Page:A History of Domestic Manners and Sentiments in England During the Middle Ages.djvu/185

 and Sentiments. 165 is dining in the hall of king Pentapolin, with the king and queen and their fair daughter, and all his lords, when, reminded by the fcene of the royal eftate from which he is fallen, he forrowed and took no meat ; therefore the king, fympathifing with him, bade his daughter take her harp and do all that llie could to enliven that "lorry man :" — And Jhe to don her fader ei hcjie. Her harpe fettc, and in the fejie Upon a chair e ivhich thei fette, Her felt'e next to this man Jhe fette. Appolinus in turn takes the harp, and proves himfelf a wonderful proficient, and When he hath harped all e his Jille, The kingis heft tofuljille, Aivaie goth difhe, aivaie goth cup, Doun goth the horde, the cloth ivas up, Thei rifen and gone out of the halle. The minflrels, or jongleurs, formed a very important clafs of Ibciety in the middle ages, and no fertival was considered as complete without their prefence. They travelled fingly or in parties, not only from houle to houfe, but from country to country, and they generally brought with them, to amufe and pleafe their hearers, the laft new fong, or the lall new tale. When any great feftival was announced, there was fure to be a general gathering of minftrels from all quarters, and as they poffeffed many methods of entertaining, for they joined the profeilion of mounte- bank, pofture-mafter, and conjurer with that of mufic and ftory-telling, they were always welcome. No fooner, therefore, was the bulinefs of eating done, than the jougleur or jongleurs were brought forward, and fometimes, when the guefts were in a more ferious humour, they chanted the old romances of chivalry ; at other times they repeated fatirical poems, or party fongs, according to the feelings or humour of thofe who were liftening to them, or told love tales or fcandalous anecdotes, or drolleries, accompanying them with afting, and intermingling them with performances of various kinds. The hall was proverbially the place for mirth, and as merriment of a coarfe deicription fuited the mediaeval tarte, the llories and performances of the jongleurs were often of an obfcene cha- rader,