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diff --git a/old/13144.txt b/old/13144.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..40bfa74 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/13144.txt @@ -0,0 +1,9229 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Medieval People, by Eileen Edna Power + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Medieval People + +Author: Eileen Edna Power + +Release Date: August 9, 2004 [EBook #13144] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MEDIEVAL PEOPLE *** + + + + +Produced by Juliet Sutherland, Charlie Kirschner and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team. + + + + + +Medieval People + +by + +EILEEN POWER +M.A., D.Lit. + +_Late Reader in History in the University of +London and sometime Fellow and Lecturer of +Girton College, Cambridge_ + + +'I counsel thee, shut not thy heart nor thy library' + +CHARLES LAMB + +_First published, 1924 + +Published in 1963 + +Eighth Printing, 1969_ +_To +my colleagues and students +at Girton College, Cambridge + +1913-20_ + +For if heuene be on this erthe . and ese to any soule, +It is in cloistere or in scole . by many skilles I fynde; +For in cloistre cometh no man . to chide ne to fizte, +But alle is buxomnesse there and bokes . to rede and to lerne, +In scole there is scorne . but if a clerke wil lerne, +And grete loue and lykynge . for eche of hem loueth other. + +--LANGLAND, _Piers Plowman_ + + + + +_Author's Preface_ + +Social history sometimes suffers from the reproach that it is vague and +general, unable to compete with the attractions of political history +either for the student or for the general reader, because of its lack of +outstanding personalities. In point of fact there is often as much +material for reconstructing the life of some quite ordinary person as +there is for writing a history of Robert of Normandy or of Philippa of +Hainault; and the lives of ordinary people so reconstructed are, if less +spectacular, certainly not less interesting. I believe that social +history lends itself particularly to what may be called a personal +treatment, and that the past may be made to live again for the general +reader more effectively by personifying it than by presenting it in the +form of learned treatises on the development of the manor or on medieval +trade, essential as these are to the specialist. For history, after all, +is valuable only in so far as it lives, and Maeterlinck's cry, 'There +are no dead', should always be the historian's motto. It is the idea +that history is about dead people, or, worse still, about movements and +conditions which seem but vaguely related to the labours and passions of +flesh and blood, which has driven history from bookshelves where the +historical novel still finds a welcome place. + +In the following series of sketches I have tried to illustrate at the +same time various aspects of social life in the Middle Ages and various +classes of historical material. Thus Bodo illustrates peasant life, and +an early phase of a typical medieval estate; Marco Polo, Venetian trade +with the East; Madame Eglentyne, monastic life; the Menagier's wife, +domestic life in a middle-class home, and medieval ideas about women; +Thomas Betson, the wool trade, and the activities of the great English +trading company of Merchants of the Staple; and Thomas Paycocke, the +cloth industry in East Anglia. They are all quite ordinary people and +unknown to fame, with the exception of Marco Polo. The types of +historical evidence illustrated are the estate book of a manorial lord, +the chronicle and traveller's tale, the bishop's register, the didactic +treatise in household management, the collection of family letters, and +houses, brasses, and wills. At the end of the book I have added a +bibliography of the sources which form the raw material for my +reconstructions, and a few additional notes and references. I hope that +this modest attempt to bring to life again some of 'our fathers that +begat us', may perhaps interest for an hour or two the general reader, +or the teacher, who wishes to make more concrete by personification some +of the general facts of medieval social and economic history. + +My thanks are due to my publishers, Messrs. Methuen and Co., for +allowing me to incorporate in Chapter VI the greater part of a chapter +in my book 'The Paycockes of Coggeshall', and to the Cambridge +University Press for similarly allowing me to repeat in Chapter III a +few sentences from my study of 'Medieval English Nunneries'. I have also +to thank my friends Miss M.G. Jones and Miss H.M.R. Murray of Girton +College, Cambridge, for various suggestions and criticisms, and my +sister Miss Rhoda Power for making the index. + + _May 1924_ EILEEN POWER + _London School of Economics and Political Science + University of London_ + + + +_Preface to the Tenth Edition_ + +For years after the first edition of _Medieval People_ had come out, +Eileen Power collected notes and made plans for several essays to be +included in an enlarged edition of the book. Of these essays only one, +"The Precursors", had been written out in full before she died; and it +has now been added to the present edition. In its published form it is +not in every respect identical with the author's original text. + +The essay was taking shape as Munich came and went and as the war itself +was drawing near. No historian writing at that time about Rome menaced +by the barbarians--and least of all an historian as sensitive to the +extra-mural world as Eileen Power was--could have helped noting the +similarities between the Roman Empire in the fifth or sixth centuries +and Europe in the nineteen-thirties. In the end, having finished the +essay, she decided to withold it from publication for the time being and +to present it instead to a friendly audience as a tract for the times. +This she did at a meeting of the Cambridge History Club in the winter of +1938: and for that occasion she replaced the opening and concluding +pages of the original essay with passages, or rather notes for passages, +more suited to the purpose. + +I am sure that she never intended these passages to be perpetuated in +her _Medieval People_ and I have therefore done what I could to replace +them with a reconstructed version of her first draft. The reconstruction +had to be done from somewhat disjointed notes and cannot therefore be +word-faithful. The readers must therefore bear in mind that the first +two and the last page of the essay are mere approximations to what +Eileen Power in fact wrote. + +_April_, 1963 M.M. POSTAN _Peterhouse, Cambridge_. + + + +_Contents_ + + + I THE PRECURSORS + + II BODO, A FRANKISH PEASANT IN THE TIME OF + CHARLEMAGNE + +III MARCO POLO, A VENETIAN TRAVELLER OF THE + THIRTEENTH CENTURY + + IV MADAME EGLENTYNE, CHAUCER'S PRIORESS IN + REAL LIFE + + V THE MENAGIER'S WIFE, A PARIS HOUSEWIFE + IN THE FOURTEENTH CENTURY + + VI THOMAS BETSON, A MERCHANT OF THE STAPLE + IN THE FIFTEENTH CENTURY + +VII THOMAS PAYCOCKE OF COGGESHALL, AN ESSEX + CLOTHIER IN THE DAYS OF HENRY VII + + NOTES AND SOURCES + + NOTES ON ILLUSTRATIONS + + INDEX + + + +_List of Illustrations_ + + + I BODO AT HIS WORK 20 + From _MS. Tit. B.V., Pt. I_. British Museum + + II EMBARKATION OF THE POLOS AT VENICE 21 + From _Bodleian MS. 264_. Oxford + + III PART OF A LANDSCAPE BY CHAO MENG-FU 52 + From the original in the British Museum + + IV MADAME EGLENTYNE AT HOME 53 + From _MS. Add. 39843_. British Museum + + V THE MENAGIER'S WIFE HAS A GARDEN PARTY 116 + From _Harl. MS. 4425_. British Museum + + VI THE MENAGIER'S WIFE COOKS HIS SUPPER WITH 117 + THE AID OF HIS BOOK + From _MS. Royal, 15 D. i_. British Museum + + VII CALAIS ABOUT THE TIME OF THOMAS BETSON 148 + From _Cott. MS. Aug. i, Vol. II_. British Museum + +VIII THOMAS PAYCOCKE'S HOUSE AT COGGESHALL 149 + From _The Paycockes of Coggeshall_ by Eileen Power + (Methuen & Co. Ltd.) + + A MAP OF THE JOURNEYS OF THE POLOS 68-9 + +Let us now praise famous men and our fathers that begat us.... + +There be of them that have left a name behind them, that their praises +might be reported. + +And some there be which have no memorial; who are perished, as though +they had never been; and are become as though they had never been born; +and their children after them. + +But these were merciful men, whose righteousness hath not been +forgotten. + +With their seed shall continually remain a good inheritance, and their +children are within the covenant. + +Their seed standeth fast, and their children for their sakes. + +Their seed shall remain for ever, and their glory shall not be blotted +out. + +Their bodies are buried in peace; but their name liveth for evermore. + +ECCLESIASTICUS xliv. + + + + +CHAPTER I + +_The Precursors_ + +I. ROME IN DECLINE + + +Every schoolboy knows that the Middle Ages arose on the ruins of the +Roman Empire. The decline of Rome preceded and in some ways prepared the +rise of the kingdoms and cultures which composed the medieval system. +Yet in spite of the self-evident truth of this historical preposition we +know little about life and thought in the watershed years when Europe +was ceasing to be Roman but was not yet medieval. We do not know how it +felt to watch the decline of Rome; we do not even know whether the men +who watched it knew what they saw, though we can be quite certain that +none of them foretold, indeed could have foreseen, the shape which the +world was to take in later centuries. + +Yet the tragic story, its main themes and protagonists were for all to +see. No observer should have failed to notice that the Roman Empire of +the fourth and fifth centuries was no longer the Roman Empire of the +great Antonine and Augustan age; that it had lost its hold over its +territories and its economic cohesion and was menaced by the barbarians +who were in the end to overwhelm it. The territory of the Roman Empire +had at its height stretched from the lands bordering the North Sea to +the lands on the northern fringes of the Sahara, and from the Atlantic +coast of Europe to the central Asiatic Steppes; it comprised most of the +regions of the former Hellenic, Iranian, and Phoenician empires, and it +either ruled or kept in check great clusters of peoples and +principalities beyond its Gallic and north African frontiers. From these +farthest frontiers Rome of the fourth century had retreated and was +still retreating. + +Within its frontiers great currents of inter-regional commerce had in +earlier centuries flowed along the routes which bound all the provinces +of the Empire to Rome and most of the provinces to each other. But from +the third century onwards the economic unity of the Empire was in +dissolution, and by the fifth century most of the great currents of +inter-regional trade had ceased to flow, and provinces and districts had +been thrown upon themselves and their own resources. And with the wealth +of the provinces reduced, their commerce restricted, the great +provincial cities also declined in population, wealth, political power. + +Yet to its very last days the Empire endeavoured to defend its frontiers +against the converging barbarians. Not only did the Barbarian Conquests, +like all conquests, threaten destruction and ruin, but the way of life +the barbarians stood for was the very denial of what Roman civilization +had been, though alas, was gradually ceasing to be. + +However, it was not in material things, that the contemporaries found, +or should have found the sharpest conflict between Rome and the +barbarian prospects before it. Above all Roman civilization was a +civilization of the mind. It had behind it a long tradition of thought +and of intellectual achievement, the legacy of Greece, to which it had +in turn made its own contribution. The Roman world was a world of +schools and universities, writers, and builders. The barbarian world was +a world in which mind was in its infancy and its infancy was long. The +battle sagas of the race, which have all but disappeared or have +survived only as legends worked up in a later age; the few rude laws +which were needed to regulate personal relationships, this was hardly +civilization in the Roman sense. King Chilperic, trying to make verses +in the style of Sedulius, though he could not distinguish between a long +foot and a short and they all hobbled; Charlemagne himself, going to bed +with his slate under his pillow in order to practice in the watches of +the night that art of writing which he never mastered; what have they in +common with Julius Caesar and Marcus Aurelius and that great Julian +called the Apostate? They sum up in their very persons the whole wide +gulf that yawned between Germany and Rome. + +Rome and the barbarians were thus not only protagonists but two +different attitudes to life, civilization and barbarism. We cannot here +discuss in detail the question as to why, in the clash between the two, +it was civilization which perished and barbarism which prevailed. But it +is important to remember that while the Empire tried to defend its +frontiers against the barbarian hosts, it gradually opened them to +barbarian settlers. + +This peaceful infiltration of barbarians which altered the whole +character of the society which it invaded would have been impossible, of +course, if that society had not been stricken by disease. The disease is +plain enough to see by the third century. It shows itself in those +internecine civil wars in which civilization rends itself, province +against province and army against army. It shows itself in the great +inflationary crisis from about 268 and in the taxation which gradually +crushed out the smaller bourgeoisie while the fortunes of the rich +escaped its net. It shows itself in the gradual sinking back of an +economy based upon free exchange into more and more primitive conditions +when every province seeks to be self-sufficient and barter takes the +place of trade. It shows itself in the decline of farming and in the +workless city population kept quiet by their dole of bread and their +circuses, whose life contrasted so dramatically, so terribly with that +of the haughty senatorial families and the great landowners in their +palatial villas and town houses. It shows itself in the rise of mystical +faiths on the ruins of philosophy, and of superstition (more especially +astrology) on the ruins of reason. One religion in particular grew +mighty, by clasping its sacred book and addressing itself with words of +hope to the victims of social injustice, but although it was able to +bring comfort to individuals it could do nothing, indeed it did not try, +to give new strength or inspiration to the embattled civilization. True +to its own ethos it was impartial as between Barbarian and Roman, or +between the Romans who prospered and ruled and those outside the pale. + +The most obvious manifestation of Roman society in decline was the +dwindling numbers of Roman citizens. The Empire was being depopulated +long before the end of the period of peace and prosperity which +stretched from Augustus to Marcus Aurelius. Does not Augustus himself +summon the poor man of Fiesole who has a family of eight children, +thirty-six grandchildren and eighteen great grandchildren, and organize +in his honour a fete in the Capitol, accompanied by a great deal of +publicity? Does not Tacitus, half-anthropologist and half-Rousseau, +describing the noble savage with his eye on fellow citizens, remark that +among the Germans it is accounted a shameful thing to limit the number +of your children? The long duration of Augustus's legislation to raise +the birthrate is significant; successful it was not, but the fact that +it was maintained on the statute book and systematically revised and +developed for three centuries shows that it was at least accounted +necessary. It is true of course that the mortality rate was a far more +important factor in those days than it is in our own, and the mortality +from pestilence and civil war from Marcus Aurelius onwards was +exceptional. And it is plain that the proportion of celibates was high +in the Roman empire and that the fall in the fertility of marriages was +going on. It is the childless marriage, the small family system that +contemporary writers deplore. In Seeley's striking phrase: 'The human +harvest was bad,' It was bad in all classes, but the decline was most +marked in the upper ranks, the most educated, the most civilized, the +potential leaders of the race. In the terrible words of Swift, facing +his own madness, the Roman Empire might have cried: 'I shall die like a +tree--from the top downwards.' + +Why (the insistent question forces itself) did this civilization lose +the power to reproduce itself? Was it, as Polybius said, because people +preferred amusements to children or wished to bring their children up in +comfort? Hardly, for it is more marked among the rich than the poor and +the rich can have the best of both worlds. Was it because people had +grown discouraged and disheartened, no longer believing in their own +civilization and loath to bring children into the darkness and disaster +of their war-shattered world? We do not know. But we can see the +connection of the falling population with the other evils of the +empire--the heavy cost of administration relatively heavier when the +density of the population is low; the empty fields, the dwindling +legions which did not suffice to guard the frontier. + +To cure this sickness of population the Roman rulers knew no other way +than to dose it with barbarian vigour. Just a small injection to begin +with and then more and more till in the end the blood that flowed in its +veins was not Roman but barbarian. In came the Germans to settle the +frontier, to till the fields, to enlist first in the auxiliaries and +then in the legions, to fill the great offices of state. The army is +barbarized, and a modern writer, Mr Moss, has quoted most effectively +the complaint of the Egyptian mother clamouring to get back her son who +(as she says) has gone off with the barbarians--he means that he has +enlisted in the Roman legions. The legions are barbarized and they +barbarize the Emperor. For them he is no longer the majestic embodiment +of law, he is their leader, their Fuehrer, and they raise him on their +shields. And side by side with the barbarization of the army goes the +barbarization of civil manners too. In 397 Honorius has to pass an edict +forbidding the wearing of German fashions within the precincts of Rome. +And in the end, half barbarian themselves, they have only barbarians to +defend them against barbarism. + +Such was the general picture of the great ruin of civilization amidst +which the Romans of the fourth, fifth, and sixth centuries lived. What +then did it feel like to live at a time when civilization was going down +before the forces of barbarism? Did people realize what was happening? +Did the gloom of the Dark Ages cast its shadow before? It so happens +that we can answer these questions very clearly if we fix our eyes on +one particular part of the Empire, the famous and highly civilized +province of Gaul. We can catch the decline at three points because in +three consecutive centuries, Gallo-Roman writers have left us a picture +of their life and times. In the fourth century we have Ausonius, in the +fifth Sidonius Apollinarius, in the sixth Gregory of Tours and +Fortunatus, a stranger from Italy, who made his home in Poitiers. They +show us Auvergne and the Bordelais in the evening light. The fourth, the +fifth, and the sixth centuries--going, going, gone! + +2. AUSONIUS + +Going! This is the world of Ausonius, south-western France in the latter +half of the fourth century, 'an Indian summer between ages of storm and +wreckage'. Ausonius himself is a scholar and a gentleman, the friend +alike of the pagan Symmachus and of St Paulinus of Nela. He is for +thirty years professor of rhetoric in the university of Bordeaux, for +some time tutor to a prince, praetorian prefect of Gaul, consul, and in +his last years just an old man contentedly living on his estates. His +most famous poem is a description of the Moselle, which for all its +literary affectations evokes most magically the smiling countryside +which was the background of his life. High above the river on either +bank stand the villas and country houses, with their courts and lawns +and pillared porticos, and the hot baths from which, if you will, you +can plunge into the stream. The sunny hillside is covered with vines, +and from slope to hill-top the husbandmen call to each other and the +wayfarer on the towpath or the bargemen floating by, shout their rude +jests to the loitering vinedressers. Far out in midstream the fisherman +trails his dripping net and on a rock by the shore the angler plies his +rod. And, as twilight falls, the deepening shadow of the green hillside +is reflected in the water and gazing downward the boatman can almost +count the trembling vines and almost see the swelling of the grapes. + +Equally peaceful, equally pleasant is life on Ausonius' own estate in +the Bordelais, his little patrimony (he calls it) although he had a +thousand acres of vineyard and tillage and wood. Miss Waddell has +reminded us, on the authority of Saintsbury (whom else?) that 'to this +day it boasts itself as Chateau-Ausone, one of the two best of the St +Emilion clarets.' Here he tends his roses and sends his boy round to the +neighbours to bid them to luncheon, while he interviews the cook. Six, +including the host, is the right number--if more it is not a meal but a +melee. Then there are all his relatives to be commemorated in verse, his +grandfather and his grandmother and his sisters and his cousins and his +aunts (especially his aunts). + +And when the family circle palls there is the senior common room to fall +back upon and the professors of Bordeaux to be celebrated in their turn. +Professors were important people in the empire of the fourth century; +Symmachus says that it is the mark of a flourishing state that good +salaries should be paid to professors; though what exactly we are to +deduce from that in the light of history I should hesitate to say. So +Ausonius writes a collection of poems about the professors of Bordeaux. +There are thirty-two of them and all are celebrated. There is Minervius +the orator, who had a prodigious memory and after a game of backgammon +was wont to conduct a post-mortem over every move. There is Anastasius +the grammarian, who was so foolish as to leave Bordeaux for a provincial +university and thenceforth languished in well-merited obscurity. There +is Attius Tiro Delphidius, who retired from a legal career into the +professorial chair, but could never be got to take any trouble with his +men, to the disappointment of their parents. There is Jocundus the +grammarian, who did not really deserve his title, but was such a kind +man that we will commemorate him among men of worth, although he was, +strictly speaking, unequal to the job. There is Exuperius, who was very +good-looking and whose eloquence sounded superb until you examined it +and found that it meant nothing. There is Dynamius, who slipped from the +paths of virtue with a married lady in Bordeaux and left the place +rather hastily, but fortunately fell on his feet in Spain. There is +Victorius the usher, who liked only the most abstruse historical +problems, such as what the pedigree of the sacrificial priest at Cureo +was long before Numa's day, or what Castor had to say on all the shadowy +kings, and who never got up as far as Tully or Virgil, though he might +have done so if he had gone on reading long enough, but death cut him +off too soon. They seem oddly familiar figures (except of course, +Dynamius) and their chronicler contrives to make them live. + +Such is the world depicted for us by Ausonius. But while this pleasant +country house and senior common room life was going calmly on, what do +we find happening in the history books? Ausonius was a man of nearly +fifty when the Germans swarmed across the Rhine in 357, pillaging +forty-five flourishing cities, and pitching their camps on the banks of +the Moselle. He had seen the great Julian take up arms ('O Plato, Plato, +what a task for a philosopher') and in a series of brilliant campaigns +drive them out again. Ten years later when he was tutor to Gratian he +had himself accompanied the emperor Valentinian on another campaign +against the same foes. While he was preening himself on his consulship +ten years later still, he must have heard of the disastrous battle of +Adrianople in the east, when the Goths defeated a Roman army and slew an +emperor. He died in 395 and within twelve years of his death the host of +Germans had burst across the Rhine, 'all Gaul was a smoking funeral +pyre', and the Goths were at the gates of Rome. And what have Ausonius +and his correspondents to say about this? Not a word. Ausonius and +Symmachus and their set ignore the barbarians as completely as the +novels of Jane Austen ignore the Napoleonic wars. + +3. SIDONIUS APOLLINARIS + +Going, going.... Some thirty-five years after the death of Ausonius, in +the midst of the disastrous sixth century, was born Sidonius +Apollinaris, Gallo-Roman aristocrat, father-in-law of an emperor, +sometime prefect of Rome and in the end Bishop of Clermont. Sidonius +Apollinaris, 431 (or thereabouts) to 479 or perhaps a few years later. +Much had happened between the death of Ausonius and his birth. The +lights were going out all over Europe. Barbarian kingdoms had been +planted in Gaul and Spain, Rome herself had been sacked by the Goths; +and in his lifetime the collapse went on, ever more swiftly. He was a +young man of twenty when the ultimate horror broke upon the West, the +inroad of Attila and the Huns. That passed away, but when he was +twenty-four the Vandals sacked Rome. He saw the terrible German +king-maker Ricimer throne and unthrone a series of puppet emperors, he +saw the last remnant of Gallic independence thrown away and himself +become a barbarian subject, and he saw a few years before he died the +fall of the empire in the west. + +They cannot, Sidonius and his friends, ignore as Ausonius and his +friends did, that something is happening to the empire. The men of the +fifth century are concerned at these disasters and they console +themselves, each according to his kind. There are some who think it +cannot last. After all, they say, the empire has been in a tight place +before and has always got out of it in the end and risen supreme over +its enemies. Thus Sidonius himself, the very year after they sacked the +city; Rome has endured as much before--there was Porsenna, there was +Brennus, there was Hannibal.... Only that time Rome did not get over it. +Others tried to use the disasters to castigate the sins of society. Thus +Salvian of Marseilles who would no doubt have been called the gloomy +dean if he had not been a bishop. For him all that the decadent Roman +civilization needs is to copy some of the virtues of these fresh young +barbarian people. There is the familiar figure of Orosius, defending the +barbarians with the argument that when the Roman empire was founded it +was founded in blood and conquest and can ill afford to throw stones at +the barbarians; and after all the barbarians are not so bad. 'If the +unhappy people they have despoiled will content themselves with the +little that is left them, their conquerors will cherish them as friends +and brothers.' Others, especially the more thoughtful churchmen are much +concerned to explain why an empire which had flourished under paganism +should be thus beset under Christianity. Others desert the Empire +altogether and (like St Augustine) put their hope in a city not made +with hands--though Ambrose, it is true, let fall the pregnant +observation that it was not the will of God that his people should be +saved by logic-chopping. 'It has not pleased God to save his people by +dialectic.' + +And how were they living? We have only to read the letters written by +Sidonius during the period between 460 and 470, when he was living on +his estate in Auvergne, to realize that on the surface all is going on +exactly as before. Gaul is shrunk, it is true, to a mere remnant between +three barbarian kingdoms, but save for that we might be back in the days +of Ausonius. There is the luxurious villa, with its hot baths and +swimming pool, its suites of rooms, its views over the lake; and there +is Sidonius inviting his friends to stay with him or sending +round his compositions to the professors and the bishops and the +country-gentlemen. Sport and games are very popular--Sidonius rides and +swims and hunts and plays tennis. In one letter he tells his +correspondent that he has been spending some days in the country with +his cousin and an old friend, whose estates adjoin each other. They had +sent out scouts to catch him and bring him back for a week and took it +in turns to entertain him. There are games of tennis on the lawn before +breakfast or backgammon for the older men. There is an hour or two in +the library before we sit down to an excellent luncheon followed by a +siesta. Then we go out riding and return for a hot bath and a plunge in +the river. I should like to describe our luscious dinner parties, he +concludes, but I have no more paper. However, come and stay with us and +you shall hear all about it. Clearly this is no Britain, where in the +sixth century half-barbarian people camped in the abandoned villas and +cooked their food on the floors of the principal rooms. + +And yet ... it had gone a long way downhill since the days of Ausonius, +and Sidonius could not now ignore the very existence of the barbarians. +He has indeed left notable protraits of them, especially of the king of +the Visigoths and of the Burgundians who ruled Lyons, where he was born. +Whenever he went to stay there, he complains, they flocked about him in +embarrassing friendliness, breathing leeks and onions and dressing their +hair with rancid butter (they were not, it appears, constrained to +choose between spears and butter). How can he compose six foot metres, +he asks, with so many seven foot patrons around him, all singing and all +expecting him to admire their uncouth stream of non-Latin words? The +shrug of the shoulder, the genial contempt of one conscious of an +infinite superiority--how clear it is. One is reminded of a verse +of Verlaine + +Je suis l'empire a la fin de la decadence +qui regarde passer les grands barbares blancs + +But Sidonius's good nature was to be rudely shaken. All barbarians were +not friendly giants, and the Visigoths next door, under their new king +Euric, turned covetous eyes upon Auvergne. Sidonius had not been two +years bishop of Clermont before he had to organize the defence of the +city against their attack. The Avernians stood out gallantly; they would +fight and they would starve, but they would defend this last stronghold +of Rome in Gaul. But they were a small people; to resist successfully +they must have help from Rome itself. Lest anyone should suspect me of +twisting the story, I give it in the words of Sidonius's editor, writing +twenty years ago. + + Julius Nepos was alive to the danger that Euric might cross + the Rhone; but weak as his resources were he could only hope + to secure peace by negotiation. The quaestor Licinianus had + been sent into Gaul to investigate the condition of affairs + on the spot.... He had now returned and it was soon only too + clear that hopes based on his intervention were not likely + to be fulfilled. We find Sidonius writing for information.... + He began to fear that something was going on behind his back, + and that the real danger to Auvergne came no longer from + determined enemies but from pusillanimous friends. His + suspicions were only too well founded. On receipt of the + quaestor's report a Council was held to determine the policy + of the Empire towards the Visigothic king.... The empire did + not feel strong enough to support Auvergne and it was decided + to cede the whole territory to Euric, apparently without + condition. + +The despair of Sidonius knew no bounds and he writes a nobly indignant +letter to a bishop who had been concerned in the negotiations: + + The state of our unhappy region is miserable indeed. Everyone + declares that things were better in wartime than they are now + after peace has been concluded. Our enslavement was made the + price of security for a third party; the enslavement, ah--the + shame of it!, of those Avernians ... who in our own time + stood forth alone to stay the advance of the common enemy.... + These are the men whose common soldiers were as good as + captains, but who never reaped the benefit of their + victories: that was handed over for your consolation, while + all the crushing burden of defeat they had to bear + themselves.... This is to be our reward for braving + destitution, fire, sword and pestilence, for fleshing our + swords in the enemy's blood and going ourselves starved into + battle. This is the famous peace we dreamed of, when we tore + the grass from the crannies in the walls to eat.... For all + these proofs of our devotion, it would seem that we are to be + made a sacrifice. If it be so, may you live to blush for a + peace without either honour or advantage. + +Auvergne had been sacrificed to save Rome. But Rome was not to enjoy her +peace with honour for long. These things took place in 475; and in 476 +the last emperor was desposed by his barbarian bear-leader, and the +empire in the west came to an end. As for Sidonius, the Goths imprisoned +him for a time and before he could recover his estate he had to write a +panegyric for King Euric (he who had written panegyrics for three Roman +emperors). It is clear that the old country house life went on as +before, though the men who exchanged letters and epigrams were now under +barbarian rule. But in one letter shortly before his death there breaks +from Sidonius a single line in which he unpacks his heart. _O +neccessitas abjecta nascendi, vivendi misera dura moriendi._ 'O +humiliating necessity of birth, sad necessity of living, hard necessity +of dying.' Shortly after 479 he died and within twenty years Clovis had +embarked upon his career of conquest and Theodoric was ruler of Italy. + +4. FORTUNATUS AND GREGORY OF TOURS + +Going, going, gone.... There is only the time and only the heart to look +for a moment at the Frankish kingdom which once was Gaul, and to survey +the world of Fortunatus and Gregory of Tours, born both of them just +about a century later than Sidonius, in the 530s. For a moment when you +look at Fortunatus you think the world of the sixth century is the same +world as that in which Sidonius entertained his friends with epigrams +and tennis. Fortunatus, that versatile, gentle, genial, boot-licking +gourmet, who somehow managed to write two of the most magnificent hymns +of the Christian church, came from Italy on a visit to Gaul in 565 and +never left it again. He travelled all over the Frankish lands, in what +had been Germania as well as in what had been Gaul. From Trier to +Toulouse he made his way with ease by river and by road, and it might be +Ausonius again. Fortunatus too writes a poem on the Moselle; and there +is the same smiling countryside with terraced vineyards sloping down to +the quiet stream and the smoke of villas rising from the woods. +Fortunatus too made the round of the country houses, especially of the +sumptuous villas belonging to Leontius bishop of Bordeaux, a great +Gallo-Roman aristocrat, whose grandfather had been a friend of Sidonius. +The hot baths, the pillared porticos, the lawns sloping to the river, +are all there; the feasts are even more magnificent (they upset +Fortunatus's digestion badly) and the talk is still of literature. The +more intelligent of the barbarian lords have imitated this refined and +luxurious life as best they may. The Franks as well as the Gallo-Romans +welcome little eager Fortunatus; every count wants a set of Latin verses +dedicated to himself. It is plain that some of the old country house +life at least has survived. The Apollinaris set still enjoys its hot +baths and its tennis; as Dill puts it, the barbarian might rule the +land, but the laws of polite society would be administered as before. + +But when you look again you realize that it is not the same. It is not +merely because we know that even these remnants of the social and +material civilization of Rome would soon themselves die away that the +tragedy of the sixth century looms so dark. It is because when we look +below the surface we see that the life has gone out of it all, the soul +that inflamed it is dead, nothing is now left but the empty shell. These +men welcome Fortunatus just because he comes from Italy, where the rot +has gone less far, where there still survives some reputation for +learning and for culture. They slake their nostalgia a little in the +presence of that _enfant perdue_ of a lost civilization. + +For this is the world of Gregory of Tours, of which you may read in his +_History of the Franks_. The rule under which it lives is the rule of +the horrible Merovingian kings. Side by side with the villas barbarism +spreads and flourishes like a jungle growth. Learning is dying--hardly +the ghost of a university is left--and Gregory himself who came of a +great Gallo-Roman family and was a bishop bewails his ignorance of +grammar. The towns are shrinking, crouched behind their defences. The +synagogues are flaming, and the first step has been taken in that tragic +tale of proscription and tallage, tallage and expulsion which (it seems) +must never end. As to politics, the will of the leader and his retinue +is the rule of the Franks, and purge and bloodbath mark every stage in +the rivalry of the Merovingian princes. The worst of them are devils +like Chilperic and Fredegond, the best of them are still barbarians like +that King Guntram, who fills so many indulgent pages in Gregory of +Tours. He is a vaguely contemporary figure, a fat, voluble man, now +purring with jovial good nature, now bursting into explosions of wrath +and violence, a strange mixture of bonhomie and brutality. It is an +ironic commentary on what has happened to civilization that Gregory +should regard him with affection, that he should be known as 'Good King +Guntram' and that the church should actually have canonized him after +his death. Good King Guntram; Michelet has summed him up in a phrase 'Ce +bon roi a qui on ne reprochait que deux ou trois meurtres.' + + + +CONCLUSION + +These were the men who lived through the centuries of Roman fall and +Barbarian triumph, and who by virtue of their elevated position, their +learning, and talents, should have seen, if not foretold, the course of +events. And yet as one contemplates the world of Ausonius and Sidonius +(for by the time of Gregory of Tours it was already dead) one is, I +think, impelled to ask oneself the question why they were apparently so +blind to what was happening. The big country houses go on having their +luncheon and tennis parties, the little professors in the universities +go on giving their lectures and writing their books; games are +increasingly popular and the theatres are always full. Ausonius has seen +the Germans overrun Gaul once, but he never speaks of a danger that may +recur. Sidonius lives in a world already half barbarian, yet in the year +before the Western Empire falls he is still dreaming of the consulship +for his son. Why did they not realize the magnitude of the disaster that +was befalling them? This is indeed a question almost as absorbing as the +question why their civilization fell, for _au fond_ it is perhaps the +same question. Several answers may be suggested in explanation. + +In the first place the process of disintegration was a slow one, for the +whole tempo of life was slow and what might take decades in our own time +took centuries then. It is only because we can look back from the +vantage point of a much later age that we can see the inexorable pattern +which events are forming, so that we long to cry to these dead people +down the corridor of the ages, warning them to make a stand before it is +too late, hearing no answering echo, 'Physician, heal thyself!' They +suffered from the fatal myopia of contemporaries. It was the affairs of +the moment that occupied them; for them it was the danger of the moment +that must be averted and they did not recognize that each compromise and +each defeat was a link in the chain dragging them over the abyss. + +At what point did barbarism within become a wasting disease? Yet from +the first skinclad German taken into a legion to the great barbarian +patricians of Italy, making and unmaking emperors, the chain is +unbroken. At what point in the assault from without did the attack +become fatal? Was it the withdrawal from Dacia in 270--allow the +barbarians their sphere of influence in the east of Europe, fling them +the last-won recruit to Romania and they will be satiated and leave the +west alone? Was it the settlement of the Goths as _foederati_ within the +Empire in 382 and the beginning of that compromise between the Roman +empire and the Germans which, as Bury says, masked the transition from +the rule of one to the rule of the other, from federate states within +the Empire to independent states replacing it? Was this policy of +appeasement the fatal error? Was it the removal of the legions from +Britain, a distant people (as a Roman senator might have said) of whom +we know nothing? Or was it that fatal combination of Spain and Africa, +when the Vandals ensconced themselves in both provinces by 428 and the +Vandal fleet (with Majorca and the islands for its bases) cut off Rome +from her corn supplies and broke the backbone of ancient civilization, +which was the Mediterranean sea? Not once alone in the history of Europe +has the triumph of a hostile rule in Africa and Spain spelt disaster to +our civilization. + +But if the gradualness of this process misled the Romans there were +other and equally potent reasons for their blindness. Most potent of all +was the fact that they mistook entirely the very nature of civilization +itself. All of them were making the same mistake. People who thought +that Rome could swallow barbarism and absorb it into her life without +diluting her own civilization; the people who ran about busily saying +that the barbarians were not such bad fellows after all, finding good +points in their regime with which to castigate the Romans and crying +that except ye become as little barbarians ye shall not attain +salvation; the people who did not observe in 476 that one half of the +Respublica Romanorum had ceased to exist and nourished themselves on the +fiction that the barbarian kings were exercising a power delegated from +the Emperor. All these people were deluded by the same error, the belief +that Rome (the civilization of their age) was not a mere historical fact +with a beginning and an end, but a condition of nature like the air they +breathed and the earth they tread _Ave Roma immortalis_, most +magnificent most disastrous of creeds! + +The fact is that the Romans were blinded to what was happening to them +by the very perfection of the material culture which they had created. +All around them was solidity and comfort, a material existence which was +the very antithesis of barbarism. How could they foresee the day when +the Norman chronicler would marvel over the broken hypocausts of +Caerleon? How could they imagine that anything so solid might +conceivably disappear? Their roads grew better as their statesmanship +grew worse and central heating triumphed as civilization fell. + +But still more responsible for their unawareness was the educational +system in which they were reared. Ausonius and Sidonius and their +friends were highly educated men and Gaul was famous for its schools and +universities. The education which these gave consisted in the study of +grammar and rhetoric, which was necessary alike for the civil service +and for polite society; and it would be difficult to imagine an +education more entirely out of touch with contemporary life, or less +suited to inculcate the qualities which might have enabled men to deal +with it. The fatal study of rhetoric, its links with reality long since +severed, concentrated the whole attention of men of intellect on form +rather than on matter. The things they learned in their schools had no +relation to the things that were going on in the world outside and bred +in them the fatal illusion that tomorrow would be as yesterday, that +everything was the same, whereas everything was different. + +So we take our leave of them. Going ... going ... gone! Gone altogether? +Perhaps not. Hundreds of years of barbarism were to elapse before a new +society arose capable of matching or even excelling Rome in material +wealth, in arts, in sciences, and in gentler modes of existence--the +_douceur de la vie_. We cannot say what date marked the moment of final +recovery, or who were the men who were to represent advancing +civilization as fully as Ausonius or Gregory of Tours represented +civilization in retreat: Dante, Shakespeare, Capernicus, Newton? But for +many centuries, perhaps a whole millennium, before western Europe scaled +the heights on which these men now stood, it had been gradually raising +itself from the depths of post-Roman decline. The ascent was not only +slow but also discontinuous, yet it was sufficient to establish within a +few centuries of Gregory of Tours a social order different from Rome and +less glorious to behold across a thousand years of history, but +nevertheless sufficiently exalted to draw the interest, and even to +command the admiration of other still later ages. In that culture and in +that social order much of what Ausonius and Sidonius and even Fortunatus +represented was brought to life again, albeit in a form they would not +always have recognized as their own. To this extent, at least, they were +not only the epigones of Rome but the true precursors of the +Middle Ages. + + + + +CHAPTER II + +THE PEASANT BODO + +LIFE ON A COUNTRY ESTATE IN THE TIME OF CHARLEMAGNE + + +Three slender things that best support the world: the slender stream of +milk from the cow's dug into the pail; the slender blade of green corn +upon the ground; the slender thread over the hand of a skilled woman. + +Three sounds of increase: the lowing of a cow in milk; the din of a +smithy; the swish of a plough. + + --From _The Triads of Ireland_ (9th century) + + +Economic history, as we know it, is the newest of all the branches of +history. Up to the middle of the last century the chief interest of the +historian and of the public alike lay in political and constitutional +history, in political events, wars, dynasties, and in political +institutions and their development. Substantially, therefore, history +concerned itself with the ruling classes. 'Let us now praise famous +men,' was the historian's motto. He forgot to add 'and our fathers that +begat us'. He did not care to probe the obscure lives and activities of +the great mass of humanity, upon whose slow toil was built up the +prosperity of the world and who were the hidden foundation of the +political and constitutional edifice reared by the famous men he +praised. To speak of ordinary people would have been beneath the dignity +of history. Carlyle struck a significant note of revolt: 'The thing I +want to see,' he said, 'is not Red-book lists and Court Calendars and +Parliamentary Registers, but the Life of Man in England: what men did, +thought, suffered, enjoyed.... Mournful, in truth, it is to behold what +the business called "History" in these so enlightened and illuminated +times still continues to be. Can you gather from it, read till your eyes +go out, any dimmest shadow of an answer to that great question: How men +lived and had their being; were it but economically, as, what wages they +got and what they bought with these? Unhappily you cannot.... History, +as it stands all bound up in gilt volumes, is but a shade more +instructive than the wooden volumes of a backgammon-board.' + +Carlyle was a voice crying in the wilderness. Today the new history, +whose way he prepared, has come. The present age differs from the +centuries before it in its vivid realization of that much-neglected +person the man in the street; or (as it was more often in the earliest +ages) the man with the hoe. Today the historian is interested in the +social life of the past and not only in the wars and intrigues of +princes. To the modern writer, the fourteenth century, for instance, is +not merely the century of the Hundred Years' War and of the Black Prince +and Edward III; more significantly it is for him the era of the slow +decay of villeinage in England, a fact more epoch-making, in the long +run, than the struggle over our French provinces. We still praise famous +men, for he would be a poor historian who could spare one of the great +figures who have shed glory or romance upon the page of history; but we +praise them with due recognition of the fact that not only great +individuals, but people as a whole, unnamed and undistinguished masses +of people, now sleeping in unknown graves, have also been concerned in +the story. Our fathers that begat us have come to their own at last. As +Acton put it, 'The great historian now takes his meals in the kitchen.' + +This book is chiefly concerned with the kitchens of History, and the +first which we shall visit is a country estate at the beginning of the +ninth century. It so happens that we know a surprising amount about such +an estate, partly because Charlemagne himself issued a set of orders +instructing the Royal stewards how to manage his own lands, telling them +everything it was necessary for them to know, down to the vegetables +which they were to plant in the garden. But our chief source of +knowledge is a wonderful estate book which Irminon, the Abbot of St +Germain des Pres near Paris, drew up so that the abbey might know +exactly what lands belonged to it and who lived on those lands, very +much as William I drew up an estate book of his whole kingdom and +called it _Domesday Book_. In this estate book is set down the name of +every little estate (or _fisc_ as it was called) belonging to the abbey, +with a description of the land which was worked under its steward to its +own profit, and the land which was held by tenants, and the names of +those tenants and of their wives and of their children, and the exact +services and rents, down to a plank and an egg, which they had to do for +their land. We know today the name of almost every man, woman, and child +who was living on those little _fiscs_ in the time of Charlemagne, and a +great deal about their daily lives. + +Consider for a moment how the estate upon which they lived was +organized. The lands of the Abbey of St Germain were divided into a +number of estates, called _fiscs_, each of a convenient size to be +administered by a steward. On each of these _fiscs_ the land was divided +into seigniorial and tributary lands; the first administered by the +monks through a steward or some other officer, and the second possessed +by various tenants, who received and held them from the abbey. These +tributary lands were divided into numbers of little farms, called +manses, each occupied by one or more families. If you had paid a visit +to the chief or seigniorial manse, which the monks kept in their own +hands, you would have found a little house, with three or four rooms, +probably built of stone, facing an inner court, and on one side of it +you would have seen a special group of houses hedged round, where the +women serfs belonging to the house lived and did their work; all round +you would also have seen little wooden houses, where the household serfs +lived, workrooms, a kitchen, a bakehouse, barns, stables, and other farm +buildings, and round the whole a hedge carefully planted with trees, so +as to make a kind of enclosure or court. Attached to this central manse +was a considerable amount of land--ploughland, meadows, vineyards, +orchards, and almost all the woods or forests on the estate. Clearly a +great deal of labour would be needed to cultivate all these lands. Some +of that labour was provided by servile workers who were attached to the +chief manse and lived in the court. But these household serfs were not +nearly enough to do all the work upon the monks' land, and far the +greater part of it had to be done by services paid by the other +landowners on the estate. + +[Illustration: _January--Ploughing_] + +[Illustration: _March--Breaking Clods_] + +[Illustration: _August--Reaping_] + +[Illustration: _December--Threshing and Winnowing_] + +1. BODO AT HIS WORK + +[Illustration: II. EMBARKATION OF THE POLOS AT VENICE] + +Beside the seigniorial manse, there were a number of little dependent +manses. These belonged to men and women who were in various stages of +freedom, except for the fact that all had to do work on the land of the +chief manse. There is no need to trouble with the different classes, for +in practice there was very little difference between them, and in a +couple of centuries they were all merged into one common class of +medieval villeins. The most important people were those called _coloni_, +who were personally free (that is to say, counted as free men by the +law), but bound to the soil, so that they could never leave their farms +and were sold with the estate, if it were sold. Each of the dependent +manses was held either by one family or by two or three families which +clubbed together to do the work; it consisted of a house or houses, and +farm buildings, like those of the chief manse, only poorer and made of +wood, with ploughland and a meadow and perhaps a little piece of +vineyard attached to it. In return for these holdings the owner or joint +owners of every manse had to do work on the land of the chief manse for +about three days in the week. The steward's chief business was to see +that they did their work properly, and from every one he had the right +to demand two kinds of labour. The first was _field work_: every year +each man was bound to do a fixed amount of ploughing on the domain land +(as it was called later on), and also to give what was called a +_corvee_, that is to say, an unfixed amount of ploughing, which the +steward could demand every week when it was needed; the distinction +corresponds to the distinction between _week work_ and _boon work_ in +the later Middle Ages. The second kind of labour which every owner of a +farm had to do on the monks' land was called handwork, that is to say, +he had to help repair buildings, or cut down trees, or gather fruit, or +make ale, or carry loads--anything, in fact, which wanted doing and +which the steward told him to do. It was by these services that the +monks got their own seigniorial farm cultivated. On all the other days +of the week these hard-worked tenants were free to cultivate their own +little farms, and we may be sure that they put twice as much elbow +grease into the business. + +But their obligation did not end here, for not only had they to pay +services, they also had to pay certain rents to the big house. There +were no State taxes in those days, but every man had to pay an army due, +which Charlemagne exacted from the abbey, and which the abbey exacted +from its tenants; this took the form of an ox and a certain number of +sheep, or the equivalent in money: 'He pays to the host two shillings of +silver' comes first on every freeman's list of obligations. The farmers +also had to pay in return for any special privileges granted to them by +the monks; they had to carry a load of wood to the big house, in return +for being allowed to gather firewood in the woods, which were jealously +preserved for the use of the abbey; they had to pay some hogsheads of +wine for the right to pasture their pigs in the same precious woods; +every third year they had to give up one of their sheep for the right to +graze upon the fields of the chief manse; they had to pay a sort of +poll-tax of 4_d_. a head. In addition to these special rents every +farmer had also to pay other rents in produce; every year he owed the +big house three chickens and fifteen eggs and a large number of planks, +to repair its buildings; often he had to give it a couple of pigs; +sometimes corn, wine, honey, wax, soap, or oil. If the farmer were also +an artisan and made things, he had to pay the produce of his craft; a +smith would have to make lances for the abbey's contingent to the army, +a carpenter had to make barrels and hoops and vine props, a wheelwright +had to make a cart. Even the wives of the farmers were kept busy, if +they happened to be serfs; for the servile women were obliged to spin +cloth or to make a garment for the big house every year. + +All these things were exacted and collected by the steward, whom they +called _Villicus_, or _Major_ (Mayor). He was a very hard-worked man, +and when one reads the seventy separate and particular injunctions which +Charlemagne addressed to his stewards one cannot help feeling sorry for +him. He had to get all the right services out of the tenants, and tell +them what to do each week and see that they did it; he had to be careful +that they brought the right number of eggs and pigs up to the house, and +did not foist off warped or badly planed planks upon him. He had to look +after the household serfs too, and set them to work. He had to see about +storing, or selling, or sending off to the monastery the produce of the +estate and of the tenants' rents; and every year he had to present a +full and detailed account of his stewardship to the abbot. He had a +manse of his own, with services and rents due from it, and Charlemagne +exhorted his stewards to be prompt in their payments, so as to set a +good example. Probably his official duties left him very little time to +work on his own farm, and he would have to put in a man to work it for +him, as Charlemagne bade his stewards do. Often, however, he had +subordinate officials called _deans_ under him, and sometimes the work +of receiving and looking after the stores in the big house was done by a +special cellarer. + +That, in a few words, is the way in which the monks of St Germain and +the other Frankish landowners of the time of Charlemagne managed their +estates. Let us try, now, to look at those estates from a more human +point of view and see what life was like to a farmer who lived upon +them. The abbey possessed a little estate called Villaris, near Paris, +in the place now occupied by the park of Saint Cloud. When we turn up +the pages in the estate book dealing with Villaris, we find that there +was a man called Bodo living there.[1] He had a wife called Ermentrude +and three children called Wido and Gerbert and Hildegard; and he owned a +little farm of arable and meadow land, with a few vines. And we know +very nearly as much about Bodo's work as we know about that of a +smallholder in France today. Let us try and imagine a day in his life. +On a fine spring morning towards the end of Charlemagne's reign Bodo +gets up early, because it is his day to go and work on the monks' farm, +and he does not dare to be late, for fear of the steward. To be sure, he +has probably given the steward a present of eggs and vegetables the week +before, to keep him in a good temper; but the monks will not allow their +stewards to take big bribes (as is sometimes done on other estates), and +Bodo knows that he will not be allowed to go late to work. It is his day +to plough, so he takes his big ox with him and little Wido to run by its +side with a goad, and he joins his friends from some of the farms near +by, who are going to work at the big house too. They all assemble, some +with horses and oxen, some with mattocks and hoes and spades and axes +and scythes, and go off in gangs to work upon the fields and meadows and +woods of the seigniorial manse, according as the steward orders them. +The manse next door to Bodo is held by a group of families: Frambert +and Ermoin and Ragenold, with their wives and children. Bodo bids them +good morning as he passes. Frambert is going to make a fence round the +wood, to prevent the rabbits from coming out and eating the young crops; +Ermoin has been told off to cart a great load of firewood up to the +house; and Ragenold is mending a hole in the roof of a barn. Bodo goes +whistling off in the cold with his oxen and his little boy; and it is no +use to follow him farther, because he ploughs all day and eats his meal +under a tree with the other ploughmen, and it is very monotonous. + +Let us go back and see what Bodo's wife, Ermentrude, is doing. She is +busy too; it is the day on which the chicken-rent is due--a fat pullet +and five eggs in all. She leaves her second son, aged nine, to look +after the baby Hildegard and calls on one of her neighbours, who has to +go up to the big house too. The neighbour is a serf and she has to take +the steward a piece of woollen cloth, which will be sent away to St +Germain to make a habit for a monk. Her husband is working all day in +the lord's vineyards, for on this estate the serfs generally tend the +vines, while the freemen do most of the ploughing. Ermentrude and the +serf's wife go together up to the house. There all is busy. In the men's +workshop are several clever workmen--a shoemaker, a carpenter, a +blacksmith, and two silversmiths; there are not more, because the best +artisans on the estates of St Germain live by the walls of the abbey, so +that they can work for the monks on the spot and save the labour of +carriage. But there were always some craftsmen on every estate, either +attached as serfs to the big house, or living on manses of their own, +and good landowners tried to have as many clever craftsmen as possible. +Charlemagne ordered his stewards each to have in his district 'good +workmen, namely, blacksmiths, goldsmiths, silversmiths, shoemakers, +turners, carpenters, swordmakers, fishermen, foilers, soapmakers, men +who know how to make beer, cider, perry, and all other kinds of +beverages, bakers to make pasty for our table, netmakers who know how to +make nets for hunting, fishing, and fowling, and others too many to be +named'.