1. The British Bards.--II. The Northern Scalds.--III. The
Anglo-Saxon Gleemen.--IV. The Nature of their Performances.--V.
A Royal Player with three Darts.--VI. Bravery of a Minstrel in
the Conqueror's Army.--VII. Other Performances by Gleemen.--VIII.
The Harp an Instrument of Music much used by the Saxons.--IX.
The Norman Minstrels, and their different Denominations, and
professions.--X. Troubadours.--XI. Jestours.--XII. Tales
and Manners of the Jesters.--XIII. Further Illustration of
their Practices.--XIV. Patronage, Privileges, and Excesses of
the Minstrels.--XV. A Guild of Minstrels.--XVI. Abuses and
Decline of Minstrelsy.--XVII. Minstrels were Satirists and
Flatterers.--XVIII. Anecdotes of offending Minstrels, Women
Minstrels.--XIX. The Dress of the Minstrels.--XX. The King of the
Minstrels, why so called.--XXI. Rewards given to Minstrels.--XXII.
Payments to Minstrels.--XXIII. Wealth of certain Minstrels.--XXIV.
Minstrels were sometimes Dancing Masters.
I.--THE BRITISH BARDS.
The Britons were passionately fond of vocal and instrumental music:
for this reason, the bards, who exhibited in one person the musician
and the poet, were held in the highest estimation among them. "These
bards," says an early historian, "celebrated the noble actions of
illustrious persons in heroic poems which they sang to the sweet sounds
of the lyre;"[574] and to this testimony we may add another of equal
authority; "The British bards are excellent and melodious poets, and
sing their poems, in which they praise some, and censure others, to
the music of an instrument resembling a lyre."[575] Their songs and
their music are said, by the same writer, to have been so exceedingly
affecting, that "sometimes when two armies are standing in order of
battle, with their swords drawn, and their lances extended upon the
point of engaging in a most furious conflict, the poets have stepped
in between them, and by their soft and fascinating songs calmed the
fury of the warriors, and prevented the bloodshed. Thus, even among
barbarians," adds the author, "rage gave way to wisdom, and Mars
submitted to the Muses."
II.--THE NORTHERN SCALDS.
The scalds[576] were the poets and the musicians of the ancient
northern nations; they resembled the bards of the Britons, and
were held in equal veneration by their countrymen. The scalds were
considered as necessary appendages to royalty, and even the inferior
chieftains had their poets to record their actions and indulge their
vanity.
III.--THE ANGLO-SAXON GLEEMEN.
Upon the establishment of the Saxons in Britain, these poetical
musicians were their chief favourites; the courts of the kings, and
the residences of the opulent afforded them a constant asylum; their
persons were protected, and admission granted to them without the
least restraint. In the Anglo-Saxon language they were distinguished
by two appellations; the one equivalent to the modern term of gleemen
or merry-makers, and the other harpers, derived from the harp, an
instrument they usually played upon. Glıƿ or Gliᵹman; hence Gliᵹᵹamen,
glee-games, are properly explained in Somner's Lexicon, by merry
tricks, jests, sports, and gambols, which were expressive of their new
acquirements: Heaꞃpeꞃe, the appellation of harper, was long-retained
by the English rhymists. The gleemen added mimicry, and other means
of promoting mirth to their profession, as well as dancing and
tumbling, with sleights of hand, and variety of deceptions to amuse the
spectators; it was therefore necessary for them to associate themselves
into companies, by which means they were enabled to diversify their
performances, and render many of them more surprising through the
assistance of their confederates. In Edgar's oration to Dunstan, the
mimi, or minstrels, are said to sing and dance; and, in the Saxon
canons made in that king's reign, A.D. 960, (Can. 58.) it is ordered
that no priest shall be a poet, ꞅceop, or exercise the mimical or
histrionical art, in any degree, public or private.[577] Lye renders
the words "ne ænıᵹe Ƿıꞅan ᵹlıƿıᵹe," nec ullo modo scurram agat. Upon
this subject we shall have occasion to speak more fully hereafter.
IV.--NATURE OF THE PERFORMANCES BY THE GLEEMEN.
Representations of some of these pastimes are met with occasionally
in the early Latin and Saxon manuscripts; and where they do occur,
we uniformly find that the illuminators, being totally ignorant of
ancient customs and the habits of foreign nations, have not paid the
least regard to propriety in the depicting of either, but substituted
those of their own time, and by this means they have, without design on
their part, become the communicators of much valuable information. The
following observations upon two very early paintings will, I doubt not,
in great measure confirm the truth of this assertion.
[Illustration: 49. ANGLO-SAXON DANCE.--VIII. CENTURY.]
This engraving represents two persons dancing to the music of the
horn and the trumpet, and it does not appear to be a common dance in
which they are engaged; on the contrary, their attitudes are such as
must have rendered it very difficult to perform. On the next page is a
curious specimen of a performer's art.
[Illustration: 50. ANGLO-SAXON GLEEMAN--X. CENTURY.]
