minstrel [ME] Originally a minstrel would be employed to provide a variety of entertainment. Minstrels sang, played music, told stories, juggled—whatever their employer demanded. A minstrel could be closer to a jester or buffoon than the singer of heroic and lyrical poetry that later writers romantically portrayed. Sir Walter Scott’s poem The Lay of the Last Minstrel, published in 1805, was instrumental in developing this view. It is a romance based on an old Border ballad, put into the mouth of an ancient minstrel, the last of his race. The Irish poet Thomas Moore, who died in 1852, also played his part: in the song ‘The Minstrel Boy’ he wrote of ‘the warrior bard’ with ‘his wild harp slung behind him’. The original meaning of minstrel was simply ‘a servant’. It goes back to Latin minister ‘servant’, the source also of minister [ME] and administer [LME].