minstrel

noun

1. (also, attributive, historical)Originally, an entertainer employed to juggle, play music, sing, tell stories, etc.; a buffoon, a fool, a jester; later, a medieval (especially travelling) entertainer who would recite and sing poetry, often to their own musical accompaniment.

   “I forgette to tel you what a ſtirre he keepes againſt dumbe ministers, and neuer writes nor talkes of them, but hee calleth them minſtrels, […]”

   “Should a Minſtrel ſing to a ſweet tune with her voice, and play to another with her hand that is harſh and diſpleaſing; ſuch muſick would more grate the judicious ear, than if ſhe had ſung to what ſhe plaid? Thus to ſing to truth with our judgement, and play wickedneſs with our heart and hand in our life, is more abhorring to God and all good men, than where the judgement is erroneous, as well as the life ungodly.”

   “[page xv] The Minstrels ſeem to have been the genuine ſucceſſors of the ancient Bards, who united the arts of Poetry and Muſic, and ſung verſes to the harp, of their own compoſing. […] [page xvi] [T]he Minſtrels continued a diſtinct order of men, and got their livelihood by ſinging verſes to the harp, at the houſes of the great.”

   “But louder still the clamour grew, / And louder still the minstrels blew, / When, from beneath the greenwood tree, / Rode forth Lord Howard's chivalry; […]”

   “The Minstrel-Boy to the war is gone, / In the ranks of death you'll find him; / His father's sword he has girded on, / And his wild harp slung behind him.”

2. (also, attributive, broadly, poetic)Any lyric poet, musician, or singer.

   “One flame-winged brought a white-winged harp-player / Even where my lady and I lay all alone; / Saying: "Behold, this minstrel is unknown; / Bid him depart, for I am minstrel here: / Only my strains are to Love's dear ones dear."”

3. (US, also, attributive, broadly, historical)One of a troupe of entertainers, often a white person who wore black makeup (blackface), to present a so-called minstrel show, being a variety show of banjo music, dance, and song (now regarded as racist).

   “After tea it was the entertainment. Songs and conjuring and a play called "Box and Cox," very amusing, and a lot of throwing things about in it—bacon and chops and things—and nigger minstrels. We clapped till our hands were sore.”

4. (also, attributive, broadly, slang)An amphetamine tablet, typically black, or black and white, in colour.

   “These include dexamphetamine ( Dexedrine 'dexies ' or 'oranges'), methylamphetamine (Methedrine—'speed'), dexamphetamine combined with amylobarbitone (Drinamyl—'purple hearts' or 'blues'), amphetamine combined with dexamphetamine (Anorexine 12.5 mg - black and white minstrels' and Anorexine 20 mg—'black bombs'), phemetrazine (Preludin), diethylpropion (Tenuate), and methylphenidate (Ritalin).”

   “Lacking food, Jimmy reverts to his “minstrels'” — speed — and in a paranoia of drugs and near-starvation the pair fall out.”

   “Harry tipped the contents of Billy's bag on to his desk: boosters, purple hearts, black bombers, French blues, nigger minstrels spilled out, popping across the desk like jumping beans.”

verb

1. (also, attributive, figuratively, transitive)To play (a tune on a musical instrument); to sing (a song).

   “Blest be the impulse which did urge me forth, / Minstrelling winds with music, which did melt / Into kind ears like softly opening showers, / To those who asked if beggar wanted bread.”

   “And instantly from the depts of the black recesses behind the reredos of the altar there slid like slanting light-rays through the air a little creature, a tenuous grey bird, an embodied breeze, a flash of life. It settled, still minstreling its luted sibboleth, to a fluttering rest in the panting bosom of Areta.”

   “[The sense that African Canadians began to appear about the time that Pierre Elliott Trudeau became prime minister of Canada in 1968] has lead [sic] to the perception that black [Canadian] writing, minstreling the pioneer mythologies of survival, simply records the struggle of (West Indian) immigrants against a cold, white, bitterly racist Canada.”

2. (also, attributive, figuratively, intransitive)To act as a minstrel; to entertain by playing a musical instrument, singing, etc.

   “Crown me, therefore,—and minstrelling near to thy fanes, Bacchus, thickly-adorned with rosy chaplets will I dance with a full-bosomed maid.”

   “[T]here are hotels in Kertch, the keepers of which bring over a band of musicians, singing men and singing women, especially the latter, every year for the amusement of [ship] masters, who, […] lavishly distribute bottles of champagne, and other delicacies, to these minstreling angels—women, and pay away their roubles as if they were coppers.”

   “[T]he three of us will set forth from this fortress of mighty stone and like troubadours of old we will go a-minstreling from village to village!”

   “Cutwolf was not just acting the troubadour, the jongleur, the travelling minstrel, he was also Beauchamp's spy. […] Once he'd finished minstrelling, he would invite others to make their contribution about life along the alleyways of Dowgate and the surrounding wards. Everyone was eager to participate and, in anticipation during the day, garner as much tittle-tattle and gossip as possible.”

   “But to come to a sick world like Burma, as a meteoric Kulturträger [culture carrier], minstrelling about the advantages of freedom over slavery, is an imposture, a Schweinerei, [disgrace] with Germanic overtones.”