We here see a man throwing three balls and three knives alternately
into the air, and catching them one by one as they fall, but returning
them again in a regular rotation. To give the greater appearance
of difficulty to this feat, it is accompanied with the music of an
instrument resembling the modern violin. It is necessary to add, that
these two figures, as well as those dancing, previously exhibited, form
a part only of two larger paintings, which, in their original state,
are placed as frontispieces to the Psalms of David; and in both, the
artists have represented that monarch seated upon his throne in the act
of playing upon the harp or the lyre, and surrounded by the masters
of sacred music. In each the king is depicted considerably larger
than the other performers, a compliment usually paid to saints and
dignified persons; which absurdity has been frequently practised by
the more modern painters. The inferior figures form a sort of border
to the sides and bottom of the royal portrait. In addition to the four
figures upon the engraving, No. 49, and exclusive of the king, there
are four more, all of them instrumental performers; one playing upon
the horn, another upon the trumpet, and the other two upon a kind of
tabor or drum, which, however, is beaten with a single drum-stick:
the manuscript in which this illumination is preserved, was written
as early as the eighth century, and is in the Cotton Collection at
the British Museum.[578] The engraving, No. 50, is from a painting on
another manuscript in the same collection,[579] more modern than the
former by full two centuries, which contains four figures besides the
royal psalmist; the two not engraved are musicians: the one is blowing
a long trumpet supported by a staff he holds in his left hand, and
the other is winding a crooked horn. In a short prologue, immediately
preceding the psalms, we read as follows: "David, filius Jesse, in
regno suo quatuor elegit qui psalmos fecerunt, id est Asaph, Æman,
Æthan, et Idithun;" which may be thus translated literally, "David, the
son of Jesse, in his reign elected four persons who composed psalms,
that is to say, Asaph, Æman, Æthan, and Idithun." In the painting these
four names are separately appropriated, one to each of the four persons
there represented; the player upon the violin is called Idithun, and
Æthan is tossing up the knives and the balls.
I have been thus particular in describing these curious delineations,
because I think they throw much light upon the profession of the
Anglo-Saxon gleeman, and prove that his exhibitions were diversified at
a very early period; for the reader, I doubt not, will readily agree
with me, that dancing and sleights of hand were better calculated for
secular pastimes, than for accompaniments to the solemn performances of
sacred psalmody. The honest illuminators having no ideas, as I before
observed, of foreign or ancient manners, saw not the absurdity of
making the Jewish monarch a president over a company of Saxon gleemen;
they had heard, no doubt, that these persons, whose names they found
recorded in the book of Psalms, were poets and musicians; and therefore
naturally concluded that they were gleemen, because they knew no others
who performed in that double capacity but the gleemen: they knew also,
that these facetious artists were greatly venerated by persons of
the highest rank, and their company requested by kings and princes,
who richly rewarded them for the exercise of their talents, and for
this reason, conceived that they were proper companions for the royal
psalmist.
V.--A ROYAL PLAYER WITH THREE DARTS.
The sleight of casting up a certain number of sharp instruments into
the air, and catching them alternately in their fall, though part of
the gleeman's profession, was not entirely confined to this practice.
It is said of Olaf Fryggeson, one of the ancient kings of Norway, that
he could play with three darts at once, tossing them in the air, and
always kept two up while the third was down in his hand.[580] Our Saxon
joculator, however, has the advantage of the monarch by adding the
three balls, which of course must have made the trick more difficult to
be performed.
VI.--BRAVERY OF A MINSTREL IN THE CONQUEROR'S ARMY.
The celebrated minstrel Taillefer, who came into England with William
the Norman, was a warrior as well as a musician. He was present at the
battle of Hastings, and appeared at the head of the conqueror's army,
singing the songs of Charlemagne and of Roland; but previous to the
commencement of the action, he advanced on horseback towards the army
of the English, and, casting his spear three times into the air, he
caught it as often by the iron head; and the fourth time he threw it
among his enemies, one of whom he wounded in the body: he then drew his
sword, which he also tossed into the air as many times as he had done
his spear, and caught it with such dexterity, that those who saw him
attributed his manœuvres to the power of enchantment.
L'un dit al altre ki co veit,
Ke co esteit enchantement.[581]
After he had performed these feats he galloped among the English
soldiers, thereby giving the Normans the signal of battle; and in the
action it appears he lost his life.
VII.--OTHER PERFORMANCES BY GLEEMEN.
One part of the gleeman's profession, as early as the tenth century,
was, teaching animals to dance, to tumble, and to put themselves into
variety of attitudes, at the command of their masters.
[Illustration: 51. ANGLO-SAXON GLEEMEN'S BEAR DANCE.--X. CENTURY.]
This engraving is the copy of a curious though rude delineation, being
little more than an outline, which exhibits a specimen of this pastime.
The principal joculator appears in the front, holding a knotted switch
in one hand, and a line attached to a bear in the other; the animal is
lying down in obedience to his command; and behind them are two more
figures, the one playing upon two flutes or flageolets, and elevating
his left leg while he stands upon his right, supported by a staff that
passes under his armpit; the other dancing, in an attitude exceedingly
ludicrous. This performance takes place upon an eminence resembling
a stage made with earth; and in the original a vast concourse are
standing round it in a semicircle as spectators of the sport, but they
are so exceedingly ill drawn, and withal so indistinct, that I did not
think it worth the pains to copy them. The dancing, if I may so call
it, of the flute player, is repeated twice in the same manuscript. I
have thence selected two other figures.
[Illustration: 52. ANGLO-SAXON HARPER AND HOPPESTERE.--X. CENTURY.]
Here we see a youth playing upon a harp with only four strings, and
apparently singing at the same time, while an elderly man is performing
the part of a buffoon or posture master, holding up one of his legs,
and hopping upon the other to the music. Both these drawings occur
in a MS. psalter in the Harleian Collection,[582] written in Latin,
and apparently about the middle of the tenth century. It contains
many drawings, all of them exceedingly rude, and most of them merely
outlines. We shall have occasion farther on to speak more largely
concerning all these kinds of diversions.
VIII.--THE HARP USED BY THE SAXONS.
