The Minstrels of Beverley. Woodcut of 16th-century English musicians. Left to right: pipe and tabor, fiddle, windcap instrument, lute, and shawm.
A minstrel was an entertainer, initially in
juggler, acrobat, singer or fool; later, from the sixteenth century, it came to mean a specialist entertainer who sang songs and played musical instruments.[1][2]
Description
Minstrels performed songs which told stories of distant places or of existing or imaginary historical events. Although minstrels created their own tales, often they would memorize and embellish the works of others.
buskers
or street musicians.
Initially, minstrels were simply treats at court, and entertained the lord and courtiers with
chansons de geste or their local equivalent. The term minstrel derives from Old Frenchménestrel (also menesterel, menestral), which is a derivative from Italian ministrello (later menestrello), from Middle Latinministralis "retainer", an adjective form of Latin
minister, "attendant" from minus, "lesser".
In
kettledrums. Additionally, minstrels were known for their involvement in political commentary and engaged in propaganda. They often reported news with bias to sway opinion and revised works to encourage action in favor of equality.[4] The Heege Manuscript, transcribed in the English Midlands around 1480 by Richard Heege, may offer a sample of the humor favored by some medieval minstrels at festivals.[5]
The music of the
trouvères was performed by minstrels called joglars (Occitan) or jongleurs (French). As early as 1321, the minstrels of Paris were formed into a guild.[6] A guild of royal minstrels was organized in England in 1469.[6] Minstrels were required to either join the guild or abstain from practising their craft. Some minstrels were retained by lords as jesters who, in some cases, also practised the art of juggling
. Some were women or women who followed minstrels in their travels. Minstrels throughout Europe also employed trained animals, such as bears. Minstrels in Europe died out slowly, having gone nearly extinct by about 1700, although isolated individuals working in the tradition existed even into the early 19th century.
In literature
Minstrelsy became a central concern in English literature in the Romantic period and has remained so intermittently.[7]
In poetry,
Sydney Owenson's The Novice of St Dominick's (a girl using a minstrel disguise, 1805), Christabel Rose Coleridge's Minstrel Dick (a choirboy turned minstrel becomes a courtier, 1891), Rhoda Power's Redcap Runs Away (a boy of ten joins wandering minstrels, 1952), and A. J. Cronin
's The Minstrel Boy (priesthood to minstrelsy and back, 1975).
