And here I would observe, that although Fauchet and other subsequent writers
affect to arrange the several memhers of the minstrel profession under the different
classes ofTroverres(or Troubadours),Chanterres,Conteours, andJugleurs, &c., as
if they were distinct.mid separate orders of men, clearly distinguished from each other
by these appropriate terms, we find insufficient grounds for this in the oldest writers;
but the general names in Latin,Histrio, Mimus, Joculator, Ministrallus, &c.; in
French,Menestrier, Menestrel, Jongleur, Jugleur, &c.; and in English,Jogeleur,
Jugler, Minstrel, and the like, seem to be given them indiscriminately. And one or
other of these names seems to have been sometimes applied to every species of men
whose business it was to entertain or divert (joculari), whether with poesy, singing,
music, or gesticulation, singly, or with a mixture of all these. Yet as all men of this
sort were considered as belonging to one class, order, or community (many of the
above arts being sometimes exercised by the same person), they had all of them
doubtless the same privileges, and it equally throws light upon the general history of
the profession, to show what favour or encouragement was given, at any particular
period of time, to any one branch of it. I have not, therefore, thought it needful to
inquire, whether, in the various passages quoted in these pages, the wordMinstrel,
&c., is always to be understood in its exact and proper meaning of a Singer to the
Harp, &c.
That men of very different arts and talents were included under the common
name ofMinstrels, &c.appears from a variety of authorities. Thus we haveMenestrels
de Trompes, andMenestrels de Bouche, in the Suppl. to Du Cange, c. 1227, and it
appears still more evident from an old French Rhymer, whom I shall quote at large.
"Les quens[25] manda lesMenestrels;
Et si a fet, crier entre els,
Qui la meillor truffe[26] sauroit
Dire, ne faire qu'il auroit
Sa robe d'escarlate neuve.
L'uns menestrels a l'autre reuve
Fere son mestier, tells qu'il sot
Li uns fet l'yvre, li autre sot;
Li uns chante, l'autre note;
Et li autres dit la riote;
Et li autres la jenglerie;[27]
Cil qui sevent de jonglerie
Vielent par devant le conte
Aucuns ja qui fabliaus conte
Il i ot dit mainte riseé", &c. –
Fabliaux et Contes, 1mo., tom 11. p.161
And what species of entertainment was afforded by the ancient Juggleurs, we
learn from the following citation from an old Romance, written in 1230:-
"Quand les tables ostees furent
C'iljuggleursin pies esturent
S'ont vielles, et harpes prisees,
Chansons, sons, vers, et reprises
Etgesteschanté nos ont."
Sir A. Hawkins, ii. 44, from Andr. Du Chene.-- See also Tyrwhitt's Chaucer,
iv. p. 299.
All the before-mentioned sports went by the general name ofMinistralcia,
Ministellorum, Ludicra, &c.--"Charta an. 1377, apud Rymer, vii. p. 160. 'Peracto
autem prandio, ascendebat D. Rex in cameram suam cum Prælatis, Magnatibus, et