The bards and the scalds most assuredly used the harp to accompany
their songs and modulate their voices. The Saxon gleemen and joculators
followed their example, and are frequently called harpers for that
reason; but, at the same time, it is equally certain, that they were
well acquainted with several other instruments of music, as the violin,
or something very similar to it; pipes or flutes of various kinds;
horns and trumpets; to which may be added the tabor, or drum. The harp,
indeed, was the most popular, and frequently exercised by persons
who did not follow the profession of gleemen. We learn from Bede, an
unquestionable authority, that, as early as the seventh century, it
was customary at convivial meetings to hand a harp from one person to
another, and every one who partook of the festivity played upon it in
his turn, singing a song to the music for merriment sake.[583] Bede
says, Omnes per ordinem cantare debent; and king Alfred translates the
word cantare be heaꞃpan ꞅınᵹan, sing to the harp. The historian adds,
that Caedmon, not being acquainted with such sort of songs, gat up when
he saw the harp, cytharam, brought near him, and went home; the king
adds the reason, ðonne aꞃaꞅ he ꝼoꞃ ꞅceome, then arose he for shame, not
being able to comply with the general practice. Probably this was not
the practice when the professional harper was present, whose province
it was to amuse the company.
IX.--THE NORMAN MINSTRELS.
Soon after the Conquest, these musicians lost the ancient Saxon
appellation of gleemen, and were called ministraulx, in English
minstrels, a term well known in Normandy some time before. They were,
however, called harpers by the English rhymists; but the Norman name
minstrel was much more commonly used. As the minstrel's art consisted
of several branches, the professors were distinguished by different
denominations, as, "rimours, chanterres, conteours, jougleours or
jongleurs, jestours, lecours, and troubadours or trouvers;" in modern
language, rhymers, singers, story-tellers, jugglers, relaters of heroic
actions, buffoons, and poets; but all of them were included under the
general name of minstrel. In the Latin, ministerellus, or ministrallus,
is also called mimus, mimicus, histrio, joculator, versificator,
cantor, and scurra. An eminent French antiquary says of the minstrels,
that some of them themselves composed the subjects they sang or
related, as the trouvers and the conteurs; and some of them used the
compositions of others, as the jogleours and the chanteurs. He farther
remarks, that the trouvers may be said to have embellished their
productions with rhyme, while the contours related their histories in
prose; the jugleours, who in the middle ages were famous for playing
upon the vielle, accompanied the songs of the trouvers. The vielle
was a stringed instrument, sounded by the turning of a wheel within
it, resembling that which we frequently see about the streets played
by the Savoyards, vulgarly called a hurdy-gurdy. These jugleours were
also assisted by the chanteurs: and this union of talents rendered the
compositions more harmonious and more pleasing to the auditory, and
increased their rewards, so that they readily joined each other, and
travelled together in large parties.[584] It is, however, very certain,
that the poet, the songster, and the musician, were frequently united
in the same person.
X.--TROUBADOURS.
The Norman rhymers appear to have been the genuine descendants of the
ancient Scandinavian scalds; they were well known in the northern
part of France long before the appearance of the provincial poets
called troubadours, and trouvers, that is, finders, probably from the
fertility of their invention. The troubadours brought with them into
the north a new species of language called the Roman language, which in
the eleventh and twelfth centuries was commonly used in the southern
provinces of France, and there esteemed as the most perfect of any in
Europe. It evidently originated from the Latin, and was the parent
of the French tongue; and in this language their songs and their
poems were composed.[585] These poets were much admired and courted,
being, as a very judicious modern writer[586] says, the delight of
the brave and the favourites of the fair; because they celebrated the
achievements of the one and the beauties of the other. Even princes
became troubadours, and wrote poems in the provincial dialect; among
others, a monarch of our own country certainly composed verses of this
kind. The reader will, I doubt not, readily recollect the common story
of Richard I., who, being closely confined in a castle belonging to
the duke of Austria, was discovered by his favourite minstrel Blondel,
a celebrated troubadour, through the means of a poem composed by the
poet, in conjunction with his royal master. The story is thus related
in a very ancient French author, quoted by Claude Fauchet: Blondel,
seeing that his lord did not return, though it was reported that he had
passed the sea from Syria, thought that he was taken by his enemies,
and probably very evilly entreated; he therefore determined to find
him, and for this purpose travelled through many countries without
success: at last he came to a small town, near which was a castle
belonging to the duke of Austria; and, having learned from his host
that there was a prisoner in the castle who had been confined for
upwards of a year, he went thither, and cultivated an acquaintance
with the keepers; for a minstrel, says the author, can easily make
acquaintance. However, he could not obtain a sight of the prisoner,
nor learn his quality; he therefore placed himself near to a window
belonging to the tower wherein he was shut up, and sang a few verses
of a song which had been composed conjointly by him and his patron.
The king, hearing the first part of the song, repeated the second;
which convinced the poet, that the prisoner was no other than Richard
himself. Hastening therefore into England, he acquainted the barons
with his adventure, and they, by means of a large sum of money,
procured the liberty of the monarch.[587]
XI.--JESTOURS.
The conteurs and the jestours, who are also called dissours, and
seggers, or sayers, and, in the Latin of that time, fabulatores, and
naratores, were literally, in English, tale-tellers, who recited either
their own compositions or those of others, consisting of popular tales
and romances, for the entertainment of public companies, on occasions
of joy and festivity. Gower, a writer contemporary with Chaucer,
describing the coronation of a Roman emperor, says,
When every ministrell had playde,
And every dissour had sayde,
Which was most pleasaunt in his ear.[588]
In a manuscript collection of Old Stories, in the Harleian Library, we
read of a king who kept a tale-teller on purpose to lull him to sleep
every night; but some untoward accident having prevented him from
taking his repose so readily as usual, he desired the fabulator to tell
him longer stories; who obeyed, and began one upon a more extensive
scale, and fell asleep himself in the midst of it.
XII.--TALES AND MANNERS OF THE JESTOURS.
The jestours, or, as the word is often written in the old English
dialect, gesters, were the relaters of the gestes, that is, the actions
of famous persons, whether fabulous or real; and these stories were of
two kinds, the one to excite pity, and the other to move laughter, as
we learn from Chaucer:[589]
And jestours that tellen tales,
Both of wepying and of game.
