than to suppress it; and although the favour | unbroken annals of the minstrel art and its of the Norman conquerors would be probably professors, or have sufficient information confined to such of their own countrymen as whether every minstrel or harper composed excelled in the minstrel arts; and in the first himself, or only repeated, the songs he ages after the conquest no other songs would chanted. Some probably did the one, and be listened to by the great nobility, but such some the other: and it would have been wonas were composed in their own Norman derful indeed if men whose peculiar profesFrench: yet as the great mass of the original sion it was, and who devoted their time and inhabitants were not extirpated, these could talents to entertain their hearers with poetical only understand their own native gleemen or compositions, were peculiarly deprived of all minstrels; who must still be allowed to exist, poetical genius themselves, and had been. unless it can be proved that they were all under a physical incapacity of composing proscribed and massacred, as it is said the those common popular rhymes which were the Welsh bards were afterwards by the severe usual subjects of their recitation. Whoever policy of King Edward I. But this we know examines any considerable quantity of these, was not the case; and even the cruel attempts finds them in style and colouring as different of that monarch, as we shall see below, proved. from the elaborate production of the sedenineffectual. (S2) tary composer at his desk or in his cell, as the rambling harper or minstrel was remote in his modes of life and habits of thinking from the retired scholar or the solitary monk. (T)

The honours shown to the Norman or French minstrels, by our princes and great barons, would naturally have been imitated by their English vassals and tenants, even if no favour or distinction had ever been hown here to the same order of men in the Anglo-Saxon and Danish reigns. So that we cannot doubt but the English harper and songster would, at least in a subordinate degree, enjoy the same kind of honours, and be received with similar respect among the inferior English gentry and populace. I must be allowed therefore to consider them as belonging to the same community, as subordinate members at least of the same college; and therefore, in gleaning the scanty materials for this slight history, I shall collect whatever incidents I can find relating to minstrels and their art, and arrange them, as they occur in our own annals, without distinction; as it' will not always be easy to ascertain, from the slight mention of them by our regular historians, whether the artists were Norman or English. For it need not be remarked that subjects of this trivial nature are but incidentally mentioned by our ancient annalists, and were fastidiously rejected by other grave and serious writers; so that, unless they were accidentally connected with such events as became recorded in history, they would pass unnoticed through the lapse of ages, and be as unknown to posterity as other topics relating to the private life and amusements of the greatest nations.

On this account it can hardly be expected that we should be able to produce regular and

It is well known that on the Continent, whence our Norman nobles came, the Bard who composed, the Harper who played and sang, and even the Dancer and the Mimic, were all considered as of one community, and were even all included under the common name of Minstrels.* I must therefore be allowed the same application of the term here, without being expected to prove that every singer composed, or every composer chanted, his own song; much less that every one excelled in all the arts which were occasionally exercised by some or other of this fraternity.

IV. After the Norman Conquest, the first occurrence which I have met with relating to this order of men is the founding of a priory and hospital by one of them: scil. the Priory and Hospital of St. Bartholomew, in Smithfield, London, by Royer or Raherus the King's Minstrel, in the third year of King Henry I., A. D. 1102. He was the first prior of his own establishment, and presided over it to the time of his death. (T 2)

In the reign of King Henry II., we have upon record the name of Galfrid or Jeffrey, a harper, who in 1180 received a corrody or annuity from the abbey of Hide near Winchester; and, as in the early times every

* See note (B) and (A a).

art.

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The Englishmen were more than a whole yeare without hearing any tydings of their king, or in what place he was kept prisoner. He had trained up in his court a Rimer or Minstrill,† called Blondell de Nesle: who (so saith the manuscript of old Poesies, and an auncient manuscript French Chronicle) being so long without the sight of his lord, his life seemed wearisome to him, and he became confounded with melancholly. Knowne it was, that he came backe from the Holy Land ; but none could tell in what countrey he arrived. Whereupon this Blondel, resolving to make search for him in many countries, but he would heare some newes of him; after expence of divers dayes in travaile, he came to a towne? (by good hap) neere to the castell where his maister King Richard was kept. Of his host he demanded to whom the castell appertained, and the host told him that it belonged to the Duke of Austria. Then he enquired whether there were any prisoners therein detained or no: for alwayes he made such secret questionings wheresoever he came. And the hoste gave answer, there was one

