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<pre>

The Project Gutenberg EBook of Women of England, Volume 9 (of 10), by 
Burleigh James Bartlett

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Title: Women of England, Volume 9 (of 10)

Author: Burleigh James Bartlett

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Language: English

Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1

*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK WOMEN OF ENGLAND, VOLUME 9 (OF 10) ***




Produced by Thierry Alberto, William Flis, Rénald Lévesque
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</pre>



<br />
<h2>WOMAN</h2>

<h3>In all ages and in all countries</h3>




<h1>WOMEN OF ENGLAND</h1>

<h4>by</h4>

<h3>BARTLETT BURLEIGH JAMES, Ph.D.</h3>

<h4>Of Western Maryland College</h4>


<h4>THE RITTENHOUSE PRESS<br />

PHILADELPHIA</h4>


<center>Copyrighted at Washington and entered at Stationers' Hall, London,</center>

<center>1907&mdash;1908</center>

<center>and Printed by arrangement with George Barrie's Sons.</center>


<center>PRINTED IN U.S.A.</center>

<p><a name="front" id="front"></a></p>

<p class="mid"><img alt="" src="images/Front-9.png" /><br />
</p>

<p class="mid"><i>CHARLES II. AND LADY CASTLEMAINE,<br />
DUCHESS OF CLEVELAND<br />
After the painting by W. P. Frith, R. A.<br />

________<br /><br />

Pepys in his</i> Diary, <i>says: "Mr. Pierce, the surgeon tells<br />
me that, though the king and my Lady Castlemaine are<br />
friends again, she is not at White Hall, but at Sir D.<br />
Harvey's whither the king goes to her; but she says she<br />
made him ask her forgiveness upon his knees, and promise<br />
to offend her no more so, and that indeed she hath nearly<br />
hectored him out of his wits."</i></p>

<br />

<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="pagevii" id="pagevii"></a>[pg vii]</span></p>

<h3>PREFACE</h3>


<p>It is no slight task to follow out the windings of a single
thread in the infinite weave of society and by loosing it
from the general mesh to show how dependent is the pattern
of life and custom upon its presence. Such a task
was presented in the endeavor to trace along from remotest
times to the present day the influence of woman upon the
life and character, the efforts and ideals, of that race which
has come to be known as English, although this name may
not properly be used until time has spun into the vista of
the past peoples as vigorous, if not influential, as the one
that stands, the inheritor of their virility, at the apex of
modern civilization, whose women, clasping hands throughout
the British Empire, form a splendid chain of hope for womankind in all the world.</p>

<p>Whether or not continuity and sequence, relation and
effect, have been maintained in the retraversing of the
footsteps of woman in all ages of the history of those isles
where femininity has flowered in the most gracious blossoms,
it remains for the reader to say. Certain it is that
unaffected pleasure has been afforded the writer in his
attempt to draw aside the curtain that the muse of history
jealously employs to shut from view the inner sanctuary
in which she preserves those vital relics, the destruction
of which by some inconceivable iconoclast would bring
death to the world for lack of materials for reflection and
<span class="pagenum"><a name="pageviii" id="pageviii"></a>[pg viii]</span>
inspiration. In treating of the prehistoric periods, although
the brush necessarily has been laid broadly upon the
canvas, fancy has been kept in the leash of fact, and
imagination given no more play than its legitimate function.
Still, the results of inquiry into the status of woman
at this far remote period furnish a fulcrum upon which to
rest the lever of investigation, in order to lift into view
the strata of undoubted history of the periods immediately subsequent.</p>

<p>As fast as the widening of social interest afforded the
materials for use, the writer sought to employ them, until,
like a mountain rivulet, ever widening until it reaches the
plain, he found himself embarrassed by the wealth of fact
that told the marvellous story of the most notable emancipation
in the history of mankind,&mdash;the complete separation
of English woman from the trammels, inherent and
environmental, imposed upon the sex. If the successive
chapters disclose the philosophical relations of woman in
society, it will be because the reader has not failed to
grasp the fact that in any such theme as the one treated
mere continuity of subject matter would constitute a
chronicle and not a history; and that the writer, while
seeking not to make obtrusive the connective tissue, has
nevertheless given ample scope for the reflective mind to
see that which has ever been present to his own.</p>

<p>As to the actual materials employed in constructing the
book, it is sufficient to say that no important writer upon
any period of the history of the British Isles or their
people has been overlooked, and that the passing over of
the political and constitutional phases in order to select the
purely social has been an endeavor much furthered by
the writers to whom reference is made in the body of the
work, and many others who could not be mentioned without
burdening the text. Each fibre of the thread of interest
<span class="pagenum"><a name="pageix" id="pageix"></a>[pg ix]</span>
has been taken hold of at the point of its appearance, and
then not lost sight of until the end. So that if one is
interested in the subject of costume, he may find a full
and accurate description of dress from the time when tattooing
was deemed largely sufficient up to the period of
the present, when the variety of feminine attire baffles
description. But more serious subjects, such as woman's
rights, from the recognition of primal rights in her person
to the setting forth of the modern programme under that
description, are consecutively treated through the chapters.</p>

<p>A debt of gratitude cannot be discharged, but some recognition
may be made of the author's sense of the service
rendered him in the writing of this work by Dr. John
Martin Vincent, associate professor of history in Johns Hopkins
University, whose courses in the social history of
England furnished the first incentive to range in that field
and a guide through the labyrinth of manners and customs
of the English people. Thanks are due to Mr. J.A. Burgan,
whose close and careful reading of the proof is not
the least factor in the presentation of the book free, as the
writer believes, of the errors that only eternal vigilance may exclude.</p>

<p class="author"><span class="sc">Bartlett Burleigh James.</span></p>
<span class="pagenum"><a name="page1" id="page1"></a>[pg 1]</span>




<h2>Chapter I</h2>

<h2>The Women of Prehistoric Britain</h2>
<!--Blank page #2 omitted.-->
<span class="pagenum"><a name="page3" id="page3"></a>[pg 3]</span>


<p>It is to the unpremeditated contributions of savage and
barbarous conditions of existence that we must look for
those primal elements of social order which became fundamental
in English life and character. Insomuch as those
contributions are intimately connected with woman's life
and work, they must be sought out and set in order if we
are to trace the development of the status of the women
of Britain. In doing this, the confines of history proper
must be disregarded and the inquiry commenced at the
earliest period at which the student of the geology of
Britain has been able to discover evidences of human occupancy
of the country. If a consecutive account of the
history of woman in Britain were intended, we should be
content to begin the story with the woman of the Neolithic
or Polished Stone Age, for to such remote times may be
traced the stream of life and institutions in England; but,
as we shall aim not solely at consecutiveness, but at completeness
as well in our record of woman's life in the British
Isles, it will be necessary to go back even further into the
geologic ages, when Britain was still a part of the mainland
and its inhabitants the same roving savage tribes that
wandered over all central Europe.</p>

<p>From those barren ages of the Pleistocene era, which
were cut off from the Neolithic by great stretches of time
<span class="pagenum"><a name="page4" id="page4"></a>[pg 4]</span>
that cannot be certainly calculated, and during which there
was a lapse in the human occupancy of the country, little
of value can be derived. Their chief worth for our purpose
is the picture which they present of the initial stage
of human organization, the study they afford of woman in
her relations to a thoroughly savage stage of society, an
era of hunting&mdash;that of the Paleolithic or Rough Stone Age,
when there was fixity neither of residence nor of relations,
and when man's contest with savage nature about him
was dependent in its issues upon the slight advantage
furnished him by the rude weapons that he fashioned from
flint flakes. During the Polished Stone era, when inhabitants
are next met with in Britain, the social organization
presented is that of the pastoral stage, which marks
a great advance over the hunting.</p>

<p>In all the progressions of uncivilized life, woman is but
a part of the phenomena of her times, but in the history
of English civilization she appears as one of its most active
forces. These, then, are the two correlated views of
woman in the history of English life that will be constantly
held in mind during our whole study,&mdash;woman as a social
fact, and woman as a social factor; showing her as a
product, as affected by the customs, laws, or manners of
a given time, and again as an influencing factor in the
institutions or the manners of those times. Had her life
been as circumscribed as that of the women of a cultured
people, English civilization would not owe to woman the
recognition which is her due as a creative force in the arts,
in science, in literature, in religion, and in all the ever-widening
circle of human interests. An understanding
and estimate of her influence in these more conspicuous
relations will depend upon a proper appreciation of the English
home as the principal source of the English woman's
dignity and power. Much that has entered into the ideals
<span class="pagenum"><a name="page5" id="page5"></a>[pg 5]</span>
of the English race can be fully accounted for only in the
light of home ideals. By such considerations, then, as
have been thus far set forth, we shall be guided in our
endeavor to tell the story of woman's life in the ages of Britain's history.</p>

<p>The people of the earliest part of the Pleistocene age
had no real home life, nor was there any social organization
excepting that into which men were forced by the necessity
for mutual aid in the struggle with the forces of savage
nature. This element of self-protection was the only factor
that entered into the organized life of those earliest inhabitants
of Britain,&mdash;the people of the river-drift and the
caves. In this combat between savage man and savage
beast were produced the first instruments pointing to
civilization,&mdash;weapons for defence and offence.</p>

<p>The life of woman among the men of the river-drift was
of the most debased order. The only employment of the
men was hunting the gigantic savage beasts that ranged
through the forests. While the males were in pursuit
of the rhinoceros, the lion, the hippopotamus, and the
great antlered deer that were a part of the fauna of the
whole of that section of the continent of Europe of which
Britain in those remote times formed a part, the females
roamed through the densely wooded forests whose only
clearings were those made by the ravages of fire. Clad
in the skins of beasts but little lower in the scale of
being than themselves, and with their naked offspring
about them, they wandered about in search of berries or,
with no better aids than sharpened sticks, dug up the roots
which they dried and stored for the days when the results
of the chase fell short of the needs of the people. On the
home-coming of the hunters to the place where, in their
nomadic wanderings, they had erected temporary shelters,
the women prepared the miserable meal. By skilfully
<span class="pagenum"><a name="page6" id="page6"></a>[pg 6]</span>
rubbing together pieces of hard wood, a fire was soon
obtained; if fortune had attended the chase, the hastily
skinned animals were cut up with flint flakes, and the
meat was thrown upon the stones placed in the fire for
that purpose. There were no niceties of taste to be considered,
so the half-cooked and badly smoked flesh was
snatched from the fire and eaten with no more decorum
than might be found in the meals of the cave-hyena that,
under the shadows of night, skulked through the underbrush
and noisily devoured the remnants of the hunters' feast.</p>

