AN HISTORICAL SKETCH OF FRENCH LITERATURE. 287 
they generally forget the subject, and are glad to return to the more 
congenial topics of chivalric life. 
Though the Troubadours sometimes recited their own composi- 
tions, these were generally sung by the Jongleurs, who attended them 
in an altogether inferior capacity. The Jongleurs* (joculatores, 
mimt, histriones )+ appear to have been of much earlier origin than 
the Troubadours, as we find that, even in the ninth century, their 
licentiousness and immorality was severely censured by the chrofi- 
clers of that period.{ Charlemagne, in the first capitulary of Aix- 
la-Chapelle, speaks of them as persons branded with infamy, and ex- 
pressly forbids their admission into convents. They appear, in fact, 
to have been the strolling players or mountebanks of the period; and, 
roaming from castle to castle, they were always heartily welcomed, 
and amply rewarded with horses, clothes, and money. A song or a ro- 
mance was the only pay given for the most sumptuous entertainment ; 
thus, Jean de Chapelain, in his Fabliau du Sacristain du Clugny, 
assures us that in Normandy this was the only reward that was ever 
given to the host. 
“ Usage est en Normandie 
Que qui hebergié est qu’il die 
Fable ou chanson a son hoste ; 
Ceste coustome pas n’en oste 
Sire Jehans li Chapelain.” 
The Troubadours, as well as the Jongleurs, attempted to perpe- 
* There have been many opinions in regard to the etymology of this 
word. M.de Ravaliére ingeniously derives it from ongle, a nail, ongleur, a 
thrummer of instruments with the nail; as most of the instruments then 
in use were played with the fingers.—Ravaliére, Poésies du Roi de Navarre, 
tom. ii, p. 255; Burney, Hist. of Mus. vol. ii, p. 267. 
' + There appear to have been several orders of Jongleurs. Thus, when 
they recited the numerous romances of the day they were called Comtaidres, 
or Discours ; when they imitated the sounds and voices of animals they were 
called Contrafazedors ; and when they performed dramatic pieces they were 
termed Mimes or Histrions.—Diez, Poesie der Troubadours, pp. 45—46; De 
La Rue, Hist. des Jongleurs, &c. vol. i, p. 104. 
+ “Nescit homo qui histriones et mimos et saltatores introducit in domum 
suam, quam magna eos immundorum sequitur turba spirituum.”—Alcuinus 
Albinus, ep. 107—836, “Inebriat histriones, mimos turpissimos turpissi- 
mosque et vanissimos joculatores Agobardus.” See also Du Cange, under 
Jocista, Jocularis, Joculator, Ministelli; Muratori, Antig. Med. Avii, tom, 
ii, p. 832; Diez, Poesie der Troub. p. 15; Percy’s Reliques of Ancient Poetry, 
vol. i. 