harper was expected to sing, we cannot doubt | be recorded for the honour of poets and their but this reward was given to him for his This fact I shall relate in the following music and his songs; which, if they were for words of an ancient writer:* the solace of the monks there, we may conclude would be in the English language.' (U) Under his romantic son, King Richard I., the Minstrel profession seems to have acquired additional splendour. Richard, who was the great hero of chivalry, was also the distinguished patron of Poets and Minstrels. He was himself of their number, and some of his poems are still extant.* They were no less patronized by his favourites and chief officers. His Chancellor, William Bishop of Ely, is expressly mentioned to have invited Singers and Minstrels from France, whom he loaded with reward; and they in return cele brated him as the most accomplished person in the world. (U 2) This high distinction and regard, although confined perhaps in the first instance to Poets and Songsters of the French nation, must have had a tendency to do honour to poetry and song among all his subjects, and to encourage the cultivation of these arts among the natives; as the indulgent favour shown by the monarch, or his great courtiers, to the Provençal Troubadour, or Norman Rymour, would naturally be imitated, by their inferior vassals to the English Glee-onely prisoner, but he knew not what he man or Minstrel. At more than a century after the conquest, the national distinctions must have begun to decline, and both the Norman and English languages would be heard in the houses of the great; (U 3) so that probably about this æra, or soon after, we are to date that remarkable intercommunity and exchange of each other's compositions, which we discover to have taken place at some early period between the French and English Minstrels; the same set of phrases, the same species of characters, incidents, and adventures, and often the same identical stories, being found in the old metrical romances of both nations. (V)

was, and yet he had bin detained there more than the space of a yeare. When Blondel heard this, he wrought such meanes, that he

Mons. Favine's Theatre of Honour and Knighthood, translated from the French. Lond. 1623, fol. tom. ii. p. 49.

An elegant relation of the same event (from the French of Presid. Fauchet's Recueil, &c.) may be seen in "Miscellanies in prose and verse, by Anna Williams, Lond. 1766," informed, that most of the pieces of that collection were composed under the disadvantage of a total deprivation of sight.

4to. p. 46.-It will excite the reader's admiration to be

† Favine's words are, "Jongleur appellé Blondiaux de Nesle." Paris, 1620, 4to., p. 1106. But Fauchet, who has

given the same story, thus expresses it, "Or ce roy ayant nourri un Menestrel appellé Blondel," &c., liv. 2, p. 92. "Des anciens Poëtes François," He is however said to have been another Blondel, not Blondel (or Blondiaux) de

Neste; but this no way affects the circumstances of the story.

The distinguished service which Richard received from one of his own minstrels, in rescuing him from his cruel and tedious cap-MS. of old Poesies, written about those very times."tivity, is a remarkable fact, which ought to

* See a pathetic song of his in Mr. Walpole's Catalogue of Royal Authors, vol. i. p. 5. The reader will find a translation of it into modern French, in Hist. Literaire des Troubadours, 1774, 3 tom. 12mo. See vol. i. p. 58, where some more of Richard's poetry is translated. In Dr. Burney's Hist. of Music, vol. ii. p. 238, is a poetical version of it in English.

This the Author calls in another place, "An ancient

From this MS. Favine gives a good account of the taking of Richard by the Duke of Austria, who sold him to the Emperor. As for the MS. chronicle, it is evidently the same that supplied Fauchet with this story. See his "Recueil de l'Origine de la Langue et Poesie Françoise, Ryme, et Romans," &c., Par. 1581.

