydelers, sytolyrs, and trompours.’

[234] C. J. Ribton-Turner, _Vagrants and Vagrancy_, chs. 3, 4, 5. The proclamation of 1284 against ‘Westours, Bards, and Rhymers and other idlers and vagabonds, who live on the gifts called Cymmortha,’ and the Act of 1402 (4 _Hen. IV_, c. 27) in the same sense, seem only to refer to the Welsh bards (cf. p. 77).

[235] Ribton-Turner, 107 (14 _Eliz._ c. 5). Whipping is provided for ‘all Fencers Bearewardes Comon Players in Enterludes & Minstrels, not belonging to any Baron of this Realme or towards any other honourable personage of greater Degree; all Juglers Pedlars Tynkers and Petye Chapmen; whiche said Fencers Bearewardes comon Players in Enterludes Mynstrels Juglers Pedlars Tynkers & Petye Chapmen, shall wander abroade and have not Lycense of two Justices of the Peace at the leaste, whereof one to be of the Quorum, wher and in what Shier they shall happen to wander.’ The terms of 39 _Eliz._ c. 4 (1597-8) are very similar, but 1 _Jac. I_, c. 7 (1603-4), took away the exemption for noblemen’s servants.

[236] Appendix F.

[237] Gautier, ii. 156; Ducange, s.v. _Ministelli_.

[238] Gautier, ii. 158. Strutt, 195, quotes from _Cott. MS. Nero_, c. viii a payment of Edw. III ‘ministrallo facienti ministralsiam suam coram imagine Beatae Mariae in Veltam, rege praesente.’ Chaucer’s pilgrims had no professional minstrels, but the miller did as well:

‘He was a janglere and a goliardeys, ...
... A baggepype wel koude he blowe and sowne,
And therwithal he broghte us out of towne.’

It was in the absence of regular minstrels that the pilgrims fell to telling one another stories.

[239] Gautier, ii. 160. Richard Swinfield, bishop of Hereford, more than once rewarded minstrels on his episcopal rounds (J. Webb, _Household Expenses of Richard de Swinfield_, C. S. i. 152, 155). The bishops of Durham in 1355, Norwich in 1362, and Winchester in 1374, 1422, and 1481 had ‘minstrels of honour,’ like any secular noble (see Appendix E, &c.). Even the austere Robert Grosseteste had his private harper, if we may credit Mannyng, 150:

‘He louede moche to here the harpe;
For mannys wyt hyt makyth sharpe.
Next hys chaumbre, besyde hys stody,
Hys harpers chaumbre was fast therby.’

Mannyng represents Grosseteste as excusing his predilection by a reference to King David.

[240] Madox, _Hist. of Exchequer_, 251.

[241] _Norfolk Archaeology_, xi. 339 (Norwich); Hazlitt-Warton, ii. 97; Kennet, _Parochial Antiq._ ii. 259 (Bicester); _Decem Scriptores_, 2011 (Canterbury); for the rest cf. Appendix E.