MINSTREL, an ancient term applied equally to a singer and an instrumental performer.

The word minstrel is derived from the French menestrier, and was not in use in this country before the Norman conquest. It is remarkable that our old monkish historians do not use the words citharoedus, cantator, or the like, to express a minstrel in Latin; but either mimus, histrio, joculator, or some other word which implies gesticulation. Hence it should seem that the minstrels set off their singing by mimicry or action, uniting the powers of melody, poetry, and dancing.

The Saxons as well as the ancient Danes had been accustomed to hold men of this profession in the highest reverence. Their skill was considered as something divine, their persons were deemed sacred, their attendance was solicited by kings, and they were everywhere loaded with honours and rewards. In short, poets and their art were held in that rude admiration which is ever shown by an ignorant people towards such as greatly excel them in intellectual accomplishments. When the Saxons were converted to Christianity, in proportion as letters prevailed amongst them, this rude admiration began to subside, and poets were no longer a peculiar class or profession. The poet and the minstrel became two persons. Poetry was cultivated by men of letters indiscriminately, and many of the most popular rhymes were composed amidst the leisure and retirement of monasteries. But the minstrels continued to be a distinct order of men, and obtained their livelihood by singing verses to the harp at the houses of the great. There they were hospitably and respectfully received, and retained many of the honours conferred upon their predecessors, the bards and the scalds. Although some of them only recited the compositions of others, many of them still composed songs themselves, and all of them could probably invent a few stanzas upon occasion. There [7:15:283]is no doubt that most of the old heroic ballads were produced by this order of men. Although some of the larger metrical romances might come from the pen of the monks or others, yet the smaller narratives were probably composed by the minstrels who sung them. From the amazing variations which occur in different copies of these old pieces, it is evident that they made no scruple to alter one another’s productions, and the reciter added or omitted whole stanzas, according to his own fancy or convenience.

In the early ages, as is hinted above, this profession was held in great reverence amongst the Saxon tribes, as well as amongst their Danish brethren. This appears from two remarkable facts in history, which show that the arts of music and song were equally admired amongst both nations, and that the privileges and honours conferred upon the professors of them were common to both; and it is well known that their customs, manners, and even language, were not in these times very dissimilar.

When Alfred the Great was desirous to learn the true situation of the Danish army which had invaded his realm, he assumed the dress and character of a minstrel, and, taking his harp, and only one attendant (for in the earliest times it was not unusual for a minstrel to have a servant to carry his harp), he went with the utmost security into the Danish camp. Although he could not but be known to be ’ a Saxon, the character he had assumed procured him an hospitable reception; he was admitted to entertain the king at table, and staid amongst them long enough to contrive that assault which afterwards destroyed them. This was in the year 878.

About sixty years afterwards, a Danish king made use of the same disguise to explore the camp of King Athelstan. With his harp in his hand, and dressed like a minstrel, Anlaff king of the Danes went amongst the Saxon tents, and taking his stand near the king’s pavilion, began to play, and was immediately admitted. There he entertained Athelstan and his lords with his singing and his music; and was at length dismissed with an honourable reward, although his songs must have discovered him to be a Dane. Athelstan was saved from the consequences of this stratagem by a soldier, who had observed Anlaff bury the money which had been given him, from some scruple of honour or motive of superstition. This occasioned a discovery.

From the uniform procedure of both these kings, it is evident that the same mode of entertainment prevailed amongst both nations, and that the minstrel was a privileged character amongst each. Even as late as the reign of Edward II. the minstrels were easily admitted into the royal presence, as appears from a passage in Stow, which also shows the splendour of their appearance.

“In the year 1316, Edward II. did solemnize his feast of Pentecost at Westminster, in the great hall; where, sitting royally at the table with his peers about him, there entered a woman adorned like a minstrel, sitting on a great horse trapped, as minstrels then used, who rode round about the tables, showing pastime; and at length came up to the king’s table and laid before him a letter, and forthwith turning her horse, saluted every one, and departed.” The subject of this letter was a remonstrance to the king against the favours heaped by him on his minions, to the neglect of his knights and faithful servants. The messenger was sent in a minstrel’s habit, as that which would gain an easy admission, and was a woman concealed under that dress, probably to disarm the king’s resentment; for we do not find that any of the real minstrels were of the female sex, and therefore conclude this was only an artful contrivance peculiar to that occasion.

