What may availe mankynde naturale? Or of heavens all the influence, Lygarde-de-mayne 3 now helpith me right noughte For Deth hath mo masteries than I have wroughte. In "The Disobedient Child," an old morality, or interlude, written by Thomas Ingeland in the reign of queen Elizabeth, a servant, describing the sports at his master's wedding, says, What juggling was there upon the boardes! What thrusting of knyves through many a nose! These tricks approximate nearly to those of the modern jugglers, who have knives so constructed, that, when they are applied to the legs, the arms, and other parts of the human figure, they have the appearance of being thrust through them; the bearing of the forms, or seats, I suppose, was the balancing of them; and the holding of swords, the flourishing them about in the sword-dance; which the reader will find described in the succeeding chapter. VIII. VARIOUS PERFORMANCES OF THE JOCULATORS. Originally, as we have before observed, the profession of the joculator included all the arts attributed to the minstrels; and accordingly his performance was called his minstrelsy in the reign of Edward II., and even after he had obtained the appellation of a tregetour. We are well assured, that playing upon the vielle and the harp, and singing of songs, verses, and 6 1 Schevid, for achieved, that is to say, performed. Or any astrological judgment derived from the stars or their influence; for the jugglers usually pretended to be astrologers and soothsayers. See the Essay on Ancient Minstrels, prefixed to the Reliques of Ancient Poetry, by the bishop of Dromore. Legerdemain; a corrupted word, derived from the French, signifying properly slights of hand, such as are usually performed by the modern jugglers. More cunning tricks. 5 Garrick's Collection of Old Plays, K. vol. ii "Janino le tregettor, facienti ministralsiam suam coram rege," &c.; that is, to Janino the tregetour, for performing his minstrelsy before the king, in his chamber near the priory of Swineshead, twenty shillings. Lib. Comput. Garderobæ an. 4 Edw. II. fol. 86. MS. Cott. Nero, C. viii. The same as the modern hurdy-gurdy poems taken from popular stories; together with dancing, tumbling, and other feats of agility, formed a principal part of the joculator's occupation at the commencement of the thirteenth century; and probably so they might in the days of Chaucer. Another part of the juggler's profession, and which constituted a prominent feature in his character, was teaching bears, apes, monkeys, dogs, and various other animals, to tumble, dance, and counterfeit the actions of men: but we shall have occasion to enlarge upon this subject a few pages farther on. In a book of customs, says St. Foix,2 made in the reign of Saint Louis, for the regulation of the duties to be paid upon the little chatelet at the entrance into Paris, we read, that a merchant, who brought apes to sell, should pay four deniers; but, if an ape belonged to a joculator, this man, by causing the animal to dance in the presence of the toll-man, was privileged to pass duty-free, with all the apparatus necessary for his performances: hence came the proverb, "Pay in money; the ape pays in gambols." Another article specifies that the joculator might escape the payment of the toll by singing a couplet of a song before the collector of the duty. Comenius, I take it, has given us a proper view of the juggler's exhibition, as it was displayed a century and a half back, in a short chapter entitled Prestigiæ, or Sleights. It consists of four divertisements, including the joculator's own performances; and the other three are tumbling and jumping through a hoop; the grotesque dances of the clown, or mimic, who, it is said, appeared with a mark upon his face; and dancing upon the tight rope. The print at the head of his chapter is made agreeably to the English custom, and differs a little from the original description. In the latter it is said, "The juggler sheweth sleights out of a purse." In the print there is no purse represented; but the artist is practising with cups and balls in the Their performances are thus described by a French poet who wrote in the year 1230: C'il juggleurs in pies esturent, Du Cange, in voce Joculator. See also sir John Hawkins's History of Music, vol ii. 41. Essais Hist. sur Paris, vol. ii. p. 39. • "Orbis Sensualium Pictus," by Hoole, 1658; chap. 131 manner they are used at present. The tumbler is walking upon his hands. The rope-dancing is performed by a woman holding a balancing pole; and on the same rope a man, probably "clown to the rope," is represented hanging by one leg with his head downwards. In modern times, the juggler has united songs and puppet-plays to his show. IX. PRIVILEGES OF THE JOCULATORS AT PARIS-THE KING'S JOCULATOR. The joculator regis, or king's juggler, was anciently an officer of note in the royal household; and we find, from Domesday Book, that Berdic, who held that office in the reign of the Conqueror, was a man of property. In the succeeding century, or soon afterwards, the title of rex juglatorum, or king of the jugglers, was conferred upon the chief performer of the company, and the rest, I presume, were under his control. The king's juggler continued to have an establishment in the royal household till the time of Henry VIII.;2 and in his reign the office and title seem to have been discontinued. X.