[2] And some of these workmen are to be found working for the +monks in the estate of Villaris. + +But Ermentrude does not stop at the men's workshop. She finds the +steward, bobs her curtsy to him, and gives up her fowl and eggs, and +then she hurries off to the women's part of the house, to gossip with +the serfs there. The Franks used at this time to keep the women of their +household in a separate quarter, where they did the work which was +considered suitable for women, very much as the Greeks of antiquity used +to do. If a Frankish noble had lived at the big house, his wife would +have looked after their work, but as no one lived in the stone house at +Villaris, the steward had to oversee the women. Their quarter consisted +of a little group of houses, with a workroom, the whole surrounded by a +thick hedge with a strong bolted gate, like a harem, so that no one +could come in without leave. Their workrooms were comfortable places, +warmed by stoves, and there Ermentrude (who, being a woman, was allowed +to go in) found about a dozen servile women spinning and dyeing cloth +and sewing garments. Every week the harassed steward brought them the +raw materials for their work and took away what they made. Charlemagne +gives his stewards several instructions about the women attached to his +manses, and we may be sure that the monks of St Germain did the same on +their model estates. 'For our women's work,' says Charlemagne, 'they are +to give at the proper time the materials, that is linen, wool, woad, +vermilion, madder, wool combs, teasels, soap, grease, vessels, and other +objects which are necessary. And let our women's quarters be well looked +after, furnished with houses and rooms with stoves and cellars, and let +them be surrounded by a good hedge, and let the doors be strong, so that +the women can do our work properly.'[3] Ermentrude, however, has to +hurry away after her gossip, and so must we. She goes back to her own +farm and sets to work in the little vineyard; then after an hour or two +goes back to get the children's meal and to spend the rest of the day in +weaving warm woollen clothes for them. All her friends are either +working in the fields on their husbands' farms or else looking after the +poultry, or the vegetables, or sewing at home; for the women have to +work just as hard as the men on a country farm. In Charlemagne's time +(for instance) they did nearly all the sheep shearing. Then at last Bodo +comes back for his supper, and as soon as the sun goes down they go to +bed; for their hand-made candle gives only a flicker of light, and they +both have to be up early in the morning. De Quincey once pointed out, +in his inimitable manner, how the ancients everywhere went to bed, 'like +good boys, from seven to nine o'clock'. 'Man went to bed early in those +ages simply because his worthy mother earth could not afford him +candles. She, good old lady ... would certainly have shuddered to hear +of any of her nations asking for candles. "Candles indeed!" she would +have said; "who ever heard of such a thing? and with so much excellent +daylight running to waste, as I have provided _gratis_! What will the +wretches want next?"'[4] Something of the same situation prevailed even +in Bodo's time. + +This, then, is how Bodo and Ermentrude usually passed their working day. +But, it may be complained, this is all very well. We know about the +estates on which these peasants lived and about the rents which they had +to pay, and the services which they had to do. But how did they feel and +think and amuse themselves when they were not working? Rents and +services are only outside things; an estate book only describes routine. +It would be idle to try to picture the life of a university from a study +of its lecture list, and it is equally idle to try and describe the life +of Bodo from the estate book of his masters. It is no good taking your +meals in the kitchen if you never talk to the servants. This is true, +and to arrive at Bodo's thoughts and feelings and holiday amusements we +must bid goodbye to Abbot Irminon's estate book, and peer into some very +dark corners indeed; for though by the aid of Chaucer and Langland and a +few Court Rolls it is possible to know a great deal about the feelings +of a peasant six centuries later, material is scarce in the ninth +century, and it is all the more necessary to remember the secret of the +invisible ink. + +Bodo certainly _had_ plenty of feelings, and very strong ones. When he +got up in the frost on a cold morning to drive the plough over the +abbot's acres, when his own were calling out for work, he often shivered +and shook the rime from his beard, and wished that the big house and all +its land were at the bottom of the sea (which, as a matter of fact, he +had never seen and could not imagine). Or else he wished he were the +abbot's huntsman, hunting in the forest; or a monk of St Germain, +singing sweetly in the abbey church; or a merchant, taking bales of +cloaks and girdles along the high road to Paris; anything, in fact, but +a poor ploughman ploughing other people's land. An Anglo-Saxon writer +has imagined a dialogue with him: + +'Well, ploughman, how do you do your work?' 'Oh, sir, I work very hard. +I go out in the dawning, driving the oxen to the field and I yoke them +to the plough. Be the winter never so stark, I dare not stay at home for +fear of my lord; but every day I must plough a full acre or more, after +having yoked the oxen and fastened the share and coulter to the plough!' +'Have you any mate?' 'I have a boy, who drives the oxen with a goad, who +is now hoarse from cold and shouting,' (Poor little Wido!) 'Well, well, +it is very hard work?' 'Yes, indeed it is very hard work.'[5] + +Nevertheless, hard as the work was, Bodo sang lustily to cheer himself +and Wido; for is it not related that once, when a clerk was singing the +'Allelulia' in the emperor's presence, Charles turned to one of the +bishops, saying, 'My clerk is singing very well,' whereat the rude +bishop replied, 'Any clown in our countryside drones as well as that to +his oxen at their ploughing'?[6] It is certain too that Bodo agreed with +the names which the great Charles gave to the months of the year in his +own Frankish tongue; for he called January 'Winter-month', February +'Mud-month', March 'Spring-month', April 'Easter-month', May +'Joy-month', June 'Plough-month', July 'Hay-month', August +'Harvest-month', September 'Wind-month', October 'Vintage-month', +November 'Autumn-month', and December 'Holy-month'.[7] + +And Bodo was a superstitious creature. The Franks had been Christian now +for many years, but Christian though they were, the peasants clung to +old beliefs and superstitions. On the estates of the holy monks of St +Germain you would have found the country people saying charms which were +hoary with age, parts of the lay sung by the Frankish ploughman over his +bewitched land long before he marched southwards into the Roman Empire, +or parts of the spell which the bee-master performed when he swarmed his +bees on the shores of the Baltic Sea. Christianity has coloured these +charms, but it has not effaced their heathen origin; and because the +tilling of the soil is the oldest and most unchanging of human +occupations, old beliefs and superstitions cling to it and the old gods +stalk up and down the brown furrows, when they have long vanished from +houses and roads. So on Abbot Irminon's estates the peasant-farmers +muttered charms over their sick cattle (and over their sick children +too) and said incantations over the fields to make them fertile. If you +had followed behind Bodo when he broke his first furrow you would have +probably seen him take out of his jerkin a little cake, baked for him by +Ermentrude out of different kinds of meal, and you would have seen him +stoop and lay it under the furrow and sing: + +Earth, Earth, Earth! O Earth, our mother! +May the All-Wielder, Ever-Lord grant thee +Acres a-waxing, upwards a-growing, +Pregnant with corn and plenteous in strength; +Hosts of grain shafts and of glittering plants! +Of broad barley the blossoms, +And of white wheat ears waxing, +Of the whole land the harvest.... + +Acre, full-fed, bring forth fodder for men! +Blossoming brightly, blessed become! +And the God who wrought with earth grant us gift of growing +That each of all the corns may come unto our need.[8] + +Then he would drive his plough through the acre. + +The Church wisely did not interfere with these old rites. It taught Bodo +to pray to the Ever-Lord instead of to Father Heaven, and to the Virgin +Mary instead of to Mother Earth, and with these changes let the old +spell he had learned from his ancestors serve him still. It taught him, +for instance, to call on Christ and Mary in his charm for bees. When +Ermentrude heard her bees swarming, she stood outside her cottage and +said this little charm over them: + +Christ, there is a swarm of bees outside, +Fly hither, my little cattle, +In blest peace, in God's protection, +Come home safe and sound. +Sit down, sit down, bee, +St Mary commanded thee. + +Thou shalt not have leave, +Thou shalt not fly to the wood. +Thou shalt not escape me, +Nor go away from me. +Sit very still, +Wait God's will![9] + +And if Bodo on his way home saw one of his bees caught in a brier bush, +he immediately stood still and wished--as some people wish today when +they go under a ladder. It was the Church, too, which taught Bodo to add +'So be it, Lord', to the end of his charm against pain. Now, his +ancestors for generations behind him had believed that if you had a +stitch in your side, or a bad pain anywhere, it came from a worm in the +marrow of your bones, which was eating you up, and that the only way to +get rid of that worm was to put a knife, or an arrow-head, or some other +piece of metal to the sore place, and then wheedle the worm out on to +the blade by saying a charm. And this was the charm which Bodo's heathen +ancestors had always said and which Bodo went on saying when little Wido +had a pain: 'Come out, worm, with nine little worms, out from the marrow +into the bone, from the bone into the flesh, from the flesh into the +skin, from the skin into this arrow.' And then (in obedience to the +Church) he added 'So be it, Lord'.[10] But sometimes it was not possible +to read a Christian meaning into Bodo's doings. Sometimes he paid visits +to some man who was thought to have a wizard's powers, or +superstitiously reverenced some twisted tree, about which there hung old +stories never quite forgotten. Then the Church was stern. When he went +to confession the priest would ask him: 'Have you consulted magicians +and enchanters, have you made vows to trees and fountains, have you +drunk any magic philtre?'[11] And he would have to confess what he did +last time his cow was sick. But the Church was kind as well as stern. +'When serfs come to you,' we find one bishop telling his priests, 'you +must not give them as many fasts to perform as rich men. Put upon them +only half the penance.'[12] The Church knew well enough that Bodo could +not drive his plough all day upon an empty stomach. The hunting, +drinking, feasting Frankish nobles could afford to lose a meal. + +It was from this stern and yet kind Church that Bodo got his holidays. +For the Church made the pious emperor decree that on Sundays and saints' +days no servile or other works should be done. Charlemagne's son +repeated his decree in 827. It runs thus: + + We ordain according to the law of God and to the command of + our father of blessed memory in his edicts, that no servile + works shall be done on Sundays, neither shall men perform + their rustic labours, tending vines, ploughing fields, + reaping corn and mowing hay, setting up hedges or fencing + woods, cutting trees, or working in quarries or building + houses; nor shall they work in the garden, nor come to the + law courts, nor follow the chase. But three carrying-services + it is lawful to do on Sunday, to wit carrying for the army, + carrying food, or carrying (if need be) the body of a lord to + its grave. Item, women shall not do their textile works, nor + cut out clothes, nor stitch them together with the needle, + nor card wool, nor beat hemp, nor wash clothes in public, nor + shear sheep: so that there may be rest on the Lord's day. But + let them come together from all sides to Mass in the Church + and praise God for all the good things He did for us on that + day![13] + +Unfortunately, however, Bodo and Ermentrude and their friends were not +content to go quietly to church on saints' days and quietly home again. +They used to spend their holidays in dancing and singing and buffoonery, +as country folk have always done until our own gloomier, more +self-conscious age. They were very merry and not at all refined, and the +place they always chose for their dances was the churchyard; and +unluckily the songs they sang as they danced in a ring were old pagan +songs of their forefathers, left over from old Mayday festivities, which +they could not forget, or ribald love-songs which the Church disliked. +Over and over again we find the Church councils complaining that the +peasants (and sometimes the priests too) were singing 'wicked songs with +a chorus of dancing women,' or holding 'ballads and dancings and evil +and wanton songs and such-like lures of the devil';[14] over and over +again the bishops forbade these songs and dances; but in vain. In every +country in Europe, right through the Middle Ages to the time of the +Reformation, and after it, country folk continued to sing and dance in +the churchyard. Two hundred years after Charlemagne's death there grew +up the legend of the dancers of Koelbigk, who danced on Christmas Eve in +the churchyard, in spite of the warning of the priest, and all got +rooted to the spot for a year, till the Archbishop of Cologne released +them. Some men say that they were not rooted standing to the spot, but +that they had to go on dancing for the whole year; and that before they +were released they had danced themselves waist-deep into the ground. +People used to repeat the little Latin verse which they were singing: + + Equitabat Bovo per silvam frondosam + Ducebat sibi Merswindem formosam. + Quid stamus? Cur non imus?[15] + +Through the leafy forest, Bovo went a-riding +And his pretty Merswind trotted on beside him-- +Why are we standing still? Why can't we go away? + +Another later story still is told about a priest in Worcestershire who +was kept awake all night by the people dancing in his churchyard and +singing a song with the refrain 'Sweetheart have pity', so that he could +not get it out of his head, and the next morning at Mass, instead of +saying 'Dominus vobiscum', he said 'Sweetheart have pity', and there was +a dreadful scandal which got into a chronicle.[16] + +Sometimes our Bodo did not dance himself, but listened to the songs of +wandering minstrels. The priests did not at all approve of these +minstrels, who (they said) would certainly go to hell for singing +profane secular songs, all about the great deeds of heathen heroes of +the Frankish race, instead of Christian hymns. But Bodo loved them, and +so did Bodo's betters; the Church councils had sometimes even to rebuke +abbots and abbesses for listening to their songs. And the worst of it +was that the great emperor himself, the good Charlemagne, loved them +too. He would always listen to a minstrel, and his biographer, Einhard, +tells us that 'He wrote out the barbarous and ancient songs, in which +the acts of the kings and their wars were sung, and committed them to +memory';[17] and one at least of those old sagas, which he liked men to +write down, has been preserved on the cover of a Latin manuscript, where +a monk scribbled it in his spare time. His son, Louis the Pious, was +very different; he rejected the national poems, which he had learnt in +his youth, and would not have them read or recited or taught; he would +not allow minstrels to have justice in the law courts, and he forbade +idle dances and songs and tales in public places on Sundays; but then he +also dragged down his father's kingdom into disgrace and ruin. The +minstrels repaid Charlemagne for his kindness to them. They gave him +everlasting fame; for all through the Middle Ages the legend of +Charlemagne grew, and he shares with our King Arthur the honour of being +the hero of one of the greatest romance-cycles of the Middle Ages. Every +different century clad him anew in its own dress and sang new lays about +him. What the monkish chroniclers in their cells could never do for +Charlemagne, these despised and accursed minstrels did for him: they +gave him what is perhaps more desirable and more lasting than a place in +history-they gave him a place in legend. It is not every emperor who +rules in those realms of gold of which Keats spoke, as well as in the +kingdoms of the world; and in the realms of gold Charlemagne reigns with +King Arthur, and his peers joust with the Knights of the Round Table. +Bodo, at any rate, benefited by Charles's love of minstrels, and it is +probable that he heard in the lifetime of the emperor himself the first +beginnings of those legends which afterwards clung to the name of +Charlemagne. One can imagine him round-eyed in the churchyard, listening +to fabulous stories of Charles's Iron March to Pavia, such as a +gossiping old monk of St Gall afterwards wrote down in his +chronicle.[18] + +It is likely enough that such legends were the nearest Bodo ever came to +seeing the emperor, of whom even the poor serfs who never followed him +to court or camp were proud. But Charles was a great traveller: like all +the monarchs of the early Middle Ages he spent the time, when he was not +warring, in trekking round his kingdom, staying at one of his estates, +until he and his household had literally eaten their way through it, and +then passing on to another. And sometimes he varied the procedure by +paying a visit to the estates of his bishops or nobles, who entertained +him royally. It may be that one day he came on a visit to Bodo's masters +and stopped at the big house on his way to Paris, and then Bodo saw him +plain; for Charlemagne would come riding along the road in his jerkin of +otter skin, and his plain blue cloak (Einhard tells us that he hated +grand clothes and on ordinary days dressed like the common people);[19] +and after him would come his three sons and his bodyguard, and then his +five daughters. Einhard has also told us that: + + He had such care of the upbringing of his sons and daughters + that he never dined without them when he was at home and + never travelled without them. His sons rode along with him + and his daughters followed in the rear. Some of his guards, + chosen for this very purpose, watched the end of the line of + march where his daughters travelled. They were very beautiful + and much beloved by their father, and, therefore, it is + strange that he would give them in marriage to no one, either + among his own people or of a foreign state. But up to his + death he kept them all at home saying he could not forgo + their society.[20] + +Then, with luck, Bodo, quaking at the knees, might even behold a portent +new to his experience, the emperor's elephant. Haroun El Raschid, the +great Sultan of the 'Arabian Nights' had sent it to Charles, and it +accompanied him on all his progresses. Its name was 'Abu-Lubabah', which +is an Arabic word and means 'the father of intelligence[A]', and it died +a hero's death on an expedition against the Danes in 810.[21] It is +certain that ever afterwards Ermentrude quelled little Gerbert, when he +was naughty, with the threat, 'Abu-Lubabah will come with his long nose +and carry you off.' But Wido, being aged eight and a bread-winner, +professed to have felt no fear on being confronted with the elephant; +but admitted when pressed, that he greatly preferred Haroun El Raschid's +other present to the emperor, the friendly dog, who answered to the name +of 'Becerillo'. + +[Footnote A: _Abu-Lubabah_.--It is remarkable that the name should have +suffered no corruption in the chronicles.] + +It would be a busy time for Bodo when all these great folk came, for +everything would have to be cleaned before their arrival, the pastry +cooks and sausage-makers summoned and a great feast prepared; and though +the household serfs did most of the work, it is probable that he had to +help. The gossipy old monk of St Gall has given us some amusing pictures +of the excitement when Charles suddenly paid a visit to his subjects: + + There was a certain bishopric which lay full in Charles's + path when he journeyed, and which indeed he could hardly + avoid: and the bishop of this place, always anxious to give + satisfaction, put everything that he had at Charles's + disposal. But once the Emperor came quite unexpectedly and + the bishop in great anxiety had to fly hither and thither + like a swallow, and had not only the palaces and houses but + also the courts and squares swept and cleaned: and then, + tired and irritated, came to meet him. The most pious Charles + noticed this, and after examining all the various details, he + said to the bishop: 'My kind host, you always have everything + splendidly cleaned for my arrival.' Then the bishop, as if + divinely inspired, bowed his head and grasped the king's + never-conquered right hand, and hiding his irritation, kissed + it and said: 'It is but right, my lord, that, wherever you + come, all things should be thoroughly cleansed.' Then + Charles, of all kings the wisest, understanding the state of + affairs said to him: 'If I empty I can also fill.' And he + added: 'You may have that estate which lies close to your + bishopric, and all your successors may have it until the end + of time.' In the same journey, too, he came to a bishop who + lived in a place through which he must needs pass. Now on + that day, being the sixth day of the week, he was not willing + to eat the flesh of beast or bird; and the bishop, being by + reason of the nature of the place unable to procure fish upon + the sudden, ordered some excellent cheese, rich and creamy, + to be placed before him. And the most self-restrained + Charles, with the readiness which he showed everywhere and on + all occasions, spared the blushes of the bishop and required + no better fare; but taking up his knife cut off the skin, + which he thought unsavoury and fell to on the white of the + cheese. Thereupon the bishop, who was standing near like a + servant, drew closer and said: 'Why do you do that, lord + emperor? You are throwing away the very best part.' Then + Charles, who deceived no one, and did not believe that anyone + would deceive him, on the persuasion of the bishop put a + piece of the skin in his mouth, and slowly ate it and + swallowed it like butter. Then approving of the advice of the + bishop, he said: 'Very true, my good host,' and he added: 'Be + sure to send me every year to Aix two cartloads of just such + cheeses.' And the bishop was alarmed at the impossibility of + the task and, fearful of losing both his rank and his office, + he rejoined: 'My lord, I can procure the cheeses, but I + cannot tell which are of this quality and which of another. + Much I fear lest I fall under your censure.' Then Charles, + from whose penetration and skill nothing could escape, + however new or strange it might be, spoke thus to the bishop, + who from childhood had known such cheeses and yet could not + test them: 'Cut them in two,' he said, 'then fasten together + with a skewer those that you find to be of the right quality + and keep them in your cellar for a time and then send them to + me. The rest you may keep for yourself and your ¸clergy and + your family.' This was done for two years, and the king + ordered the present of cheeses to be taken in without remark: + then in the third year the bishop brought in person his + laboriously collected cheeses. But the most just Charles + pitied his labour and anxiety and added to the bishopric an + excellent estate whence he and his successors might provide + themselves with corn and wine.[22] + +We may feel sorry for the poor flustered bishop collecting his two +cartloads of cheeses; but it is possible that our real sympathy ought to +go to Bodo, who probably had to pay an extra rent in cheeses to satisfy +the emperor's taste, and got no excellent estate to recompense him. + +A visit from the emperor, however, would be a rare event in his life, to +be talked about for years and told to his grandchildren. But there was +one other event, which happened annually, and which was certainly looked +for with excitement by Bodo and his friends. For once a year the king's +itinerant justices, the _Missi Dominici_, came round to hold their court +and to see if the local counts had been doing justice. Two of them would +come, a bishop and a count, and they would perhaps stay a night at the +big house as guests of the abbot, and the next day they would go on to +Paris, and there they would sit and do justice in the open square before +the church and from all the district round great men and small, nobles +and freemen and _coloni_, would bring their grievances and demand +redress. Bodo would go too, if anyone had injured or robbed him, and +would make his complaint to the judges. But if he were canny he would +not go to them empty-handed, trusting to justice alone. Charlemagne was +very strict, but unless the _missi_ were exceptionally honest and pious +they would not be averse to taking bribes. Theodulf, Bishop of Orleans, +who was one of the Emperor's _missi_, has left us a most entertaining +Latin poem, in which he describes the attempts of the clergy and laymen, +who flocked to his court, to buy justice.[23] Every one according to his +means brought a present; the rich offered money, precious stones, fine +materials, and Eastern carpets, arms, horses, antique vases of gold or +silver chiselled with representations of the labours of Hercules. The +poor brought skins of Cordova leather, tanned and untanned, excellent +pieces of cloth and linen (poor Ermentrude must have worked hard for +the month before the justices came!), boxes, and wax. 'With this +battering-ram,' cries the shocked Bishop Theodulf, 'they hope to break +down the wall of my soul. But they would not have thought that they +could shake _me_, if they had not so shaken other judges before,' And +indeed, if his picture be true, the royal justices must have been +followed about by a regular caravan of carts and horses to carry their +presents. Even Theodulf has to admit that, in order not to hurt people's +feelings, he was obliged to accept certain unconsidered trifles in the +shape of eggs and bread and wine and chickens and little birds, 'whose +bodies' (he says, smacking his lips) 'are small, but very good to eat.' +One seems to detect the anxious face of Bodo behind those eggs and +little birds. + +Another treat Bodo had which happened once a year; for regularly on the +ninth of October there began the great fair of St Denys, which went on +for a whole month, outside the gates of Paris.[24] Then for a week +before the fair little booths and sheds sprang up, with open fronts in +which the merchants could display their wares, and the Abbey of St +Denys, which had the right to take a toll of all the merchants who came +there to sell, saw to it that the fair was well enclosed with fences, +and that all came in by the gates and paid their money, for wily +merchants were sometimes known to burrow under fences or climb over them +so as to avoid the toll. Then the streets of Paris were crowded with +merchants bringing their goods, packed in carts and upon horses and +oxen; and on the opening day all regular trade in Paris stopped for a +month, and every Parisian shopkeeper was in a booth somewhere in the +fair, exchanging the corn and wine and honey of the district for rarer +goods from foreign parts. Bodo's abbey probably had a stall in the fair +and sold some of those pieces of cloth woven by the serfs in the women's +quarter, or cheeses and salted meat prepared on the estates, or wine +paid in rent by Bodo and his fellow-farmers. Bodo would certainly take a +holiday and go to the fair. In fact, the steward would probably have +great difficulty in keeping his men at work during the month; +Charlemagne had to give a special order to his stewards that they should +'be careful that our men do properly the work which it is lawful to +exact from them, and that they do not waste their time in running about +to markets and fairs'. Bodo and Ermentrude and the three children, all +attired in their best, did not consider it waste of time to go to the +fair even twice or three times. They pretended that they wanted to buy +salt to salt down their winter meat, or some vermilion dye to colour a +frock for the baby. What they really wanted was to wander along the +little rows of booths and look at all the strange things assembled +there; for merchants came to St Denys to sell their rich goods from the +distant East to Bodo's betters, and wealthy Frankish nobles bargained +there for purple and silken robes with orange borders, stamped leather +jerkins, peacock's feathers, and the scarlet plumage of flamingos (which +they called 'phoenix skins'), scents and pearls and spices, almonds and +raisins, and monkeys for their wives to play with.[25] Sometimes these +merchants were Venetians, but more often they were Syrians or crafty +Jews, and Bodo and his fellows laughed loudly over the story of how a +Jewish merchant had tricked a certain bishop, who craved for all the +latest novelties, by stuffing a mouse with spices and offering it for +sale to him, saying that 'he had brought this most precious +never-before-seen animal from Judea,' and refusing to take less than a +whole measure of silver for it.[26] In exchange for their luxuries these +merchants took away with them Frisian cloth, which was greatly esteemed, +and corn and hunting dogs, and sometimes a piece of fine goldsmith's +work, made in a monastic workshop. And Bodo would hear a hundred +dialects and tongues, for men of Saxony and Frisia, Spain and Provence, +Rouen and Lombardy, and perhaps an Englishman or two, jostled each other +in the little streets; and from time to time there came also an Irish +scholar with a manuscript to sell, and the strange, sweet songs of +Ireland on his lips: + +A hedge of trees surrounds me, +A blackbird's lay sings to me; +Above my lined booklet +The thrilling birds chant to me. + +In a grey mantle from the top of bushes +The cuckoo sings: +Verily--may the Lord shield me!-- +Well do I write under the greenwood.[27] + +Then there were always jugglers and tumblers, and men with performing +bears, and minstrels to wheedle Bodo's few pence out of his pocket. And +it would be a very tired and happy family that trundled home in the cart +to bed. For it is not, after all, so dull in the kitchen, and when we +have quite finished with the emperor, 'Charlemagne and all his peerage', +it is really worth while to spend a few moments with Bodo in his little +manse. History is largely made up of Bodos. + + + + +CHAPTER III + +_Marco Polo_ + +A VENETIAN TRAVELLER OF THE THIRTEENTH CENTURY + + +Et por ce, veul ie que un et autre sachent a tos iors mais les euvres +des Veneciens, et qui il furent, et dont il vindrent, et qui il sont, et +comment il firent la noble Cite que l'en apele Venise, qui est orendroit +la plus bele dou siecle.... La place de Monseignor Saint Marc est +orendroit la plus bele place qui soit en tot li monde; que de vers li +soleil levant est la plus bele yglise qui soit el monde, c'est l'Yglise +de Monseignor Saint Marc. Et de les cele Yglise est li paleis de +Monseignor li Dus, grant e biaus a mervoilles. + + --MARTINO DA CANALE + +And Kinsai [Hangchow] is the greatest city in the whole world, so great +indeed that I should scarcely venture to tell of it, but that I have met +at Venice people in plenty who have been there.... And if anyone should +desire to tell of all the vastness and great marvels of this city, a +good quire of paper would not hold the matter, I trow. For 'tis the +greatest and noblest city, and the finest for merchandise, that the +whole world containeth. + + --ODORIC OF PORDENONE + +Let us go back in mind--as would that we could go back in body--to the +year 1268. It is a year which makes no great stir in the history books, +but it will serve us well. In those days, as in our own, Venice lay upon +her lagoons, a city (as Cassiodurus long ago saw her[B]) like a +sea-bird's nest afloat on the shallow waves, a city like a ship, moored +to the land but only at home upon the seas, the proudest city in all the +Western world. For only consider her position. Lying at the head of the +Adriatic, half-way between East and West, on the one great sea +thoroughfare of medieval commerce, a Mediterranean seaport, yet set so +far north that she was almost in the heart of Europe, Venice gathered +into her harbour all the trade routes overland and overseas, on which +pack-horses could travel or ships sail. Merchants bringing silk and +spices, camphor and ivory, pearls and scents and carpets from the Levant +and from the hot lands beyond it, all came to port in Venice. For +whether they came by way of Egypt sailing between the low banks of the +Nile and jolting on camels to Alexandria, or whether they came through +the rich and pleasant land of Persia and the Syrian desert to Antioch +and Tyre, or whether they slowly pushed their way in a long, thin +caravan across the highlands of Central Asia, and south of the Caspian +Sea to Trebizond, and so sailed through the Black Sea and the +Dardanelles, Venice was their natural focus. Only Constantinople might +have rivalled her, and Constantinople she conquered. To Venice, +therefore, as if drawn by a magnet, came the spoils of the East, and +from Venice they went by horse across the Alps by the Brenner and St +Gothard passes to Germany and France, or in galleys by way of the +Straits of Gibraltar to England and Flanders;[1] and the galleys and +pack-horses came back again to Venice, laden with the metals of Germany, +the furs of Scandinavia, the fine wools of England, the cloth of +Flanders, and the wine of France. + +[Footnote B: 'Hic vobis, aquatilium avium more, domus est.'] + +But if geography gave Venice an unrivalled site, the Venetians did the +rest. Through all the early years of their history they defied +Constantinople to the east of them, and Pope and Holy Roman Emperor to +the west; sometimes turning to one, sometimes to the other, but +stubbornly bent all the while upon independence, replying, when invited +to become subjects: 'God, Who is our help and protector has saved us to +dwell upon these waters. This Venice, which we have raised in the +lagoons, is our mighty habitation, no power of emperor or of prince can +touch us'; apt, if threatened, to retire to their islands and derisively +to fire cannon balls of bread into the mainland force, which sought to +starve them out.[2] Always they were conscious that their future lay +upon the waters, and in that East, whose colour had crept into their +civilization and warmed their blood. They were eastern and western both, +the Venetians, hot hearts for loving and conquering, icy heads for +scheming and ruling. Bit by bit they secured the ring of mainland behind +them, all the while keeping at bay the Saracen and Slav sea rovers, +whose ships were the terror of the Mediterranean. Then they descended +upon the pirates of Dalmatia, who thus harassed their trading vessels, +and took all the Dalmatian coast. The Doge of Venice became Duke of +Dalmatia. 'True it is,' says their chronicles, 'that the Adriatic Sea is +in the duchy of Venice,'[3] and they called it the 'Gulf of Venice'. Now +it was that there was first instituted the magnificent symbolical +ceremony of wedding the sea, with the proud words 'Desponsamus te mare +in signum veri perpetuique domini'![4] + +She was a maiden city, bright and free, +No guile seduced, no force could violate, +And when she took unto herself a mate +She must espouse the everlasting sea. + +And truly it seemed as though the very sea had sworn to honour and obey +her. + +Then came the Crusades, when Europe forgot its differences and threw +itself upon the paynim who held the holy places of its faith, when men +from all lands marched behind the banner of the Cross and the towers of +Jerusalem were more real than the Tower of Babel. Now, at last, Venice +saw her dream within her hand. It was Venice who provided galleys and +Venice who provided convoys and commissariat and soldiers, at a good +round sum; and when time came for the division of the spoil, Venice +demanded in every captured town of Palestine and Syria a church, a +counting-house and the right to trade without tolls. Her great chance +came in the Fourth Crusade, when her old blind Doge Enrico Dandolo +(whose blindness had the Nelson touch) upon the pretext that the +Crusaders could not pay the transport fees agreed upon, turned the whole +Crusade to the use of Venice, and conquered first Zara, which had dared +to revolt from her, and then her ancient--her only--rival, the immortal +Byzantium itself. It is true that the Pope excommunicated the Venetians +when they first turned the armies against Zara, but what matter? They +looted Constantinople and brought back the four great gilded horses to +St Mark's--St Mark's, which has been compared to a robbers' cave crowded +with the booty of the Levant, and which held the sacred body of the +saint, stolen from Alexandria by the Venetians, nearly four centuries +before, concealed in a tub of pickled pork, in order to elude the +Moslems. A Venetian patriarch now said Mass in St Sophia. Venice +received the proud title of 'Ruler of a half and a quarter of the Roman +Empire,' ('quartae partis et dimidiae totius imperii Romaniae'--the words +have a ring of trumpets), and the Doge, buskined in scarlet like the +ancient Roman emperors, now ruled supreme over four seas--the Adriatic, +the Aegean, the Sea of Marmora, and the Black Sea. Venetian factories +studded all the Levantine coasts, in Tripoli and Tyre, Salonica, +Adrianople, and Constantinople, in Trebizond on the Black Sea, even at +Caffa in the far Crimea, whence ran the mysterious road into Russia. +Crete and Rhodes and Cyprus were hers; her galleys swept the pirates +from the seas and brooked no rivals; all trade with the East must pass +through Venice, and Venice only. The other trading cities of Italy +struggled against her, and Genoa came near to rivalling her, but in +1258, and again in 1284, she utterly defeated the Genoese fleet. Not for +the city of 'sea without fish, mountains without woods, men without +faith, and women without shame' was it to bit the horses on St +Mark's.[5] In 1268 Venice seemed supreme. Byzantium was her washpot and +over the Levant she had cast her shoe. Truly her chronicler might +write of her: + +Dalmatia, Albania, Rumania, Greece, Trebizond, Syria, Armenia, Egypt, +Cyprus, Candia, Apulia, Sicily, and other countries, kingdoms and +islands were the fruitful gardens, the proud castles of our people, +where they found again pleasure, profit, and security.... The Venetians +went about the sea, here and there and across the sea, and in all places +wheresoever water runs, and bought merchandise and brought it to Venice +from every side. Then there came to Venice Germans and Bavarians, French +and Lombards, Tuscans and Hungarians, and every people that lives by +merchandise and they took it to their countries. + +Small wonder that (as a later traveller observed) the Venetians were +proud of their great rule, and when a son was born to a Venetian were +wont to say among themselves, 'A Signor is born into the world.' + +Is it not true to say that Venice was the proudest city on earth, _la +noble cite que l'en apele Venise, qui est orendroit la plus bele dou +siecle_?[6] Life was a fair and splendid thing for those merchant +princes, who held the gorgeous East in fee in the year of grace 1268. In +that year traders in great stone counting-houses, lapped by the waters +of the canals, were checking, book in hand, their sacks of cloves, mace +and nutmegs, cinnamon and ginger from the Indies, ebony chessmen from +Indo China, ambergris from Madagascar, and musk from Tibet. In that year +the dealers in jewels were setting prices upon diamonds from Golconda, +rubies and lapis lazuli from Badakhshan, and pearls from the fisheries +of Ceylon; and the silk merchants were stacking up bales of silk and +muslin and brocade from Bagdad and Yezd and Malabar and China. In that +year young gallants on the Rialto (scented gallants, but each, like +Shakespeare's Antonio, with a ship venturing into port somewhere in the +Levant) rubbed elbows with men of all nations, heard travellers' tales +of all lands, and at dawn slipped along the canals in gondolas (not +black in those days, but painted and hung with silk), saluting the +morning with songs; and the red-haired ladies of Venice whom centuries +later Titian loved to paint, went trailing up and down the marble steps +of their palaces, with all the brocades of Persia on their backs and all +the perfumes of Arabia to sweeten their little hands. + +It was in that year, too, that one Martino da Canale, a clerk in the +customs house, began to busy himself (like Chaucer after him) less with +his accounts than with writing in the delectable French language ('por +ce que lengue franceise cort parmi le monde, et est la plus delitable a +lire et a oir que nule autre') a chronicle of Venice. It is of the +water, watery, Canale's chronicle, like Ariel's dirge; he has indeed, +'that intenseness of feeling which seems to resolve itself into the +elements which it contemplates.' Here is nothing indeed, of 'the surge +and thunder of the Odyssey', but the lovely words sparkle like the sun +on the waters of the Mediterranean, and like a refrain, singing itself +in and out of the narrative, the phrase recurs, 'Li tens estoit clers et +biaus ... et lors quant il furent en mer, li mariniers drecerent les +voiles au vent, et lesserent core a ploine voiles les mes parmi la mer a +la force dou vent';[7] for so much of the history of Venice was enacted +upon deck. It is a passing proud chronicle, too, for Canale was, and +well he knew it, a citizen of no mean city. + + 'Now would I,' he says, 'that every one and all know for ever + the works of the Venetians, who they were and whence they + came and what they are, and how they made the noble city + which is called Venice, which is this day the fairest in the + world. And I would that all those who are now living and + those who are to come know how the noble city is builded and + how all good things abound in her, and how the sire of the + Venetians, the noble Doge, is powerful, and what nobility is + found therein and the prowess of the Venetian people, and how + they are all perfect in the faith of Jesu Christ and obedient + to holy Church, and how they never disobey the commandment of + holy Church. Within this noble Venice there dares to dwell + neither heretic, nor usurer, murderer, thief nor robber. And + I will tell you the names of all the Doges that have been in + Venice, one after the other, and what they did to the honour + of holy Church and of their noble City. And I will tell you + the names of the noble captains whom the noble Doges sent in + their time to lay low their enemies, and concerning the + victories that they won I will have you know, for it is + fitting.... In the year of the incarnation of our Lord Jesu + Christ MCCLXVII years, in the time of Milord Renier Zeno, the + high Doge of Venice, I laboured and strove until I found the + ancient history of the Venetians, whence they came first and + how they builded the noble city called Venice, which is today + the fairest and the pleasantest in the world, full of beauty + and of all good things. Merchandise flows through this noble + city even as water flows from the fountains, and the salt + water runs through it and round it and in all places save in + the houses and the streets; and when the citizens go abroad + they can return to their houses by land or by water, as they + will. From all parts there come merchandise and merchants, + who buy merchandise as they will and take it back to their + own countries. Within this town is found food in great + plenty, bread and wine, land fowl and river fowl, fresh meat + and salt, and sea fish and river fish.... You may find within + this fair town many men of gentle birth, both old men and + young _damoisaus_ in plenty, and merchants with them, who buy + and sell, and money changers and citizens of all crafts, and + therewith mariners of all sorts, and ships to carry them to + all lands and galleys to lay low their enemies. And in this + fair town is also great plenty of ladies and damsels and + maidens, very richly apparelled.'[8] + + It happened that there was a new Doge that year, our year + 1268, Lorenzo Tiepolo by name, and a great procession of the + gilds took place before the palace on the Piazza of St Mark + to welcome his accession. Martino da Canale was watching it + and wrote it all down in his chronicle. First came the navy + sailing past in the harbour, fifty galleys and other ships, + with their crews cheering and shouting on deck. Then came the + gilds on foot: first the master smiths, with garlands on + their heads and banners and trumpets; then the furriers + apparelled in samite and scarlet silk, with mantles of ermine + and vair; then the weavers richly bedight, and the ten master + tailors in white with crimson stars. Then the master + clothworkers passed, carrying boughs of olive and wearing + crowns of olive on their heads; then the fustian makers in + furred robes of their own weaving, and the quilt makers with + garlands of gilt beads and white cloaks sewn with + fleurs-de-lis, marching two by two, with little children + singing _chansonettes_ and _cobles_ before them. Then came + the makers of cloth of gold, all in cloth of gold, and their + servants in cloth of gold or of purple, followed by the + mercers in silk and the butchers in scarlet, the fish sellers + robed and furred and garlanded, and the master barbers, + having with them two riders attired as knights-errant, and + four captive damsels, strangely garbed. Then came the + glass-workers in scarlet furred with vair, and gold-fringed + hoods, and rich garlands of pearls, carrying flasks and + goblets of the famous Venetian glass before them, and the + comb and lantern makers, with a lantern full of birds to let + loose in the Doge's presence, and the goldsmiths wearing + wreaths and necklaces of gold and silver beads and sapphires, + emeralds, diamonds, topazes, jacinths, amethysts, rubies, + jasper, and carbuncles. Master and servants alike were + sumptuously clad, and almost all wore gold fringes on their + hoods, and garlands of gilded beads. Each craft was + accompanied by its band of divers instruments, and bore with + it silver cups and flagons of wine, and all marched in fair + order, singing ballads and songs of greeting, and saluted the + Doge and Dogaressa in turn, crying 'Long live our lord, the + noble Doge Lorenzo Tiepolo!' Gild after gild they marched in + their splendour, lovely alike to ear and eye; and a week fled + before the rejoicings were ended and all had passed in + procession. Canale surpasses himself here, for he loved State + ceremonies; he gives a paragraph to the advance of each gild, + its salutation and withdrawal, and the cumulative effect of + all the paragraphs is enchanting, like a prose ballade, with + a repeated refrain at the end of every verse.[9] + +What, they lived once thus in Venice, where the merchants were the + kings, +Where St Mark's is, where the Doges used to wed the sea with rings? + + Listening to the magnificent salutation of the Doge by the + priests of St Mark's, 'Criste, vince, Criste regne, Criste + inpere. Notre signor Laurens Teuples, Des gracie, inclit Dus + de Venise, Dalmace atque Groace, et dominator de la quarte + partie et demi de tot l'enmire de Romanie, sauvement, honor, + vie, et victoire. Saint Marc, tu le aie,'[10] who, hearing, + could have doubted that Venice, defier of Rome and conqueror + of Constantinople, was the finest, richest, most beautiful, + and most powerful city in the world? + + But was she? Listen and judge. Thousands of miles away from + Venice, across the lands and seas of Asia, a little south of + the Yangtze River and close to the sea stood the city of + Kinsai or Hangchow, the capital of the Sung emperors, who + ruled Southern China, not yet (in 1268) conquered by the + Tartars.[11] Like Venice, Kinsai stood upon lagoons of water + and was intersected by innumerable canals. It was a hundred + miles in circuit, not counting the suburbs which stretched + round it, and there was not a span of ground which was not + well peopled. It had twelve great gates, and each of the + twelve quarters which lay within the gates was greater than + the whole of Venice. Its main street was two hundred feet + wide, and ran from end to end of the city, broken every four + miles by a great square, lined with houses, gardens, palaces, + and the shops of the artisans, who were ruled by its twelve + great craft gilds. Parallel with the main street was the + chief canal, beside which stood the stone warehouses of the + merchants who traded with India. Twelve thousand stone + bridges spanned its waterways, and those over the principal + canals were high enough to allow ships with their tapering + masts to pass below, while the carts and horses passed + overhead. In its market-places men chaffered for game and + peaches, sea-fish, and wine made of rice and spices; and in + the lower part of the surrounding houses were shops, where + spices and drugs and silk, pearls and every sort of + manufactured article were sold. Up and down the streets of + Kinsai moved lords and merchants clad in silk, and the most + beautiful ladies in the world swayed languidly past in + embroidered litters, with jade pins in their black hair and + jewelled earrings swinging against their smooth cheeks.[12] + + On one side of this city lay a beautiful lake (famous in + Chinese history, and still one of the fairest prospects upon + earth), studded with wooded islands, on which stood pavilions + with charming names: 'Lake Prospect', 'Bamboo Chambers', 'The + House of the Eight Genii', and 'Pure Delight'. Here, like the + Venetians, the men of Kinsai came for pleasure parties in + barges, nobly hung and furnished, the cabins painted with + flowers and mountain landscapes, and looking out they saw on + one side the whole expanse of the city, its palaces, temples, + convents, and gardens, and on the other the stretch of clear + water, crowded with coloured pleasure boats, over which came + echoing the high, clear voices and the tinkling instruments + of the revellers. There is no space in which to tell of the + King's palace, with its gardens and orchards, its painted + pavilions, and the groves where the palace ladies coursed the + game with dogs, and, tired of the pastime, flung off their + robes and ran to the lake, where they disported themselves + like a shoal of silver fishes. But a word must be said of the + junks, which came sailing into the harbour four and twenty + miles away, and up the river to the city; and of the great + concourse of ships which came to Zaiton (perhaps the modern + Amoy), the port of the province. Here every year came a + hundred times more pepper than came to the whole of + Christendom through the Levantine ports. Here from Indo China + and the Indies came spices and aloes and sandalwood, nutmegs, + spikenard and ebony, and riches beyond mention. Big junks + laded these things, together with musk from Tibet, and bales + of silk from all the cities of Mansi[C], and sailed away in + and out of the East India Archipelago, with its spice-laden + breezes billowing their sails, to Ceylon. There merchants + from Malabar and the great trading cities of southern India + took aboard their cargoes and sold them in turn to Arab + merchants, who in their turn sold them to the Venetians in + one or other of the Levantine ports. Europeans who saw Zaiton + and the other Chinese seaports in after years were wont to + say that no one, not even a Venetian, could picture to + himself the multitude of trading vessels which sailed upon + those eastern seas and crowded into those Chinese harbours. + They said also with one accord that Kinsai was without doubt + the finest and richest and noblest city in the world. To the + men of Kinsai, Venice would have been a little suburb and the + Levant a backyard. The whole of the east was their trading + field, and their wealth and civilization were already old + when Venice was a handful of mud huts peopled by fishermen. + + [Footnote C: Mansi or Manji was southern China and Cathay was + northern China, the boundary between them lying along the + River Hoang-Ho on the east and the southern boundary of + Shensi on the west.] + + Nor was Kinsai alone and unmatched in all its wonder and + beauty, for a three days' journey from it stood Sugui, which + today we call Suchow, lying also on the great canal, with its + circumference of twenty miles, its prodigious multitudes + swarming the streets, its physicians, philosophers, and + magicians; Sugui, with the ginger which was so common that + forty pounds of it might be bought for the price of a + Venetian silver groat, the silk which was manufactured in + such vast quantities that all the citizens were dressed in it + and still ships laden with it sailed away; Sugui under whose + jurisdiction were sixteen wealthy cities, where trade and the + arts flourished. If you had not seen Hangchow, you would have + said that there was no city in the world, not Venice nor + Constantinople nor another worthy to be named in the same + breath with Sugui. The Chinese indeed, seeing the riches and + beauty of these two cities, doubted whether even the pleasant + courts of heaven could show their equal and proudly quoted + the proverb: + +_Shang yeu t'ien t'ang, +Hia yeu Su Hang_. + +(There's Paradise above, 'tis true, +But here below we've Hang and Su.)[13] + + Kinsai seems far enough away in all conscience from Venice in + the year 1268, and Venice was all unwitting of its existence, + far beyond the sunrise. Yet there was in the city of the + lagoons that year, watching the same procession of the gilds + which Canale watched, a boy who was destined to link them for + ever in the minds of men--a lean lad of fourteen, Marco Polo + by name, who was always kicking his heels on the quay and + bothering foreign sailors for tales of distant lands. He + heard all they had to tell him very willingly, storing it up + in that active brain of his, for his curiosity was + insatiable; but always the tales that he heard most willingly + were about the Tartars. + + At this time the Tartars were at the height of their power in + the West and the East. Tartars ruled at Peking all over + northern China, Corea, Mongolia, Manchuria, and Tibet, and + took tribute from Indo-China and Java. Tartars were spread + over central Asia, holding sway in Turkestan and Afghanistan. + The Golden Horde ruled the Caucasus, a large part of Russia, + and a piece of Siberia. Tartars held sway in Persia, Georgia, + Armenia, and a part of Asia Minor. When the great Mangu Khan + died in 1259, one empire lay spread across Asia and Europe, + from the Yellow River to the Danube. There had been nothing + like it in the world before, and there was nothing like it + again, until the Russian Empire of modern times. By 1268 it + was beginning to split up into the four kingdoms of China, + central Asia, Russia, and Persia, but still it was one + people. Now, the attitude of the West to the Tartars at this + time was very interesting. At first it feared them as a new + scourge of God, like Attila and his Huns; they overran + Poland, ravaged Hungary, and seemed about to break like a + great flood upon the West, and overwhelm it utterly. Then the + tide rolled back. Gradually the West lost its first + stupefaction and terror and began to look hopefully towards + the Tartars as a possible ally against its age-old foe, the + Moslem. The Christians of the West knew that the Tartars had + laid the Moslem power low through the length and breadth of + Asia, and they knew too, that the Tartars had no very sharply + defined faith and were curious of all beliefs that came their + way. Gradually the West became convinced that the Tartars + might be converted to Christianity, and fight side by side + beneath the Cross against the hated Crescent. There grew up + the strange legend of Prester John, a Christian priest-king, + ruling somewhere in the heart of Asia; and indeed little + groups of Nestorian Christians did still survive in eastern + Asia at this time.[14] Embassies began to pass between Tartar + khans and western monarchs, and there began also a great + series of missions of Franciscan friars to Tartary, men who + were ethnologists and geographers at heart as well as + missionaries, and have left us priceless accounts of the + lands which they visited. In the year of grace 1268, much + was known about central Asia, for in 1245 the Pope had sent + the Italian friar John of Plano Carpini thither, and in 1251 + another friar, William of Rubruck, a French Fleming, had been + sent by the saintly Louis, King of France. Both got as far as + Karakorum, the Tartar camp on the borders of northern China, + though they did not enter China itself. They had brought back + innumerable stories about the nomad conquerors, who carried + their tents on carts, and drank fermented mares' milk, about + the greatness of the khan and his welcome to the strangers + from the West, and the interest with which he listened to + their preaching.