In the fourth year of Richard II. John of Gaunt erected at Tetbury in Staffordshire, a court of minstrels, with a full power to receive suit and service from the men of that profession within five neighbouring counties, to enact laws, and determine their controversies; and to apprehend and arrest such of them as should refuse to appear at the said court, annually held on the 16th of August. For this they had a charter, by which they were empowered to appoint a king of the minstrels, with four officers, to preside over them. These were every year elected with great ceremony; the whole form of which is described by Dr Plott, in whose time, however, they seem to have become mere musicians.

Even so late as the reign of King Henry VIII. the reciters of verses or moral speeches learned by heart intruded without ceremony into all companies, not only in taverns, but in the houses of the nobility themselves. This we learn from Erasmus, whose argument led him only to describe a species of these men who did not sing their compositions; but without doubt the others who did so enjoyed the same privileges.

We find that the minstrels continued down to the reign of Elizabeth, in whose time they had lost much of their dignity, and were sinking into contempt and neglect. Yet still they sustained a character far superior to any thing we can conceive at present of the singers of old ballads.

When Queen Elizabeth was entertained at Killingworth or Kenilworth Castle by the Earl of Leicester in 1575, amongst the many devices and pageants which were exhibited for her entertainment, one of the personages introduced was that of an ancient minstrel, whose appearance and dress are so minutely described by a writer there present, and give us so distinct an idea of the character, that we shall quote the passage at large.

“A person very meet seemed he for the purpose, of a xlv. years old, apparelled partly as he would himself. His cap off; his head seemingly rounded tonsterwise; fair kembed, that, with a sponge daintly dipt in a little capon’s grease, was finely smoothed, to make it shine like a mallard’s wing. His beard snugly shaven; and yet his shirt after the new trink, with ruffs fair starched, sleeked, and glistering like a pair of new shoes, marshalled in good order with a setting stick, and strut, ‘ that’ every ruff stood up like a wafer. A side p. e. long] gown of Kendale green, after the freshness of the year now, gathered at the neck with a narrow gorget, fastened afore with a white clasp and a keeper close up to the chin; but easily, for heat, to undo when he list. Seemingly begirt in a red caddis girdle: from that a pair of capped Sheffield knives hanging a’ two sides. Out of his bosom drawn from a lappet of his napkin edged with a blue lace, and marked with a D for Damian; for he was but a bachelor yet.

“His gown had side [z. e. long] sleeves down to midleg, slit from the shoulder to the hand, and lined with white cotton. His doublet sleeves of black worsted: upon them a pair of points of tawny chamlet laced along the wrist with blue threaden pointes. A wealt towards the hands, of fustian-a-napes. A pair of red neather stocks. A pair of pumps on his feet, with a cross cut at his toes for corns; not new indeed, yet cleanly blackt with soot, and shining as a shoing horn.

“About his neck a red ribband suitable to his girdle. His harp in good grace dependent before him. His wrest tyed to a green lace, and hanging by: under the gorget of his gown a fair flaggon chain silver, as a Squire Minstrel of Middlesex, that travelled the country this summer season, unto fair and worshipful men’s houses. From his chain hung a scutcheon, with metal and colour, resplendent upon his breast, of the ancient arms of Islington.”

This minstrel, the author tells us, “after three lowly courtesies, cleared his voice with a hem....and wiped his lips with the hollow of his hand, for filing his napkin; tempered a string or two with his wrist; and, after a little warbling on his harp for a prelude, came forth with a so [7:15:284]lemn song, warranted for story out of King Arthur’s acts.”

Towards the end of the sixteenth century, this class of men had lost all credit, and were sunk so low in the public opinion, that in the thirty-ninth year of Elizabeth a statute was passed, by which “minstrels,” wandering abroad, were included amongst “rogues, vagabonds, and sturdy beggars,” and were adjudged to be punished as such.