M INST R E L. 
544 
into the ruler’s hoiife, and faw the minflrels, and the peo¬ 
ple making a ncife. Mattk .—Whether any minjlrelles, or 
any other perfons, doe ufe to ling any longs or ditties 
that be vile and unclean. Queen Elizabeth's Injuntt. 1559. 
Often our leers and poets have confefs'd. 
That mulick’s force can tame the furious beaft ; 
Can make the wolf or foaming boar reftrain 
His rage ; the lion drop his crefted mane, 
Attentive to the fong ; the lynx forget 
His wrath to man, and lick the miiifirel's. feet. Prior. 
Hark how the minflrels gin to lhrill aloud 
Their merry mulick that refounds from far, 
The pipe, the tabor, and the trembling croud. 
That well agree withouten breach or jar. Spenfer. 
*i to the vulgar am become a jell j 
Elteemed as a mivjirel at a feaft. Sandys. 
Thefe fellows 
Were once the minjtrels of a country fhow ; 
Follow'd the prizes through each paltry town. 
By trumpet-cheeks and bloated faces known. Dryden. 
Borel derives the word from manus and hijlrio, one who 
diverts with the hand ; or from minor liiflrio, little buffoon j 
Du-Cange from miniflcllus, a diminutive of minifler, be- 
cauie the minllrels were anciently ranked among the lower 
officers, miniliers, or fervants. According to Dr. Percy, 
in his Effiay on the Ancient Englilh Minflrels, the word is 
derived from the French memjlrier; and was in ufe here 
before the Norman conquelt; and it is, remarkable, that 
our old monkim hillorians do not ufe the words citharcedus, 
cantator , or the like, to exprefe a minllrel in Latin ; but 
either mimus hijlrio,. joculator ., or feme other word that im¬ 
plies gelture. Hence it ffiould feem that the minllrels let 
off their linging by mimickry or adlion ; or, according to 
Dr. Brown’s hypothefis, united the powers of melody, 
poem, and dance. Thefe minllrels were probably the ge¬ 
nuine fuccelfors of the ancient bards, who joined the arts 
of poetry and mu Sc, and fung veri'es to the harp of their 
own compofmg. After the converlion of the Saxons to 
Chrillianity, the poets and minllrels became two feparate 
profedions; and the latter continued to be a dillinft order 
of men, and got their livelihood by linging veri'es to the 
harp at the houles of the great: where they were hofpita- 
bly and refped'tfully received, retaining many of the ho¬ 
nours Ihown to their predecellors, the bards and l'calds. 
And though home of them only recited the compofitions 
of others, many of them Hill compofed fongs themfelves, 
and all of them could probably invent a few llanzas on 
©ccafion. 
Mr. Ellis, in the Introduflion to his Specimens of early 
Englilh Metrical Romances, has given us a plain and cora- 
prehenfive view of the rife and progrefs of the minllrels 
and their poetry. From his account, Normandy appears 
to have been the cradle of minltrelfy. The Northmen 
who wrelied that province from the feeble fuccelfors of 
Charlemagne, had, doubtlefs, like all other barbarous 
people, elpecially the Scandinavian tribes, their national 
poets, under the name of fealds, or by whatever other term 
they were diftinguiffied. On their fettling in. Neultria, 
their native fpeech fpeedily melted down into the more 
commodious and extended language ufed by the inhabit¬ 
ants of Northern France, which was called Romance, being, 
in facl, a corrupted Latin, introduced by the Romans 
into their Gallic province. In this language the min- 
Jftrels compofed moll of their works, until, from that cir- 
cumllance, the word romance, from fignifying the early 
Norman-French, came at length to mean thofc chivalrous 
tales ufually compofed in that tongue. 