? Tribables.-"Retrudi eum præcepit in Triballis: a quo carcere nullus ante dies istos exivit." Lat. Chron. of Otho of Austria: apud Favin.

became acquainted with them of the castell, | abroad and secreted by her French relations as Minstrels doe easily win acquaintance any in Normandy. To discover the place of her where:* but see the king he could not, neither concealment, a knight of the Talbot family understand that it was he. One day he sat spent two years in exploring that province, directly before a window of the castell where at first under the disguise of a pilgrim; till 1 King Richard was kept prisoner, and began having found where she was confined, in to sing a song in French, which King Richard order to gain admittance he assumed the and Blondel had some time composed to- dress and character of a harper, and being a gether. When King Richard heard the song, jocose person exceedingly skilled in the he knew it was Blondel that sung it: and 'gests of the ancients;' so they called the when Blondel paused at halfe of the song, romances and stories which were the delight the king 'began the other half and completed of that age; he was gladly received into the it.' Thus Blondel won knowledge of the family. Whence he took an opportunity to king his maister, and returning home into carry off the young lady, whom he presented England, made the barons of the countrie to the king; and he bestowed her on his naacquainted where the king was." This hap-tural brother William Longespee (son of fair pened about the year 1193.

The access which Blondel so readily obtained in the privileged character of a minstrel, is not the only instance upon record of the same nature.(V 2) In this very reign of King Richard I. the young heiress of D'Eve reux, Earl of Salisbury, had been carried

"Comme Menestrels s'accointent legerement." Favine. Fauchet expresses it in the same manner.

† I give this passage corrected; as the English translator of Favine's book appeared here to have mistaken the ori

ginal: Scil. "Et quant Blondel eut dit la moitie de la

Chanson, le roy Richard se prist a dire l'autre moitie et l'acheva." Favine, p. 1106. Fauchet has also expressed it in nearly the same words. Recueil, p. 93.

In a little romance or novel, entitled, "La Tour Tenebreuses, et les Jours Lumineux, Contes Angloises, accompagnez d'historiettes, et tirez d'une ancienne chronique composee par Richard, surnomme Coeur de Lion, Roy d'Angleterre," &c. Paris 1705, 12mo.-In the Preface to this romance the Editor has given another song of Blondel de Nesle, as also a copy of the song written by King Richard, and published by Mr. Walpole, mentioned above, yet the two last are not in Provençal like the sonnet printed here; but in the old French, called Language Roman.

Rosamond), who became in her right Earl of
Salisbury.(V 3)

The next memorable event which I find in history reflects credit on the English Minstrels: and this was their contributing to the rescue of one of the great Earls of Chester when besieged by the Welsh. This happened. in the reign of King John, and is related to this effect.

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Hugh, the first Earl of Chester, in his charter of foundation of St. Werburg's Abbey in that city, had granted such a privilege to those who should come to Chester fair, that they should not then be apprehended for theft or any other misdemeanour, except the crime were committed during the fair. This special protection occasioning a multitude of loose people to resort to that fair, was afterwards of signal benefit to one of his successors. For Ranulph, the last Earl of Chester, marching into Wales with a slender attendance, was constrained to retire to his castle of Rothelan, (or Rhuydland) to which the Welsh forthwith laid siege. In this distress he sent for help to the Lord de Lacy, constable of Chester: "Who, making use of the Minstrells of all sorts, then met at Chester fair: by the allurement of their musick, got together a vast number of such loose people as, by reason of the before specified priviledge, were then in that city; whom he forthwith sent under the

*The words of the original, viz., "Citharisator homo jocosus in Gestis antiquorum valde peritus," I conceive to give the precise idea of the ancient Minstrel. See note (V 2). That Gesta was appropriated to romantic stories, see note (I) Part IV (1).

+See Dugdale, Bar. i. 42, 101, who places it after 13 John, A. D. 1212. See also Plot's Staffordsh. Camden's Britann. (Cheshire.)

conduct of Dutton (his steward), a gallant | of an old Englisch boke yn ryme,'
youth, who was also his son-in-law. The as follows:
Welsh, alarmed at the approach of this rabble,
supposing them to be a regular body of
armed and disciplined veterans, instantly
raised the siege and retired."

