NOTES
- The Anglo-Saxon and primary English name for this character wasGleeman[see
Note (I) sect. 1], so that, wherever the term Minstrel is in these pages applied to it
before the Conquest, it must be understood to be only by anticipation. Another early
name for this profession in English wasJogeler, orJocular, Lat.Joculator. [See note
(V2), and note (Q).] To prevent confusion, we have chiefly used the more general
wordMinstrel: which (as the author of the Observ. on the Statutes hath suggested to
the Editor), might have been originally derived from a diminutive of the Lat.Minister:
scil.Ministerellus, Ministrellus. - Ministers seems to be used for Minstrels in the Account of the Inthronization of
Abp. Neville (An. 6 Edw. IV.). "Then all the Chaplyns must say grace, and the
Ministersdo sing."-- Vide Lelandi Collectanea, by Hearne, vol. vi. p. 13. - It has however been suggested to the Editor by the learned and ingenious author of
'Irish Antiquities," 4to, that the ancientMimiamong the Romans had their heads and
beards shaven, as is shown by Salmasius in Notis ad Hist. August. Scriptores VI.
Paris, 1620, fol. p. 985. So that this peculiarity had a classical origin, though it
afterwards might make the Minstrels sometimes pass for Ecclesiastics, as appears
from the instance given below. Dr. Burney tells us that Histriones and Mimi abounded
in France in the time of Charlemagne (ii. 221), so that their profession was handed
down in regular succession from the time of the Romans, and therewith some leading
distinctions of their habit or appearance; yet with a change In their arts of pleasing,
which latterly were most confined to singing and music. - Yet in St. Mary's church in Beverley, one of the columns hat this inscription:--
"Thys pillar made the Mynstrylls:" having its capital decorated with figures of five
men in short coats, one of whom holds an instrument resembling a lute.-- See Sir J.
Hawkins, Hist. ii. 298. - Vide infra, note (AA).
- Vide notes (B) (K) (Q).
- The Minstrels in France were received with great magnificence in the 14th century.
Froissart, describing a Christmas entertainment given by the Comte de Foix, tells us
that "there were many Mynstrels, as well of hys own as of straungers, and eache of
them dyd their devoyre in their faculties. The same day the Erle of Foix gave to
Heraulds and Minstrelles, the som offyve hundred frankes; and gave to the Duke of
Tourayns Mynstreles Gownes of Clothe of Gold furred with Ermyne valued at two
hundred Frankes."-- B. iii. c. 31, Eng. Trans. Lond. 1525. (Mr. C.) - Et vide Pollcraticon, cap. viii,, &c.
- Vide Nicholson's Eng. Hist. Lib. &c.
- Gleeman continued to be the name given to a Minstrel both in England and
Scotland almost as long as this order of men continued.
In De Brunne's metrical version of Bishop Grosthead'sManuel de Peche, A.D.
1303 (see Warton, 5. 61), we have this,
-- Gode men, ye shall lere
When ye any Gleman, here."
Fabyan (in his Chronicle, 1133, f. 32); translating the passage from Geoffrey
of Monmouth, quoted below in note (K), renders DeusJoculatorum, by God of