<p>On the day following the hunt, the women undertook
the arduous work of curing the skins of the slain animals.
In the initial stage of the process they used stone scrapers,
sharp of edge and probably set in bone handles. Hundreds
of these implements have been found. The women
acquired great dexterity in this, one of their customary
employments; and while the men lounged about, resting
from the fatigue of the hunt, or occupied themselves with
painting their bodies with ochre, or tracing, with a splinter
of stone, rude devices on pieces of polished reindeer antler,
the work of the women went industriously on.</p>

<p>Men of such undisciplined natures as those of the people
of the river-drift could not exist together harmoniously;
very little, indeed, was necessary to embroil them in bitter
strife. Their women were a frequent cause of bloody encounters,
a circumstance which was due to the fact that
there was no permanence in the relations of the sexes;
such rights&mdash;seldom individual&mdash;to the women as were
vested in the men were always those acquired by brute
force, and held good only so long as the fancy or strength
of the men permitted. In such a promiscuous society
there was nothing to suggest the home of civilization.
To men, women simply represented their chief possession
<span class="pagenum"><a name="page7" id="page7"></a>[pg 7]</span>
and were held by them in common, like other forms of property.</p>

<p>Such an age was almost as barren of material utilities as
of moral conceptions; so that one looks in vain for evidence
of the knowledge of such arts as are commonly associated
with the life of women in savage societies. Basket work,
weaving, and spinning were occupations of which, it is
thought, the women of those times knew nothing. Pottery
was unknown; gourds served for drinking cups and
for the holding of liquids, and were used also for cooking.
Among the memorials of woman of these remote times
appears no trace of the charms and fetiches which usually
accompany the performance of domestic duties among
primitive races. Nothing lower in the scale of human
existence could be imagined than the lives of these women
of the river-drift, to whom nature made no appeal save
that of fear of its furious moods, to whom sex meant not
the possibilities of pure wifehood and motherhood, but
servitude to the demands of passion. When children were
not vigorous, or when for any reason their nurture became
irksome, they were ruthlessly slain, even by the mothers
themselves; and every woman knew that the lot of abandonment
was reserved for her when she could no longer
fulfil the hard conditions of her existence.</p>

<p>In some respects, the life of the women of the cave-dwellers
of the later Pleistocene period was of a higher
order than that which we have just described&mdash;not that
there was any essential difference in the social grade of
the two peoples, but that the cave-dwellers had learned to
make better implements of the chase and to fashion more
effectively all their weapons and tools. The greater
security to life afforded by these improvements and the
greater assurance of subsistence led to more settled living,
and thereby afforded an opportunity to develop a social
<span class="pagenum"><a name="page8" id="page8"></a>[pg 8]</span>
organization that should have for its basis something of
greater permanence than a temporary need. While it
would be hazardous, then, to assume too much in the way
of improvement in the life of the women of the cave-dwellers
over that of the women of the river-drift, yet it
should be borne in mind that in states of society such as
those represented by these remote inhabitants of Britain,
even a slight advance in the scale of living marks an epoch of progress.</p>

<p>The cave-dwellers succeeded the people of the river-drift
as inhabitants of Britain, and the combined occupancy
of the country by these peoples covered a vast stretch of
time. It is very probable that their periods overlapped,
and that the later people were in part contemporary with
the former. Though the people of the river-drift and the
dwellers in caves may have avoided intermixture, as have
the Esquimaux and the American Indians, yet there is
nothing absolutely to preclude the idea that such race distinction
was observed during great periods of time. So
that all we have to say of the women of the cave-dwellers
may be equally applied to the women of the later times of the river-drift.</p>

<p>The cave-dwellers, like their predecessors, were hunters.
For their dwellings they chose the caves from which they
had driven out the bear and the lion. These rude homes
the women hung about with the skins of the horse or the
wolf, and spread on the floor for couches the hides of these
or of other beasts that had fallen by the arrows of the
hunters or had been ensnared in their pitfalls. Here the
tribe remained until the scarcity of game or the assault of
enemies impelled it to migrate. Where there were no
caves, huts were constructed. These were framed with
the branches and trunks of trees and covered with skins and hides.</p>
<span class="pagenum"><a name="page9" id="page9"></a>[pg 9]</span>

<p>The woman of the cave-dwellers was a sturdy specimen
of her sex, and the long and arduous migrations in which
the burden of the work fell upon her shoulders were probably
borne with little sense of hardship. We can imagine
a tribe, travelling afoot, for as yet neither the horse nor
any other animal had been domesticated: the men with
their long fish spears across their backs, their stone
arrows hanging at their sides, and their bows in hand,
always alert for the wild beasts with which they waged a
relentless warfare; the women laden with all the paraphernalia
of their simple existence, many with a babe
slung at the back, and their naked, uncouth progeny following
or gambolling about them. The strange personal
appearance of both men and women would add to the
oddity of the scene in modern eyes, for their bodies were
painted in grotesque patterns, and, if the rigors of the
season made any covering necessary, a simple skin, laced
about them with reindeer sinews, sufficed for clothing.
On coming to a fresh hunting region, near to some body
of water or flowing stream, where the game would naturally
come to slake their thirst,&mdash;perhaps upon the grassy
plains that still extended over what is now the English
Channel and formed a part of the original land connection
with the continent,&mdash;they paused for another term of settled
residence. Again the caves were resorted to, or rudely
thatched huts were erected. If the wild beasts pressed
the wanderers too hard, they sometimes had recourse to
huts erected upon rough stone heaps in the midst of an oozy swamp.</p>

<p>While the men gave themselves wholly to hunting, the
women went about their domestic pursuits. To them was
assigned the making of such scanty clothing as was imperatively
required in the cold season; for though the crude
carvings of the time invariably represent the hunters as
<span class="pagenum"><a name="page10" id="page10"></a>[pg 10]</span>
naked, it cannot be concluded from such evidence that
clothing was not worn at all. The extremely serviceable
reindeer sinews served the women for thread, and a thin
reindeer prong, pierced through at the thick end, made a
satisfactory needle. The skins were simply sewed together
at the edges, without shaping, but with apertures through
which to pass the head and arms. The women devised
many ornaments; these consisted of amulets and necklaces
made of bone, ivory, and shells, which, shaped and polished,
they painstakingly punctured and fastened together
in long strings for the decoration of their necks and arms.
Apparently, it was not customary to wear foot covering of
any kind, as the feet of such skeletons of this period as
have been found are so symmetrical as to preclude the
probability of constraint during growth. The men may
have worn some form of foot covering when engaged in
such exposed work as spearing the seal in the winter
season; but the women, who remained in shelter during
the severities of the winter, did not avail themselves of
any such protection. The fact that gloves were worn by
men seems to be established by some of the rude etchings
of the period, for in them such articles appear to be discernible.</p>

<p>The sanitary condition of the homes of these hunting
tribes was of the worst description; the offal and refuse
were thrown at the very doors of the cave, there to decay
and poison the air. The caves themselves were smoke-begrimed
and foul, for house cleaning had not yet entered
into the economy of woman. While, by reason of their
simple, open-air life, they were a vigorous race, the ills to
which the cave-dwellers fell a prey, the injuries they suffered
in warfare or from the attacks of wild beasts, or the
diseases contracted through unsanitary living, must have
been sources of great dread to them, as they were without
<span class="pagenum"><a name="page11" id="page11"></a>[pg 11]</span>
any medical knowledge of which we have trace. When
the women, particularly, became too sick to perform their
allotted tasks, they were carried out to die or to become
the victims of savage beasts; but this was only one of the
inevitable phases of an existence that was replete with tragedies.</p>

<p>From the evidence afforded by the great abundance of
arrow heads and spear points surviving from this period,
there is no doubt that the cave men were much given to
warfare. Aside from the natural pugnacity and ferocity
of savage races, which lead them to fight upon very little
provocation, there was with the cave-dwellers another
source of constant hostility. As has been stated with
reference to the river-drift people, the women were not
permanently attached to the men. It is just as true that
they were not permanently attached to their tribes, for
when, through disease or the ravages of wild beasts, the
women of any horde became greatly diminished in number,
their ranks were recruited by forays upon other tribes.
These attacks for the purpose of stealing the women of
their enemies were especially provocative of fierce conflicts,
as the depletion of its stock of women often seriously
crippled a tribe and sometimes even threatened its extinction.
Such forcible transfers of ownership must have
added greatly to the hardness of the woman's lot, for by
such means many mothers were permanently separated from their offspring.</p>

<p>The weight of probability and of evidence seems to
leave little room for doubt that the early inhabitants of
Britain were cannibals. While there was no scarcity of
game as a rule, it is quite likely that these savage peoples,
as those of the same grade of culture in all times, when
experiencing the delirium of a victory over their enemies,
put to death by cruel tortures the unhappy captives that
<span class="pagenum"><a name="page12" id="page12"></a>[pg 12]</span>
fell into their hands, and then, to complete their triumph,
roasted and ate the flesh of the slain. Aside from the
deductive probability of the case, human bones dating
back to this period have been found along with the remains
of weapons and in association with the ashes of
camp fires; and in such cases the bones have invariably
been broken, in order to extract from them their marrow.
The story of the battle, the tortures, and the feast is eloquently
suggested by the silent memorials that have been
preserved through the lapse of ages. As we picture the
far-off scene of human savagery, the figure of woman flits
through the lights and shadows of the horrid orgy: for
she it was who prepared the gruesome repast; it was in
defence of her, perhaps, that the fierce battle was fought;
some of her own near of kin, it may be, she has been
forced to prepare for the unnatural appetites of her enemies.
Possibilities! but read in the light of the times,
they become probabilities, and probabilities furnish much of the data of history.</p>

<p>The tragedy of woman's life is again brought before us
with startling vividness when we look upon the skull of a
woman of this remote race, as it lies in a cave, with a little
stone hatchet beside it, where it was ruthlessly cast after
the commission of a bloody crime; for in that skull is a
jagged hole into which fits the blade of the hatchet. The
scene, sketched from a remote past, might have been an
occurrence of yesterday, so close to us is it brought by the
silent witnesses; these and similar relics disclose the sad
lot of woman in that savage society.</p>

