rt-jesters are heard of as early as the reign of Philip of Macedon,
but they seem to have been at first little more than parasites of
inferior rank and education. In Roman times they were little more than
buffoons,[49] and not very different from the mediaeval fools. They seem
to have received nicknames, and Petronius describes a very low buffoon
performing antics in a myrtle robe with a belt round his waist.

As in ancient times we find Achilles singing to his lyre, so the English
musicians and story-tellers were originally amateurs of high rank. We
read of King Alfred charming the Danes with his minstrelsy. So also in
the Arthurian legends Sir Kaye is represented as amusing the company;
but at the time of Hoel Dha's Welsh laws, the bard was paid, for we read
that the king was to allow him a horse and a woollen garment, and the
queen to give him a linen robe; the prefect of the palace is privileged
to sit near him on festivals and to hand him his harp. Canute seems to
have treated his scalds with less ceremony, for he threatened to put one
of them to death because he recounted his exploits in too short a poem,
but the man escaped by producing thirty strophes on the subject next
day. The Saxon gleemen were generally of humble origin and not only
performed music, but exhibited tricks. So also among the Normans we find
the barons originally amusing one another with "gabs," _i.e._ boastful
and exaggerated accounts of their achievements. But soon a greater
amount of leisure and luxury led them to pay for amusement; professed
musicians and story-tellers were introduced, and were classed with the
_ministri_ or servants, whence came the name minstrel, which was soon
confined to them alone. We find Talliefer going before William the
Conqueror at the battle of Hastings chanting the brave deeds of
Charlemagne and making a display of skill in tossing and catching his
sword and spear. This union of tricks and music became so common that
the words minstrel and jougleur were soon synonymous, though there was
originally a distinction between them. The word jougleur, sometimes by
mistake written jongleur, is derived from the latin _joculator_. This
class of people were conjurers, as their name suggests, and often went
about the country with performing animals, especially bears and monkeys.
They gradually added songs to their accomplishments, which more
assimilated them to the minstrels, and they became connected with, and
were sometimes