[191] Froissart, vol. ii. c. 31. Writers on chivalry have too often affirmed, that the minstrels besides singing, reciting, and playing on musical instruments, added the entertainments of vaulting over ropes, playing with the pendent sword, and practising various other feats of juggling and buffoonery. That this was sometimes the case during all the ages of the minstrelsy art, is probable enough, for the inferior minstrels were in a dreadful state of indigence. But the disgraceful union of poetry and juggling was not common in the best ages of chivalry. Chaucer expressly separates the minstrel from the juggler. "There mightest thou karols seen, And folk dance, and merry ben, And made many a fair tourning Upon the green grass springing. There mightest thou see these flouters. Minstrallis and eke jugelours." Romaunt of the Rose, l. 759, &c. Other passages to the same effect are collected in Anstis Order of the Garter, vol. i. p. 304; and Warton, History of English poetry, vol. ii. p. 55. As chivalry declined, minstrelsy was discountenanced, and its professors, fallen in public esteem, were obliged to cultivate other arts besides those of poetry and music. [192] Dunlop, History of Fiction, vol. i. p. 142. [193] Wace, a canon of Bayeux, and one of the most prolific rhimers that ever practised the art of poetry, continually reminded the great of the benefits which accrued to themselves from patronising poets. "Bien entend conuis e sai Que tuit morrunt, e clerc, e lai; E que mult ad curte decrée, En pres la mort lur renumee; Si per clerc ne est mis en livre, Ne poet par el dureement vivre. * * * * Suvent aveient des barruns, E des nobles dames beaus duns, Pur mettre lur nuns en estroire, Que tuz tens mais fust de eus memoire." MS. Bib. Reg. iv. c. 11. cited by Mr. Turner, History of England, vol. i. p. 442. 4to. [194] This description (Spenser's) of chivalric manners, has sadly puzzled his commentators. They are quite agreed, however, on one point, namely, that to kiss the hand of a fair lady (which the word basciomani signified) was not a custom indigenous to England, but that it was imported hither from Italy or Spain. A preux chevalier of the olden time would have been indignant at this insult to the originality of his gallantry. [195] Froissart, vol. ii. c. 26. [196] The Life of Ipomydon, Fytte, 1. [197] Thus in the Romance of Perceforest (cited by Ellis, Notes to Way's Fabliaux, vol. i. p. 220) it is said, "There were eight hundred knights all seated at table, and yet there was not one who had not a dame or damsel at his plate!" In the tale of the Mule without a Bridle, it is said,