"Item, my lorde usith and accustomyth to gyf yerely a dookes or erlis trumpetts, if they come vi together to his lordschipp, viz. if they come yerly, vis. viiid. And, if they come but in ii or iii yeres, than xs."
"Item, my lorde usith and accustometh to gife yerly, when his lordschip is at home, to gyf to the kyngs shawmes, when they com to my lorde yerely, xs."
* * * * *
I cannot conclude this note without observing that in this enumeration the family minstrels seem to have been musicians only, and yet both the earl's trumpets and the king's shawmes are evidently distinguished from the earl's minstrels, and the king's jugler. Now we find jugglers still coupled with pipers in Barklay's Egloges, circ. 1514. (Warton, ii. 254.)
[Cc2] The honours and rewards conferred on minstrels, &c. in the middle ages were excessive, as will be seen by many instances in these volumes; v. note [E], [F] &c. But more particularly with regard to English minstrels, &c. See T. Warton's Hist. of Eng. Poetry, i. p. 89-92, 116, &c., ii. 105, 106, 254, &c. Dr. Burney's Hist. of Music, ii. p. 316-319, 397-399, 427-428.
On this head, it may be sufficient to add the following passage from the Fleta, lib. ii. c. 23: "Officium Elemosinarij est ... Equos relictos, Robas, Pecuniam, et alia ad Elemosinam largiter recipere et fidelitur distribuere; debet etiam Regem super Elemosinæ largitione crebris summonitionibus stimulare & præcipue diebus sanctorum, et rogare ne Robas suas quæ magni sunt precij histrionibus, blanditoribus, adulatoribus, accusatoribus, vel menestrallis, sed ad Elemosinæ suæ incrementum jubeat largiri." Et in c. 72: "ministralli, vel adulatoris."
[Dd] [A species of men who did not sing, &c.] It appears from the passage of Erasmus here referred to, that there still existed in England of that species of jongleurs or minstrels, whom the French called by the peculiar name of conteours, or reciters in prose. It is in his Ecclesiastes, where he is speaking of such preachers as imitated the tone of beggars or mountebanks: "Apud Anglos est simile genus hominum, quales apud Italos sunt circulatores [mountebanks] de quibus modo dictum est; qui irrumpunt in convivia magnatum, aut in Cauponas Vinarias; et argumentum aliquod, quod edidicerunt, recitant; puta mortem omnibus dominari, aut laudem matrimonii. Sed quoniam ea linguâ monosyllabis fere constat, quemadmodum Germanica; atque illi (sc. this peculiar species of reciters) studio vitant cantum, nobis (sc. Erasmus, who did not understand a word of English) latrare videntur verius quàm loqui."—Opera, tom. v. c. 958 (Jortin, vol. ii. p. 193). As Erasmus was correcting the vice of preachers, it was more to his point to bring an instance from the moral reciters of prose, than from chanters of rhime; though the latter would probably be more popular, and therefore more common.
[Ee] This character is supposed to have been suggested by descriptions of minstrels in the romance of Morte Arthur; but none, it seems, have been found which come nearer to it than the following, which I shall produce, not only that the reader may judge of the resemblance, but to shew how nearly the idea of the minstrel character given in this essay corresponds with that of our old writers.
Sir Lancelot, having been affronted by a threatening abusive letter which Mark, king of Cornwal, had sent to Queen Guenever, wherein he "spake shame by her and Sir Lancelot," is comforted by a knight, named Sir Dinadan, who tells him "I will make a lay for him, and when it is made, I shall make an harper to sing it before him. So anon he went and made it, and taught it an harper, that hyght Elyot; and when hee could it, hee taught it to many harpers. And so ... the harpers went straight unto Wales and Cornwaile to sing the lay ... which was the worst lay that ever harper sung with harpe, or with any other instrument. And [at a] great feast that king Marke made for joy of [a] victorie which hee had ... came Eliot the harper; ... and because he was a curious harper, men heard him sing the same lay that Sir Dinadan had made, the which spake the most vilanie by king Marke of his treason, that ever man heard. When the harper had sung his song to the end, king Marke was wonderous wroth with him, and said, Thou harper, how durst thou be so bold to sing this song before me? Sir, said Eliot, wit you wel I am a minstrell, and I must doe as I am commanded of these lords that I bear the armes of. And Sir king, wit you well that Sir Dinadan a knight of the Round Table made this song, and he made me to sing it before you. Thou saiest well, said king Marke, I charge thee that thou hie thee fast out of my sight. So the harper departed, &c." (Part ii. c. 113, ed. 1634. See also part iii. c. 5.)
[Ee2] [This art seems to have put an end to the profession, &c.] Although I conceive that the character ceased to exist, yet the appellation might be continued, and applied to fidlers, or other common musicians: which will account for the mistakes of Sir Peter Leicester, or other modern writers. (See his Historical Antiquities of Cheshire, 1673, p. 141.)