Surname Origins, Their Source and Significations (1875)

peculiarly popular profession. Our 'Rhymers' often-times showed their skill in the art of rhythmical narration by weaving the exploits they described into extempore verse.'- The 'Juggler' or 'Joculator,'originally a minstrel or ' jester,' something akin to the clown of later days, became by-and-by more celebrated for his skill in legerdemain than loquacity, and now little else is understood by the word. Almost every baron, and even the king himself, had his favourite jester; but it was an art put to the most corrupt purposes, and 'Jagge the Jogelour' is set in very low company by Piers Plowman. Certainly his jokes were of the lewdest description, even for the rough times in which he lived. His voice, too, was sufficientlyelevated, if we may trust the account given in the 'Romance of Alexander,' for

No scholde mon have herd the thondur,

For the noise of the taboures, And the

trumpours, and the jangelours.

The 'Dissour,' the old Norman ' diseur,'similar in character to the rhymer and the juggler, seems to have left no memorial, saving it be in our 'Dissers; "

1 The 'Rhymer' is often mentioned as belonging to the royal or feudal retinue. Like many of the above, he may be set among our list of early officerships.

2 We may set here our 'Bidders,' or 'Ernald le Bidere,'as he was once recorded. He was the general beggar of that day, and no doubt a rich harvest would be the result of his attendance at the fair. Piers Plowman says:

'Bidderes and beggares

Faste about yede,

With their belies and their bagges

Of bread ful y-crammed.'

'Simon le Shobeggere I (H. R.), or 'Shoe-beggar,' as I presume means, seems to have followed a more particular line of business.

SURNAMES OF OCCUPATION (COUNTRY)

neither can I trace 'le Tregetour' later than the fifteenth century. Every footprint of his professional existence, indeed, is now faded from our view. And yet there was the day when none could be more familiar than he. The Hundred Rolls record not merely 'Symon le Tregetor,' but 'William le Tregetur' also, while 'Maister John Rykele' is spoken of by Lydgate as 'sometime Tregitour of noble Henrie, King of Engleland.' Chaucer, too, mentions sciences

By which men maken divers apparences,

Such as these subtil tregetoures play.

For oft at feasts have I wel heard say

That tragetoures, within an halle large

Have made come in a water and a barge

And in the halle rowen up and down

while in another place he speaks of seeing

Coll Tragetour

Upon a table of sicamour

Play an uncouth thing to tell;

I saw him carry a wind-mill

Under a walnut-shell;

with other equally marvellous feats. Thus we see that the art of legerdemain was not neglected at this time.

I doubt whether any relics we possess so completely convey to our minds the radical changes whichhave swept across the face of our English Common-wealth as do these lingering surnames. They remind us of the invention of printing, of the spread of literature, and of the slow decay thereby of the professions they represented. They tell us of a changed society, they tell us of a day of rougher cast and looser tram-