Not-so-fishy origins of ‘red herring’ revealed – thanks to a medieval comedy show

The first use of the idiom “red herring” has been discovered in medieval texts dating back more than 500 years.

Records from a sober scribe at a merry comedy feast tell of a minstrel regaling crowds with a stand-up routine and grand, nonsensical stories.

The tales from the travelling entertainer, likely working a regular beat, was recorded by a local scribe in the Derbyshire area in the year 1480, giving a rare insight into the storytelling culture of the Middle Ages.

A University of Cambridge researcher was analysing medieval manuscripts at the National Library of Scotland when he discovered that a writer named Richard Heege had jotted down the details of a routine from a wandering entertainer.

Dr James Wade, the director of studies from the university’s Girton College, published his analysis in the journal The Review of English Studies and said the 543-year-old document is an “intriguing display of humour”.

In it, the minstrel is described as poking fun “at everyone, high and low”.

Dr Wade concluded that Heege copied the text of the unknown minstrel, who performed near the Derbyshire-Nottinghamshire border, in about 1480.

The texts are said to contain the earliest recorded use of “red herring” in English as the performer put on a mock sermon which ridicules the aristocracy.

In one story, contained in the nine miscellaneous booklets that make up the Heege Manuscript, three kings eat so much that 24 oxen burst out of their bellies sword fighting.

The tale goes that the oxen then chop each other up so much that they are reduced to three “red herrings”.

The joke, Dr Wade said, is bizarre but uses red herring to mean a diversion and was used in such a way that the “minstrel must have known people would get this red herring reference”.

“Kings are reduced to mere distractions. What are kings good for? Gluttony. And what is the result of gluttony? Absurd pageantry creating distractions, ‘red herrings’,” Dr Wade added.

This is the first recorded evidence of the phrase being used in English language. But the fact it was well-known enough to feature in a comedy show indicates it was part of English oral history for far longer.

Heege was a scribe who worked for the Sherbrooke family who were part of the Derbyshire gentry and owned his booklets initially.

The events are thought to have occurred on the border of Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire. There are several places mentioned in the manuscript, including what is modern-day Duffield, Brackenfield, Holbrook, Heage and Tibshelf.

Other skits employed by the vagabond minstrel include mocking kings, priests and peasants, encouraging audiences to get drunk, and a scene reminiscent of Monty Python’s Killer Rabbit of Caerbannog.

The latter scene featured fictional bumpkin Jack Wade, who could be from any medieval village, and read: “Jack Wade was never so sad; as when the hare trod on his head; in case she would have ripped out his throat.”

When the unknown minstrel was performing, the Wars of the Roses were still being fought and life was hard for most people in England.

“People back then partied a lot more than we do today, so minstrels had plenty of opportunities to perform,” explained Dr Wade.

“They were really important figures in people’s lives right across the social hierarchy. These texts give us a snapshot of medieval life being lived well.

“Here we have a self-made entertainer with very little education creating really original, ironic material. To get an insight into someone like that from this period is incredibly rare and exciting.”

Many minstrels are thought to have had day jobs, including as ploughmen and peddlers, but went gigging at night and weekends.

Some may have travelled across the country, while others stuck to a circuit of local venues.

Dr Wade said: “You can find echoes of this minstrel’s humour in shows like Mock the Week, situational comedies and slapstick. The self-irony and making audiences the butt of the joke are still very characteristic of British stand-up comedy.

“Manuscripts often preserve relics of high art. This is something else. It’s mad and offensive, but just as valuable.

“Stand-up comedy has always involved taking risks and these texts are risky. They poke fun at everyone, high and low.”