<p>There are fuller evidences of the state of domestic resources
among the women of the cave-dwellers than with
those of the river-drift. The remains show, too, a greater
variety and adaptation; for while there is no clear proof
of the existence of pottery, yet the cave people appear not
<span class="pagenum"><a name="page13" id="page13"></a>[pg 13]</span>
to have lacked substitutes for it. Vessels for boiling meats
were probably fashioned of small stones cemented together,
and they had, also, vessels of hollowed wood. The
skulls of animals served well for drinking purposes, besides
which receptacles for holding liquids were made from the
skins of beasts. Water was heated by placing hot stones
in a vessel containing it, by which means the fluid could
be raised to any desired temperature. Long flint flakes
set in handles answered for knives; when rounded at the
edge, the same material made serviceable scrapers.
Spoons were constructed from pieces of reindeer antlers,
hollowed at the thick end, or if they were intended to
be used to scoop out the marrow from bones, the tapered
end was hollowed. For their food, the cave-dwellers,
though they possessed no domesticated animals, had
a wide choice of large and small game, birds, fish, reptiles,
and grubs; to these they added edible roots and berries.</p>

<p>This almost indispensable domestic handicraft was not,
however, the limit of their achievement in designing. We
have seen that woman's thought and some of her activities
were applied to the production of merely decorative
objects. She had already acquired an appreciative taste
for the auxiliary attractions of personal adornment. The
art of designing certainly found a place in the occupations
of these cave-dwellers, and the most familiar animated
objects would be their necessary choice. Hence, we may
readily conceive that, in the moments of respite from the
chase, the rude artist of this age would make of the cave
passages a canvas for his work and thereon delineate the
animals whose importance to his existence rendered them
the most interesting objects. Nor, for this reason, would
his subject fail of appreciative criticism and of educational value.</p>
<span class="pagenum"><a name="page14" id="page14"></a>[pg 14]</span>

<p>It is impossible to state the nature or the extent of the
social organization among these people, but that there
must have been something of the sort there can be no
doubt. It seems equally plausible that there could have
been no recognition of law in the lives of these passionate
savages, excepting as the will of some more than ordinarily
forceful warrior was for the time so recognized. An
association of this kind admitted of the sloughing of the
groups whenever a difference of inclination or of interest
suggested such a course. Promiscuity undoubtedly remained
the characteristic form of the relation of the
sexes, the conditions of life admitting of no more enduring relations.</p>

<p>The culture of the peoples of the river-drift and of the
caves signified little in British civilization, as these shadowy
tribes passed completely out of view. For a period of time
that could be expressed only in the term of vague geological
computation, the country remained devoid of inhabitants.
Meantime, changes were wrought in Britain's physical
features. The land became insular, although the subsidence
that gave rise to the English Channel was not yet
complete. In an indirect way, the earliest peoples may be
said to have passed on the elements of their culture; for,
while there was a lapse in the continuity of social development,
the Neolithic races that are next met with in Britain
became the inheritors of the culture of the ruder hunter
stages of society represented by the river-drift and cave peoples.</p>

<p>The social grade of the Neolithic races was a great
advance over that of the peoples last considered. Instead
of bands of nomadic wanderers, we find a pastoral people
whose migrations were doubtless periodical and made only
in search of new pastures. Hunting did not form an important
part of their lives, for their food was supplied by
<span class="pagenum"><a name="page15" id="page15"></a>[pg 15]</span>
the flesh of domesticated animals and the cereals that they
raised for their own needs and, in the winter season, for those of their stock.</p>

<p>Although caves continued to be used to some extent for
dwellings, they were not characteristic of the civilization
of the times. Man had become a home builder. The
evolution from the cave dwellings is seen in the style of
houses that were first constructed. They consisted of
pits dug to a depth of seven to ten feet, and about seven
feet wide at the base. These pits were roofed over with
a sort of thatch, filled in with imperfectly burnt clay.
They were built singly and in groups, and were sometimes
connected by a system of underground passages. Access
was had to these dwellings by a slanting, shaftlike entrance.
A pit village was usually stockaded to protect it
against the assaults of foes. Outside it were the arable
lands and the common pasture lands for the sheep and
goats; enclosing these, the forest stretched out in all directions.</p>

<p>Looking down from one of the surrounding hilltops upon
such a village, it would have presented to the eye of the
observer the appearance of a number of round hillocks but
little higher than the ground level. Thin lines of smoke,
slowly ascending, would mark the places where the common
meals were in course of preparation. As the traveller
descended the hillside, his approach would be challenged
by gaunt, savage sheep dogs, from whose attacks he
would need to defend himself. As he passed out into the
clearing, he would be confronted by the men, some of them
tilling the soil, others acting as shepherds or swineherds.
Perhaps a field of golden wheat would lend its beauty to
the scene, Approaching the dwellings, the women would
be seen at their several employments; some busy cutting
up the meat and swinging it over the fires to roast, or
<span class="pagenum"><a name="page16" id="page16"></a>[pg 16]</span>
boiling it in pots with herbs and roots to make a savory
stew, others mixing dough and spreading it upon flat
stones over hot embers to bake. Sitting about on the
rocks or squatting upon skins spread upon the ground,
other women would be found busily making pottery,
modelling the clay with their hands, and scratching upon
it lines, circles, and pyramids in various combinations, or
fashioning designs by pressing reindeer sinews into the
substance. Still others would be discovered busily spinning
and weaving flax and wool into fabrics for the clothing that
marked one of the advances of the Neolithic people. In
the distance would be heard the dull strokes of the stone
axes with which, in the depth of the wood, the men felled the tall timber.</p>

<p>For the industries presented in this picture of a Neolithic
village, there were suitable implements. For all
domestic purposes, the art of pottery making had solved
the question of satisfactory vessels. These were generally
in two colors, either brown or black. The potter's
wheel had not yet been invented, so that the vessels lacked
the grace and uniformity of later work of the sort. Wheat
was ground by means of a mortar and pestle. Knives for
various uses, saws, and scrapers were all made of highly
polished and very keen-edged flint flakes. The great
superiority of their stone implements over those of earlier
races has given a name to the people, but the culture of
the Polished Stone Age reveals, as its most salient fact,
not this, but rather the domestication of animals and the
tilling of the soil. It is significant to note that these most
characteristic features of the Polished Stone Age denote
the advance of society in the arts of peaceful living. War
was prevalent enough, but human development had discovered
another line of advancement, and, by reason of
the increased incentives to peaceful living, war was not
<span class="pagenum"><a name="page17" id="page17"></a>[pg 17]</span>
usually undertaken simply for the pleasure of fighting.
Protection of flocks and herds, of cleared fields and settled
homes, became the chief occasion of the wars waged by the Neolithic people.</p>

<p>In such a society as we have described, there is a
community of interest that tends to give stability to the
ties of relationship. The fairly settled state of life was
undoubtedly accompanied by a social organization of some
sort that could properly deal with the matters of individual
rights. The family had become evolved from the horde;
promiscuity had doubtless given place to polygamy, or,
under the exceptional conditions of a greater number of
men than of women, to polyandry. Neither of these
forms of marriage carried with it the idea of fixity and of family responsibility.</p>

<p>A feature of the Neolithic age was its commerce. By a
system of intertribal traffic, the simple commodities of the
widely dispersed peoples of Europe became distributed
among the various tribes. By this means, many articles
not of domestic manufacture were added to the comfort of
the people of Britain. Thus, the women were enabled to
adorn themselves with jade beads that must have come
from the region of the Mediterranean Sea, and even with
gold ornaments from as distant points. These instances,
however, were exceptional, and are to be accounted for
in the same manner that we account for the most unlikely
things in the possession of the tribes of Central Africa&mdash;by
gradual hand-to-hand passage.</p>

<p>There was probably an absence of religious ideas among
the predecessors of the Polished Stone races; but among the
remains of the latter are ample proofs of the prevalence
among them of such notions. Caves that once had served
them as residences were later used for places of burial,
the bodies being piled up with earth until the cavities were
<span class="pagenum"><a name="page18" id="page18"></a>[pg 18]</span>
completely filled. Accompanying human remains have been
found urns, supposedly for burning incense, personal ornaments,
implements, and weapons, placed there for the use
of the dead. If the people possessed religious conceptions
that led them to believe in an after life, there is no room
for doubt that religion had a place in the economy of their
living. The women of this time, then, could look forward
to something better than abandonment to starvation after
they became enfeebled by age or sickness, and they may
not have lacked religious associations in their everyday
life to give to it deeper meaning and interest.</p>

<p>From the foregoing sketch of her life, it is very clear
that the condition of Neolithic woman, the range of her
ideas, and the elements of her comfort, were much in advance
of those of the woman of the Paleolithic period.
The contributions to her existence were indeed elements
of civilization, and formed the basis for all that the life of
the sex has come to be. In the realm of institutions, the
home was beginning to have a place and a meaning in
the life of the people. Religion, also, had come to widen the
horizon of life. Very crude, but real, elements of social progress were all these.</p>

<p>The succeeding age&mdash;the Bronze&mdash;has been credited
with working as great a revolution in life and giving it
as great an impetus as did the invention of gunpowder in
the Middle Ages. It is certainly a fact that the invention
of this beautiful alloy was looked upon by the ancients
who lived close to its age as of incalculable importance in
its influence upon civilization&mdash;a judgment that is confirmed
by anyone who studies its abundant remains. Manufactures
and commerce were important interests of the times:
smelting furnaces and the smith's shop turned out beautiful
specimens of wares of all sort&mdash;shields, spears, arrow
tips, cups of graceful pattern, vessels for all purposes,
<span class="pagenum"><a name="page19" id="page19"></a>[pg 19]</span>
ornaments, and the trimmings for the large boats made
necessary by a wide commerce, were all manufactured beyond
the needs of domestic consumption. The stimulated
inventiveness of the people added many new articles of comfort to their lives.</p>

<p>The development of bronze was not original with the
people of Britain, but was introduced through an invasion
of bronze-using people. For this reason, the change made
in the life of the people was radical, instead of being, as on
the continent, a gradual process. The struggle that ensued
between the bronze users and the stone users was a
contest between an advanced civilization and one of a
lower order; and its issue was predetermined. The newcomers
became the controlling element in the country.
The tendency of the new order of things was toward individualism.
Personal ownership brought with it social
grades, so that it is impossible to make statements with
regard to the bronze people that apply equally to all the race.</p>

<p>But we are concerned with the conditions of the times
only as the setting in which we are to study the life of
woman. In the Bronze Age, there was introduced into
her life nothing to be compared to the contributions made
thereto in the preceding age. While her horizon was
greatly broadened, and while she benefited by the improvements
in living,&mdash;better facilities, comforts, and
even luxuries,&mdash;yet the advance was along established
lines. We may surely believe that closer intercourse
with outside peoples brought a corresponding quickening
of thought and an appreciation of the merits of grades of
life higher than her own. There was no marked change
in the style of dwellings of the people of the Bronze Age
from those of the Neolithic period; but their furnishings
were better, and, instead of the skins of wild animals,
<span class="pagenum"><a name="page20" id="page20"></a>[pg 20]</span>
those of domestic animals and, perhaps, woven and brightly
dyed fabrics now served for couches, and were hung about
the walls as a protection against dampness. The utensils
of the home were varied and ornamental, the conventional
patterns having given place to other, though still
simple, designs. In the homes of the wealthy, knives and
spoons and the finer grades of vessels were of bronze.</p>

