An itinerant poet or strolling minstrel (also known variously as a gleeman, circler, or cantabank) was a wandering minstrel, bard, musician, or other poet common in
medieval Europe but extinct today. Itinerant poets were from a lower class than jesters or
jongleur
A minstrel was an entertainer, initially in medieval Europe. It originally described any type of entertainer such as a musician, juggler, acrobat, singer or fool; later, from the sixteenth century, it came to mean a specialist entertainer who ...
s, as they did not have steady work, instead travelling to make a living.
Medieval performers
In Medieval England, a gleeman was a reciter of poetry. Like a
scop, a gleeman performed poetry to the accompaniment of a
harp
The harp is a stringed musical instrument that has a number of individual strings running at an angle to its soundboard; the strings are plucked with the fingers. Harps can be made and played in various ways, standing or sitting, and in orche ...
or "
glee wood
Glee means delight, a form of happiness.
Glee may also refer to:
* Glee (music), a type of English choral music
* ''Glee'' (TV series), an American musical comedy-drama TV series, and related media created by Ryan Murphy
* ''Glee'' (Bran Van 30 ...
".
Gleemen occasionally attached themselves to a particular
court, but were most often ''wandering'' entertainers; this is unlike scops, who were more static. Gleemen were also less likely to compose or perform their own poetry and relied on the work of others for their material.
A source cited that the number of itinerant poets were augmented by disgraced
courtiers,
clairvoyants
Clairvoyance (; ) is the magical ability to gain information about an object, person, location, or physical event through extrasensory perception. Any person who is claimed to have such ability is said to be a clairvoyant () ("one who sees cl ...
, and even the deformed as these entertainers formed troupes and catered to the whims of individual
patrons.
An example of a notable itinerant poet was
Till Eulenspiegel, a fictional character famous in the 12th century.
These examples, however, do indicate that itinerant poets were merely
fools working to elicit laughter with their acts. There are those suggested as geniuses such as Scottish
bards and performers of the harp who were credited with composing and preserving "many fine old songs".
Ancient strolling songsters
Prior to the emergence of medieval itinerant poets, there were already strolling minstrels in
ancient Greece. An account also identified these strolling songsters as
Rhapsodists during
Homer's time. These were more than entertainers, with an account describing them as men who
recorded honorable feats and aristocratic
genealogies. They were thus supported by a culture of patronage. Even in ancient England, their skill was considered divine and their person as sacred. They were accorded honor and reward everywhere they performed. Both in Ireland and Scotland, every chief or ''Regulus'' had his own bard, who not only entertained but also served as an ambassador.
See also
*
Marx Augustin
References
Entertainment occupations
Performing arts
Medieval performers
Poets
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