At Winchester College--where minstrels
were often employed--and Magdalen College the same
practice was followed. Commonly minstrels formed a
regular part of the household of rich men.[1]
[1] Warton, 96-99; Rashdall and Rait, New Coll., 60.
This part of the subject is so interesting that we feel
tempted to linger over it, but it is sufficient for our purpose
to observe that minstrelsy, before and after the Conquest
--indeed, up to nearly the end of the manuscript period--
was the chief and almost the only means of circulating
literature among seculars. This fact should be borne in
mind when any comparison is made between the number
of religious and scholastic books in circulation and the
number of books of lighter character. Even books of the
scholastic class were read aloud to students in class, and
often to small audiences of older people; but this method
had obvious disadvantages, and the necessity of studying
them personally soon came to be recognised as imperative.
Hence such books, and especially those which summarised
the subject of study, were greatly multiplied. On the other
hand, romances were better heard than read, and only
enough copies of them were made to supply wealthy
households and the minstrels and jesters whose business
it was to learn and recite them.
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