[15] These tales were common property now, + and Marco Polo must have listened to them. + + Marco Polo was always talking of the Tartars, always asking + about them. Indeed, he had reason to be interested in them. + This (as we have said) was the year of grace 1268, and eight + years before (some, indeed, say fifteen years) his father, + Nicolo Polo, and his uncle Maffeo had vanished into Tartary. + They were rich merchants, trading with their own ship to + Constantinople, and there they had decided to go on a + commercial venture into the lands of the Golden Horde, which + lay to the north of the Black Sea. So they had sailed over to + the Crimea, where they had a counting-house at Soldaia, and + taking with them a store of costly jewels, for they were + jewel merchants, they had set off on horseback to visit the + Khan of the West Tartars. So much the Venetians knew, for + word had come back from Soldaia of their venture; but they + had never returned. And so Marco, kicking his heels upon the + quay, caught sailor-men by the sleeve and asked them about + those wild horsemen with their mares' milk and their + magicians and their droves of cattle; and as he asked he + wondered about his father and his uncle, and whether they + were dead and lost for ever in the wilds of Tartary. But even + while he asked and wondered and kicked his heels on the quay, + while the Doge Tiepolo was watching the procession of the + gilds and the clerk Canale was adding up customs dues or + writing the ancient history of the Venetians, at that very + moment the two Polos were slowly and wearily making their way + across the heights of central Asia with a caravan of mules + and camels, drawing near to golden Samarcand with its teeming + bazaars, coming nearer and nearer to the West; and in the + following year, 1269, they reached Acre, and took ship there + for Venice, and so at last came home. + + They had a strange story to tell, stranger and better than + anything the lean, inquisitive boy had heard upon the quays. + They had soon disposed of their jewels and they had spent a + year at the camp of the Khan of the Golden Horde of Kipchak + on the mighty River Volga. Then war broke out between that + ruler and the Khan who ruled the Persian Khanate, and it cut + off their way back. But Marco's curiosity was inherited; and + no Venetian was ever averse to seeing strange lands and + seeking out new opportunities for trade; so the Polos decided + to go on and visit the Khan of central Asia or Chagatai, and + perhaps make their way back to Constantinople by some + unfrequented route. They struggled over plains peopled only + by tent-dwelling Tartars and their herds, until at last they + reached the noble city of Bokhara. They must have followed + the line of the Oxus River, and if we reverse the marvellous + description which Matthew Arnold wrote of that river's course + in _Sohrab and Rustum_, we shall have a picture of the + Polos' journey: + +But the majestic River floated on, +Out of the mist and hum of that low land, +Into the frosty starlight, and there moved, +Rejoicing, through the hush'd Chorasmian waste +Under the solitary moon; he flow'd +Right for the Polar Star, past Orgunje, +Brimming and bright and large: then sands begin +To hem his watery march, and dam his streams, +And split his currents; that for many a league +The shorn and parcell'd Oxus strains along +Through beds of sand and matted rushy isles-- +Oxus, forgetting the bright speed he had +In his high mountain cradle in Pamere, +A foil'd circuitous wanderer:--till at last +The long'd-for dash of waves is heard, and wide +His luminous home of waters opens, bright +And tranquil, from whose floor the new-bathed stars +Emerge and shine upon the Aral Sea. + + For three years the Polos remained at Bokhara, until one day + it happened that an embassy came to the city, on its way back + from the khan in Persia to the great Khan Kublai, who ruled + in far-off China, and to whom all the Tartar rulers owed + allegiance. The chief ambassador was struck with the talents + and charm of the brothers, who had now become proficient in + the Tartar language, and persuaded them to accompany him on + his journey to the presence of the Great Khan, who had never + yet set eyes on a man of the West, and would, he assured + them, receive them honourably. They would not have been + Venetians had they refused such an opportunity, and, taking + their Venetian servants with them, they journeyed for a year + with the Tartar embassy across the heart of Asia, and so + reached the great Kublai Khan. Many years later Marco himself + described their reception, as they had told it to him: + + Being introduced to the presence of the Grand Khan Kublai, + the travellers were received by him with the condescension + and affability that belonged to his character, and as they + were the first Latins who had made their appearance in that + country, they were entertained with feasts and honoured with + other marks of distinction. Entering graciously into + conversations with them, he made earnest inquiries on the + subject of the western parts of the world, of the Emperor of + the Romans, and of other Christian kings and princes ... and + above all he questioned them particularly respecting the + Pope, the affairs of the Church, and the religious worship + and doctrine of the Christians. Being well instructed and + discreet men, they gave appropriate answers upon all these + points, and as they were perfectly acquainted with the Tartar + language, they expressed themselves always in becoming terms; + insomuch that the Grand Khan, holding them in high + estimation, frequently commanded their attendance.[16] + +[Illustration: III. PART OF A LANDSCAPE BY CHAO MENG-FU] + +The Great Khan finally decided to send these two intelligent strangers +back to their own land on a mission from himself to the Pope, asking for +a hundred men of learning to be sent to teach and preach to his Tartars, +and for some holy oil from the lamp which burned over Christ's sepulchre +in Jerusalem. He provided them with a golden tablet of honour, which +acted as a passport and secured that they should be entertained and +their journey facilitated from city to city in all his dominions, and so +they set forth once more upon their homeward journey, But they were +delayed by the dangers and difficulties of travel, 'the extreme cold, +the snow, the ice, and the flooding of the rivers', and it was three +years before they at last reached Acre in the April of 1269, and finding +that the Pope had died the year before, and that no election had yet +been made, so that they could not immediately accomplish their mission, +they decided to visit their home again, and so went back to Venice. +There Nicolo found that his wife, who had been with child at his +departure, was dead, leaving behind her a son Marco, our young +haunter of quays. + +[Illustration: IV. MADAME EGLENTYNE AT HOME] + +This was the marvellous tale which the same Marco drank in from the lips +of his new-found father and uncle. But more marvels were to come. For +two years the Venetians remained at home, awaiting the election of a +Pope in order to deliver the Great Khan's letters; but no election was +made, and at last, fearing that Kublai might suspect them of playing him +false, they decided to return to the East, and this time they took with +them Marco, now a well-grown lad of sixteen or seventeen years with a +bright eye that looked everywhere and took in everything, observant and +sober beyond his age. But when they got as far as Ayas on the Gulf of +Scanderoon, news was brought them of the election of Tebaldo di Piacenza +as Pope Gregory X, and as Tebaldo had already interested himself in +their mission, they returned with all speed to Acre, and obtained from +him letters to the Khan (they had already visited Jerusalem and provided +themselves with some of the holy oil), and two Dominican friars, 'men of +letters and science as well as profound theologians,' though not the +hundred men of learning for whom the Khan had asked; and so they set out +again from Acre in November 1271. The Dominicans may have been profound +theologians, but they were somewhat chicken-hearted adventurers, and +when rumours reached them of wars in the district of Armenia, through +which they had to pass, they hastily handed over their letters to the +Venetians, put themselves under the protection of the Knights Templars, +and scuttled back to the coast and safety as fast as they could go, +leaving the Polos, 'undismayed by perils and difficulties, to which they +had long been inured,' to proceed alone. Assuredly, St Francis crows +over St Dominic somewhere in the courts of Heaven; his friars never +feared for their skins, as they travelled blithely into the heat of +India and the cold of central Asia; and it is easy to imagine the +comments of fat William of Rubruck upon the flight of the profound +theologians. + +The account of this second journey of the Polos may be read in the +wonderful book which Marco afterwards wrote to describe the wonders of +the world. They went from Lajazzo through Turcomania, past Mount Ararat, +where Marco heard tell that Noah's ark rested, and where he first heard +also of the oil wells of Baku and the great inland sea of Caspian. Past +Mosul and Bagdad they went, through Persia, where brocades are woven and +merchants bring caravan after caravan of treasures, to Hormuz, on the +Persian Gulf, into which port put the ships from India, laden with +spices, drugs, scented woods, and jewels, gold tissues and elephants' +teeth. Here they meant to take ship, but they desisted, perhaps because +they feared to trust themselves to the flimsy nailless vessels in which +the Arabs braved the dangers of the Indian Ocean. So they turned north +again and prepared to make the journey by land. They traversed the salt +desert of Kerman, through Balk and Khorassan to Badakhshan, where there +are horses bred from Alexander the Great's steed Bucephalus, and ruby +mines and lapis lazuli. It is a land of beautiful mountains and wide +plains, of trout streams and good hunting, and here the brothers +sojourned for nearly a year, for young Marco had fallen ill in the hot +plains: a breath of mountain air blows through the page in which he +describes how amid the clean winds his health came back to him. When he +was well, they went on again, and ascended the upper Oxus to the +highlands of Pamir, 'the roof of the world' as it has been called in our +own time, a land of icy cold, where Marco saw and described the great +horned sheep which hunters and naturalists still call after him the +_Ovis Poli_,[17] a land which no traveller (save Benedict Goes, about +1604) described again, until Lieutenant John Wood of the Indian Navy +went there in 1838. Thence they descended upon Kashgar, Yarkand, and +Khotan, where jade is found, regions which no one visited again until +1860. From Khotan they pushed on to the vicinity of Lake Lob, never to +be reached again until a Russian explorer got there in 1871. They halted +there to load asses and camels with provisions, and then, with sinking +hearts, they began the terrible thirty days' journey across the Gobi +Desert. Marco gives a vivid description of its terrors, voices which +seem to call the traveller by name, the march of phantom cavalcades, +which lures them off the road at night, spirits which fill the air with +sounds of music, drums and gongs and the clash of arms--all those +illusions which human beings have heard and seen and feared in every +desert and in every age. + +What might this be? A thousand fantasies +Begin to throng into my memory, +Of calling shapes, and beckoning shadows dire, +And airy tongues that syllable men's names +On sands and shores and desert wildernesses. + +At last they arrived safely at Tangut in the extreme north-west of +China, and, skirting the frontier across the great steppes of Mongolia, +they were greeted by the Khan's people, who had been sent forward to +meet them at the distance of forty days' journey, and so at last they +reached his presence in the May of 1275, having journeyed for three +years and a half. + +The Great Khan received the Polos kindly, listened attentively to the +account which they gave of their mission, commended them for their zeal +and fidelity, and received the holy oil and the Pope's gifts with +reverence. He then observed the boy Marco, now a 'young gallant' and +personable enough, no doubt, and inquired who he was, and Nicolo made +answer, 'Sire, this is your servant, and my son,' to which the Khan +replied, 'He is welcome, and much it pleases me,' and enrolled Marco +among his own attendants. It was the beginning of a long and close +association, for Kublai Khan soon found that Marco Polo was both +discreet and intelligent, and began to employ him on various missions. +Moreover, Marco, for his part, found that the Great Khan was always +desirous of learning the manners and customs of the many tribes over +whom he ruled. Kublai had to the full that noble curiosity which is the +beginning of wisdom, and it irked him exceedingly that his envoys, good +conscientious men, followed their noses upon his business, looking +neither to right nor to left, and as like as not never even noticed that +among the aboriginal hill tribes of the interior called Miaotzu there +prevailed the peculiar and entertaining custom of the _couvade_, wherein + +Chinese go to bed +And lie in, in their ladies' stead.[18] + +'The Prince, in consequence,' says Marco, 'held them for no better than +fools and dolts and would say, "I had far liever hearken about the +strange things and the manners of the different countries you have seen +than merely be told of the business you went upon,"' + +Very different was the habit of the Venetian, who as a lad, had lent ear +so readily to swarthy sailors on the Rialto. He quickly picked up +several of the languages current in the Great Khan's empire, and here is +his account of his proceedings when on a mission to foreign parts: + + Perceiving that the Great Khan took a pleasure in hearing + accounts of whatever was new to him respecting the customs + and manners of people, and the peculiar circumstances of + distant countries, he endeavoured, wherever he went, to + obtain correct information on these subjects and made notes + of all he saw and heard, in order to gratify the curiosity of + his master. In short, during seventeen years that he + continued in his service, he rendered himself so useful, that + he was employed on confidential missions to every part of the + empire and its dependencies; and sometimes also he travelled + on his own private account, but always with the consent and + sanctioned by the authority of the Grand Khan. In such + circumstances it was that Marco Polo had the opportunity of + acquiring a knowledge, either by his own observation or by + what he collected from others, of so many things until his + time unknown, respecting the Eastern parts of the world, and + these he diligently and regularly committed to writing.... + And by this means he obtained so much honour that he provoked + the jealousy of other officers of the court.[19] + +It is small wonder that when first the lad came back with his reports +the Great Khan and his courtiers marvelled and exclaimed, 'If this young +man live he will assuredly be a person of great worth and ability.' + +It was while on these various public missions that Marco Polo journeyed +through the provinces of Shansi, Shensi, and Szechuen, and skirted the +edge of Tibet to Yunnan, and entered Northern Burma, lands unknown again +to the West until after 1860. For three years he was himself governor of +the great city of Yangchow, which had twenty-four towns under its +jurisdiction, and was full of traders and makers of arms and military +accoutrements.[20] He visited Karakorum in Mongolia, the old Tartar +capital, and with his Uncle Maffeo spent three years in Tangut. On +another occasion he went on a mission to Cochin China, and by sea to the +southern states of India, and he has left a vivid picture of the great +trading cities of Malabar. He might indeed have pondered with Ulysses, + + I am become a name +For always roaming with a hungry heart, +Much have I seen and known, cities of men, +And manners, climates, countries, governments, +Myself not least, but honoured of them all. + +He describes the great capital Cambaluc (Peking) in the north, and the +beautiful Kinsai (Hangchow) in the south. He describes the Khan's summer +palace at Shandu, with its woods and gardens, its marble palace, its +bamboo pavilion swung like a tent from two hundred silken cords, its +stud of white mares, and its wonder-working magicians. Indeed his +description of the summer palace is better known to Englishmen than any +other part of his work, for Shandu is Xanadu, which Coleridge saw in a +dream after he had been reading Marco's book and wove into +wonderful verse: + +In Xanadu did Kubla Khan + A stately pleasure dome decree, +Where Alph the sacred river ran, +Past caverns measureless to man, + Down to a sunless sea. + +And there were gardens bright with sinuous rills + Where blossomed many an incense bearing tree, +And here were forests, ancient as the hills + Enfolding sunny spots of greenery. + +Nor is it only palaces which Marco Polo describes, for he tells of the +great canal and inland river trade of China, the exports and imports at +its harbours, the paper money, the system of posts and caravanserais, +which linked it together. He gives an unsurpassed picture of that huge, +rich, peaceful empire, full of wealth and commerce and learned men and +beautiful things, and of its ruler Kublai Khan, one of the noblest +monarchs who ever sat upon a throne, who, since 'China is a sea that +salts all the rivers that flow into it,'[21] was far more than a +barbarous Mongol khan, was in very truth a Chinese emperor, whose house, +called by the Chinese the 'Yuan Dynasty', takes its place among the +great dynasties of China. + +Even more than Marco Polo tells us he must, indeed, have seen. The +impersonality of the greater part of the book is its one blemish, for we +would fain know more of how he lived in China. There is some evidence +that he consorted with the Mongol conquerors rather than with the +Chinese, and that Chinese was not one of the languages which he learned. +He makes no mention of several characteristic Chinese customs, such as +the compressed feet of the women, and fishing with cormorants (both of +which are described by Ordoric of Pordenone after him); he travelled +through the tea districts of Fo-kien, but he never mentions +tea-drinking, and he has no word to say even of the Great Wall.[22] And +how typical a European he is, in some ways, for all his keen interest in +new and strange things. 'They are,' he says of the peaceful merchants +and scholars of Suchow, 'a pusillanimous race and solely occupied with +their trade and manufactures. In these indeed they display considerable +ability, and if they were as enterprising, manly, and warlike as they +are ingenious, so prodigious is their number that they might not only +subdue the whole of the province, but carry their rule further +still.'[23] Nearly five hundred years later we find the same judgement +expressed in different words: 'Better fifty years of Europe than a cycle +of Cathay.' The answer is a question: Would you rather be the +pusillanimous Chinese, who painted the landscape roll of which a portion +is reproduced opposite page 52, or the enterprising, manly, and warlike +European of the same period, whose highest achievement in pictorial art +is the picture of Marco Polo's embarkation, reproduced opposite page 21? +What is civilization and what progress? Yet Marco Polo shows himself +throughout his book far from unable to appreciate other standards than +those of his own land and religion, for of Sakya-muni Buddha he says +that, 'had he been a Christian he would have been a great saint of our +Lord Jesus Christ,' and he could honour Kublai as that great +Khan deserved. + +Nevertheless, although Marco Polo shows less knowledge of the Chinese +than one might expect from the extraordinary detail and fidelity of his +observation in other directions, he must have known many of these +charming and cultivated people, at Kinsai or Cambaluc, or at the city +which he governed. Among others, he must have known the great artist who +painted the roll mentioned above, Chao Meng-fu, whom the Chinese called +'_Sung ksueeh Tao jen_' or the 'Apostle of Pine Trees and Snow'. He was a +lineal descendant of the founder of the Sung dynasty and a hereditary +official. When that dynasty at last fell before the Tartars, he and his +friend Ch'ien Hsuean, 'the Man of the Jade Pool and Roaring Torrent', +retired into private life. But in 1286 Chao Meng-fu was summoned to +court by Kublai Khan, and, to the indignation of his friend, returned +and became secretary in the Board of War, occupying his time in this +post (what must Marco Polo have thought of him!) in painting his +marvellous pictures. He became a great favourite of the Khan and was +always about the court, and Marco Polo must have known him well and +perhaps have watched him at work painting those matchless landscapes, +and those pictures of horses and men for which he was famous. Marco +loved horses, as, indeed, he loved all kinds of sport (of which he had +plenty, for the Khan was a great hunter and hawker), and he has left a +word picture of the white brood mares at Shansi, which may be set beside +Chao Meng-fu's brush picture of the 'Eight Horses in the Park of Kublai +Khan'.[24] He knew, too, perhaps Chao Meng-fu's wife, the Lady Kuan, who +painted most exquisitely the graceful bamboo and the peony, so loved by +Chinese artists, and of whom it is related that 'she would watch the +moving shadows of the sprays thrown by the moon on the paper windows, +and transfer the fugitive outlines to paper with a few strokes of her +supple brush, so that every smallest scrap of her work was mounted in +albums as models for others to copy'.[25] Chao Meng-fu and the Lady Kuan +had a son, Chao Yung, who is of special interest to us, for he painted a +picture of a Tangut hunter, and Marco Polo has also given a description +of the Tartar horsemen and of the province of Tangut, where he saw and +described the musk deer and the yak. + +But we must return to the history of the Polos in China. From time to +time in Marco's book we hear also of his father and uncle, travelling +about the empire, growing rich by trade, and amassing a store of those +jewels, in the value of which they were so skilled, even helping the +Khan to reduce a rebel town, by constructing siege engines for him on +the European model, handy Venetians that they were, who could lay their +hands to anything.[27] Without doubt they were proud of their Marco, who +from an inquisitive lad had grown to so wise and observant a man, and +had risen to so high a position. So for seventeen years the three Polos +abode in the Khan's service in China. The long months slipped by; and at +last they began to feel upon them a longing to see Venice and the +lagoons again, and to hear Mass once more beneath the majestic roof of +St Mark's before they died. Moreover, Kublai Khan was growing old +himself, and the favour which he had always shown to them had excited +some jealousy among his own people, and they feared what might happen +when he died. But the old Khan was adamant to all their prayers; wealth +and honours were theirs for the asking, but he would not let them go. +They might, indeed, have died in China, and we of the West might never +have heard of Marco Polo or of Kublai Khan, but for a mere accident, a +stroke of fate, which gave them their chance. In 1286 Arghun, the Khan +of Persia, lost by death his favourite wife Bolgana, and, according to +her dying wish, he sent ambassadors to the Court of Peking to ask for +another bride from her own Mongol tribe. Their overland route home again +was endangered by a war, and they therefore proposed to return by sea. +Just at that moment, Marco Polo happened to return from a voyage on +which he had been sent, and spoke with such assurance of the ease with +which it had been accomplished, that the three ambassadors conceived a +strong desire to take with them all three of these ingenious Venetians, +who seemed to know so much about ships. Thus it was that the great Khan +was prevailed upon, very reluctantly, to let them go. + +Early in 1292 they set sail from the busy port of Zaiton in fourteen +big Chinese junks (of which Marco, writing of the shipping of the +Indian and China seas, has left an excellent description),[28] with the +three envoys, the princess, a beautiful girl of seventeen, 'moult bele +dame at avenant,' says Marco, who had an eye for pretty ladies, and a +large suite of attendants. One version of Marco's book says that they +took with them also the daughter of the king of Mansi, one of those Sung +princesses who in happier days had wandered beside the lake in Hangchow, +and who had no doubt been brought up at Cambaluc by the care of Kublai +Khan's favourite queen, the Lady Jamui. The voyage was a long and +difficult one; they suffered lengthy delays in Sumatra, Ceylon, and +Southern India, occupied by Marco in studying the sea charts of the +coast of India which the Arab pilots showed him, and adding to his +knowledge of these parts, which he had already visited. Thus it was over +two years before the junks reached Persia, and two of the three envoys +and a large number of their suite had died by the way. When at last they +landed, it was found that Arghun, the prospective bridegroom, had +meanwhile died too, leaving his throne in the charge of a regent for his +young son. But on the regent's advice a convenient solution of the +difficulty was found by handing the princess over to this prince, and +Marco and his uncles duly conducted her to him in the province of +Timochain, where Marco Polo noticed that the women were 'in my opinion +the most beautiful in the world', where stood the famed and solitary +_arbor secco_, and where men still told tales of great Alexander and +Darius. There they took leave of their princess, who had come on the +long voyage to love them like fathers, so Marco says, and wept sorely +when they parted. It was while they were still in Persia, where they +stayed for nine months after handing over the princess, that the Polos +received news of the death of the Great Khan whom they had served so +faithfully for so many years. He died at the ripe age of eighty, and +with his death a shadow fell over central Asia, darkening the shining +yellow roofs of Cambaluc, + + the barren plains +Of Sericana, where Chineses drive +With sails and wind their cany waggons light, + +the minarets of Persia, and the tents of wild Kipchak Tartars, galloping +over the Russian steppes. So wide had been the sway of Kublai Khan. A +shadow fell also upon the heart of Marco Polo. It was as though a door +had clanged to behind him, never to open again. 'In the course of their +journey,' he says, 'our travellers received intelligence of the Great +Khan having departed this life, which entirely put an end to all +prospects of their revisiting those regions.' So he and his elders went +on by way of Tabriz, Trebizond, and Constantinople to Venice, and sailed +up to the city of the lagoons at long last at the end of 1295. + +A strange fairy-tale legend has come down to us about the return of the +Polos. 'When they got thither,' says Ramusio, who edited Marco's book in +the fifteenth century, 'the same fate befell them as befell Ulysses, who +when he returned after his twenty years' wanderings to his native Ithaca +was recognized by nobody.' When, clad in their uncouth Tartar garb, the +three Polos knocked at the doors of the Ca' Polo, no one recognized +them, and they had the greatest difficulty in persuading their relatives +and fellow-Venetians that they were indeed those Polos who had been +believed dead for so many years. The story goes that they satisfactorily +established their identity by inviting all their kinsmen to a great +banquet, for each course of which they put on a garment more magnificent +than the last, and finally, bringing in their coarse Tartar coats, they +ripped open the seams and the lining thereof, 'upon which there poured +forth a great quantity of precious stones, rubies, sapphires, +carbuncles, diamonds, and emeralds, which had been sewn into each coat +with great care, so that nobody could have suspected that anything was +there.... The exhibition of such an extraordinary and infinite treasure +of jewels and precious stones, which covered the table, once more filled +all present with such astonishment that they were dumb and almost beside +themselves with surprise: and they at once recognized these honoured and +venerated gentlemen in the Ca' Polo, whom at first they had doubted and +received them with the greatest honour and reverence.[29] Human nature +has changed little since the thirteenth century. The precious stones are +a legend, but no doubt the Polos brought many with them, for they were +jewel merchants by trade; they had had ample opportunities for business +in China, and the Great Khan had loaded them with 'rubies and other +handsome jewels of great value' to boot. Jewels were the most +convenient form in which they could have brought home their wealth. But +the inquiring Marco brought other things also to tickle the curiosity of +the Venetians, as he lets fall from time to time in his book. He +brought, for example, specimens of the silky hair of the Tangut yak, +which his countrymen much admired, the dried head and feet of a musk +deer, and the seeds of a dye plant (probably indigo) from Sumatra, which +he sowed in Venice, but which never came up, because the climate was not +sufficiently warm.[30] He brought presents also for the Doge; for an +inventory made in 1351 of things found in the palace of Marino Faliero +includes among others a ring given by Kublai Khan, a Tartar collar, a +three-bladed sword, an Indian brocade, and a book 'written by the hand +of the aforesaid Marco,' called _De locis mirabilibus Tartarorum_.[31] + +The rest of Marco Polo's life is quickly told. The legend goes that all +the youth of Venice used to resort to the Ca' Polo in order to hear his +stories, for not even among the foreign sailors on the quays, where once +the boy Marco had wandered and asked about the Tartars, were stories the +like of his to be heard. And because he was always talking of the +greatness of Kublai Khan's dominions, the millions of revenue, the +millions of junks, the millions of riders, the millions of towns and +cities, they gave him a nickname and jestingly called him Marco +_Milione_, or _Il Milione_, which is, being interpreted, 'Million +Marco'; and the name even crept into the public documents of the +Republic, while the courtyard of his house became known as the _Corte +Milione_. To return from legend to history, the ancient rivalry between +Venice and Genoa had been growing during Marco Polo's absence, nor had +Venice always prevailed. Often as her galleys sailed, + + dipping deep +For Famagusta and the hidden sun +That rings black Cyprus with a lake of fire, ... +Questing brown slaves or Syrian oranges, +The pirate Genoese +Hell raked them till they rolled +Blood, water, fruit, and corpses up the hold. + +At last in 1298, three years after Marco's return, a Genoese fleet under +Lamba Doria sailed for the Adriatic, to bate the pride of Venice in her +own sea. The Venetians fitted out a great fleet to meet it, and Marco +Polo, the handy man who knew so much about navigation, albeit more +skilled with Chinese junks than with western ships, went with it as +gentleman commander of a galley. The result of the encounter was a +shattering victory for the Genoese off Curzola. Sixty-eight Venetian +galleys were burnt, and seven thousand prisoners were haled off to +Genoa, among them Marco Polo, who had now a taste of the results of that +enterprise, manliness, and warfare, whose absence he so deprecated in +the men of Suchow. + +But soon there began to run through the streets and courtyards of Genoa +a rumour that in prison there lay a certain Venetian captain, with tales +so wonderful to beguile the passing hours that none could tire of +hearing them; and anon the gallants and sages and the bold ladies of +Genoa were flocking, just as the men of the Rialto had flocked before, +to hear his stories of Kublai Khan. + +Lord of the fruits of Tartary + Her rivers silver-pale, +Lord of the hills of Tartary, + Glen, thicket, wood, and dale, +Her flashing stars, her scented breeze, +Her trembling lakes, like foamless seas, +Her bird-delighting citron-trees + In every purple vale. + +'Messer Marco,' so runs Ramusio's account of the tradition which +lingered in Venice in his day, 'finding himself in this position, and +witnessing the general eagerness to hear all about Cathay and the Great +Khan, which indeed compelled him daily to repeat his story till he was +weary, was advised to put the matter in writing, so he found means to +get a letter written to his father in Venice, in which he desired the +latter to send those notes and memoranda which he had brought home +with him.' + +It happened that in prison with Marco Polo there lay a certain Pisan +writer of romances, Rusticiano by name,[32] who had probably been taken +prisoner before at the battle of Melaria (1284), when so many Pisan +captives had been carried to Genoa, that the saying arose 'He who would +see Pisa let him go to Genoa.' Rusticiano was skilled in the writing of +French, the language _par excellence_ of romances, in which he had +written versions of the Round Table Tales, and in him Marco Polo found a +ready scribe, who took down the stories as he told them, in the midst of +the crowd of Venetian prisoners and Genoese gentlemen, raptly drinking +in all the wonders of Kublai Khan. It was by a just instinct that, when +all was written, Rusticiano prefixed to the tale that same address to +the lords and gentlemen of the world, bidding them to take heed and +listen, which he had been wont to set at the beginning of his tales of +Tristan and Lancelot and King Arthur: 'Ye Lords, Emperors and Kings, +Dukes and Marquises, Counts, Knights and Burgesses and all ye men who +desire to know the divers races of men and the diversities of the +different regions of the world, take ye this book and cause it to be +read, and here shall ye find the greatest marvels.' But he adds, 'Marco +Polo, a wise and learned citizen of Venice, states distinctly what +things he saw and what things he heard from others, for this book will +be a truthful one.' Marco Polo's truthful marvels were more wonderful +even than the exploits of Arthur's knights, and were possibly better +suited to the respectable Rusticiano's pen, for his only other claim to +distinction in the eyes of posterity seems to be that in his abridgment +of the Romance of Lancelot he entirely omits the episode (if episode it +can be called) of the loves of Lancelot and Guinevere. 'Alas,' remarks +his French editor, 'that the copy of Lancelot which fell into the hands +of poor Francesca of Rimini was not one of those expurgated by +Rusticiano!' [33] + +Marco Polo was released from prison (there must have been mourning in +the palaces of Genoa) and returned to Venice at the end of a year. +Sometimes hereafter his name occurs in the records of Venice, as he +moves about on his lawful occasions.[34] In 1305 we find 'Nobilis +Marchus Polo Milioni' standing surety for a wine smuggler; in 1311 he is +suing a dishonest agent who owes him money on the sale of musk (he, +Marco, had seen the musk deer in its lair); and in 1323 he is concerned +in a dispute about a party wall. We know too, from his will, that he had +a wife named Donata, and three daughters, Fantina, Bellela, and Moreta. +Had he loved before, under the alien skies where his youth was spent, +some languid, exquisite lady of China, or hardy Tartar maid? Had he +profited himself from the strange marriage customs of Tibet, of which he +remarks (with one of his very rare gleams of humour), 'En cele contree +aurent bien aler les jeume de seize anz en vingt quatre'? Had Fantina, +Bellela, and Moreta half-brothers, flying their gerfalcons at the quails +by the shores of the 'White Lake' where the Khan hunted, and telling +tales of the half legendary father, who sailed away for ever when they +were boys in the days of Kublai Khan? These things we cannot know, nor +can we ever guess whether he regretted that only daughters sprang from +his loins in the city of the lagoons, and no Venetian son to go +venturing again to the far-distant country where assuredly he had left a +good half of his heart. Perhaps he talked of it sometimes to Peter, his +Tartar servant, whom he freed at his death 'from all bondage as +completely as I pray God to release mine own soul from all sin and +guilt'. Some have thought that he brought Peter the Tartar with him from +the East, and the thought is a pleasant one; but it is more likely that +he bought him in Italy, for the Venetians were inveterate slave-owners, +and captive Tartars were held of all the slaves the strongest and best. +So his life passed; and in 1324 Marco Polo died, honoured much by his +fellow-citizens, after making a will which is still preserved in the +library of St Mark's. + +A characteristic story of his death-bed is related by a Dominican friar, +one Jacopo of Acqui, who wrote some time later. 'What he told in the +book,' says Jacopo, 'was not as much as he had really seen, because of +the tongues of detractors, who being ready to impose their own lies on +others, are over hasty to set down as lies what they in their perversity +disbelieve or do not understand. And because there are many great and +strange things in that book, which are reckoned past all credence, he +was asked by his friends on his death-bed to correct the book, by +removing everything that went beyond the facts. To which his reply was +that he had not told _one half_ of what he had really seen.'[35] How +well one can see that last indignant flash of the dying observer, who in +the long years of his youth had taken notes of strange tribes and +customs for the wise and gracious Kublai Khan, and whom little men now +dared to doubt. Indeed, modern discovery has entirely confirmed the +exactitude of Marco Polo's observation. It is true that he sometimes +repeated some very tall stories which had been told to him, of dog-faced +men in the Andaman Islands and of the 'male and female islands' so +beloved of medieval geographers. These were sailors' yarns, and where +Marco Polo reports what he has seen with his own eyes, he reports with +complete accuracy, nor does he ever pretend to have seen a place which +he had not visited. The explorers of our own day, Aurel Stein, Ellsworth +Huntington, and Sven Hedin, travelling in central Asia, have +triumphantly vindicated him. 'It is,' says an eminent French historian, +'as though the originals of very old photographs had been suddenly +rediscovered: the old descriptions of things which were unchanged could +be perfectly superimposed upon present reality,'[36] and Huntington and +Aurel Stein took with them to the inaccessible districts of central Asia +as guide-books the book of the Chinese pilgrim Hiwen Thsang (seventh +century) and the book of Marco Polo, and over and over again found how +accurate were their descriptions. + +It is indeed almost impossible to exaggerate the extent of Marco Polo's +accomplishment. It is best estimated in the often-quoted words of Sir +Henry Yule, whose edition of his book is one of the great works of +English scholarship: + + He was the first traveller to trace a route across the whole + longitude of Asia, naming and describing kingdom after + kingdom, which he had seen with his own eyes, the desert of + Persia, the flowering plateaux and wild gorges of Badakhshan, + the jade-bearing rivers of Khotan, the Mongol steppes, cradle + of the power that had so lately threatened to swallow up + Christendom, the new and brilliant court that had been + established at Cambaluc: the first Travellers to reveal China + in all its wealth and vastness, its mighty rivers, its huge + cities, its rich manufactures, its swarming population, the + inconceivably vast fleets that quickened its seas and inland + waters; to tell us of the nations on its borders with all + their eccentricities of manners and worship; of Tibet with + its sordid devotees; of Burma with its golden pagodas and + their tinkling crowns; of Laos, of Siam, of Cochin China, of + Japan, the Eastern Thule, with its rosy pearls and + golden-roofed palaces; the first to speak of that Museum of + Beauty and Wonder, still so imperfectly ransacked, the Indian + Archipelago, source of those aromatics then so highly prized + and whose origin was so dark; of Java the Pearl of Islands; + of Sumatra with its many kings, its strange costly products, + and its cannibal races; of the naked savages of Nicobar + and Andaman; of Ceylon, the Isle of Gems, with its Sacred + Mountain and its Tomb of Adam; of India the Great, not as a + dreamland of Alexandrian fables, but as a country seen and + partially explored, with its virtuous Brahmans, its obscene + ascetics, its diamonds and the strange tales of their + acquisition, its sea-beds of pearl and its powerful sun; the + first in modern times to give any distinct account of the + secluded Christian Empire of Abyssinia, to speak, though + indeed dimly, of Zanzibar with its negroes and its ivory and + of the vast and distant Madagascar, bordering on the Dark + Ocean of the South, with its Ruc and other monstrosities; and + in a remotely opposite region, of Siberia and the Arctic + Ocean, of dog-sledges, white bears and reindeer-riding + Tunguses.[37] + +The knowledge which Marco Polo had thus brought to Europe, the +intercourse between East and West which his experience had shown to be +so desirable, continued to grow after him. Merchants and missionaries +alike travelled by land or sea eastward to Cathay.[38] Another of those +indomitable Franciscan friars, John of Monte Corvino, went out at the +age of fifty and became Archbishop of Peking. Churches and houses of +friars were founded in some of the Chinese cities. Odoric of Pordenone, +another friar, and a very good observer too, set forth in 1316 and +sailed round India and through the Spice Islands by the same sea route +by which the Polos had brought their Tartar princess back to Persia, and +so reached Canton, 'a city as big as three Venices ... and all Italy +hath not the amount of craft that this one city hath.' He left a +wonderful account of his travels in China, including descriptions of +Peking and Hangchow, and ends his stories with the words, 'As for me, +from day to day I prepare myself to return to those countries, in which +I am content to die, if it pleaseth Him from whom all good things do +come'--no doubt where he had left his heart, but he died at Udine in +Italy. Later there went out another friar, John Marignolli, who was +Papal Legate to Peking from 1342 to 1346. + +Nor was it only missionaries who went to Cathay. Odoric, speaking of the +wonders of Hangchow, refers for confirmation to Venetian traders who +have visited it: ''Tis the greatest city in the whole world, so great +indeed that I should scarcely venture to tell of it, but that I have met +at Venice people in plenty who have been there'; John of Monte Corvino +was accompanied by Master Peter of Lucolongo, 'a great merchant,' and +John Marignolli mentions a _fondaco_ for the use of Christian merchants, +which was attached to one of the Franciscan convents at Zaiton. Above +all, there is Francis Balducci Pegolotti, that intrepid factor who +served the great commercial house of the Bardi of Florence, and who +wrote a priceless handbook for the use of merchants about 1340. In this +he gives detailed instructions for the guidance of a merchant, who +wishes to proceed from Tana on the Black Sea by the overland route +across Asia to Cathay and back again with L12,000 worth of silk in his +caravan, and remarks casually, in passing, 'The road you travel from +Tana to Cathay is perfectly safe, whether by day or night, according to +what merchants say who have used it'--'il chanmino dandare dana Tana al +Ghattajo _e sichurissimo_![39] Think only of what it all means. Marco +Polo travelling where no man set foot again till the twentieth century. +The bells of the Christian church ringing sweetly in the ears of the +Great Khan in Peking. The long road across central Asia perfectly safe +for merchants. The 'many persons at Venice' who have walked in the +streets of Hangchow. This is in the late thirteenth and early fourteenth +centuries, in the despised and hidebound Middle Ages. _E sichurissimo_! +It takes some of the gilt off Columbus and Vasco da Gama and the age +(forsooth) of 'discovery'. + +But a change came over everything in the middle of the fourteenth +century. Darkness fell again and swallowed up Peking and Hangchow, the +great ports, the crowding junks, the noble civilization. No longer was +the great trade route _sichurissimo_, and no longer did Christian friars +chant their Masses in Zaiton. The Tartar dynasty fell and the new rulers +of China reverted to the old anti-foreign policy; moreover, Islam spread +its conquests all over central Asia and lay like a rampart between the +far east and west, a great wall of intolerance and hatred stronger by +far than the great wall of stone which the Chinese had once built to +keep out the Tartars. All Marco Polo's marvels became no more than a +legend, a traveller's tale. + +But that great adventurer was not done for yet. Nearly a century and a +half after Marco's death a Genoese sea captain sat poring over one of +the new printed books, which men were beginning to buy and to hand +about among themselves. The book which he was reading was the Latin +version of Marco Polo's travels. He was reading it with intentness and +indeed with passion. As he read he made notes in the margin; on over +seventy pages he made his notes.[40] From time to time he frowned and +turned back and read again the tale of those great ports of Cathay and +the gold-roofed palaces of Cipangu; and always he wondered how those +lands might be reached, now that the wall of darkness covered central +Asia, and anarchy blocked the road to the Persian Gulf. One day (may we +not see him?) he lifted his head and smote his hand upon the table. 'I +will sail west', he said. 'Maybe I shall find the lost island of Antilha +in the western ocean, but maybe on its far rim I shall indeed come to +Cipangu, for the world is round, and somewhere in those great seas +beyond the coast of Europe must lie Marco Polo's rich Cathay. I will +beseech the kings of England and of Spain for a ship and a ship's +company, and the silk and the spices and the wealth shall be theirs. I +will sail west,' said the Genoese sea captain, and he smote his thigh. +'I will sail west, west, west!' And this was the last of Messer Marco's +marvels; he discovered China in the thirteenth century, when he was +alive, and in the fifteenth, when he was dead, he discovered America! + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +_Madame Eglentyne_ + +CHAUCER'S PRIORESS IN REAL LIFE + + Ther was also a Nonne, a Prioresse, + That of her smyling was ful simple and coy; + Hir grettest ooth was ne but by seynt Loy; + And she was cleped madame Eglentyne. + Ful wel she song the service divyne, + Entuned in hir nose ful semely; + And Frensh she spak ful faire and fetisly, + After the scole of Stratford atte Bowe, + For Frensh of Paris was to hir unknowe. + At mete wel y-taught was she with-alle; + She leet no morsel from hir lippes falle, + Ne wette hir fingres in hir sauce depe. + Wel coude she carie a morsel and wel kepe, + That no drope ne fille up-on hir brest. + In curteisye was set ful muche hir lest. + Hir over lippe wyped she so clene, + That in hir coppe was no ferthing sene + Of grece, whan she dronken haddie hir draughte + Ful semely after hir mete she raughte, + And sikerly she was of greet disport, + And ful plesaunt and amiable of port, + And peyned hir to countrefete chere + Of court, and been estatlich of manere, + And to be holden digne of reverence. + But, for to speken of hir conscience, + She was so charitable and so pitous, + She wolde wepe, if that she sawe a mous + Caught in a trap, if it were deed or bledde. + Of smale houndes had she, that she fedde + With rosted flesh, or milk and wastel-breed. + But sore weep she if oon of hem were deed, + Or if men smoot it with a yerde smerte: + And al was conscience and tendre herte + Ful semely hir wimpel pinched was: + Hir nose tretys; her eyen greye as glas; + Hir mouth ful smal, and ther-to softe and reed; + But sikerly she hadde a fair foreheed; + It was almost a spanne brood, I trowe; + For, hardily, she was nat undergrowe. + Ful fetis was hir cloke, as I was war. + Of smal coral aboute hir arm she bar + A peire of bedes, gauded al with grene; + And ther-on heng a broche of gold ful shene, + On which ther was first write a crowned A, + And after, _Amor vincit omnia!_ + + --GEOFFREY CHAUCER + + _Prologue_ to the _Canterbury Tales_ + + +Every one knows Chaucer's description of the Prioress, Madame Eglentyne, +who rode with that very motley and talkative company on the way to +Canterbury. There is no portrait in his gallery which has given rise to +more diverse comment among critics. One interprets it as a cutting +attack on the worldliness of the Church; another thinks that Chaucer +meant to draw a charming and sympathetic picture of womanly gentleness; +one says that it is a caricature, another an ideal; and an American +professor even finds in it a psychological study of thwarted maternal +instinct, apparently because Madame Eglentyne was fond of little dogs +and told a story about a schoolboy. The mere historian may be excused +from following these vagaries. To him Chaucer's Prioress, like Chaucer's +monk and Chaucer's friar, will simply be one more instance of the almost +photographic accuracy of the poet's observation. The rippling +undercurrent of satire is always there; but it is Chaucer's own peculiar +satire--mellow, amused, uncondemning, the most subtle kind of satire, +which does not depend upon exaggeration. The literary critic has only +Chaucer's words and his own heart, or sometimes (low be it spoken) his +own desire to be original, by which to guide his judgement. But the +historian knows; he has all sorts of historical sources in which to +study nunneries, and there he meets Chaucer's Prioress at every turn. +Above all, he has the bishop's registers. + +For a long time historians foolishly imagined that kings and wars and +parliaments and the jury system alone were history; they liked +chronicles and Acts of Parliament, and it did not strike them to go and +look in dusty episcopal archives for the big books in which medieval +bishops entered up the letters which they wrote and all the complicated +business of running their dioceses. But when historians did think of +looking there, they found a mine of priceless information about almost +every side of social and ecclesiastical life. They had to dig for it of +course, for almost all that is worth knowing has to be mined like +precious metals out of a rock; and for one nugget the miner often has to +grub for days underground in a mass of dullness; and when he has got it +he has to grub in his own heart, or else he will not understand it. The +historians found fine gold in the bishops' registers, when once they +persuaded themselves that it was not beneath their dignity to grub +there. They found descriptions of vicarages, with all their furniture +and gardens; they found marriage disputes; they found wills full of +entertaining legacies to people dead hundreds of years ago; they found +excommunications; they found indulgences to men for relieving the poor, +repairing roads, and building bridges, long before there was any poor +law, or any county council; they found trials for heresy and witchcraft; +they found accounts of miracles worked at the tombs of saints and even +of some quite unsaintly people, such as Thomas of Lancaster, and Edward +II, and Simon de Montfort; they found lists of travelling expenses when +the bishops rode round their dioceses; in one they even found a minute +account of the personal appearance of Queen Philippa, then a little girl +at her father's Court at Hainault, whom the Bishop of Exeter had been +sent to inspect, in order to see if she were pretty and good enough to +marry Edward III: she was nine years old, and the bishop said that her +second teeth were whiter than her first teeth and that her nose was +broad but not snub, which was reassuring for Edward.[1] Last, but not +least, the historians found a multitude of documents about monasteries, +and among these documents they found visitation records, and among +visitation records they found Chaucer's Prioress, smiling full simple +and coy, fair forehead, well-pinched wimple, necklace, little dogs, and +all, as though she had stepped into a stuffy register by mistake for the +_Canterbury Tales_ and was longing to get out again. + +This was the reason that Madame Eglentyne got into the register. In the +Middle Ages all the nunneries of England, and a great many of the +monasteries, used to be visited at intervals by the bishop of their +diocese--or by somebody sent by him--in order to see whether they were +behaving properly. It was rather like the periodical visitation of a +school by one of Her Majesty's inspectors, only what happened was very +different. When Her Majesty's inspector comes he does not sit in state +in the hall, and call all the inmates in front of him one after another, +from the head mistress to the smallest child in the first form, and +invite them to say in what way they think the school is not being +properly run, and what complaints they have to make against their +mistresses and which girl habitually breaks the rules--all breathed +softly and privately into his ear, with no one to overhear them. But +when the bishop came to visit a nunnery, that is precisely what +happened. First of all, he sent a letter to say he was coming, and to +bid the nuns prepare for him. Then he came, with his clerks and a +learned official or two, and was met solemnly by the prioress and all +the nuns, and preached a sermon in their church, and was entertained, +perhaps, to dinner. And then he prepared to examine them, and one by one +they came before him, in order of rank, beginning with the prioress, and +what they had to do was to tell tales about each other. He wanted to +find out if the prioress were ruling well, and if the services were +properly performed, and if the finances were in good order, and if +discipline were maintained; and if any nun had a complaint, then was the +time to make it. + +And the nuns were full of complaints. A modern schoolgirl would go pale +with horror over their capacity for tale-bearing. If one nun had boxed +her sister's ears, if another had cut church, if another were too much +given to entertaining friends, if another went out without a licence, if +another had run away with a wandering fluteplayer, the bishop was sure +to hear about it; that is, unless the whole convent were in a disorderly +state, and the nuns had made a compact to wink at each other's +peccadilloes; and not to betray them to the bishop, which occasionally +happened. And if the prioress were at all unpopular he was quite certain +to hear all about her. 'She fares splendidly in her own room and never +invites us,' says one nun; 'She has favourites,' says another, 'and +when she makes corrections she passes lightly over those whom she likes, +and speedily punishes those whom she dislikes'; 'She is a fearful +scold,' says a third; 'She dresses more like a secular person than a +nun, and wears rings and necklaces,' says a fourth; 'She goes +out riding to see her friends far too often,' says a fifth; +'She-is-a-very-bad-business-woman-and-she-has-let-the-house-get-into- +debt-and-the-church-is-falling about-our-ears-and-we-don't-get-enough- +food-and-she-hasn't-given-us-any-clothes-for-two-years-and-she-has-sold- +woods-and farms-without-your-licence-and-she-has-pawned-our-best-set-of +spoons; and no wonder, when she never consults us in any business as she +ought to do.' They go on like that for pages, and the bishop must often +have wanted to put his fingers in his ears and shout to them to stop; +especially as the prioress had probably spent half an hour, for her +part, in telling him how disobedient and ill-tempered, and thoroughly +badly behaved the nuns were. + +All these tales the bishop's clerk solemnly wrote down in a big book, +and when the examination was over the bishop summoned all the nuns +together again. And if they had answered 'All is well', as they +sometimes did, or only mentioned trivial faults, he commended them and +went his way; and if they had shown that things really were in a bad +way, he investigated particular charges and scolded the culprits and +ordered them to amend, and when he got back to his palace, or the manor +where he was staying, he wrote out a set of injunctions, based on the +complaints, and saying exactly how things were to be improved; and of +these injunctions one copy was entered in his register and another was +sent by hand to the nuns, who were supposed to read it aloud at +intervals and to obey everything in it. We have in many bishops' +registers these lists of injunctions, copied into them by the bishops' +clerks, and in some, notably in a splendid fifteenth-century Lincoln +register, belonging to the good bishop Alnwick, we have also the +evidence of the nuns, just as it was taken down from their chattering +mouths, and these are the most human and amusing of all medieval +records. It is easy to see what important historical documents +visitation reports are, especially in a diocese like Lincoln, which +possesses an almost unbroken series of registers, ranging over the three +centuries before the Dissolution, so that one can trace the whole +history of some of the nunneries by the successive visitations. + +Let us see what light the registers will throw upon Madame Eglentyne, +before Chaucer observed her mounting her horse outside the Tabard Inn. +Doubtless she first came to the nunnery when she was quite a little +girl, because girls counted as grown up when they were fifteen in the +Middle Ages; they could be married out of hand at twelve, and they could +become nuns for ever at fourteen. Probably Eglentyne's father had three +other daughters to marry, each with a dowry, and a gay young spark of a +son, who spent a lot of money on fashionable suits. + +Embroidered ... as it were a mede +All ful of fresshe flowers white and rede. + +So he thought he had better settle the youngest at once; and he got +together a dowry (it was rarely possible to get into a nunnery without +one, though Church law really forbade anything except voluntary +offerings), and, taking Eglentyne by the hand one summer day, he popped +her into a nunnery a few miles off, which had been founded by his +ancestors. We may even know what it cost him; it was rather a select, +aristocratic house, and he had to pay an entrance fee of L200 in modern +money; and then he had to give Eglentyne her new habit and a bed, and +some other furniture; and he had to make a feast on the day she became a +nun, and invite all the nuns and all his own friends; and he had to tip +the friar, who preached the sermon; and, altogether, it was a great +affair.[2] But the feast would not come at once, because Eglentyne would +have to remain a novice for some years, until she was old enough to take +the vows. So she would stay in the convent and be taught how to sing and +to read, and to talk French of the school of Stratford-atte-Bowe with +the other novices. Perhaps she was the youngest, for girls often did not +enter the convent until they were old enough to decide for themselves +whether they wanted to be nuns; but there were certainly some other +quite tiny novices learning their lessons; and occasionally there would +be a little girl like the one whose sad fate is recorded in a dull +law-book, shut up in a nunnery by a wicked stepfather who wanted her +inheritance (a nun could not inherit land, because she was supposed to +be dead to the world), and told by the nuns that the devil would fly +away with her if she tried to set foot outside the door.