(French) a medieval term for a professional entertainer, the equivalent of a minstrel. After ca. 1300 the term was applied to wandering professional musicians. [SPR
French wandering minstrels (which included musicians, acrobats, jugglers, and clowns), usually from the lower class, who entertained with tales of epic battles and heroes.
a sort of Physician, or rather a Quack, who being once cur'd of some dangerous Distemper, has the Presumption and Folly to fancy that he is immortal, and possessed of the Power of curing all Diseases, by speaking to the Good and Evil Spirits