Notes and Illustrations Referred to in the Foregoing Essay. .......................................
(A)The Minstrels, &c.] The word Minstrel does not appear to have been in use here
before the Nornian Conquest; whereas it had long before that time been adopted in
France.[1] MENESTREL, so early as the eighth century, was a title given to the
Maestro di Capellaof K. Pepin, the father of Charlemagne; and afterwards to the
Coryphæus, or leader of any band of musicians. [Vide Burney's Hist. of Music, ii.
268.] This termMenestrel, Menestrier, was thus expressed in Latin,Ministellus,
Ministrellus, Ministrallus, Menesterellus, &c. [Vide Gloss. Du Cange, & Supplem]
Menage derives the French words above mentioned fromMinisterialisor
Ministeriarius, barbarous Latin terms, used in the Middle Ages to express a workman
or artificer (still called in LanguedocMinistral), as if there men were styled
ARTIFICERS or PEERFORMERS by way of excellence.-- Vide Diction. Etym. But
the origin of the name is given perhaps more truly by Du Cange:
MINISTELLI... quos vulgoMenestreuxvelMenestriersappellamus, quod
minoribus aulæMinistrisaccenserentur," [Gloss. iv. p. 769.] Accordingly, we are
told, the wordMinisteris sometimes used proMinistellus[ibid.], and as instance is
produced which I shall insert at large in the next paragraph.
Minstrels sometimes assisted at divine service, as appears from the record of
the 9th of Edward IV., quoted above, by which Haliday and others are erected into a
perpetual Gild, &c.-- See the original in Rymer, xi. 642. By part of this record it is
recited to be their duty "to pray (exorare: which it is presented they did by assisting in
the chant, and musical accompaniment, &c.) in the King's chapel, and particularly for
the departed souls of the King and Queen, when they shall die," &c. The same also
appears from the passage in the Supplem. to Du Cange, alluded to above.
"MINISTER... proMinistellusJoculator."[2] -- Vetus Ceremoniale MS. B. M.
deauratæ Tolos. "Item, etiam congregabuntur Piscatores, qui debent interesse isto die
in processione cumMinistrisseuJoculatoribus: quia ipsi Piscatores tenentur habere
iste dieJoculatores, seuMimos, obhonorem Crucis-- et vadunt primi ante
processionem cumMinistrisseuJoculatoribussemper pulsantibus usque ad
Ecclesiam S. Stephani." [Gloss. 773.] This may perhaps account for the clerical
appearance of the Minstrels, who seem to have been distinguished by the Tonsure,
which was one of the inferior marks of the clerical character[3] Thus Geoffrey of
Monmouth, speaking of one who acted the part of a Minstrel, says, "Rasit capillos
suos et barbam]." (See note K.) Again, a writer in the reign of Elizabeth, describing
the habit of an ancient Minstrel, speaks of his head as "rounded Tonster-wise" (which
I venture to read Tonsure-wise), "his beard smugly shaven." -- See above.
It must, however, be observed, that notwithstanding such clerical appearance
of the Minstrels, and though they might be sometimes countenanced by such of the
clergy as were of more relaxed morals, their sportive talents rendered them generally
obnoxious to the more rigid ecclesiastics, and to such of the religious orders as were
of more severe discipline; whose writings commonly abound with heavy complaints
of the great encouragement shown to those men by the princes and nobles, and who
can seldom afford them a better name than that ofScurræ Famelici, Nebulones, &c.,
of which innumerable instances may be seen in Du Cange. It was even an established
order in some of the monasteries, that no Minstrel should ever be suffered to enter the
gates[4].