“ It appears likely,” fays Mr. Ellis, “ that they were 
carried by Rolla into France, where they probably intro¬ 
duced a certain number of their native traditions ; thofe, 
for inllanqe, relating to Ogier ie Danois, and other north¬ 
ern heroes, who were afterwards enlilled into the tales of 
chivalry; but that, being deprived of the mythology of 
their original religion, and cramped, perhaps, as well by 
the fober fpirit of Chrillianity as by the imperfeflion of a 
language whole tamenefs was utterly inapplicable to the 
fublime obfeurity of their native poetry, they were obliged 
to adopt various modes of amufing, and to unite the ta¬ 
lents of the mimic and the juggler, as a compenfation for 
the defefts of the muiician and poet. Their mulical flcilL, 
however, if we may judge from the number of their in- 
llruments, of which very formidable catalogues are to be 
found in every defeription of a royal fellival, may not 
have been contemptible; and their poetry, even though 
confined to ffiort compofitions, was not likely to be void 
of interell to their hearers, while employed on the topics 
of flattery or fatire. Their rewards were certainly, in 
fome cafes, enormous, and prove the elleem in which they 
were held ; though this may be partly aferibed to the ge.- 
nera! thirft after amufement, and the difficulty experienced 
by the great in dilfipating the tedioufnefs of life ; lo thnet 
the gift of three parilhes of Gloucellerlhire, affigned by 
William the Conqueror for the fupport of liis joculator, 
may, perhaps, be a lefs accurate meafure of the minltreFs 
accomplilliments than of the monarch’s power and of the 
inflpidity of his court. 
“ To the talents already enumerated, the minllrels 
added, foon after the birth of French literature, the im¬ 
portant occupation of the difeur, or declaimer. Perhaps, 
the declamation of metrical compofitions might have re¬ 
quired, during their firll llate of imperfection, fome kind 
of chant, and even the affillance of lome mufical inftru- 
.ments, to fupply the deficiencies of the meafure; perhaps, 
the aids of gellure and pantomime may have been necefifarv 
to relieve the monotony of a long recitation ; but at all 
events it is evident, that an author who wrote for the pub¬ 
lic at large, during the eleventh, twelfth, and thirteenth, 
centuries, was not lefs dependent for his fuccefs on the 
minllrels, than a modern writer of tragedy or comedy on 
the players of the prelent day. A copyilt might multiply 
manuferipts for the luppiy of convent-libraries ; but, 
while ecclefiallics alone were able to read, there was no aq- 
cels to the ears of a military nobility, without the inter¬ 
vention of a body of men who travelled in every direction, 
and were every-where welcomed as the promoters of mirth 
and conviviality. 
“ The next llep was eafy. Being compelled to a fre¬ 
quent exercife of their talent in extemporaneous compo¬ 
fitions, the minllrels were probably, like the improvifatori 
of Italy, at leall equal, if not fuperior, to more learned 
writers, in the merely mechanical parts of poetry ; they 
were alfo better judges of the public talle. By the pro¬ 
grefs of tranllation they became the depofitaries of nearly 
all the knowledge of the age, which was committed to 
their memory : it was natural, therefore, that they Ihould 
form a variety of new combinations from, the numerous 
materials in their polfeffion ; and many of our moll po¬ 
pular romances were probably brought by their efforts to 
the llate in which we now fee them. This was the moll 
fplendid era of their hillory, and feems to have compre¬ 
hended the latter part of the twelfth, and perhaps the 
whole of the thirteenth, century. After that time, from 
the general progrefs of inllruftion, the number of readers 
began to increale 5 and the metrical romances were in¬ 
fallibly fupplanted by romances in profe, whofe mono¬ 
tony neither required nor could derive much affillance 
from the art of declamation.” 
The firll compofitions of the minllrels, according to 
Mr. Ellis (ubi lupra), feem to have been unadorned an¬ 
nals or hiltories, reduced to meafure for the convenience 
of the reciter, who was to retain them upon his memory. 
This field, however, foon became too barren and unin- 
terelling. Other fciurces of narration were fought for. 
Some occurred in the ancient longs of the fealds, the legi¬ 
timate produftions of the minllrels. Others of Arabian 
origin found their way to France through Spain. But a 
much more numerous clafs was derived from the tales of 
the Armoricans, the neighbours of the Normans, who de¬ 
rived 
