In great houses minstrels’ music was the usual seasoning of meals. At table there are only two amusements, {203} says Langland, in his “Visions”: to listen to the minstrels, and, when they are silent, to talk religion and to scoff at its mysteries.[263] The repasts which Sir Gawain takes at the house of his host the Green Knight are enlivened with songs and music. On the second day the amusement extends till after supper; they listen during the meal and after it to many noble songs, such as Christmas carols and new songs, with all possible mirth:
“Mony athel songez,
As coundutes of kryst-masse, and carolez newe,
With all the manerly merthe that mon may of telle.”
On the third day,
“With merthe and mynstralsye, with metez at hor wylle,
Thay maden as mery as any men moghten.”[264]
In Chaucer’s “Squire’s Tale,” King Cambynskan gives a
“Feste so solempne and so riche
That in this worlde ne was ther noon it liche.”