For this good service, Ranulph is said to have granted to De Lacy, by charter, the patronage and authority over the Minstrels and the loose and inferior people: who, retaining to himself that of the lower artificers, conferred on Dutton the jurisdiction of the Minstrels and Harlots ;* and under the descendants of this family the Minstrels enjoyed certain privileges, and protection for many ages. For even so late as the reign of Elizabeth, when this profession had fallen into such discredit that it was considered in law as a nuisance, the Minstrels under the jurisdiction of the family of Dutton, are expressly excepted out of all acts of parliament made for their suppression; and have continued to be so excepted ever since. (W)

The ceremonies attending the exercise of this jurisdiction are thus described by Dugdale,† as handed down to his time, viz.: "That at midsummer fair there, all the Minstrels of that country resorting to Chester do attend the heir of Dutton, from his lodging to St. John's Church (he being then accompanied by many gentlemen of the countrey). one of the Minstrels' walking before him in a surcoat of his arms depicted on taffata; the rest of his fellows proceeding (two and two) and playing on their several sorts of musical instruments. And after divine service ndede, give the like attendance on him back to his lodging; where a court being kept by his [Mr. Dutton's] steward, and all the Minstrels formally called, certain orders and laws are usually made for the better government of that society, with penalties on those who transgress.'

In the same reign of King John we have a remarkable instance of a Minstrel, who to his other talents superadded the character of soothsayer, and by his skill in drugs and; medicated potions was able to rescue a knight from imprisonment. This occurs in Loland's Narrative of the Gestes of Guarine (or Warren) and his sons, which he "excerptid owte

* See the ancient record in Blount's Law Dictionary (Art. Minstrel).

Bar. i. p. 101.

"* and is

Whitington Castle in Shropshire, which together with the coheiress of the original proprietor had been won in a solemn turnament by the ancestor of the Guarines,† had in the reign of King John been seized by the Prince of Wales, and was afterwards possessed by Morice, a retainer of that prince, to whom the king, out of hatred to the true heir Fulco Guarine (with whom he had formerly had a quarrel at chess),‡ not only confirmed the possession, but also made him governor of the marches, of which Fulco himself had the custody in the time of King Richard. The Guarines demanded justice of the king, but obtaining no gracious answer, renounced their allegiance and fled into Bretagne. Returning into England after various conflicts, "Fulco resortid to one John of Raumpayne, a Sothsayer and Jocular and Minstrelle, and made hym his spy to Morice at Whitington.' The privileges of this character we have already seen, and John so well availed himself of them, that in consequence of the intelligence which he doubtless procured, "Fulco and his brethrene laide waite for Morice, as he went toward Salesbyri, and Fulco ther woundid hym: and Bracy," a knight who was their friend and assistant, "cut of Morice['s] hedde." This Sir Bracy being in a subsequent rencounter sore wounded, was taken and brought to King John: from whose vengeance he was however rescued by this notable Minstrel; for "John Rampayne founde the meanes to cast them, that kepte Bracy, into a deadely slepe; and so he and Bracy cam to Fulco to Whitington," which on the death of Morice had been restored to him by the Prince of Wales. As no further mention occurs of the Minstrel, I might here conclude this narrative; but I shall just add that Fulco was

* Leland's Collectanea, vol. i. pages 261, 266, 267.
†This old feudal custom of marrying an heiress to the

knight who should vanquish all his opponents in solemn
contest, &c., appears to be burlesqued in the Turnament
of Totenham, as is well observed by the learned author of
Remarks, &c., in Gent. Mag. for July, 1794, p. 613.

"John, sun to King Henry, and Fulco felle at variance at Chestes [r. Chesse]; and John brake Fulco ['s] hed with the chest borde; and then Fulco gave him such a blow, that he had almost killid hym." (Lel. Coll. i. p. 264.) A curious picture of courtly manners in that age! Notwithstanding this fray, we read in the next paragraph, that "King Henry dubbid Fulco and 3 of his bretherne Knightes at Winchester." Ibid.

obliged to flee into France, where, assuming the name of Sir Amice, he distinguished himself in justs and tournaments; and, after va- | rious romantic adventures by sea and land; having in the true style of chivalry rescued "certayne ladies owt of prison;" he finally obtained the king's pardon, and the quiet possession of Whitington Castle.