The tales of game, as the poet expresses himself, were short jocular
stories calculated to promote merriment, in which the reciters paid
little respect to the claims of propriety, or even of common decency.
The tales of game, however, were much more popular than those of
weeping, and probably for the very reason that ought to have operated
the most powerfully for their suppression. The gestours, whose
powers were chiefly employed in the hours of conviviality, finding
by experience that lessons of instruction were much less seasonable
at such times, than idle tales productive of mirth and laughter,
accommodated their narrations to the general taste of the times,
regardless of the mischiefs they occasioned by vitiating the morals of
their hearers; hence it is, that the author of the Vision of Pierce the
Ploughman calls them contemptibly "japers, and juglers, and janglers
of gests."[590] He describes them also as haunters of taverns and
common alehouses, amusing the lower classes of the people with "myrth
of minstrelsy and losels tales," loose vulgar tales, and calls them
tale-tellers and "tutelers in ydell," tutors of idleness, occasioning
their auditory, "for love of tales, in tavernes to drink," where they
learned from them to jangle and to jape, instead of attending to their
more serious duties, he therefore makes one to say,
I can not parfitly my pater noster as the priest it singeth,
But I can ryms of Roben Hode, and Randol erl of Chester
But of our Lord or our Lady I lerne nothing at all:
I am occupied every daye, holy daye, and other,
With idle tales at the ale.[591]--
He then blames the opulent for rewarding these "devils dissours," as he
calls them, and adds,
He is worse than Judas that giveth a japer silver.[592]
The japers, I apprehend, were the same as the bourdours, or rybauders,
an inferior class of minstrels, and properly called jesters in
the modern acceptation of the word; whose wit, like that of the
merry-andrews of the present day, consisted in low obscenity,
accompanied with ludicrous gesticulation. They sometimes, however,
found admission into the houses of the opulent. Knighton indeed
mentions one of these japers who was a favourite in the English court,
and could obtain any grant from the king "a burdando," that is, by
jesting. They are well described by the poet:
As japers and janglers, Judas chyldren,
Fayneth them fantasies, and fooles them maketh.[593]
It was a very common and a very favourite amusement, so late as the
sixteenth century, to hear the recital of verses and moral speeches,
learned for that purpose, by a set of men who obtained their livelihood
thereby, and who, without ceremony, intruded themselves, not only into
taverns and other places of public resort, but also into the houses of
the nobility.
XIII.--FURTHER ILLUSTRATION OF THEIR PRACTICES.
The different talents of the minstrels are sarcastically described by
an ancient French poet;[594] who, supposing a company of them assembled
in the hall of an opulent nobleman, says, the count caused it to be
made known to them, that he would give his best new scarlet robe to the
minstrel who should occasion the most merriment, either by ridiculous
words or by actions, la meillor truffe--dire ne faire. This proposal
occasioned them to strive with each other; some of them imitated the
imbecility of drunkards, others the actions of fools, some sang, others
piped, li autre note, which properly signifies the pricking, or writing
of musical notes, but it is also applied to the playing upon pipes
and other musical instruments by note; some talked nonsense, and some
made scurrilous jests; those who understood the juggler's art played
upon the vielle, cil qui sevent la jouglerie vielant; and here it may
be noted, that the vielle seems to have been an instrument of music
chiefly used by the jugglers; others of them depended on the narration
of quaint fables, which were productive of much laughter. So far the
poet; and, if his statement be not very distant from the truth, we
shall not wonder at the outcry of our moral and religious writers
against such a mean and mercenary set of men, who were ready at command
to prostitute their abilities to the worst of purposes, and encourage
the growth of immorality and dissipation; the charge indeed is heavy,
but I fear it will be found to stand upon a strong and permanent
foundation.
XIV.--PATRONAGE, PRIVILEGES, AND EXCESSES OF THE MINSTRELS.
There is great reason to conclude that the professors of music were
more generally encouraged, and of course more numerous in this
country, subsequent to the Norman conquest, than they had been under
the government of the Saxons. We are told, that the courts of princes
swarmed with poets and minstrels. The earls also and great barons, who
in their castles emulated the pomp and state of royalty, had their
poets and minstrels: they formed part of their household establishment;
and, exclusive of their wages, were provided with board, lodging, and
clothing by their patrons, and frequently travelled with them when they
went from home.
These minstrels, as well as those belonging to the court, were
permitted to perform in the rich monasteries, and in the mansions of
the nobility, which they frequently visited in large parties, and
especially upon occasions of festivity. They entered the castles
without the least ceremony, rarely waiting for any previous invitation,
and there exhibited their performances for the entertainment of the
lord of the mansion and his guests. They were, it seems, admitted
without any difficulty, and handsomely rewarded for the exertion of
their talents.
It was no uncommon thing with the itinerant minstrels to find admission
into the houses of the opulent. The Saxon and the Danish gleemen
followed the armies in the time of war, and had access to both the
camps without the least molestation. The popular story of king Alfred,
recorded by William of Malmsbury and other writers, may be mentioned
in proof of this assertion. He, it is said, assumed the character of
a gleeman, sub specie mimi--ut joculatoriæ professor artis,[595] and
entered the Danish camp, where he made such observations as were of
infinite service. To this we may add the authority of Ingulphus, whose
words are, singens se joculatorem, assumpta cithara, &c.[596] This
stratagem was afterwards repeated by Anlaff, or Aulaff, the Dane, who
was equally successful. He assumed, says the historian, professionem
mimi, the profession of the mimic, "who by this species of art makes a
daily gain;" and then adds, "being commanded to depart, he took with
him the reward for his song."[597]
The extensive privileges enjoyed by the minstrels, and the long
continuance of the public favour, inflated their pride and made
them insolent; they even went so far as to claim their reward by a
prescriptive right, and settled its amount according to the estimation
they had formed of their own abilities, and the opulence of the
noblemen into whose houses they thought proper to intrude. The large
gratuities collected by these artists not only occasioned great numbers
to join their fraternity, but also induced many idle and dissipated
persons to assume the characters of minstrels, to the disgrace of the
profession. These evils became at last so notorious, that in the reign
of king Edward II. it was thought necessary to restrain them by a
public edict, which sufficiently explains the nature of the grievance.
