[220] Gautier, ii. 51; cf. the extracts from various computi in Appendix E. There are many entries also in the accounts of King’s Lynn (Hist. MSS. xi. 3. 213); Beverley (Leach, Beverley MSS. 171), &c.
[221] L. T. Smith, Derby Accounts (C. S.), xcvi.
[222] Percy, N. H. B. 42, 344.
[223] Stowe, Survey, 39 (London); Smith, English Guilds, 423, 447 (Bristol, Norwich); Davies, 14 (York); Kelly, 131 (Leicester); Morris, 348 (Chester); Civis, No. xxi (Canterbury); Sharpe, 207 (Coventry); Hist. MSS. xi. 3. 163 (Lynn); Leach, Beverley MSS. 105, &c. (Beverley); for Shrewsbury cf. Appendix E. On Waits’ Badges, cf. Ll. Jewitt, in Reliquary, xii. 145. Gautier, ii. 57, describes the communal cantorini of Perugia, from the fourteenth to the sixteenth century. The usual Latin term for the Beverley waits is speculatores; but they are also called ministralli, histriones and mimi. Apparently waits are intended by the satrapi of the Winchester Accounts (App. E. (iv)). Elsewhere histriones is the most usual term. The signatories to the 1321 statutes of the Paris guild include several guètes (Bernhard, iii. 402).
[224] Household Ordinances, 48 ‘A Wayte, that nyghtly, from Mighelmasse till Shere-Thursday, pipeth the watche within this courte fower tymes, and in the somer nyghtes three tymes.’ He is also to attend the new Knights of the Bath when they keep watch in the chapel the night before they are dubbed.
[225] The Lynn waits had to go through the town from All Saints to Candlemas. Those of Coventry had similar duties, and in 1467 were forbidden ‘to pass this Cite but to Abbotts and Priors within x myles of this Cite.’
[226] The six minstrels of the Earl of Derby in 1391 had a livery of ‘blod ray cloth and tanne facings’ (Wylie, iv. 160).
[227] Household Ordinances, 48: ‘Mynstrelles, xiii, whereof one is verger, that directeth them all in festivall dayes to theyre stations, to bloweings and pipynges, to suche offices as must be warned to prepare for the king and his houshold at metes and soupers, to be the more readie in all servyces; and all these sittinge in the hall togyder; whereof sume use trumpettes, sume shalmuse and small pipes, and sume as strengemen, comyng to this courte at five festes of the yere, and then to take theyre wages of houshold after iiijd ob. a day, if they be present in courte, and then they to avoyde the next day after the festes be done. Besides eche of them anothyr reward yerely, taking of the king in the resceyte of the chekker, and clothing wynter and somer, or xxs a piece, and lyverey in courte, at evyn amonges them all, iiij gallons ale; and for wynter season, iij candels wax, vj candells peris’, iiij talwood, and sufficiaunt logging by the herberger, for them and theyre horses, nygh to the courte. Also havyng into courte ij servauntes honest, to beare theyre trumpettes, pipes, and other instrumentes, and a torche for wynter nyghts, whyles they blowe to souper, and other revelles, delyvered at the chaundrey; and allway ij of these persons to continue in courte in wages, beyng present to warne at the kinge’s rydinges, when he goeth to horse-backe, as ofte as it shall require, and by theyre blowinges the houshold meny may follow in the countries. And if any of these two minstrelles be sicke in courte, he taketh ij loves, one messe of grete mete, one gallon ale. They have no part of any rewardes gevyn to the houshold. And if it please the kinge to have ij strenge Minstrelles to contynue in like wise. The kinge wull not for his worshipp that his Minstrelles be too presumptuous, nor too familier to aske any rewardes of the lordes of his londe, remembring De Henrico secundo imperatore [1002-24] qui omnes Ioculatores suos et Armaturos monuerit, ut nullus eorum in eius nomine vel dummodo steterint in servicio suo nihil ab aliquo in regno suo deberent petere donandum; sed quod ipsi domini donatores pro Regis amore citius pauperibus erogarent.’
[228] Percy, N. H. B. (†1512), 339. The king’s shawms, if they came yearly, got 10s., the king’s jugler and the king’s or queen’s bearward, 6s. 8d.; a duke’s or earl’s trumpeters, if they came six together, also got 6s. 8d., an earl’s minstrels only 3s. 4d. If the troupe came only once in two or three years, and belonged to a ‘speciall Lorde, Friende, or Kynsman’ of the earl, the rate was higher.
[229] Gautier, ii. 107, from Bibl. de l’Arsenal MS. 854; e.g. ‘Deprecatio pro dono instrioni impendendo. Salutem et amoris perpetui firmitatem. R. latorem praesentium, egregium instrionem qui nuper meis interfuit nuptiis, ubi suum officium exercuit eleganter, ad vos cum magna confidentia destinamus, rogantes precibus, quibus possumus, quatinus aliquid subsidium gracie specialis eidem impendere debeatis.’ Collier, i. 42, gives a letter of Richard III for his bearward.