In the reign of King Henry III., we have mention of Master Ricard the King's Harper, to whom in his thirty-sixth year (1252) that monarch gave not only forty shillings and a pipe of wine, but also a pipe of wine to Beatrice, his wife. The title of Magister, or Master, given to this Minstrel deserves notice, and shows his respectable situation.

*

monarch's severity towards the professors of music and of song in Wales; whether the executing by martial law such of them as fell into his hands was only during the heat of conflict, or was continued afterwards with. more systematic rigour ;* yet in his own court the Minstrels appear to have been highly favoured: for when, in 1306, he conferred the order of knighthood on his son and many others of the young nobility, a multitude of Minstrels were introduced to invite and induce the new knights to make some military vow.(X) And

Under the succeeding reign of King Edward II., such extensive privileges were claimed by these men, and by dissolute persons assuming their character, that it became a matter of public grievance, and was obliged to be reformed by an express regulation in A. D. 1315.(Y) Notwithstanding which, an incident is recorded in the ensuing year, which shows that Minstrels still retained the liberty of entering at will into the royal represence, and had something peculiarly splen did in their dress. It is thus related by Stow.(Z)

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V. The Harper, or Minstrel, was so necessary an attendant on a royal personage, that Prince Edward (afterwards King Edward I.), in his crusade to the Holy Land, in 1271, was not without his Harper: who must have been officially very near his person; as we are told by a contemporary historian,† that, in the attempt to assassinate that heroic prince, when he had wrested the poisoned knife out of the Sarazen's hand, and killed 'In the year 1316, Edward the Second did him with his own weapon; the attendants, solemnize his feast of Pentecost at Westminwho had stood apart while he was whisper-ster, in the great hall; where sitting royally ing to their master, hearing the struggle, ran to his assistance, and one of them, to wit his Harper, seizing a tripod or trestle, struck the assassin on the head and beat out his brains.‡ And though the prince blamed him for striking the man after he was dead, yet his near access shows the respectable situation of this officer; and his affectionate zeal should have induced Edward to entreat his brethren the Welsh Bards afterwards with more lenity.

Whatever was the extent of this great

**Burney's Hist. ii. p. 355.-Rot. Pip. An. 36 H. III.

Citharista Regis, xl. sol. per. br. Reg. Et in uno dolio smpto & dato Beatrici uxori ejusdem Ricardi."

+ Walter Hemmingford (vixit temp. Edw. I.), in Chronic.

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 table, shewing 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 on the favours heaped by him on his minions, to the neglect of his knights and faithful ser

vants.

The privileged character of a Minstrel was "Et in uno dolio vini empto & dato Magistro Ricardo employed on this occasion, as sure of gaining an easy admittance; and a female the rather deputed to assume it, that, in case of detection, her sex might disarm the king's resentment. This is offered on a supposition that she was not a real minstrel; for there should seem to have been women of this profession (A a), as well as of the other sex; and no

cap. 35, inter V. Hist. Ang. Scriptores, vol. ii. Oxon. 1687,

fol. pag. 591.

"Accurrentes ad hæc Ministri ejus, qui a longe steterunt, invenerunt eum [scil. Nuntium] in terra mortuum, et apprehendit unus eorum tripodem, scilicet Cithareda suus,

& percussit eum in capite, et effundit cerebruin ejus. Incre pavitque eum Edwardus quod hominem mortuum percussisset." Ibid. These Ministri must have been upon a very confidential footing, as it appears above in the same chapter, that they had been made acquainted with the contents of the letters which the assassin had delivered to the prince from his master.

* See Gray's Ode; and the Hist. of the Gwedir Family in "Miscellanies by the Hon. Daines Barrington," 1781, 4to., p. 386; who in the Laws, &c., of this monarch could find no instances of severity against the Welsh. See his observations on the Statutes, 4to. 4th edit. p. 358.