John of Salisbury, Polycraticus i. 8 (†1159, P. L. cxcix, 406), says, Satius enim fuerat otiari quam turpiter occupari. Hinc mimi, salii vel saliares, balatrones, aemiliani, gladiatores, palaestritae, gignadii, praestigiatores, malefici quoque multi, et tota ioculatorum scena procedit.’ The specific terms belong to John of Salisbury’s classical learning rather than to contemporary use; but his generic ioculator is the normal mediaeval Latin term for the minstrel in the widest sense. Classically the word, like its synonym iocularis, is an adjective, ‘given to ioca,’ ‘merry.’ Thus Cicero, ad Att. iv. 16. 3 ‘huic ioculatorem senem illum interesse sane nolui.’ Similarly Firmicus Maternus (fourth century), Mathesis, viii. 22 ‘histriones faciat, pantomimos, ac scaenicos ioculatores,’ and 4 Conc. Carthag. (398), c. 60 (C. I. C. Decr. Gratiani, i. 46. 6) ‘clericum scurrilem et verbis turpibus ioculatorem ab officio retrahendum censemus.’ Here the technical meaning is approached, which Gautier, ii. 12, declares to be complete in Salvian (fifth century), de gubernatione Dei. I cannot, however, find the word in Salvian, though I do find iugulator, ‘cut-throat.’ I have not come across ioculator as a noun before the eighth century (vol. i. p. 37), but thenceforward it is widely used for minstrels of both the scôp and the mimus type. A rarer form is iocista. Ioculator gives rise to the equally wide French term jouglere, jougleur, which seems to merge with the doublet jogeler, jougler, from iocularis. Similarly ioca becomes jeu, the equivalent of the classical and mediaeval Latin ludus, also in the widest sense. In Provençal ioculator becomes joglar, in English jugelour, jugelere, jogeler, &c. Thus S. Eng. Leg. i. 271 (†1290) ‘Is iugelour a day bifore him pleide faste And nemde in his ryme and in is song þene deuel atþe laste’; King Horn (ed. Ritson), 1494 (†1300) ‘Men seide hit were harperis, Jogelers, ant fythelers.’ The incorrect modern French form jongleur seems due to a confusion between jougleur and jangleur, ‘babbler,’ and the English jangler has a similar use; cf. Piers the Plowman, B. Text, passus x. 31 (ed. Skeat, i. 286) ‘Iaperes and Iogeloures, and Iangelers of gestes.’ Here both words appear side by side. The English jogelour sometimes has the full sense of the French jougleur, as in the instances just given, but as a term for minstrels of the higher or scôp type it has to compete, firstly, with the native gleeman, from O. E. gleoman, gligman, and secondly, with minstrel; and as a matter of fact its commoner use is for the lower type of minstrel or buffoon, and in particular, in the exact sense of the modern juggler, for a conjuror, tregetour or prestigiator. The latter is the usual meaning of jogelour, with the cognate jogelrye, in Chaucer; for the former, cf. Adam Davie (†1312) ‘the minstrels sing, the jogelours carpe.’ In English documents the Latin ioculator itself to some extent follows suit; the ioculator regis of late fifteenth or early sixteenth-century accounts is not a minstrel or musician, but the royal juggler (cf. vol. i. p. 68). On the other hand the Provençal joglar is differentiated in the opposite sense, to denote a grade of minstrelsy raised above the mere bufos (vol. i. p. 63).

A street in Paris known at the end of the thirteenth century as the ‘rue aus Jugléeurs,’ came later to be known as the rue des Ménétriers (Bernhard, iii. 378). This is significant of a new tendency in nomenclature which appears with the growth during the fourteenth century of the household entertainers at the expense of their unattached brethren of the road. Minister is classical Latin for ‘inferior’ and so ‘personal attendant.’ The ministeriales of the later Empire are officers personally appointed by the Emperor. Towards the end of the thirteenth century minister, with its diminutives ministellus and ministrallus (French menestrel), can be seen passing from the general sense of ‘household attendant’ to the special sense of ‘household ioculator.’ A harper was one of the ministri of Prince Edward in 1270 (vol. i. p. 49). Gautier, ii. 13, 51, quotes li famles (famuli) as a synonym for such ioculatores, and such doublets as ‘menestrel et serviteur,’ ‘menestrel et varlet de chambre.’ The ministeralli of Philip IV in 1288 include, with the musicians, the rex heraudum and the rex ribaldorum. From the beginning of the fourteenth century, however, ministrallus, with French menestrel, menestrier, and English menestrel, mynstral, is firmly established in the special sense. The antithesis between the ministrallus and the unattached ioculator appears in the terminology of the 1321 statutes of the Paris guild, ‘menestreus et menestrelles, jougleurs et jougleresses’; but even this disappears, and the new group of terms becomes equivalent to the ioculator group in its widest sense. So too, ministralcia, menestrardie, minstralcie, although chiefly used, as by Chaucer, for music, are not confined to that; e.g. Derby Accounts, 109, ‘cuidam tumblere facienti ministralciam suam.’ The word is here approaching very near its kinsman métier (vol. ii. p. 105). Wright-Wülcker, 596, 693, quotes from the fifteenth-century glossaries, ‘simphonia, mynstrylsy,’ and ‘mimilogium, mynstrisye.’

