And again, in the history of John Newchombe, the famous clothier of Newbury, usually called Jack of Newbury, it is said, "They had not sitten long, but in comes a noise [616] of musicians in tawnie coats; who, putting off their caps, asked if they would have any music?"
It appears that the minstrels sometimes shaved the crowns of their heads like the monks, and also assumed an ecclesiastical habit; this was probably an external garment only, and used when they travelled from place to place. The succeeding anecdote will prove that the ecclesiastics and the mimics were not always readily distinguished from each other: Two itinerant priests coming towards night to a cell of the Benedictines near Oxford, they there, upon the supposition of their being mimics, or minstrels, gained admittance; but the cellarer, the sacrist, and others of the brethren, disappointed in the expectation they had formed of being entertained with mirthful performances, and finding them to be nothing more than two indigent ecclesiastics, beat them, and turned them out of the monastery. [617]
XX.—THE KING OF THE MINSTRELS.
The king's minstrel, frequently in Latin called joculator regis or the king's juggler, was an officer of rank in the courts of the Norman monarchs. He had the privilege of accompanying his master when he journeyed, and of being near his person; and probably was the regulator of the royal sports, and appointed the other minstrels belonging to the household; for which reason, I presume, he was also called the king, or chief of the minstrels. At what time this title was first conferred on him does not appear: we meet with it, however, in an account of the public expenditures made in the fifth year of Edward I.; at which time, the king of the minstrels, whose name was Robert, received his master's pay for military services. [618] The same name, with the same title annexed to it, occurs again in a similar record, dated the fourth year of Edward II.; when he, in company with various other minstrels, exhibeted before the king and his court, then held in the city of York; and received forty marks, to be by him distributed among the fraternity. [619]
The title of royalty was not confined to the king's chief minstrel: it was also bestowed upon the regent of other companies of musicians, as we find in a charter granted by John of Gaunt, duke of Lancaster, to the minstrels of Tutbury in Staffordshire. This document he addresses, under his seal, at the castle of Tutbury, August 24, in the fourth year of Richard II., to nostre bene ame le roy des ministraulx, his well beloved the king of the minstrels; and concedes to him full power and commission to oblige the minstrels belonging to the honour of Tutbury to perform their services and minstrelsies in the same manner that they had been accustomed to be done in ancient times. [620] In a ballad intituled "The marriage of Robin Hood and Clorinda the Queen of Tutbury Feast," [621] written probably after the disgrace of the minstrels, this officer is called the king of the fidlers. The poet supposes himself to have been present at the wedding, and witness of the facts he relates; and therefore he speaks thus:
Claude Fauchet, a French author of eminence, before quoted, speaking concerning the title of king, formerly given to many officers belonging to the court, makes these observations: "I am well assured, the word king signifies comptroller, or head, as the chief heralds are called kings at arms, because it belonged solely to them to regulate the ceremonies of the justs and tournaments." He then applies this reasoning to the Roy des Ribaulx, an officer in the ancient court of France; [622] and says, his charge was to clear the palace of indolent and disorderly persons, who followed the court, and had no business there; and had his title as king of vagabonds, because he was the examiner and corrector of dissolute persons. [623] In like manner, I presume, in this country, the king of the minstrels was the governor and director of the fraternity over which he presided. The title was dropped in the reign of Edward IV., and that of marshal became its substitute.
XXI.—REWARDS GIVEN TO MINSTRELS.
In the middle ages, the courts of princes, and the residences of the opulent, were crowded with minstrels; and such large sums of money were expended for their maintenance, that the public treasuries were often drained. Matilda, queen to Henry I., is said to have lavished the greater part of her revenue upon poets and minstrels, and oppressed her tenants to procure more. [624] She was, however, by no means singular in so doing, as the invectives of the monks sufficiently demonstrate. These selfish professors of religion grudged every act of munificence that was not applied to themselves, or their monasteries; and could not behold the good fortune of the minstrels without expressing their indignation; which they often did in terms of scurrilous abuse, calling them janglers, mimics, buffoons, monsters of men, and contemptible scoffers. They also severely censured the nobility for patronizing and rewarding such a shameless set of sordid flatterers, and the populace for frequenting their exhibitions, and being delighted with their performances, which diverted them from more serious pursuits, and corrupted their morals. [625] On the other hand, the minstrels appear to have been ready enough to give them ample occasion for censure; and, indeed, I apprehend that their own immorality and insolence contributed more to their downfall, than all the defamatory declamations of their opponents. The ecclesiastics were mightily pleased with the conduct of the emperor Henry III., because, at his marriage with Agnes of Poictou, he disappointed the poor minstrels who had assembled in great multitudes on the occasion, giving them neither food nor rewards, but "sent them away," says a monkish author, "with empty purses, and hearts full of sorrow." [626] But to go on.
