In the reign of King Henry II. we have upon record the name of Galfrid, or
Jeffrey, a harper, who in 1180 received a corrody, or annuity, from the abbey of Hide,
near Winchester; and, as in the early times every harper was expected to sing, we
cannot doubt but this reward was given to him for his music and his songs; which, if
they were for the solace of the monks there, we may conclude would be in the English
language (U).
Under his romantic son, King Richard I., the minstrel profession seems to
have acquired additional splendour. Richard, who was the great hero of chivalry, was
also the distinguished patron of poets and minstrels. He was himself of their number,
and some of his poems are still extant.[19] They were no less patronized by his
favourites and chief officers. His Chancellor, William Bishop of Ely, is expressly
mentioned to have invited singers and minstrels from France, whom, he loaded with
rewards; and they in return celebrated him as the most accomplished person in the
world (U2). This high distinction and regard, although confined perhaps in the first
instance to poets and songsters of the French nation, must have had a tendency to do
honour to poetry and song among all his subjects, and to encourage the cultivation of
these arts among the natives; as the indulgent favour shown by the monarch or his
great courtiers to the Provencal Troubadour, or Norman Rymour, would naturally be
imitated by their inferior vassals to the English Gleeman or Minstrel. At more than a
century after the Conquest, the national distinctions must have begun to decline, and
both the Norman and English languages would be heard in the houses of the great
(U3); so that probably about this era, or soon after, we are to date that remarkable
intercommunity and exchange of each other's compositions, which we discover to
have taken place at some early period between the French and English Minstrels; the
same set of phrases, the same species of characters, incidents, and adventures, and
often the same identical stories, being found in the old metrical romances of both
nations (V).
The distinguished service which Richard received from one of his own
minstrels, in rescuing him from his cruel and tedious captivity, is a remarkable fact,
which ought to be recorded for the Honour of poets and their art. This fact I shall
relate in the following words of an ancient writer[20]:--
"The Englishmen were more than a whole yeare without hearing any tydings
of their King, or in what place he was kept prisoner. He had trained up in his court a
Rimer or Minstrill,[21] called Blondel de Nesle, who (so saith the manuscript of Old
Poesies[22]; and an auncient manuscript French Chronicle) being so long without the
sight of his Lord, his life seemed wearisome to him, and he became confounded with
melancholly. Knowne it was that he came backe from the Holy Land; but none could
tell in what countrey he arrived. Whereupon this Blondel, resolving to make search
for him in many countries, but he would heare some newes of him; after expense of
divers dayes in travaile, he came to a towne[23] (by good hap) neere to the castell
where his maister King Richard was kept. Of his host he demanded to whom the
castell appertained, and the host told him that it belonged to the Duke of Austria.
Then he enquired whether there were any prisoners therein detained or no; for
alwayes he made such secret questionings wheresoever he came. And the hoste gave
answer, there was one onely prisoner, but he knew not what he was, and yet he had
bin detained there more than the space of a yeare. When Blondel heard this, he
wrought such meanes, that he became acquainted with them of the castell, as
Minstrels doe easily win acquaintance any where[24] but see the king he could not,
neither understand that it was he. One day he sat directly before a window of the