<p>The dress of the women had now become something
more than mere protection for the body. The skins of
animals might still suffice for the clothing of the poor, but
the rich man's attire consisted of well-bleached linens,
and, doubtless, woollen fabrics as well. The garments
made of these materials were probably dyed in rich colors,
as the principles of dyeing were well understood. We can
picture, then, a woman of the higher grade, dressed in a
tunic, with a mantle of contrasting color, her hair done up
in an elaborate coiffure and set off by a cap of goat or
sheep skin. Projecting from under this would appear
bronze hairpins, perhaps twenty inches in length, of ornamental
design; indeed, her coiffure was such an elaborate
affair that it is quite likely that she slept with it in a head
rest, similar to those which we know were used by the
lake-dwellers of Switzerland and are still used in Japan.
Pendent from her neck hung strings of beads and ornaments
made of bone, polished stone, bronze, and even
glass and gold. Her arms were weighted with bracelets,
and her legs were adorned with anklets.</p>

<p>Spinning, weaving, the milking of the goats, the making
of curd and cheese, the modelling of pottery, the preparation
of the meals, assisting with the outdoor work, and the
care of her children, made up the round of woman's life in
those days. But there was another element that had
come to be a serious one in her existence, and that was
religion. Although the form of the prevailing religious
<span class="pagenum"><a name="page21" id="page21"></a>[pg 21]</span>
belief is lost, yet we have evidence that it was elaborate
enough to call for special places for its observance. Indeed,
none of the remains of the Bronze Age are more
instructive, or present food for more fruitful speculation as
to the manner of life or the scope of mentality during that
era, than the curious tumuli that show how closely associated
in the common consciousness were religion and
death; for these mounds were probably places both of
worship and burial. These ideas still remain in such close
connection that the vicinity of a church, and indeed the
edifice itself, seems especially appropriate for the interment
of the dead or for the depositing of crematory urns.
Such religion as existed must have had its reflex influence
upon woman's life and have entered into its duties; it may
be that, as with the later Druids, she assisted in the public offices of worship.
<!--Blank page #22 omitted.-->
<span class="pagenum"><a name="page23" id="page23"></a>[pg 23]</span>.</p>




<h2>Chapter II</h2>

<h2>The Women of Ancient Britain</h2>
<!--Blank page #24 omitted.-->
<span class="pagenum"><a name="page25" id="page25"></a>[pg 25]</span>


<p>For our survey of the women of the different and, to a
considerable degree, distinct peoples of Britain, prior to
their being brought under the influence of Roman culture,
it will be convenient to take our stand at the beginning of
the period of real history, which for Britain may be conveniently
placed at the first century before Christ. A survey
of woman at that time would, in the nature of the case,
partake somewhat of the character of a composite picture.
Still, it would include all important particulars, even though
these might not, in all cases, be accurately assigned in
point of time, or even precisely as to race. So gradual
were the changes that were wrought in woman's existence
during the revolution that followed the introduction
of iron into the arts of Britain's life, that it will not be
difficult to speak with approximate accuracy.</p>

<p>The data for our picture of the status and occupations of
the women at the time under consideration will need to be
drawn from archæological remains of different dates and of
widely different races, as well as from the confused and
often conflicting or even incredible accounts of early voyagers,
to which may be added the vague allusions of legendary lore.</p>

<p>In considering the details of the life of woman during
the period under consideration, the most salient fact is not
<span class="pagenum"><a name="page26" id="page26"></a>[pg 26]</span>
the influx and partial merging of different peoples resulting
from the intercourse that had been opened up between
the Britons and the nations of the continent; nor is it the
impulse to civilization brought about by the use of iron
in the manufacture of a multitude of articles of general
convenience. Such influences and agencies were potent
in society, working the transformation that found its
expression, among other ways, in the lifting of woman
to the plane of civilization that was introduced by the
Romans; but, undoubtedly, the greatest contributing factor
to the life of the age, and so the most important one in
fixing the status of woman, was the trade relations that
were developed with Britain by the peoples of the South
and the remote East: the Assyrians, the Egyptians, the
Etruscans, the Greeks, and, later, the Romans. To the
Phoenicians, that nation of traders, must be given the credit
of the introduction into Britain of the higher products of
many of those peoples whose civilizations were of an advanced
type. It was the fleets of this enterprising people
that brought into Britain quantities of finely wrought implements
of various sorts: useful articles that greatly
increased the comfort of life, as well as those of ornament
and of dress. Among such imports were the jade beads
and ornaments which the British women held in especial
esteem; beads of glass, delicately marked and colored;
ornaments of gold, sometimes inlaid with enamel in pleasing
designs and colors; fine fabrics of different sorts; rings,
brooches, necklaces, armlets, leg bands, and wares of
many kinds. Such things not only added to the comfort
and the sense of luxury of the women, but, as object lessons
of art and elegance, they were in the highest degree
educative. They stimulated woman's imagination and
piqued her interest in regard to the women of those far
distant lands, with whom such articles were in ordinary
<span class="pagenum"><a name="page27" id="page27"></a>[pg 27]</span>
use. We hear of travellers' tales, carried back by the
early voyagers to Britain, which, by their incredible coloring,
awakened the wonder of the Greeks; but probably as
much amazement and interest were aroused among the
Britons by the marvellous tales, told by the Ph&oelig;nicians
and other traders, concerning the nations among which
were manufactured the articles brought by them to barter
for the metals, furs, woods, and other products of Britain.
In this way, a distorted knowledge of the outside world
and of the accomplishments of highly civilized peoples
came to be widely diffused among the more advanced of
the rude inhabitants of Britain. The arrival of a ship in
port was an event of absorbing interest; soon the women
of the coast settlements would be seen busily traversing
the narrow, winding paths by which the houses of a village
were connected, to gossip with their neighbors about
the latest bit of wonderful narrative picked up from the
oddly garbed foreign sailors concerning the mighty nations
of the remote parts of the earth, or to display some purchase&mdash;a
piece of cloth of fine web or of bright colors, a
chased fibula, a string of beads, or articles of like nature.
It would be difficult to exaggerate the effect upon the
mentality and the life interest of the simple-minded yet
keenly inquiring British women of the commerce which,
at first occasional, gradually became regular and expanding,
and by which Britain was brought out of its insular
separateness into the broad current of the world's progress.</p>

<p>The population of Britain was large&mdash;as the Romans
found when they came into the country. The people
were collected into villages and towns which were ruled by
chieftains who were frequently at war with one another.
During such strife their women were hidden in caves or
pits covered with brush; this was a necessary protective
measure for the loss of its women was the severest blow
<span class="pagenum"><a name="page28" id="page28"></a>[pg 28]</span>
a people could suffer. This division of the tribes into
little warring factions was the cause of the country falling
readily a prey to the Romans.</p>

<p>When we consider that the writers of the time had in
view different elements of the population, it is less difficult
to harmonize their conflicting statements. While there
are contrary statements made as to the agriculture of the
Romans, it seems to be a satisfactory reconciliation of
these statements to regard the less progressive northern
tribes as purely pastoral and the inhabitants of the other
parts of the island as agriculturalists as well as herdsmen.
After the Romans became established, wheat came to be
one of the chief articles of export. The producers harvested
this grain by cutting off the heads and storing
them in pits under the ground. These pits were protected
against frost. Each day the farmers took out the wheat
longest stored, and ground it into meal. The process of
removing the grain from the cob was, according to what
we know of it, similar to the method still in use down to
the seventeenth century in some parts of Britain. This
consisted of twirling in the fire several heads of wheat,
which the woman performing the operation held in her left
hand, while with a stick held in her right hand she beat
off the loosened grain at the very instant that the chaff
was consumed. The grain was then usually ground in a
hand mill, although there is reason to believe that water
mills also were used to some extent. The meal was then
mixed, and baked over the fire in little loaves, or flat cakes.
The whole process occupied but a couple of hours.</p>

<p>The houses of the people, to which the women were
confined the greater part of the winter, were mean little
structures. They were circular in shape, and were made
of wattles or wood, and sometimes of stone. These
wigwam-like structures were roofed with straw, and had
<span class="pagenum"><a name="page29" id="page29"></a>[pg 29]</span>
as their sole external decoration the trophies of the chase
and the battlefield. A chief's house was triumphantly
adorned with the skulls of his enemies, nailed up against
the eaves of the porch, among the horns and bones of
beasts. Sometimes the heads of foes slain in battle were
embalmed, and furnished gruesome ornamentation for the
interior of the house. But notwithstanding these testimonials
of a savage nature, there were evidences of comfort
that had in them the indication of an approach to
civilization. The houses were connected by narrow, tortuous
paths, and were usually surrounded by a stockade as a protection against assault.</p>

<p>The dress of the women differed according to the wealth
and the civilization of the various sections of the population.
The tribes of the east and southeast, who were
principally Celts, were the more civilized, while the Caledonians
of the north&mdash;the Picts, or painted men, as they
were commonly called&mdash;were far less advanced. The
women of the Celts were of great personal attractiveness.
They possessed a wealth of magnificent hair, were fair-complexioned
and of splendid physique. To these graces
of person they added fierce tempers; we are told that
when the husband of one of them engaged in an altercation
with a stranger, his wife would join strenuously
in the controversy, and with her powerful "snow-white"
arms, and her feet as well, deliver blows "with the
force of a catapult." These vigorous British women were
vain of their appearance and gay in their dress. Their
costume consisted of a sleeved blouse, which was ordinarily
confined at the waist; this garment partly covered
trousers, worn long and clasped at the ankles. A plaid of
bright colors was fastened at the shoulders with a brooch.
They wore nothing on their heads, but displayed their
hair fastened in a graceful knot at the neck.</p>
<span class="pagenum"><a name="page30" id="page30"></a>[pg 30]</span>