It states, that many indolent persons, under the colour of minstrelsy,
intruded themselves into the residences of the wealthy, where they had
both meat and drink, but were not contented without the addition of
large gifts from the householder. To restrain this abuse, the mandate
ordains, that no person should resort to the houses of prelates, earls,
or barons, to eat, or to drink, who was not a professed minstrel;
nor more than three or four minstrels of honour at most in one day,
meaning, I presume, the king's minstrels and those retained by the
nobility, except they came by invitation from the lord of the house.
Thus we read in the old romance of Launfel,
They had menstrelles of moche honours,
Fydelers, sytolyrs, and trompoters.
The edict also prohibits a professed minstrel from going to the house
of any person below the dignity of a baron, unless invited by the
master; and, in that case, it commands him to be contented with meat
and drink, and such reward as the housekeeper willingly offered,
without presuming to ask for any thing. For the first offence the
minstrel lost his minstrelsy, and for the second he was obliged
to forswear his profession, and was never to appear again as a
minstrel.[598] This edict is dated from Langley, 6, an. 9 Edward II.
A.D. 1315.
XV.--A GUILD OF MINSTRELS.
In little more than a century afterwards, the same grievances became
again the subject of complaint; and in the ninth year of Edward IV.
it was stated, that certain rude husbandmen and artificers of various
trades had assumed the title and livery of the king's minstrels, and,
under that colour and pretence, had collected money in divers parts of
the kingdom, and committed other disorders; the king therefore granted
to Walter Haliday, marshal, and to seven others, his own minstrels,
named by him, a charter, by which he created, or rather restored,
a fraternity, or perpetual guild, such as the king understood the
brothers and sisters of the fraternity of minstrels to have possessed
in former time; and we shall see, a little further on, that the
minstrel's art, or part of it at least, was practised by females in the
time of the Saxons. This fraternity was to be governed by a marshal
appointed for life, the same office as that anciently possessed by
the king of the minstrels,[599] and two wardens, who were empowered
to admit members into the guild, and to regulate and govern, and
to punish, when necessary, all such as exercised the profession of
minstrels throughout the kingdom. The minstrels of Chester, who had by
charter several peculiar privileges, are excepted in this act.
XVI.--ABUSES AND DECLINE OF MINSTRELSY.
It does not appear that much good was effected by the foregoing
institution; it neither corrected the abuses practised by the
fraternity, nor retrieved their reputation, which declined apace
from this period. Under queen Elizabeth, the minstrels had lost the
protection of the opulent; and their credit was sunk so low in the
public estimation, that, by a statute in the thirty-ninth year of her
reign against vagrants, they were included among the rogues, vagabonds,
and sturdy beggars, and subjected to the like punishments. This edict
also affected all fencers, bearwards, common players of interludes
(with the exception of such players as belonged to great personages,
and were authorised to play under the hand and seal of their patrons),
as well as minstrels wandering abroad, jugglers, tinkers, and pedlars;
and seems to have given the death's wound to the profession of the
minstrels, who had so long enjoyed the public favour, and basked in
the sunshine of prosperity. The name, however, remained, and was
applied to itinerant fiddlers and other musicians, whose miserable
state is thus described by Putenham, in his Arte of English Poësie,
printed in 1589:[600] "Ballads and small popular musickes sung by
these cantabanqui upon benches and barrels heads, where they have none
other audience than boyes or countrye fellowes that passe by them in
the streete, or else by blind harpers, or such like taverne minstrels
that give a fit of mirth for a groat; and their matters being for the
most part stories of old time, as the tale of sir Topas, Bevis of
Southampton, Guy of Warwick, Adam Bell and Clymme of the Clough, and
such other old romances or historical rhimes, made purposely for the
recreation of the common people at Christmas dinners and bride ales,
and in tavernes and alehouses, and such other places of base resort."
Bishop Hall, the satirist, adverts to the low estate of the minstrels
at this time, in the two last lines of the following couplet:
Much better than a Paris-garden beare,
Or prating puppet on a theatre,
Or Mimoes whistling to his tabouret,
Selling a laughter for a cold meales meat.[601]
It is necessary, however, to observe, that public and private bands
of musicians were called minstrels for a considerable time after this
period, and without the least indication of disgrace; but then the
appellation seems to have been confined to the instrumental performers,
and such of them as were placed upon a regular establishment:
the musicians of the city of London, for instance, were called
indifferently waits and minstrels.[602] In the reign of Henry VII.
there were musicians belonging to the royal household, called stryng
minstrels.
We hear of the itinerant musicians again in an ordinance from Oliver
Cromwell, dated 1656, during his protectorship, which prohibits "all
persons commonly called fidlers, or minstrells," from "playing,
fidling, and making music, in any inn, alehouse, or tavern;" and also
from "proffering themselves, or desireing, or intreating any one to
hear them play, or make music in the places aforesaid." The only
vestige of these musical vagrants now remaining, is to be found in the
blind fiddlers wandering about the country, and the ballad singers, who
frequently accompany their ditties with instrumental music, especially
the fiddle, vulgarly called a crowd, and the guitar. And here we may
observe, that the name of fiddlers was applied to the minstrels as
early at least as the fourteenth century: it occurs in the Vision of
Pierce the Ploughman,[603] where we read, "not to fare as a fydeler, or
a frier, to seke feastes." It is also used, but not sarcastically, in
the poem of Launfel.[604]
XVII.--MINSTRELS WERE SATIRISTS AND FLATTERERS.