Ioculator and ministrallus are in their technical sense post-classical. But it is to be noted that the classical histrio and mimus, widened in connotation to an exact equivalent with these, remain in full use throughout the Middle Ages. They are indeed the more literary and learned words, as may be seen from the fact that they did not give rise to Romance or English forms; but they are not differentiated as to meaning. In particular, I do not find that mimus is used, as I have occasionally for convenience used it, to denote the lower minstrel of classical origin, as against the higher minstrel or scôp. Here are a few of many passages which go to establish this complete fourfold equivalence of ioculator, ministrallus, mimus and histrio; Gloss. in B.N. MS. 4883ᵃ, f. 67ᵇ (Du Méril, Or. Lat. 23) ‘istriones sunt ioculatores’; Constit. regis Minorcae (1337, Mabillon, Acta SS. Bened. Ian. iii. 27) ‘In domibus principum, ut tradit antiquitas, mimi seu ioculatores licite possunt esse’; Conc. Lateran. (1215), c. 16 ‘mimis, ioculatoribus et histrionibus non intendant.’ This triple formula, often repeated by ecclesiastics, is of course conjunctive, like ‘rogues and vagabonds.’ Guy of Amiens (†1068) calls Taillefer both histrio and mimus (vol. i. p. 43). At the beginning of the sixteenth century the royal minstrels are histriones in the accounts of Shrewsbury, ministralli in those of Winchester College (App. E. (iv)), mimi in those of Beverley (Leach, Beverley MSS. 171). The ioculator regis, as already said, is by this time distinct. The Scottish royal minstrels appear in the Exchequer Rolls for 1433-50 as mimi, histriones, ioculatores (L. H. T. Accounts, i, cxcix). The town musicians of Beverley, besides their specific names of waits and spiculatores, have indifferently those of histriones, ministralli, mimi (Leach, Beverley MSS. passim). It is largely a matter of the personal taste of the scribe. Thus the Shrewsbury accounts have both histriones and menstralles in 1401, histriones in 1442, ministralli regularly from 1457 to 1479, and histriones regularly from 1483 onwards.

Many other names for minstrels, besides these dominant four, have been collected by scholars (Gautier, ii. 10; Julleville, Les Com. 17; Gröber, ii. 489; Bédier, 366). From the compliments exchanged in the fabliau of Des Deux Bordeors Ribaux (Montaiglon-Raynaud, i. 1) one may extract the equivalence of menestrel, trouvère, ribaud, bordeor, jougleur, chanteur, lecheor, pantonnier. Of such subordinate names many are specific, and have been dealt with in their turn in chh. iii, iv. Others, again, are abusive, and found chiefly in the mouths of ecclesiastics, or as distinctive of the lower orders of minstrels. There are garcio, nebulo, delusor, saccularius, bufo, ribaud, harlot. There are bourdyour, japer, gabber, jangler (vol. i. p. 84). There is scurra, an early and favourite term of this class; cf. Ælfric’s gloss (Ducange, s.v. Iocista), ‘Mimus, iocista, scurra, gligmon’; Wright-Wülcker, 693 (fifteenth-century gloss), ‘scurra, harlot’; and vol. i. p. 32. There is leccator, leccour (cf. above and App. F. s.v. Chester). And finally, there are a few terms of general, but not very common, application. Scenici and thymelici come from the early Christian prohibitions (vol. i. pp. 12, 17, 24). More important are a group derived from ludus, which like jeu has itself the widest possible sense, covering every possible kind of amusement. The Sarum Statutes of 1319, in a titulus dealing with histriones, speak of those ‘qui “menestralli” et quandoque “ludorum homines” vulgari eloquio nuncupantur’ (vol. i. p. 40). In the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries appear such terms as lusor, lusiator, ludens, interlusor, interludens. The two latter of these are always specific, meaning ‘actor’; the three former are usually so, although they may occasionally have the more general sense, and this is probably also true of the English player. This question is more fully discussed in vol. i. pp. 84, 393, and vol. ii. p. 185.