<p>They wove thin stuffs for summer wear, and felted
heavy druggets for winter; the latter were said to be prepared
with vinegar, and "were so tough that they would
turn the stroke of a sword." Some of their clothes are
described as "woven of gaudy colors and making a show."
They were versed in the art of using alternate colors in
the warp and woof so as to bring out the pattern of stripes
and squares. Diodorus says of some of their patterns
that the cloth was covered with an infinite number of little
squares and lines, "as if it had been sprinkled with
flowers," or was striped with cross bars, giving a checkered
effect. The colors most in vogue were red and crimson;
"such honest colors," says the Roman writer, "as a person
had no cause to blame, nor the world a reason to cry
out upon." Such were the fabrics with which the more
civilized of the British women arrayed themselves, and the
workmanship of which speaks volumes for their makers'
industry and skill. The women were inordinately fond of
ornaments, and had a plentiful supply from which to
select. Their attire was not complete unless it included
necklaces, bracelets, strings of bright beads,&mdash;made of glass
or a substance resembling Egyptian porcelain,&mdash;and that
which was regarded as the crowning ornament of every
woman of wealth&mdash;a torque of gold, or else a collar of the
same metal. A ring was at first worn on the middle finger,
but later it alone was left bare, all the other fingers being loaded with rings.</p>

<p>Among the more primitive of the peoples of Britain,
skins continued to be worn, if, as among the Picts, clothing
were not dispensed with altogether. The women of
these fierce tribes were too proud of the intricate devices
in brilliant colors with which their bodies were tattooed to
hide them in any way. These, so Professor Elton is inclined
to think, were the people who introduced bronze
<span class="pagenum"><a name="page31" id="page31"></a>[pg 31]</span>
into Britain. They made continual and fierce attacks
on their Celtic neighbors and carried off their women into
captivity. And it was because of these attacks that the
Anglo-Saxons were invited into Britain to champion the
cause of the people, after the departure of the Romans had
left the Britons to their own resources.</p>

<p>A period of peculiar interest and uncertainty was that
of the Roman occupancy of the country, with its veneer of
civilization and the introduction of Christianity, all of
which was apparently swept aside by the conquering hordes
of Teutons who came into Briton and laid the foundations
for the English nation. It was a time of great changes in
the standards of life and tastes, as well as of the morals
of the British women. With the Romans came their inevitable
arts of conciliation after conquest. Then followed
the period of generous grants of public works&mdash;the
baths, the theatres, the arena; then the Roman villa superseded
the huts of the inhabitants. All was created under
the ægis of the great mistress of the nations, and included
strong fortifications. Civilization was advanced, but manliness
was degraded. Effeminacy reduced the sturdy
morals of the Briton to the plane of those of their conquerors.
The abominable usage of the women finds expression
in the bitter cry that the poet ascribes to the
noble British queen, Boadicea: "Me they seized and they
tortured, me they lashed and humiliated, me the sport of
ribald veterans, mine of ruffian violators."</p>

<p>It is not a part of our work to even sketch the course of
the Roman invasion in its path of blood and fire across the
face of Britain, or the stubborn and sturdy opposition of
the natives, the subjugation and the revolt of tribes&mdash;notably
the Icenii, who cost the Romans seventy thousand
slain and the destruction of three cities, but whose final
conquest broke the backbone of opposition to the Roman
<span class="pagenum"><a name="page32" id="page32"></a>[pg 32]</span>
arms. All this is political history, and cannot concern us
excepting in the immense effect it had upon the women of
the land. It was they who bore the brunt of suffering,
degradation, and, too frequently, slavery and deportation&mdash;customary
incidents of the fierce spirit of the Roman conquests.
But in spite of the miseries their coming entailed
upon the people, the Roman rule had an admirable effect
upon the country in promoting peace, in establishing regard
for law, and in stimulating commerce. After they
had become accustomed to the Roman method of legal
procedure in the settlement of differences, the Britons
were no longer ready to fly at one another's throat on the
least provocation. The breaking up of their tribal distinctions
led to a greater consolidation of the people and removed
a cause of strife. But as the descendants of the
defenders of Britain's liberties grew up amid Roman conditions
of life that had permeated the whole population as
far as the northern highlands, where the people proved invincible
to the Roman arms, the habit of dependence upon
the Roman legions for protection enervated the people to
such an extent that they could interpose but faint resistance
to the next invaders of the country&mdash;the conquering Angles, Jutes, and Saxons.</p>

<p>It is amid conditions of Roman conquest and control that
we are now to consider more in detail the status of the
British woman. Scattered along the borders of the woods,
between the pasture lands and the hunting lands, could be
found the homesteads of the Britons, before the rise of the
Roman city. Each of these edifices was large enough to
hold the entire family in its single room. They were built,
generally, of hewn logs, set in a row on end and covered
with rushes or turf. The family fire burned in the middle
of the room, and, circling it, sat the members of the household
at their meals. The same raised seat of rushes
<span class="pagenum"><a name="page33" id="page33"></a>[pg 33]</span>
served them at night for a couch. Under the prevailing
tribal custom, three families, or rather three generations
of the same family, from grandfather to grandson, occupied
each dwelling. After the third generation the family
was broken up, though all the members of it retained the
memory of their common descent. It is not clear whether
or not a strictly monogamous household was the type of
family life. Certainly it is probable that such was not
the case among the backward races of the interior. As to
the advanced sections of the population, against the statement
of contemporary observers that it was the practice
of the British women to have a plurality of husbands,
there is only the argument of improbability to be urged.
The custom of several families living under the one roof
and in the same room may have led the Romans into an erroneous conclusion.</p>

<p>Little is known as to the laws of the Britons in regard
to the regulation of family. In the matter of divorce, if
the couple had several children, the husband took the
eldest and the youngest, and the wife the middle ones,
although the merits of such a peculiar division do not
appear. It would seem as if in the case of the youngest
child, at least, the mother was the proper custodian, or at
any rate the natural one. The pigs went to the man, and
the sheep to the woman; the wife took the milk vessels,
and the man the mead-brewing machinery. This was at
variance with the later custom of England, for well on
through the Middle Ages, both as a family employment
and a public industry, brewing was accounted woman's
occupation. To the husband went also the table and
ware. He took the larger sieve, she the smaller; he the
upper, and she the lower millstone of the corn mill. The
under bedding was his, and the upper hers. He received
the unground corn, she the meal. The ducks, the geese,
<span class="pagenum"><a name="page34" id="page34"></a>[pg 34]</span>
and the cats were her portion, while to his share fell the hens and one mouser.</p>

<p>The slight estimation in which women were held as
compared with the value put upon men is indicated by the
fact that a woman was legally rated at half the worth of
her brother and one-third that of her husband. If a woman
engaged in a quarrel, she was fined a specific sum for each
finger with which she fought and for each hair she pulled from her adversary's head.</p>

<p>Among the customs in which women were concerned,
those relating to marriage show that the assumption of
family responsibility was regarded as a permanent relation,
and their nature does not agree with Cæsar's description
of the loose ties of matrimony among the Britons. It
is entirely unlikely that the wives of the men were held
by them in common. As has been already stated, such
group marriages, if they existed, were localized among the
rudest of the races of the country, whose general civilization
had not elevated them to the point of appreciation of
pure family life. Such, perhaps, were the small dark
races descended from the Neolithic tribes and held in little
esteem by the Celts. Among the Celts it was customary
for the father of a bride to make a present of his own arms
to his son-in-law. As will be seen later by a description
of one of their dinners, the Celts preferred feasting to all
other occupations, and their festivities were accompanied
by the utmost conviviality. A wedding was an occasion
for the most extravagant feasting, all the relatives of the
contracting parties, to the third degree of kindred, assembling
to eat and drink to the happiness of the newly
wedded pair. The ceremony took place at the house of
the bridegroom, and the bride was conducted thither by
her friends. If the parties were rich, the pair made presents
to their friends at the marriage festival; but if they
<span class="pagenum"><a name="page35" id="page35"></a>[pg 35]</span>
were poor, the reverse was the case, and presents were
made to them by the guests. At the conclusion of the
feast, the bride and bridegroom were conducted to their
chamber by the whole company, with great merriment
and amid music and dancing. The next morning, before
rising, it was the rule for the husband to make his wife
a present of considerable value, according to his circumstances.
This was regarded as the wife's peculiar property.</p>

<p>The wives of the ancient Britons had not only the usual
domestic duties to perform, but much of the outside work
as well. Being of robust constitution, leading lives of
simplicity and naturalness, maternity interfered but little
with the round of their duties. The period was not wholly
without its anxieties, however, as is shown by the custom
among British women of wearing a girdle that was supposed
to be conducive to the birth of heroes. The assumption
of these girdles was a ceremony accompanied with
mystical rites, and was a part of the Druidical ritual. The
newborn babe was plunged into some lake or river in order
to harden it, and as a test of its constitution; this was done
even in the winter season. The early British mother
always nursed her children herself, nor would she have
thought of delegating this duty to another. The first
morsel of food put into a male infant's mouth was on the
tip of the father's sword, that the child might grow up to
be a great warrior. As is frequently the case with primitive
peoples, the Britons did not give names to their children
until the latter had performed some feat or displayed
some characteristic which might suggest for them a suitable
name. It follows from this that all the names of the ancient
Britons that have been preserved to us are significant.
The youth were not delicately nurtured, and after passing
through the perils of childhood, when the care of a mother
<span class="pagenum"><a name="page36" id="page36"></a>[pg 36]</span>
was imperative, it is probable that the mother had little to
do with the training of her boy. Accustomed almost from
infancy to the use of arms, as he grew older the boy added
to his training athletic ordeals and feats of daring. Among
the games to which he was accustomed was jumping
through swords so placed that it was extremely difficult to
leap quickly through them without being impaled. Youth
was democratic, and, without any distinction, the children
of the noble and the lowly, equally sordid and ill clad,
played about on the floor or in the open field.</p>

<p>The Britons were noted for the warmth of their family
affection. The mother was sure of the dutiful regard of
her children and did not lack affectionate consideration
from her husband. The aged were treated with a reverence
in striking contrast to the heartlessness with which
in earlier times the old were deserted to die or were put
to death&mdash;a custom not unusual among primitive peoples.
It is pleasant to think of the British matron inculcating
into the minds of her children respect for age and the claims of relationship.</p>

<p>The law of hospitality was sacred to the ancient Briton.
When a stranger sought entertainment at the home of one
of them, no questions were asked as to his identity or his
business, until after the meal. Indeed, it was frequently
the case that such arrivals were made the excuse for a
great feast, to which a number of friends were invited.
The women soon had the preparation under way, and in
due time the meat was roasting at the spit and the pot
swinging on the crane over a roaring fire. While the
mothers were employed in these occupations and in making
bread, their daughters poured the fresh milk into the
pitchers and filled the metal beakers and earthen jugs
with home-brewed beer and mead. While the men exchanged
stories of their hunting exploits and deeds of valor
<span class="pagenum"><a name="page37" id="page37"></a>[pg 37]</span>
in battle, the women carried on a constant buzz of suppressed
speculation and remark concerning the guests.
When the meal was ready, the women set it before the
men upon fresh grass or rushes. The bread was served
in wicker baskets. The guests and their hosts seated
themselves upon a carpet of rushes, or upon dog or wolf
skins placed near the open fireplace. While the men voraciously
seized the steaming joints and carved from them
long slices of meat, which they ate "after the fashion
of lions," the women plied them with the beakers of
foaming beverage, and the bards sang, to the music of
harps, the boastful exploits of some local chieftain. It
was a strange thing if the feast and conviviality did not
end in a fight over some question of precedence or disputed
statement. When such a combat did occur, it
was usually a contest to the death. Nor were the fierce-tempered
women passive during such encounters, but,
as we have seen, were ready to aid the men of their
family with frenzied attack. Such a feast as we have
described presented a weird and picturesque sight under
the flaming light of the torches made of rushes soaked in tallow.</p>

