The mediaeval stage, volume 2 (of 2)Chambers, E. K. (Edmund Kerchever)
History
The mediaeval stage, volume 2 (of 2)
Chambers, E. K. (Edmund Kerchever)
Drama, Medieval -- History and criticism; Theater -- History -- Medieval, 500-1500
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.
C
COURT MINSTRELSY IN 1306
[From _Manners and Household Expenses of England in the
Thirteenth and Fifteenth Centuries_, 141 (Roxburghe Club,
1841), from Exchequer Roll (King’s Remembrancer’s Dept.)
in Rolls Office. The Pentecost feast of 1306 was that at
which Prince Edward, who became in the next year Edward II,
was knighted. It is described in the _Annales Londonienses_
(_Chronicles of Edward I and Edward II_, R. S. i. 146).]
Solutio facta diversis Menestrallis die Pentecostes anno xxxiiiiᵗᵒ.
[A. D. 1306.]
Le Roy de Champaigne }
Le Roy Capenny } cuilibet v._marc._;
Le Roy Baisescue } summa, xvj._li._
Le Roy Marchis } i._marc._
Le Roy Robert }
Phelippe de Caumbereye lx._s._; summa, lx._s._
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