Editing Minstrel (section)

{{Short description|Type of entertainer in medieval Europe}}
{{Other uses}}
{{Redirect|Jongleur|the chain of UK comedy clubs|Jongleurs (comedy club)}}

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[[File:Minstrelsofbeverley.gif|thumb|upright=1.35|The Minstrels of Beverley. Woodcut of 16th-century English musicians. Left to right: pipe and tabor, fiddle, windcap instrument, lute, and shawm.]]
A '''minstrel''' was an entertainer, initially in [[Middle Ages|medieval]] [[Europe]]. The term originally described any type of entertainer such as a musician, [[juggler]], [[acrobatics|acrobat]], singer or [[jester|fool]]; later, from the sixteenth century, it came to mean a specialist entertainer who sang songs and played musical instruments.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Southworth|first1=John|title=The English Medieval Minstrel|date=1989|publisher=The Boydell Press|location=Woodbridge, Suffolk|isbn=0-85115-536-7|pages=3–4}}</ref><ref>''[[Encyclopædia Britannica]]'', [https://www.britannica.com/art/minstrel Entry "minstrel"].</ref>