The rewards given to the minstrels did not always consist in money, but frequently in rich mantles and embroidered vestments: they received, says Fauchet, great presents from the nobility, who would sometimes give them even the robes with which they were clothed. It was a common custom in the middle ages to give vestments of different kinds to the minstrels. In an ancient poem, cited by Fauchet, called La Robe Vermeille, or, The Red Robe, the wife of a vavaser, that is, one who, holding of a superior lord, has tenants under him, reproaches her husband for accepting a robe; "Such gifts," says she, "belong to jugglers, and other singing men, who receive garments from the nobility, because it is their trade:
These garments the jugglers failed not to take with them to other courts, in order to excite a similar liberality. Another artifice they often used, which was, to make the heroes of their poems exceedingly bountiful to the minstrels, who appear to have been introduced for that purpose: thus, in the metrical romance of Ipomedon, where the poet speaks of the knight's marriage, he says—
The author of Pierce the Ploughman, who lived in the reign of Edward III., gives the following general description of the different performances of the minstrels, and of their rewards, at that period:
And, if we refer to history, we shall find that the poets are not incorrect in their statement. Gaston earl of Foix, whose munificence is much commended by Froissart, lived in a style of splendour little inferior to that of royalty. The historian, speaking of a grand entertainment given by this nobleman, which he had an opportunity of seeing, says, "Ther wer many mynstrells, as well of his own, as of straungers; and each of them dyd their devoyre, in their faculties. [635] The same day the earl of Foix gave to the heraulds and minstrelles the som of five hundred frankes; and gave to the duke of Tourayn's minstrelles gownes of cloth of gold, furred with ermyne, valued at two hundred frankes." [636]
Respecting the pecuniary rewards of the minstrels, we have, among others, the following accounts. At the marriage of Elizabeth, daughter of Edward I. to John earl of Holland, every king's minstrel received forty shillings. [637] In the fourth of Edward II. Perrot de la Laund, minstrel to lord Hugh de Nevill, received twenty shillings for performing his minstrelsy before the king. [638] In the same year, Janino la Cheveretter, who is called Le Tregettour, [639] was paid at one time forty shillings, and at another twenty, for the same service; and John le Mendlesham, the boy [640] of Robert le Foll, twenty shillings; [641] the same sum was also given to John le Boteller, the boy of Perrot Duzedeys, for his performances; and, again, Perrot Duzedeys, Roger the Trumpeter, and Janino le Nakerer, all of them king's minstrels, received from the king sixty shillings for the like service.
XXII.—PAYMENTS TO MINSTRELS.
In the eighth year of Edward III., licence was granted to Barbor the Bagpiper, to visit the schools for minstrels in parts beyond the seas, [642] with thirty shillings to bear his expenses. Licence was also granted to Morlan the Bagpiper, to visit the minstrels' schools; and forty shillings for his expenses. [643] A little lower we find a present of five shillings made by the king to a minstrel, for performing his minstrelsy before the image of the Blessed Virgin. [644] In the eleventh year of the same reign, John de Hoglard, minstrel to John de Pulteney, was paid forty shillings for exhibiting before the king at Hatfield, and at London; [645] and to Roger the Trumpeter, and to the minstrels his associates, performing at the feast for the queen's delivery, held at Hatfield, ten pounds. [646] In the ninth year of Henry VII. "Pudesay the piper in bagpipes," received six shillings and eight pence from the king, for his performance. [647] In the fourteenth year of his reign, five pounds were paid to three stryng-mynstrels for wages, but the time is not specified; in a subsequent entry, however, we find that fifteen shillings were given to "a stryng-mynstrel, for one moneth's wages;" also to a "straunge taberer, in reward, sixty-six shillings and eight pence." [648]
XXIII—WEALTH OF CERTAIN MINSTRELS.
In the middle ages, the professors of minstrelsy had the opportunity of amassing much wealth; and certainly some of them were men of property. In Domesday Book, it appears that Berdic, the king's joculator, had lands in Gloucestershire; [649] Raher, or Royer, mimus rex, the mimic, or minstrel, belonging to Henry I., was the founder of the hospital and priory of Saint Bartholomew, in West Smithfield; [650] and the minstrels contributed towards building the church of Saint Mary, at Beverley in Yorkshire, as the inscription on one of the pillars plainly indicates; [651] though, it must be owned, their general character does not bear the marks of prudence, as the reader must have observed in the perusal of this section.
XXIV.—MINSTRELS SOMETIMES DANCING MASTERS.
It has already been observed, that the name of minstrels was frequently applied to instrumental performers, who did not profess any other branch of the minstrelsy. In an old morality called Lusty Juventus, it is said,
This passage calls to my memory a circumstance recorded by Fauchet, which proves that the minstrels were sometimes dancing masters. "I remember," says he, "to have seen Martin Baraton, an aged minstrel of Orleans, who was accustomed to play upon the tambourine at weddings, and on other occasions of festivity. His instrument was silver, decorated with small plates of the same metal, [653] on which were engraved the arms of those he had taught to dance."