-GREAT DISREPUTE OF MODERN JUGGLERS. The profession of the juggler, with that of the minstrel, had fallen so low in the public estimation at the close of the reign of queen Flizabeth, that the performers were ranked, by the moral writers of the time, not only with "ruffians, blasphemers, thieves, and vagabonds;" but also with "Heretics, Jews, Pagans, and sorcerers; "3 and, indeed, at an earlier period they were treated with but little more respect, as appears from the following lines in Barclay's Eclogues : Jugglers and pipers, bourders and flatterers, Baudes and janglers, and cursed adouteres. In another passage, he speaks of a disguised juggler, and a vile jester or bourder; by the word disguised he refers, per 1 "Glowecesterscire. Berdic, joculator regis, habet iij villas, et ibi v car.; nil redd." Extract from Domesday. 2 Essay on Ancient Minstrels, prefixed to bishop Percy's Reliques of Ancient Poetry, vol. i. p. xciii. A Treatise against Dicing, Dauncing, vaine Playes, or Erterludes, &c. by John Northbrooke, printed at London in the time of Elizabeth. Egloge the third, at the end of Brant's "Ship of Fools," by Barclay, printed A. D. 1508. "Mirrour of Good Manners," translated from the Latin by Barclay, who was a vriest and monk of Ely. haps, to the clown, or mimic; who, as Comenius has just informed us, danced" disguised with a vizard." In more modern times, by way of derision, the juggler was called a hocus-pocus, a term applicable to a pick-pocket, or a common cheat; and his performances were denominated juggelling castes.2 1 Or hokos-pokos, as by Ben Jonson, in "The Staple for Newes." See p. 153. This is the earliest mention I have found of this term. It occurs again in the Seven Champions, by John Kirk, acted in 1663; "My mother could juggle as well as any hocus-pocus in the world." Playes confuted," by Stephen Gosson; no date, but written about 1580. CHAPTER V. I. Dancing, Tumbling, and Balancing, part of the Joculator's Profession.-I. Performed by Women.—III. Dancing connected with Tumbling.—IV. Antiquity of Tumbling-much encouraged.-V. Various Dances described.-VI. The Gleemen's Dances.-VII. Exemplification of Gleemen's Dances.-VIII. The Sword Dance-IX. Rope-Dancing and wonderful Performances on the Rope.-X. RopeDancing from the Battlements of St. Paul's.-XI. Rope-Dancing from St. Paul's Steeple.-XII. Rope-Dancing from All Saints' Church, Hertford.-XIII. A Dutchman's Feats on St. Paul's Weathercock.-XIV. Jacob Hall the RopeDancer. XV. Modern celebrated Rope-Dancing.-XVI. Rope-Dancing at Sadler's Wells.-XVII. Fool's Dance. - XVIII. Morris Dance. - XIX. Egg Dance.-XX. Ladder Dance.-XXI. Jocular Dances.-XXII. Wire- Dancing.XXIII. Ballette Dances.-XXIV. Leaping and Vaulting.-XXV. Balancing.-XXVI. Remarkable Feats.-XXVII. The Posture-Master's Tricks.-XXVIII. The Mountebank.-XXIX. The Tinker.-XXX. The Fire-Eater. I.-JOCULATORS' DANCING. DANCING, tumbling, and balancing, with variety of other exercises requiring skill and agility, were originally included in the performances exhibited by the gleemen and the minstrels; and they remained attached to the profession of the joculator after he was separated from those who only retained the first branches of the minstrel's art, that is to say, poetry and music. II.-WOMEN DANCERS AND TUMBLERS. The joculators were sometimes excellent tumblers; yet, generally speaking, I believe that vaulting, tumbling, and balancing, were not executed by the chieftain of the gleeman's company, but by some of his confederates; and very often this part of the show was performed by females, who were called glee-maidens, Masen-glypiend, by the Saxons; and tumbling women, tomblesteres, and tombesteres, in Chaucer, derived from the Saxon word tomban, to dance, vault, or tumble. The same poet, in the Romance of the Rose, calls them saylours, or dancers, from the Latin word salio. They are also denominated sauters, from saut in French, to leap. Hence, in Pierce Ploughman, one says, "I can neither saylen ne saute." They are likewise in modern language called balancing women, or tymbesteres, players upon the tymbrel, which they also ba |