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606 MEDIEVAL ENGLAND
early in the fourteenth century by Thomas de Chabham, sub/
1 dean of Salisbury. He describes three kinds ofhistriones: some,
he says,
distort their bodies by lewd dance and gesture, or
strip
themselves and put on horrible masks; all such are damnable.
Then there are those ofno fixed abode (non balentes cerium domi'
cilium) who follow the courts ofthe great and talk scandal; such
are called wandering buffoons (scurrae vagi) because they are
good for nothing except gluttony and scandal/rnongering.
These, too, are damnable. Then there is a third class, those who
have musical instruments for the amusement of men; they are
oftwo kinds. Those who Sequent drinking'parties and lascix
vious gatherings where they sing indecent songs. These also are
damnable. But there are others czlledjoculatores who sing ofthe
deeds ofheroes and ofthe lives ofsaints. These alone are capable
ofsalvation. This class ofentertainment was generally regarded,
as we have said, as respectable. Books of romantic literature
were highly prized. Even those who could not read the books
themselves could enjoy looking at the pictures in such a volume,
for example, as the splendidly illuminated manuscript of the
Romance of Alexander (MS. Bodley 264) brought to England in
1466 by Richard Woodville, earl Rivers, father/in/law of
Edward IV. King Edward III bought a 'book of romance*
from a nun of Amesbury for 100 marks and kept it in his own
chamber; Richard II had a copy ofthe Romance of the Rose and
Romances of Percevall and Gaivayn and many monastic and
cathedral libraries contained volumes ofthis class ofliterature.
At St. Swithun's at Winchester zjoculator recited the romance
of Guy of Warwick and the apocryphal legend of Queen
Emma (about the ordeal ofthe hot ploughshares).
Some minstrels were maintained in the households of the
great and were held in much higher esteem than the vagrant
entertainers who moved from tavern to tavern living on the road
or where they could; they are designated as 'minstrels ofhonour'
in the fourteenth
century. At the head ofthe court minstrels was
a rex or marescallm ministrallorum; and just as the king had his
1 The relevant passage is printed by E. K. Chambers, The Medieval Stage,
if, pp. 262-3.