The British bards employed their musical talents in the praise of
heroic virtue, or in the censure of vice, apparently without any great
expectation of reward on the one hand, or fear of punishment on the
other. The Scandinavian scalds celebrated the valiant actions of
their countrymen in appropriate verses; and sometimes accompanied the
warriors to the field of battle, that they might behold their exploits
and describe them with more accuracy. The gleemen of the Saxons
imitated their predecessors, and attached themselves to the persons
of princes and chieftains, and retained their favour by continual
adulation. The minstrels of the Normans trod in the same steps, but
seem to have been more venal, and ready at all times to flatter or to
satirize, as best suited their interest, without paying much regard to
justice on either side.
XVIII.--ANECDOTES OF OFFENDING MINSTRELS.
It is said of William Longchamp, bishop of Ely, chancellor and
justiciary of England, who was also the Pope's legate, and a great
favourite of Richard I., that he kept a number of poets in his pay, to
make songs and poems in his praise; and also, that with great gifts
he allured many of the best singers and minstrels from the continent,
to sing those songs in the public streets of the principal cities in
England.[605]
It was, on the other hand, a very dangerous employment to censure
the characters of great personages, or hold their actions up to
ridicule; for, though the satirist might be secure at the moment, he
was uncertain that fortune would not one day or another put him into
the power of his adversary, which was the case with Luke de Barra, a
celebrated Norman minstrel; who, in his songs having made very free
with the character of Henry I. of England, by some untoward accident
fell into the hands of the irritated monarch. He condemned him to have
his eyes pulled out: and, when the earl of Flanders, who was present,
pleaded warmly in his favour, the king replied: "This man, being a
wit, a poet, and a minstrel, composed many indecent songs against me,
and sung them openly to the great entertainment of mine enemies; and,
since it has pleased God to deliver him into my hands, I will punish
him, to deter others from the like petulance." The cruel sentence was
executed, and the miserable satirist died soon after with the wounds he
had received in struggling with the executioner.[606] The gratification
of a mean revenge is a strong mark of a little mind; and this
inhumanity reflects great discredit upon the king: it would have been
noble in him to have pardoned the unfortunate culprit.
Again, in the reign of king Edward II., at the solemnization of
the feast of Pentecost in the great hall at Westminster, when that
prince was seated at dinner in royal state, and attended by the peers
of the realm, a woman habited like a minstrel, riding upon a great
horse trapped in the minstrel fashion, entered the hall, and, going
round the several tables, imitated the gestures of a mimic,[607]
and at length mounted the steps to the royal table, upon which she
deposited a letter; and, having so done, she turned her horse, and
saluting all the company, retired. The letter was found to contain
some very severe reflections upon the conduct of the monarch, which
greatly angered him; and the actress, being arrested by his command,
discovered the author of the letter, who acknowledged the offence and
was pardoned; but the door-keeper, being reprimanded on account of her
admission, excused himself, by declaring it had never been customary to
prevent the entry of minstrels and persons in disguisements, upon the
supposition that they came for the entertainment of his majesty.[608]
This woman had probably assumed the habit of a man, and a female was
chosen on this occasion, according to the opinion of an eminent modern
author, Dr. Percy, bishop of Dromore,[609] because, upon detection,
her sex might plead for her, and disarm the king's resentment. It is,
however, certain that at this time, and long before it, there were
women who practised the minstrel's art, or at least some branches of
it. We read of the glee-maidens, or female minstrels, from ᵹılƿ-meꝺen
and ᵹlẏƿıenꝺe-maꝺen, in the Saxon records; and I believe, that their
province in general was to dance and to tumble, whence they acquired
the name of tomblesteres, from the Saxon ꞇumbıan, to dance or tumble,
and saylours, from salio, to leap or dance, in the time of Chaucer, who
uses both these denominations.[610]
XIX.--THE DRESS OF THE MINSTRELS.
It is very clear, that the minstrels wore a peculiar kind of dress by
which they might readily be distinguished: the woman above mentioned
is expressly said to have been habited like a mimic or a minstrel,
and by that means obtained admission without the least difficulty to
the royal presence. I remember also a story recorded in a manuscript,
written about the reign of Edward III., of a young man of family, who
came to a feast, where many of the nobility were present, in a vesture
called a coat bardy, cut short in the German fashion, and resembling
the dress of a minstrel. The oddity of his habit attracted the notice
of the company, and especially of an elderly knight, to whom he was
well known, who thus addressed him: "Where, my friend, is your fiddle,
your ribible, or such-like instrument belonging to a minstrel?" "Sir,"
replied the young man, "I have no crafte nor science in using such
instruments." "Then," returned the knight, "you are much to blame; for,
if you choose to debase yourself and your family by appearing in the
garb of a minstrel, it is fitting you should be able to perform his
duty."[611] On a column in Saint Mary's church at Beverley in Yorkshire
is the following inscription: "This pillar made the mynstrylls;"
its capital is decorated with five men in short coats, and one of
them holds an instrument like a lute.[612] The minstrels retained in
noblemen's families wore their lords' livery; and those appertaining to
the royal household did the same. The edict of Edward IV. against the
pretended minstrels, mentioned above, expressly says, that they assumed
the name, and the livery or dress, of the king's own minstrels.[613]
The queen had also minstrels in her service, who probably wore a
livery different from those of the king for distinction-sake. In a
computus of expences, an. 11 Edw. III. in the Cotton Library, is this
entry: "Johanni de Mees de Lorem. et Petro de Wurgund. ministrallis
dominæ reginæ, facientibus ministralsias suas coram domino rege apud
Eboracum;" for which they received from the king's own hand six
shillings and eight pence each.[614] The following lines, which are
somewhat to the purpose, occur in an old historical poem, in the
Harleian Collection: they relate to sir Edward Stanley, who is highly
praised by the author for his great skill in playing upon all kinds of
instruments:
He stood before the kinge, doubtless this was true,
In a fayre gowne of cloth of gold, and of tilshewe,
Lyke no common mynstrel, to shew taverne mirth,
But lyke a noble man, both of lands, and of birth.[615]
And again, in the history of John Newchombe, the famous clothier of
Newbury, usually called Jack of Newbury, it is said, "They had not
sitten long, but in comes a noise[616] of musicians in tawnie coats;
who, putting off their caps, asked if they would have any music?"
