Alexander Dyce, A General Glossary to Shakespeare's Works

gleek a joke, a jeer, a scoff: “First Mus. What will you give us? Pet. No money, on my faith, but the gleek; I will give you the minstrel,” ROMEO AND JULIET, iv. 5. 111 ; “gleeks,” 1 HENRY VI., iii. 2. 123. “In some of the notes on this word it has been supposed to be connected with the cardgame of gleek; but it was not recollected that the Saxon language supplied the term Glig, ludibrium, and doubtless a corresponding verb. Thus glee signifies mirth and jocularity; and gleeman or gligman, a minstrel or joculator. Gleek was therefore used to express a stronger sort of joke, a scoffing. It does not appear that the phrase to give the gleek was ever introduced in the above game, which was borrowed by us from the French, and derived from an original of very different import from the word in question. . . . To give the minstrel is no more than a punning phrase for giving the gleek. Minstrels and jesters were anciently called gleekmen or gligmen” (DOUCE) . “To give the gleek meant to pass a jest upon, to make a person appear ridiculous. To give the minstrel, which follows, has no such meaning. Peter only means, ‘I will call you minstrel, and so treat you;’ to which the musician replies, ‘Then I will give you the serving creature,’ as a personal retort in kind.” Nares's Gloss. in “A Gleek.”