Each month, we will post an amusing, interesting, or noteworthy entry drawn from the growing REED-NE evidence.
This month’s ‘flower’: ‘Modyr Nakett’
In the Durham Priory Bursar’s annual account running from 11th November for 1433-1434, a number of payments are recorded as having been made to various entertainers, including an entry for 4 pence given to a certain male minstrel (‘vni ministrallo’) with the rather peculiar name of ‘Mother Naked’ (‘Modyr Nakett’)! Mother Naked may be related to the so-called ‘Betty’ (the Man-Woman figure in the folk plays who typically claims to be the mother of the other characters), but here she seems to have been played by a solo performer. There is at least a possibility that the performance was obscene, since the payment is the smallest fee paid to any minstrel in the whole run of the Durham Bursars’ Accounts. [Durham University Library, Durham Priory Bursar’s Account, memb. 4d].