MINSTREL, a musician of the middle ages who was also a poet and singer: the term is applied to a class of persons who were to administer their skill in poetry and music for the amusement of their patrons. The various ways in which the word was written have perplexed the etymology. It appears, however, to have been no more than a consequen tial usage of the French ministre and the Latin ministri. They are in low Latin sonic times called plainly ministri; by Chaucer, in his Dream, and in the old paper roll printed by Leland we find " ministers " who were appointed "to syma" The minstrels appear to have accompanied their songs with mimicry and action, and to have practiced such various means of diverting as were most admired in those rude times, and supplied the want of more refined entertainment. These arts rendered them extremely popular and acceptable in England and all the neighboring countries, where no higa scene of festivity was considered complete that was not set off with the exercise of their talents, and where, so long as the spirit of chivalry subsisted, they were protected and caressed, because their songs tended to honor the ruling passion of the times, and to encourage a martial spirit. The minstrels seem to have been the genuine successors of the ancient bards, who, under different names, were admired and revered, from the earliest ages, among the people of Gaul, Britain, and, indeed, through almost all Europe, whether Celtic ' tic or Gothic; hat by none more than by the early Germans, particularly by the Danish tribes. Among these they were distinguished by the name of scalds, a word which denotes "smoothers and polishers of language." Their skill was considered as something divine, their persons were deemed sacred, their attendance was solicited by kings, and they were everywhere loaded with honors and rewards. When the Saxons were converted to Christianity this rude admiration began to subside, and poets were no longer considered 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 received, and retained many of the honors conferred upon the bards and the scalds. Although some of them only recited the compositions of others, many of them still composed songs, and all of them could probably invent a few stanzas upon occasion. Some of the longer metrical romances were Written by monks, but the shorter narratives were probably composed by the minstrels who sung them, and there is no doubt that most of the old heroic ballads were produted by this order of men From the striking 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 England the profession
of minstrel was a popular and privileged one from the time of the conquest, but this entertaining class never met with so much royal patronage as during the reign of Rich ard 1. This brilliant crusader, himself an adept in the minstrel's art, invited to his court many minstrel's and troubadours from France, and loaded them with honors and rewards such as arms, clothes, horses, and money. The well-known story of Richard's favorite minstrel, Minden de Nesle, discovering his royal master Vat singing a French chanson under the walls of a German castle in which he was a prisoner, has never been authen but it presents a popular illustration of the traditional devotion of the royal minstrel to his art. The instances of regard shown to minstrels during subsequent reigns are abundant. Edward H. rewarded his minstrel William de Merle, known as "Roi North," with certain houses which had previously belonged to the degraded minstrel John de Boteler, called "Roi Brilliant" We also find from Rymer that in 1415, when Henry V. was on his voyage to France, lie was accompanied by eighteen minstrels, who were to receive twelve pence a day. Indeed, the minstrels were often in those days more amply paid than the clergy. From the time of Edward IV., however, the real character of the original minstrels was gradually lost; and they were seldom called upon to furnish a speeimenof their Venerable art except when some great personage conde scended on a public occasion to patronize the rude pastimes of his ancestors. The genuine minstrel was seldom to be found in England, and the name had become so far degraded as popularly to denote a mere musician. It is true that at the magnificent entertainment of queen Elizabeth by Leicester, at Kenilworth castle, in 1575, a person was introduced to amuse the queen, in the attire of an ancient minstrel, who called himself "a squire minstrel of 3liddlesex," but this was no doubt a part of the masquer ade. Before Elizabeth closed her reign the degradation of minstrelsy was completed. sly a statute in her 39th year, minstrels, together with jugglers, bear-wards, fencers, common players of interludes, tinkers, and peddlers, were included among rogues, vagabonds, and sturdy beggars, and were adjudged to be punished as such.