[271] Of which letters, models have come down to us, “and judging by the lavish eulogy they employ, the minstrels themselves must have had a hand in drawing them up.” E. K. Chambers, “The Mediæval Stage,” Oxford, 1903, 2 vols., i. p. 53; three chapters on minstrels of great interest and importance, beginning with a bibliography of the subject, i. 23.
[272] Warton’s “History of English Poetry,” Hazlitt’s edition, 1871, ii. p. 98. John of Gaunt orders £16 13s. 4d. to be paid to “various minstrels of his very dear cousin the count of Flanders,” and £65 to various heralds, etc., of “our most redoubted lord and father, the king at Eltham.” “John of Gaunt’s Register,” ed. S. A. Smith, 1911, vol, ii. p. 279. Langland notices the good reception given, when they were travelling, to the king’s minstrels, in order to please their master, known to be sensible of these marks of good will.
[273] November 26, 1372. “John of Gaunt’s Register,” ed. S. A. Smith, 1911, ii. 98.
[274] Chambers, ibid. i. 51.
[275] “Piers Plowman,” Text C, pass. viii. l. 97.
[276] See a drawing of such a gallery in a miniature reproduced by Eccleston, “Introduction to English Antiquities;” London, 1847, p. 221. To the sound of the minstrels’ music four wild men or mummers are dancing with contortions; sticks lie on the ground, no doubt for their exercises; a barking dog is jumping between them.
[277] “Album de Villard de Honnecourt,” edited by Lassus and Darcel, 1858, plate I.
“Si vint de sà Loundres; en un prée
Encontra le roy e sa meisnée;