[3] However, +Eglentyne had a sunny disposition and liked life in the nunnery, and had +a natural aptitude for the pretty table manners which she learnt there, +as well as for talking French, and though she was not at all prim and +liked the gay clothes and pet dogs which she used to see at home in her +mother's bower, still she had no hesitation at all about taking the veil +when she was fifteen, and indeed she rather liked the fuss that was made +of her, and being called _Madame_ or _Dame_, which was the courtesy +title always given to a nun. + +The years passed and Eglentyne's life jogged along peacefully enough +behind the convent walls. The great purpose for which the nunneries +existed, and which most of them fulfilled not unworthily, was the praise +of God. Eglentyne spent a great deal of her time singing and praying in +the convent church, and, as we know, + +Ful wel she song the service divyne, +Entuned in hir nose ful semely. + +The nuns had seven monastic offices to say every day. About 2 a.m. the +night office was said; they all got out of bed when the bell rang, and +went down in the cold and the dark to the church choir and said Matins, +followed immediately by Lauds. Then they went back to bed, just as the +dawn was breaking in the sky, and slept again for three hours, and then +got up for good at six o'clock and said Prime. After that there followed +Tierce, Sext, None, Vespers, and Compline, spread at intervals through +the day. The last service, compline, was said at 7 p.m. in winter, and +at 8 p.m. in summer, after which the nuns were supposed to go straight +to bed in the dorter, in which connexion one Nun's Rule ordains that +'None shall push up against another wilfully, nor spit upon the stairs +going up and down, but if they tread it out forthwith'![4] They had in +all about eight hours' sleep, broken in the middle by the night service. +They had three meals, a light repast of bread and beer after prime in +the morning, a solid dinner to the accompaniment of reading aloud in the +middle of the day, and a short supper immediately after vespers at 5 +or 6 p.m. + +From 12 to 5 p.m. in winter and from 1 to 6 p.m. in summer Eglentyne +and her sisters were supposed to devote themselves to manual or brain +work, interspersed with a certain amount of sober and godly recreation. +She would spin, or embroider vestments with the crowned monogram M of +the Blessed Virgin in blue and gold thread, or make little silken purses +for her friends and finely sewn bands for them to bind round their arms +after a bleeding. She would read too, in her psalter or in such saints' +lives as the convent possessed, written in French or English; for her +Latin was weak, though she could construe _Amor vincit omnia_. Perhaps +her convent took in a few little schoolgirls to learn their letters and +good manners with the nuns, and when she grew older she helped to teach +them to read and sing; for though they were happy, they did not receive +a very extensive education from the good sisters. In the summer +Eglentyne was sometimes allowed to work in the convent garden, or even +to go out haymaking with the other nuns; and came back round-eyed to +confide in her confessor that she had seen the cellaress returning +therefrom seated behind the chaplain on his nag,[5] and had thought what +fun it must be to jog behind stout Dan John. + +Except for certain periods of relaxation strict silence was supposed to +be observed in the convent for a large part of the day, and if Eglentyne +desired to communicate with her sisters, she was urged to do so by means +of signs. The persons who drew up the lists of signs which were in use +in medieval monastic houses, however, combined a preternatural ingenuity +with an extremely exiguous sense of humour, and the sort of dumb +pandemonium which went on at Eglentyne's dinner table must often have +been more mirth-provoking than speech. The sister who desired fish would +'wag her hands displayed sidelings in manner of a fish tail'; she who +wanted milk would 'draw her left little finger in manner of milking'; +for mustard one would 'hold her nose in the upper part of her right fist +and rub it'; another for salt would 'fillip with her right thumb and +forefinger over the left thumb'; another desirous of wine would 'move +her forefinger up and down the end of her thumb afore her eye'; and the +guilty sacristan, struck by the thought that she had not provided +incense for the Mass, would 'put her two fingers into her nostrils'. In +one such table drawn up for nuns there are no less than 106 signs, and +on the whole it is not surprising that the rule of the same nuns enjoins +that 'it is never lawful to use them without some reason and profitable +need, for oft-times more hurt hath an evil word, and more offence it may +be to God'.[6] + +The nuns, of course, would not have been human if they had not sometimes +grown a little weary of all these services and this silence; for the +religious life was not, nor was it intended to be, an easy one. It was +not a mere means of escape from work and responsibility. In the early +golden age of monasticism only men and women with a vocation, that is to +say a real genius for monastic life, entered convents. Moreover, when +there they worked very hard with hand and brain, as well as with soul, +and so they got variety of occupation, which is as good as a holiday. +The basis of wise St Benedict's Rule was a nicely adjusted combination +of variety with regularity; for he knew human nature. Thus monks and +nuns did not find the services monotonous, and indeed regarded them as +by far the best part of the day. But in the later Middle Ages, when +Chaucer lived, young people had begun to enter monastic houses rather as +a profession than as a vocation. Many truly spiritual men and women +still took the vows, but with them came others who were little suited to +monastic life, and who lowered its standard, because it was hard and +uncongenial to them. Eglentyne became a nun because her father did not +want the trouble and expense of finding her a husband, and because being +a nun was about the only career for a well-born lady who did not marry. +Moreover, by this time, monks and nuns had grown more lazy, and did +little work with their hands and still less with their heads, +particularly in nunneries, where the early tradition of learning had +died out and where many nuns could hardly understand the Latin in which +their services were written. The result was that monastic life began to +lose that essential variety which St Benedict had designed for it, and +as a result the regularity sometimes became irksome, and the series of +services degenerated into a mere routine of peculiar monotony, which +many of the singers could no longer keep alive with spiritual fervour. +Thus sometimes (it must not be imagined that this happened in all or +even in the majority of houses) the services became empty forms, to be +hurried through with scant devotion and occasionally with scandalous +irreverence. It was the almost inevitable reaction from too +much routine. + +Carelessness in the performance of the monastic hours was an exceedingly +common fault during the later Middle Ages, though the monks were always +worse about it than the nuns. Sometimes they 'cut' the services. +Sometimes they behaved with the utmost levity, as at Exeter in 1330, +where the canons giggled and joked and quarrelled during the services +and dropped hot candle wax from the upper stalls on to the shaven heads +of the singers in the stalls below![7] Sometimes they came late to +matins, in the small hours after midnight. This fault was common in +nunneries, for the nuns always would insist on having private drinkings +and gossipings in the evening after compline, instead of going straight +to bed, as the rule demanded--a habit which did not conduce to +wakefulness at 1 a.m. Consequently they were somewhat sleepy at matins +and found an almost Johnsonian difficulty in getting up early. Wise St +Benedict foresaw the difficulty, when he wrote in his rule: 'When they +rise for the Divine Office, let them gently encourage one another, +because of the excuses made by those that are drowsy.'[8] At the nunnery +of Stainfield in 1519 the bishop discovered that half an hour sometimes +elapsed between the last stroke of the bell and the beginning of the +service, and that some of the nuns did not sing, but dozed, partly +because they had not enough candles, but chiefly because they went late +to bed;[9] and whoever is without sin among us, let him cast the first +stone! There was a tendency also among both monks and nuns to slip out +before the end of the service on any good or bad excuse: they had to see +after the dinner or the guest-house, their gardens needed weeding, or +they did not feel well. But the most common fault of all was to gabble +through the services as quickly as they could in order to get them over. +They left out the syllables at the beginning and end of words, they +omitted the dipsalma or pause between two verses, so that one side of +the choir was beginning the second half before the other side had +finished the first; they skipped sentences, they mumbled and slurred +what should have been 'entuned in their nose ful semely', and altogether +they made a terrible mess of the stately plainsong. So prevalent was +the fault of gabbling that the Father of Evil was obliged to charter a +special Devil called Tittivillus, whose sole business it was to collect +all these dropped syllables and carry them back to his master in a big +bag. In one way or another, we have a good deal of information about +him, for he was always letting himself be seen by holy men, who +generally had a sharp eye for devils. One Latin rhyme distinguishes +carefully between the contents of his sack: 'These are they who wickedly +corrupt the holy psalms: the dangler, the gasper, the leaper, the +galloper, the dragger, the mumbler, the fore-skipper, the fore-runner +and the over-leaper: Tittivillus collecteth the fragments of these men's +words.'[10] Indeed, a holy Cistercian abbot once interviewed the poor +little devil himself and heard about his alarming industry; this is the +story as it is told in _The Myroure of Oure Ladye_, written for the +delectation of the nuns of Syon in the fifteenth century: 'We read of a +holy Abbot of the order of Citeaux that while he stood in the choir at +matins he saw a fiend that had a long and great poke hanging about his +neck and went about the choir from one to another and waited busily +after all letters and syllables and words and failings that any made; +and them he gathered diligently and put them in his poke. And when he +came before the Abbot, waiting if aught had escaped him that he might +have gotten and put in his bag, the Abbot was astonied and afeard of the +foulness and misshape of him and said unto him: What art thou? And he +answered and said, I am a poor devil and my name is Tittivillus and I do +mine office that is committed unto me. And what is thine office? said +the Abbot. He answered: I must each day, he said, bring my master a +thousand pokes full of failings and of negligences and syllables and +words, that are done in your order in reading and singing and else I +must be sore beaten.'[11] But there is no reason to suppose that he +often got his beating, though one may be sure that Madame Eglentyne, +busily chanting through her nose, never gave him the slightest help. In +his spare moments, when he was not engaged in picking up those +unconsidered trifles which the monks let fall from the psalms, +Tittivillus used to fill up odd corners of his sack with the idle talk +of people who gossiped in church; and he also sat up aloft and collected +all the high notes of vain tenors, who sang to their own glory, instead +of to the glory of God, and pitched the chants three notes higher than +the cracked voices of their elders could rise. + +But the monotony of convent life sometimes did more than make the nuns +unconscious contributors to Tittivillus's sack. It sometimes played +havoc with their tempers. The nuns were not chosen for convent life +because they were saints. They were no more immune from tantrums than +was the Wife of Bath, who was out of all charity when other village +wives went into church before her; and sometimes they got terribly on +each others' nerves. Readers of _Piers Plowman_ will remember that when +the seven deadly sins come in, Wrath tells how he was cook to the +prioress of a convent and, says he, + + Of wycked wordes I, Wrath ... here wordes imade, + Til 'thow lixte' and 'thow lixte' ... lopen oute at ones, + And eyther hitte other ... vnder the cheke; + Hadde thei had knyves, by Cryst ... her eyther had killed other. + +To be sure, it is not often that we hear of anything so bad as that +fifteenth-century prioress, who used to drag her nuns round the choir by +their veils in the middle of the service, screaming 'Liar!' and +'Harlot!' at them;[12] or that other sixteenth-century lady who used to +kick them and hit them on the head with her fists and put them in the +stocks.[13] All prioresses were not 'ful plesaunt and amiable of port', +or stately in their manner. The records of monastic visitations show +that bad temper and petty bickering sometimes broke the peace of +convent life. + +But we must be back at Eglentyne. She went on living for ten or twelve +years as a simple nun, and she sang the services very nicely and had a +sweet temper and pretty manners and was very popular. Moreover, she was +of good birth; Chaucer tells us a great deal about her beautiful +behaviour at table and her courtesy, which shows that she was a lady +born and bred; indeed, his description of this might have been taken +straight out of one of the feudal books of deportment for girls; even +her personal beauty--straight nose, grey eyes, and little red +mouth--conforms to the courtly standard. The convents were apt to be +rather snobbish; ladies and rich burgesses' daughters got into them, but +poor and low-born girls never. So the nuns probably said to each other +that what with her pretty ways and her good temper and her aristocratic +connexions, wouldn't it be a good thing to choose her for prioress when +the old prioress died? And so they did, and she had been a prioress for +some years when Chaucer met her. At first it was very exciting, and +Eglentyne liked being called 'Mother' by nuns who were older than +herself, and having a private room to sit in and all the visitors to +entertain. But she soon found that it was not by any means all a bed of +roses; for there was a great deal of business to be done by the head of +a house--not only looking after the internal discipline of the convent, +but also superintending money matters and giving orders to the bailiffs +on her estates, and seeing that the farms were paying well, and the +tithes coming in to the churches which belonged to the nunnery, and that +the Italian merchants who came to buy the wool off her sheeps' backs +gave a good price for it. In all this business she was supposed to take +the advice of the nuns, meeting in the chapter-house, where all business +was transacted. I am afraid that sometimes Eglentyne used to think that +it was much better to do things by herself, and so she would seal +documents with the convent seal without telling them. One should always +distrust the head of an office or school or society who says, with a +self-satisfied air, that it is much more satisfactory to do the thing +herself than to depute it to the proper subordinates; it either means +that she is an autocrat, or else that she cannot organize. Madame +Eglentyne was rather an autocrat, in a good-natured sort of way, and +besides she hated bother. So she did not always consult the nuns; and I +fear too (after many researches into that past of hers which Chaucer +forgot to mention) that she often tried to evade rendering an account of +income and expenditure to them every year, as she was supposed to do. + +The nuns, of course, objected to this; and the first time the bishop +came on his rounds they complained about it to him. They said, too, that +she was a bad business woman and got into debt; and that when she was +short of money she used to sell woods belonging to the convent, and +promise annual pensions to various people in return for lump sums down, +and lease out farms for a long time at low rates, and do various other +things by which the convent would lose in the long run. And besides, +she had let the roof of the church get into such ill repair that rain +came through the holes on to their heads when they were singing; and +would my lord bishop please to look at the holes in their clothes and +tell her to provide them with new ones? Other wicked prioresses used +sometimes even to pawn the plate and jewels of the convent, to get money +for their own private purposes. But Eglentyne was not at all wicked or +dishonest, though she was a bad manager; the fact was that she had no +head for figures. I am _sure_ that she had no head for figures; you have +only got to read Chaucer's description of her to know that she was not a +mathematician. Besides the nuns were exaggerating: their clothes were +not in holes, only just a little threadbare. Madame Eglentyne was far +too fastidious to allow ragged clothes about her; and as to the roof of +the church, she had meant to save enough money to have some tiles put on +to it, but it really _was_ very hard to make two ends meet in a medieval +nunnery, especially if (as I repeat) you had no head for figures. +Probably the bishop saw how the land lay, so he ordered her never to do +anything without consulting the convent, and he shut up the common seal +in a box with three different sorts of locks, to which Madame Eglentyne +and two of the senior nuns had the keys, so that she could not open it +alone and so could not seal any business agreement without their +consent. And he ordered her to keep accounts and present them every year +(there are bundles of her accounts still preserved in the Record +Office). Finally he deputed a neighbouring rector to act as custodian of +the business affairs of the house so that she should always have his +help. Things went better after that. + +Eglentyne, it seems, was never really interested in business, and was +quite pleased to have her time taken up with looking after internal +affairs and entertaining visitors, with an occasional jaunt outside to +see how the estates were getting on. And she began to find that she +could lead a much freer and gayer life now that she was a prioress; for +the prioress of a convent had rooms of her own, instead of sharing the +common dormitory and refectory; sometimes she even had a sort of little +house with a private kitchen. The abbess of one great nunnery at +Winchester in the sixteenth century had her own staff to look after her, +a cook, and an under cook, and a housemaid and a gentlewoman to wait +upon her, like any great lady in the world, and never dined with the +nuns except on state occasions. But a superior generally had with her +one nun to act as her companion and assist her in the choir and be a +witness to her good behaviour; this nun was called her chaplain, and was +supposed to be changed every year, to prevent favouritism. It will be +remembered that when Madame Eglentyne went on her pilgrimage she took +her nun chaplain with her, as well as three priests; that was because no +nun was ever allowed to go out alone. One of Madame Eglentyne's duties +as prioress was to entertain visitors with her celebrated cheer of +court, and we may be sure that she had a great many. Her sisters, who +were now grand ladies with husbands and manors of their own, and her old +father, and all the great people of the county came to congratulate her; +and after that they used often to drop in for a dinner of chickens and +wine and wastel bread if they passed the house on a journey, and +sometimes they spent the night there. One or two ladies, whose husbands +were away at the wars or on a pilgrimage to Rome, even came as paying +guests to the convent and lived there for a whole year, for nothing +pleased the country gentlemen or wealthy burgesses better than to use +nunneries as boarding-houses for their women-kind. + +All this was very disturbing to the peace and quiet of the nuns, and +especially disturbing were the boarders, for they wore gay clothes, and +had pet dogs and callers, and set a very frivolous example to the nuns. +At one nunnery we find a bishop ordering: 'Let Felmersham's wife, with +her whole household and other women, be utterly removed from your +monastery within one year, seeing that they are a cause of disturbance +to the nuns and an occasion to bad example, by reason of their attire +and of those who come to visit them.'[14] It can be easily imagined +_why_ the bishops objected so much to the reception of these worldly +married women as boarders. Just substitute for 'Felmersham's wife' 'the +Wife of Bath' and all is explained. That lady was not a person whom a +prioress would lightly refuse; the list of her pilgrimages alone would +give her the _entree_ into any nunnery. Smiling her gap-toothed smile +and riding easily upon her ambler, she would enter the gates, and what a +month of excitement would pass before she rode away again. I am sure +that it was she who taught Madame Eglentyne the most fashionable way to +pinch a wimple; and she certainly introduced hats 'as broad as is a +buckler or a targe' and scarlet stockings into some nunneries. The +bishops disliked it all very much, but they never succeeded in turning +the boarders out for all their efforts, because the nuns always needed +the money which they paid for their board and lodging. + +It is easy to understand that this constant intercourse with worldly +visitors would give rise to the spread of worldly habits in Madame +Eglentyne's nunnery. Nuns, after all, were but women, and they had the +amiable vanities of their sex. But Authority (with a large A) did not +consider their vanities amiable at all. It was the view of Authority +that the Devil had dispatched three lesser D's to be the damnation of +nuns, and those three D's were Dances, Dresses, and Dogs. Medieval +England was famous for dancing and mumming and minstrelsy; it was Merry +England because, however plague and pestilence and famine and the +cruelties of man to man might darken life, still it loved these things. +But there were no two views possible about what the Church thought of +dancing; it was accurately summed up by one moralist in the aphorism, +'The Devil is the inventor and governor and disposer of dances and +dancing.' Yet when we look into those accounts which Madame Eglentyne +rendered (or did not render) to her nuns at the end of every year, we +shall find payments for wassail at New Year and Twelfth Night, for May +games, for bread and ale on bonfire nights, for harpers and players at +Christmas, for a present to the Boy Bishop on his rounds, and perhaps +for an extra pittance when the youngest schoolgirl was allowed to dress +up and act as abbess of the convent for the whole of Innocents' Day. And +when we look in the bishops' registers we shall find Madame Eglentyne +forbidden 'all manner of minstrelsy, interludes, dancing or revelling +within your holy place'; and she would be fortunate indeed if her bishop +would make exception for Christmas, 'and other honest times of +recreation among yourselves used in absence of seculars in all wise'. +Somehow one feels an insistent conviction that her cheer of court +included dancing.[15] + +Then, again, there were the fashionable dresses which the visitors +introduced into nunneries. It is quite certain that Madame Eglentyne +was not unmoved by them; and it is a sad fact that she began to think +the monastic habit very black and ugly, and the monastic life very +strict; and to decide that if some little amenities were imported into +it no one would be a penny the worse, and perhaps the bishop would not +notice. That is why, when Chaucer met her, + +Ful fetis was hir cloke, as I was war, +Of smal coral aboute hir arm she bar +A peire of bedes, gauded al with grene, +And ther-on heng a broche of gold ful shene. + +Unfortunately, however, the bishop did notice; the registers are indeed +full of those clothes of Madame Eglentyne's, and of the even more +frivolous ones which she wore in the privacy of the house. For more than +six weary centuries the bishops waged a holy war against fashion in the +cloister, and waged it in vain; for as long as nuns mingled freely with +secular women, it was impossible to prevent them from adopting secular +modes. Occasionally a wretched bishop would find himself floundering +unhandily, in masculine bewilderment, through something like a complete +catalogue of contemporary fashions, in order to specify what the nuns +were _not_ to wear. Synods sat solemnly, bishops and archbishops shook +their grey heads, over golden hairpins and silver belts, jewelled rings, +laced shoes, slashed tunics, low necks and long trains, gay colours, +costly cloth, and valuable furs. The nuns were supposed to wear their +veils pinned tightly down to their eyebrows, so that their foreheads +were completely hidden; but high foreheads happened to be fashionable +among worldly ladies, who even shaved theirs to make them higher, and +the result was that the nuns could not resist lifting up and spreading +out their veils, for how otherwise did Chaucer _know_ that Madame +Eglentyne had such a fair forehead ('almost a spanne broad, I trowe')? +If she had been wearing her veil properly, it would have been invisible, +and the father of English poetry may be observed discreetly but plainly +winking the other eye when he puts in that little touch; his +contemporaries would see the point very quickly. And that brooch and +that fetis cloak of hers.... Here is what some tale-bearing nuns told +the Bishop of Lincoln about their Prioress, fifty years after Chaucer +wrote the _Canterbury Tales_. 'The Prioress,' they said with their most +sanctimonious air, wears golden rings exceeding costly, with divers +precious stones and also girdles silvered and gilded over and silken +veils and she carries her veil too high above her forehead, so that her +forehead, being entirely uncovered, can be seen of all, and she wears +furs of vair. Also she wears shifts of cloth of Rennes, which costs +sixteen pence the ell. Also she wears kirtles laced with silk and tiring +pins of silver and silver gilt and has made all the nuns wear the like. +Also she wears above her veil a cap of estate, furred with budge. Item, +she has on her neck a long silken band, in English a lace, which hangs +down below her breast and there on a golden ring with one diamond.[16] +Is it not Madame Eglentyne to the life? Nothing escaped our good Dan +Chaucer's eye, for all that he rode always looking on the ground. + +Moreover, it was not only in her dress that the Prioress and her sister +nuns aped the fashions of the world. Great ladies of the day loved to +amuse themselves with pet animals; and nuns were quick to follow their +example. So, + +Of smale houndes had she, that she fedde +With rosted flesh, or milk and wastel-breed. +But sore weep she if oon of hem were deed, +Or if men smoot it with a yerde smerte. + +The visitation reports are full of those little dogs and other animals; +and how many readers of the Prologue know that the smale houndes, like +the fair forehead and the brooch of gold full sheen, were strictly +against the rules? For the bishops regarded pets as bad for discipline, +and century after century they tried to turn the animals out of the +convents, without the slightest success. The nuns just waited till the +bishop had gone and then whistled their dogs back again. Dogs were +easily the favourite pets, though monkeys, squirrels, rabbits, birds and +(very rarely) cats were also kept. One archbishop had to forbid an +abbess whom he visited to keep _monkeys and a number of dogs_ in her own +chamber and charged her at the same time with stinting her nuns in food; +one can guess what became of the roasted flesh or milk and wastel-breed! +It was a common medieval practice to bring animals into church, where +ladies often attended service with dog in lap and men with hawk on +wrist; just as the highland farmer brings his collie with him today. +This happened in the nunneries too. Sometimes it was the lay-boarders in +the convents who brought their pets with them; there is a pathetic +complaint by the nuns of one house 'that Lady Audley, who boards there, +has a great abundance of dogs, insomuch that whenever she comes to +church there follow her twelve dogs, who make a great uproar in church, +hindering the nuns in their psalmody and the nuns thereby are +terrified!'[17] But often enough the nuns themselves transgressed. +Injunctions against bringing pet dogs into choir occur in several +visitation reports, the most amusing instance being contained in those +sent to Romsey Abbey by William of Wykeham in 1387, just about the same +year that Chaucer was writing the _Canterbury Tales_: 'Item,' runs the +injunction, 'whereas we have convinced ourselves by clear proofs that +some of the nuns of your house bring with them to church birds, rabbits, +hounds and such like frivolous things, whereunto they give more heed +than to the offices of the church, with frequent hindrance to their own +psalmody and to that of their fellow nuns and to the grievous peril of +their souls--therefore we strictly forbid you all and several, in virtue +of the obedience due to us that ye presume henceforward to bring to +church no birds, hounds, rabbits or other frivolous things that promote +indiscipline.... Item, whereas through hunting dogs and other hounds +abiding within your monastic precincts, the alms that should be given +to the poor are devoured and the church and cloister ... are foully +defiled ... and whereas, through their inordinate noise divine service +is frequently troubled--therefore we strictly command and enjoin you, +Lady Abbess, that you remove the dogs altogether and that you suffer +them never henceforth, nor any other such hounds, to abide within the +precincts of your nunnery.'[18] But it was useless for any bishop to +order Madame Eglentyne to give up her dogs, she could not even be parted +from them on a pilgrimage, though they must have been a great nuisance +in the inns, especially as she was so fussy about their food. + +For Chaucer's prioress, we must admit, was rather a worldly lady, though +her pretty clothes and little dogs were harmless enough on modern +standards and one's sympathies are all against the bishops. She +probably became more worldly as time went on, because she had so many +opportunities for social intercourse. Not only had she to entertain +visitors in the convent, but often the business of the house took her +away upon journeys and these offered many opportunities for hobnobbing +with her neighbours. Sometimes she had to go to London to see after a +law-suit and that was a great excursion with another nun, or perhaps +two, and a priest and several yeomen to look after her. Sometimes she +had to go and see the bishop, to get permission to take in some little +schoolgirls. Sometimes she went to the funeral of a great man, whom her +father knew and who left her twenty shillings and a silver cup in his +will. Sometimes she went to the wedding of one of her sisters, or to be +godmother to their babies; though the bishops did not like these worldly +ties, or the dances and merry-makings which accompanied weddings and +christenings. Indeed her nuns occasionally complained about her journeys +and said that though she pretended it was all on the business of the +house, they had their doubts; and would the bishop please just look into +it. At one nunnery we find the nuns complaining that their house is L20 +in debt 'and this principally owing to the costly expenses of the +prioress, because she frequently rides abroad and pretends that she does +so on the common business of the house although it is not so, with a +train of attendants much too large and tarries too long abroad and she +feasts sumptuously, both when abroad and at home and she is very choice +in her dress, so that the fur trimmings of her mantle are worth +100s'![19] + +As a matter of fact there was nothing of which the church disapproved +more than this habit, shared by monks and nuns, of wandering about +outside their cloisters; moralists considered that intercourse with the +world was at the root of all the evil which crept into the monastic +system. The orthodox saying was that a monk out of his cloister was like +a fish out of water; and it will be remembered that Chaucer's monk +thought the text not worth an oyster. Indeed most of the monks managed +to swim very well in the air, and the nuns too persisted in taking every +sort of excuse for wandering in the world. Right through the Middle Ages +council after council, bishop after bishop, reformer after reformer, +tried in vain to keep them shut up. The greatest attempt of all began +in 1300, when the pope published a Bull ordering that nuns should +never, save in very exceptional circumstances, leave their convents and +that no secular person should be allowed to go in and visit them, +without a special licence and a good reason. This will make the modern +reader pity the poor nuns, but there is no need, for nobody ever +succeeded in putting it into force for more than five minutes, though +the bishops spent over two centuries in trying to do so and were still +trying in vain when King Henry VIII dissolved the nunneries and turned +all the nuns out into the world for ever, whether they liked it or not. +At one nunnery in the Lincoln diocese, when the bishop came and +deposited a copy of the Bull in the house and ordered the nuns to obey +it, they ran after him to the gate when he was riding away and threw the +Bull at his head, screaming that they would never observe it.[20] The +more practical bishops indeed, soon stopped trying to enforce the Bull +as it stood and contented themselves with ordering that nuns were not to +go out or pay visits too often, or without a companion, or without +licence, or without a good reason. But even in this they were not very +successful, because the nuns were most prolific in excellent reasons why +they should go out. Sometimes they said that their parents were ill; and +then they would go away to smooth the pillow of the sick. Sometimes they +said that they had to go to market to buy herrings. Sometimes they said +that they had to go to confession at a monastery. Sometimes it is really +difficult to imagine _what_ they said. What are we to think, for +instance, of that giddy nun 'who on Monday night did pass the night with +the Austin friars at Northampton and did dance and play the lute with +them in the same place until midnight, and on the night following she +passed the night with the Friars' preachers at Northampton, luting and +dancing in like manner'?[21] Chaucer told us how the friar loved harping +and how his eyes twinkled like stars in his head when he sang, but +failed perhaps to observe that he had lured Madame Eglentyne into +a dance. + +It is indeed difficult to see what 'legitimate' excuses the nuns can +have made for all their wandering about in the streets and the fields +and in and out of people's houses, and it is sorely to be feared that +either they were too much of a handful for Madame Eglentyne, or else she +winked at their doings. For somehow or other one suspects that she had +no great opinion of bishops. After all Chaucer would never have met her, +if she had not managed to circumvent her own, since if there was one +excuse for wandering of which the bishops thoroughly disapproved, it was +precisely the excuse of pilgrimages. Madame Eglentyne was not quite as +simple and coy as she looked. How many of the literary critics, who +chuckle over her, know that she never ought to have got into the +Prologue at all? The Church was quite clear in its mind that pilgrimages +for nuns were to be discouraged. As early as 791 a council had forbidden +the practice and in 1195 another at York decreed, 'In order that the +opportunity of wandering may be taken from nuns we forbid them to take +the path of pilgrimage.' In 1318 an archbishop of York strictly forbade +the nuns of one convent to leave their house 'by reason of any vow of +pilgrimage which they might have taken. If any had taken such vows she +was to say as many psalters as it would have taken days to perform the +pilgrimage so rashly vowed.'[22] One has a melancholy vision of poor +Madame Eglentyne saying psalters interminably through her tretys nose, +instead of jogging along so gaily with her motley companions and telling +so prettily her tale of little St Hugh. Such prohibitions might be +multiplied from medieval records; and indeed it is unnecessary to go +further than Chaucer to understand why it was that bishops offered such +strenuous opposition to pilgrimages for nuns; one has only to remember +some of the folk, in whose company the prioress travelled and some of +the tales they told. If one could only be certain, for instance, that +she rode all the time with her nun and her priests, or at least between +the Knight and the poor Parson of a town! But there were also the Miller +and the Summoner and (worst of all) that cheerful and engaging sinner, +the Wife of Bath. It is really quite disturbing to think what additional +details the Wife of Bath may have given the prioress about her +five husbands. + +This then was Chaucer's prioress in real life, for the poet who drew her +was one of the most wonderful observers in the whole of English +literature. We may wade through hundreds of visitation reports and +injunctions and everywhere the grey eyes of his prioress will twinkle at +us out of their pages, and in the end we must always go to Chaucer for +her picture, to sum up everything that historical records have taught +us. As the bishop found her, so he saw her, aristocratic, +tender-hearted, worldly, taking pains to 'countrefete there of court'; +liking pretty clothes and little dogs; a lady of importance, attended by +a nun and three priests; spoken to with respect by the none too +mealy-mouthed host--no 'by Corpus Dominus' or 'cokkes bones' or 'tel on +a devel wey' for her, but 'cometh neer, my lady prioress,' and + +My lady Prioresse, by your leve +If that I wiste I sholde yow nat greve, +I wolde demen that ye tellen sholde +A tale next, if so were that ye wolde. +Now wol ye vouche-sauf, my lady dere? + +He talks to no one else like that, save perhaps to the knight. Was she +religious? Perhaps; but save for her singing the divine service and for +her lovely address to the Virgin, at the beginning of her tale, Chaucer +can find but little to say on the point; + +But for speken of hir conscience (he says) +She was so charitable and so pitous, + +and then, as we are waiting to hear of her almsgiving to the poor--that +she would weep over a mouse in a trap, or a beaten puppy, says Chaucer. +A good ruler of her house? again, doubtless. But when Chaucer met her +the house was ruling itself somewhere at the 'shire's ende'. The world +was full of fish out of water in the fourteenth century, and, by seynt +Loy, said Madame Eglentyne, swearing her greatest oath, like Chaucer's +monk, she held that famous text not worth an oyster. So we take our +leave of her, characteristically on the road to Canterbury. + + + + +CHAPTER V + +_The Menagier's Wife_ + +A PARIS HOUSEWIFE IN THE FOURTEENTH CENTURY + + The sphere of woman is the home. + --_Homo Sapiens_ + + +The men of the middle, as indeed of all ages, including our own, were +very fond of writing books of deportment telling women how they ought to +behave in all the circumstances of their existence, but more +particularly in their relations with their husbands. Many of these books +have survived, and among them one which is of particular interest, +because of the robust good sense of its writer and the intimate and +lively picture which it gives of a bourgeois home. Most books of +deportment were written, so to speak, in the air, for women in general, +but this was written by a particular husband for a particular wife, and +thus is drawn from life and full of detail, showing throughout an +individuality which its compeers too often lack. If a parallel be sought +to it, it is perhaps to be found not in any other medieval treatise but +in those passages of Xenophon's _Economist_, in which Isomachus +describes to Socrates the training of a perfect Greek wife. + +The Menagier de Paris (the Householder or Goodman of Paris, as we might +say) wrote this book for the instruction of his young wife between 1392 +and 1394. He was a wealthy man, not without learning and of great +experience in affairs, obviously a member of that solid and enlightened +_haute bourgeoisie_, upon which the French monarchy was coming to lean +with ever-increasing confidence. When he wrote he must have been +approaching old age, and he was certainly over sixty, but he had +recently married a young wife of higher birth than himself, an orphan +from a different province. He speaks several times of her 'very great +youth', and kept a sort of duenna-housekeeper with her to help and +direct her in the management of his house; and indeed, like the wife of +Isomachus, she was only fifteen years old when he married her. Modern +opinion is shocked by a discrepancy in age between husband and wife, +with which the Middle Ages, a time of _menages de convenance_, was more +familiar. 'Seldom,' the Menagier says, 'will you see ever so old a man +who will not marry a young woman.' Yet his attitude towards his young +wife shows us that there may have been compensations, even in a marriage +between May and January. Time after time in his book there sounds the +note of a tenderness which is paternal rather than marital, a +sympathetic understanding of the feelings of a wedded child, which a +younger man might not have compassed. Over all the matter-of-fact +counsels there seems to hang something of the mellow sadness of an +autumn evening, when beauty and death go ever hand in hand. It was his +wife's function to make comfortable his declining years; but it was his +to make the task easy for her. He constantly repeats the assurance that +he does not ask of her an overweening respect, or a service too humble +or too hard, for such is not due to him; he desires only such care as +his neighbours and kinswomen take of their husbands, 'for to me +belongeth none save the common service, or less'. + +In his Prologue, addressed to her, he gives a charming picture of the +scene which led him to write his book: 'You, being of the age of fifteen +years and in the week that you and I were wed, did pray me that I would +please to be indulgent to your youth and to your small and ignorant +service mewards, until that you should have seen and learned more, to +the hastening whereof you did promise me to set all care and +diligence, ... praying me humbly, in our bed as I remember, that for the +love of God I would not correct you harshly before strangers nor before +our own folk, 'but that I would correct you each night or from day to +day in our chamber and show you the unseemly or foolish things done in +the day or days past, and chastise you, if it pleased me, and then you +would not fail to amend yourself according to my teaching and correction, +and would do all in your power according to my will, as you said. And I +thought well of, and praise and thank you for, what you said to me and I +have often remembered it since. And know, dear sister[D], that all that +I know you have done since we were wed up to this day, and all that you +shall do hereafter with good intent has been and is good and well hath +pleased, pleases and shall please me. For your youth excuses you from +being very wise, and will still excuse you in everything that you do +with good intent to please me. And know that it doth not displease, but +rather pleases me that you should have roses to grow and violets to care +for and that you should make chaplets and dance and sing, and I would +well that you should so continue among our friends and those of our +estate, and it is but right and seemly thus to pass the time of your +feminine youth, provided that you desire and offer not to go to the +feasts and dances of too great lords, for that is not seemly for you, +nor suitable to your estate nor mine[1].' + +[Footnote D: He addresses her throughout as 'sister', a term of +affectionate respect.] + +Meanwhile he has not forgotten her request that he would teach and +correct her in private, and so he writes a little book (but it was a big +book before he had finished) to show her how to comport herself; for he +is sorry for this child, who has for long had neither father nor mother, +and who is far from kinswomen who might counsel her, having 'me only' he +says, 'for whom you have been taken from your kinsfolk and from the land +of your birth.' He has often deliberated the matter and now here is 'an +easy general introduction' to the whole art of being a wife, a +housewife, and a perfect lady. One characteristic reason, apart from his +desire to help her and to be comfortable himself (for he was set in his +ways), he gives for his trouble and recurs to from time to time, surely +the strangest ever given by a husband for instructing his wife. He is +old, he says, and must die before her, and it is positively essential +that she should do him credit with her second husband. What a reflection +upon him if she accompanied his successor to Mass with the collar of her +_cotte_ crumpled, or if she knew not how to keep fleas from the +blankets, or how to order a supper for twelve in Lent! It is +characteristic of the Menagier's reasonableness and solid sense that he +regards his young wife's second marriage with equanimity. One of his +sections is headed, 'That you should be loving to your husband (whether +myself or another), by the example of Sarah, Rebecca, Rachel.' How +different from those husbands (dog-in-the-manger, or anxious for the +future of their children under a possibly harsh stepfather) whose wills +so often reveal them trying to bind their wives to perpetual celibacy +after their deaths, such husbands as William, Earl of Pembroke, who died +in 1469, admonishing his lady: 'And wyfe, ye remember your promise to me +to take the ordere of wydowhood, as ye may be the better mastre of your +owne to performe my wylle.' + +The plan of the book 'in three sections, containing nineteen principal +articles', is most exhaustive. The first section deals with religious +and moral duties. In the words of the Menagier, 'the first section is +necessary to gain for you the love of God and the salvation of your +soul, and also to win for you the love of your husband and to give you +in this world that peace which ought to be had in marriage. And because +these two things, to wit the salvation of your soul and the comfort of +your husband, are the two things most chiefly necessary, therefore are +they here placed first.' Then follows a series of articles telling the +lady how to say her morning prayer when she rises, how to bear herself +at Mass, and in what form to make her confession to the priest, together +with a long and somewhat alarming discursus upon the seven deadly sins, +which it assuredly never entered into her sleek little head to commit, +and another, on the corresponding virtues.[2] But the greater part of +the section deals with the all-important subject of the wife's duty to +her husband. She is to be loving, humble, obedient, careful and +thoughtful for his person, silent regarding his secrets, and patient if +he be foolish and allow his heart to stray towards other women. The +whole section is illustrated by a series of stories (known as _exempla_ +in the Middle Ages), culled from the Bible, from the common stock of +anecdotes possessed by jongleur and preacher alike, and (most +interesting of all) from the Menagier's own experience. Among the +Menagier's longer illustrations is the favourite but intolerably dull +moral tale of Melibeu and Prudence, by Albertano of Brescia, translated +into French by Renault de Louens, whose version the Menagier copied, and +adapted by Jean de Meung in the _Roman de la Rose_, from which in turn +Chaucer took it to tell to the Canterbury Pilgrims. Here also are to be +found Petrarch's famous tale of patient Griselda, which Chaucer also +took and gave a wider fame, and a long poem written in 1342 by Jean +Bruyant, a notary of the Chatelet at Paris, and called 'The Way of +Poverty and Wealth', inculcating diligence and prudence.[3] + +The second section of the book deals with household management and is +far the most interesting. The range of the Menagier's knowledge leaves +the reader gasping. The man is a perfect Mrs Beeton! The section +comprises a detailed treatise on gardening and another on the principles +which should govern the engagement of servants and the method by which +they should be managed when hired; the modern problem of servants who +leave does not seem to have presented itself to him. There are +instructions how to mend, air, and clean dresses and furs, get out +grease spots, catch fleas and keep flies out of the bedroom, look after +wine, and superintend the management of a farm. + +At one point he breaks off, addressing his wife thus: 'Here will I leave +you to rest or to play and will speak no more to you; and while you +disport yourself elsewhere I will speak to Master John, the Steward, who +looks after our possessions, so that if there is anything wrong with any +of our horses, whether for the plough or for riding, or if it is +necessary to buy or exchange a horse, he may know a little of that it +behoves him to know in this matter.' There follow several pages of wise +advice as to the good points of horses, how to examine them and to find +their ages and defects under the eye of the horse dealer, the practical +'tips' of a man who evidently knew and loved his horses, together with +advice upon the treatment of their various diseases. Among the various +recipes which the Menagier gives to this intent are two charms; for +instance, 'when a horse has glanders, you must say to him these three +words, with three paternosters: _abgla_, _abgly_, _alphard_, _asy_, +_pater noster_, etc.'[4] + +Last, but not least, there is a magnificent cookery book, arranged in +the form sacred to cookery books from that day to this, beginning with a +list of specimen menus for dinners and suppers, hot or cold, fast or +feast, summer or winter, giving hints on the choice of meat, poultry, +and spices, and ending with a long series of recipes for all manner of +soups, stews, sauces, and other viands, with an excursus on +invalid's cookery! + +The third section of the book was intended by the Menagier to contain +three parts: first of all, a number of parlour games for indoor +amusement; secondly, a treatise on hawking, the favourite outdoor +amusement of ladies; and thirdly, a list of amusing riddles and games of +an arithmetical kind ('concerning counting and numbering, subtle to find +out or guess'), presumably of the nature of our old friend, 'If a +herring and a half cost three ha'pence.' Unfortunately, the Menagier +seems never to have finished the book, and of this section only the +treatise on hawking has survived. It is a great pity, for we have +several such treatises, and how interesting an account of indoor games +and riddles might have been we may guess from a passage in the +Menagier's version of the story of Lucrece, when he describes the Roman +ladies 'some gossiping, others playing at _bric_, others at _qui fery_, +others at _pince merille_, others at cards or other games of pleasure +with their neighbours; others, who had supped together, were singing +songs and telling fables and stories and wagers; others were in the +street with their neighbours, playing at blind man's buff or at _bric_ +and at several other games of the kind.'[5] In those days, before the +invention of printing had made books plentiful, medieval ladies were +largely dependent for amusement upon telling and listening to stories, +asking riddles, and playing games, which we have long ago banished to +the nursery; and a plentiful repertoire of such amusements was very +desirable in a hostess. The Menagier was clearly anxious that his wife +should shine in the amenities as well as in the duties of social life. + +Such was the monumental work which the Menagier de Paris was able to +present to his awed but admiring wife; and though it has been sadly +neglected by historians it deserves to be well known, for it gives us a +picture of a medieval housewife which it would be hard indeed to +surpass. There is hardly a side of her daily life upon which it does not +touch, and we may now with advantage look more closely upon her, and see +in turn the perfect lady, whose deportment and manners do credit to her +breeding; the perfect wife, whose submission to her husband is only +equalled by her skill in ministering to his ease; the perfect mistress, +whose servants love her and run her house like clockwork; and the +perfect housewife, the Mrs Beeton of the fifteenth century. + +The Menagier's views on deportment are incongruously sandwiched into his +section on spiritual duties, under the general headings of getting up in +the morning and going to church. His ideas on the subject of clothes are +very clearly defined: a sweet disorder in the dress was in no way to +his taste: + + Know, dear sister, that if you wish to follow my advice you + will have great care and regard for what you and I can afford + to do, according to our estate. Have a care that you be + honestly clad, without new devices and without too much or + too little frippery. And before you leave your chamber and + house, take care first that the collar of your shift, and of + your _blanchet, cotte_ and _surcotte_, do not hang out one + over the other, as happens with certain drunken, foolish or + witless women, who have no care for their honour, nor for the + honesty of their estate or of their husbands, and who walk + with roving eyes and head horribly reared up like a lion (_la + teste espoventablement levee comme un lyon!_), their hair + straggling out of their wimples, and the collars of their + shifts and _cottes_ crumpled the one upon the other, and who + walk mannishly and bear themselves uncouthly before folk + without shame. And if one speaks to them about it, they + excuse themselves on the ground of their industry and + humility, saying that they are so diligent, hardworking, and + humble that they care not for themselves. But they lie; they + care so much for themselves that if they were in an + honourable company, never would they be willing that men + should wait less upon them than upon the wiser ladies of like + lineage with themselves, nor that they should have fewer + salutations, bows, reverences and speech than the rest, but + rather they desire more. And they are unworthy of it, for + they know not how to maintain their own honourable fame, nay, + nor the fame of their husbands and of their lineage, which + they bring to shame. Therefore, fair sister, have a care that + your hair, wimple, kerchief and hood and all the rest of your + attire be well arranged and decently ordered, that none who + see you can laugh or mock at you, but that all the others may + find in you an example of fair and simple and decent + array.... When you go to town or to church go suitably + accompanied by honourable women according to your estate, and + flee suspicious company, never allowing any ill famed woman + to be seen in your presence. And as you go bear your head + upright and your eyelids low and without fluttering, and look + straight in front of you about four rods ahead, without + looking round at any man or woman to the right or to the + left, nor looking up, nor glancing from place to place, nor + stopping to speak to anyone on the road.[6] + +Such was the model of female deportment in the Middle Ages. + +Let us pass from the lady to the wife. On the attitude of wife to +husband the Menagier's ideas are much the same as those of the rest of +his age. They may be summed up as submission, obedience, and constant +attention. She must be buxom at bed and at board, even in circumstances +when buxomness hides a heavy heart. The good sense of the burgess does +not prevent him from likening the wife's love for her husband to the +fidelity of domestic animals towards their masters: 'Of the domestic +animals you see how a greyhound, or a mastiff, or a little dog, whether +on the road, or at table, or in bed, always keeps near to the person +from whom he takes his food, and leaves and is shy and fierce with all +others; and if the dog is afar off, he always has his heart and his eye +upon his master; even if his master whip him and throw stones at him, +the dog follows, wagging his tail and lying down before his master, +seeks to mollify him, and through rivers, through woods, through thieves +and through battles follows him.... Wherefore for a better and stronger +reason women, to whom God has given natural sense and who are +reasonable, ought to have a perfect and solemn love for their husbands; +and so I pray you to be very loving and privy with your husband who +shall be.'[7] Patience is an essential quality in wives, and, however +sorely tried they must never complain. The Menagier tells three stories +to illustrate how a wife should bear herself in order to win back the +love of an unfaithful husband. One of these is the famous tale of +Griselda, but the two others are drawn (so he says) from his own +experience. In the first of these he tells of the wife of a famous +_avocat_ in the _parlement_ of Paris, who saw to the nurture and +marriage of her husband's illegitimate daughter; 'nor did he ever +perceive it by one reproach, or one angry or ugly word.' The second is +the charmingly told story of how John Quentin's wife won back her +husband's heart from the poor spinner of wool to whom it had strayed.[8] +All seem to show that the Menagier's simile of the little dog was +selected with care, for the medieval wife, like the dog, was expected to +lick the hand that smote her. Nevertheless, while subscribing to all +the usual standards of his age, the Menagier's robust sense, his hold +upon the realities of life, kept him from pushing them too far. The +comment of another realist, Chaucer, on the tale of Patient Griselda +will be remembered. + + Grisilde is deed and eek hire pacience, + And bothe at ones buryed in Ytaille; + For which I crie in open audience, + No wedded man so hardy be t'assaille + His wyves pacience in hope to fynde + Grisildes, for in certein he shal faille! + + O noble wyves, ful of heigh prudence, + Lat noon humylitee youre tonge naill, + Ne lat no clerk have cause or diligence + To write of yow a stone of swich mervaille + As of Grisildis pacient and kynde, + Lest Chichivache[E] yow swelwe in hire entraille!... + +[Footnote E: Chichevache, the lean cow who fed on patient wives, while +her mate Bicorne grew fat on humble husbands (A.W. Pollard).] + +His creation of the Wife of Bath was an even more pointed commentary. +Here is what the Menagier has to say to his young wife on the +same subject: + +And I, who have put [the tale of Griselda] here only to teach you, have +not put it here to apply it to you, for I am not worthy thereof, and I am +not a marquis and I have not taken you as a beggar, nor am I so foolish, +so conceited or so lacking in sense that I know not that 'tis not for me to +assault nor to assay you thus, nor in like manner. God keep me from trying +you thus under colour of false simulations.... And forgive me that +the story speaks (in my opinion) of too great cruelty and beyond reason. +And know that it never befel so, but thus the tale runs and I may nor +correct nor alter it, for a wiser than I hath made it. And it is my desire +that since others have read it you also may know and be able to talk about +everything even as other folk do.[9] + +Moreover, in spite of the ideal of submission which he sets before his +wife, the Menagier has some charming words to say about love--with a +sigh, perhaps, for his own advanced though not crabbed age, and a +glance at that younger husband of the future who shall one day enjoy his +little bride. + +In God's name (he says) I believe that when two good and honourable +people are wed, all other loves are put far off, destroyed and +forgotten, save only the love of each for the other. And meseems that +when they are in each other's presence, they look upon each other more +than upon the others, they clasp and hold each other and they do not +willingly speak or make sign save to each other. And when they are +separated, they think of each other and say in their hearts, 'When I see +him I shall do thus and thus to him, or say this to him, I shall beseech +him concerning this or that.' And all their special pleasure, their +chief desire and their perfect joy is to do pleasure and obedience one +to the other, if they love one another.