The status and function of minstrels in England between 1350 and 1400

Scholarly interest in minstrels and their literature began in the eighteenth century.I have studied the most important works on this subject from that period up to the present day, and have concluded that although much material has been collected, it needs more discriminating classification and reconsideration within a fairly strict limit of time and place. I have therefore concentrated upon minstrels in England in the years between 1350 and 1400. The progress of scholarship has made available a number of records such as Household Accounts which contain many references to minstrels but which have not yet been systematically drawn on for evidence. I have confined my work to printed records, and have studied three account books in order to gather as much information as possible about the payment, functions,and status of minstrels in England in the second half of the fourteenth century. I have also examined the principal literary texts of this period for what authors say about minstrels. The fourteenth century metrical romances form an indigenous literary group which has been thought to possess a special relationship to minstrels. In an attempt to clarify this relationship, I have studied twenty representative romances for indications of audience level, authorship, and method of delivery. Other work relating to minstrels has been presented in Appendices. These include an appendix on the Tutbury Minstrels Court and Bull-running, the relationship between heralds and. minstrels, the musical instruments connected with minstrelsy, and a series of passages from the metrical romances indicating techniques relating to oral delivery