MINSTREL, from the French menestral, and that, in all probability, from Minittrellua, a diminutive of the Latin minister, as a term applied to a class of persons who were to administer by their skill to the amusement of their patrons. " The minstrels," says Percy (` Reliques of Ancient Poetry '), "sang to the harp verses composed by themselves or others." They appear to have accompanied their songs with mimicry and action, and to have practised 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 neighbouring countries, where no high 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 do honour to 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, Ireland, and the north, and indeed by almost all the first inhabitants of Europe, whether of Celtic or of Gothic race ; but by none more than by our own Teutonic ancestors, particularly by the Danish tribes. Among these they were distinguished by the name of Scalds, a word which denotes "smoothers and polishers of language." This derivation of the minstrels from the Scalds and Gleemen of the north rests on fair historical testimony ; and the reader will not fail to call to mind the incidents recorded of several Saxon and Danish princes, who assumed the disguise of Gleemen, and chanted to the harp when exploring a hostile camp.
The name of minstrel is, however, Norman. "It is well known," says Percy," that on the Continent, whence our Norman nobles came, the bard who composed, the harper who played and sang, and even the dancer and mimic, were all considered as of one community, and were even all included under the common name of minstrels : " hence we may add their Latin names of Mimi, Seurrce, Ilistrionea, Joculatores, In France, however, the name of the class was Trouverre, Trouveur or Troubadour.
Joculator Regis is an officer holding no less than three villa in the return of the Domesday survey for Gloucestershire ; and in the same survey, in Surrey, we have a Joculatrix. Wace, Oaimar, and our own historians William of Malmesbury and Huntingdon, all concur in the statement that a warrior-minstrel of the name of Taillefer rode before the conqueror's army previous to the battle of Hastings, flinging up and catching his sword in defiance, and singing the song of Roland.
To trace the existence of the minstrel profession minutely through the Inigns immediately subsequent to the Conquest seems unnecessary. the founder of St. Bartholomew's Priory in Smithfield, is re corded as the " mimus Regis Ilenriei I." Warton, in his History of English Poetry,' vol. ii, p. 105, has cited several instances of the high pay to minstrels :—" During many of the years of the reign of henry VI.," he says," particularly in the year 1430, at the annual feast of the fraternity of the Holy Cross at Abingdon, a town in Berkshire, twelve priests each receive fourpence for singing a dirge; and the same number of minstrels were rewarded each with two shillings and fourpence, besides diet and horse-meat. Some of these minstrels came only from Maydenhithe or Maidenhead, a town at no great distance, in the same county." From the time of Edward IV., however, the real character of the original minstrel was becoming rapidly extinguished, and even the name seems to have been gradually appropriated to the musician only. At Queen magnificent entertainment by Leicester, at Kenilworth Castle, in 1575, it is true a personage was introduced to amuse the queen, in the attire of an ancient minstrel, who called him self "a squire minstrel of Middlesex ; " but this was, no doubt, a part of the masquerade : it was the representation of a former day, not one of an existing profession. Laneham (` Princely Pleasures of Kenil worth,' Nichols's Progresses of Queen Eliz.,' voL i.) says :—" After three lowlie cooursiez he cleered his vois with a hem and a reach, and spat out withal; wiped hiz lips with the hole of his hand, for fyling his napkin, temper'd a string or too with hiz wreast, and, after a little warbling on his harp for a prelude, came foorth with a sollem song, warranted for stoory oout of king Arthurz acts." Before Elizabeth closed her reign the degradation of Minstrelsy was completed. By a statute in her 39th year, minstrels, together with jugglers, bear-wards, fencers, common players of interludes, tinkers, and pedlars, were at one sweep included among rogues, vagabonds, and sturdy beggars, and adjudged to be punished accordingly. Kitson quotes some satirical lines in allusion to this statute, written by Dr. Bull :— " When Jesus went to Jairus' house, Whose daughter was about to dye, He turn'd the minstrels out of doors, Among the rascal company : Beggars they are with one consent, And rogues by act of parliament." This act put an end to the genuine old minstrelsy as a profession ; and the modern definition of minstrel is no more than a " musician, a player upon some instrument."