[10] + +The greater part of the Menagier's book is concerned, however, not with +the theoretical niceties of wifely submission, but with his creature +comforts. His instructions as to how to make a husband comfortable +positively palpitate with life; and at the same time there is something +indescribably homely and touching about them; they tell more about the +real life of a burgess's wife than a hundred tales of Patient Griselda +or of Jehanne la Quentine. Consider this picture (how typical a product +of the masculine imagination!) of the stout bread-winner, buffeted about +in all weathers and amid all discomforts, nobly pursuing the task of +earning his living, and fortified by the recollection of a domesticated +little wife, darning his stockings at home by the fire, and prepared to +lavish her attentions on the weary hero in the evening. The passage is +an excellent example of the Menagier's vivid and simple style, and of +the use of incidents drawn from everyday life to illustrate his thesis, +which is one of the chief charms of the book. + + Fair sister, if you have another husband after me, know that + you should think much of his comfort, for after a woman has + lost her first husband she commonly finds it difficult to + find another according to her estate, and she remains lonely + and disconsolate for a long time[F]; and more so still, if + she lose the second. Wherefore cherish the person of your + husband carefully, and, I pray you, keep him in clean linen, + for 'tis your business. And because the care of outside + affairs lieth with men, so must a husband take heed, and go + and come and journey hither and thither, in rain and wind, + in snow and hail, now drenched, now dry, now sweating, now + shivering, ill-fed, ill-lodged, ill-warmed and ill-bedded; + and nothing harms him, because he is upheld by the hope that + he has of his wife's care of him on his return, and of the + ease, the joys and the pleasures which she will do to him, or + cause to be done to him in her presence; to have his shoes + removed before a good fire, his feet washed and to have fresh + shoes and stockings, to be given good food and drink, to be + well served and well looked after, well bedded in white + sheets and night-caps, well covered with good furs, and + assuaged with other joys and amusements, privities, loves, + and secrets, concerning which I am silent; and on the next + day fresh shirts and garments. Certes, fair sister, such + service maketh a man love and desire to return to his home + and to see his goodwife and to be distant with other women. + + [Footnote F: This seems to be contrary to experience.] + + And therefore I counsel you to make such cheer to your + husband at all his comings and goings and to persevere + therein; and also to be peaceable with him and remember the + rustic proverb, which saith that there be three things which + drive the goodman from home, to wit, a dripping roof, a + smoking chimney and a scolding woman.[11] Wherefore, fair + sister, I pray you that in order to keep yourself in love and + good favour with your husband you be unto him gentle, amiable + and debonair. Do unto him what the good simple women of our + country say has been done unto their sons, when the lads have + set their love elsewhere and their mothers cannot wean them + from it. It is certain that when fathers and mothers be dead, + and stepfathers and stepmothers argue with their stepsons, + and scold them and repulse them, and take not thought for + their sleeping, nor for their food and drink, their hose and + their shirts and all their other needs and affairs, and the + same children find elsewhere a good home and good counsel + from some other woman, who receives them and takes thought to + warm them with some poor gruel with her and to give them a + bed and keep them tidy, mending their hosen, breeches, + shirts, and other garments, then those lads cleave to her and + desire to be with her, and to sleep warm between her breasts, + and are altogether estranged from their mothers and fathers, + who before took no heed of them, and now want to get them + back and have them again. But it may not be, for these + children hold more dear the company of strangers, who think + and care for them, than that of their kinsfolk, who have no + care of them. Then the parents lament and weep and say that + these same women have bewitched their children and that they + are spellbound and cannot leave, but are never easy save when + they are with their enchantresses. But whatever may be said + of it, it is no witchcraft, but it by reason of the love, the + care, the intimacies, joys and pleasures, which these women + do in all ways unto the lads, and on my soul there is no + other enchantment.... Wherefore, dear sister, I pray you thus + to bewitch and bewitch again your husband, and beware of + dripping roof and smoking fire, and scold him not, but be + unto him gentle and amiable and peaceable. Be careful that in + winter he has good fire without smoke, and let him rest well + and be well covered between your breasts and thus bewitch + him.... And thus you shall preserve and guard him from all + discomforts and give him all the ease that you can, and serve + him and cause him to be well served in your house; and you + shall look to him for outside things, for if he be a good man + he will take even more care and trouble over them than you + wish, and by doing as I have said, you will make him always + miss you and have his heart with you and with your loving + service, and he will shun all other houses, all other women, + all other services and households; all will be naught to him + save you alone, if you think of him as aforesaid.... And so + on the road, husbands will think of their wives, and no + trouble will be a burden to them for the hope and love they + will have of their wives, whom they will long to see, even as + poor hermits, penitents and fasting monks long to see the + face of Christ Jesus; and husbands served thus will never + desire to abide elsewhere or in other company but will + withhold, withdraw and abstain themselves there-from; all the + rest will seem to them but a bed of stones compared with + their home.[12] + +Enough has perhaps been quoted to show the Menagier's idea of a perfect +wife; his idea of the perfect housewife is contained in a mass of +instructions which make excellently entertaining reading. So modern in +tone is his section on the management of servants, both in his account +of their ways and in his advice upon dealing with them, that one often +rubs one's eyes to be sure that what one is reading is really a book +written over five centuries ago by an old burgess of Paris. The Menagier +evidently had a fairly large household, and he probably owned a country +as well as a town house, for he speaks several times of overseeing the +farm-hands 'when you are in the village'. To assist his wife in +superintending this large staff he has a _maitre d'hotel_, called Master +John the Steward (_le despensier_) and a duenna, half housekeeper and +half chaperon, for her young mistress, called Dame Agnes _la beguine_[G] +and a bailiff or foreman to look after the farm. The Menagier divides +his servants and workmen into three classes--first, those engaged by the +day or by the season for special work, such as porters and carriers, +reapers, winnowers, coopers, and so on; secondly, those engaged on +piecework, such as tailors, furriers, bakers, and shoemakers, hired by +medieval households of some wealth to make what was needed from raw +material purchased at fairs or in the shops of the city; and thirdly, +the ordinary domestic servants, who were hired by the year and lived in +their master's house; 'and of all these,' he says, 'there is none who +does not gladly seek work and a master'. + +[Footnote G: The Beguines were a sort of religious order, or, more +correctly, a lay sisterhood, standing half-way between the lay and the +monastic life, and somewhat analogous to the Franciscan Tertiaries, or +Third Order.] + +He gives an amusing account, evidently based upon bitter experience, of +the wiles of the hired workman. He says that they are commonly lazy, +rough, quick at 'answering back', arrogant (except on payday) and ready +to break into insults if unsatisfied with their pay. He warns his wife +to bid Master John always to take the peaceable ones and always to +bargain with them beforehand as to the pay for which they will do +the work. + + For know that most often they do not want to bargain, but + they want to get to work without any bargain having been made + and they say gently, 'Milord, it is nothing--there is no + need--you will pay me well and I shall be content with what + you think fit.' And if Master John take them thus, when the + work is finished they will say, 'Sir, there was more to do + than I thought, there was this and that to do, and here and + there,' and they will not take what is given them and will + break out into shouting and angry words ... and will spread + abroad evil report concerning you, which is worst of all.[13] + +We know from the various ordinances fixing wages from the time of the +Black Death onwards, that labour troubles were acute in France as well +as in England at the end of the fourteenth century; and the Menagier's +advice throws an interesting sidelight on the situation. + +It is, however, in his observations upon the engagement and management +of maidservants that the wisdom of the serpent is most apparent. +Incidentally he gives an account of how servants were hired in +fourteenth-century Paris, which shows that the registry office +and the character are by no means modern phenomena. There were +_recommanderesses_--women holding what we should call registry +offices--in Paris at this time, and an ordinance of 1351 (fixing wages +after the Black Death) allows them to take _1s. 6d_. for placing a +chambermaid and _2s_. for a nurse. A servant maid's wage at this time +was 30s. a year and her shoes. The Menagier counsels his wife thus on +the delicate subject of interviewing and engaging her domestic +chambermaids and serving men: + + Know, dear sister (he says), that in order that they may obey + you better and fear the more to anger you, I leave you the + rule and authority to have them chosen by Dame Agnes the + beguine, or by whichever other of your women you please, to + receive them into our service, to hire them at your pleasure, + to pay and keep them in our service as you please, and to + dismiss them when you will. Nathless you should privily speak + to me about it and act according to my advice, because you + are too young and might be deceived by your own people. And + know that of those chambermaids who are out of a place, many + there be who offer themselves and clamour and seek urgently + for masters and mistresses; and of these take none until you + first know where their last place was, and send some of your + people to get their character, to wit whether they talked or + drank too much, how long they were in the place, what work + they have been accustomed to doing and can do, whether they + have homes or friends in the town, from what sort of people + and what part of the country they come, how long they were + there and why they left; and by their work in the past you + shall find out what hope or expectation you may have of their + work in the future. And know that oft-times such women from + distant parts of the country have been blamed for some fault + in their own part of the world and that is what brings them + into service at a distance.... + + And if you find from the report of her master and mistress, + neighbours and others that a girl is what you need, find out + from her, and cause Master John to register in his account + book, the day on which you engage her, her name and those of + her father, mother and any of her kinsfolk, the place where + they live and her birthplace and her references. For servants + will be more afraid to do wrong if they know that you are + recording all these things and that if they leave you without + permission, or are guilty of any offence, you will write and + complain to the justice of their country or to their friends. + And not withstanding bear in mind the saying of the + philosopher called Bertrand the Old, who says that if you + engage a maid or man of high and proud answers, you shall + know that when she leaves she will miscall you if she can; + and if, on the contrary, she be flattering and ¸full of + blandishments, trust her not, for she is in league with + someone else to trick you; but if she blushes and is silent + and shamefast when you correct her, love her as your + daughter.[14] + +The Menagier's instructions as to how to look after servants when they +have been engaged are equally practical. Good order is to be maintained, +quarrels and bad language[15] prevented, and morals guarded. Each is to +have his or her work assigned and to do it promptly. 'If you order them +to do something now and these your servants answer "There is plenty of +time, it shall be done," or "It shall be done tomorrow," hold it as +forgotten, it must all be begun again, it is as nought. And also when +you give a general order to every one, each will wait for the other to +do it, and it is the same.' Not only is the work of the servants to be +carefully superintended by the mistress and by Dame Agnes, 'who is with +you', the Menagier tells his wife, 'in order to teach you wise and ripe +behaviour and to serve and instruct you and to whom in particular I give +the charge of this matter', but she is to show herself careful and +benevolent in looking after their health and happiness. At the proper +hour she is to cause them to sit down before a hearty meal of one sort +of meat, avoiding rich viands, and one kind of drink, which must be +nourishing but not intoxicating--'the cup that cheers but not +inebriates'; probably in this case the light ale which was the habitual +drink of the Middle Ages. She is to admonish them to eat and drink +their fill, but + + as soon as they begin to tell stories, or to argue, or to + lean on their elbows, order the beguine to make them rise and + take away their table, for the common folk have a saying + 'when a varlet holds forth at table and a horse grazes in the + ditch, it is time to take them away, for they have had + their fill.' + +In the evening, after their afternoon's work, they are to have another +hearty meal, and then in winter time they may warm themselves at the +fire and take their ease. Then she is to lock up the house and pack them +all off to bed. + + And arrange first that each have beside his bed a candlestick + in which to put his candle, and have them wisely taught to + extinguish it with the mouth or hand before getting into bed + and by no means with their shirts. And also have them + admonished and taught each and all, that they must begin + again the next day and that they must rise in the morning and + each set to upon his own work. + +The Menagier further advises his wife that chambermaids of fifteen to +twenty years of age are foolish girls who do not know the world, and +that she should always cause them to sleep near her in an antechamber, +or a room without a skylight or a low window looking on to the street, +and should make them get up and go to bed at the same time as herself. +'And you yourself,' he adds, 'who, if God please, will be wise by this +time, must keep them near to you.' Moreover, if any of her servants fall +ill, 'do you yourself, laying aside all other cares, very lovingly and +charitably care for him or her, and visit him and study diligently how +to bring about his cure'.[16] + +But it is perhaps in his capacity as Mrs Beeton that the Menagier is +most amusing. His infinite variety of household knowledge is shown in +the incidental recipes which he gives when he is describing the measures +which a wife must take for her lord's comfort, and the work of the +servants. There are elaborate instructions concerning the costly +medieval garments, worn year after year for a lifetime and often +bequeathed in their owner's will, instructions for cleaning dresses and +furs and for preserving them from moths, and instructions for removing +stains and grease spots. The Menagier gives seven recipes for taking out +grease spots, but he is rather sceptical about one or two of them, which +he has evidently copied from a book without trying them for himself. 'To +get rid of stains on a dress of silk, satin, camlet, damask cloth or +another,' runs one of these, 'dip and wash the stain in verjuice and the +stain will go; even if the dress be faded, it will regain its colour. +_This I do not believe'_. The chief impression left, however, is that +the medieval housewife was engaged in a constant warfare against fleas. +One of the Menagier's infallible rules for keeping a husband happy at +home is to give him a good fire in the winter and keep his bed free from +fleas in the summer. He gives six recipes for getting rid of such small +livestock, which must indeed have been a very common trial to our +forefathers: + +In summer take heed that there be no fleas in your chamber nor in your +bed, which you may do in six ways, as I have heard tell. For I have +heard from several persons that if the room be scattered with alder +leaves the fleas will get caught therein. Item, I have heard tell that +if you have at night one or two trenchers of bread covered with birdlime +or turpentine and put about the room with a lighted candle set in the +midst of each trencher, they will come and get stuck thereto. Another +way which I have found and which is true: take a rough cloth and spread +it about your room and over your bed and all the fleas who may hop on to +it will be caught, so that you can carry them out with the cloth +wheresoever you will. Item, sheepskins. Item, I have seen blankets +placed on the straw and on the bed and when the black fleas jumped upon +them they were the sooner found and killed upon the white. But the best +way is to guard oneself against those which are within the coverlets and +furs and the stuff of the dresses wherewith one is covered. For know +that I have tried this, and when the coverlets, furs or dresses in which +there be fleas are folded and shut tightly up, in a chest straitly bound +with straps or in a bag well tied up and pressed, or otherwise +compressed so that the said fleas are without light and air and kept +imprisoned, then they will perish and die at once.[17] + +A similar war had also to be waged against flies and mosquitoes, which +rendered summer miserable. "I have sometimes," says the Menagier, "seen +in several chambers that when one has gone to bed in them, they were +full of mosquitoes, which at the smoke of the breath came to sit on the +faces of those who slept and sting them so that they were fain to get up +and light a fire of hay to smoke them off." Against such pests he has +also six infallible recipes--to wit, a mosquito net over the bed; sprigs +of fern hung up for the flies to settle on; a bowl filled with a mixture +of milk and hare's gall, or with the juice of raw onions, which will +kill them; a bottle containing a rag dipped in honey, or else a string +dipped in honey to hang up; fly whisks to drive them away; and closing +up windows with oiled cloth or parchment.[18] + +The section on cookery, which contains the Menagier's injunctions for +"feeding the brute", is the longest in the book, and gives an +extraordinarily interesting picture of the domestic economy of our +ancestors.[19] The Menagier must have been brother to Chaucer's +Franklin, 'Epicurus owene sone': + +An housholdere, and that a greet, was he: +Seint Julian he was in his contree; +His breed, his ale, was alwey after oon; +A bettre envyned man was nowher noon. +Withoute bake mete was never his hous, +Of fissh and flessh, and that so plenteuous +It snewed in his hous of mete and drynke. +Of alle deyntees that men koude thynke. +After the sondry sesons of the yeer, +So chaunged he his mete and his soper. +Ful many a fat partrich had he in muwe +And many a breem and many a luce in stuwe. +Wo was his cook but if his sauce were +Poynaunt and sharpe and redy al his geere. +His table dormant in his hal alway +Stood redy covered al the longe day. + +In this, as in all other medieval cookery books, what strikes the modern +reader is the length and elaboration of the huge feasts, with their many +courses and dishes, and the richness of the highly spiced viands. There +are black puddings and sausages, venison and beef, eels and herrings, +fresh water fish, round sea fish and flat sea fish, common pottages +unspiced, spiced pottages, meat pottages and meatless pottages, roasts +and pastries and entremets, divers sauces boiled and unboiled, pottages +and 'slops' for invalids. Some of them sound delicious, others would be +ruin to our degenerate digestions today. Pungent sauces of vinegar, +verjuice, and wine were very much favoured, and cloves, cinnamon, +galingale, pepper, and ginger appear unexpectedly in meat dishes. +Almonds were a favourite ingredient in all sorts of dishes, as they +still are in China and other parts of the East, and they might well be +used more lavishly than they are in modern European cookery. True to his +race, the Menagier includes recipes for cooking frogs and snails.[20] To +the modern cook some of his directions may appear somewhat vague, as +when he bids his cook to boil something for as long as it takes to say a +paternoster or a _miserere_; yet for clockless kitchens in a pious age +what clearer indication could a man give? And, after all, it is no worse +than 'cook in a hot oven', which still finds a place in many modern +cookery books which should know better. Other instructions are detailed +enough. In one valuable passage he gives a list of all the meat markets +of Paris, together with the number of butchers to be found in each and +the number of sheep, oxen, pigs, and calves sold there every week, +adding also for interest the amount of meat and poultry consumed weekly +in the households of the King, the Queen and the royal children, the +Dukes of Orleans, Berry, Burgundy, and Bourbon. Elsewhere also he speaks +of other markets--the Pierre-au-Lait, or milk market; the Place de +Greve, where they sell coal and firewood; and the Porte-de-Paris which +is not only a meat market, but the best place in which to buy fish and +salt and green herbs and branches to adorn your rooms. + +For his wife's further guidance the Menagier sets out a careful +specification of the catering arrangements for several great feasts--to +wit, a dinner given by the Abbot of Lagny to the Bishop of Paris and the +members of the King's Council, the feast, comprising dinner and supper, +which one Master Elias (evidently a grave and reverend _maitre d'hotel,_ +like Master John _le despensier_ himself) made for the wedding of Jean +du Chesne, upon a Tuesday in May, and the arrangements for another +wedding, "les nopces Hautecourt", in the month of September, as to which +the Menagier observes "that because they were widower and widow they +were wed very early, in their black robes and then put on others"; he +was anxious that his widow should do the correct thing at that second +wedding of hers. The description of the wedding feast arranged by Master +Elias is particularly detailed and valuable.[21] The careful Menagier, +perhaps because he foresaw some big entertainment which he must give to +the burgesses and gentlemen of Paris, perhaps because of his delightful +interest in all the details of material life, has set down at length not +only the menu of the dinner and supper, but a long account of the +ingredients needed, their quantities and prices, and the shops or +markets where they must be bought, so that the reader can see with his +eyes the _maitre d'hotel_ and the cooks going round from stall to stall, +visiting butcher and baker, poulterer, saucemaker, vintner, wafer maker, +who sold the wafers and pastries dear to medieval ladies, and spicer +whose shop was heavy with the scents of the East. + +The Menagier sets down also all the esquires and varlets and waiters +who will be needed to serve such a feast as this. There was the master +cook, comfortably stout and walking 'high and disposedly', as Queen +Elizabeth danced, brain pan stuffed full of delectable recipes, hand of +ravishing lightness with pastries, eye and nose skilled to say when a +capon was done to a turn, warranted without a rival + +To boille the chiknes with the marybones, +And poudre-marchant tart and galyngale ... +He koude rooste and seethe and boille and frye, +Maken martreux and wel bake a pye ... +For blankmanger, that made he with the beste. + +He brought his varlets with him, and in Paris he took two francs for his +hire 'and perquisites' (a pregnant addition). Then there were ushers, +'stout and strong', to keep the doors, and a clerk to add up the +account; bread-cutters and water-carriers, two squires to serve at the +dresser in the kitchen where the plates and dishes were handed out, two +others at the hall dresser to give out spoons and drinking cups and pour +wine for the guests, and two others in the pantry to give out the wine +which their varlet kept drawing for them. There were the two _maitres +d'hotel_ to set out the silver salt-cellars for the high table, the four +great gilded goblets, the four dozen hanaps, the four dozen silver +spoons, the ewers and alms mugs and sweetmeat dishes, and to usher the +guests to their places; a head waiter and two servitors for each table, +a flower girl to make chaplets of flowers for the guests, women to see +to the linen and deck the bridal bed,[22] and a washerwoman. The floors +were strewn with violets and green herbs and the rooms decked with +branches of May (all bought in the market in early morning), and there +was a good stock of torches and candles, small candles to stand on the +supper tables, and great torches to be set in sconces on the walls, or +to be carried in procession by the guests, for the supper ended with +'dancing, singing, wine and spices and lighted torches'. On this +occasion eight francs were given to the minstrels, over and above the +spoons and other presents made to them during the meal, and there were +also acrobats and mimes to amuse the guests. If they had to prepare a +great feast Master John and his little mistress could not go far wrong +after this, or fail to please the genial epicure who set it down for +them. The Menagier copied many of his recipes from other cookery books, +but he must have got the details of this entertainment from Master Elias +himself, and one can see their grey heads wagging with enjoyment, as one +talked and the other wrote. + +The cookery book ends with a section containing recipes for making what +the Menagier calls 'small things which are not necessities'. There are +various sorts of jams, mostly made with honey; in the Middle Ages +vegetables were evidently much prepared in this way, for the Menagier +speaks of turnip, carrot, and pumpkin jam. There is a delicious syrup of +mixed spices (at least the palate of faith must believe it to have been +delicious) and a powder of ginger, cinnamon, cloves, cardamom, and +sugar, to be sifted over food, as sugar is sifted today; there is a +recipe for hippocras, and for 'gauffres' or wafers, and for candied +oranges. There are various sage pieces of advice as to the seasons for +certain foods and the best ways of cooking and serving them. Most +amusing of all these are a number of recipes not of a culinary +nature--to wit, for making glue and marking ink, for bringing up small +birds in aviaries and cages, preparing sand for hour-glasses, making +rose-water, drying roses to lay among dresses (as we lay lavender +today), for curing tooth-ache, and for curing the bite of a mad dog. The +latter is a charm, of the same type as the Menagier's horse charms: +'Take a crust of bread and write what follows: _Bestera bestie nay +brigonay dictera sagragan es domina siat siat siat_.' Let us remember, +however, that the nation which produced it, some four centuries later, +produced Pasteur. + +[Illustration: V. THE MENAGIER'S WIFE HAS A GARDEN PARTY] + +Enough has been said about this entrancing book to show how vividly it +brings not only the Menagier, but the Menagier's young wife before our +eyes after these many years. In the morning she rises, much earlier than +ladies rise nowadays, though not so early as nuns, who must say matins, +for that, her husband tells her, is not a fitting hour for married women +to leave their beds. Then she washes, much less than ladies nowadays, +hands and face only perchance, and says her orisons, and dresses very +neatly, for she knows whose eye is upon her, and so goes with Dame Agnes +the beguine to Mass, with eyes on the ground and hands folded over +her painted primer. After Mass, and perhaps confession, back again to +see if the servants are doing their work, and have swept and dusted the +hall and the rooms, beaten the cushions and coverlets on the forms and +tidied everything, and afterwards to interview Master John the steward +and order dinner and supper. Then she sends Dame Agnes to see to the pet +dogs and birds, "for they cannot speak and so you must speak and think +for them if you have any". Then, if she be in her country house, she +must take thought for the farm animals and Dame Agnes must superintend +those who have charge of them, Robin the shepherd, Josson the oxherd, +Arnoul the cowherd, Jehanneton the milkmaid, and Eudeline the farmer's +wife who looks after the poultry yard. If she be in her town house she +and her maids take out her dresses and furs from their great chests and +spread them in the sun in the garden or courtyard to air, beating them +with little rods, shaking them in the breeze, taking out spots and +stains with one or other of the master's tried recipes, pouncing with +lynx eyes upon the moth or sprightly flea. + +[Illustration: VI. THE MENAGIER'S WIFE COOKS HIS SUPPER, WITH THE AID OF +HIS BOOK] + +After this comes dinner, the serious meal of the day, eaten by our +ancestors about 10 a.m. What the Menagier's wife gives to her lord and +master will depend upon the time of year and upon whether it be a meat +or a fast day; but we know that she has no lack of menus from which to +choose. After dinner she sees that the servants are set to dine, and +then the busy housewife may become the lady of leisure and amuse +herself. If in the country she may ride out hawking with a gay party of +neighbours; if in town, on a winter's day, she may romp and play with +other married ladies of her tender years, exchange riddles or tell +stories round the fire. But what she most loves is to wander in her +garden, weaving herself garlands of flowers, violets, gilly flowers, +roses, thyme, or rosemary, gathering fruit in season (she likes +raspberries and cherries), and passing on to the gardeners weighty +advice about the planting of pumpkins ("in April water them courteously +and transplant them"), to which the gardeners give as much attention as +gardeners always have given, give still, and ever shall give, world +without end, to the wishes of their employers. When she tires of this, +the busy one gathers together Dame Agnes and her maids, and they sit +under the carved beams of the hall mending his mastership's doublet, +embroidering a vestment for the priest at his family chantry, or a +tapestry hanging for the bedchamber. Or perhaps they simply spin (since, +in the words of the Wife of Bath, God has given women three +talents--deceit, weeping, and spinning!); and all the while she awes +them with that tale of Griselda, her voice rising and falling to the +steady hum of the wheels. + +At last it is evening, and back comes the lord and master. What a bustle +and a pother this home-coming meant we know well, since we know what he +expected. Such a running and fetching of bowls of warm water to wash his +feet, and comfortable shoes to ease him; such a hanging on his words and +admiring of his labours. Then comes supper, with a bevy of guests, or +themselves all alone in the westering sunlight, while he smacks +connoisseur's lips over the roast crane and the blankmanger, and she +nibbles her sweet wafers. Afterwards an hour of twilight, when she tells +him how she has passed the day, and asks him what she shall do with the +silly young housemaid, whom she caught talking to the tailor's 'prentice +through that low window which looks upon the road. There is warm +affection in the look she turns up to him, her round little face +puckered with anxiety over the housemaid, dimpling into a smile when he +commends her; and there is warm affection and pride too in the look the +old man turns down upon her. So the night falls, and they go round the +house together, locking all the doors and seeing that the servants are +safe abed, for our ancestors were more sparing of candlelight than we. +And so to bed. + +We may take our leave of the couple here. The Menagier's wife evidently +had a full life. + +Some respit to husbands the weather may send, +But huswiues affaires haue neuer an end. + +There was no room in it for the idleness of those lovely ladies, with +their long fingers, whom Langland admonished to sew for the poor. +Moreover, exaggerated as some of her husband's ideas upon wifely +submission appear today, the book leaves a strong impression of good +sense and of respect as well as love for her. The Menagier does not want +his wife to be on a pedestal, like the troubadour's lady, nor licking +his shoes like Griselda; he wants a helpmeet, for, as Chaucer said, 'If +that wommen were nat goode and hir conseils goode and profitable, oure +Lord God of hevene wolde never han wroght hem, ne called hem "help" of +man, but rather confusioun of man.'[23] Ecclesiastical Jeremiahs were +often wont to use the characteristically medieval argument that if God +had meant woman for a position of superiority He would have taken her +from Adam's head rather than his side; but the Menagier would have +agreed with the more logical Peter Lombard, who observed that she was +not taken from Adam's head, because she was not intended to be his +ruler, nor from his feet either, because she was not intended to be his +slave, but from his side, precisely, because she was intended to be his +companion. There is something of this spirit in the Menagier's attitude +towards his little wife, and it is this which makes his book so charming +and causes it to stand head and shoulders above most other medieval +books of behaviour for women. But, above all, its social and historical +value lies in the fact that it gives us, in hues undimmed by time, a +full length portrait of a medieval housewife, who has her place (and it +is a large one) in history, but concerning whom historians have almost +invariably been silent. + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +_Thomas Betson_ + +A MERCHANT OF THE STAPLE IN THE FIFTEENTH CENTURY + + Some men of noble stock were made, some glory in the murder blade: + Some praise a Science or an Art, but I like honourable Trade! + + --JAMES ELROY FLECKER + + _The Golden Journey to Samarcand_ + + +The visitor to the House of Lords, looking respectfully upon that august +assembly, cannot fail to be struck by a stout and ungainly object facing +the throne--an ungainly object upon which in full session of Parliament, +he will observe seated the Lord Chancellor of England. The object is a +woolsack, and it is stuffed as full of pure history as the office of +Lord Chancellor itself. For it reminds a cotton-spinning, iron-working +generation that the greatness of England was built up, not upon the +flimsy plant which comes to her to be manufactured from the Far East and +West of the world, nor upon the harsh metal delved from her bowels, but +upon the wool which generation after generation has grown on the backs +of her black-faced sheep. First in the form of a raw material sought +after eagerly by all the cloth-makers of Europe, then in the form of a +manufacture carried on in her own towns and villages, and sent out far +and wide in ships, wool was the foundation of England's greatness right +up to the time of the Industrial Revolution, when cotton and iron took +its place. So if you look at old pictures of the House of Lords, in +Henry VIII's reign, or in Elizabeth's, you will see the woolsack before +the throne,[1] as you will see it if you visit the House today. The Lord +Chancellor of England is seated upon a woolsack because it was upon a +woolsack that this fair land rose to prosperity. + +The most remarkable body of traders in England during the Middle Ages +were the Merchants of the Staple, who traded in wool. The wool trade had +for long been the largest and most lucrative body of trade in the +country, and it was one in which the Kings of England were particularly +interested, for their customs revenue was drawn largely from wool and +wool fells; and, moreover, when they desired to borrow money in +anticipation of revenue it was to the wool merchants that they turned, +because the wool merchants were the wealthiest traders in the country. +For these and other reasons the Government adopted the custom of fixing +staple towns, which acted as centres of distribution through which the +export trade was forced to go. The location of the Staple was altered +from time to time; sometimes it was at Bruges, sometimes at Antwerp, +sometimes in England; but usually it was at Calais, where it was first +fixed in 1363 and finally established in 1423. Through the Staple all +wool and wool fells, hides, leather, and tin had to pass, and the +organization of the system was complete when the body of wool merchants, +in whose hands lay the bulk of the Staple trade, were finally +incorporated in 1354, under the governance of a mayor. The system was a +convenient one for Crown and merchants alike. The Crown could +concentrate its customs officers in one place and collect its customs +the more easily, particularly as a method was gradually developed by +which the custom and subsidy on wool was paid to the Royal officials by +the Fellowship of the Staple, who then collected it from the individual +members. The merchants, on the other hand, benefited by the +concentration in trade: they were able to travel in groups and to +organize convoys to protect the wool fleets from pirates who swarmed in +the narrow seas between England and France; as members of a powerful +corporation they could secure both privileges and protection in +Flanders. Moreover, the wool buyers also benefited by the arrangement, +which rendered possible a careful surveillance by the Crown and the +Company of the Staple of the quality of the wool offered for sale, and a +series of regulations against fraud. It must be remembered that in days +when trade stood in need of a protection which the Government was not +yet able to give it, there was nothing unpopular in the idea of giving +the monopoly of the staple trade to the members of a single company. +'Trade in companies is natural to Englishmen,' wrote Bacon; and for four +centuries it was the great trading companies which nurtured English +trade and made this country the commercial leader of the world. + +The wool trade throve in England until the close of the Middle Ages, but +throughout the fifteenth century the staplers were beginning to feel the +competition of another company--that of the famous Merchant Adventurers, +who, taking advantage of the growth in the native cloth manufacture +during the previous century, had begun to do a great trade in the export +of cloth. This was obnoxious to the staplers, who desired the +continuance of the old system, by which they exported English wool to +the Continent, where at Ypres and Ghent, Bruges and Mechlin, and the +other famous cloth-working cities of the Netherlands, it was woven into +fine cloth. This cloth manufacture gave to the Netherlands a sort of +industrial pre-eminence in Europe throughout the Middle Ages, and it was +dependent entirely upon a good supply of English wool, for the next best +wool in Europe--that of Spain--was not satisfactory unless mixed with +wool of English growth. Hence the close political tie between England +and Flanders, the one needing a customer, the other an essential raw +material; for, as a fifteenth century poet said, + + the lytelle londe of Flaundres is + But a staple to other londes, iwys, + And alle that groweth in Flaundres, greyn and sede, + May not a moneth fynde hem mete and brede. + What hath thenne Flaundres, be Flemmyngis leffe or lothe + But a lytelle madere and Flemmyshe cloothe? + By drapynge of our wolle in substaunce + Lyvene here comons, this is here governaunce; + Wythought whyche they may not leve at ease, + Thus moste hem sterve, or wyth us most have peasse.[2] + +In those days the coat on the Englishman's back was made out of English +wool, indeed, but it had been manufactured in Flanders, and the staplers +saw no reason why it should ever be otherwise. As to the Flemings, the +political alliances which commercial necessities constantly entailed +between the two countries gave rise among them to a proverb that they +bought the fox-skin from the English for a groat and sold them back the +tail for a guelder;[3] but it was the sheepskin which they bought, and +they were not destined to go on buying it for ever. The great +cloth-making cities of the Netherlands were finally ruined by the growth +of the English cloth manufacture, which absorbed the English wool. +However, in spite of the growing prosperity of this trade, which had by +the beginning of the sixteenth century ousted that of wool as the chief +English export trade, the Company of the Merchants of the Staple was +still great and famous throughout the fifteenth century. + +Many were the wealthy and respected staplers who were in those days to +be found directing the destinies of English towns, mayors of London and +provincial ports, contractors and moneylenders to an impecunious king, +so rich and so powerful that they became a constitutional menace, +almost, it has been said, a fourth estate of the realm, with which His +Majesty was wont to treat for grants apart from Parliament. Many are the +staplers' wills preserved in registries up and down England and bearing +witness to their prosperity and public spirit. Many are the magnificent +brasses which preserve their memory in the parish churches of the +Cotswolds and other wool-growing districts of England. At Chipping +Campden lies William Grevel with his wife, 'late citizen of London and +flower of the wool merchants of all England', who died in 1401, and his +beautiful house still stands in the village street. At Northleach lies +John Fortey, who rebuilt the nave before he died in 1458; his brass +shows him with one foot on a sheep and the other on a woolpack, and the +brasses of Thomas Fortey, 'woolman', and of another unknown merchant, +with a woolpack, lie near by. At Linwood, at Cirencester, at Chipping +Norton, at Lechlade, and at All Hallows, Barking, you may see others of +the great fraternity.[4] They rest in peace now, but when they lived +they were the shrewdest traders of their day. Of wool, cries the +poet Gower, + +O leine, dame de noblesce +Tu est des marchantz la duesse, +Pour toy servir tout sont enclin-- + +'O wool, noble dame, thou art the goddess of merchants, to serve thee +they are all ready; by thy good fortune and thy wealth thou makest some +mount high, and others thou bringest to ruin. The staple where thou +dwellest is never free of fraud and trickery, wherewith man wounds his +conscience. O wool, Christians no less than pagans and Saracens seek to +have thee and confess thee. O wool, we should not be silent about thy +doings in strange lands; for the merchants of all countries, in time of +peace, in time of war, come to seek thee by reason of their great love, +for whoever else hath enemies thou art never without good friends, who +have given themselves to thy profitable service. Thou art cherished +throughout the world, and the land where thou art born may do great +things by reason of thee. Thou art carried throughout the world by land +and sea, but thou goest to the wealthiest men; in England art thou born, +but it is said that thou art but ill governed, for Trick, who hath much +money, is made regent of thy staple; at his will he taketh it to foreign +lands, where he purchaseth his own gain to our harm. O fair, O white, O +delightful one, the love of thee stings and binds, so that the hearts of +those who make merchandise of thee cannot escape. So they compass much +trickery and many schemes how they may gather thee, and then they make +thee pass the sea, queen and lady of their navy, and in order to have +thee envy and covetousness hie them to bargain for thee.'[5] + +The daily life of a Merchant of the Staple is not a difficult one to +reconstruct, partly because the Golden Fleece has left so many marks +upon our national life, partly because the statute book is full of +regulations concerning the wool trade, but chiefly because there have +come down to us many private letters from persons engaged in shipping +wool from England to Calais. Of all the different sorts of raw material +out of which the history of ordinary people in the Middle Ages has to be +made, their letters are perhaps the most enthralling, because in their +letters people live and explain themselves in all their individuality. +In the fifteenth century most men and women of the upper and middle +classes could read and write, although their spelling was sometimes +marvellous to behold, and St Olave's Church is apt to become 'Sent +Tolowys scryssche' beneath their painfully labouring goose quills, and +punctuation is almost entirely to seek. But what matter? their meaning +is clear enough. Good fortune has preserved in various English archives +several great collections of family letters written in the fifteenth +century. Finest of all are the famous Paston Letters, written by and to +a family of Norfolk gentlefolk, and crammed with information about high +politics and daily life.[6] Less interesting, but valuable all the same, +are the letters of the Plumptons, who were lords in Yorkshire.[7] But +for our purposes the most interesting are two other collections, to wit, +the correspondence of the Stonors, whose estates lay chiefly in +Oxfordshire and the neighbouring counties; and the Cely papers, kept by +a family of Merchants of the Staple. + +These two collections give us a vivid picture of wool staplers in their +public and private lives. The Cely papers cover the years 1475 to 1488, +and it so happens that during that period William Stonor (he became Sir +William in 1478) also became interested in the wool trade, for in 1475 +he married Elizabeth Riche, the daughter and widow of wealthy city +merchants. The Stonors had great sheep runs on their estates in the +Chilterns and Cotswolds, and William readily perceived the advantage of +his alliance with Elizabeth's family, who were interested in the wool +trade. Consequently he entered into a partnership with a friend of his +wife's, a Merchant of the Staple in Calais, named Thomas Betson, who is +the subject of this study, and until Elizabeth's death in 1479, he took +an active part in the export trade. Thomas Betson died in 1486, and was +thus an exact contemporary of those other Merchants of the Staple, +George and Richard Cely, whom he must have known; indeed, William Cely, +their cousin and agent, writes from London to George in Calais in 1481, +advising him that he has dispatched 464 fells to him in the _Thomas_ of +Newhithe, 'and the sayd felles lyeth nexte be afte the maste lowest +under the felles of Thomas Bettson'.[8] By the aid of the 'Stonor +Letters and Papers', which contain many letters from and concerning him +during the years of his partnership with Sir William, and of the 'Cely +Papers', which are full of information about the life of a Merchant of +the Staple at Calais, Thomas Betson may be summoned before us by a +kindly magic until he almost lives again. So he deserves to do, for he +is one of the most delightful people revealed to us in any of the +fifteenth-century letters; for honest charm he has no rival save the +attractive Margery Brews, who married John Paston the younger, and +shows up so pleasantly beside the hard Paston women. + +Perhaps the reason why our hearts warm immediately towards Thomas Betson +is that our first meeting with him plunges us immediately into a love +affair. His first letter to William Stonor is dated April 12, 1476, and +informs William that their wool has come in to Calais. 'Right +worshipfful Syr,' it begins, 'I recomaund me unto your good +maystershipe, and to my right worshipffulle maystresse your wiffe, and +yf it plese your maystershipe, to my maystresse Kateryn.'[9] Ten days +later he writes again from London, on the eve of sailing for Calais, +thanking Stonor for his 'gentle cheer and faithful love, the which alway +ye bear and owe unto me, and of my behalf nothing deserved[H],' +announcing that he has sent a present of powdered[I] lampreys from +himself and a pipe of red wine from his brother, and adding this +postscript: 'Sir, I beseech your mastership that this poor writing may +have me lowly recommended to my right worshipful mistress, your wife, +and in like wise to my gentle cousin and kind mistress Katherine Riche, +to whom I beseech your mastership ever to be favourable and loving.'[10] +Who was this Katherine Riche to whom he so carefully commends himself? +Katherine Riche was William Stonor's stepdaughter, one of his wife's +children by her first husband; she was Thomas Betson's affianced bride, +and at this time she was about thirteen years old. + +[Footnote H: Henceforth I shall modernize spelling, for the reader's +convenience.] + +[Footnote I: I.e. pickled.] + +Modern opinion, which is happily in favour of falling in love, and of +adult marriages, is often shocked by the air of business which pervades +matchmaking in the days of chivalry, and by the many cases of grown men +married to little girls not yet out of their teens. In those days it was +held that a boy came of age at fourteen and a girl at twelve (a +discrepancy which the great canon lawyer, Lyndwood, the son of a +stapler,[11] attributed to the fact that ill weeds grow apace!). For +reasons of property, or to settle family feuds, or simply to assure +their own future, babies in cradles were sometimes betrothed and even +married; all that the Church required was that children should be free +when they came of age (at the ages of fourteen and twelve!) to repudiate +the contract if they so desired. Nothing seems to separate modern +England from the good old days so plainly as the case of little Grace de +Saleby, aged four, who for the sake of her broad acres was married to a +great noble, and on his death two years later to another, and yet again, +when she was eleven, to a third, who paid three hundred marks down for +her.[12] There is an odd mixture of humour and pathos in the story of +some of these marriages. John Rigmarden, aged three, was carried to +church in the arms of a priest, who coaxed him to repeat the words of +matrimony, but half-way through the service the child declared that he +would learn no more that day, and the priest answered, 'You must speak a +little more, and then go play you.' James Ballard, aged ten, was married +to Jane his wife 'at x of the clocke in the night without the consent of +any of his frendes, bie one Sir Roger Blakey, then curate of Colne, and +the morowe after, the same James declarid vnto his Vnckle that the said +Jane [beyinge a bigge damsell and mariageable at the same tyme] had +intised him with two Apples, to go with her to Colne and to marry her.' +Elizabeth Bridge _nee_ Ramsbotham, says that after her marriage to John +Bridge, when he was eleven and she thirteen, he never used her +'lovinglie, insomoche that the first night they were maried, the said +John wold Eate no meate at supper, and whan hit was bed tyme, the said +John did wepe to go home with his father, he beynge at that tyme at her +brother's house.'[13] + +Sometimes, however, medieval records throw a pleasanter light on these +child marriages. Such was the light thrown by the Menagier de Paris's +book for his young wife, so kindly, so affectionate, so full of +indulgence for her youth; and such also is the light thrown by the +charming letter which Thomas Betson wrote to little Katherine Riche on +the first day of June in 1476. It is a veritable gem, and it is strange +that it has not attracted more notice, for certainly no anthology of +English letters should be without it. I set it down here at length, for +it brings to warm life again both Thomas Betson and Katherine Riche: + +Mine own heartily beloved Cousin Katherine, I recommend me unto you with +all the inwardness of my heart. And now lately ye shall understand that +I received a token from you, the which was and is to me right heartily +welcome, and with glad will I received it; and over that I had a letter +from Holake, your gentle squire, by the which I understand right well +that ye be in good health of body, and merry at heart. And I pray God +heartily in his pleasure to continue the same: for it is to me very +great comfort that he so be, so help me Jesu. And if ye would be a good +eater of your meat alway, that ye might wax and grow fast to be a woman +ye should make me the gladdest man of the world, by my troth; for when I +remember your favour and your sad loving dealing to me wards, for sooth +ye make me even very glad and joyous in my heart; and on the tother side +again, when I remember your young youth, and see well that ye be none +eater of your meat, the which should help you greatly in waxing, for +sooth then ye make me very heavy again. And therefore I pray you, mine +own sweet Cousin, even as you love me, to be merry and eat your meat +like a woman. And if ye will so do for my love, look what ye will desire +of me, whatsoever it be, and by my troth, I promise you by the help of +our Lord to perform it to my power. I can no more say now, but on my +coming home I will tell you much more between you and me and God before. +And whereas ye, full womanly and like a lover, remember me with manifold +recommendation in divers manners, remitting the same to my discretion to +depart them there as I love best, for sooth, mine own sweet Cousin, ye +shall understand that with good heart and good will I receive and take +to myself the one half of them and them will I keep by me; and the +tother half with hearty love and favour I send them to you, mine own +sweet Cousin, again, for to keep by you; and over that I send you the +blessing that our Lady gave her dear son, and ever well to fare. I pray +you greet well my horse and pray him to give you four of his years to +help you withal; and I will at my coming home give him four of my years +and four horse loaves till amends. Tell him that I prayed him so. And +Cousin Katherine, I thank you for him, and my wife shall thank you for +him hereafter; for ye do great cost upon him, as is told me. Mine own +sweet Cousin, it was told me but late that ye were at Calais[J] to seek +me, but could not see me nor find me; forsooth ye might have comen to my +counter, and there ye should both find me and see me, and not have +faulted of me; but ye sought me in a wrong Calais, and that ye should +well know if ye were here and saw this Calais, as would God ye were and +some of them with you that were with you at your gentle Calais. I pray +you, gentle Cousin, commend me to the clock, and pray him to amend his +unthrifty manners; for he strikes ever in undue time, and he will be +ever afore, and that is a shrewd condition. Tell him without he amend +his condition that he will cause strangers to avoid and come no more +there. I trust to you that he shall amend against mine coming, the which +shall be shortly, with all hands and all feet, with God's grace. My very +faithful Cousin, I trust to you that though all I have not remembered my +right worshipful mistress your mother afore in this letter, that ye will +of your gentleness recommend me to her mistresship as many times as it +shall please you: and ye may say, if it please you, that in Whitsun week +next I intend to the mart ward. And I trust you will pray for me; for I +shall pray for you and, so it may be, none so well. And Almighty Jesu +make you a good woman and send you many good years and long to live in +health and virtue to his pleasure. At great Calais, on this side on the +sea, the first day of June, when every man was gone to his dinner, and +the clock smote nine, and all your household cried after me and bade me +'Come down, come down to dinner at once!'--and what answer I gave them, +ye know it of old. + +[Footnote J: Possibly an inn with that name (?).] + +By your faithful Cousin and lover Thomas Betson. I send you this ring +for a token. + +So ending, Thomas Betson smiled, dropped a kiss on the seal and +inscribed his letter, 'To my faithful and heartily beloved cousin +Katherine Riche at Stonor, this letter be delivered in haste.'[14] + +Henceforth there begins a charming triangular correspondence between +Betson and Stonor and Dame Elizabeth Stonor, in which family news and +business negotiations are pleasantly mingled. Dame Elizabeth and Betson +were on the best of terms, for they had been old friends before her +second marriage. A special chamber was kept for him at Stonor, and by an +affectionate anticipation she often refers to him as 'My son Stonor'. +Almost all her letters to her husband contain news of him--how he took +his barge at 8 a.m. in the morning and God speed him, how no writing has +come from him these eight days, how he has now written about the price +to be paid for forty sacks of Cotswold wool, how he recommends him to +Sir William and came home last Monday. Sometimes he is entrusted with +the delicate business of interviewing Dame Elizabeth's mother, a +difficult old lady with a tongue; 'God send her,' says Thomas, mopping +his brow, after one of these interviews, 'once a merry countenance or +shortly to the Minories[K]!' After another he writes to Dame Elizabeth: +'Sith I came home to London I met with my lady your mother and God wot +she made me right sullen cheer with her countenance whiles I was with +her; methought it long till I was departed. She break out to me of her +old "ffernyeres" and specially she brake to me of the tale I told her +between the vicar that was and her; she said the vicar never fared well +sith, he took it so much to heart. I told her a light answer again and +so I departed from her. I had no joy to tarry with her. She is a fine +merry woman, but ye shall not know it nor yet find it, nor none of yours +by that I see in her[15].' It was the faithful Betson, too, who was +chosen to look after his Katherine's little sister Anne when she was ill +in London, and he writes home asking for her clothes--'She hath need +unto them and that knoweth our Lord'--and complaining of the old +grandmother's behaviour: 'If my lady your mother meet my cousin Anne she +will say no more but "God's blessing have ye and mine', and so go her +way forth, as though she had no joy of her[16]." It was Betson, too, who +escorted Dame Elizabeth, when need was, from Windsor to London and wrote +to her husband: 'By the way we were right merry, thanked be God, and so +with his mercy we mean here to be merry for the season that my lady is +here, and when your mastership is ready to come hitherwards, we here +shall so welcome you that the season of your abiding shall not be +noisome, with God's grace[17].' Whereupon Sir William sends a present of +capons by the carrier to assist the merriment, and Betson reports, 'Sir, +I took two capons, but they were not the best, as ye counselled me by +your letter to take, and indeed to say the truth I could not be +suffered. My lady your wife is reasonably strong waxed, the Lord be +thanked, and she took her will in that matter like as she doth in all +other.'[18] + +[Footnote K: The convent of Minoresses, or Franciscan nuns, outside +Aldgate.] + +There are, indeed, a hundred evidences of the warmth of Betson's +affection for the Stonors and of the simple piety of his character. +Sometimes he ventures to give them good advice. Dame Elizabeth was +somewhat uplifted by her elevation from the ranks of the mercantile +bourgeoisie to a place among the country gentry, and was apt to be +extravagant, nor was her husband entirely guiltless of running up bills. +We hear of the ale brewer and the bread baker calling daily upon his +agent for money, and on one occasion the Stonors owed over L12 to +Betson's own brother, a vintner, for various pipes of red and white +wine and a butt of Rumney[L][19]. So Thomas writes to Dame Elizabeth, on +his way to the mart: 'Our blessed lord Jesus Christ preserve you both in +honour and worship virtuously to continue in God's pleasure and also to +send you good and profitable counsel and grace to do hereafter. This is +and shall be my prayer forsooth every day; your honour and worship of +countenance hereafter sticketh as nigh mine heart as doth any friend, +man or other about you, by my troth, our blessed Lord so help me. I will +avise you, Madame, to remember large expenses and beware of them, and in +likewise my master your husband; it is well done ye remember him of +them, for divers considerations, as ye know both right well. And our +blessed Lord be your comforter and help in all your good work. +Amen.'[20] A month later he hears that William Stonor has been ill and +writes to sympathize with Dame Elizabeth: 'And if I could do anything +here that might be to his pleasure and yours, I would I knew it and it +should be done withouten fail. Truly your discomfort is not my comfort, +God knoweth it. Nevertheless your ladyship must cause him to be merry +and of glad cheer, and to put away all fantasies and unthrifty thoughts, +that comes no good of, but only hurtful. A man may hurt himself by +riotous means; it is good to beware.'