Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 13.djvu/638

* MINSTREL. 570 MINSTREL. Satan. Vet in Knghuul minstrels may liave had a closer connection with genuine poets than they had on the Continent, where from the outset these sons of the Roman mimi and scurrcB (com- pare 'scurrilous') and of the old bards of the JJorth were abhorred by the Clunxli. ilass and A KING MIN8TBEL. Head of a minstrel troupe. absolution were denied them; indeed, they were under perjietual excommunication, and were as- sured that they would spend eternity at the bot- tom of hell. Xor had they — on the Continent, at all events — any standing before the secular law. Those who harmed them went unpun- ished: yet if a minstrel was ill handled, he had the privilege of beating the shadow of his of- fender. ^lost minstrels were itinerant; others were retained by lords as jesters. Xot seldom they were women, or, at all events, women followed many a band of minstrels and lived their hard and "dissolute life. The very name of minstrel was a byword, but everywhere they were wel- come. After the invention of printing, there was little ])lace for the minstrel as an intermediary between autlior and puldic. He gradually found his main occupation as a ballad- singer at street corners or at the wassails of the more ignorant banms. Musicians still con- tinued, it is true, to be retained at Court, and ample provision was made for their maintenance. But by an act of Parliament in the thirty-ninth year of Elizabeth's reign, 'ministrcis abroad' were classed as 'rogues and vagabonds,' and were ordered to be punished as .sudi. In spite of new social conditions, minstrelsy was slow in dying out. (ieorge the Second main- tained a ciimpiniy of twenty-four nuisiciiins. who were employed in the service of the Chapel lioyal and in rendering odes on birthdays and New Year's. Scott, ns is well known, collected the minstrelsy of the Scottish border, consisting of traditional ballads that were still recited. And in the Lay of the l.asi iiiiistrel is described a wandering harper who is supposed to have lived at the close of the seventeenth century. Re- cently, too, W. B. Veats has discovered 'the last gleenian in Ireland.' a certain Michael Moran, blinil almost from birth. "He was," says Yeats, ■•a true gleeman, being alike piH't. jester, and newsman of the people." The di'sccndant of the old gleeman, it is said, is still not unknown in the Orkneys. American Minstrels. Toward the beginning of the nineteenth century a new type, the South- ern negro, appeared on the American stage. At first he was accepted merely as a comic char- acter, but gradually his songs and eccentricities overshadowed his personal charaeterislics, and he began to be looked upon as a "feature' in the performance. Before the advent of Thomas D. Rice, the re])uted founder of negro minstrelsy, there had been a score of actors, who. as negro comedians, had sung and danced their way into popular favor; but Rice was the first minstrel whose performances receivetrels now became very nu- merous, and in 1S43 the first company, the "Vir- ginia Jlinstrcis,' was formed. It consisted of "Dan' Emmett, Frank Brower, "Billy' Whit- lock, and "Dick' relham. The style of per- formance adopted by them has remained much the same ever since, for they danced, sang, played their instruments, and carried oil a running dialogue of jokes,. iong the more famous bands of minstrels may l)e mentioned: White's 'Kitchen Minstrels.' his "Virginia Serenaders,' his "Xew York Minstrels:' "Christy's Jlinstrels.' which made a tremendous sensation : "Bryant's Min- strels,' "Wood's Minstrels,' and the companies formed by 'Tony' Pastor, Thatcher. Primrose. Dockstader, West. Buckley, Backus. Birch, and Bailey. Minstrel iierformances are usually of one general character. The peiformers. who are always men and who numl)cr from l.i to 40. sit in a semicircle. At either end sit the "end men.' or "bones.' while in tlic iniddli' of the line is the "interlocutor.' who gravely asks his companions, especially the 'end men.' such questions as shall bring out their stock of jests. Each member of the troupe takes some part in the performance. The minstrel's characteristic instruments are the guitar, the banjo, tambourine, and the "bones." which are two pairs of ebony sticks, about an inch wide and six inches long, and are clapped to- gether in the performer's tingers. Consult, in general: Wilhelm von Hertz. "Die Spielleutc." an essay in his ilclightful Sitielmaiiiis- huch. second edition (Stuttgart, IHOOl : Percy, lleliiiiies of Ancient Poeliy. vol. i. ( 1705) ; Ritson, Ancient Enrilixh Mrlriinl Rnmamrs, vol. i. (1802); and Chappell. iilionnl Enfi- li.ih Airs (18.38); Langland"s I'iers Ploirman (The G. Text Passus i. and xvi. : and the Prolnpiie of the A. Text). For the sc.lp. consult: Stopford Brooke, ICitfllifth Lileniture from the lirfiinnin;/ to Ihr X'irmiin t'Dtujiirst (Xew York, 1898) ;"and Henry Morlcy, Eiifilish Lilera- lure. vol. ii. (Xew York, 1888). For the later minstrelsy, consult W. G. Courthopc, "The Decay of English Minstrelsy," in .1 Histort/ of