Books › A special loan exhibition of musical instruments, manuscripts, books, portraits, and other mementoes of music and musicians, formed to commemorate the tercentenary of the granting by King James I of a charter of incorporation to the Worshipful company of musicians in 1604 .., 1904 › scan 16
Scan 16
A special loan exhibition of musical instruments, manuscripts, books, portraits, and other mementoes of music and musicians, formed to commemorate the tercentenary of the granting by King James I of a charter of incorporation to the Worshipful company of musicians in 1604 .., 1904
6 lines. Read by computer on 1 October 2026. No printed page number was found. See the scan on archive.org.
124th, 1469. That earlier Charters must have existed, however, may be inferred from the fact that in this instrument reference is made to similar fraternities founded "in times past." It may also be inferred from the text of the document that the Minstrels were already fallen from the honourable position they held in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, and were on the road to the unhappy condition in which we find them a century later, when they were classed with "rogues and vagabonds." Indeed, the Charter, the Latin text of which has been preserved for us by Rymer, was granted at the prayer of the King's Minstrels (of whom Walter Haliday was the Chief or Marshal) to remedy the low state into which their fortunes were fallen. Their grievances are thus set forth in the preamble to the Charter:—
3"Be it known that we have learned from the "complaint of our beloved Walter Haliday " (Marshal), John Cliff, Robert Marshall, Thomas "Grene, Thomas Calthorn, William Cliff, William "Christean, William Eynsham, our Minstrels, "that certain ignorant rustics and craftsmen of "various callings in our Kingdom of England have "falsely represented themselves to be Minstrels, "of whom some, assuming our licence, which has "in no way been granted to them, represent "themselves as our Minstrels; under the colour "of which licence and of the said art or occupation "of Minstrels they in various parts of our "Kingdom collect and receive large sums of "money from our subjects.
5"And although they are in that art or occupation "by no means learned or skilled, and practise "divers arts and callings on holidays and ordinary "days and derive a sufficient living therefrom, they
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