mpanied their songs with mimicry and action. They are called in
Latin of the day _histriones_, _Mimi_ and _Scurrae_. Such arts
rendered them exceedingly popular in this and in neighboring countries,
where no high scene of festivity was esteemed complete that was not set
off with the exercise of their talents; and where so long as the spirit
of chivalry existed, they were protected and caressed, because their
songs tended to do honor to the ruling passion of the times, and to
encourage and foment a martial spirit."

They were the legitimate successors of the bards and scalds of early
times whose art was considered divine and their songs worthy of regal
patronage. They were the historians, genealogists, poets, and musicians,
of the land. The word minstrel is derived from the Latin
_minister_, a servant, because they were classed among the King's
attendants. An earlier Saxon name for this class of performers was
"Gleeman," in rude English, a Jogeler or Jocular; Latin, "Joculator."
The word "glee" is from the Saxon "gligg," meaning music; and the
meaning now attached to that word shows how intimately associated were
pleasure and music in the national mind. The harp was the most ancient
of Saxon musical instruments. It continued in use for a thousand years.
It was well known in the time of Chaucer. His _Frere_ could play
upon it and sing to it; the merry "wife of Bath" had frequently danced
to it in her youth. It was an ordinary accompaniment of revels and
tavern festivals. It continued in use till the reign of Elizabeth.
In Dr. Percy's "Reliques of ancient English poetry" he speaks of the
minstrels as an order of men in the Middle Ages, highly honored,
retained and pensioned by kings, lavishly rewarded by nobles, and kindly
entertained by the common people.[3] Ritson in his "Ancient Songs"
admits that such an "order" of singers existed in France, but never in
England; that individuals wandered up and down the country chanting
romances and singing songs or ballads to the harp or fiddle; but that
they never enjoyed the respect of the high born or received favors from
them. The church evidently looked upon them with disfavor, as the
enemies of sobriety and the promoters of revelry and mirth. In the
sixteenth century they lost all credit and were classed, in penal
enactments, with "rogues and vagabonds." One reason of the decline of
minstrelsy was the introduction of printing and the advance of learning:
that which might afford