<p>One of the favorite domestic employments of the British
women, though one which we may imagine fell largely to
the lot of the younger women and the girls, was the
making of the wickerware for which the ancient Britons
were famous. Baskets, platters, the bodies of chariots,
the frames of boats, and even the framework of the houses,
were made of this light and serviceable material. Withes
peeled and woven by the supple fingers of the young
British women into fancy baskets found a ready market
at Rome, and commanded high prices, being generally
esteemed as a rare work of ingenious art. During the
hours required to weave an article of this sort, the women
<span class="pagenum"><a name="page38" id="page38"></a>[pg 38]</span>
would fall into a responsive song, picked up perhaps from some passing minstrel.</p>

<p>Weaving, spinning, dyeing the fabrics thus made; the
milking of the cattle, the grinding of the meal; the making
of the garments for the family; the manufacture of pottery,
to which may be added a share of the outdoor work, were
some of the matters which made the life of the British
woman far from an idle one. And yet, with it all, the
young women found leisure to tarry at the spring for the
exchange of laughing remarks, as they dropped something
into its clear depth&mdash;as an offering to the divinity who
they fully believed resided therein and who held in keeping
their future and their fortunes&mdash;before they drew from
it the water for the bleaching of the linen that they had
already spread out in the sun.</p>

<p>The religion of the Britons, before the introduction of
Christianity, was an elaborate system of superstitions
and of nature worship. It was in the hands of a priestly
order&mdash;the Druids. A mother was glad to resign her boy
to the training of this mystical brotherhood, if he showed
sufficient talent to warrant his reception therein. It is not
necessary to describe particularly the system. It was
made up of three orders, the Druids proper, the Bards,
and the Ovates. Over the whole order was an Archdruid,
who was elected for life. An order of Druidesses, also,
is supposed to have existed. When Suetonius Paulinus
landed at Anglesey in pursuit of the Druids (A.D. 56),
women with hair streaming down their backs, dressed in
black robes and with flaring torches in their hands, rushed
up and down the heights, invoking curses on the invaders
of their sacred precincts, greatly to the terror of the superstitious Roman soldiery.</p>

<p>At some of their sacred rites the women appeared naked,
with their skin dyed a dark hue with vegetable stain. It
<span class="pagenum"><a name="page39" id="page39"></a>[pg 39]</span>
was the custom of the Druids, who had the oversight of
public morals, to offer, as sacrifices to the gods, thieves,
murderers, and other criminals, whom they condemned
to be burned alive. Wickerwork receptacles, sometimes
made in the form of images, were filled with the miserable
wretches, and were then placed upon the pyre and consumed.
The prophetic women, standing by, made divinations
from the sinews, the flowing blood, or the quivering
flesh of the victims. The defeat of the Druids and the
felling of their sacred groves by the Romans gave the
death blow to the system, which under the influence of
Christianity completely disappeared.</p>

<p>The diffusion of Roman civilization colored the beliefs of
the British women. The destruction of the native shrines
whither they used to resort to make a propitiatory offering
or to draw divinations for direction in some matter of
personal or domestic concern, and the establishment of the
fanes of Rome, which abounded throughout the country to
the limits of the Roman conquest, converted the local
deities into Roman divinities. Under new names, the old
gods of the woods and streams continued to receive the
homage of the Romanized British matrons and maidens.</p>

<p>But with the introduction of Christianity and its extension
even into parts of the country where the sword of
Rome had failed to penetrate, there was a more radical
change wrought in the life of women. They have always
instinctively recognized the fact that the Christian religion
is their champion, and in its consolation the women of the
Britons found much to alleviate their common distress and
to elevate their status. In the trying hours that came
with the inroads of the fierce and barbarous Teutons,
when they were carried off by the savage Picts to a base
servitude, and when, after the reassertion of the Christian
religion among the English, the coming of the Danes next
<span class="pagenum"><a name="page40" id="page40"></a>[pg 40]</span>
brought a fresh abasement for their sex, the Christian faith
was the sustaining and the reconstructive force of the lives
of the women of the country. With the advance of Christianity
passed the customs of pagan burial. The dead
were no longer cremated, nor were they buried in the
tumuli with the objects of their customary association
interred with them to be of service in the spirit world.</p>

<p>One of the most apparent results of the Roman conquest,
in its relation to the domestic life of the people,
was the supersedence of the rude British dwellings by the
Roman villa. This open style of house, suited to the sunny
skies of Italy, had to undergo modifications to adapt it to
the more rigorous clime of Britain. About an open court,
which was either paved or planted in flower beds, the
rooms were arranged, all of them opening inwardly, and
some of them having an entrance to the outside as well.
These connected rooms were usually one story high, with
perhaps an additional story in the rear. The windows
were iron-barred. The front of the villa was adorned with
stucco and gaudily painted. In the homes of the wealthy,
the inner court became an elaborately pillared banquet
hall, with tessellated work in fine marble and with the
pavement figured in symbolical devices. In it were placed
the family shrines and statuary. Or else it was fitted up
with the baths which were such a feature of Roman life.
In later times, the walls blossomed out into decorations of
mythological subjects: the foam-born Aphrodite, Bacchus
and his panther steeds, Orpheus holding his dumb audience
enthralled by his melody, Narcissus at the fountain,
or the loves of Cupid and Psyche.</p>

<p>The heating arrangements of these houses were ample
and convenient, and the edifices themselves were frequently
added to by succeeding generations. In the
country districts, the houses were provided with large
<span class="pagenum"><a name="page41" id="page41"></a>[pg 41]</span>
storerooms, plentifully supplied with provisions, and were
garrisoned against the attack of enemies. The best of these
Roman-British houses were imposing structures of vast
dimensions. The women, when surrounded by the luxuries
of Roman life, gave themselves over to pleasure and
frequented the theatres and the public baths, and entertained
in lavish style. They generally adopted the graceful
Roman dress, and thus cleared themselves of the charge
of loudness, extravagance, and meanness of attire that the
earlier Roman writers brought against them. After the introduction
of Christianity, when Roman civilization had become
completely domesticated, it was no unusual thing for
a Roman to have a British wife, or for British matrons to
be found on the streets of Rome itself. The morals of the
people were not proof against the contamination of Roman
standards. The women, who were brought into closest
touch with the Roman populace, imbibed their views and
followed their example. Yet among the people who lived
the simpler life of the country districts, and to whom
Christianity most forcibly appealed, the standards of their
race were largely maintained. The manner of life of the
women of the wild northern tribes was, as we have seen,
unaffected by the Roman occupancy of the country. Finding
themselves unable to conquer these fierce people, the
Romans, for their own security, had stretched across the
country a great wall to facilitate defence; but they had
soon to protect their coasts from other warlike races, who,
first in piratical bands and then as migrating nations,
brought terror and annihilation to the native Britons.
<!--Blank page #42 omitted.-->
<span class="pagenum"><a name="page43" id="page43"></a>[pg 43]</span></p>




<h2>Chapter III</h2>

<h2>The Women of the Anglo-Saxons</h2>
<!--Blank page #44 omitted.-->
<span class="pagenum"><a name="page45" id="page45"></a>[pg 45]</span>


<p>To attempt a portrayal of the miseries entailed upon
the women of the Britons by the forays of the barbarians,
which followed the withdrawal of the Romans from the
country, would be to rehearse the distresses which were
but usual to warfare at that period of the world's history.
We can pass over the savagery of human passions, inflamed
by the heat of strife, and come to the more congenial
and, indeed, the only important task of considering
the life of woman, not under the exceptional conditions of
war, but in the normal state of existence. Even during
the Roman occupancy of the country, the British women
had experienced the terrors of the barbarians. In spite of
the massive wall, the lines of forts, and the system of
trenches, by which that military people had sought to
arrest the inroads of the Picts and Scots, those unconquered
tribes of the north often swept with resistless force
far into the peaceful provinces, bringing desolation into
many homes and carrying off the women, to dispose of
them in the slave markets of the continent.</p>

<p>More terrible still had been the descent upon the British
coasts of the piratical Saxon rovers, whose frequent incursions
had given to those tracts that were open to their
attacks the significant appellation of the "Saxon shore."
In spite of the measures of the Romans against these
<span class="pagenum"><a name="page46" id="page46"></a>[pg 46]</span>
marauding bands from over the seas, they were a source
of continual terror, especially to the women of the coast
settlements, to whom their name was a synonym of all
those distresses which forcible capture and enslavement imply.</p>

<p>When the Roman forces withdrew, a danger that had
been occasional and limited to localities now became a
menace to the whole people. The invasions of the Picts
and Scots became so frequent, and their ravages so
dreadful, that the Britons, who for generations had been
dependent upon the arms of the Romans for protection,
felt unable to cope alone with the situation that faced
them. In their extremity they hit upon the expedient of
pitting barbarian against barbarian, hoping thus to gain
peace from the northern terror, and at the same time to
rid themselves of the menace of the pirates. To this end
the astute sea rovers were engaged to discipline the northern
hordes. But when these "men without a country"
had fulfilled their obligation, they preferred to remain in
the fertile and attractive island rather than return to their
own vast forest stretches and there seek to combat the
pressure that had set in motion the Germanic peoples.</p>

<p>In this way began, in the fifth century, the conquest of
Britain by the Angles, the Jutes, and the Saxons: a conquest
as inevitable as it was beneficial; a conquest so
stern as practically to sweep from existence a whole
people, excepting the women, who were spared to become
the slaves of the conquerors, and such of the men
as were needed to fill servile positions. The conquest of
a Christian nation by a pagan one must have resulting
justification of the highest order, if it is not to be stamped
as one of the greatest calamities of history, and such justification
is amply afforded by the splendid history of the
English people. In the light of the achievements for
<span class="pagenum"><a name="page47" id="page47"></a>[pg 47]</span>
humanity that are presented by the record of the Anglo-Saxon
peoples, we need not take up the lament of a
Gildas over the woes of the Britons.</p>