It appears that the minstrels sometimes shaved the crowns of their
heads like the monks, and also assumed an ecclesiastical habit; this
was probably an external garment only, and used when they travelled
from place to place. The succeeding anecdote will prove that the
ecclesiastics and the mimics were not always readily distinguished from
each other: Two itinerant priests coming towards night to a cell of the
Benedictines near Oxford, they there, upon the supposition of their
being mimics, or minstrels, gained admittance; but the cellarer, the
sacrist, and others of the brethren, disappointed in the expectation
they had formed of being entertained with mirthful performances, and
finding them to be nothing more than two indigent ecclesiastics, beat
them, and turned them out of the monastery.[617]
XX.--THE KING OF THE MINSTRELS.
The king's minstrel, frequently in Latin called joculator regis or the
king's juggler, was an officer of rank in the courts of the Norman
monarchs. He had the privilege of accompanying his master when he
journeyed, and of being near his person; and probably was the regulator
of the royal sports, and appointed the other minstrels belonging to the
household; for which reason, I presume, he was also called the king,
or chief of the minstrels. At what time this title was first conferred
on him does not appear: we meet with it, however, in an account of the
public expenditures made in the fifth year of Edward I.; at which time,
the king of the minstrels, whose name was Robert, received his
master's pay for military services.[618] The same name, with the same
title annexed to it, occurs again in a similar record, dated the fourth
year of Edward II.; when he, in company with various other minstrels,
exhibeted before the king and his court, then held in the city of
York; and received forty marks, to be by him distributed among the
fraternity.[619]
The title of royalty was not confined to the king's chief minstrel: it
was also bestowed upon the regent of other companies of musicians, as
we find in a charter granted by John of Gaunt, duke of Lancaster, to
the minstrels of Tutbury in Staffordshire. This document he addresses,
under his seal, at the castle of Tutbury, August 24, in the fourth year
of Richard II., to nostre bene ame le roy des ministraulx, his well
beloved the king of the minstrels; and concedes to him full power and
commission to oblige the minstrels belonging to the honour of Tutbury
to perform their services and minstrelsies in the same manner that
they had been accustomed to be done in ancient times.[620] In a ballad
intituled "The marriage of Robin Hood and Clorinda the Queen of Tutbury
Feast,"[621] written probably after the disgrace of the minstrels, this
officer is called the king of the fidlers. The poet supposes himself to
have been present at the wedding, and witness of the facts he relates;
and therefore he speaks thus:
This battle was fought near to Titbury town,
When the bagpipes baited the bull.
I am king of the fidlers, and swear 'tis a truth,
And I call him that doubts it a gull.
Claude Fauchet, a French author of eminence, before quoted, speaking
concerning the title of king, formerly given to many officers belonging
to the court, makes these observations: "I am well assured, the
word king signifies comptroller, or head, as the chief heralds are
called kings at arms, because it belonged solely to them to regulate
the ceremonies of the justs and tournaments." He then applies this
reasoning to the Roy des Ribaulx, an officer in the ancient court of
France;[622] and says, his charge was to clear the palace of indolent
and disorderly persons, who followed the court, and had no business
there; and had his title as king of vagabonds, because he was the
examiner and corrector of dissolute persons.[623] In like manner, I
presume, in this country, the king of the minstrels was the governor
and director of the fraternity over which he presided. The title was
dropped in the reign of Edward IV., and that of marshal became its
substitute.
XXI.--REWARDS GIVEN TO MINSTRELS.
In the middle ages, the courts of princes, and the residences of the
opulent, were crowded with minstrels; and such large sums of money
were expended for their maintenance, that the public treasuries were
often drained. Matilda, queen to Henry I., is said to have lavished the
greater part of her revenue upon poets and minstrels, and oppressed her
tenants to procure more.[624] She was, however, by no means singular
in so doing, as the invectives of the monks sufficiently demonstrate.
These selfish professors of religion grudged every act of munificence
that was not applied to themselves, or their monasteries; and could
not behold the good fortune of the minstrels without expressing their
indignation; which they often did in terms of scurrilous abuse, calling
them janglers, mimics, buffoons, monsters of men, and contemptible
scoffers. They also severely censured the nobility for patronizing and
rewarding such a shameless set of sordid flatterers, and the populace
for frequenting their exhibitions, and being delighted with their
performances, which diverted them from more serious pursuits, and
corrupted their morals.[625] On the other hand, the minstrels appear to
have been ready enough to give them ample occasion for censure; and,
indeed, I apprehend that their own immorality and insolence contributed
more to their downfall, than all the defamatory declamations of their
opponents. The ecclesiastics were mightily pleased with the conduct
of the emperor Henry III., because, at his marriage with Agnes of
Poictou, he disappointed the poor minstrels who had assembled in great
multitudes on the occasion, giving them neither food nor rewards, but
"sent them away," says a monkish author, "with empty purses, and
hearts full of sorrow."[626] But to go on.
