their ancient manners longest, and of course the old' poetry, in which those manners are peculiarly described. The reader will observe in the more ancient ballads of this Collection, a cast of style and measure very different from that of contemporary poets of a higher class; many phrases and idioms, which the Minstrels seem to have. appropriated to themselves, and a very remarkable license of varying the accent of words at pleasure, in order to humour the flow of the verse, particularly in the rhimes ; as Countrie Ladie battèl harpèr morning loving, instead of country, lady, hàrper, singer, &c.This liberty is but sparingly assumed by the classical poets of the same age; or even by the latter composers of heroical ballads; I mean, by such as professedly wrote for the press. For it is to be observed, that so long as the Minstrels subsisted, they seem never to have designed their rhimes for literary publication, and probably never committed them to writing themselves: what copies are preserved of them were doubtless taken down from their mouths. But as the old Minstrels gradually wore out, a new race of Ballad-writers succeeded, an inferior sort of minor poets, who wrote narrative songs merely for the press. Instances of both may be found in the reign of Elizabeth. The two latest pieces in the genuine strain of the old Minstrelsy that I can discover, are No. III. and IV. of Book III. in this volume. Lower than these I cannot trace the old mode of writing. The old Minstrel ballads are in the northern dialect, abounds with antique words and phrases, are extremely incorrect, and run into the utmost license of metre; they have also a romantic wildness, and are in the true spirit of chivalry. The other sort are written in exacter measure, have a low or subordinate correctness, sometimes bordering on the insipid, yet often well adapted to the pathetic; these are generally in the southern dialect, exhibit exhibit a more modern phraseology, and are commonly descriptive of more modern manners.-To be sensible of the difference between them, let the reader compare in this volume No. III. of Book III. with No. XI. of Book II. Towards the end of Queen Elizabeth's reign (as is mentioned above) the genuine old Minstrelsy seems to have been extinct, and thenceforth the Ballads that were produced were wholly of the latter kind, and these came forth in such abundance, that in the reign of James I. they began to be collected into little miscellanies, under the name of GARLANDS, and at length to be written purposely for such collections (Ff2). P.S. By way of POSTSCRIPT, should follow here the discussion of the question whether the term MINSTRELS was applied in English to Singers, and Composers of Songs, c. or confined to Musicians only. But it is reserved for the concluding Note (G g). NOTES NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS REFERRED TO IN THE FOREGOING ESSAY. (A) The MINSTRELS, &c. The word Minstrel does not appear to have been in use here before the Norman Conquest; whereas it had long before that time been adopted in France *. MENESTREL, SO early as the eighth century, was a title given to the Maestro di Capella of K. Pepin, the father of Charlemagne; and afterwards to the Coryphæus, or Leader of any Band of Musicians. [Vid. Burney's Hist. of Music, ii. 268.] This term Menestrel, Menestrier, was thus expressed in Latin, Ministellus, Ministrellus, Ministrallus, Menesterellus, &c. [Vid. Gloss. Du Cange & Supplem.] Menage derives the French words above mentioned from Ministerialis or Ministeriarius, barbarous Latin terms, used in the middle ages to express a workman or artificer, (still called in Languedoc Ministral,) as if these men were styled ARTIFICERS OF PERFORMERS by way of excellence. [Vid. Diction. Etym.] But the origin of the name is given perhaps more truly by Du Cange: "MINISTELLI ..quos vulgo Menestreux vel Menestriers ap"pellamus, quod minoribus aulæ Ministris accenserentur.” [Gloss. iv. p. 769.] Accordingly, we are told, the word "Minister" is sometimes used" pro Ministellus," [Ibid.] and an instance is produced which I shall insert at large in the next paragraph. *The Anglo-Saxon and primary English name for this charac ter was GLEEMAN [see below, Note (I) sect. 1.] so that, wherever the term MINSTREL is in these pages applied to it before the Conquest, it must be understood to be only by anticipation. Another early name for this profession in English was JOGELER, or JocuLAR. Lat. Joculator. [See p. xxviii. as also Note (V 2) and note (Q) To prevent confusion, we have chiefly used the more general word MINSTREL: which (as the Author of the Observ. on the Statutes hath suggested to the Editor) might have been originally derived from a diminutive of the Lat. Minister, scil. Minister ellus, Ministrellus. Minstrels ... Minstrels sometimes assisted at divine service, as appears from the record of the 9th of Edw. IV. quoted above in p. xlv. by which Haliday and others are erected into a perpetual GILD, &c. See the Original in Rymer, xi. 642. By part of this record it is recited to be their duty" to pray (exorare: which it is presumed they did by assisting in the chant, and musical accompaniment, &c.) in the King's chapel, and particularly for the departed souls of the King and Queen when they shall die, &c.”