[21] + +[Footnote L: Greek wine.] + +Meanwhile what of little Katherine Riche? She recurs over and over in +Thomas Betson's letters. Occasionally she is in disgrace, for she was +not handy with her pen. 'I am wroth with Katherine,' writes he to her +mother, 'because she sendeth me no writing. I have to her divers times +and for lack of answer I wax weary; she might get a secretary if she +would and if she will not, it shall put me to less labour to answer her +letters again.'[22] But the important thing is that she grows steadily +older, though not quickly enough to please our lover. On Trinity Sunday +in 1478 he writes to Dame Elizabeth: 'I remember her full oft, God +know[eth] it. I dreamed once she was thirty winters of age and when I +woke I wished she had been but twenty and so by likelihood I am sooner +like to have my wish than my dream, the which I beseech Almighty Jesu +heartily when it shall please Him'[23]; and to the lady's stepfather he +writes a month later: 'I beseech you to remember my cousin Katherine. I +would she did well, God knoweth it, and ye deme, as I trow, if I had +found her at home here my comfort should have been the more; but I thank +God of all. My pain is the more; I must needs suffer as I have done in +times past, and so will I do for God's sake and hers.'[24] However, +Katherine was now fifteen years of age and was sufficiently grown up to +wed, and the next letter, written a week later to Dame Elizabeth, shows +us Thomas Betson beginning to set his house in order and getting +exceedingly bothered about laying in her trousseau, a business with +which Dame Elizabeth had, it seems, entrusted the future bridegroom. + +Madam, and it like you, I understand by your writing that it will be the +latter end of August or your ladyship can come here to London; and if it +should be so I would be sorry, for I have much to do and I can little +skill to do anything that longeth to the matter ye wot of [evidently the +preparations for Katherine] ... I must beseech your ladyship to send me +[your advice] how I shall be demeaned in such things as shall belong +unto my cousin Katherine, and how I shall provide for them. She must +have girdles, three at the least, and how they shall be made I know not, +and many other things she must have, ye know well what they be, in faith +I know not; by my troth, I would it were done, liever than more than it +shall cost.... And as for the sending hither of my Cousin Katherine, +your ladyship may do therein as it shall please you. I would she knew as +much as you know, forsooth, and then she should do some good and help me +in many things when she come.... Also, madam, as ye write me the +courteous dealing of my master with my Cousin Katherine, etc., truly I +am very glad thereof and I pray God heartily thank him therefore, for he +hath ever been lovingly disposed [unto] her, and so I beseech God ever +continue him and also my Cousin Katherine to deserve it unto him by her +goodly demeanour and womanly disposition, as she can do right well if +her list, and so saith every body that praiseth her.[25] + +The note of pride in the last words is as engaging as the impatience of +the harassed male faced with the choosing of girdles. Even more charming +is the letter which he wrote the same day to Sir William Stonor. He is a +little incoherent with joy and gratitude, full of regrets that business +keeps him from Stonor and good wishes for the health of the family. 'I +fare like a sorry piper,' he says. 'When I begin I cannot leave, but +yet once again our blessed Lord be your speed and your help,' Of +Katherine he writes thus: + +I understand by the worshipful report of your mastership the +[be]haviours of my cousin Katherine unto you, to my lady your wife and +to all other, etc.; and truly it is to me right joyful and comfortable +gladness to hear of her and I beseech our blessed Lord ever to preserve +her in all virtue and good living to his pleasure, and to reward your +mastership with heaven at your ending, for your good disposition to +herwards in good exhortations giving. And that I wot well of old, or +else truly she could not be of that disposition, virtuous and goodly, +her youth remembered and excused.... Sir, remember your mastership well +what ye have written of my Cousin Katherine; truly I shall when I speak +with her, tell her every word, and if I find the contrary. Our vicar +here, so God help me, shall cry out upon her[M] within this ten weeks +and less, and by that time I shall be ready in every point, by God's +grace, and so I would she were, forsooth ye may believe me of it.[26] + +[Footnote M: I.e. call the banns.] + +This letter was written on June 24, 1478, and Thomas probably married +his little Katherine in August or September, for when Dame Elizabeth +writes to her husband on October 5, she says, 'My son Betson and his +wife recommend them to you'[27] The poor child was to learn soon enough +some of the sorrows of a wife, for a year later Thomas Betson fell +dangerously ill, and she was nursing him and looking after his business +for all the world as though she were a grave matron and not a bride of +sixteen. Moreover, she must already have been expecting the birth of her +eldest son. William Stonor's attitude towards his partner's illness is +not without humour. He was torn between anxiety for the life of a friend +and an even greater anxiety that Betson should not die without setting +straight the business obligations between them. We hear of the illness +and of Katherine's labours in a letter from one of Stonor's agents to +his master: + +Sir, according to the commandment of your mastership, we were at Stepney +by nine of the clock; at such time as we came thither we saw the +gentleman forthwith, and in good faith he made us good cheer as a sick +man might by countenance notwithstanding, for in good faith we saw by +his demeanour that he might not prosper in this world, for Mistress +Bevice and other gentlewomen and his uncle were of the same opinion. And +we desired and prayed him to be of good comfort and so comforted him as +heartily as we could in your name and in my lady's, and so we departed +from the chamber down into the hall, and he fell into a great slumbering +and was busily moved in his spirits. And at eleven of the clock I called +his uncle out of his bed into the gentleman's chamber, and I asked his +advice and my mistress his wife, of the stock and of the demeanour +thereof for the year and the half that is last past. And touching the +stock he confessed that it was L1,160, wherein at the sight of your +acquittance in discharging of him and all his doers that shall be behind +him, the said stock shall be ready. And as for the occupation of it, as +he will answer between God and devil, the book that he bought it by ye +shall be privy thereto; and the book that he sold by ye shall be also +privy to, which two books shall be his judges, which remain in the +keeping of my mistress his wife's hands under lock and key and other +bills and obligations according, concerning the surety for divers +payments to be made to divers merchants, as the said lord saith.... And +as for the plate my mistress Jane [probably Jane Riche, the younger +sister of Katherine] and I have caused it to be taken up and set in +surety, save that that must needs by occupied. + +He sends to Sir William for information about two sums of L80 each owed +by Betson to his master and mistress, and adds: + +I trust to Jesu he shall endure till the messenger come again; longer +the physicians have not determined. The executors be three persons, my +mistress his wife, Humphrey Starkey, Recorder of London, Robert Tate, +merchant of Calais; notwithstanding I moved him, between him and me and +mistress Jane, that he should break this testament and make my mistress +his wife sole executrix. What will be done therein as yet I cannot +speak, but I shall do as I can, with God's grace.[28] + +There is something unexpected and a little vulture-like about this +gathering of creditors and seizing of plate about the death-bed of a man +who had always, after all, shown himself exceedingly affectionate +towards the Stonors and devoted to their interests, and who was now my +lady's son-in-law. The attempt to make the young wife of sixteen sole +executrix, so that she might be completely in her family's hands and +without the counsel of two experienced and disinterested merchants, has +a somewhat sinister air. The intrigues went on, and three days later +the agent writes again. It is pleasant to observe that bad-tempered old +Mistress Croke, Dame Elizabeth's mother, was not unmindful of Betson's +forbearance during those visits when she had railed upon him with her +sharp tongue: + +As for the tidings that is here, I trust to God it shall be very good. +On Thursday my lady Croke came to Stepney and brought with her Master +Brinkley to see Betson, and in faith he was a very sick man; and ere he +departed he gave him plasters to his head, to his stomach and to his +belly, [so] that he all that night was in a quiet rest. And he came to +him again on Friday ... and he was well amended and so said all the +people that were about him. Notwithstanding he will not determine him +whether he shall live or die as yet, but he may keep him alive till +Tuesday noon, he will undertake him. The cause that I write to you now +rather was because I had no certainty. Sir, there hath been many special +labours and secret i-made, sithen mistress Jane and I were come, to the +contrary disposition that we come for. I cannot write the plain[nes]s of +them as yet, for my mistress Betson attendeth, all things and counsels +laid apart, to abide and trust in your good fatherhood and in my lady, +and furthermore if he depart the world, ye shall hear tidings of her in +as goodly haste as we may purvey for her. And whether he die or live, it +is necessary and behoveful that mistress Jane depart not from her into +[i.e. until] such time as the certainty be knowen, for in truth divers +folks, which ye shall know hereafter and my lady, both thus hath and +would exhort her to a contrarier disposition, had not we been here by +time. And mistress Jane is worthy of much thank.[29] + +However, all the schemings were premature, for Betson happily recovered. +On October 10 the 'prentice' Henham writes: 'My master Betson is right +well amended, blessed be Jesus, and he is past all doubts of sickness +and he takes the sustenance right well, and as for physicians, there +come none unto him, for he hath no need of them.'[30] But another death +was at hand to break the close association between Thomas Betson and the +Stonors, for at the end of the year the kind, extravagant, affectionate +Dame Elizabeth died. It is a surprising fact that her death seems to +have brought to a close the business partnership between her husband and +her son-in-law. Henceforth the only references to Thomas Betson in the +Stonor papers are occasional notes of his debts to Stonor: doubtless he +had bought Sir William's share in their joint business. On March 10, +1480, he acknowledged obligations of L2,835 9s. 0d. to Stonor, and in +1482 he still owed L1,200.[31] It is impossible to guess why the +relationship, which was an affectionate personal friendship as well as a +business tie, should have come to such a sudden end. As the editor of +the _Stonor Letters_ remarks, 'The sincerity and honesty of Betson's +character as revealed in his letters, forbids one to suppose that he was +to blame.' + +Such was the more private and domestic side of Thomas Betson's life; but +it tells us little (save in occasional references to the Fellowship of +the Staple or the price of Cotswold wool) about that great company with +which this chapter began; and since he stands here as a type as well as +an individual, we must needs turn now to his public and business life, +and try to find out from more indirect evidence how a Merchant of the +Staple went about his business. The stapler, who would make a good +livelihood, must do two things, and give his best attention to both of +them: first, he must buy his wool from the English grower, then he must +sell it to the foreign buyer. Some of the best wool in England came from +the Cotswolds, and when you are a Merchant of the Staple you enjoy +bargaining for it, whether you want the proceeds of the great summer +clip or of the fells after the autumn sheep-killing. So Thomas Betson +rides off to Gloucestershire in the soft spring weather, his good sorrel +between his knees, and the scent of the hawthorn blowing round him as he +goes. Other wool merchants ride farther afield--into the long dales of +Yorkshire to bargain with Cistercian abbots for the wool from their huge +flocks, but he and the Celys swear by Cotswold fells (he shipped 2,348 +of them to London one July 'in the names of Sir William Stonor knight +and Thomas Betson, in the _Jesu_ of London, John Lolyngton master under +God'). May is the great month for purchases, and Northleach the great +meeting-place of staplers and wool dealers. It is no wonder that +Northleach Church is so full of woolmen's brasses, for often they knelt +there, and often the village hummed with the buyers and sellers, +exchanging orders and examining samples. The Celys bought chiefly from +two Northleach wool dealers, William Midwinter and John Busshe. The +relations between dealers and sellers were often enough close and +pleasant: Midwinter even occasionally tried to provide a customer with a +bride as well as with a cargo, and marriageable young ladies were not +unwilling to be examined over a gallon of wine and much good cheer at +the inn.[32] It is true that Midwinter was apt to be restive when his +bills remained for too long unpaid, but he may be forgiven for that. +Thomas Betson favoured the wool fells of Robert Turbot of Lamberton,[33] +and dealt also with one John Tate, with Whyte of Broadway (another +famous wool village),[34] and with John Elmes, a Henley merchant well +known to the Stonors. Midwinter, Busshe, and Elmes were all wool +dealers, or 'broggers'--middlemen, that is to say, between the farmers +who grew and the staplers who bought wool, but often the staplers dealt +directly with individual farmers, buying the small man's clip as well as +the great man's, and warm friendships sprang from the annual visits, +looked forward to in Yorkshire dale and Cotswold valley. It strikes a +pleasant note when Richard Russell, citizen and merchant of York, leaves +in his will, 'for distribution among the farmers of Yorkes Walde, from +whom I bought wool 20 l., and in the same way among the farmers of +Lyndeshay 10 l.' (1435).[35] + +The 'Cely Letters' give a mass of information about the wool buying at +Northleach. In the May of the same year in which Betson's partnership +with Stonor would seem to have ended, old Richard Cely was up there +doing business and reporting it to his son, 'Jorge Cely at Caleys'. + + I greet you well and I have received a letter from you writ + at Calais the 13th day of May (1480), the which letter I have + well understood of your being at the marts and of the sale of + my middle wool, desired by John Destermer and John Underbay. + Wherefore by the grace of God I am abusied for to ship this + foresaid 29 sarplers, the which I bought of William Midwinter + of Northleach, 26 sarplers, the which is fair wool, as the + wool packer Will Breten saith to me, and also the 3 sarplers + of the rector's is fair wool, much finer wool nor was the + year before, the which I shipped afore Easter last past. The + shipping is begun at London, but I have none shipped as yet, + but I will after these holy days, for the which I will ye + order for the freight and other costs. This same day your + brother Richard Cely is rid to Northleach for to see and cast + a sort of fell for me and another sort of fell for you.[36] + +On another occasion he writes: 'By your letter you avise me for to buy +wool in Cotswold, for which I shall have of John Cely his gathering 30 +sack, and of Will Midwinter of Northleach 40 sack. And I am avised to +buy no more; wool in Cotswold is at great price, 13s. 4d. a tod, and +great riding for wool in Cotswold as was any year this seven year.'[37] +What a picture it calls up of merchants trotting along the roads and +looking as Chaucer often saw them look: + +A Marchant was ther with a forked berd, +In motteleye and hye on horse he sat, +Upon his heed a Flaundryssh bever hat, +His boots clasped faire and fetisly; +His resons he spak ful solempnely, +Sounynge alway thencrees of his wynnyng. + +Often at Northleach Betson must have encountered his brethren of the +Staple, the staid old merchant Richard Cely among the rest, and son +George who rides with 'Meg', his hawk, on his wrist, and has a horse +called 'Bayard' and another called 'Py'; and perhaps also John Barton of +Holme beside Newark, the proud stapler who set as a 'posy' in the +stained glass windows of his house this motto: + +I thank God and ever shall +It is the sheepe hath payed for all;[38] + +though indeed it is unlikely that he came as far south as the Cotswolds +for his wool. Sometimes also Betson meets upon the road his rivals, +stout, self-possessed Flemings and thin sleek Lombards with black eyes +and gesticulating hands, who have no business in the Cotswolds at all, +but ought to be buying wool in the mart at Calais. But they come, and +all good Englishmen are angry at their tricks and angrier still perhaps +at their successful trade. 'I have not as yet packed my wool in London,' +writes old Richard Cely on October 29, 1480; 'nor have I not bought this +year a lock of wool, for the wool of Cotswold is bought by Lombards, +wherefore I have the less haste for to pack my wool at London';[39] and +his son writes to him on November 16 from Calais: 'There is but little +Cotswold wool at Calais and I understand Lombards has bought it up in +England.'[40] It is true that the Celys, other English merchants too, +are not unwilling to conclude private bargains from time to time with +foreign buyers in England. Two years later their agent, William Cely, +writes to advise them that two Flemish merchants are now trying to buy +in England contrary to the ordinance, and that those in authority at +Calais have got wind of it, and therefore his masters must take care and +make Wyllykyn and Peter Bale pay at Calais, 'but as for your dealings +knoweth no man, without they search Peter Bale's books.'[41] The upright +Betson no doubt eschewed such tricks and resented particularly the +clever usurious Lombards, so full of financial dodges to trick the +English merchant, for did they not buy the wool in England on credit, +riding about as they list in the Cotswolds? + +In Cotteswolde also they ryde aboute +And al Englonde, and bien wythouten doute, +What them liste, wythe fredome and fraunchise +More then we Englisshe may getyn in any wyse. + +And then did they not carry the wool to Flanders and sell it for ready +money at a loss of five per cent, thereafter lending out this money at +heavy usury, mostly to the English merchants themselves, so that by the +time pay day came in England, they had realized a heavy profit? + +And thus they wold, if we will beleve +Wypen our nose with our owne sleve, +Thow this proverbe be homly and undew, +Yet be liklynesse it is forsoth fulle trew.[42] + +The next serious piece of business Thomas Betson must take in hand is +the packing and shipping of his wool to Calais. Here he found himself +enmeshed in the regulations of the company and the Crown, ever on the +look-out for fraud in the packing or description of the staple product. +The wool had to be packed in the county from which it came, and there +were strict regulations against mixing hair and earth or rubbish with +it. The collectors appointed by the company for the different +wool-growing districts, and sworn in before the Exchequer, rode round +and sealed each package, so that it could not be opened without breaking +the seal. Then the great bales were carried on the backs of pack-horses +'by the ancient trackways over the Wiltshire and Hampshire Downs, which +had been used before the Roman conquest, and thence through Surrey and +Kent to the Medway ports by the Pilgrims' Way.' At the different ports +the collectors of customs were ready to enter on their rolls the names +of the merchants shipping wool, together with the quantity and +description of wool shipped by each.[43] Some of the wool came to London +itself, where many of the staplers had offices in Mark Lane (which is a +corruption of Mart Lane) and was weighed for the assessment of the +customs and subsidy at the Leadenhall.[44] In this business Thomas +Betson was helped by Stonor's three assistants or 'prentices', as they +call themselves, Thomas Henham, Goddard Oxbridge, and Thomas Howlake, +for the last of whom he had a warm corner in his heart, because the +young man was gentle to little Katherine Riche. These men were sometimes +at the Stonors' London warehouse and sometimes at their house in Calais, +and they saved Betson a good deal of trouble, being experienced enough +to oversee both the packing of wool in London and its sale in Calais. + +To Calais the wool thus packed, and weighed and marked and assessed by +the customs officer, was carried in the ships of Calais itself, or of +the little ports on the east or south-eastern coast of England, many of +which are mere villages today. For ships put out not only from Hull and +Colchester, but from Brightlingsea, Rotherhithe, Walberswick in Suffolk, +Rainham in Essex, Bradwell, Maidstone, Milton, Newhithe, and Milhall. In +August 1478, the Celys were paying the masters of twenty-one different +ships for the freight of their sarplers of wool after the summer +clip.[45] All through the summer the shipping went on, and right up to +Christmas; but during the winter months the merchants were mostly +sending over fells or sheepskins, after the great slaughter of sheep and +cattle which took place at Martinmas, when housewives salted down their +meat for the winter and farmers made delivery of the fells and hides, +for which the staplers had long ago bargained. Very often merchants' +letters and customs accounts give us the names of these doughty little +ships and their cargoes. In the October of 1481, for instance, the Celys +were shipping a consignment of fells: + +Right worshipful sir, after due recommendation I lowly recommend unto +you, letting you understand that my master hath shipped his fells at the +port of London now at this shipping in October ..., which fells ye must +receive and pay the freight first by the grace of God, in the 'Mary' of +London, William Sordyvale master, 7 packs, sum 2800, lying be aft the +mast, one pack lieth up rest and some of that pack is summer fells +marked with an O, and then lieth 3 packs fells of William Daltons and +under them lieth the other 6 packs of my masters. Item in the +'Christopher' of Rainham, Harry Wylkyns master, 7 packs and a half +Cots[wold] fell, sum 3000 pelt, lying be aft the mast, and under them +lieth a 200 fells of Welther Fyldes, William Lyndys man of Northampton, +and the partition is made with small cords. Item, in the 'Thomas' of +Maidstone, Harry Lawson master, 6 pokes, sum 2400 pelt, whereof lieth 5 +packs next before the mast under hatches, no man above them, and one +pack lieth in the stern sheet; of the six packs fells be some summer +fells marked with an O likewise. Item, in the 'Mary Grace' of London, +John Lokyngton master 6 packs, sum 2400 pelt, lying be aft under the +fells of Thomas Graunger, the partition between them is made with red; +sum of the fells my master hath shipped at this time 26 packs and a half +whereof be winter fells of the country 561 fells and they be marked with +an C, and of summer fells there should be 600 and more, but part of them +be left behind, for we have two packs we could have no appointment for +them, and all the summer fells be marked with an O. Item, sir, ye shall +receive of the 'Mary' of Rainham, John Danyell master, your _male_ +[trunk] with your gear and a Essex cheese marked with my master's mark. + +And so on, with details of the number of fells shipped in like manner by +the _Michael_ of Hull and the _Thomas_ of Newhithe, where they lay 'next +the mast aftward under the fells of Thomas Betson's', over 11,000 fells +in all.[46] + +How invigorating is such a list of ships. Cargoes are the most romantic +of topics, whether they be apes and ivory and peacocks, or 'cheap tin +trays'; and since the day that Jason sailed to Colchis fleeces have ever +been among the most romantic of cargoes. How they smack of the salt too, +those old master mariners, Henry Wilkins, master of the _Christopher_ of +Rainham, John Lollington, master of the _Jesu_ of London, Robert Ewen, +master of the _Thomas_ of Newhithe, and all the rest of them, waving +their hands to their wives and sweethearts as they sail out of the +sparkling little bays, with the good woolsacks abaft or under +hatches--shipmen, all of them, after Chaucer's heart: + +But of his craft, to rekene wel his tydes +His stremes and his daungers hym besides, +His herberwe and his moone, his lodemenage, +Ther was noon swich from Hulle to Cartage. +Hardy he was, and wys to undertake: +With many a tempest hadde his berd been shake; +He knew wel alle the havenes, as they were, +From Gootland to the Cape of Fynystere, +And every cryke in Britaigne and in Spayne. +His barge y-cleped was the Maudelayne. + +Their ships were doubtless like the _Margaret Cely_, which the two Cely +brothers bought and called after their mother, for the not excessive sum +of L28, exclusive of rigging and fittings. She carried a master, +boatswain, cook, and sixteen jolly sailor-men, and she kept a good look +out for pirates and was armed with cannon and bows, bills, five dozen +darts, and twelve pounds of gunpowder! She was victualled with salt +fish, bread, wheat and beer, and she plied with the Celys' trade to +Zealand, Flanders, and Bordeaux.[47] She must have been about two +hundred tons, but some of the other little ships were much smaller, for, +as the learned editor of the _Cely Papers_ tells us, 'The ships of the +little Medway ports could scarcely have been of thirty tons to navigate +the river safely; the "Thomas" of Maidstone can have been only a barge, +if she had to pass Aylesford Bridge.'[48] But they navigated the channel +and dodged the pirates blithely enough, though often Thomas Betson at +Calais was nervous about the safe arrival of the wool fleet. Like +Chaucer's merchant, + +He wolde the see were kept for any thing +Betwixe Middelburgh and Orewelle. + +Side by side with George or Richard Cely he must often have strained his +eyes from the quay, with the salt wind blowing out the feather in his +cap, and breathed a thanksgiving to God when the ships hove in sight. +'And, Sir,' he writes once to Stonor from London, 'thanked be the good +Lord, I understand for certain that our wool shipped be comen in ... to +Calais. I would have kept the tidings till I had comen myself, because +it is good, but I durst not be so bold, for your mastership now against +this good time may be glad and joyful of these tidings, for in truth I +am glad and heartily thank God of it.'[49] The 'prentice' Thomas Henham +writes likewise three weeks later: 'I departed from Sandwich the 11th +day of April and so came unto Calais upon Sher Thursday[N] last with the +wool ships, and so blessed be Jesu I have received your wools in safety. +Furthermore, Sir, if it please your mastership for to understand this, I +have received your wools as fair and as whole as any man's in the fleet. +Moreover, Sir, if it please your mastership for to understand how your +wool was housed ever deal by Easter even. Furthermore, Sir, if it please +your mastership for to understand that the shipman be content and paid +of their freight.'[50] The Celys write in the same strain too: 'This day +the 16th of August the wool fleet came to Calais both of London and +Ipswich in safety, thanked be God, and this same day was part landed and +it riseth fair yet, thanked be God.'[51] Their letters tell us too what +danger it was that they feared. 'I pray Jesu send you safe hither and +soon,' writes Richard to his 'right well beloved brother George', on +June 6, 1482. 'Robert Eryke was chased with Scots between Calais and +Dover. They scaped narrow.'[52] There are many such chases recorded, and +we hear too of wool burnt under hatches or cast overboard in a +storm.[53] + +[Footnote N: I.e. Shrove Thursday.] + +Thomas Betson and the Celys travelled very often across the Channel in +these ships, which carried passengers and letters, and they were almost +as much at home in Calais as in London. When in Calais English merchants +were not allowed to live anywhere they liked, all over the town. The +Company of the Staple had a list of regular licensed 'hosts', in whose +houses they might stay. Usually a number of merchants lived with each +host, the most potent, grave, and reverend seniors dining at a high +table, and smaller fry at side tables in the hall. Sometimes they +quarrelled over terms, as when William Cely writes home one day to +Richard and George in London: + +Item. Sir, please it you to understand that here is a variance betwixt +our host Thomas Graunger and the fellowship, of our lodging, for Thomas +Graunger promised us at his coming in to our lodging that we should pay +no more for our board but 3s. 4d. a week at the high table, and 2s. 6d. +at the side table, and now he saith he will have no less than 4s. a week +at the high table and 40d. at the side table, wherefore the fellowship +here will depart into other lodgings, some to one place and some to +another, William Dalton will be at Robert Torneys and Ralph Temyngton +and master Brown's man of Stamford shall be at Thomas Clarke's and so +all the fellowship departs save I, wherefore I let your masterships have +knowledge, that ye may do as it shall like you best.[54] + +But Thomas Betson never fell out with his hosts, whose only complaint of +him must have been that he sat long over his love letters and came down +late to dinner. + +There was business enough for him to do at Calais. First of all, when +the wool was landed, it had to be inspected by the Royal officers, to +see that it had been properly labelled, and their skilled packers +examined, repacked, and resealed the bales. This was an anxious moment +for merchants who were conscious of inferior wool among their bulging +sarplers. The honest Betson, we may be certain, never cheated, but the +Celys knew more than a little about the tricks of the trade, and one +year, when the Lieutenant of Calais took out sarpler No. 24, which their +agent, William Cely, knew to be poor wool, in order to make a test, he +privily substitutes No. 8, which was 'fair wool' and changed the labels, +so that he was soon able to write home, 'Your wool is awarded by the +sarpler that I cast out last.'[55] No wonder Gower said that Trick was +regent of the Staple, + +Siq'en le laines maintenir +Je voi plusours descontenir +Du loyalte la viele usance.[56] + +Then there was the custom and subsidy to be paid to the Mayor and +Fellowship of the Staple, who collected it for the King. And then came +the main business of every merchant, the selling of the wool. Thomas +Betson preferred, of course, to sell it as quickly as possible, as the +ships came in, but sometimes the market was slow and wool remained for +some months on his hands. Such wool from the summer sheep shearing, +shipped in or before the month of February following, and remaining +unsold by April 6th, was classed as old wool, and the Fellowship of the +Staple ordained that foreign buyers must take one sarpler of old wool +with every three of new; and although the Flemings grumbled and wanted +to take one of old to five of new, they had to put up with the +regulation.[57] A great deal of Betson's business would be done at the +mart of Calais itself, where he met with the dignified Flemish +merchants, scions of old families with estates of their own, and the +more plebeian merchants of Delft and Leyden, and the wool dealers from +sunny Florence and Genoa and Venice. Among the best customers both of +the Stonors and the Celys (for they are mentioned in the letters of +both) were Peter and Daniel van de Rade of Bruges. Thomas Howlake on one +occasion reports a sale of four sarplers of fine Cotswold wool to them +at 19 marks the sack, with a rebate of 4-1/2 cloves on the sack of 52, +and adds: 'Sir, an it please you, as for the foresaid merchants that +have bought your wool, [they] be as good as any that came out of +Flanders and for that I have showed them the more favour and given them +the more respite of that.'[58] + +The staplers, however, did not do business at Calais alone, but rode +also to the great fairs at Antwerp, Bruges, and the country round. +'Thomas Betson,' writes Henham to his master, 'came unto Calais the last +day of April and so he departed in good health unto Bruges mart the +first day of May.'[59] + +But so bifel this marchant on a day +Shoop hym to make redy his array +Toward the toun of Brugges for to fare, +To byen there a porcioun of ware--[60] + +only it was to 'sellen' a portion that Betson went. He himself writes +Sir William: 'Liketh it you to wit that on Trinity even I came to Calais +and, thanked be the good Lord, I had a full fair passage, and, Sir, with +God's might I intend on Friday next to depart to the mart-wards. I +beseech the good Lord be my speed and help me in all my works. And, Sir, +I trust to God's mercy, if the world be merry here, to do somewhat that +shall be both to your profit and mine. As yet there cometh but few +merchants here; hereafter with God's grace there will come more. I shall +lose no time when the season shall come, I promise you.... And, Sir, +when I come from the mart I shall send you word of all matters by the +mercy of our Lord.'[61] At the fairs Betson would meet with a great +crowd of merchants from all over Europe, though often enough political +disturbances made the roads dangerous and merchants ran some risk of +being robbed. The English traders were commonly reputed to be the best +sellers and customers at the fairs of Flanders and Brabant, though the +Flemings sometimes complained of them, and said that the staplers made +regulations forbidding their merchants to buy except on the last day, +when the Flemish sellers, anxious to pack and be off, let their goods go +at insufficient prices.[62] The author of the _Libelle of Englyshe +Polycye_ boasts proudly of the custom brought by the English to +these marts: + +But they of Holonde at Calyse byene oure felles, +And oure wolles, that Englyshe men hem selles... +And wee to martis of Braban charged bene +Wyth Englysshe clothe, fulle gode and feyre to seyne, +Wee bene ageyne charged wyth mercerye +Haburdasshere ware and wyth grocerye, +To whyche martis, that Englisshe men call feyres +Iche nacion ofte makethe here repayeres, +Englysshe and Frensh, Lumbards, Januayes [Genoese], +Cathalones, theder take here wayes, +Scottes, Spaynardes, Iresshmen there abydes, +Wythe grete plente bringing of salt hydes, +And I here saye that we in Braban lye, +Flaunders and Seland, we bye more marchaundy +In common use, then done all other nacions; +This have I herde of marchaundes relacions, +And yff the Englysshe be not in the martis, +They bene febelle and as nought bene here partes; +For they bye more and fro purse put owte +More marchaundy than alle other rowte.[63] + +Fairs were held at different times in different places, but there were +during the year four great fair seasons corresponding to the four +seasons in the year.[64] There was the Cold mart in the winter, to which +Thomas Betson rode muffled in fur, with his horse's hoofs ringing on the +frosty roads; there was the Pask (_Pasques,_ Easter) mart in the spring, +when he whistled blithely and stuck a violet in his cap; there was the +Synxon (St John) mart in the summer, round about St John the Baptist's +Day, when he was hot and mopped his brow, and bought a roll of tawny +satin or Lucca silk for Katherine from a Genoese in a booth at Antwerp; +and there was the Balms, or Bammys mart in the autumn, round about the +day of St Remy, whom the Flemings call St Bamis (October 28), when he +would buy her a fur of budge or mink, or a mantle of fine black shanks +from the Hansards at their mart in Bruges. It was at these marts that +the Merchants of the Staple, jaunting about from place to place to meet +buyers for their wool, did a hundred little commissions for their +friends; for folk at home were apt to think that staplers existed to do +their errands for them abroad and to send them presents. One wanted a +pair of Louvain gloves, the other a sugar loaf, the other a pipe of +Gascon wine ('You can get it cheaper over there, my dear'), the other a +yard or two of Holland cloth; while ginger and saffron were always +welcome, and could be bought from the Venetians, whom the Celys spell +'Whenysyans'. Then, of course, there were purchases to be made in the +way of business, such as Calais packthread and canvas from Arras or +Brittany or Normandy to pack the bales of wool.[65] As to the Celys, +Thomas Betson was wont to say that their talk was of nothing but sport +and buying hawks, save on one gloomy occasion, when George Cely rode for +ten miles in silence and then confided to him that over in England his +grey bitch had whelped and had fourteen pups, and then died and the pups +with her.[66] + +Between the counting-house in Calais and the fairs and marts of the +country Thomas Betson would dispose of his wool and fells. But his +labour did not end here, for he would now have to embark upon the +complicated business of collecting money from his customers, the Flemish +merchants, and with it paying his creditors in England, the Cotswold +wool dealers. It was customary for the staplers to pay for their wool +by bills due, as a rule, at six months, and Thomas Betson would be hard +put to meet them if the foreign buyers delayed to pay him. Moreover, his +difficulties were inconceivably complicated by the exchanges. We think +we know something about the difficulty of divers and fluctuating +exchanges today, but we can hardly imagine the elaborate calculations +and the constant disputes which racked the brain of a Merchant of the +Staple in the fifteenth century. Not only did the rates between England +and the Continent constantly vary, but, as the editor of the _Cely +Papers_ points out, 'the number of potentates of all kinds who claimed +the privilege of issuing their own coinage and the frequently suspicious +character of what they uttered as gold and silver, made the matter of +adjustment of values difficult for the Celys, who were evidently obliged +to take what they could get.'[67] Only imagine the difficulties of poor +Thomas Betson, when into his counting-house there wandered in turn the +Andrew guilder of Scotland, the Arnoldus gulden of Gueldres (very much +debased), the Carolus groat of Charles of Burgundy, new crowns and old +crowns of France, the David and the Falewe of the Bishopric of Utrecht, +the Hettinus groat of the Counts of Westphalia, the Lewe or French Louis +d'or, the Limburg groat, the Milan groat, the Nimueguen groat, the +Phelippus or Philippe d'or of Brabant, the Plaques of Utrecht, the +Postlates of various bishops, the English Ryall (worth ten shillings), +the Scots Rider or the Rider of Burgundy (so called because they bore +the figure of a man on horseback), the Florin Rhenau of the Bishopric of +Cologne and the Setillers.[68] He had to know the value in English money +of them all, as it was fixed for the time being by the Fellowship, and +most of them were debased past all reason. Indeed, English money enjoyed +an enviable good fame in this respect until Henry VIII began debasing +the coinage for his own nefarious ends. The letters of the Celys are +full of worried references to the exchange, and much we should pity +Thomas Betson. But doubtless he was like Chaucer's bearded merchant: +'Wel koude he in exchaunge sheeldes [French crowns] selle.' + +[Illustration: VII. CALAIS ABOUT THE TIME OF THOMAS BETSON] + +To effect their payments between England and the Netherlands the +staplers used to make use of the excellent banking facilities and +instruments of credit (bills of exchange and so forth), which were +placed at their disposal by Italian and Spanish merchants and by the +English mercers, all of whom combined trading with financial operations. +Thus we find William Cely writing to his masters: + +[Illustration: VIII. THOMAS PAYCOCKE'S HOUSE AT COGGESHALL] + +Please your masterships to understand that I have received of John +Delowppys upon payment of the bill, the which is sent me by Adlington +but L300 fleming, whereof I have paid to Gynott Strabant L84 _6s. 6d_. +fleming. Item, I have made you over by exchange with Benynge Decasonn, +Lombard, 180 nobles sterling, payable at usance. I delivered it at _11s. +2-1/2d_. fleming the noble, it amounteth L100 _17s. 6d_. fleming. Item, +I have made you over by exchange in like wise with Jacob van de Base 89 +nobles and _6s_. sterling, payable at London at usuance in like wise; I +delivered it at _11s. 2d_. fleming for every noble sterling; it +amounteth fl.--L50 fleming and the rest of your L300 remains still by +me, for I can make you over no more at this season, for here is no more +that will take any money as yet. And money goeth now upon the bourse at +_11s. 3-1/2d_. the noble and none other money but Nimueguen groats, +crowns, Andrew guilders and Rhenish guilders, and the exchange goeth +ever the longer worse and worse. Item, sir, I send you enclosed in this +said letter, the two first letters of the payment of the exchange above +written. Benynge Decasonn's letter is directed to Gabriel Defuye and +Peter Sanly, Genoese, and Jacob van de Base's is directed to Anthony +Carsy and Marcy Strossy, Spaniards; in Lombard Street ye shall hear +of them.[69] + +A week later he writes: + +I understand your masterships hath taken up by exchange of John Raynold, +mercer, L60 sterling, payable the 25th day of the month and of Deago +Decastron [Diego da Castro, a Spaniard] other L60 sterling, payable the +26th day of the same month, the which shall be both content at the day; +and as for master Lewis More, Lombard, [he] is paid and I have the bill; +his attorney is a wrangling fellow--he would none other money but +Nimueguen groats.[70] + +Many a letter such as this must Thomas Betson have written at his +lodgings, sitting so late over his work that he must needs write to his +friends when he ought to be sleeping and date his letters: 'At London, +on our Lady day in the night, when I deem ye were in your bed, for mine +eyne smarted, so God help me.'[71] And when he came to make up his +annual accounts he had the hardest work of all to do. Here is a portrait +of him at his labours: + +The thridde day this marchant up ariseth, +And on his nedes sadly hym avyseth, +And up into his countour-hous gooth he, +To rekene with hymself, as wel may be, +Of thilke yeer, how that it with hymn stood, +And how that he despended hadde his good, +And if that he encressed were or noon. +His bookes and his bagges, many oon, +He leith biform hymn on his countyng-bord. +Ful riche was his tresor and his hord, +For which ful faste his countour dore he shette; +And eek he nolde that no man sholde hymn lette +Of his accountes, for the meene tyme; +And thus he sit til it was passed pry me.[72] + +Thus was passed the life of a Merchant of the Staple: in riding to the +Cotswold farms for wool; in business at the counting-houses in Marks +Lane; in sailing from London to Calais and from Calais to London again; +in dealing with merchant strangers at the mart in Calais, or riding to +the marts of Flanders in fair time. The great company sheltered him, +arranged his lodging, kept a sharp eye on the quality of his wool, made +rules for his buying and selling, and saw that he had justice in its +court. It was in this setting of hard and withal of interesting work +that Thomas Betson's love story flowered into a happy marriage. He was +not destined to live long after his recovery from the serious illness of +1479; perhaps it left him permanently delicate, for he died some six +years later, in 1486. During her seven years of married life (beginning, +be it remembered, at the age of fifteen), the diligent Katherine had +borne him five children, two sons, Thomas and John, and three daughters, +Elizabeth, Agnes, and Alice. Fortunately Thomas died very comfortably +off, as his will (still preserved in Somerset House) informs us. He had +become a member of the Fishmongers' Company as well as a Merchant of the +Staple, for by his time the great city companies were no longer confined +to persons actually engaged in the trade which each represented. In his +will[73] Thomas Betson leaves money for the repair of the roof loft in +his parish church of All Hallows, Barking, where he was buried, and +'thirty pounds to the garnishing of the Staple Chapel in Our Lady Church +at Calais, to buy some jewel', and twenty pounds to the +'Stockfishmongers' to buy plate. He makes the latter company the +guardian of his children, leaves his house to his wife, and a legacy of +40_s_. to Thomas Henham, his colleague in Stonor's service, and +characteristically gives directions 'for the costs of my burying to be +done not outrageously, but soberly and discreetly and in a mean +[moderate, medium] manner, that it may be unto the worship and laud of +Almighty God.' Katherine, a widow with five children at the age of +twenty-two, married as her second husband William Welbech, haberdasher +(the Haberdashers were a wealthy company), by whom she had another son. +But her heart stayed with the husband who wrote her her first playful +love-letter when she was a child, and on her death in 1510 she directed +that she should be laid by the side of Thomas Betson at All Hallows, +Barking, where three staplers still lie beneath their brasses, although +no trace of him remains.[74] There let them lie, long forgotten, and yet +worthier of memory than many of the armoured knights who sleep under +carved sepulchres in our beautiful medieval churches. + + The garlands wither on your brow; + Then boast no more your mighty deeds! + Upon Death's purple altar now + See where the victor-victim bleeds. + Your heads must come + To the cold tomb: + Only the actions of the just + Smell sweet and blossom in their dust. + + + + +CHAPTER VII + +_Thomas Paycocke of Coggeshall_ + +AN ESSEX CLOTHIER IN THE DAYS OF HENRY VII + + This was a gallant cloathier sure + Whose fame for ever shall endure. + --THOMAS DELONEY + + +The great and noble trade of cloth-making has left many traces upon the +life of England, architectural, literary, and social. It has filled our +countryside with magnificent Perpendicular churches and gracious +oak-beamed houses. It has filled our popular literature with old wives' +tales of the worthies of England, in which the clothiers Thomas of +Reading and Jack of Newbury rub elbows with Friar Bacon and Robin Hood. +It has filled our shires with gentlemen; for, as Defoe observed, in the +early eighteenth century 'many of the great families who now pass for +gentry in the western counties have been originally raised from and +built up by this truly noble manufacture'. It has filled our census +lists with surnames--Weaver, Webber, Webb, Sherman, Fuller, Walker, +Dyer--and given to every unmarried woman the designation of a spinster. +And from the time when the cloth trade ousted that of wool as the chief +export trade of England down to the time when it was in its turn ousted +by iron and cotton, it was the foundation of England's commercial +greatness. 'Among all Crafts,' says old Deloney, 'this was the only +chief, for that it was the greatest merchandize, by the which our +Country became famous thorowout all Nations.'[1] + +Already by the end of the fourteenth century the English clothiers were +beginning to rival those of the Netherlands in the making of fine cloth, +as witness Chaucer's Wife of Bath: + +Of clooth-making she hadde swiche an haunt +She passed hem of Ypres and of Gaunt, + +and by the end of the sixteenth century all real rivalry was at an end, +for the English manufacture was so clearly victorious. With the +development of the manufacture a change too took place in its +organization. It had never been an easy industry to organize on a gild +basis, because the making of a piece of cloth entailed so many distinct +processes. The preliminary processes of spinning and carding were always +by-industries, performed by women and children in their cottages; but +the weavers, who bought the spun yarn, had their gild; and so had the +fullers, who fulled it; and the shearmen, who finished it; and the dyers +who dyed it. All could not sell the finished piece of cloth, and in the +group of inter-dependent crafts, each with its gild, we sometimes find +the weavers employing the fullers and sometimes the fullers the weavers. +Moreover, since weaving is a much quicker process than spinning, the +weaver often wasted much time and found it hard to collect enough yarn +to keep his loom busy; and, as the market for cloth grew wider and was +no longer confined to the town of the weaver, the need was felt for some +middleman to specialize in the selling of the finished cloth. So by +degrees there grew up a class of men who bought wool in large quantities +and sold it to the weavers, and then by a natural transition began, not +to sell the wool outright, but to deliver it to the weavers to weave, to +the fullers to full, and to the shearmen to finish at a wage, receiving +it back again when the work was done. These men grew rich; they amassed +capital; they could set many folk at work. Soon they began to set to +work all the different workers who combined to make a piece of cloth; +their servants carried wool to the cottages for the women to card and +spin; carried the spun yarn in turn to dyers, weavers, fullers, +shearers; and carried the finished piece of cloth back to the industrial +middleman--the clothier, as he was called--who in his turn disposed of +it to the mercantile middleman, who was called a draper. The clothiers +grew rapidly in wealth and importance, and in certain parts of the +country became the backbone of the middle class. They pursued their +activities in country villages, rather than in the old corporate towns, +for they wished to avoid the restrictions of the gilds, and gradually +the cloth industry migrated almost entirely to the country. In the west +of England and in East Anglia (though not in Yorkshire) it was carried +out by clothiers on this 'putting out' system, right up to the moment +when the Industrial Revolution swept it out of the cottages into the +factories and out of the south into the north. Then the thriving +villages emptied themselves, so that today we must needs re-create again +from scattered traces and old buildings, and still older names, the once +familiar figures of the East Anglian clothier and his swarm of +busy workmen. + +Such a familiar figure was once old Thomas Paycocke, clothier, of +Coggeshall in Essex, who died full of years and honour in 1518. His +family originally came from Clare, in Suffolk, but about the middle of +the fifteenth century a branch settled at Coggeshall, a village not far +distant. His grandfather and father would seem to have been grazing +butchers, but he and his brother and their descendants after them +followed 'the truly noble manufacture' of cloth-making, and set an +indelible mark upon the village where they dwelt. Coggeshall lies in the +great cloth-making district of Essex, of which Fuller wrote: 'This +county is charactered like Bethsheba, "She layeth her hand to the +spindle and her hands hold the distaffe."... It will not be amiss to +pray that the plough may go along and the wheel around, that so (being +fed by the one and clothed by the other) there may be, by God's +blessing, no danger of starving in our nation[2] All over Essex there +lay villages famous for cloth-making, Coggeshall and Braintree, Bocking +and Halstead, Shalford and Dedham, and above all Colchester, the great +centre and mart of the trade. The villages throve on the industry and +there was hardly a cottage which did not hum with the spinning wheel, +and hardly a street where you might not have counted weavers' workshops, +kitchens where the rough loom stood by the wall to occupy the goodman's +working hours. Hardly a week but the clatter of the pack-horse would be +heard in the straggling streets, bringing in new stores of wool to be +worked and taking away the pieces of cloth to the clothiers of +Colchester and the surrounding villages. Throughout the fifteenth +century Coggeshall was an important centre, second only to the great +towns of Norwich, Colchester, and Sudbury, and to this day its two inns +are called the 'Woolpack' and the 'Fleece.' We must, as I said, build up +the portrait of Thomas Paycocke and his compeers from scattered traces; +but happily such traces are common enough in many and many an English +village, and in Coggeshall itself they lie ready to our hand. Out of +three things he can be brought to life again--to wit, his house in the +village street, his family brasses in the aisle of the village church, +and his will, which is preserved at Somerset House. A house, a brass, a +will--they seem little enough, but they hold all his history. It is the +greatest error to suppose that history must needs be something written +down; for it may just as well be something built up, and churches, +houses, bridges, or amphitheatres can tell their story as plainly as +print for those who have eyes to read. The Roman villa, excavated after +lying lost for centuries beneath the heel of the unwitting +ploughboy--that villa with its spacious ground-plan, its floors rich +with mosaic patterns, its elaborate heating apparatus, and its shattered +vases--brings home more clearly than any textbook the real meaning of +the Roman Empire, whose citizens lived like this in a foggy island at +the uttermost edge of its world. The Norman castle, with moat and +drawbridge, gatehouse and bailey and keep, arrow slits instead of +windows, is more eloquent than a hundred chronicles of the perils of +life in the twelfth century; not thus dwelt the private gentleman in the +days of Rome. The country manor-house of the fourteenth century, with +courtyard and chapel and hall and dovecote, speaks of an age of peace +once more, when life on a thousand little manors revolved round the +lord, and the great mass of Englishmen went unscathed by the Hundred +Years' War which seamed the fair face of France. Then begin the +merchants' elaborate Perpendicular houses in the towns and villages of +the fifteenth century, standing on the road, with gardens behind them, +and carved beams, great fire-places, and a general air of comfort; they +mark the advent of a new class in English history--the middle class, +thrust between lord and peasant and coming to its own. How the spacious +days of great Elizabeth are mirrored in the beautiful Elizabethan +houses, with their wide wings and large rooms, their chimneys, their +glass windows, looking outwards on to open parks and spreading trees, +instead of inwards on to the closed courtyard. Or go into a house built +or redecorated in the eighteenth century, where you will see Chippendale +chairs and lacquer tables and Chinese wall-papers covered with pagodas +and mandarins; and surely there will come to your mind the age of the +nabobs, the age which John Company had familiarized with the products of +the Far East, the age in which tea ousted coffee as the drink for a +gentleman of fashion, in which Horace Walpole collected porcelain, +Oliver Goldsmith idealized China in 'The Citizen of the World', and Dr +Johnson was called the Great Cham of Literature. Look here upon this +picture and on this: look at that row of jerry-built houses, a hundred +in a row and all exactly alike, of that new-art villa, all roof and +hardly any window, with false bottle glass in its panes; here is the +twentieth century for you. Indeed all the social and very much of the +political history of England may be reconstructed from her architecture +alone; and so I make no apology for calling Thomas Paycocke's house +first-rate historical evidence. + +Of much the same type, though less interesting, is the evidence of +monumental brasses, which are to be found in most parts of England and +which abound in East Anglia, the Home Counties, and the Thames +Valley.[3] Their variety is magnificent; brasses of ecclesiastics in +vestments, of doctors of law and divinity and masters of arts in +academic dress and of a few abbots and abbesses; brasses of knights in +Armour; brasses of ladies, with their little dogs at their feet and +dresses which show the changes in fashion from century to century and +make clear all the mysteries of kirtles and cotte-hardies, wimples and +partlets and farthingales and the head-dresses appropriate to each +successive mode. The brasses also, like the houses, bear witness to the +prosperity of the middle class, for in the fourteenth century when +merchants began to build themselves fine houses they began also to bury +themselves under splendid brasses. Finest of all, perhaps, are the +brasses of the wool staplers, with feet resting on woolpack or sheep; +but there are many other merchants too. Mayors and aldermen abound; they +set their merchants' marks upon their tombs as proudly as gentlemen set +their coats of arms, and indeed they had as great cause for pride. You +may see them at their proudest in the famous brass at Lynn, where Robert +Braunch lies between his two wives, and at his feet is incised a scene +representing the feast at which he entertained Edward III royally and +feasted him on peacocks. There is a tailor with his shears, as glorious +as the Crusader's sword, at Northleach, and a wine merchant with his +feet upon a wine cask at Cirencester. There are smaller folk, too, less +dowered with wealth but proud enough of the implements of their craft; +two or three public notaries with penhorn and pencase complete, a +huntsman with his horn, and in Newland Church one of the free miners of +the Forest of Dean, cap and leather breeches tied below the knee, wooden +mine-hod over shoulder, a small mattock in his right hand, and a +candlestick between his teeth. This kind of historical evidence will +help us with Thomas Paycocke. His family brasses were set in the north +aisle of the parish church of St Peter Ad Vincula. Several of them have +disappeared in the course of the last century and a half, and unluckily +no brass of Thomas himself survives; but in the aisle there still lie +two--the brass of his brother John, who died in 1533, and John's wife, +and that of his nephew, another Thomas, who died in 1580; the merchant's +mark may still be seen thereon. + +Lastly, there is the evidence of the Paycocke wills, of which three are +preserved at Somerset House--the will of John Paycocke _(d._ 1505), +Thomas's father and the builder of the house; the will of Thomas +Paycocke himself _(d._ 1518); and the will of his nephew Thomas, the +same whose brass lies in the aisle and who left a long and splendidly +detailed testament, full of information upon local history and the +organization of the cloth industry. For social historians have as yet +hardly, perhaps, made as much use as they might of the evidence of +wills. The enormous amount of miscellaneous information to be derived +therefrom about the life of our forefathers can hardly be believed, save +by those who have turned the pages of such a collection as the great +_Testamenta Eboracensia_.