Again, a little below, the poet having enumerated the performers on all the
different sorts of instruments, adds,
"There sawn I syt in other sees
Playing upon other sundryGlees
Which that I cannot neven[13]
More than stares ben in heven," &c.
Upon the above lines I shall only make a few observations:(1) That byJestours, I suppose we are to understand Gestours; scil. the relaters of
Gests (Lat.Gesta), or stories of adventures both comic and tragical, whether true or
feigned; I am inclined to add, whether in prose or verse. [Compare the record below,
in note subjoined to (V2).] Of the stories in prose, I conceive we have specimens in
that singular book the Gesta Romanorum, and this will account for its seemingly
improper title. These were evidently what the French calledConteours, or Story
Tellers, and to them we are probably indebted for the first prose Romances of
chivalry; which may be considered as specimens of their manner.
(2) That the "Briton Glaskyrion," whoever he was, is apparently the same person with
our famous harper Glasgerion, of whom the reader will find a tragical ballad in vol. ii.
no. vii. b. ii. In that song may be seen an instance of what was advanced above in note
(E), of the dignity of the minstrel profession, or at least of the artifice with which the
minstrels endeavoured to set off its importance.
Thus "a king's son is represented as appearing in the character of a harper or
minstrel in the court of another king. He wears a collar (or gold chain) as a person of
illustrious rank, rides on horseback, and is admitted to the embraces of a king's
daughter."
The Minstrels lost no opportunity of doing honour to their art.(3) As for the wordGlees, it is to this day used in a musical sense, and applied to a
peculiar piece of composition. Who has not seen the advertisements proposing a
reward to him who should produce the best Catch, Canon, or Glee?
(K)Comes from the pen of Geoffrey of Monmouth.] Geoffrey's own words are, "Cum
ergo alterius modi aditum [Bodulphus] non haberet, rasit capillos suos et barbam,[14]
cultumqueJoculatoriscum Cythara fecit. Deinde intra castra deambulans, modulis
quos in Lyra componebat, seseCytharistamexhibebat."-- Galf. Monum. Hist. 4to,
1508, lib. vii. c. 1. ThatJoculatorsignifies precisely a Minstrel, appears not only from
this passage, where it is used as a word of like import toCitharista, or harper (which
was the old English word for Minstrel), but also from another passage of the same
author, where it is applied as equivalent toCantor.-- See lib. i. cap. 22, where,
speaking of an ancient (perhaps fabulous) British king, he says, "Hic omnes Cantores
quos præcedens ætas habuerat et in modulis et in omnibus musicis instrumentis
excedebat; ita ut Deus Joculatorum videretur." Whatever credit is due to Geoffrey as a
relater offacts, he is certainly as good authority as any for the signification ofwords.
(L)Two remarkable facts.] Both of these facts are recorded by William of
Malmesbury; amt the first of them, relating to Alfred, by Ingulphus also. Now
Igulphus (afterwards Abbot of Croyland) was near forty years of age at the time of the
Conquest[15]; and consequently was as proper a judge of the Saxon manners as if he
had actually written his history before that event; he is therefore to be considered as
an Ante-Norman writer; so that, whether the fact concerning Alfred be true or not, we
are assured from his testimony, that theJoculatoror Minstrel was a common