- -The same also appears from the passage in the Supplem. to Du Cange, alluded to above. "MINISTER. pro Ministellus Jocula. tor Vetus Ceremoniale MS. B. M. deauratæ Tolos. "Item, "etiam congregabuntur Piscatores, qui debent interesse isto "die in processione cum MINISTRIS seu Joculatoribus: quia ipsi "Piscatores tenentur habere isto die Joculatores, seu Mimos ob "HONOREM CRUCIS-et vadunt primi ante processionem cum Mi“nistris seu Joculatoribus semper pulsantibus usque ad Ecclesiam "S. Stephani." [Gloss. 773.]-This may perhaps account for the clerical appearance of the MINSTRELS, who seem to have been distinguished by the TONSURE, which was one of the inferior marks of the clerical character +. Thus Jeffery of Monmouth. speaking of one who acted the part of a Minstrel, says, “Rasit ca"pillos suos et barbam” (see note K.) Again, a writer in the reign of Elizabeth, describing the habit of an ancient Minstrel, speaks MINISTERS seems to be used for MINSTRELS in the Account of the Inthronization of Abp. Neville. (An. 6. Edw. IV.) “Then "all the Chaplyns must say grace, and the MINISTERS do sing " Vid. Lelandi Collectanea, by Hearne, vol. vi. p. 13. It has however been suggested to the Editor by the learned and ingenious author of " Irish Antiquities," 4to. that the ancient Mimi among the Romans had their heads and beards shaven, as is shown by Salmasius in Notis ad Hist. August. Scriptores VI. Paris. 1620, fol. p. 385. So that this peculiarity had a classical origin, though it afterwards might make the Minstrels sometimes pass for Ecclesiastics, as appears from the instance given below. Dr. Bur. ney tells us that Histriones, and Mimi, abounded in France in the time of Charlemagne (ii. 221.) so that their profession was handed down in regular succession from the time of the Romans, and therewith some leading distinctions of their habit or appearance; yet with a change in their arts of pleasing, which latterly were most confined to singing and music. of of his head as " rounded Tonster-wise," (which I venture to read Tonsure-wise,) "his beard smugly shaven." See above, p. 1. It must however be observed, that notwithstanding such clerical appearance of the Minstrels, and though they might be sometimes countenanced by such of the Clergy as were of more relaxed morals, their sportive talents rendered them generally obnoxious to the more rigid Ecclesiastics, and to such of the religious orders as were of more severe discipline; whose writings commonly abound with heavy complaints of the great encouragement shown to those men by the princes and nobles, and who can seldom afford them a better name than that of Scurra, Famelici, Nebulones, &c. of which innumerable instances may be seen in Du Cange. It was even an established order in some of the monasteries, that no Minstrel should ever be suffered to enter the gates*. We have however innumerable particulars of the good cheer and great rewards given to the Minstrels in many of the Convents, which are collected by T. Warton (i. 91, &c.) and others. But one instance, quoted from Wood's Hist. Antiq. Univ. Ox. i. 67. (sub an. 1224) deserves particular mention. Two itinerant priests, on a supposition of their being Mimi or Minstrels, gained admittance. But the cellarer, sacrist, and others of the brethren, who had hoped to have been entertained with their diverting arts, &c. when they found them to be only two indigent Ecclesiastics, who could only administer spiritual consolation, and were consequently disappointed of their mirth, beat them and turned them out of the monastery. (Ibid. p. 92.) This passage furnishes an additional proof that a Minstrel might by his dress or appearance be mistaken for an Ecclesiastic. (B) The Minstrels use mimicry and action, and other means "of diverting, &c."] It is observable, that our old monkish historians do not use the words Cantator, Citharædus, Musicus, or * Yet in St. Mary's church at Beverley, one of the columns hath this inscription: "Thys Pillar made the Mynstrylls;" having its capital decorated with figures of five men in short coats; one of whom holds an instrument resembling a Lute. See Sir J. Hawkins, Hist. ii. 298. the 1 |