[4] In wills you may see how many daughters a +man could dower and how many he put into a nunnery, and what education +he provided for his sons. You may note which were the most popular +religious houses, and which men had books and what the books were, how +much of their money they thought fit to leave for charitable purposes, +and what they thought of the business capacity of their wives. You may +read long and dazzling lists of family plate, all the favourite cups and +dishes having pet names of their own, and of rings and brooches and +belts and rosaries. There are detailed descriptions of dresses and +furs, sometimes splendid, sometimes ordinary, for people handed on +their rich clothes as carefully as their jewels. There are even more +wonderful descriptions of beds, with all their bedclothes and hangings, +for a bed was a very valuable article of furniture and must often, +judging from the wills, have been a brilliant and beautiful object +indeed; Shakespeare has earned a great deal of unmerited obloquy for +leaving Ann Hathaway his second-best bed, though it is not to be denied +that he might have left her his first-best. Even more beautiful than +dressings and bed or chamber hangings are the brocaded and embroidered +vestments mentioned in wills, and the elaborate arrangements for funeral +ceremonies are extremely interesting. The wills are of all kinds; there +are even villeins' wills, though in theory the villein's possessions +were his lord's, and there are wills of kings and queens, lords and +ladies, bishops and parsons and lawyers and shopkeepers. Here also is +more evidence for the social prosperity of the middle class, details of +their trade, the contents of their shops, the inventories of their +houses, their estates (sometimes) in the country, their house rents +(almost always) in the town, their dressers garnished with plate and +their wives' ornaments, their apprentices and their gilds, their +philanthropy, their intermarriage with the gentry, their religious +opinions. Such a living picture do men's wills give us of their +daily lives. + +These, then, are the three sources from which the life and times of +Thomas Paycocke may be drawn. All three--houses, brasses, and +wills--contain much evidence for the increasingly rapid growth during +the last two centuries of the Middle Ages of a large and prosperous +middle class, whose wealth was based not upon landed property but upon +industry and trade. It is a class of whom we have already met typical +examples in Thomas Betson and the anonymous Menagier de Paris, and we +must now see what his house, his will, and his family brasses tell us +about the clothier Thomas Paycocke. First and foremost, they tell us a +great deal about the noble industry which supported him. Paycocke's +house is full of relics of the cloth industry. The merchant mark of the +Paycockes, an ermine tail, looking like a two-stemmed clover leaf, is to +be found on the carved beams of the chimney, on the breastsummers of the +fire-places, and set in the midst of the strip of carving along the +front of the house. Thomas marked his bales of cloth thus, and what +other armorial bearings did he need? The whole house is essentially +middle class-the house of a man who was _nouveau riche_ in an age when +to be _nouveau riche_ was not yet to be vulgar. His prosperity has +blossomed out into exquisitely ornate decoration. A band of carving runs +along the front of the house, and from the curved stem of it branch out +a hundred charming devices--leaves, tendrils, strange flowers, human +heads, Tudor roses, a crowned king and queen lying hand in hand, a baby +diving with a kick of fat legs into the bowl of an arum lily, and in the +midst the merchant's mark upon a shield and the initials of the master +of the house. In the hall is a beautiful ceiling of carved oakwork, +exceedingly elaborate and bearing at intervals the merchant's mark +again. Upstairs in the big bedchamber is a ceiling of beams worked in +bold roll mouldings; and there is an exquisite little parlour, lined +with linen fold panels, with a breastsummer carved with strange animals. +This elaboration is characteristic. It is all of a piece with Coggeshall +Church, and with all those other spacious East Anglian churches, +Lavenham, Long Melford, Thaxted, Saffron Walden, Lynn, Snettisham, lofty +and spacious, which the clothiers built out of their newly won wealth. +The very architecture is characteristic, _nouveau riche_ again, like +those who paid for it, the elaborate ornament and sumptuous detail of +the Perpendicular taking the place of the simple majesty of the Early +English style. It is just the sort of architecture that a merchant with +a fortune would pay for. The middle class liked some show for its money; +but again it was the ostentation without the vulgarity of wealth. +Looking upon his beautiful house, or worshipping beside his family +tombs, with the merchant's mark on the brasses, in St Katherine's aisle, +Thomas Paycocke must often have blessed the noble industry which +supported him. + +The wills of the Paycockes tell the same story. To whom beside his +family does Thomas leave legacies but the good folk of the +neighbourhood, who worked for him. There is the Goodday family of +cheerful name, two of whom were shearmen, or cloth finishers, and had +substantial gifts. 'I bequeth to Thomas Goodday Sherman xx s. and ych of +his childryn iij s. iiij d. apece. Item, I bequeth to Edward Goodday +Sherman xvj s. viij d., and to his child iij s. iiij d. He also left +money to Robert Goodday of Sampford and to Robert's brother John and to +each of Robert's sisters, with something extra for Grace, who was his +goddaughter; and he did not forget Nicholas Goodday of Stisted and +Robert Goodday of Coggeshall and their families, nor their relative +John, who was a priest and had ten shillings for a trental. All these +Gooddays were doubtless bound to Thomas Paycocke by ties of work as well +as of friendship. They belonged to a well-known Coggeshall family, for +generations connected with the cloth industry. Thomas Paycocke's +namesake and grand-nephew, whose will is dated 1580, was still in close +relations with them, and left 'to Edwarde Goodaye my godson Fourtie +shillinges and to every brother and sister the saide Edwarde hath +livinge at the tyme of my decease tenne shillinges a pece,' and 'unto +William Gooday thelder tenne shillinges.' The hurrying, scattering +generation of today can hardly imagine the immovable stability of the +village of past centuries, when generation after generation grew from +cradle to grave in the same houses, on the same cobbled streets, and +folk of the same name were still friends, as their fathers and +grandfathers had been before them. + +Other friends and employees of Thomas Paycocke also had their legacies. +He leaves _6s. 8d_. to Humphrey Stonor, 'somtyme my prentis'. We may see +Humphrey Stonor, with sleepy eyes, making his way downstairs on a frosty +morning, from those huge raftered attics, where perhaps the 'prentices +used to sleep. He was on terms of impudent friendship, no doubt, with +the weavers and fullers whom his master set to work; withal a young man +of good family, a relative perchance of those Stonors for whom Thomas +Betson worked, for, as Deloney wrote, 'the yonger sons of knights and +gentlemen, to whom their Fathers would leave no lands, were most +commonly preferred to learn this trade, to the end that thereby they +might live in good estate and drive forth their days in prosperity.' Two +of his friends got substantial legacies; apparently Thomas Paycocke had +lent them money and wished to wipe out the debt upon his death-bed, for, +says the will, 'I bequethe to John Beycham, my weyver, v li and [i.e. +if] there be so moch bitwene vs and ells to make it vp v li, and a gowne +and a doublett.... I bequeth and forgive Robert Taylor, fuller, all that +is betwixt vs, and more I give him iij s. iiij d.' Other legacies show +even more clearly that his operations were on a larger scale. 'I bequeth +to all my wevers, ffullers and shermen that be not afore Rehersed by +name xij d. apece, And will they that have wrought me verey moch wark +have iij s. iiij d. apece. Item, I bequethe to be distributed amonge my +Kembers, Carders and Spynners summa iiij li.'[5] Here are all the +branches of the cloth industry at a glance. It is Thomas Paycocke, +clothier, round whom the whole manufacture revolves. He gives the wool +to the women to comb it and card it and spin it; he receives it from +them again and gives it to the weaver to be woven into cloth; he gives +the cloth to the fuller to be fulled and the dyer to be dyed; and having +received it when finished, he has it made up into dozens and sends it +off to the wholesale dealer, the draper, who sells it; perhaps he has +been wont to send it to that very 'Thomas Perpoint, draper' whom he +calls 'my cosyn' and makes his executor. The whole of Thomas Paycocke's +daily business is implicit in his will. In the year of his death he was +still employing a large number of workers and was on friendly and +benevolent terms with them. The building of his house had not signalized +his retirement from business, as happened when another great clothier, +Thomas Dolman, gave up cloth-making and the weavers of Newbury went +about lamenting: + +Lord have mercy upon us, miserable sinners. +Thomas Dolman has built a new house and turned away all his +spinners.[6] + +The relations between Paycocke and his employees evinced in his will are +happy ones. Such was not always the case, for if the clothiers of this +age had some of the virtues of capitalists, they also had many of their +vices, and the age-old strife of capital and labour was already well +advanced in the fifteenth century. One detail Paycocke's will does not +give us, which we should be glad to know: did he employ only domestic +weavers, working in their own houses, or did he also keep a certain +number of looms working in his house? It was characteristic of the +period in which he lived that something like a miniature factory system +was establishing itself in the midst of the new outwork system. The +clothiers were beginning to set up looms in their own houses and to work +them by journeymen weavers; as a rule the independent weavers greatly +disliked the practice, for either they were forced from the position of +free masters into that of hired servants, obliged to go and work in the +clothier's loom shop, or else they found their payment forced down by +the competition of the journeymen. Moreover, the clothiers sometimes +owned and let out looms to their work-people, and then also part of the +industrial independence of the weaver was lost. All through the first +half of the sixteenth century the weavers in the cloth districts kept on +petitioning Parliament against this new evil of capitalism. It was as +though, long before it established itself in England they had a +prevision of the factory system and of the worker no longer owning +either his raw material, his tool, his workshop, or the produce of his +industry, but only his labour; the master-weaver dwindled to a hired +hand. Certainly the practice was growing in Essex, where, some twenty +years after Thomas Paycocke's death, the weavers petitioned against the +clothiers, who had their own looms and weavers and fullers in their own +houses, so that the petitioners were rendered destitute; 'for the rich +men, the clothiers, be concluded and agreed among themselves to hold and +pay one price for weaving the said cloths,' a price too small to support +their households, even if they worked day and night, holiday and +work-day, so that many of them lost their independence and were reduced +to become other men's servants.[7] Nevertheless, the outwork system +remained the more common, and without doubt the majority of Paycocke's +workers lived in their own cottages, though it is probable also that he +had some looms in his house, perhaps in the long, low room at the back, +which is traditionally supposed to have been used for weaving, perhaps +in a shed or 'spinning house'. + +A highly idyllic picture of work in one of these miniature factories, +which we may amuse ourselves by applying to Thomas Paycocke's, is +contained in Deloney's _Pleasant History of Jack of Newbery._ Jack of +Newbury was an historical character, a very famous clothier named John +Winchcomb who died at Newbury only a year later than Paycocke himself, +and of whom Paycocke must certainly have heard, for his kersies were +famous on the Continent, and old Fuller, who celebrates him among his +_Worthies of England_ calls him 'the most considerable clothier (without +fancy or fiction) England ever beheld'.[8] The tales of how he had led +a hundred of his own 'prentices to Flodden Field, how he had feasted the +King and Queen in his house at Newbury, how he had built part of Newbury +Church, and how he had refused a knighthood, preferring 'to rest in his +russet coat a poor clothier to his dying day,' spread about England, +growing as they spread. In 1597 Thomas Deloney, the forefather of the +novel, enshrined them in a rambling tale, half prose and half verse, +which soon became extremely popular. It is from this tale that we may +take an imaginary picture of work in a clothier's house, being wary to +remember, however, that it is an exaggeration, a legend, and that the +great John Winchcomb certainly never had as many as two hundred looms in +his own house, while our Thomas Paycocke probably had not more than a +dozen. But the poet must have his licence, for, after all, the spirit of +the ballad is the thing, and it is always a pleasant diversion to drop +into rhyme: + +Within one roome, being large and long +There stood two hundred Loomes full strong. +Two hundred men, the truth is so, +Wrought in these Loomes all in a row. +By every one a pretty boy +Sate making quilts with mickle joy, +And in another place hard by +A hundred women merily +Were carding hard with joy full cheere +Who singing sate with voyces cleere, +And in a chamber close beside +Two hundred maidens did abide, +In petticoats of Stammell red, +And milk white kerchers on their head. +Their smocke-sleeves like to winter snow +That on the Westerne mountaines flow, +And each sleeve with a silken band +Was featly tied at the hand. +These pretty maids did never lin +But in that place all day did spin, +And spinning so with voyces meet +Like nightingales they sang full sweet. +Then to another roome came they +Where children were in poore aray; +And every one sate picking wool +The finest from the course to cull: +The number was sevenscore and ten +The children of poore silly men: +And these their labours to requite +Had every one a penny at night, +Beside their meat and drinke all day, +Which was to them a wondrous stay. +Within another place likewise +Full fifty proper men he spies +And these were sheremen everyone, +Whose skill and cunning there was showne: +And hard by them there did remaine +Full four-score rowers taking paine. +A Dye-house likewise had he then, +Wherein he kept full forty men: +And likewise in his Fulling Mill +Full twenty persons kept he still. +Each weeke ten good fat oxen he +Spent in his house for certaintie, +Beside good butter, cheese and fish +And many another wholesome dish. +He kept a Butcher all the yeere, +A Brewer eke for Ale and Beere; +A Baker for to bake his Bread, +Which stood his hushold in good stead. +Five Cookes within his kitchin great +Were all the yeare to dress his meat. +Six Scullion boyes vnto their hands, +To make clean dishes, pots and pans, +Beside poore children that did stay +To turne the broaches every day. +The old man that did see this sight +Was much amaz'd, as well he might: +This was a gallant Cloathier sure, +Whose fame forever shall endure.[9] + +The private life of Thomas Paycocke, no less than his business, can be +made to live again. Of his family the invaluable will tells us a +little. His first wife was that Margaret whose initials, together with +his own, decorate the woodwork of the house, and indeed it is probable +that old John Paycocke built the house for the young couple on their +wedding. Gay, indeed, must have been the sights which it witnessed on +that happy day, for our ancestors knew how to put their hearts into a +wedding, and Merry England was never merrier then when the bridegroom +led home the bride. We may borrow once again from Deloney's idyll, to +recreate the scene: + + The Bride being attyred in a gowne of sheepes russet and a + kertle of fine woosted, her head attyred with a billiment of + gold and her haire as yeallow as gold hanging downe behinde + her, which was curiously combed and pleated, according to the + manner in those dayes; shee was led to Church betweene two + sweete boyes, with Bridelaces and Rosemary tied about their + silken sleeves. Then was there a fair Bride-cup of silver and + gilt carried before her, wherein was a goodly branch of + Rosemary gilded very faire, hung about with silken Ribands of + all colours; next was there a noyse of Musicians that played + all the way before her; after her came all the chiefest + maydens of the Country, some bearing great Bride Cakes and + some Garlands of wheate finely gilded and so she past unto + the Church. It is needlesse for mee to make any mention here + of the Bridegroome, who being a man so well beloued, wanted + no company and those of the best sort, beside diuers Marchant + strangers of the Stillyard that came from London to the + wedding. The marriage being solemnized, home they came in + order as before and to dinner they went where was no want of + good cheare, no lack of melody.... The wedding endured ten + dayes, to the great reliefe of the poore that dwelt all + about.[10] + +Much dancing the house doubtless saw under the beautiful carved roof of +the hall, with much song, games, kissing, and general abandon. Even when +the bride and groom retired to the bridal chamber with its roll-moulded +beams the merry-making was not done; they must hold a levee to their +nearest friends in the bedchamber itself, enthroned in the great +four-poster bed. There was no false delicacy about our ancestors. +Indeed, as Henry Bullinger says (he was a very different person from +jovial Deloney, but he was a contemporary of Paycocke's, and Coverdale +translated him, so let him speak): 'After supper must they begynne to +pype and daunce agayne of the new. And though the yonge parsones, +beynge weery of the bablyng noyse and inconuenience, come ones towarde +theyer rest, yet can they haue no quietnesse. For a man shall fynd +unmanerly and restlesse people, that will first go to theyr chambre +dore, and there syng vycious and naughtie balates that the deuell maye +haue his triumphe now to the vttermost.'[11] What would we not give for +one of those 'naughty ballads' today? + +The bride Margaret, who was somewhat after this merry fashion brought +home to Coggeshall, came from Clare, the ancient home of the Coggeshall +Paycockes. She was the daughter of one Thomas Horrold, for whose memory +Paycocke retained a lively affection and respect, for in founding a +chantry in Coggeshall Church he desired specially that it should be for +the souls of himself and his wife, his mother and father, and his +father-in-law, Thomas Horrold of Clare. He also left five pounds, with +which his executors were 'to purvey an oder stone to be hade to Clare +chirch and layd on my ffader in lawe Thomas Horrold w't his pycture and +his wife and childryn thereon' (i.e. a memorial brass), and also five +cows or else three pounds in money to Clare Church 'to kepe and mayntene +my ffader in lawe Thomas Horrold his obitt'. He also left money to his +wife's brother and sisters. Margaret Paycocke died before her husband +and without children; and the only young folk of his name whom Thomas +ever saw at play in his lofty hall, or climbing upon his dresser to find +the head, as small as a walnut, hidden in the carving of the ceiling, +were his nephews and nieces, Robert and Margaret Uppcher, his sister's +children; John, the son of his brother John; and Thomas, Robert, and +Emma, the children of his brother Robert; perhaps also his little +godchild Grace Goodday. It was perhaps in the hope of a son to whom he +might leave his house and name that Thomas Paycocke married again a girl +called Ann Cotton. She was the wife of his old age, 'Anne my good wif', +and her presence must have made bright the beautiful house, silent and +lonely since Margaret died. Her father, George Cotton, is mentioned in +the will, and her brothers and sister, Richard, William, and Eleanor, +have substantial legacies. But Thomas and Ann enjoyed only a short term +of married life; she brought him his only child, but death overtook him +before it was born. In his will he provides carefully for Ann; she is +to have five hundred marks sterling, and as long as she lives the +beautiful house is to be hers; for to his elaborate arrangements for its +inheritance he adds, 'provided alwey that my wif Ann haue my house that +I dwell in while she lyvyth at hir pleyser and my dof house [dove-house] +with the garden y't stoundeth in.' A gap in the Paycocke records makes +it difficult to say whether Thomas Paycocke's child lived or died; but +it seems probable that it either died or was a girl, for Paycocke had +bequeathed the house, provided that he had no male heirs, to his nephew +John (son of his eldest brother John), and in 1575 we find it in the +hands of this John Paycocke, while the house next door was in the hands +of another Thomas Paycocke, his brother Robert's son. This Thomas died +about 1580, leaving only daughters, and after him, in 1584, died John +Paycocke, sadly commemorated in the parish register as 'the last of his +name in Coxall'. So the beautiful house passed out of the hands of the +great family of clothiers who had held it for nearly a hundred +years.[12] + +Of Thomas Paycocke's personal character it is also possible to divine +something from his will. He was obviously a kind and benevolent +employer, as his thought for his work-people and their children shows. +He was often asked to stand godfather to the babies of Coggeshall, for +in his will he directs that at his burial and the ceremonies which were +repeated on the seventh day and 'month mind' after it there were to be +'xxiiij or xij smale childryn in Rochettes with tapers in theire hands +and as many as may be of them lett them be my god childryn and they to +have vj s. viij d. apece and euery oder child iiij d. apece ... and also +euery god chyld besyde vj s. viij d. apece.' All these children were +probably little bread-winners, employed at a very early age in sorting +Thomas Paycocke's wool. 'Poore people,' says Thomas Deloney, 'whom God +lightly blessed with most children, did by meanes of this occupation so +order them, that by the time they were come to be sixe or seven yeeres +of age, they were able to get their owne bread';[13] and when Defoe rode +from Blackstone Edge to Halifax, observing the cloth manufacture, which +occupied all the villages of the West Riding, it was one of his chief +grounds for admiration that 'all [were] employed from the youngest to +the oldest; scarce any thing above four years old, but its hands were +sufficient for its own support.'[14] The employment of children at what +we should regard as an excessively early age was by no means a new +phenomenon introduced with the Industrial Revolution. + +That Thomas Paycocke had many friends, not only in Coggeshall but in the +villages round, the number of his legacies bears witness. His will also +shows that he was a man of deep religious feeling. He was a brother of +the Crutched Friars of Colchester and left them on his death five pounds +to pray 'for me and for them that I am bound to pray fore'. It was +customary in the Middle Ages for monastic houses to give the privilege +of the fraternity of the house to benefactors and persons of +distinction; the reception took place at a long and elaborate ceremony, +during which the _consrater_ received the kiss of peace from all the +brethren. It is a mark of the respect in which Thomas Paycocke was held +in the countryside that he should have been made a brother by the +Crutched Friars. He seems to have had a special kindness for the Order +of Friars; he left the Grey Friars of Colchester and the Friars of +Maldon, Chelmsford, and Sudbury each ten shillings for a trental and 3s. +4d. to repair their houses; and to the Friars of Clare he left twenty +shillings for two trentals, 'and at Lent after my deceste a kade of Red +heryng'. He had great interest in Coggeshall Abbey; it lay less than a +mile from his house, and he must often have dined in state with the +abbot at his guest table on feast days and attended Mass in the abbey +church. He remembered the abbey as he lay dying, and the sound of its +bells ringing for vespers came softly in at his window on the mellow +September air; and he left 'my Lord Abbot and Convent' one of his famous +broadcloths and four pounds in money 'for to have a dirige and Masse and +their belles Ryngyng at my buriall when it is doon at Chirche, lykewyse +the vijth day and mounth day, with iij tryntalls upon the same day yf +they can serve them, orells when they can at more leasur, Summa x li.' + +His piety is shown also in his bequests to the churches of Bradwell, +Pattiswick, and Markshall, parishes adjacent to Coggeshall, and to Stoke +Nayland, Clare, Poslingford, Ovington, and Beauchamp St Pauls, over the +Essex order, in the district from which the Paycockes originally came. +But his greatest care was naturally for Coggeshall Church. One of the +Paycockes had probably built the north aisle, where the altar was +dedicated to St Katherine, and all the Paycocke tombs lay there. Thomas +Paycocke left instructions in his will that he should be buried before +St Katherine's altar, and made the following gifts to the church: 'Item, +I bequeth to the high aulter of Coxhall Chirche in recompence of tithes +and all oder thyngs forgoten, Summa iiij li. Item, I bequethe to the +Tabernacle of the Trenyte at the high awlter and an other of Seint +Margarete in seint Katryne Ile, there as the great Lady stands, for +carvyng and gildyng of them summa c. marcs sterlinge. Item, to the +reparacons of the Chirch and bells and for my lying in the Chirche summa +c. nobles.' He founded a chantry there also and left money to be given +weekly to six poor men to attend Mass in his chantry thrice a week. + +Of piety and of family pride these legacies to religious houses and to +churches speak clearly. Another series of legacies, which takes a form +characteristic of medieval charity, bears witness perhaps to Thomas +Paycocke's habits. He must often have ridden abroad, to see the folk who +worked for him or to visit his friends in the villages round Coggeshall; +or farther afield to Clare, first to see the home of his ancestors, then +to court Margaret Horrold, his bride, and then, with Margaret beside +him, to visit his well-loved father-in-law. Certainly, whether he walked +to church in Coggeshall, or whether he rode along the country lanes, he +often sighed over the state of the road as he went; often he must have +struggled through torrents of mud in winter or stumbled among holes in +summer; for in the Middle Ages the care of the roads was a matter for +private or ecclesiastical charity, and all except the great highways +were likely to be but indifferently kept. Langland, in his _Piers +Plowman_, mentions the amending of 'wikked wayes' (by which he means not +bad habits but bad roads) as one of those works of charity which rich +merchants must do for the salvation of their souls. Thomas Paycocke's +choice of roads no doubt reflects many a wearisome journey, from which +he returned home splashed and testy, to the ministrations of 'John +Reyner my man' or 'Henry Briggs my servant', and of Margaret, looking +anxiously from her oriel window for his return. In his own town he +leaves no less than forty pounds, of which twenty pounds was to go to +amend a section of West Street (where his house stood), and the other +twenty was 'to be layde on the fowle wayes bitwene Coxhall and +Blackwater where as moost nede ys'; he had doubtless experienced the +evils of this road on his way to the abbey. Farther afield, he leaves +twenty pounds for the 'fowle way' between Clare and Ovington, and +another twenty for the road between Ovington and Beauchamp St Pauls. + +As his life drew to its close he doubtless rode less often afield. The +days would pass peacefully for him; his business flourished and he was +everywhere loved and respected. He took pride in his lovely house, +adding bit by bit to its beauties. In the cool of the evening he must +often have stood outside the garden room and seen the monks from the big +abbey fishing in their stewpond across the field, or lifted his eyes to +where the last rays of sun slanted on to the lichened roof of the great +tithebarn, and on to the rows of tenants, carrying their sheaves of corn +along the road; and he reflected, perhaps, that John Mann and Thomas +Spooner, his own tenants, were good, steady friends, and that it was +well to leave them a gown or a pound when he died. Often also, in his +last year or two, he must have sat with his wife in his garden with the +dove-house and watched the white pigeons circling round the apple-trees, +and smiled upon her bed of flowers. And in winter evenings sometimes he +would take his furred cloak and stroll to the Dragon Inn, and Edward +Aylward, mine host, would welcome him with bows; and so he would sit and +drink a tankard of sack with his neighbours, very slow and dignified, as +befitted the greatest clothier of the town, and looking benevolently +upon the company. But at times he would frown, if he saw a truant monk +from the abbey stolen out for a drink in spite of all the prohibitions +of bishop and abbot, shaking his head, perhaps, and complaining that +religion was not what it had been in the good old days; but not meaning +much of it, as his will shows, and never dreaming that twenty years +after his death abbot and monks would be scattered and the King's +servants would be selling at auction the lead from off the roof of +Coggeshall Abbey; never dreaming that after four hundred years his house +would still stand, mellow and lovely, with its carved ceiling and its +proud merchant's mark, when the abbey church was only a shadow on the +surface of a field in hot weather and all the abbey buildings were +shrunk to one ruined ambulatory, ignobly sheltering blue Essex hay +wagons from the rain. + +So Thomas Paycocke's days drew to a close amid the peace and beauty of +the most English of counties, 'fatt, frutefull and full of profitable +thinges,'[15] whose little rolling hills, wych elms, and huge clouded +skies Constable loved to paint. There came a day in September when gloom +hung over the streets of Coggeshall, when the spinning-wheels were +silent in the cottages, and spinners and weavers stood in anxious groups +outside the beautiful house in West Street; for upstairs in his bridal +chamber, under its noble ceiling, the great clothier lay dying, and his +wife wept by his bedside, knowing that he would never see his child. A +few days later the cottages were deserted again, and a concourse of +weeping people followed Thomas Paycocke to his last rest. The ceremony +of his burial befitted his dignity: it comprised services, not only on +burial day itself, but on the seventh day after it, and then again after +a month had passed. It is given best in the words of his will, for +Thomas Paycocke followed the custom of his time, in giving his executors +elaborate injunctions for his funeral rites: 'I will myne executors +bestowe vpon my buryng daye, vij day and mounthe daye after this manner: +At my buriall to have a tryntall of prests and to be at dirige, lawdis, +and comendacons as many of them as may be purveyed that day to serve the +tryntall, and yf eny lack to make it vpp the vij'th daye. And at the +Mounthe daye an oder tryntall to be purveyed hoole of myne executors and +to kepe dirige, lawdis and commendacons as is afore reherssed, with iij +high massis be note [by note, i.e. with music], oon of the holy gost, an +other of owre lady, and an other of Requiem, both buriall, seuenth day +and Mounthe daye. And prests beyng at this obseruance iiij d. at euery +tyme and childryn at euery tyme ij d., w't torches at the buriall xij, +and vj at the vij'th day and xij at the mounthe daye, with xxiij'th or +xij smale childryn in Rochettes with tapers in theire honds, and as many +as may be of them lett them be my god Childryn, and they to haue vj s. +viij d. apece; and euery oder child iiij d. apece; and euery man that +holdith torches at euery day he to have ij apece; and euery man, woman +and child that holdeth upp hound [hand] at eny of thes iij days to haue +j d. apece; And also euery god chyld besyde vj s. viij d. apece; and to +the Ryngars for all iij dayes x s.; and for mete, drynke, and for twoo +Semones of a doctor, and also to haue a dirige at home, or I be borne to +the Chirche summa j li.' + +Here is something very different from the modest Thomas Betson's +injunction: 'The costes of my burying to be don not outrageously, but +sobrely and discretly and in a meane maner, that it may be unto the +worship and laude of Almyghty God.' The worthy old clothier was not +unmindful of the worship and laud of Thomas Paycocke also, and over L500 +in modern money was expended upon his burial ceremonies, over and above +the cost of founding his new chantry. Well indeed it was that his eyes +were closed in death, ere the coming of the Reformation abolished all +the chantries of England, and with them the Paycocke chantry in St +Katherine's aisle, which had provided alms for six poor men weekly. +Thomas Paycocke belonged to the good old days; in a quarter of a century +after his death Essex was already changing. The monks were scattered +from the abbey, which stood roofless; the sonorous Latin tongue no +longer echoed in the church, nor priests prayed there for the souls of +Thomas and his wife and his parents and his father-in-law. Even the +cloth industry was changing, and the county was growing more prosperous +still with the advent of finer kinds of cloth, brought over there by +feat-fingered aliens, the 'new drapery', known as 'Bays and Says'. For +as the adage says: + + Hops, reformation, bays and beer + Came into England all in a year, + +and Coggeshall was destined to become more famous still for a new sort +of cloth called 'Coxall's Whites', which Thomas Paycocke's nephews made +when he was in his grave.[16] One thing, however, did not change; for +his beautiful house still stood in West Street, opposite the vicarage, +and was the delight of all who saw it. It stands there still, and +looking upon it today, and thinking of Thomas Paycocke who once dwelt in +it, do there not come to mind the famous words of Ecclesiasticus? + + Let us now praise famous men and our fathers that begat us. + The Lord hath wrought great glory by them through His great + power from the beginning... + + Rich men furnished with ability, living peaceably in their + habitations: + All these were honoured in their generations and were the + glory of their times. + + + +_Notes and Sources_ + + * * * * * + +CHAPTER II + +THE PEASANT BODO + +_A. Raw Material_ + +1. The Roll of the Abbot Irminon, an estate book of the Abbey of St +Germain des Pres, near Paris, written between 811 and 826. See +_Polyptyque de l'Abbaye de Saint-Germain des Pres_, pub. Auguste +Longnon, t. I, _Introduction_; t. II, _Texte_ (Soc. de l'Hist. de +Paris, 1886-95). + +2. Charlemagne's capitulary, _De Villis_, instructions to his stewards +on the management of his estates. See Guerard, _Explication du +Capitulaire 'de Villis'_ (Acad. des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres, +_Memoires_, t. XXI, 1857), pp. 165-309, containing the text, with a +detailed commentary and a translation into French. + +3. _Early Lives of Charlemagne_, ed. A.J. Grant (King's Classics, 1907). +Contains the lives by Einhard and the Monk of St Gall, on which see +Halphen, cited below. + +4. Various pieces of information about social life may be gleaned from +the decrees of Church Councils, Old High German and Anglo-Saxon charms +and poems, and Aelfric's _Colloquium_, extracts from which are +translated in Bell's Eng. Hist. Source Books, _The Welding of the Race_, +449-1066, ed. J.E.W. Wallis (1913). For a general sketch of the period +see Lavisse _Hist. de France_, t. II, and for an elaborate critical +study of certain aspects of Charlemagne's reign (including the +_Polyptychum_) see Halphen, _Etudes critiques sur l'Histoire de +Charlemagne_ (1921); also A. Dopsch, _Wirtschaftsentwicklung der +Karolingerzeit, Vornehmlich in Deutschland_, 2 vols. (Weimar, 1912-13), +which Halphen criticizes. + +_B. Notes to the Text_ + +1. 'Habet Bodo colonus et uxor ejus colona, nomine Ermentrudis, homines +sancti Germani, habent secum infantes III. Tenet mansum ingenuilem I, +habentem de terre arabili bunuaria VIII et antsingas II, de vinea +aripennos II, de prato aripennos VII. Solvit ad hostem de argento +solidos II, de vino in pascione modios II; ad tertium annum sundolas C; +de sepe perticas III. Arat ad hibernaticum perticas III, ad tramisem +perticas II. In unaquaque ebdomada corvadas II, manuoperam I. Pullos +III, ova XV; et caropera ibi injungitur. Et habet medietatem de +farinarium, inde solvit de argento solidos II.' Op. cit., II, p. 78. +'Bodo a _colonus_ and his wife Ermentrude a _colona_, tenants of +Saint-Germain, have with them three children. He holds one free manse, +containing eight _bunuaria_ and two _antsinga_ of arable land, two +_aripenni_ of vines and seven _aripenni_ of meadow. He pays two silver +shillings to the army and two hogsheads of wine for the right to pasture +his pigs in the woods. Every third year he pays a hundred planks and +three poles for fences. He ploughs at the winter sowing four perches and +at the spring sowing two perches. Every week he owes two labour services +_(corvees)_ and one handwork. He pays three fowls and fifteen eggs, and +carrying service when it is enjoined upon him. And he owns the half of a +windmill, for which he pays two silver shillings.' + +2. _De Villis_, c. 45. + +3. Ibid. cc. 43, 49. + +4. From 'The Casuistry of Roman Meals,' in _The Collected Writings of +Thomas De Quincey_, ed. D. Masson (1897), VII, p. 13. + +5. Aelfric's _Colloquium_ in op. cit. p. 95. + +6. The Monk of St Gall's _Life_ in _Early Lives of Charlemagne_, pp. +87-8. + +7. Einhard's _Life_ in op. cit., p. 45. + +8. Anglo-Saxon charms translated in Stopford Brook, _English Literature +from the Beginning to the Norman Conquest_ (1899), p. 43. + +9. Old High German charm written in a tenth-century hand in a +ninth-century codex containing sermons of St Augustine, now in the +Vatican Library. Brawne, _Althochdeutsches Lesebuch_ (fifth edition, +Halle, 1902), p. 83. + +10. Another Old High German charm preserved in a tenth-century codex now +at Vienna. Brawne, op. cit., p. 164. + +11. From the ninth-century _Libellus de Ecclesiasticis Disciplinis_, +art. 100, quoted in Ozanam, _La Civilisation Chretienne chez les Francs_ +(1849), p. 312. The injunction however, really refers to the recently +conquered and still half-pagan Saxons. + +12. _Penitential_ of Haligart, Bishop of Cambrai, quoted ibid. p. 314. + +13. _Documents relatifs a l'Histoire de l'Industrie et du Commerce en +France_, ed. G. Faigniez, t. I, pp. 51-2. + +14. See references in Chambers, _The Medieval Stage_ (1913), I, pp. +161-3. + +15. For the famous legend of the dancers of Koelbigk, see Gaston Paris, +_Les Danseurs Maudits, Legende Allemande du XIe Siecle_ (Paris 1900, +reprinted from the _Journal des Savants_, Dec., 1899), which is a _conte +rendu_ of Schroeder's study in _Zeitschrift fuer Kirchengeschichte_ +(1899). The poem occurs in a version of English origin, in which one of +the dancers, Thierry, is cured of a perpetual trembling in all his limbs +by a miracle of St Edith at the nunnery of Wilton in 1065. See loc. +cit., pp. 10, 14. + +16. 'Swete Lamman dhin are,' in the original. The story is told by +Giraldus Cambrensis in _Gemma Ecclesiastica_, pt. I, c. XLII. See +_Selections from Giraldus Cambrensis_, ed. C.A.J. Skeel (S.P.C.K. _Texts +for Students_, No. XI), p. 48. + +17. Einhard's _Life_ in op. cit. p. 45. See also ibid., p. 168 (note). + +18. The Monk of St Gall's _Life_ in op. cit., pp. 144-7. + +19. Einhard's _Life_ in op. cit., p. 39. + +20. Ibid., p. 35. + +21. Beazley, _Dawn of Modern Geography_ (1897), I, p. 325. + +22. The Monk of St Gall's _Life_ in op. cit., pp. 78-9. + +23. See the description in Lavisse, _Hist. de France II_, pt. I, p. 321; +also G. Monod, _Les moeurs judiciaires au VIIIe Siecle_, Revue +Historique, t. XXXV (1887). + +24. See Faigniez, op. cit., pp. 43-4. + +25. See the Monk of St Gall's account of the finery of the Frankish +nobles: 'It was a holiday and they had just come from Pavia, whither the +Venetians had carried all the wealth of the East from their territories +beyond the sea,--others, I say, strutted in robes made of pheasant-skins +and silk; or of the necks, backs and tails of peacocks in their first +plumage. Some were decorated with purple and lemon-coloured ribbons; +some were wrapped round with blankets and some in ermine robes.' Op. +cit., p. 149. The translation is a little loose: the 'phoenix robes' of +the original were more probably made out of the plumage, not of the +pheasant but of the scarlet flamingo, as Hodgson thinks _(Early Hist. of +Venice_, p. 155), or possibly silks woven or embroidered with figures of +birds, as Heyd thinks _(Hist. du Commerce du Levant_, I, p. 111). + +26. The Monk of St. Gall's _Life_ in op. cit., pp. 81-2. + +27. This little poem was scribbled by an Irish scribe in the margin of a +copy of Priscian in the monastery of St Gall, in Switzerland, the same +from which Charlemagne's highly imaginative biographer came. The +original will be found in Stokes and Strachan, _Thesaurus +Palaeohibernicus_ (1903) II, p. 290. It has often been translated and I +quote the translation by Kuno Meyer, _Ancient Irish Poetry_ (2nd ed., +1913), p. 99. The quotation from the _Triads of Ireland_ at the head of +this chapter is taken from Kuno Meyer also, ibid. pp. 102-3. + +CHAPTER III + +MARCO POLO + +_A. Raw Material_ + +1. _The Book of Ser Marco Polo the Venetian concerning the Kingdoms and +Marvels of the East_, trans. and ed. with notes by Sir Henry Yule (3rd +edit., revised by Henri Cordier, 2 vols., Hakluyt Soc., 1903). See also +H. Cordier, _Ser Marco Polo: Notes and Addenda_ (1920). The best edition +of the original French text is _Le Livre de Marco Polo_, ed. G. Pauthier +(Paris, 1865), The most convenient and cheap edition of the book for +English readers is a reprint of Marsden's translation (of the Latin +text) and notes (first published, 1818), with an introduction by John +Masefield, _The Travels of Marco Polo the Venetian_ (Everyman's Library, +1908; reprinted, 1911); but some of the notes (identifying places, etc.) +are now out of date, and the great edition by Yule and Cordier should be +consulted where exact and detailed information is required. It is a mine +of information, geographical and historical, about the East. I quote +from the Everyman Edition as Marco Polo, op. cit., and from the Yule +edition as Yule, op. cit. + +2. _La Cronique des Veneciens de Maistre Martin da Canal_. In _Archivo +Storico Italiano_, 1st ser., vol. VIII (Florence, 1845). Written in +French and accompanied by a translation into modern Italian. One of the +most charming of medieval chronicles. + +_B. Modern Works_ + +1. For medieval Venice see-- + F.C. Hodgson: _The Early History of Venice from the Foundation + to the Conquest of Constantinople_ (1901); and _Venice in the + Thirteenth and Fourteenth Centuries, A Sketch of Venetian History, + 1204-1400_ (1910). + P.G. Molmenti: _Venice, its Growth to the Fall of the Republic_, vols. + I and II (_The Middle Ages_), trans. H.F. Brown (1906); and _La + Vie Privee a Venise_, vol. I (1895). + H.F. Brown: _Studies in the History of Venice_, vol. I (1907). + Mrs Oliphant: _The Makers of Venice_ (1905) is pleasant reading and + contains a chapter on Marco Polo. + +2. For medieval China, the Tartars, and European intercourse with the +far East see-- + Sir Henry Yule's introduction to his great edition of Marco Polo (above). + _Cathay and the Way Thither: Medieval Notices of China_, trans. and + ed. by Sir Henry Yule, 4 vols. (Hakluyt Soc., 1915-16). Contains + an invaluable introduction and all the best accounts of China left + by medieval European travellers. Above all, Oderic of Pordenone + (d. 1331) should be read as a pendant to Marco Polo. + R. Beazley: _The Dawn of Modern Geography_, vols. II and III + (1897-1906). + R. Grousset: _Histoire de l'Asie_, t. III (3rd edit., 1922), Chap. I. + A short and charmingly written account of the Mongol Empires + from Genghis Khan to Timour. + H. Howarth: _History of the Mongols_ (1876). + +3. For medieval trade with the East the best book is-- + W. Heyd: _Histoire du Commerce du Levant au Moyen-Age_, trans., + F. Raynaud; 2 vols. (Leipzig and Paris, 1885-6, reprinted 1923). + +_C. Notes to the Text_ + +1. To be exact, the Flanders galleys which sailed via Gibraltar to +Southampton and Bruges were first sent out forty years after 1268--in +1308. Throughout the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries they sailed +every year, and Southampton owes its rise to prosperity to the fact that +it was their port of call. + +2. The occasion of the speech quoted was when the imperial +representative Longinus was trying to get the help of the Venetians +against the Lombards in 568 and invited them to acknowledge themselves +subjects of the Emperor. The speech is quoted in _Encyclop. Brit._, Art. +_Venice_ (by H.F. Brown), p. 1002. The episode of the loaves of bread +belongs to the attempt of Pipin, son of Charlemagne, to starve out the +Rialto in the winter of 809-10. Compare the tale of Charlemagne casting +his sword into the sea, with the words, 'Truly, even as this brand which +I have cast into the sea shall belong neither to me nor to you nor to +any other man in all the world, even so shall no man in the world have +power to hurt the realm of Venice; and he who would harm it shall feel +the wrath and displeasure of God, even as it has fallen upon me and my +people.'--See Canale, _Cron._, c. VIII. These are, of course, +all legends. + +3. 'Voirs est que la mer Arians est de le ducat de Venise.'--Canale, op. +cit., p. 600. Albertino Mussato calls Venice 'dominatrix Adriaci +maris.'--Molmenti, _Venice_, I, p. 120. + +4. See some good contemporary accounts of the ceremony quoted in +Molmenti, _Venice_, I, pp. 212-15. + +5. During the fatal war of Chioggia between the two republics of Venice +and Genoa, which ended in 1381, it was said that the Genoese admiral (or +some say Francesco Carrara), when asked by the Doge to receive peace +ambassadors, replied, 'Not before I have bitted the horses on St +Mark's.'--H.F. Brown, _Studies in the Hist. of Venice_, I, p. 130. + +6. Canale, op. cit., p. 270. + +7. 'The weather was clear and fine ... and when they were at sea, the +mariners let out the sails to the wind, and let the ships run with +spread sails before the wind over the sea'--See, for instance, Canale, +op. cit., pp. 320, 326, and elsewhere. + +8. Canale, op. cit., cc. I and II, pp. 268-72. Venice is particularly +fortunate in the descriptions which contemporaries have left of her--not +only her own citizens (such as Canale, Sanudo and the Doge Mocenigo) but +also strangers. Petrarch's famous description of Venetian commerce, as +occasioned by the view which he saw from his window in the fourteenth +century, has often been quoted: 'See the innumerable vessels which set +forth from the Italian shore in the desolate winter, in the most +variable and stormy spring, one turning its prow to the east, the other +to the west; some carrying our wine to foam in British cups, our fruits +to flatter the palates of the Scythians and, still more hard of +credence, the wood of our forests to the Egean and the Achaian isles; +some to Syria, to Armenia, to the Arabs and Persians, carrying oil and +linen and saffron, and bringing back all their diverse goods to us.... +Let me persuade you to pass another hour in my company. It was the depth +of night and the heavens were full of storm, and I, already weary and +half asleep, had come to an end of my writing, when suddenly a burst of +shouts from the sailors penetrated my ear. Aware of what these shouts +should mean from former experience, I rose hastily and went up to the +higher windows of this house, which look out upon the port. Oh, what a +spectacle, mingled with feelings of pity, of wonder, of fear and of +delight! Resting on their anchors close to the marble banks which serve +as a mole to the vast palace which this free and liberal city has +conceded to me for my dwelling, several vessels have passed the winter, +exceeding with the height of their masts and spars the two towers which +flank my house. The larger of the two was at this moment--though the +stars were all hidden by the clouds, the winds shaking the walls, and +the roar of the sea filling the air--leaving the quay and setting out +upon its voyage. Jason and Hercules would have been stupefied with +wonder, and Tiphys, seated at the helm, would have been ashamed of the +nothing which won him so much fame. If you had seen it, you would have +said it was no ship but a mountain, swimming upon the sea, although +under the weight of its immense wings a great part of it was hidden in +the waves. The end of the voyage was to be the Don, beyond which nothing +can navigate from our seas; but many of those who were on board, when +they had reached that point, meant to prosecute their journey, never +pausing till they had reached the Ganges or the Caucasus, India and the +Eastern Ocean. So far does love of gain stimulate the human +mind.'--Quoted from Petrarch's _Lettere Senili_ in Oliphant, _Makers of +Venice_ (1905), p. 349; the whole of this charming chapter, 'The Guest +of Venice', should be read. Another famous description of Venice occurs +in a letter written by Pietro Aretino, a guest of Venice during the +years 1527 to 1533, to Titian, quoted in E. Hutton, _Pietro Aretino, the +Scourge of Princes_ (1922), pp. 136-7; compare also his description of +the view from his window on another occasion, quoted ibid., pp. 131-3. +The earliest of all is the famous letter written by Cassiodorus to the +Venetians in the sixth century, which is partly translated in Molmenti, +op. cit., I, pp. 14-15. + +9. The account of the march of the gilds occupies cc. CCLXIII-CCLXXXIII +of Canale's Chronicle, op. cit., pp. 602-26. It has often been quoted. + +10. Canale, op. cit., c. CCLXI, p. 600. + +11. This account of Hangchow is taken partly from Marco Polo, op. cit., +bk. II, c. LXVIII: 'Of the noble and magnificent city of Kinsai'; and +partly from Odoric of Pordenone, _Cathay and the Way Thither_, ed. Yule, +pp. 113-20. + +12. Oderic of Pordenone, who was a man before he was a friar, remarks: +'The Chinese are comely enough, but colourless, having beards of long +straggling hair like mousers, cats I mean. And as for the women, they +are the most beautiful in the world.' Marco Polo likewise never fails to +note when the women of a district are specially lovely, in the same way +that that other traveller Arthur Young always notes the looks of the +chambermaids at the French inns among the other details of the +countryside, and is so much affronted if waited on by a plain girl. +Marco Polo gives the palm for beauty to the women of the Province of +Timochain (or Damaghan) on the north-east border of Persia, of which, he +says, 'The people are in general a handsome race, especially the women, +who, in my opinion, are the most beautiful in the world.'--Marco Polo, +op. cit., p. 73. Of the women of Kinsai he reports thus: 'The courtesans +are accomplished and are perfect in the arts of blandishment and +dalliance, which they accompany with expressions adapted to every +description of person, insomuch that strangers who have once tasted of +their charms, remain in a state of fascination, and become so enchanted +by their meretricious arts, that they can never divest themselves of the +impression. Thus intoxicated with sensual pleasures, when they return to +their homes they report that they have been in Kinsai, or the celestial +city, and pant for the time when they may be enabled to revisit +paradise.' Of the respectable ladies, wives of the master craftsmen he +likewise says: 'They have much beauty and are brought up with languid +and delicate habits. The costliness of their dresses, in silks and +jewellery, can scarcely be imagined.'--op. cit., pp. 296, 297-8. + +13. Yule, op. cit., II, p. 184. + +14. For Prester John see Sir Henry Yule's article 'Prester John' in the +_Encyclopaedia Britannica_, and Lynn Thorndike, _A History of Magic and +Experimental Science_ (1923), II, pp. 236-45. There is a pleasant +popular account in S. Baring Gould, _Popular Myths of the Middle +Ages_ (1866-8). + +15. For their accounts see _The Journal of William of Rubruck to the +Eastern Parts, 1253-5, by himself, with two accounts of the Earlier +Journey of John of Pian da Carpine_, trans. and ed. with notes by W.W. +Rockhill (Hakluyt Soc., 1900). Rubruck especially is a most +delightful person. + +16. This, together with the whole account of the first journey of the +elder Polos, the circumstances of the second journey, and of their +subsequent return occurs in the first chapter of Marco Polo's book, +which is a general introduction, after which he proceeds to describe in +order the lands through which he passed. This autobiographical section +is unfortunately all too short. + +17. As a matter of fact, William of Rubruck had seen and described it +before him. + +18. For Marco Polo's account of this custom in the province which he +calls 'Kardandan', see op. cit., p. 250. An illustration of it from an +album belonging to the close of the Ming dynasty is reproduced in S.W. +Bushell, _Chinese Art_ (1910), fig. 134. + +19. Marco Polo, _op. cit_., pp. 21-2. + +20. A certain _Poh-lo_ was, according to the Chinese annals of the +Mongol dynasty, appointed superintendent of salt mines at Yangchow +shortly after 1282. Professor Parker thinks that he may be identified +with our Polo, but M. Cordier disagrees. See E.H. Parker _Some New Facts +about Marco Polos Book_ in _Imperial and Asiatic Quarterly Review_ +(1904), p. 128; and H. Cordier, _Ser Marco Polo_, p. 8. See also Yule, +_Marco Polo_, I, Introd., p. 21. + +21. P. Parrenin in _Lett. Edis_., xxiv, 58, quoted in Yule, _op. cit_., +I, Introd., p. II. + +22. On Marco Polo's omissions see Yule, _op. cit_., I, Introd., p. 110. + +23. Marco Polo, _op. cit_., p. 288. + +24. On Chao Meng-fu see S.W. Bushell, _Chinese Art_ (1910), II, pp. +133--59; H.A. Giles, _Introd. to the History of Chinese Pictorial Art_ +(Shanghai, 2nd ed., 1918), pp. 159 ff.; the whole of c. VI of this book +on the art which flourished under the Mongol dynasty is interesting. See +also L. Binyon, _Painting in the Far East_ (1908), pp. 75-7, 146-7. One +of Chao Meng-fu's horse pictures, or rather a copy of it by a Japanese +artist, is reproduced in Giles, _op. cit_., opposite p. 159. See also my +notes on illustrations for an account of the famous landscape roll +painted by him in the style of Wang Wei. + +25. Bushell, _op. cit_., p. 135. + +26. _Ibid_., pp. 135-6, where the picture is reproduced. + +27. For the episode of the mangonels constructed by Nestorian mechanics +under the directions of Nicolo and Maffeo see Marco Polo, _op. cit_., +pp. 281-2. + +28. Marco Polo, _op. cit_., bk. III, c. I, pp. 321-3. + +29. Ramusio's preface, containing this account, and also the story of +how Rusticiano came to write the book at Marco Polo's dictation at +Genoa, is translated in Yule, _op. cit_., I, Introd., pp. 4-8. + +30. He mentions these in Marco Polo, _op. cit_., pp. 136, 138, 344. + +31. Yule, _op. cit_., I, Introd., p. 79. + +32. On Rusticiano (who is mistakenly called a Genoese by Ramusio), see +_ibid_., Introd., pp. 56 ff. + +33. Paulin Paris, quoted _ibid_., Introd., p. 61. + +34. _Ibid_., Introd., pp. 67-73. + +35. Extract from Jacopo of Acqui's _Imago Mondi_, quoted _ibid_., +Introd., p. 54. + +36. M. Ch.-V. Langlois in _Hist. Litt. de la France_, XXXV (1921), p. +259. For tributes to Marco Polo's accuracy see Aurel Stein, _Ancient_ +_Khotan_ (1907) and _Ruins of Desert Cathay_ (1912); Ellsworth +Huntington, _The Pulse of Asia_ (1910); and Sven Hedin, _Overland to +India_ (1910). + +37. Yule, _op. cit_., I, Introd., pp. 106-7. + +38. For these later missions and traders see Yule, _Cathay and the Way +Thither_, Introd., pp. cxxxii-iv, and text, _passim_. + +39. _Ibid_., II, p. 292; and App., p. lxv. + +40. Concerning the marginal notes by Columbus see Yule, _op. cit_., II, +App. H, p. 558. The book is preserved in the Colombina at Seville. I +must, however, frankly admit that modern research, iconoclastic as ever, +not content with white-washing Lucrezia Borgia and Catherine de Medicis, +and with reducing Catherine of Siena to something near insignificance, +is also making it appear more and more probable that Columbus originally +set sail in 1492 to look for the islands of the Antilles, and that, +although on his return after his great discovery in 1493 he maintained +that his design had always been to reach Cipangu, this was a _post hoc_ +story, the idea of searching for Cipangu having probably come from his +partner, Martin Pinzon. It is a pity that we do not know _when_ he made +his notes in the edition (the probable date of publication of which was +1485) of Marco Polo's book, which might settle the matter. On the whole +question see Henry Vignaud, _Etudes critiques sur la vie de Colomb avant +ses decouvertes_ (Paris, 1905) and _Histoire de la Grande Enterprise de +1492_, 2 vols. (Paris, 1910), and the summary and discussion of his +conclusions by Professor A.P. Newton in _History_, VII (1922), pp. 38-42 +(_Historical Revisions_ XX.