dicti Joculatores a Castello Domini Regis et ex familia Epi." (vol. ii. p. 174.) Here the
Minstrels and Harpers are expressly calledJoculatores; and as the Harpers had
musical instruments, the singing must have been by the Minstrels, or by both
conjointly.
For that Minstrels sang we have undeniable proof in the following entry in the
accompt roll of the priory of Bicester, in Oxfordshire (under the year 1432). "Dat. Sex
Ministrallis de Bokynghamcantantibusin refectorio Martyrium Septem Dormientium
in Festo Epiphanie, iv. s." (Vol. ii. p. 175.)
In like manner our old English writers abound with passages wherein the
Minstrel is represented as singing. To mention only a few:
In the old Romance ofEmaréwhich from the obsoleteness of the style, the
nakedness of the story, the barrenness of incidents, and some other particulars, I
should judge to be next in point of time to Hornchild, we have
--"I have herd Menstrelles syng yn sawe"
Stanza 27.
In a poem of Adam Davie (who flourished about 1312) we have this Distich,
"Merry it is in halle to here the harpe,
The Minstrelles synge, the Jogelours carpe."
T. Warton, i. p. 225.
So William of Nassyngton (c. 1480) as quoted by Mr. Tyrwhitt, (Chaucer, iv.
319),
"--I will make no vain carpinge
Of dedes of arrays ne of amours
As dos Mynstrelles and Jestours [Gestours]
That makys carpinge in many a place
Of Octaviane and Isembrase,
And of many other Jestes [Gestes]
And namely whan they come to festes.[30]
See also the description of the Minstrel in Note (EE) from Morte Arthur,
which appears to have been compiled about the time of this last writer. See T. Warton,
ii. 235.
By proving that Minstrels were singers of the old romantic songs and gestes,
&c. we have in effect proved them to have been the makers at least of some of them.
For the names of their authors being not preserved, to whom can we so probably
ascribe the composition of many of these old popular rhymes, as to the men who
devoted all their time and talents to the recitation of them? especially as in the rhymes
themselves Minstrels are often represented as the makers or composers.
Thus in the oldest of all,Horn-Child, having assumed the character of a
Harper or Jogeler, is in consequence said (fo. 92) to have
"made Rymenild [his mistress] a lay.
In the old Romance ofEmaré, we have this exhortation to Minstrels, as
composers, otherwise they could not have been at liberty to choose their subjects, (st.
2).
"Menstrelles that walken fer and wyde
Her and ther in every aside
In mony a dyverse londe
Sholde ut her bygynnyng