A minstrel was a traveling performer in medieval and early modern culture who sang, played music, and often recited or told poems, stories, and legends. In poetry studies, the word usually points to this figure as a bearer of oral tradition, not to a modern stage entertainer. The term is sometimes used loosely alongside bard or jongleur, though those labels are not exactly identical.
Example
Under the inn's low beam, the minstrel sang
of winter roads, of kings gone gray,
and each bright verse he struck from the lute
made the tired travelers forget the day.
Related Definitions
[n] a singer of folk songs
[n] a performer in a minstrel show
[v] celebrate by singing, in the style of minstrels
Related Terms
arch-poet, artist, artiste, ballad maker, ballad opera, ballad singer, balladeer, balladist, balladmonger, ballet, ballet divertissement, bard, beat poet, Broadway musical, bucoliast, chorus show, comedy ballet, comic opera, concert artist, dance drama, e