<p>The impact of the virile peoples of northern Europe
against the serried ranks of soldiery that circled the lines
of the great world empire was the irresistible impulse of
civilization to preserve and to further the march of the
race toward the goal that mankind in all its wholesome
periods has felt to be its unalterable destiny. The conquest
of Britain was a part of this great world movement.
Its striking difference as compared with the method and
the results of the barbarian conquests on the continent
lay in the fact that the new nationalities that there arose
in the path of the invaders were Latin, while the England
of Anglo-Saxon creation was essentially Teutonic.
Hardly a vestige of the Roman occupancy of the country
remains in language, in literature, in law, in custom, or in race.</p>

<p>The independence of the English people of Roman influence,
and British as well, leads us to connect the customs,
habits, and, in a word, the status and the civilization
of their women, not with the antecedent line of British
life, but with the tribes of the German forests. Some influence
was exerted by the British women upon the life of
the Anglo-Saxons, but it was not sufficient to become an
influential factor in the crystallization of the new nation.
Some of the surviving customs, manners, and superstitions
of the English women are of undoubted British origin, and
remain as a part of the folklore of the English race as we
know it. There is no question that the life of the common
people was tinctured by superstitious beliefs and magic,
which even Christianity had failed completely to eradicate
from the faith of the British women. And this is true, too,
with matters of custom and, perhaps, of dress.</p>
<span class="pagenum"><a name="page48" id="page48"></a>[pg 48]</span>

<p>The status of the female sex among the Anglo-Saxons
is well set forth by Sharon Turner in his <i>History of the
Anglo-Saxons</i>. He says: "It is a well-known fact that
the female sex were much more highly valued and more
respectfully treated by the barbarous Gothic nations than
by the more polished states of the East. Among the
Anglo-Saxons they occupied the same important and independent
rank in society which they now enjoy."</p>

<p>They were allowed to possess, to inherit, and to transmit
landed property; they shared in all social festivities;
they were present at the Witenagemot; they were permitted
to sue and could be sued in the courts of justice;
and their persons, their safety, their liberty, and their
property were protected by express laws.</p>

<p>The dignity and the chastity of the women of the Germanic
tribes made a profound impression on the minds of
the Roman writers who had an opportunity for observing
them, and evoked from them the warmest tributes. They
remarked that the Germans were the only barbarians
content with one wife. Here, then, we find that of which
we have not been assured in our prior study of the women
of Britain&mdash;genuine monogamous marriages.</p>

<p>Tacitus says: "A strict regard for the sanctity of the
matrimonial state characterizes the Germans and deserves
our highest applause. Among the females, virtue runs no
hazard of being offended or destroyed by the outward
objects presented to the senses, or of being corrupted by
such social gayeties as might lead the mind astray. Severe
punishments were ordered in case of infringement of this
great bond of society. Vice is not made the subject of wit
or mirth, nor can the fashion of the age be pleaded in excuse
for being corrupt or for endeavoring to corrupt others.
Good customs and manners avail more among these barbarians
than good laws among a more refined people."
<span class="pagenum"><a name="page49" id="page49"></a>[pg 49]</span>
Among the Teutons, whom Tacitus thus praises to the
discredit of his own people, there was no room for any
question of the elemental rights of woman, for among
them woman was more than loved, she was reverenced.</p>

<p>As Sharon Turner observes, women were admitted into
the councils of the men; and the high position accorded
them is further shown by their prominence in the more
intellectual priestly class. The proportion of women to
men must have been ten to one. Their preponderance in
this influential order assured them of the preservation of
the regard in which their sex was held. Its best security,
however, lay in that instinctive feeling of the equality of
the sexes which is fundamental in the character of the
Anglo-Saxon and the Germanic family as a whole.</p>

<p>We must not suppose that because the women of the
Anglo-Saxons had certain rights and were accorded a certain
superstitious reverence, as specially gifted in divination,
they were therefore the objects of chivalrous devotion
and were surrounded by æsthetic associations. The age
was a rude one, and the race was made up of uncouth
barbarians. The female grace of chastity was not the
result of high ideals, or of wise deductions from the sacredness
of the family relation in its bearing upon society; it
did not even have its basis in conspicuous moral motives;
but it was a natural characteristic of a people who had
lived under severe conditions which necessitated a constant
struggle for supremacy and relegated all weaknesses of
the flesh to a place of secondary importance. Had this
attribute sprung from any of those considerations which
at a later time gave rise to chivalry, there would be found
in the poetry of the time the evidences of a tender regard
for woman; her praise would have been sung in poems
of love; but there is a dearth of love songs in the verses of
this period. Love of a kind there was, but it was too
<span class="pagenum"><a name="page50" id="page50"></a>[pg 50]</span>
matter-of-fact and practical in its nature to effloresce into sentimentality.</p>

<p>As marriage is the basal principle of the true family, it
will be proper to begin a consideration of the domestic
relations of the women of the Anglo-Saxons by glancing
at the circumstances, the significance, and the ceremonies
of their marriages. When the Anglo-Saxons had settled
in England, the primitive and barbarous custom of forcibly
carrying off a bride had probably been superseded by the
later form of obtaining a bride by purchase. While the
woman seems to have had no choice in the selection of a
husband, it is unreasonable to suppose that she did not
hold and express opinions; nor would it be venturesome
to assert that, despite her legal limitations, her voice in
the matter of her marriage was often a decisive one.
When the question was beset with especial difficulties, to
what better umpire could a considerate parent refer the
matter than to the bride herself?</p>

<p>One of the laws regulating the disposition of marriageable
maidens was: "If one buys a maiden, let her be
bought with the price, if it is a fair bargain; but if there is
deceit, let him take her home again and get back the price
he paid." This was a sort of marriage with warranty.
But the law of Cnut took a more liberal view of the rights
of the girl; it says: "Neither woman nor maid shall be
forced to marry one who is disliked by her, nor shall she
be sold for money, unless (the bridegroom) gives something
of his own free will." By this law the woman was
given the decision of her destiny, and the purchase price
became a free gift. If a woman married below her rank, she
was confronted by the alternatives of losing her freedom or
giving up her husband. As the husband bought his wife,
so he might sell her and their children, though this was
rarely done. We need not, however, condemn too harshly
<span class="pagenum"><a name="page51" id="page51"></a>[pg 51]</span>
this absolute right that was vested in the head of a family
in the disposition of its members, as it was but a relic of a
usage common to all patriarchal societies, and which passed
away with the clearer view of the sovereignty of self and the claims of society.</p>

<p>Before the marriage proper took place, there were held
the ceremonies of espousal. These consisted of fixing the
terms of the union, and entering upon agreements to be
carried into effect after the ceremony. In later times, the
first essential was the free consent of the persons to be
espoused. This was a step toward the right of the female
in the selection of a husband. Early espousals were customarily,
but not invariably, dependent upon the consent
of both parties. In some instances, the parents espoused
their children when but seven years of age. On arriving
at ten years of age, either of the parties could in theory
terminate the engagement at will; but if they did so between
the ages of ten and twelve, the parents of the one
breaking the contract were liable to damages. Beyond
twelve years, the child as well as its parents suffered the penalty.</p>

<p>After the parties to the espousal, in the presence of
witnessing members of their respective families, had declared
their free consent to the contract that was to bind
them, the bridegroom promised to treat his betrothed well,
"according to God's law and the custom of society."
This declaration of a good purpose was ratified by his
giving a "wed," or security, that he would creditably fulfil
his intentions as expressed. The parents or guardians of
the girl received these assurances in her behalf. The
foster-lien was the next important matter. This was at
first paid at the time of the espousal, until some fathers
with attractive daughters found it to be a profitable investment
to have them repeatedly espoused for the sake of
<span class="pagenum"><a name="page52" id="page52"></a>[pg 52]</span>
the foster-lien, but without any idea of consummating the
espousal. This practice made these precontracts decidedly
unpopular and led to their being modified by ecclesiastical
law that provided for the payment of the foster-lien after
marriage, in case it had been properly secured at the time
of betrothal. When these preliminaries were arranged to
the satisfaction of all concerned, the ceremony itself took
place. This consisted of "handfasting" and the exchange
of something, even if only a kiss, to bind the bargain.
Frequently this sentimental interchange was accompanied
on the part of the groom elect by the gift of an ox, a saddled
horse, or other object of value.</p>

<p>This formal engagement was really a part of the marriage
and was regarded as beginning the wedded life. The
Church, however, favored an interval between the espousal
and the marriage. The ceremony of betrothment usually
took place in a church. If the man refused or neglected
to complete the espousal within two years, he forfeited
the amount of the foster-lien; if the woman were derelict
in this respect, she was required to repay the foster-lien
fourfold&mdash;later changed to twofold. It will be seen by
this that "engagements" among the Anglo-Saxons presumed
serious intentions, and that, in a breach of faith,
the woman was held more rigidly to account than the
man, whose fickleness was visited only by forfeiture of
the security he had advanced. The woman was further
required to return all the presents that she had received from her "intended."</p>

<p>The marriage ceremony was much like that of the
espousal. The man and woman avowed publicly their
acceptance of each other as wife and husband. The
bridegroom was required to confirm with his pledge all
that he had promised at the espousal, and his friends
became responsible for his due performance. Though by
<span class="pagenum"><a name="page53" id="page53"></a>[pg 53]</span>
the customs of their times the young people were deprived
of experiencing the delights and uncertainties of
courtship, the girls were not to be denied the joys of a
wedding; and when the circumstances of the groom permitted,
the occasion was marked with gayety, music,
feasting, and festivities of all sorts. The morning after
the wedding, the husband, before they arose, presented to
his wife the <i>morgen gift</i>. This was a valuable consideration,
and corresponded to the modern marriage settlement.
The terms of the settlement were arranged before the
marriage, but the gift was not actually presented until
the marriage had been consummated.</p>

<p>The rude conduct which accompanies a wedding in rough
communities at the present day, as well as the more innocent
but embarrassing pranks to which any newly wedded
couple may be subjected, find their counterpart in the
uncouth conduct and witticisms that were at one time a
part of the experiences of an Anglo-Saxon bride and
groom. As the bride, accompanied by her friends, was
conducted to her future home, where her husband, according
to custom, awaited her, the procession was sometimes
saluted by facetious youths with volleys of filth and refuse
of any sort, the especial target of their maliciousness being
the frightened and insulted bride herself. If the young
rowdies could succeed in spoiling her costume, they were
especially satisfied with themselves. Aside from the indignity
offered her, the loss of her costume was always a
serious matter to the bride, as in that time of scanty
wardrobes it represented a large part of her <i>trousseau</i>.</p>

