Antiquitates culinariae, or, curious tracts relating to the culinary affairs of the old English / with a preliminary discourse, notes and illustrations by Richard Warner.

Date:: 1791

Credit: Antiquitates culinariae, or, curious tracts relating to the culinary affairs of the old English / with a preliminary discourse, notes and illustrations by Richard Warner. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Glasgow Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Glasgow Library.

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$they had the privilege of exercifing their art at the entertainments of other great men, for which they appear to have been handfomely rewarded *f\ At the fplendid nuptials of the Countefs of Holland, daughter of Edward I. every king-minftrel received a gratuity of forty {hillings for his trouble and attendance, which was a confiderable fum in the thirteenth century J. The freedom both in fpeech and adtion, which the minftrels of thefe times were permitted to ufe, (hews the high degree of refpedt in which they were held. Of this, the following anecdotes are examples. Henry III. being at Paris in 1250, held a grand entertainment in the hall of the knights templars, at which the kings of France and Navarre, all the nobility of France, and a great number of Englifli knights were prefent. The fides of the hall in which the feaft was held, were covered with fhields; and among them was the fhield which had belonged to Richard I. As the feaft was ferving up, a Joculator or minjirel addrefled the Englifh monarch in this manner. “ Wherefore fire did you invite thefe French- “ men to your feaft ? Behold the ihield of the mighty Richard, the monarch of “ England!—All your French guefts will partake of your feaft in fear and “ trembling § !” In the reign of Edward III. at the inftallation of the Black Prince his fon, in the midft of the feaft we are told, a vaft troop of minftrels entered the hall un- invited, and without ceremony3 and were yet received with the higheft honor and refpedt |]. We have another inftance related by Stowe, in which we find a woman following the profeflion of minftrel. te In the year 1316, Edward II. did folemnize his feaft of Pentecoft, at “ Weftminfter, in the great hall; where fitting royally at the table, with his “ peers about him, there entered a woman adorned like a minftrel, fitting on a “ great horfe, trapped as minftrels then ufed3 who rode round about the tables, “ fhewing paftime, and at length came up to the king’s table, and laid before “ him a letter, and forthwith turning her horfe, faluted every one and departed This indulgence however, which was thus fhewn to the minftrel, feems at length to have been much abufed. His intrufions became fo ill timed and ob- noxious, and his manners fo licentious, that it was found neceffary to bring the profeflion under ftridter regulations3 and in the year 1315, a dietarie was published to curtail their privileges *f*. The f The honors and rewards which were beflowed on the minftrels, feem to have given great difguft to fome of the more ferious people of the age. “ Non enim more nugatorum ejus feculi in Hiftriones et Minns, et hujus- “ modi monlira hominum, ob famas redemptionem, et dilatationem nominis effunditis opes veftras, &c.” Johan. Sarifbur. epift. 274. t With refpeft to the king-minftrel, Dr. Percy has this note. The minftrels feem to have been in many refpedts upon the fame footing with the heralds. The king of the minftrels, like the king at arms, was an ufual officer, both here and in France—p. 73. Du Cange doff. 4. 773. Rex miniftellorum fupremus inter miniftellos. § Vide Matt. Paris, p. 871. edit. Tigur. 1589. || Vide Nic. Trivet. Annal. edit. Oxon. p. 342. * Vide Stowe’s, furvey, p. 521. The anfwer of the porters when they were blamed for admitting this female minftrel, fhews the indulgences they had, and the freedom they ufed. “ Non,” fay they, « effe inoris domus “ regiae hiftriones, ab ingreffu quomodolibet prohibere, &c.” Walfjng. apud Norman. Anglic, et Franc. Hilt, p. 109. edit. Franc. 1603. Percy’s effay, 71. •f Vide Leland. Colledt, vol. VI. p. 36. E 2$