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Aminstrel was an entertainer, initially inmedievalEurope. The term originally described any type of entertainer such as a musician,juggler,acrobat, singer orfool; later, from the sixteenth century, it came to mean a specialist entertainer who sang songs and played musical instruments.[1][2]
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.[3] Frequently they were retained by royalty and high society. As the courts became more sophisticated, minstrels were eventually replaced at court by thetroubadours, and many became wandering minstrels, performing in the streets; a decline in their popularity began in the late 15th century. Minstrels fed into later traditions of travelling entertainers, which continued to be moderately strong into the early 20th century, and which has some continuity in the form of today'sbuskers or street musicians.
Initially, minstrels were simply treats at court, and entertained the lord and courtiers withchansons de geste or their local equivalent. The termminstrel derives fromOld Frenchménestrel (alsomenesterel, menestral), which is a derivative from Italianministrello (latermenestrello), fromMiddle Latinministralis "retainer", an adjective form ofLatinminister, "attendant" fromminus, "lesser".
InAnglo-Saxon England before theNorman Conquest, the professional poet was known as ascop ("shaper" or "maker"), who composed his own poems, and sang them to the accompaniment of aharp. In a rank much beneath thescop were thegleemen, who had no settled abode, but roamed about from place to place, earning what they could from their performances. Late in the 13th century, the termminstrel began to be used to designate a performer who amused his lord with music and song. Following a series of invasions, wars, conquests, etc., two categories of composers developed. Poets likeChaucer andJohn Gower appeared in one category, wherein music was not a part. Minstrels, on the other hand, gathered at feasts and festivals in great numbers with harps,fiddles,bagpipes, flutes,flageolets,citterns andkettledrums. 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] TheHeege Manuscript, transcribed in the EnglishMidlands around 1480 by Richard Heege, may offer a sample of the humor favored by some medieval minstrels at festivals.[5]
The music of thetroubadours andtrouvères was performed by minstrels calledjoglars (Occitan) orjongleurs (French). As early as 1321, the minstrels of Paris were formed into aguild.[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 asjesters who, in some cases, also practised the art ofjuggling. 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.
Minstrelsy became a central concern in English literature in theRomantic period and has remained so intermittently.[7]
In poetry,The Lay of the Last Minstrel (1805) by SirWalter Scott,Lalla Rookh (1817) byThomas Moore, andThe Village Minstrel (1821) byJohn Clare were three of many. Novels centring on minstrelsy have includedHelen Craik'sHenry of Northumberland (1800),Sydney Owenson'sThe Novice of St Dominick's (a girl using a minstrel disguise, 1805),Christabel Rose Coleridge'sMinstrel Dick (a choirboy turned minstrel becomes a courtier, 1891),Rhoda Power'sRedcap Runs Away (a boy of ten joins wandering minstrels, 1952), andA. J. Cronin'sThe Minstrel Boy (priesthood to minstrelsy and back, 1975).
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