THE RELIQUARY AND ILLUSTRATED ARCHEOLOGIST A QUARTERLY JOURNAL AND REVIEW DEVOTED TO THE STUDY OF THE EARLY PAGAN AND EDITED BY REV. J. CHARLES COX, LL.D., F.S.A. NEW SERIES. VOL. XII. . LONDON: BEMROSE & SONS LIMITED, 4 SNOW HILL, E.C.: AND DERBY. 1907. JANUARY, 1907. Jugglers. HE word juggler has had a wide signification, and an attempt to deal with what has at various times been included under the term would lead to the consideration of many different kinds of performance, including not merely those which have as their aim the amusement resulting from the exhibition of wonderful feats of skill, but also creative and interpretative expression in song and in instrumental music. For though by the Latin word joculator is meant originally the man who makes the jocus or pleasantry, yet the word jongleur, into which the various French forms derived from the Latin have crystallised, comprehends much more than the idea of buffoon or trick performer. The jongleur has often been compared with the troubadour, the latter being considered as the man who invented songs, the former the musician who reproduced what others had created. This distinction, however, has not always held good. An account given by Giraud de Calanson, who lived in the thirteenth century, shows that at that time the jongleur had need to be many-sided in his accomplishments, and that he might be called on to "invent verses and rhymes." Giraud confesses that he does not know all the accomplishments which go to make a jongleur, but he recounts them according to his ability. "Know," he says, "how to invent verses and rhymes, to speak well, and how to make a repartee. Know how to play on the drum and cymbals, and to make the symphony sound. Know how to throw little apples and catch them on knives, to imitate the song of birds, to play tricks with cards, to attack castles, to leap through four hoops, to play the zither and the mandoline, to handle the manicorde, to furnish the wheel with seventeen strings, to accompany on the gigue so as to make psaltery sound the pleasanter. Jongleur, there are nine instruments of ten strings which you must be able to put in order. If you yourself learn to play them well you will be able to satisfy your wants.” This poem by Giraud de Calanson will be found in the Bibliothek des literarischen Vereins in Stuttgart, edited by Bartsch, 1856-7, P. 94. In the Middle Ages the number of instruments was large, Fig. 1.-An Egyptian game, played with balls. as may be seen from passages in Le Roman de Flamenca, Joufrois, and Li Roumans de Cléomadés by Adenès i rois, etc. Wace, in his Roman de Brut, gives the following list : Mult ot à la cort jugleors, Chantéors, estrumantéors, Monacordes, cymbes, chorons. The miscellaneous performances of the jongleurs were associated with buffoonery. Many of them led a wandering and |