minstraciet

An old form of minstrelsy. minstrel (min's trel), n. [ the minstrels were a cla who devoted themselves to the amusement of the great in castle or camp by singing ballads or songs of love and war, sometimes of their own composition, with accompaniment on the harp, lute, or other instrument, together with suitable mimicry and action, and also by storytelling, etc. The intermediate cla of profe ional musicians from which the later minstrels sprang appeared in France as early as the eighth century, and was by the Norman conquest introduced into England, where it was a imilated with the Anglo-Saxon gleemen. Everywhere the social importance of the minstrels slowly degenerated, until in the fifteenth century they had formed themselves generally into gilds of itinerant popular musicians and mountebanks. In England they fell so low in esteem that in 1597 they were cla ed by a statute with rogues, vagabonds, and sturdy beggars; but in France their gilds were maintained until the revolution. See gleeman, trou badour, trouvère, and jongleur. Minstrel. From the Maison des Music i ens, Rheims, France; 13th century. IMG:content-0682.jpg:[blocks in formation] mint IMG:content-0683.jpg:[blocks in formation]