Item, my Lorde usith and accustomythto gife yerely to an Erls Mynstrall, if he
be his speciall lorde, frende, or kynsman, if they come yerely to his Lordschipe...
Ande if they come 'to my lord' seldome, ones in ii. or iii. yeres, vj. s. viij. d."
"Item, my Lorde useth ande accustomyth to gyf yerely a Dookes or Erlis
Trumpetts, if they com vj. together to his Lordshipp, viz. if they come yerly, vj. s. viij.
d. Ande if they come but in ij. or iij. yeres, than x. s.
"Item, my Lorde useth and accustometh yerly, when his Lordship is at home,
to gyf to iij of the Kyngs Shams, when they com to my Lorde yerely x. s."
I cannot conclude this Note without observing, that in this enumeration the
family Minstrels seem to have been musicians only, and yet both the Earl's Trumpets
and the King's Shawms are evidently distinguished from the Earl's Minstrels and the
King's Jugler. Now we findJugglersstill coupled withPipersin Barclay'sEgloges,
circ. 1514. (Warton, ii. 354.)
(CC2) The honours and rewards conferred on Minstrels, &c., in the Middle Ages,
were excessive, as will be seen by many instances in these volumes; vid. notes (E)
(F), &c. Butmore particularly with regard to English Minstrels, &c., see T. Warton's
Hist. of Eng. Poetry, i. p. 89-92, 116, &c.; ii. 105, 106, 254, &c. Dr. Burney'sHist. of
Music, ii. p. 316-319, 397-399, 427, 428.
On this head, it inay be sufficient to add the following passage from the Fleta,
lib. ii. c. 23. "Officium Elemosinarij est, Equos relictos, Robas, Pecuniam, et alia ad
Elemosinam largiter recipere et fideliter distribuere; debut etiam Regem super
Elemosinæ largitione crebris summonitionibus stimulare et præcipue diebus
Sanctorum, et rogare ne Robas seas quæ magni sunt precijHistrionibus,
Blanditoribus, Adulatoribus, Accusatoribus, velMenestrallis, sed ad Elemosinæ suæ
incrementum jubeat largiri." Et in c. 72, "Ministralli, vel Adulatoris."
(DD)A species of men who did not sing, &c.] It appears from the passage of Erasmus
here referred to, that there still existed in England of that species of Jongleurs or
Minstrels, whom the French called by the peculiar name ofConteours, or reciters in
prose; it is in hisEcclesiastes, where he is speaking of such preachers as imitated the
tone of beggars or mountebanks --"Apud Anglos est simile genus hominum, quales
apud Italos sunt Circulatores [Mountebanks] de quibus modo dictum est; qui
irrumpunt in convivia Magnatum, aut in Cauponas Vinarias; et argumentum aliquod,
quod edidicerunt, recitant; puta mortem omnibus dominari, aut laudem matrimonii.
Sed quoniam ea lingua monosyllabis fere constat, quemadmodum Germanica; atque
illi [sc. this peculiar species of Reciters] studio vitant cantum, nobis (sc. Erasmus,
who did not understand a word of English) latrare videntur verius quam loqui."--
Opera, tom. v. c. 958. (Jortin, vol. ii. p. 193.) As Erasmus was correcting the vice of
preachers, it was more to his point to bring an instance from the moral reciters of
prose than from the chanters of rhyme; though the latter would probably be more
popular, and therefore more common.
(EE) This character is supposed to have been suggested by descriptions of Minstrels
in the romance ofMorte Arthur; but none, it seems, have been found which come
nearer to it than the following, which I shall produce, not only that the reader may