But in proof of this we have only to turn to so common a book as T. Warton's History of Eng. Poetry: where we shall find extracted from records the following instances:—
"Ex Registr. Priorat. S. Swithin Winton (sub anno 1374). In festo Alwyni Epi.... Et durante pietancia in Aula Conventus sex ministralli, cum quatuor citharisatoribus, faciebant ministralcias suas. Et post cenam, in magna camera arcuata dom. prioris cantabant idem Gestum in qua Camera suspendebatur, ut moris est, magnum dorsale Prioris habens picturas trium Regum Colein. Veniebant autem dicti joculatores a Castello domini Regis & ex familia Epi." (vol. ii. p. 174). Here the minstrels and harpers are expressly called joculatores, and as the harpers had musical instruments, the singing must have been by the minstrels, or by both conjointly.
For that minstrels sang we have undeniable proof in the following entry in the Accompt Roll of the Priory of Bicester, in Oxfordshire (under the year 1432). "Dat. Sex ministrallis de Bokyngham cantantibus in refectorio Martyrium Septem Domientium in festo Epiphanie, ivs." (vol. ii. p. 175).
In like manner our old English writers abound with passages wherein the minstrel is represented as singing. To mention only a few:
In the old romance of Emaré (No. 15, vol. iii. appendix), which from the obsoleteness of the style, the nakedness of the story, the barrenness of incidents, and some other particulars, I should judge to be next in point of time to Hornchild, we have:
"I have herd menstrelles syng yn sawe."—Stanza 27.
In a poem of Adam Davie (who flourished about 1312) we have this distich:—
"Merry it is in halle to here the harpe,
The Minstrelles synge, the jogelours carpe."
T. Warton, i. p. 225.
So William of Nassyngton (circ. 1480) as quoted by Mr. Tyrwhitt (Chaucer, iv. 319):—