Page:A History of Domestic Manners and Sentiments in England During the Middle Ages.djvu/197

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and Sentiments. iJJ hearers that " Whoever wiflies to hear any more of this poem, muft make hafte to open his purle, for it is now high time that he give me fomething" — Slj-d or voldra charn^on o'l'r et efcouter. Si I'oijl ijiielement fa bourjje desfermer, Qu"'!! eji hut mh bien tans quil me doie doner. — Oui ile Bourgogne, 1. 4136. In hive manner, in the romance of " Huon de Bordeaux," the minftrel, after having recited nearly tive thoufand lines, makes his excufe for difcontinuing until another day. He reminds his auditors that it is near vefpers, and that he is weary, and invites them to return next day atter dinner, begging each of them to bring with him a mdille, or halfpenny, and complaining of the mcannefs of thole who were accuftomed to give fo fmall a coin as the poitivine " to the courteous minttrel." The minftrel feems to have calculated that this hint might not be fufficient, and that they would require being reminded of it, for, after fome two or three hundred lines of the next day's recital, he introduces another formule of appeal to the purfes of his hearers. "Take notice," he goes on to lay, " as may God give me health, I will immediately put a Hop to ray long ; . . . . and I at once excommunicate all thole who lliall not vifit their purfes in order to give fomething to my wite" — Maisfacie's bien, fe Dix me doinfi jante Ma cancan toft 'vous ferai dejincr ; Tous chiaus elcumcnie, . . . S^ii! niiont a lour bourfcs pour ma feme donner.—Uiwn de Bo'dcaux, 1. 5-1S2. Thefe minftrels, too, difplay great jcaloufy of one another, and efpecially of what they term the new minllrels, exclaiming againft the decadence of the profelhon. It would appear, indeed, that thefe French minftrels, the poets by profeflion, who now become known to us by the name of trouveres, or inventors (in the language of the fouth of France, trohadors), held a pofition towards the jongleurs, or jogleurs* (from the Latin joculatores,

  • The old literary antiquaries, through mistaking the « of the manuscripts for

an n, and not attending to the derivation, have (.reated a meaningless ox— jongleur— which never existed, and ought now to be entirely abandoned. A A and