Crossword clues for minstrelsy
minstrelsy
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Minstrelsy \Min"strel*sy\, n.
The arts and occupation of minstrels; the singing and playing of a minstrel.
Musical instruments. [Obs.]
--Chaucer.A collective body of minstrels, or musicians; also, a collective body of minstrels' songs.
--Chaucer. ``The minstrelsy of heaven.''
--Milton.
Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
c.1300, menstracie, "music as produced on an instrument; action of making music for entertainment; musicians or entertainers generally," from Anglo-French menestralsie, from Old French menestrel (see minstrel).
Wiktionary
n. 1 The musical and other art and craft of a minstrel. 2 A group of minstrels. 3 Any similar modern group performing song and verse. 4 A collection of minstrel ballads.
WordNet
n. a troupe of minstrels
ballads sung by minstrels
the art of a minstrel
Wikipedia
Minstrelsy may refer to:
- The art of the medieval minstrel
- The art of the 19th-century American minstrel show
Usage examples of "minstrelsy".
In the room adjoining theirs, where the invalid actor lay, and where lately there had been minstrelsy and apparently dancing for his solace, there was now comparative silence.
The food for its satire, too, is most admirably chosen, for no feature of the social life of that place and period is more amiably absurd than the efforts of the handicraftsmen and tradespeople, with their prosaic surroundings, to keep alive by dint of pedantic formularies the spirit of minstrelsy, which had a natural stimulus in the chivalric life of the troubadours and minnesingers of whom the mastersingers thought themselves the direct and legitimate successors.
Because the soul always believes in these, or in like things, the cell and the wilderness shall never be long empty, or lovers come into the world who will not understand the verse-- Heardst thou not sweet words among That heaven-resounding minstrelsy?
Thus Nature's volume, read aright, Attunes the soul to minstrelsy, Tinging life's clouds with rosy light, And all the world with poetry.
Phoebus," quoth he, "for all thy worthiness, For all thy beauty, and all thy gentleness, For all thy song, and all thy minstrelsy, *For all thy waiting, bleared is thine eye* *despite all thy watching, With one of little reputation, thou art befooled* Not worth to thee, as in comparison, The mountance* of a gnat, so may I thrive.
There is the same variety of character, the same diversity of story, the same copiousness of incident, the same research into costume, the same display of heraldry, falconry, minstrelsy, scenery, monkery, witchery, devilry, robbery, poachery, piracy, fishery, gipsy-astrology, demonology, architecture, fortification, castrametation, navigation.
Anon withal he saw an hundred ladies and many knights, that welcomed him with fair semblant, and made him passing good cheer unto his sight, and led him into the castle, and there was dancing and minstrelsy and all manner of joy.