The rewards given to the minstrels did not always consist in money, but
frequently in rich mantles and embroidered vestments: they received,
says Fauchet, great presents from the nobility, who would sometimes
give them even the robes with which they were clothed. It was a common
custom in the middle ages to give vestments of different kinds to
the minstrels. In an ancient poem, cited by Fauchet, called La Robe
Vermeille, or, The Red Robe, the wife of a vavaser, that is, one
who, holding of a superior lord, has tenants under him, reproaches
her husband for accepting a robe; "Such gifts," says she, "belong
to jugglers, and other singing men, who receive garments from the
nobility, because it is their trade:
S'appartient à ces jorgleours,
Et à ces autres chanteours,
Quils ayent de ces chevaliers,
Les robes car c'est lor mestier."[627]
These garments the jugglers failed not to take with them to other
courts, in order to excite a similar liberality. Another artifice they
often used, which was, to make the heroes of their poems exceedingly
bountiful to the minstrels, who appear to have been introduced for that
purpose: thus, in the metrical romance of Ipomedon, where the poet
speaks of the knight's marriage, he says--
Ipomydon gaff, in that stound,
To mynstrelles five hundred pound.[628]
The author of Pierce the Ploughman, who lived in the reign of Edward
III., gives the following general description of the different
performances of the minstrels, and of their rewards, at that period:
I am mynstrell, quoth that man; my name is Activa Vita;
All Idle iche hate,[629] for All Active is my name;
A wafirer[630] well ye wyt; and serve many lordes,
And few robes I get, or faire furred gownes.
Could I lye, to do[631] men laugh; then lachen[632] I should
Nother mantill, nor money, amonges lords minstrels:
And, for[633] I can neither taber, ne trumpe, ne tell no gestes,
Fartin ne fislen, at feastes, ne harpen;
Jape, ne juggle, ne gentilly pype,
Ne neither saylen ne saute,[634] ne singe to the gytterne,
I have no good giftes to please the great lordes.
And, if we refer to history, we shall find that the poets are not
incorrect in their statement. Gaston earl of Foix, whose munificence
is much commended by Froissart, lived in a style of splendour little
inferior to that of royalty. The historian, speaking of a grand
entertainment given by this nobleman, which he had an opportunity
of seeing, says, "Ther wer many mynstrells, as well of his own,
as of straungers; and each of them dyd their devoyre, in their
faculties.[635] The same day the earl of Foix gave to the heraulds
and minstrelles the som of five hundred frankes; and gave to the duke
of Tourayn's minstrelles gownes of cloth of gold, furred with ermyne,
valued at two hundred frankes."[636]
Respecting the pecuniary rewards of the minstrels, we have, among
others, the following accounts. At the marriage of Elizabeth, daughter
of Edward I. to John earl of Holland, every king's minstrel received
forty shillings.[637] In the fourth of Edward II. Perrot de la Laund,
minstrel to lord Hugh de Nevill, received twenty shillings for
performing his minstrelsy before the king.[638] In the same year,
Janino la Cheveretter, who is called Le Tregettour,[639] was paid
at one time forty shillings, and at another twenty, for the same
service; and John le Mendlesham, the boy[640] of Robert le Foll, twenty
shillings;[641] the same sum was also given to John le Boteller, the
boy of Perrot Duzedeys, for his performances; and, again, Perrot
Duzedeys, Roger the Trumpeter, and Janino le Nakerer, all of them
king's minstrels, received from the king sixty shillings for the like
service.
XXII.--PAYMENTS TO MINSTRELS.
In the eighth year of Edward III., licence was granted to Barbor the
Bagpiper, to visit the schools for minstrels in parts beyond the
seas,[642] with thirty shillings to bear his expenses. Licence was also
granted to Morlan the Bagpiper, to visit the minstrels' schools; and
forty shillings for his expenses.[643] A little lower we find a present
of five shillings made by the king to a minstrel, for performing his
minstrelsy before the image of the Blessed Virgin.[644] In the eleventh
year of the same reign, John de Hoglard, minstrel to John de Pulteney,
was paid forty shillings for exhibiting before the king at Hatfield,
and at London;[645] and to Roger the Trumpeter, and to the minstrels
his associates, performing at the feast for the queen's delivery, held
at Hatfield, ten pounds.[646] In the ninth year of Henry VII. "Pudesay
the piper in bagpipes," received six shillings and eight pence from the
king, for his performance.[647] In the fourteenth year of his reign,
five pounds were paid to three stryng-mynstrels for wages, but the time
is not specified; in a subsequent entry, however, we find that fifteen
shillings were given to "a stryng-mynstrel, for one moneth's wages;"
also to a "straunge taberer, in reward, sixty-six shillings and eight
pence."[648]
XXIII--WEALTH OF CERTAIN MINSTRELS.
In the middle ages, the professors of minstrelsy had the opportunity of
amassing much wealth; and certainly some of them were men of property.
In Domesday Book, it appears that Berdic, the king's joculator, had
lands in Gloucestershire;[649] Raher, or Royer, mimus rex, the mimic,
or minstrel, belonging to Henry I., was the founder of the hospital
and priory of Saint Bartholomew, in West Smithfield;[650] and the
minstrels contributed towards building the church of Saint Mary, at
Beverley in Yorkshire, as the inscription on one of the pillars plainly
indicates;[651] though, it must be owned, their general character does
not bear the marks of prudence, as the reader must have observed in the
perusal of this section.
XXIV.--MINSTRELS SOMETIMES DANCING MASTERS.
It has already been observed, that the name of minstrels was frequently
applied to instrumental performers, who did not profess any other
branch of the minstrelsy. In an old morality called Lusty Juventus, it
is said,
Who knoweth where is ere a minstrel?
By the Masse, I would fayne go daunce a fit.[652]
This passage calls to my memory a circumstance recorded by Fauchet,
which proves that the minstrels were sometimes dancing masters. "I
remember," says he, "to have seen Martin Baraton, an aged minstrel of
Orleans, who was accustomed to play upon the tambourine at weddings,
and on other occasions of festivity. His instrument was silver,
decorated with small plates of the same metal,[653] on which were
engraved the arms of those he had taught to dance."