and the queen to give him a linen robe; the prefect
of the palace is privileged to sit near him on festivals
and to hand him his harp. Canute seems to have
treated his scalds with less ceremony, for he threatened
to put one of them to death because he recounted his
exploits in too short a poem, but the man escaped
by producing thirty strophes on the subject next day.
The Saxon gleemen were generally of humble origin and
not only performed music, but exhibited tricks.
So also among the Normans we find the barons originally
amusing one another with “gabs,” i.e.
boastful and exaggerated accounts of their achievements.
But soon a greater amount of leisure and luxury led
them to pay for amusement; professed musicians and
story-tellers were introduced, and were classed with
the ministri or servants, whence came the name
minstrel, which was soon confined to them alone.
We find Talliefer going before William the Conqueror
at the battle of Hastings chanting the brave deeds
of Charlemagne and making a display of skill in tossing
and catching his sword and spear. This union
of tricks and music became so common that the words
minstrel and jougleur were soon synonymous, though
there was originally a distinction between them.
The word jougleur, sometimes by mistake written jongleur,
is derived from the latin joculator. This
class of people were conjurers, as their name suggests,
and often went about the country with performing animals,
especially bears and monkeys. They gradually
added songs to their accomplishments, which more assimilated
them to the minstrels, and they became connected with,
and were sometimes called “troubadours.”
In these minstrels or jougleurs, though sometimes
strolling independently, being often attached to great
households, we find an element of the domestic, or
as he is called, court fool, and we find another in
their performances being of that primitive character,
which appeals chiefly to the perception of the senses.
For although the “jocular” part, originally
subordinate, had been increased, it took so rude a
form that the ludicrous was not always easily distinguished
from the humorous. The Fool was a strange mixture
of both, varying from a mere idiot and butt to a man
of genius, far superior to his masters. He made
shrewd remarks, and performed senseless antics, the
city fool, on Lord Mayor’s day, was to jump clothes
and all into a large bowl of custard. To a certain
extent he generally corresponded with his name in
having some mental weakness or eccentricity, and it
was a recommendation if he were dwarfish or deformed.
He wore a “motley” suit of discordant colours
to make him ridiculous, and correspond with the incongruity
of his mind and actions—a dress similar
to the hundred patched paniculus centunculus
of the Roman mimes. Sometimes he wore a petticoat
or calf-skin to resemble an idiot. Finally, he
had his head shaved and wore a cowl to make him like
a monk, as his buffooneries would thus have a stranger