Page:A History of Domestic Manners and Sentiments in England During the Middle Ages.djvu/202

 I 82 Hijlory of Domejiic Manners hundred played before the fame monarch at the Whitfuntide of 1306. This affluence of mhiftrels gave rife to the praftice of building a large mufic-gallery at one end of the mediaeval hall, which feems to have been introduced in the fourteenth century. At this time minflrels were fome- times employed for very lingular purpofes, Juch as for toothing the king when undergoing a difagreeable operation. We learn from the ward- robe accounts that, in the twenty-fifth year of the reign of Edward I. (a.d. 1297) twenty fliillings, or about fifteen pounds in modern money, was given to the minltrel of Sir John JVIaltravers as a reward for perform- ing before the king while he was bled. The king's minflrels, and thofe of the great lords, were very well paid, but the great mafs of the profefiion, who depended only on what they obtained in gifts at each particular feafi, which they reckleflly fquandered away as foon as they got it, lived a hard as it was a vagabond life. The king's minflrels, in the fourteenth century in England, received from fixpence to fevenpence halfpenny a day, that is from feven fliillings and fixpence to nine fliillings and fourpence halfpenny, during the whole year. On the other hand, Colin Mufet, one of the befl of the French fbng- writers of the thirteenth century, complains of the want of liberality fliown to him by the great baron before whom he had played on the viol in his lioftel, and who had given him nothing, not even his wages : — Sire qucns, j''a! "viele Dcvant 'vos en 'vojire ojiel j Si ne rn'a've% rlens donnc, Ne mes gages acquher. And he laments that he is obliged to go home in poverty, becaufe his wife always received him ill when he returned to her with an empty purfe, whereas, when he carried back his vialle well fluffed, he was covered with carefTes by his whole family. The French poet Rutebeuf, wliofe works have been collefted and publiflied by M. Jubinal, may be confidered as the type of the better clafs of minflrels at this period, and he has become an objeft of efpecial interefl to us in confequence of the number of his fhorter efFufions which defcribe his own pofition in life. The