--'Christopher Columbus and his Great +Enterprise.') The idea that a new road to the East was being sought at +this time, primarily because the Turks were blocking the old trade +routes, has also been exploded. See A.H. Lybyer, _The Ottoman Turks and +the Routes of Oriental Trade_ in _Eng. Hist. Review_, XXX (1915), +pp.577-88. + +CHAPTER IV + +MADAME EGLENTYNE + +_A. Raw Material_ + +1. Chaucer's description of the Prioress in the Prologue to the +_Canterbury Tales_. + +2. Miscellaneous visitation reports in episcopal registers. On these +registers, and in particular the visitation documents therein, see R.C. +Fowler, _Episcopal Registers of England and Wales_ (S.P.C.K. Helps for +Students of History, No. 1), G.G. Coulton, _The Interpretation of +Visitation Documents_ (Eng. Hist. Review, 1914), and c. XII of my book, +cited below. A great many registers have been, or are being, published +by learned societies, notably by the Canterbury and York Society, which +exists for this purpose. The most important are the Lincoln visitations, +now in the course of publication, by Dr A. Hamilton Thompson, +_Visitations of Religious Houses in the Diocese of Lincoln_, ed. A. +Hamilton Thompson (Lincoln Rec. Soc. and Canterbury and York Soc., 1915 +ff.); two volumes have appeared so far, of which see especially vol. II, +which contains part of Bishop Alnwick's visitations (1436-49); each +volume contains text, translation, and an admirable introduction. See +also the extracts from Winchester visitations trans. in H.G.D. Liveing, +_Records of Romsey Abbey_ (1912). Full extracts from visitation reports +and injunctions are given under the accounts of religious houses in the +different volumes of the Victoria County Histories (cited as V.C.H.). + +3. The monastic rules. See _The Rule of St Benedict_, ed. F.A. Gasquet +(Kings Classics, 1909), and F.A. Gasquet, _English Monastic Life_ (4th +ed., 1910). + +4. For a very full study of the whole subject of English convent life at +this period see Eileen Power, _Medieval English Nunneries c. 1275 to +1535_(1922). + +_B. Notes to the Text_ + +1. _The Register of Walter de Stapeldon, Bishop of Exeter_ (1307-26), +ed. F. Hingeston Randolph (1892), p. 169. The passage about Philippa is +translated in G.G. Coulton, _Chaucer and His England_ (1908), p. 181. + +2. See the account of expenses involved in making Elizabeth Sewardby a +nun of Nunmonkton (1468) in _Testamenta Eboracensia_, ed. James Raine +(Surtees Soc., 1886), III, p. 168; and Power, _op. cit_., p. 19. + +3. _Year Book of King Richard II_, ed. C.F. Deiser (1904), pp. 71-7; and +Power, _op. cit_., pp. 36-8. + +4. G.J. Aungier, _Hist. of Syon_ (1840), p. 385. + +5. As at Gracedieu (1440-1), _Alnwick's Visit_, ed. A.H. Thompson, pp. +120-3. + +6. G.J. Aungier, _op. cit_., pp. 405-9. + +7. Translated from John de Grandisson's Register in G.G. Coulton, _A +Medieval Garner_ (1910), pp. 312-14. + +8. _Rule of St Benedict_, c. 22. + +9. _V.C.H. Lincs_., II, p. 131. + +10. Translated in G.G. Coulton, _A Medieval Garner_. + +11. _Myroure of Oure Ladye_, ed. J.H. Blunt (E.E.T.S., 1873), p. 54. On +Tittivillus see my article in _The Cambridge Magazine_ (1917), +pp.158-60. + +12. _Linc. Visit_., ed. A.H. Thompson, II, pp. 46-52; and Power, _op. +cit._ pp. 82-7. + +13. _V.C.H. Oxon_, II. p. 77. + +14. _Linc. Visit_., ed. A.H. Thompson, I, p. 67. + +15. On these gaieties see Power, _op. cit_. pp. 309-14. + +16. _Linc. Visit_., II, pp. 3-4; and see Power, _op. cit_., pp. 75-7, +303-5, on gay clothes in nunneries. + +17. _Linc. Visit_., II. p. 175. + +18. Power, _op. cit_., p. 307. On pet animals see _ibid_., pp. 305-9, +and Note E ('Convent Pets in Literature'), pp. 588-95. + +19. Power, _op. cit_., p. 77. + +20. _Ibid_., pp. 351-2; and see Chap. IX _passim_ on the Bull +_Periculoso_ and the wandering of nuns in the world. + +21. _Linc. Visit_., II, p. 50. + +22. _V.C.H. Yorks_., III, p. 172. + + + +CHAPTER V + +THE MENAGIER'S WIFE + +_A. Raw Material_ + +I. _Le Menagier de Paris, Traite de Morale et d'Economie Domestique, +compose vers_ 1393 _par un Bourgeois Parisien ... publie pour la +premiere fois par la Societe des Bibliophiles Francois_. (Paris, 1846). +2 vols., edited with an introduction by Jerome Pichon. There is a notice +of it by Dr F.J. Furnivall, at the end of his edition of _A Booke of +Precedence_ (Early English Text Soc., 1869 and 1898), pp. 149-54. It was +a book after his own heart, and he observes that it well deserves +translation into English. + +2. On the subject of medieval books of deportment for women see A.A. +Hentsch, _De la litterature didactique du moyen age s'addressant +specialement aux femmes_ (Cahors, 1903), an admirably complete +collection of analyses of all the chief works of this sort produced in +western Europe from the time of St Jerome to the eve of the +Renaissance. It is full of plums for adventurous Jack Horners. + +3. With the Menagier's cookery book there may profitably be compared +_Two Fifteenth Century Cookery Books_, ed. by Thomas Austin +(E.E.T.S., 1888). + +_B. Notes to the Text_ + +1. Pp. 1-2. + +2. These long moral treatises on the seven deadly sins and the even +deadlier virtues were very popular in the Middle Ages. The best known to +English readers occurs in the _Parson's Tale_ in Chaucer's _Canterbury +Tales,_ and is taken from the _Somme de Vices et de Vertus_ of Frere +Lorens, a thirteenth-century author. The sections on the deadly sins are +usually, however, well worth reading, because of the vivid illustrative +details which they often give about daily life. The Menagier's sections +are full of vigour and colour, as one would expect. Here, for instance, +is his description of the female glutton: 'God commands fasting and the +glutton says: "I will eat". God commands us to get up early and go to +church and the glutton says: "I must sleep. I was drunk yesterday. The +church is not a hare; it will wait for me." When she has with some +difficulty risen, do you know what her hours are? Her matins are: "Ha! +what shall we have to drink? is there nothing left over from last +night?" Afterwards she says her lauds thus: "Ha! we drank good wine +yesterday." Afterwards she says thus her orisons: "My head aches, I +shan't be comfortable until I have had a drink." Certes, such gluttony +putteth a woman to shame, for from it she becomes a ribald, a +disreputable person and a thief. The tavern is the Devil's church, where +his disciples go to do him service and where he works his miracles. For +when folk go there they go upright and well spoken, wise and sensible +and well advised, and when they return they cannot hold themselves +upright nor speak; they are all foolish and all mad, and they return +swearing, beating and giving the lie to each other.'--_Op. cit_., I, pp. +47-8. The section on Avarice is particularly valuable for its picture of +the sins of executors of wills, rack-renting lords, extortionate +shopkeepers, false lawyers, usurers, and gamblers.--See _ibid_., I, +pp. 44-5. + +3. _Prudence and Melibeus_ is worth reading once, either in Chaucer's or +in Renault de Louens' version, because of its great popularity in the +Middle Ages, and because of occasional vivid passages. Here, for +instance, is the episode in Chaucer's version, in which Melibeus, the +sages, and the young men discuss going to war, and the sages advise +against it: 'Up stirten thanne the yonge folk at ones, and the mooste +partie of that compaignye scorned the wise olde men, and bigonnen to +make noyse, and seyden that "Right so as, whil that iren is hoot, men +sholden smyte, right so men sholde wreken hir wronges while that they +been fresshe and newe"; and with loud voys they criden, "Werre! werre!" +Up roos tho oon of thise olde wise, and with his hand made contenaunce +that men sholde holden hem stille, and yeven hym audience. "Lordynges," +quod he, "ther is ful many a man that crieth 'Werre! werre!' that woot +ful litel what werre amounteth. Werre at his bigynnyng hath so greet an +entryng and so large, that every wight may entre whan hym liketh and +lightly fynde werre; but certes, what ende that shal ther-of bifalle it +is nat light to knowe; for soothly, whan that werre is ones bigonne ther +is ful many a child unborn of his mooder that shal sterve yong by cause +of that ilke werre, or elles lyve in sarwe, and dye in wrecchednesse; +and therefore, er that any werre bigynne, men moste have greet conseil +and greet deliberacioun."--Chaucer, _Tale of Melibeus_,Sec. 12; and see the +French version, _op. cit_., I, p. 191. + +4. II, p. 72-9. + +5. I, pp. 71-2. These medieval games are very difficult to identify. The +learned editor remarks that _bric_, which is mentioned in the thirteenth +century by Rutebeuf was played, seated, with a little stick; _qui fery_ +is probably the modern game called by the French _main chaude; pince +merille,_ which is mentioned among the games of Gargantua, was a game in +which you pinched one of the players' arms, crying 'Merille' or +'Morille'. Though the details of these games are vague, there are many +analagous games played by children today, and it is easy to guess the +kind of thing which is meant. + +6. I, pp. 13-15. + +7. I, 92, 96. + +8. The story of Jeanne la Quentine is reproduced in the _Heptameron_ of +Margaret of Navarre (the 38th tale, or the 8th of the 4th day), where it +is attributed to a _bourgeoise_ of Tours, but it is probable that the +Menagier's is the original version, since he says that he had it from +his father; although, knowing the ways of the professional raconteur, I +should be the first to admit that this is not proof positive. + +9. I, pp. 125-6. + +10. I, p. 139. + +11. This was a favourite saying. It occurs in the story of Melibeus, +'Trois choses sont qui gettent homme hors de sa maison, c'est assavoir +la fumee, la goutiere et la femme mauvaise.'--_Ibid_., I, p. 195. +Compare Chaucer's use of it: 'Men seyn that thre thynges dryven a man +out of his hous,--that is to seyn, smoke, droppyng of reyn and wikked +wyves.'--_Tale of Melibeus_, Sec.15; and + +'Thou seyst that droppying houses, and eek smoke, +And chidyng wyves, maken men to flee +Out of hir owene hous.' + +--_Wife of Bath's Prologue_, LL, 278-80. + +12. I, pp. 168-71, 174-6. + +13. II, p. 54. The Menagier also warns against running up long bills on +credit. 'Tell your folk to deal with peaceable people and to bargain +always beforehand and to account and pay often, without running up long +bills on credit by tally or on paper, although tally or paper are better +than doing everything by memory, for the creditors always think it more +and the debtors less, and thus are born arguments, hatreds, and +reproaches; and cause your good creditors to be paid willingly and +frequently what is owed to them, and keep them in friendship so that +they depart not from you, for one cannot always get peaceable +folk again.' + +14. II, pp. 56-9. + +15. It is curious here to note the antiquity of the term 'bloody' as an +expletive. The Menagier says: 'Forbid them ... to use ugly oaths, or +words which are bad or indecent, as do certain evil or ill bred persons +who swear at bad bloody fevers, the bad bloody week, the bad bloody day +('de males sanglantes fievres,' 'de male sanglante sepmaine,' 'de male +sanglante journee'), and they know not, nor should they know, what a +bloody thing is, for honest women know it not, since it is abominable to +them to see the blood but of a lamb or a pigeon, when it is killed +before them.'--_Ibid._, II, p. 59. + +16. The section on household management described above occupies sec. +II, art. 2, of the Menagier's book (II, pp. 53-72). + +17. I, pp. 171-2. + +18. I, pp. 172-3. + +19. The cookery book occupies sec. II, arts. 4 and 5 (II, pp. 80-272). + +20. II, pp. 222-3. Translated by Dr Furnivall in _A Booke of Precedence_ +(E.E.T.S.), pp. 152-3. + +21. II, pp. 108-18, 123. The feast was still a thing of the future when +the Menagier thus gathered all the details. He calls it 'L'ordenance de +nopces que fera maistre Helye en May, a un mardy ... l'ordonnance du +souper que fera ce jour.' + +22. 'The office of the woman is to make provision of tapestries, to +order and spread them, and in especial to dight the room and the bed +which shall be blessed.... And note that if the bed be covered with +cloth, there is needed a fur coverlet of small vair, but if it be +covered with serge, or broidery, or pinwork of cendal, not.'--II, p. +118. The editor quotes the following ceremony for blessing the wedding +bed: '_Benedictio thalami ad nuptias et als_, Beredic, Domine, thalamum +hunc et omnes habitantes in eo, ut in tua voluntate permaneant, +requiescant et multiplicentur in longitudinem dierum. Per Christum, etc. +_Tunc thurificet thalamum in matrimonio, postea sponsum et sponsam +sedentes vel jacentes in lecto suo. Benedicentur dicendo_: Benedic, +Domine, adolescentulos istos; sicut benedixisti Thobiam et Sarram filiam +Raguelis, ita benedicere eos digneris, Domine, ut in nomine tuo vivant +et senescant, et multiplicentur in longitudinem dierum. Per Christum, +etc. Benedictio Dei omnipotentis, Patris et Filii et Spiritus sancti +descendat super vos et maneat super vobiscum. In nomine Patris, +etc.'--_Ibid._, I, _Introd._, p. lxxxvi. + +23. Chaucer, _Tale of Melibeus_, Sec. 15. + +CHAPTER VI + +THOMAS BETSON + +_A. Raw Material_ + +1. _The Stonor Letters and Papers_, 1290-1483, ed. C.L. Kingsford (Royal +Hist. Soc., Camden, 3rd Series), 2 vols., 1919. The Betson +correspondence is in vol. II. + +2. _The Cely Papers, selected from the Correspondence and Memoranda of +the Cely Family, Merchants of the Staple_, 1475-88, ed. H.E. Malden +(Royal Hist. Soc., Camden 3rd series), 1900. + +I am much beholden to the excellent introductions to these two books, +which are models of what editorial introductions should be. + +3. The best introduction to the history of the Company of the Staple is +to be found in Mr Malden's aforesaid introduction to _The Cely Papers_, +which also contains a masterly account of the political relations of +England, France and Burgundy during the period. I have constantly relied +upon Mr Malden's account of the working of the Staple system. Other +useful short accounts of the wool trade and the Stapler's Company may be +found in the following works: Sir C.P. Lucas, _The Beginnings of English +Overseas Enterprise_ (1917), c. II; and A.L. Jenckes, _The Staple of +England_ (1908). + +_B. Notes to the Text_ + +1. Four interesting contemporary illustrations of Parliament in 1523, +1585, some date during the seventeenth century, and 1742 respectively, +are reproduced in Professor A.F. Pollard's stimulating study of _The +Evolution of Parliament_ (1920). + +2. _The Lybelle of Englyshe Polycye_, in _Political Poems and Songs_, +ed. Thos. Wright (Rolls Ser., 1861), II, p. 162. This remarkable poem +was written in 1436 or 1437, in order to exhort the English 'to kepe the +see enviroun and namelye the narowe see' between Dover and Calais, since +in the author's opinion the basis of England's greatness lay in her +trade, for the preservation of which she needed the dominion of the +seas. Its chief value lies in the very complete picture which it gives +of English import and export trade with the various European countries. +There is a convenient edition of it in _The Principal Navigations +Voyages Traffiques and Discoveries of the English Nation by Richard +Hakluyt_ (Everyman's Lib. Edition, 1907), I, pp. 174-202. + +3. G.W. Morris and L.S. Wood, _The Golden Fleece_ (1922), p. 17. + +4. For accounts of these brasses see H. Druitt, _A Manual of Costume as +Illustrated by Monumental Brasses_ (1906), pp. 9, 201, 205, 207, 253. +John Fortey's brass and William Greville's brass are conveniently +reproduced in G.W. Morris and L.S. Wood, _op. cit_., pp. 28, 32, +together with several other illustrations, pertinent to the wool trade. + +5. Gower, _Mirour de l'Omme_ in _The Works of John Gower_. I. _The +French Works_, ed. G.C. Macaulay (1899), p. 280-1. + +6. _The Paston Letters_, ed. J. Gairdner (London, 1872-5); Supplement +1901. See also H.S. Bennett, _The Pastons and their England_ (1922). + +7. _Plumpton Correspondence_, ed. T. Stapleton (Camden Soc., 1839). + +8. _Cely Papers_, p. 72; and compare below p. 134. + +9. _Stonor Letters_, II, p. 2. + +10. _Ibid_., II, pp. 2-3. + +11. The brasses of his father 'John Lyndewode, woolman', and of his +brother, also 'John Lyndewode, woolman' (_d._ 1421), are still in +Linwood Church. They both have their feet on woolpacks, and on the son's +woolpack is his merchant's mark. See H. Druitt, _op. cit_., pp. 204-5. + +12. See _Magna Vita S. Hugonis Episcopi Lincolniensis_, ed. J.F. Dimock +(Rolls Series, 1864), pp. 170-7. + +13. For these extracts see a vastly entertaining book, _Child Marriages +and Divorces in the Diocese of Chester_, 1561-6, ed. F.J. Furnivall +(E.E.T.S., 1897), pp. xxii, 6, 45-7. + +14. _Stonor Letters_, II, pp. 6-8. + +15. _Ibid_., II, pp. 28, 64. + +16. _Ibid_., II, p. 64. + +17. _Ibid_., II, pp. 42-43. + +18. _Ibid_., II, p. 44. + +19. _Ibid_., II, pp. 61, 64-5. + +20. _Ibid_., II, pp. 46-8. + +21. _Ibid_., II, p. 53. + +22. _Ibid_., II, p. 28. + +23. _Ibid_., II, p. 47. + +24. _Ibid_., II, p. 53. + +25. _Ibid_., II, pp. 54-5. + +26. _Ibid_., II, pp. 56-7. + +27. _Ibid_., II, p. 69. + +28. _Ibid_., II, pp. 87-8. + +29. _Ibid_., II, pp. 88-9. + +30. _Ibid_., II, p. 89. + +31. _Ibid_., II, pp. 102-3, 117. + +32. See Richard Cely's amusing account of the affair in a letter to his +brother George, written on May 13, 1482, _Cely Papers_, pp. 101-4. For +other references to the wool dealer William Midwinter see _ibid_., pp. +11, 21, 28, 30, 32, 64, 87, 89, 90, 105, 124, 128, 157, 158. + +33. _Stonor Letters_, II, p. 3. + +34. _Ibid_., II, p. 64. + +35. _Testamenta Eboracensia_ (Surtees Soc.), II, p. 56. He was a +well-known wool merchant of York, at different times member of the town +council of twelve, sheriff and mayor, who died in 1435. He is constantly +mentioned in the city records; see _York Memorandum Book_, ed. Maud +Sellers (Surtees Soc., 1912 and 1915), vols. I and II, _passim_. + +36. _Cely Papers_, pp. 30-1. + +37. _Ibid_., p. 64. + +38. See his will (1490) in _Test. Ebor._, IV, p. 61, where he is called +'Johannes Barton de Holme juxta Newarke, Stapulae villae Carlisiae +marcator,' and ordains 'Volo quod Thomas filius meus Johannem Tamworth +fieri faciat liberum hominem Stapulae Carlis,' _ibid_., p. 62. + +39. _Ibid_., p. 45. + +40. _Ibid_., p. 48. + +41. _Ibid_., pp. 154-5. + +42. _The Lybelle of Englysche Polycye_ in _loc. cit._, pp. 174-7, +_passim_. Compare Gower's account of the machinations of the Lombards, +_op. cit_., pp. 281-2. + +43. See the clear account of all these operations in Mr Malden's +introduction to the _Cely Papers_, pp. xi-xiii, xxxviii. + +44. _Ibid_., p. vii. + +45. _Cely Papers_, pp. 194-6; and see _Introd_., pp. xxxvi-viii. + +46. _Ibid_., pp. 71-2. + +47. _Ibid_., pp. 174-88, a book entitled on the cover 'The Rekenyng of +the Margett Cely,' and beginning, 'The first viage of the Margaret of +London was to Seland in the yere of our Lord God m iiijciiijxxv. The +secunde to Caleis and the thrid to Burdews ut videt. Md to se the +pursers accomptes of the seide viages. G. Cely.' + +48. _Ibid_., p. xxxviii. + +49. _Stonor Letters_, II, p. 2. + +50. _Ibid_., II, p. 4. + +51. _Cely Papers_, pp. 112-13. + +52. _Ibid_., p. 106; compare _ibid_., p. 135. + +53. 'Sir, the wool ships be come to Calais all save three, whereof two +be in Sandwich haven and one is at Ostend, and he hath cast over all his +wool overboard.'--_Ibid_., p. 129. 'Item, sir, on Friday the 27 day of +February came passage from Dover and they say that on Thursday afore +came forth a passenger from Dover to Calais ward and she was chased with +Frenchmen and driven in to Dunkirk haven.'--_Ibid_., p. 142. (There are +many records of similar chases; see _Introd_., pp. xxxiv-v.) + +54. _Ibid_., p. 135. + +55. 'Sir, I cannot have your wool yet awarded, for I have do cast out a +sarpler, the which is [ap]pointed by the lieutenant to be casten out +toward the sort by, as the ordinance now is made that the lieutenant +shall [ap]point the [a]warding sarplers of every man's wool, the which +sarpler that I have casten out is No. 24, and therein is found by +William Smith, packer, a 60 middle fleeces and it is a very gruff wool; +and so I have caused William Smith privily to cast out another sarpler +No. 8, and packed up the wool of the first sarpler in the sarpler of No. +8, for this last sarpler is fair wool enough, and therefore I must +understand how many be of that sort and the number of the[m], for they +must be packed again' (12 Sept., 1487).--_Ibid_., p. 160. Item, sir, +your wool is awarded by the sarpler that I cast out last, etc. Item, +sir, this same day your mastership is elected and appointed here by the +Court one of the 28, the which shall assist the Master of the Staple now +at this parliament time.'-_Ibid_., p. 162. + +56. Gower, _op. cit_., p. 281. + +57. _Cely Papers_, pp. xii, xxiv-v. + +58. _Stonor Letters_, II, pp. 62-3; see also _Cely Papers_, pp. 1, 10, +13. + +59. _Stonor Letters_, II, p. 4. + +60. Chaucer, _Canterbury Tales (Shipman's Tale_) LL, 1243-6. + +61. _Stonor Letters_, II, p. 48. + +62. _Cely Papers_, p. xxiii. + +63. _Lybelle of Englysshe Polycye_ in _loc. cit_., pp. 179-81. + +64. With deference, I think that Mr Malden in his introduction to the +_Cely Papers_, App. II, pp. lii-iii, is mistaken in seeking to identify +Synchon Mart with a particular fair at Antwerp on St John's Day, Bammes +mart with the fair at St Remy (a Flemish name for whom is Bamis) on +August 8, and Cold Mart with Cortemarck near Thourout. The names simply +refer to the seasons in which there were fairs in most of the important +centres, though doubtless in one place the winter and in another the +spring, summer, or autumn fair was the more important. That the names +refer to seasons and not to places appears quite clearly in various +letters and regulations relating to the Merchant Adventurers of York. +See _The York Mercers and Merchant Adventurers_, 1356-1917, ed. M. +Sellers (Surtees Soc., 1918), pp. 117, 121-5, 160, 170-1; see Miss +Sellers' note, _ibid_., p. 122, quoting W. Cunningham: 'The ancient +Celtic fairs ... were a widespread primitive institution and appear to +have been fixed for dates marked by the change of seasons.'--_Scottish +Hist. Review_, xiii, p. 168. For instance, a document of 1509 ('For now +att this cold marte last past, holdyn at Barow in Brabond,' _loc. cit_. +p. 121) disposes of the idea that the Cold mart was the mart at +Cortemarck, while another document refers to merchants intending to ship +'to the cold martes' and 'to the synxon martes' in the plural. _Ibid_., +p. 123. The identification of Balms mart with the fair at St Remy on +August 8 is, moreover, belied by the same document (1510-11), which +runs, 'Whereas this present marte ... we have lycensed and set you at +libertie to shipp your commodities to the balmes marte next coming. +Nevertheless ... we thinke it good ... that upon the recepte of these +our letters ye ... assemble and consult together, and if ye shall thinke +good amongest yourselffs ... discretly to withdraw and with holde your +hands from shippyng to the said balmes marte.... Wryten at Andwarp the +xvij day of August.' _Ibid_., p. 124. The Balms mart was obviously the +autumn fairtide, and Mr Malden is no doubt right in identifying Balms +(Bammys, Bammes) with Bamis, the local Flemish name of St Remy; St +Remy's Day was October 28, and the Balms mart was not the mart held on +August 8 at St Remy, but the mart held on and round about St Remy's +Day. Another document of 1552 gives interesting information about the +shippings for three of the marts: 'The last daye of shippinge unto the +fyrst shippinge beinge for the pasche marte is ordeyned to be the laste +of Marche nexte ensuyinge; and the seconde shippinge which is appointed +for the sinxon marte the laste day to the same, is appoynted the laste +of June then nexte followinge; and unto the colde marte the laste day of +shippinge is appoynted to be the laste of November then nexte +insuyinge.'--_Ibid_., p. 147. The Merchant Adventurers tried sometimes +to restrict merchants to the Cold and the Synxon marts, which were the +most important. + +65. _Cely Papers_, p. xl, and _passim_. + +66. _Ibid_., p. 74. Richard Cely the younger to George: 'I understand +that ye have a fair hawk. I am right glad of her, for I trust to God she +shall make you and me right great sport. If I were sure at what passage +ye would send her I would fetch her at Dover and keep her till ye come. +A great infortune is fallen on your bitch, for she had 14 fair whelps, +and after that she had whelped she would never eat meat, and so she is +dead and all her whelps; but I trust to purvey against your coming as +fair and as good to please that gentleman.'--_Ibid_., p. 74. + +67. _Ibid_., p. xlix. + +68. _Ibid_., App. I., pp. xlix-lii, a very interesting note on +contemporary coinage, identifying all the coins mentioned in +the letters. + +69. _Ibid_., p. 159. + +70. _Ibid_., p. 161. + +71. _Stonor Letters_, II, p. 43. So Dame Elizabeth Stonor ends a letter +to her husband: 'Written at Stonor, when I would fain have slept, the +morrow after our Lady day in the morning,'--_Ibid_., p. 77. + +72. Chaucer, _Canterbury Tales (Shipman's Tale_), LL, 1265-78, in +_Works_ (Globe Ed., 1903), p. 80. + +73. The will is P.C.C. 24 Logge at Somerset House. For this analysis of +its contents and information about the life of Thomas Betson after his +breach with the Stonors see _Stonor Letters_, I, pp. xxviii-ix. + +74. They are (1) John Bacon, citizen and woolman, and Joan, his wife +(_d_. 1437); (2) Thomas Gilbert, citizen and draper of London and +merchant of the Staple of Calais (_d_. 1483), and Agnes, his wife (_d_. +1489); (3) Christopher Rawson, mercer of London and merchant of the +Staple of Calais, Junior Warden of the Mercers' Company in 1516 (_d_. +1518), and his two wives. Thomas Betson was doubtless acquainted with +Gilbert and Rawson. + + + +CHAPTER VII + +THOMAS PAYCOCKE OF COGGESHALL + +_A. Raw Material_ + +1. The raw material for this chapter consists of Paycocke's House, +presented to the Nation in 1924 by the Right Hon. Noel Buxton, M.P., +which stands in West Street, Coggeshall, Essex (station, Kelvedon); the +Paycocke brasses, which lie in the North aisle of the parish church of +St Peter ad Vincula at Coggeshall; and the wills of John Paycocke (_d_. +1505), Thomas Paycocke (_d_. 1518), and Thomas Paycocke (_d_. 1580), +which are now preserved at Somerset House (P.C.C. Adeane 5, Ayloffe 14, +and Arundell 50, respectively), and of which that of the first Thomas +has been printed in Mr Beaumont's paper, cited below, while I have +analysed fully the other two in my book, _The Paycockes of Coggeshall_ +(1920), which deals at length with the history of the Paycockes and +their house. See also G.F. Beaumont, _Paycocke's House, Coggeshall, with +some Notes on the Families of Paycocke and Buxton_ (reprinted from +Trans. Essex Archaeol. Soc., IX, pt. V) and the same author's _History of +Coggeshall_ (1890). There is a beautifully illustrated article on the +house in _Country Life_ (June 30, 1923), vol. LIII, pp. 920-6. + +2. For an apotheosis of the clothiers, see _The Pleasant History of John +Winchcomb, in his younger days called Jack of Newbery, the famous and +worthy Clothier of England_ and _Thomas of Reading, or the Six Worthy +Yeomen of the West_, in _The Works of Thomas Deloney_, ed. F.O. Mann +(1912), nos. II and V. The first of these was published in 1597 and the +other soon afterwards and both went through several editions by 1600. + +3. On the cloth industry in general see G. Morris and L. Wood, _The +Golden Fleece_ (1922); E. Lipson, _The Woollen Industry_ (1921); and +W.J. Ashley, _Introd. to English Economic History_ (1909 edit.). For the +East Anglian woollen industry see especially the _Victoria County +Histories_ of Essex and Suffolk. For a charming account of another +famous family of clothiers see B. McClenaghan, _The Springs of Lavenham_ +(Harrison, Ipswich, 1924). + +_B. Notes to the Text_ + +1. _Deloney's Works_, ed. F.O. Mann, p. 213. + +2. Thomas Fuller, _The Worthies of England_ (1622), p. 318. + +3. A convenient introduction to the study of monumental brasses, with +illustrations and a list of all the surviving brasses in England, +arranged according to counties, is W. Macklin, _Monumental Brasses_ +(1913). See also H. Druitt, _Costume on Brasses_ (1906). These books +also give details as to the famous early writers on the subject, such as +Weaver, Holman, and A.J. Dunkin. + +4. _Testamenta Eboracensia, a selection of wills from the Registry at +York_, ed. James Raine, 6 vols. (Surtees Soc., 1836-1902). The Surtees +Society has also published several other collections of wills from +Durham and elsewhere, relating to the northern counties. A large number +of wills have been printed or abstracted. See, for instance, _Wills and +Inventories from the Registers of Bury St Edmunds_, ed. S. Tymms (Camden +Soc., 1850); _Calendar of Wills Proved and Enrolled in the Court of +Hastings_, _London_, ed. R.R. Sharpe, 2 vols. (1889); _The Fifty +Earliest English Wills in the Court of Probate, London_, ed. F.J. +Furnivall (E.E.T.S., 1882); _Lincoln Wills_, ed. C.W. Foster (Lincoln +Record Soc., 1914); and _Somerset Medieval Wills_, 1383-1558, ed. F.W. +Weaver, 3 vols. (Somerset Record Soc., 1901-5). + +5. The will of the other Thomas Paycocke 'cloathemaker', who died in +1580, also refers to the family business. He leaves twenty shillings 'to +William Gyon my weaver'; also 'Item, I doe give seaven poundes tenne +shillinges of Lawful money of Englande to and amongest thirtie of the +poorest Journeymen of the Fullers occupacion in Coggeshall aforesaide, +that is to every one of them fyve shillinges.' William Gyon or Guyon was +related to a very rich clothier, Thomas Guyon, baptized in 1592 and +buried in 1664, who is said to have amassed L100,000 by the trade. +Thomas Paycocke's son-in-law Thomas Tyll also came of a family of +clothiers, for in a certificate under date 1577 of wool bought by +clothiers of Coggeshall during the past year there occur the names of +Thomas Tyll, William Gyon, John Gooddaye (to whose family the first +Thomas Paycocke left legacies), Robert Lytherland (who receives a +considerable legacy under the will of the second Thomas), and Robert +Jegon (who is mentioned incidentally in the will as having a house near +the church and was father of the Bishop of Norwich of that name). See +Power, _The Paycockes of Coggeshall_, pp. 33-4. + +6. Quoted in Lipson, _Introd. to the Econ. Hist, of England_ (1905), I, +p. 421. + +7. Quoted _ibid_., p. 417. + +8. On John Winchcomb see Power, _op. cit_., pp. 17-18; and Lipson, _op. +cit_., p. 419. + +9. Deloney's Works, ed. F.C. Mann, pp. 20-1. + +10. _Ibid_., p. 22. + +11. Quoted in C.L. Powell, _Eng. Domestic Relations_, 1487-1563 (1917), +p. 27. + +12. The house subsequently passed, it is not quite clear at what date, +into the hands of another family of clothiers, the Buxtons, who had +intermarried with the Paycockes some time before 1537. William Buxton +(_d_. 1625) describes himself as 'clothyer of Coggeshall' and leaves +'all my Baey Lombs [Looms]' to his son Thomas. Thomas was seventeen when +his father died and lived until 1647, also carrying on business as a +clothier, and the house was certainly in his possession. He or his +father may have bought it from John Paycocke's executors. By him it was +handed down to his son Thomas, also a clothier (_d_. 1713), who passed +it on to his son Isaac, clothier (_d_. 1732). Isaac's two eldest sons +were clothiers likewise, but soon after their father's death they +retired from business. He apparently allowed his third son, John, to +occupy the house as his tenant, and John was still living there in 1740. +But Isaac had left the house by will in 1732 to his youngest son, +Samuel, and Samuel, dying in 1737, left it to his brother Charles, the +fourth son of Isaac. Charles never lived in it, because he spent most of +his life in the pursuit of his business as an oil merchant in London, +though he is buried among his ancestors in Coggeshall Church. In 1746 he +sold the house to Robert Ludgater and it passed completely out of the +Paycocke-Buxton connexion, and in the course of time fell upon evil days +and was turned into two cottages, the beautiful ceilings being plastered +over. It was on the verge of being destroyed some years ago when it was +bought and restored to its present fine condition by Mr Noel Buxton, a +direct lineal descendant of the Charles Buxton who sold it. See Power, +_op. cit_., pp. 38-40. + +13. _Deloney's Works_, ed. F.O. Mann, p. 213. + +14. Defoe, _Tour through Great Britain_, 1724 (1769 edit.), pp. 144-6. + +15. 'This shire is the most fatt, frutefull and full of profitable +thinges, exceeding (as far as I can finde) anie other shire for the +general commodities and the plentie, thowgh Suffolk be more highlie +comended by some (wherewith I am not yet acquainted). But this shire +seemeth to me to deserve the title of the Englishe Goshen, the fattest +of the lande, comparable to Palestina, that flowed with milk and +hunnye.'--Norden, _Description of Essex_ (1594), (Camden Soc.), p. 7. + +16. According to Leake, writing about 1577, 'About 1528 began the first +spinning on the distaffe and making of Coxall clothes.... These Coxall +clothes weare first taught by one Bonvise, an Italian.'--Quoted _V.C.H. +Essex_, II, p. 382. + + + +_Notes on Illustrations_ + +PLATE I. _Bodo at his work_ + +From an eleventh-century Anglo-Saxon calendar in the British Museum (MS. +Tit., B.V., pt. I), showing the occupations of Bodo, or of his masters, +for each month of the year. The months illustrated are January +(ploughing with oxen), March (breaking clods in a storm), August +(reaping), and December (threshing and winnowing). The other pictures +represent February (pruning), April (Bodo's masters feasting), May +(keeping sheep), June (mowing), July (woodcutting), September (Bodo's +masters boar-hunting), October (Bodo's masters hawking), and November +(making a bonfire). + +PLATE II. _Embarkation of the Polos at Venice_ + +From the magnificent MS. of Marco Polo's book, written early in the +fifteenth century and now preserved at the Bodleian Library, Oxford (MS. +no. 264, f. 218). The artist gives an admirable view of medieval Venice, +with the Piazetta to the left, and the Polos embarking on a rowing boat +to go on board their ship. In the foreground are depicted (after the +medieval fashion of showing several scenes of a story in the same +picture) some of the strange lands through which they passed. Note the +Venetian trading ships. + +PLATE III. _Part of a landscape roll by Chao Meng-fu_ + +This very beautiful scene is taken from a roll painted by Chao Meng-fu +in 1309 in the style of Wang Wei, a poet and artist of the T'ang dynasty +(A.D. 699-759). A fine description of it is given by Mr Laurence Binyon: +'In the British Museum collection is a long roll, over seventeen feet +long, painted almost entirely in blues and greens on the usual warm +brown silk.... It is one continuous landscape, in which the scenes melt +into one another. Such rolls are not meant to be exhibited or looked at +all at once, but enjoyed in small portions at a time, as the painting is +slowly unrolled and the part already seen rolled up again. No small +mastery is requisite, as may be imagined, to contrive that wherever the +spectator pauses an harmonious composition is presented. One has the +sensation, as the roll unfolds, of passing through a delectable country. +In the foreground water winds, narrowing and expanding, among verdant +knolls and lawns, joined here and there by little wooden bridges; and +the water is fed by torrents that plunge down among pine-woods from +crags of fantastic form, glowing with hues of lapis-lazuli and jade; +under towering peaks are luxuriant valleys, groves with glimpses of +scattered deer, walled parks, clumps of delicate bamboo, and the distant +roofs of some nestling village. Here and there is a pavilion by the +water in which poet or sage sits contemplating the beauty round him. +These happy and romantic scenes yield at last to promontory and reed-bed +on the borders of a bay where a fisherman's boat is rocking on the +swell. It is possible that a philosophic idea is intended to be +suggested--the passage of the soul through the pleasant delights of +earth to the contemplation of the infinite.'--Laurence Binyon, _Painting +in the Far East_ (1908), pp. 75-6. The section of the roll which has +been chosen for reproduction here has already been reproduced in S.W. +Bushell, _Chinese Art_ (1910), II, Fig. 127, where it is thus described: +'A lake with a terraced pavilion on an island towards which a visitor is +being ferried in a boat, while fishermen are seen in another boat +pulling in their draw-net; the distant mountains, the pine-clad hills in +the foreground, the clump of willow opposite, and the line of reeds +swaying in the wind along the bank of the water are delightfully +rendered, and skilfully combined to make a characteristic +picture.'--_Ibid_., II, p. 134. Other sections of the same roll are +reproduced in H.A. Giles, _Introd. to the Hist, of Chinese Pictorial +Art_ (2nd ed., 1918) facing p. 56; and in L. Binyon, _op. cit_., plate +III (facing p. 66). It is exceedingly interesting to compare this +landscape roll with the MS of Marco Polo, illuminated about a century +later, from which the scene of the embarkation at Venice has been taken; +the one is so obviously the work of a highly developed and the other of +an almost naive and childish civilization. + +PLATE IV. _Madame Eglentyne at home_ + +This is a page from a fine manuscript of _La Sainte Abbaye_, now in the +British Museum (MS. Add. 39843, f. 6 vo). At the top of the picture a +priest with two acolytes prepares the sacrament; behind them stands the +abbess, holding her staff and a book, and accompanied by her chaplain +and the sacristan, who rings the bell; behind them is a group of four +nuns, including the cellaress with her keys, and nuns are seen at the +windows of the dorter above. At the bottom is a procession of priest, +acolytes and nuns in the choir; notice the big candles carried by the +young nuns (perhaps novices) in front, and the notation of the +music books. + +PLATE V. _The Menagier's wife has a garden party_ + +This beautiful scene is taken from a fifteenth-century manuscript of the +_Roman de la Rose_ (Harl. MS. 4425), which is one of the greatest +treasures of the British Museum. + +PLATE VI. _The Menagier's wife cooks his supper with the aid of his +book_ + +From MS. Royal, 15 D. I, f. 18, in the British Museum which is part of a +_petite bible historiale_, or biblical history, by Guyart des Moulins, +expanded by the addition of certain books of the Bible, in French. It +was made at Bruges by the order of Edward IV, King of England by one J. +du Ries and finished in 1470, so that it is about eighty years later +than the Menagier's book. The illustration represents a scene from the +story of Tobias; Tobit, sick and blind, is lying in bed, and his wife +Anna is cooking by the fire, with the help of a book and a serving maid. +The right-hand half of the picture, which is not reproduced here, shows +the outside of the house, with Tobias bringing in the angel Raphael. The +illuminated border of the page from which this scene is taken contains +the arms of Edward IV, with the garter and crown. + +PLATE VII. _Calais about the time of Thomas Betson_ + +This plan of Calais in 1546 is reproduced from a 'Platt of the Lowe +Countrye att Calleys, drawne in October, the 37th Hen. VIII, by Thomas +Pettyt,' now in the British Museum. (Cott. MS. Aug. I, vol. II, no. 70). +There is only room to show the top corner of the plan, with the drawing +of Calais itself, but the whole plan is charming, with its little +villages and great ships riding in the channel. + +PLATE VIII. _Thomas Paycocke's house at Coggeshall_ + +From a photograph of the front of the house, standing on the street. +Note the long carved breastsummer that supports the overhanging upper +story. On the left can be seen, much foreshortened, the archway and +double doors of linen fold panels. The windows are renovations on the +original design, flat sash windows having been put in in the +eighteenth century. + + + +_Index_ + +ABU LUBABAH, 33 +Acqui, Jacapo of, 66, 182 +Acre, 51, 53 +Adrianople, 7, 42 +Adriatic, 39, 41, 42, 63, 179 +Aegean, 42, 179 +Aelfric, _Colloquium_, 174, 175 +Agnes, Dame, _see_ Beguine +Aldgate, 121 +Alexander, 54 +Alexandria, 40, 42 +Alnwick, William, Bishop of Lincoln, 77, 184 +Ambrose, 9 +Andaman Islands, 69, 70 +Anglia, East, 153, 156 +Antilha, Antilles, 72, 183 +Antwerp, 121, 145, 147 +Arab, Arabia, 43, 47, 61, 171 +Ararat, Mount, 54 +Aretino, Pietro, 180 +Arghun, Khan of Persia, 60, 61 +Armenia, 42, 49, 53, 179 +Arnold, Matthew, 51 +Arras, 147 +Asia: Central, 40, 49, 50, 51, 54, 67, 71, 72; + Minor, 49 +Attila, 8, 49 +Audley, Lady, 91 +Augustine, St, 9, 175 +Augustus, 3 +Ausonius, 5 ff; + his country estate, 6 ff; + his friends, 6 ff; + and University of Bordeaux, 5 +Austin Friars, 93 +Auvergne, 5 ff + +Bacon, Francis, 122 +Badakhshan, 43, 54, 67 +Bagdad, 43, 54 +Baku, 54 +Bale: Peter, 131; + Wyllikyn, 131 +Balk, 54 +Ballard: James, 127; + Jane, 127 +Balms (_Bammers, Bamis, Bammys_) + Mart, 147, 193 +Barbarians, 1-17 +Babarian invasions, 7 +Bardi, 71 +Barton, John, of Holme, 138 +Base, Jacob van de, 149 +Bath, Wife of, 84, 104, 118, 152 +Bayard, 138 +_Bays and Says_, 172 +Beauchamp St Pauls, 169, 170 +Becerillo, 33 +_Beguine_, Dame Agnes the, 107, 116, 117 +Bellela, _see_ Polo +Benedict, St, 81, 82, 184 +Betson: Agnes, Alice, Elizabeth, + John, Thomas (the younger), 150; + Katherine, _see_ Riche +Betson, Thomas; Chap VI _passim_, 158; + children of, 150; death of, 150; + illness of, 133-5; + letters of, 127, 128, 129, 130, 131, 132, 133, 189; + member of Fishmongers Company, 150; + partnership with Sir W. Stonor, 125, 137; + will of, 134, 150, 194 +Bevice, Mistress, 134 +Bishops' registers, 74, 75, 76, 78, 183 +_Bicorne_, 104 +Black Death, 108, 109 +Black Prince, 19 +Black Sea, 40, 42, 50, 71 +Blakey, Sir Roger, 127 +Booking, 154 +Bodo, Chap _II passim_, 18-38, 174-5, 198 +Bokhara, 51, 52 +Bolgana, wife of Khan of Persia, 60 +Bordeaux, Burdews, 142; University of, 6 +Bordelais, the, 6, 7 +Brabant, 146, 148 +Brad well, 140 +Brasses, 123, 136, 151, 155, 156, 157, 159, 190, 195 +Braunch, Robert, 156 +Brenner Pass, 40 +Brescia, Albertano de, 99 +Breten, Will, 137 +Brews, Margery, 125-6 +Bridge, John, 119 +Briggs, Henry, 169 +Brightlingsea, 140 +Brinkley, 135 +Brittany, 147 +Broadway, Whyte of, 137 +_Brogger_, 137 +Bruges, 121, 122, 145, 147, 178 +Bruyant, Jean, 100 +Bucephalus, 54 +Buddha, 59 +Bullinger, Henry, 165 +Burgundy, Dukes of, 114, 148 +Burma, 57, 67 +Bury, 15 +Busshe, John, 137 +Buxton: Charles, Isaac, Samuel, Thomas, William, 197; + Mr Noel, 195 +Byzantium, _see_ Constantinople + +Caffa, 42 +Calais, 121, 125, 137, 138, 139, 140, + 142, 143, 144, 145, 146, 147, 148, + 150, 200 +Cambaluc (see Peking), 57, 59, 60, + 61, 67 +Cambrensis, Giraldus, 176 +Canale, Martino da, 43-5, 48, 50, 177, + 179, 180 +Candia, 42 +Canterbury, 74 +_Canterbury Tales_, 74, 75, 91, 183, 186 +Canton, 70 +Ca' Polo, 62, 63 +Carrara, Francesco, 179 +Carsy, Anthony, 149 +Caspian Sea, 40, 54 +Cassiodorus, 39, 180 +Castro, Diego da, 149 +Cathay (_see also_ China), 47, 50, 58, + 70, 71, 72, 178 +Caucasus, 49, 180 +Cely: family of wood merchants, + 137-47 _passim_; George, 125, 137, + 138, 142, 147; Richard, 125, 137, + 138, 142; William, 125, 138, 142, + 149 +_Cely papers_, 125, 137, 142, 145, 147, + 148, 189 +Ceylon, 43, 47, 61, 70 +Chagatai, Khan of, 51 +Chao Meng-fu, 59, 182, 198 +Chao Yung, 59 +Charlemagne, 2, 20, 22, 23, 24, 25, 27, + 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 74, 176 +Charms (_see also_ superstition), 27-9, + 100, 116, 175 +Chatelet, 100 +Chaucer, 26, 43, 74, 75, 81, 88, 89, + 90, 91, 92, 93, 94, 95, 99, 104, 112, + 119, 138, 142, 148, 152, 183 +Chelmsford, 168 +Chesne, Jean du, 114 +_Chichevache_, 104 +Chi'en Hsuean, 59 +Child-marriages, 126-7, 190 +Chilperic, King, 2, 13 +Chilterns, 125 +China (_see also_ Cathay), 43, 46-50, + 52, 57-61, 66, 67-70, 178, 180, 181 +Chioggia, War of, 179 +Church, attitude to: child marriages, + 126, 190; convent pets, 91; dancing, + 30, 31, 88; decline of Roman +Empire, 9; monastic intercourse + with the world, 92, 93; nuns' + dowries, 78; superstition, 28, 29, + 30; attack on worldliness of, 74; + bequests to (_see also_ Wills), 151, + 168; brasses in, _see_ brasses; + councils of, 174 +Churches of: Barking, All Hallows, + 123,151; Beauchamp St Pauls, 168; + Bradwell, 168; Calais, Our Lady, + 151; Chipping Campden, 123; + Chipping Norton, 123; Cirencester, + 123, 157; Clare, 164, 168; + Coggeshall, St Peter ad Vincula, + 157, 159, 168, 172, 195; Constantinople, + St Sophia, 41; East Anglia, + 159; Lechlade, 123; London, St + Olave's, 124; Linwood, 123, 190; + Markswell, 168; Newbury, 163; + Newland, 157; Northleach, 136, + 157; Ovington, 168; Pattiswick, + 168; Peking, 71; Poslingford, 168; + Stoke Nayland, 168; Venice, St + Mark's, 41, 44, 46, 60, 66, 179 +Cipangu (Japan), 72, 183 +Cistercian, Citeaux, 83, 136 +Clare, 154, 164, 168, 178 +Clarke, Thomas, 144 +Cloth, _see_ Chapter VII _passim_, 195; + capitalism in industry, 164; Coxall's + whites, 178, 197; growth of + English manufacture of, 122-3; + makers of, 120, 161; merchants of, + _see_ Merchants, Paycocke, Staple; + processes in manufacture, 153, 154, + 161, 164; where made, 122-3, 154, + 155 +Cochin China, 57, 67 +Coggeshall, _see_ Chapter VII _passim_, + 154, 155, 159, 160, 164, 166, 167, + 168, 169, 170, 172 +Coinage, debasement and rates of + exchange of, 148 +Coins: crown, new and old, of + France, 148; David, of Utrecht, + 148; Falewe, of Utrecht, 148; + florin, Rhenau, 148; groat, + Carolus, Hettinus, Limburg, of + Milan, of Nimueguen, 148, 149; + Venetian, 48; guilder, Andrew + (of Scotland), Arnoldus (of Gueldres) + Rhenish, 148, 149; Lewe, + Louis d'or, 148; noble, 148; + Philippus (Philipe d'or) of Brabant, + 148; Plaques, of Utrecht, + 148; Postlate, 148; Rider, Scots, of + Burgundy, 148; Ryall, English, + 148; Setiller, 148 +Colchester, 140, 154, 168 +Cold Mart, 147, 193 +Coleridge, 57 +Colne, curate of, 127 +Cologne, 148 +_Coloni_, 21-2 +Columbina, The (Seville), 183 +Columbus, 71, 183 +Company: East India ('John Company'), + 156; Fishmongers, 150; + Haberdashers, 151; Mercers, 149; + Merchant Adventurers, 122; Staplers. + Chapter VI _passim_ +Compline, 79, 82 +_Consrater_, 168 +Constantinople (_see_ Byzantium), 41, + 42, 46, 50, 51, 62 +Convent, _see_ Nunneries +Cookery, Medieval, 100, 112-17, 186 +Corea, 49 +_Corte Milioni_, 63 +Cotswolds, 123, 125, 129, 136, 137, + 138, 145, 147, 150 +Cotton, Ann, 166 +Court Rolls, 26 +Coverdale, 165 +Coxall, _see_ Coggeshall +_Coxall's Whites_, 178, 197 +Crimea, 42, 50 +Croke, Mistress, 129 +Crusader, Crusades, 41, 157 + +Dalmatia, 41, 42 +Dalton, William, 141, 144 +Damaghan, 180 +Dancing: at clothier's wedding, 165; + Church's attitude to, 30, 31, 88; + in churchyard, 30, 31; of dancers + of Koelbigk, 30, 176; of nun at + Northampton, 93 +Dandolo, Doge, Enrico, 41 +Danube, River, 49 +Danyell, John, 141 +Dardanelles, 40 +Dean, Forest of, 157 +Decasoun, Benynge, 149 +Dedham, 154 +Defoe, 152, 167 +Defuye, Gabriel, 149 +Deloney, Thomas, 160, 163-4, 165, + 167, 195 +Delowppys, John, 149 +Denys, St, Abbey of, 36; fair of, 36, + 37 +Destermer, John, 137 +Dogs, 33, 90, 91, 103, 117, 147, 156 +Dogaressa, 45 +Doges, 42, 44-6, 63, 179 +Dolman, Thomas, 161 +_Domesday Book_, 20 +Dominic, Dominican, 53, 66 +Don, River, 180 +Donata, _see_ Polo +Doria, Lamba, 63 + +Edith, St, 176 +Edward II, 75 +Edward III, 19, 75 +Eglentyne, Madame (_see_ Chapter IV + _passim_), _see also_ Nunnery, Prioress +Egypt, 40, 42 +Einhard, 31, 32, 33, 174, 175 +Elias, Master, 114, 116 +Elizabeth, Queen, 120 +Elmes, John, of Henley, 137, 156 +England, 40, 121, 122, 123, 147, 152, + 153, 155, 163 +Ermentrude, wife of Bodo, 24-38, + 175 +Ermoin, 24 +Eryke, Robert, 143 +Essex, 140, 154, 168, 172, 197 +Euric, King, 10 +Ewen, Robert, 142 +Exchange, rates of, 148-9 +Exeter: Bishop of, 75, 184; Canons + of, 82 + +Fairs, 36, 37, 147, 193. _See_ Marts +Fantina, _see_ Polo +Felmersham, wife of, 87 +Fisc, 20 +Flanders, 40, 121, 122, 123, 139, 142, + 145, 150, 178 +Flemings, 138, 145, 146, 147 +Flodden Field, 163 +Florence, 71, 145 +Fo-Kien, 58 +_Fondaco_, 71 +Fortey: John, 123; Thomas, 123 +Fortunatus, 12 ff +Frambert, 24 +France, French, 40, 42, 50, 78, 79, + 108; _see also_ Gaul +Franciscan: convents, 71; friars, 49, + 70, 71; nuns, 129; tertiaries, 107 +Franks, 12 ff, 27 +Fredegond, 13 +Friars: Austin, 93; of Chelmsford, + 168; of Clare, 168; Crutched, of + Colchester, 168; Franciscan, 49, + 50; of Maldon, 168; of Sudbury, + 168 +Frisia, 37 +Fuller, Thomas, 154, 162 +Fyldes, Welther, 141 + +Gallo-Roman civilization, 5 ff +Games, medieval, 168, 187 +Gall, Monk of St, 32, 33, 174, 176 +Gascon, 147 +Gaul, 5 ff +Genoa, 42, 63, 64, 145, 149, 179, 182 +Georgia, 49 +Germain des Pres, Abbey of, 19-23, + 27-8, 174 +Germans, Germany, 2, 4, 5, 7, 14, 40, + 42 +Gerbert, 23, 33 +Ghent, 122 +Gibraltar, 40 +Gilds (_see also_ Companies); procession + of, at Venice, 45, 48; + restrictions of, 153 +Gloucestershire, 136 +Gobi, Desert of, 55 +Goes, Benedict, 54 +Golconda, 43 +Golden Horde, 49, 50 +Gooday (Coggeshall family), 159, + 166 +Goths, 7, 8 +Gower, 123, 144, 190 +Graunger, Thomas, 141, 144 +Greece, 42 +Gregory X, 53 +Gregory of Tours, 12 ff +Greve, Place de, 114 +Grevel (Greville) William, 123 +Griselda, 100, 104, 105, 118, 119 +Groat (_see_ Coins), 48, 123, 148, 149 +Guelder, Guilder, Gulden (_see_ coins), + 123, 148, 149 +Guntrum, King, 13 + +Hainault, Philippa of, 75 +Halitgart, 175 +Halstead, 154 +Hangchow (_see also_ Kinsai), 45-8, + 57, 61, 70, 71, 180 +Hansard, 147 +Haroun el Raschid, 33 +Hautecourt, wedding of, 114 +Hedin, Sven, 67 +Henham, Thomas, 135, 140, 143, 145, + 151 +Henley, _see_ Elmes, John +Henry VIII, 93, 120, 148 +_Heptameron_, 187 +Hildegard, 23, 24 +Hiwen Thsang, 67 +Hoangho, River, 47 +Holake, _see_ Howlake +Holme, _see_ Barton, John +Holy Roman Emperor, 40, 42 +Hormuz, 54 +Horrold: Margaret, 166; Thomas, 166 +House of Lords, 120 +Howlake, Thomas, 140, 145 +_Hugh, St, Tale of_, 94 +Hull, 140, 141 +Hun, 8, 49 +Hungarian, 42, 49 +Hundred Years War, 19, 155 +Huntington, Ellsworth, 67 + +India, 47, 54, 57, 61, 70 +Indian Ocean, 54 +Indies, 43, 47 +Indo-China, 43, 47, 49 +Inns: the 'Dragon' (Coggeshall), + 170; the 'Fleece' (Coggeshall), + 154; the 'Tabard' (Southwark), 78; + the 'Woolpack' (Coggeshall), + 154 +Ipswich, 143 +Irminon, Abbot of St Germain des + Pres, Estate book of, 19-25, 26, 28, + 174 +Islam, 71 +Isomachus, 96, 97 +Italy, Italian, 70; _see also_ Florence, + Genoa, Venice, etc. + +Jamui, Queen of Kublai Khan, 61 +Japan, 67 +Java, 49, 67 +Jerusalem, 41, 53 +Jews, 13, 37 +Johnson, Doctor, 156 +Judea, 37 +Julian the Apostate, 2, 7 +Justices, itinerant, 35, 36 + +Karakorum, 50, 57 +Kashgar, 54 +Kerman, 54 +Khan: of Central Asia, 50; of Kipchak, + 51; of Persia, 51, 52, (_see also_ + Mangu, Kublai) +Khorassan, 54 +Khotan, 54, 67 +Kinsai (_see also_ Hangchow), 45-8, + 57, 59, 181 +Kipchak, 51, 61 +Koelbigk, dancers of, 30, 176 +Kuan, 59 +Kublai Khan, 52, 53, 56, 57, 59, 60, + 61, 63, 64, 65, 66, 71 +Lagny, Abbot of, 114 +Lajazzo, 54 +Lamberton, _see_ Turbot, Robert +Lancaster, Thomas of, 75 +Langland, 26, 118 +Laos, 67 +Lauds, 79 +Leadenhall, 140 +Letters, _see_ Cely, Paston, Plumpton, + Stonor +Levant, 40, 42, 47, 48 +_Libelle of Englyshe Policye_, 146, 189 +Lincoln, 77, 89 +Linwood, 123, 190 +Lob, lake, 54 +Lokyngton, John, 141 +Lollington, John, 136, 141 +Lombard, Peter, 119 +Lombards, the, 42, 138, 139, 149 +Lombard Street, 149 +Lombardy, 37 +London, 123, 129, 130, 137, 138, 140, + 141, 142, 143, 149 +Louens, Renault de, 99 +Louis, St, 36; the Pious, 30, 31 +Louvain, 147 +Lucca, 147 +Lucolongo, Peter, of 71 +Ludgater, Robert, 197 +Lyndeshay, 137 +Lyndwood (Lyndewode): John, 123, + 190; William, 126 +Lyndys, William, 141 +Lynn, 156, 159 +Lyons, 10 + +Madagascar, 43, 70 +Maidstone, 140, 141, 142 +Major, _see_ Steward +Malabar, 43, 47, 57 +Maldon, 168 +Manchuria, 49 +Manji, 43, 61 +Mangu Khan, 49 +Mann, John, 170 +Manor, _see_ Bodo, 150 +Manse, 20, 21, 22, 23, 25 +Mansi. _See_ Manji +Marcus Aurelius, 2, 3, 4 +Marignolli, John, 70 +Marino Faliero, 63 +Mark Lane, 140, 150 +Markshall, 168 +Marmora, Sea of, 42 +Marts, 147, 150, 193. _See_ Fairs +Mass, 44, 71, 80, 99, 117 +Matins, 79, 82 +Mechlin, 122 +Mediterranean, 15, 42, 43 +Medway, 140, 142 +'Meg', a hawk, 138 +Melaria, 64 +_Melibeus and Prudence_, 99, 186 +Menagier de Paris, Chap. V _passim_ + 127, 185; on accounts, 188; on + cookery, 100, 112, 113, 114, 115, + 116, 186; on deportment, 99, 102-3, + 116; on duty to husband, 99, + 101, 103-7, 118; on extermination + of insects, in, 112; on games, 101, + 117, 187; on garments and household + linen, 98, 99, 102, 111, 112, + 117, 188; on management of farm, + 100; on servants, 100, 102, 107-111, + 114, 115, 117, 118; on wife's + second marriage, 98, 114 +Mercers, 149 +Merchant Adventurers, 122, 193 +Merchant: Arab, 47; Chinese, 46, 47, + 58, 71; English, _see_ Betson, Company + Merchant Adventurers, Paycocke, + Staple; Indian, 47; Italian, + 149; Roman, 1 ff; Spanish, 149; + Venetian, _see_ Venice, trade of, + marks of, 153, 157, 158, 159; repair + of roads by, 169 +Merovingian, 13 +Meung, Jean de, 99 +Middleburgh, 142 +Middle classes: growth of, 158; + houses of, 158, 159; menagier as + type of, 158 +Midwinter, William, 136, 137 +Milhall, 140 +Milton, 140 +Minoresses, 129 +Minstrels, 31, 32, 38 +_Missi dominici, see_ Justices +Money, _see_ Coins +Mongol, 58, 60, 178, 182 +Mongolia, 49, 55, 57, 67 +Monte Corvino, John of, 70 +Montfort, Simon de, 75 +More, Lewis, 149 +Moreta. _See_ Polo +Moslem, 42, 49 +Mosul, 54 +_Myroure of Our Ladye_, 83, 185 +Navarre, Margaret of, 187 +Navy: Genoese, 42, 63; Vandal, 15; + Venetian, 45, 64 +Nestorian, 49, 182 +Netherlands, 122, 123, 152 +Newark, 138 +Newbury, 161; Jack of (John Winchcomb), + 152, 162, 163-4, 195 +Newhithe, 141 +Nicobar, 70 +Nile, 40 +None, 79 +Norman, Normandy, 155 +Northampton, 93, 141 +Northleach, 123, 136, 137, 138 +Norwich, 154 + +Nunneries, Chap. IV _passim_, and + 129, 184; of Minoresses, 129; at + Stainfield, 82; of Syon, 83; of + Wilton, 176; bishops' visits to, 76-8; + Chaucer's sources for study of, + 74; dissolution of, 78, 93; fashions + in, 88, 89; management of, 85-7; + mentioned in wills, 157; paying + guests in, 87, 91; pets in, 90, 91; + schoolgirls in, 80, 92; silence hours + in, 80; sources for study of, 184 +Nuns (_see_ Eglentyne, Nunneries, + Prioress, Chap. IV _passim_), 200; + clothes of, 88, 89; complaints of, + to bishop, 76-8, 85, 92; dowries of, + 78-9; intercourse of, with the + world, 92-4; meals of, 79; offices + of, 79; periods of silence of, 80; + pets of, 90, 91; recreations of, 88; + work of, 80 + +Orewelle (Orwell), 142 +Orleans, Bishop of, 35 +Orosius, 9 +Ovington, 169, 170 +Ovis Poli, 54 +Oxbridge, Goddard, 140 +Oxus, River, 51, 54 + +Paris, 23, 36, 73, 100, 107, 108, 114 +Parliament, 190 +_Pask_ (Pasche) Mart, 147, 193 +Paston, John, 126; Letters, 125, 190 +Pattiswick, 168 +Paulinus, St, of Nela, 5 +Paycocke: Emma, 166; John, 157, + 165; John, jun., 166; Margaret, + 165, 166; Robert, 166; Robert, + jun., 166; Thomas, jun., 157; + Thomas, Chap. VII _passim, see + also_ Cloth; bequests of, 168, + _see_ Will of; brasses of family of, + 157, 195; burial ceremonies of, + 171-2; character of, 167; child of, + 166, 171; _consrater_ of Crutched + Friars, 168; death of, 166, 171; + friends of, 168; house of, 156, 158, + 165, 170, 195, 200; merchant mark + of, 158, 159; repairs roads, 169; + second wife of, 166, 169, 171; + wedding of, 165; will of, 157, 158, + 159, 166, 167, 168, 169, 195, 196 +Pegolotti, Francis Balducci, 71 +Peking (_see also_ Cambaluc, China, + Polo), 49, 57, 60, 71; ambassadors + sent to, 60; Archbishop of, 70; + description of, by Oderic of Pordenone, + 70; papal legate, to, 70; + Tartar rule in, 49 +Pembroke, William, Earl of, 99 +Perpendicular architecture, 152, 155, + 159 +Perpoint, Thomas, 161 +Persia, 40, 42, 49, 51, 54, 61, 67 +Peter the Tartar, 66 +Petrarch, 100, 179, 180 +Piacenza, Tebaldo di, 53 +Pian da Carpine (_see_ Piano Carpini) +Pierre an Lait, 114 +_Piers Plowman_, 84, 169 +Pilgrims' Way, 140 +Piano Carpini, John of, 50, 181 +_Pleasant History of Jack of Newbury_, + 162, 195 +Plumpton Letters, 190 +Polo: + Bellela, Donata, Fantina, Moreta, + 65 + Maffeo, 50-7 + Marco, _see_ Chap. Ill _passim_, 177, + Kublai Khan; attendant on + Khan, 55; book of, 54 ff, 63, + 67, 185, 198; death of, 66; departure + from China of, 60; + father of (_see_ Maffeo), 50-75; + governor of Yangchow, 57, + 182; interest in Tartars, 48-50; + journeys of, 54-62, 181; mention + of, in Venetian records, + 65; nicknamed _Il Milione_, 63; + prisoner of Genoese, 64-5; + released by Genoese, 65; return + to Venice of, 62; sent on + mission by Khan, 57; stories + of, about Khan, 64-6; uncle of, + 50-7, 181; wife and family, + 65 + Nicolo, 50-71 +_Polyptychum_, 174 +Pope, 40, 41, 50, 52, 53, 70, 93 +Pordenone, Ordoric of, 58, 70, 180 +Porte-de-Paris, 114 +Prester John, 49, 181 +Prioress, _see_ Eglentyne, Nunneries, + Nuns, Chap. IV _passim_, 183; + in bishop's registers, 74-8; clothes + of, 88, 89, 90; complaints by nuns + of, 76-8, 85, 92; entertainment of + visitors by, 86, 87; intercourse of, + with world, 92, 93-4; pets of, 90, + 91; treatment of nuns by, 84; work + of, 85, 86, 87, 92 +Prime, 79 +Prologue: of _Canterbury Tales_, 73-4, + 89, 94, 95, 113, 130, 142, 186; of + Menagier de Paris, 97 + +Quentin, la'Quentine, Jehanne, 105, + 187 +Quincey, de, 26, 175 + +Rade, Daniel and Peter van de, 145 +Ragenold, 24 +Rainham, 140, 141 +Ramsbotham, Elizabeth, 127 +Ramusio, 62, 182 +Raynold, John, 149 +Reading, Thomas of, 152, 195 +Reformation, 30, 170 +Remy, Saint, 147 +Renault de Louens, 99 +Revolution, Industrial, 120, 154, 120 +Reyner, 169 +Rialto, 43, 64 +Ricimer, 8 +Riche: Anne, 130; Elizabeth, 125, + _see_ Stoner, Elizabeth, Jane, 131 + 135; Katherine, 126-33, 140, 150, + 151 +Rigmarden, John, 127 +Roman: civilization, 2; Emperor +1-17; villa, 3, 6, 155 + +_Roman de la Rose_, 99 +Rome, Chap. I _passim_, 46, 87, 155 +Roman Empire, 1-17, 27, 42, 155 + decline of, 1-17; reasons for disintegration + of, 14-17; trade of, 1 ff? +Romsey Abbey, 91 +Rotherhithe, 140 +Rouen, 37 +_Round Table_, 32, 65 +Rubruck, William of, 50, 54, 181 +Rumania, 42 +Rumney wine, 131 +Russell, Richard, 137 +Russia, 42, 49 +Rusticiano, 64, 65, 182 + +Salvian of Marseilles, 8 +St Gothard Pass, 40 +St Sophia, 42 +Saleby, Grace de, 127 +Samarcand, 50 +Sanly, Peter, 149 +Sandwich, 143 +Sext, 79 +Shalford, 154 +Shandu, Xanadu, 57 +Shansi, 56, 59 +Shensi, 47, 56 +Ships, 136, 140, 142, 143, 192; + masters of, 141, 142; names of, + 136, 141-3 +Siam, 67 +Siberia, 49, 70 +Sicily, 42 +Sidonius Apollinaris, 5, 8 ff; and his + villa, 9; and siege of Clermont, + 10 ff +Socrates, 96 +_Sohrab and Rustum_, 51 +Soldaia, 50 +Somerset House, 150, 155 +Sordyvale, William, 134 +Spain, Spaniards, Spanish, 37, 122 +spices, 47, 48 +Spice Islands, 70 +Spooner, Thomas, 170 +Stainfield, 82 +Stamford, 144 +Staple, Chap. VI _passim, see_ Betson, + merchant; banking facilities of, + 148; benefits of, 121, 122; brasses + of merchants of, 123, 156; business + of merchants of, 120-51; + competition of, with Merchant + Adventurers, 122; history of company + of, 189; location of, 121; + Merchants of the, Chap. VI + _passim_; organization of, 121; + regulations of, 121, 139, 140, 144, + 145; wills of merchants of, 123; + _see also_ Betson, Wills +Starkey, Humphrey, 134 +Stein, Sir Aurel, 67 +Stepney, 135 +Steward: Charlemagne's instructions + to, 19, 22, 24, 36; Master John the, + 100, 108-9, 115-16; of Villaris, 20, + 21, 22-4 +Stoke Nayland, 168 +Stonor: Dame Elizabeth, 129, 130 + 131, 132, 133, 135; Humphrey, + 160; Letters, 125, 136, 145, 189; + Sir William, 125, 129-30, 134, 136, 145 +Strabant, Gynott, 149 +Stratford-Atte-Bowe, 73, 78 +Strossy, Marcy, 149 +Suchow, Sugui, 48, 51, 64 +Sudbury, 154 +Suffolk, 153 +Sugui, _see_ Suchow +Sumatra, 61, 63, 67 +Sung dynasty, 46, 59, 61 +Superstition (_see_ Charms), 27-9, 175 +Symmachus, 5, 6 +_Synxon_ (Synchon) Mart, 147, 193 +Syon Abbey, 83 +Syria, 37, 40-2 +Szechuen, 56 + +Tabriz, 62 +Tacitus, 4 +Tana, 71 +Tangut, 55, 57, 59, 63 +Tartar(s), 49-52, 57, 62, 66-71, 178, + _see also_ Marco Polo; attitude of + West to, 49; embassy of, 52; fall of + dynasty of, 71; modern books on, + 178; Peter the, 66; power of, 49; + princess, 61, 70; slaves, 66 +Tartary, 49, 50, 63 +Tate, John, 134, 137 +Taylor, Robert, 160 +Templars, 53 +Temyngton, 144. +_Testamenta Eboracensia_, 157, 154, + 191, 196 +Thames, 156 +Theodulf, Bishop of Orleans, 35 +Tibet, 43, 47, 49, 57, 66, 67 +Tiepolo, Doge Lorenzo, 44, 45, 50 +Tierce, 79 +Timochain, 61, 180 +Tittivillus, 83-4 +Torneys, Robert, 144 +Trade, _see_ Merchant +Trebizond, 40, 42, 62 +Tripoli, 42 +Turbot, Robert of Lamberton, 137 +Turcomania, 54 +Turkestan, 49 +Tuscan, 42 +Tyre, 40, 42 + +Udine, 70 +Underbay, 137 _f_ +Uppcher, Margaret and Robert, 166 + +Vandals, 15 +Venice: Venetian, 39-44, 44-8, 51, + 53, 62-5, 70, 71, 145, 177-8; Cassiodorus + on, 39; Chronicler of, + _see_ Canale, Martino da; Doge of, + 4, 44-6, 63; excommunication of, + 41; history of, 39-46, 50, 178; + merchants of, at Hangchow, 70, + 71; modern works on, 177; Polos' + return to, 53, 63; procession of + gilds in, 45, 48, 50; records of, + 65; rivalry of, with Genoa, 42, + 63-4; trade of, 37, 40, 41, 42-3, + 47, 70, 145, 178; wedding of, with + sea, 40, 41; wool dealers of, 145 +Vespers, 79 +Villaris, 23, 24, 25 +_Villicus, see_ Steward +Villein, Villeinage, 19, 21, 158 +Visigoths, 10 + +Walberswick, 140 +Walpole, 156 +Wang Wei, 182 +_Way of Poverty and Wealth_, 100 +Wedding feasts, 115-16, 164-5 +Welbech, William, 151 +West: Riding, 167; Street, Coggeshall, + 170, 171, 172 +Whyte of Broadway, 137 +Wido (_see also_ Bodo), 23, 27, 29, 33 +Wilkins (Wylkyns) Henry, 140 +William I, 20 +Wills: of John Barton of Holme, + 191; of Thomas Betson, 134, 151, + 194; of bishops, 158; of Paycockes, + 157, 166-9, 195, 196; of + villeins, 158; general sources for, + 157, 191, 196 +Wilton, 176 +Winchester, St Mary's, Abbess of, 86 +Winchcomb, John (_see_ Jack of Newbury) +Wood, Lieutenant John, 54 +Wool (_see_ Betson, Cely, Merchan + Staple); export of, 122, 123 + Gower on, 123, 144; inspection of, + 144; lives of merchants of, 151 + (_see_ Betson); packing and shipping + of, 139-44; ports from + whence sent, 140; private bargains + in, 138; private letters or + export of, 125; purchase of, 136-7, + regulations concerning, 139-44; + revenues from, 121; sale of, 138, + 145-9; tombs of merchants of, + 123; where grown, 123, 136 +Woolsack, 120 +Wykeham, William of, 92 + +Xanadu (_see_ Shandu), 57 +Xenophon, 96 + +Yangchow, 57, 182 +Yangtze river, 46 +Yarkand, 54 +Yellow River, 49 +Yezd, 43 +York, 94, 137 +Yorkshire, 136, 137, 153 +Ypres, 122 +Yuan dynasty, 58 +Yule, Sir Henry, 67, 177 +Yunnen, 57 + +Zaiton, 54, 60, 71 +Zanzibar, 70 +Zara, 41 +Zealand (Seland), 142, 146 +Zeno, Renier, 44 + + + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Medieval People, by Eileen Edna Power + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MEDIEVAL PEOPLE *** + +***** This file should be named 13144.txt or 13144.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/1/3/1/4/13144/ + +Produced by Juliet Sutherland, Charlie Kirschner and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team. + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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