<p>The bridegroom, if such indignities were offered to his
spouse, invariably sallied forth with his friends to administer
condign punishment to the "jokers"; and as all freemen
in those days carried arms, bloodshed, bruises, and
broken bones resulted. Later, the law took cognizance
<span class="pagenum"><a name="page54" id="page54"></a>[pg 54]</span>
of the outrage and suppressed it. But such unpleasant
experiences were not permitted to spoil the marriage festivities;
the bride received the felicitations of her friends
and displayed her gifts&mdash;the latter being in evidence at all
weddings, because the making of gifts on the part of relatives
was not a thing of choice, but of compulsion.</p>

<p>Among the convivial Anglo-Saxons the marriage would
have been considered a very tame affair without the
accompanying excesses of unrestrained feasting, drinking,
and mirth. The clergyman who had pronounced the benediction
at the nuptials came to the feast with a company
of his clerical friends. The wedding feast lasted for at
least three days, and was a time of gluttony and rioting.
On the first day, the festivities were opened by the clergy
rising and singing a psalm or other religious song. The
wandering gleemen, who were always present at these
feasts, then took up the singing; and as they proceeded,
to the clamorous approval of the drunken company, they
became less and less mindful of the proprieties of sentiment
and of action. The bride and groom were not obliged
to remain to the end of the revelry, but might avail themselves
of an opportunity to slip out from the hall. When
the company was surfeited with festivities, the more sober
of them formed a procession, with the clergy in the lead,
and with musical attendance conducted the bride and groom
to the nuptial couch. The bed was formally blessed by
the priest, the marriage cup was drunk by the bride and
the groom, and then the couple were left by their friends,
who returned to the hall and renewed their feasting. Even
Alfred the Great, good and wise as he was, could not
escape the customs of his times, and was compelled to
indulge in such excesses at his wedding that he never
quite recovered from an attack of illness he suffered in consequence.</p>
<span class="pagenum"><a name="page55" id="page55"></a>[pg 55]</span>

<p>Having noticed the rudeness to which the bride was
subjected, it is gratifying to mention a more pleasant bit
of waggery that was much in vogue, and that corresponds
more nearly to the wedding pranks of to-day. One of the
symbolic features of the wedding was the touching by the
bridegroom of the forehead of the bride with one of his
shoes. This signified that her father's right in her had
passed to her husband. But when the couple were conducted
to their nuptial couch by the bridal company, it
was quite likely, if the bride had a reputation for shrewishness,
that the shoe, which after the ceremony had been
placed on the husband's side of the bed, would be found
on the bride's side&mdash;a hint that the general conviction was
that the headship of the family would be found to be vested
in the wife. We can see from this that the custom of
throwing an old shoe after a bride to give her "good luck"
really signifies the wish that she may dominate the new establishment.</p>

<p>The marriage of a girl was signalized by her being thereafter
allowed to bind her hair in folds about her head. Up
to that time she wore her hair loose. This custom, which
in earlier days signified a wife's subjection, came now to
denote the high dignity to which she had been raised; her
hair thus arranged was a crown of honor, and every girl
looked eagerly forward to the time when she might wear
a <i>volute</i>, as this style of hairdressing was called.</p>

<p>The very practical Anglo-Saxon marriage bargains do
not partake much of the flavor of romance. We find
other evidences of the mercenary motives that pervaded
the marriage customs of the time. The idea of marriage
as the purchase of a wife, who in that relation became the
property of her husband, is further indicated by the fact
that unfaithfulness might be condoned by a money payment,
the <i>were</i>. An old law says: "If a freeman cohabit
<span class="pagenum"><a name="page56" id="page56"></a>[pg 56]</span>
with the wife of a freeman, he must pay the <i>were</i>, and
obtain another woman with his own money and lead her
to the other." Indeed, the chastity of women was regulated
by a set price, according to their station. If the
woman in the case were of the rank of an earl's wife, the
culprit paid a fine of sixty shillings, and paid to the husband
five shillings; if the woman were unfree or below
age, he suffered imprisonment or mutilation. These citations
from the laws of the time are not made to show
regulations of morals, but to illustrate the fact that in the
case of free women offences could be satisfied by a money
payment, just as the husband in the first instance acquired
his rights over his wife by such a payment.</p>

<p>Having considered with some detail the general regard
in which women were held and the customs of marriage,
it is now in place to say something about the methods of
dissolving the matrimonial tie. It must be borne in mind
that the period we are describing was one of rapid development.
After the introduction of Christianity the uncouth
barbarians rapidly became civilized, and new laws
were constantly being made to define the rights of individuals
in all relations. Thus, as marriage customs and
incidents underwent modification, so did the circumstances
of divorce. At first the husband could, at will, return his
wife to her parents; his power of repudiation was practically
unlimited. But such a condition could not long be
brooked, as the practice was a serious affront to the lady's
family. We read in the romance of Brut that Gwendoline
and her friends not only levied war on King Locrine for
repudiating her under the bewitchments of the beautiful
Estrild, but put both the king and his new bride to death.
When Coenwalch grievously insulted Penda, the king of
the Mercians, by putting aside his wife, Penda's sister, that
monarch at once declared war on the West Saxon king.
<span class="pagenum"><a name="page57" id="page57"></a>[pg 57]</span>
Such grave disorders were incited by this unjust right of
the husband that, largely through the influence of the
clergy, limitations were put upon the practice. Naturally,
the first step was to require cause for the repudiation of a
wife. The causes advanced were usually frivolous or insufficient;
but when the bishops taught that "if a man
repudiated his wife, he was not to marry another in her
lifetime, if he wished to be a very good Christian," the
custom became less prevalent, especially as the second
wife was punished by excommunication. The right of
repudiation for cause was exercised by wives as well as
husbands. The case of Etheldrythe, the daughter of Anna,
the famous King of East Anglia, as cited by Thrupp, will
serve to illustrate the prevailing conditions of the wedded
state. "This young lady had the misfortune to be very
weak and very rich. She was consequently sought for as
a wife, by princes who cared nothing for her person, and
as a nun, by churchmen who cared as little for her soul.
She endeavored to please all parties. She took a vow of
virginity with permission to marry, and married with permission
to observe her vow. Her first husband, Tondebert,
Earl of Girvii, who probably obtained possession of
her land, did not trouble himself about her or her personal
property; and on his death, she retired to Ely. She subsequently
married Egfried, a son of the King of Northumbria,
a boy of about thirteen, whose friends desired her
estate. He, also, for some time willingly respected her
vow, but afterward attempted to compel her to do her duty
as a wife. She refused compliance with his wishes, and,
having succeeded in escaping from his kingdom, again took
up her residence in a monastery. There, in defiance of
her marriage vow, she emulated the strictest chastity
of the cloister while in the bonds of marriage. The clergy
applauded her conduct, and, no doubt, obtained possession
<span class="pagenum"><a name="page58" id="page58"></a>[pg 58]</span>
of her estates. The king took a second wife; and all parties
appear to have been satisfied with what was, in truth,
a very discreditable transaction."</p>

<p>After the decline of the right of repudiation, marriage
could be annulled by mutual consent, and the parties were
probably permitted to marry again. Legal divorces were
granted for adultery, and what the clergy called spiritual
adultery, which consisted of marriage to a godfather or a
godmother or anyone who was of spiritual kindred, as
such imagined relatives were called. To these causes
for divorce were added idolatry, heresy, schism, heinous
crimes, leprosy, and insanity. If either husband or wife
were carried off into slavery, or otherwise became unfree,
or were made a prisoner of war, the other had a right to
remarry after a certain time.</p>

<p>To insure a decent interval between marriages, the
law stipulated that if a widow entered again into wedlock
within a year after the death of her former husband, she
should sacrifice the <i>morgen gift</i> and all the property she had
derived from him.</p>

<p>At first, the childless wife had no interest in her husband's
property; at his death, the duty of caring for her
reverted to her own family. If she had children, she was
entitled to one-half of his estate, but this was in the nature
of a provision for the children. But as society improved,
the rights of widows came to be recognized. Women had
from the earliest times been permitted to hold and bequeath
property in their own right; the failure to recognize the
widow's interest in her deceased husband's estate arose
from her being regarded as having left her own family circle
and identified herself with that of her husband for his life
only; therefore, at his death she renewed her connection
with her own family, who assumed the care of her. In
the case of her children, they, being of his flesh and blood,
<span class="pagenum"><a name="page59" id="page59"></a>[pg 59]</span>
had a natural interest in their father's property, while the
wife's relations with her husband were simply contractual.
A more just view prevailed in the time of Cnut, as is shown
by one of his laws, which provided that the widow not only
had a right to her settled property, but, whether she had
children or not, was entitled to one-third of whatever had
been acquired jointly by her and her husband during their
married life, "excepting his clothes and his bed." This
law did not abrogate the provision already stated, that the
widow forfeited everything in case she married within a year.</p>

<p>About the time of Cnut's laws giving wider rights to
wives in the matter of property, there was passed a law
that recognized the wife's right to exclusive control of her
personal effects. Wardrobes had become much more extensive,
and the law took the view that a woman had a
right to a chest or closet of her own, wherein to keep her
clothing, her jewelry and ornaments, and all the little articles
dear to feminine fancy and personal to their possessor.
To this private receptacle her husband could not have
access without her leave. This curious law, making a
real advance in woman's legal status, arose out of the
predatory tendencies of the age.</p>

<p>When a child was born in an Anglo-Saxon household in
the earliest days, the first thought was not, what shall it
be named, but, shall it be put to death? In those rude
times, the custom of exposure applied to the young and to
the very old. Life was a continual hardship, and food
was often extremely difficult to procure. Care for the
feeble implies a solicitude for life that was foreign to the experiences
of the men of that day. The weak and the
sickly were regarded as superfluous members of society.
If the infant were deformed, or not wanted for any reason,
it was either killed outright, exposed, or sold into slavery.
<span class="pagenum"><a name="page60" id="page60"></a>[pg 60]</span>
We like to believe that when the Anglo-Saxons settled in
Britain and found themselves under more comfortable conditions
of living than those to which they had been accustomed
in the inhospitable clime whence they came, with
its constant threat of famine, they discarded this dreadful
practice; but customs die slowly, and, as the parent had
absolute rights in the person of his child, sentiment against
the practice required time to become general. The rugged
Teuton, teeming with an overflowing vitality, had not
adopted the modern method of birth restriction as a solution
of the problem of sustenance. There was no Malthus
in the forests of Germany to discourse on the economic
effect of an overplus of population and to awaken inquiry
as to the best way to limit the human family within the
bounds of possible sustenance. It was a condition and not
a theory that faced the Teuton, and he met the situation
in the only way known to him. As the problem passed
away, the practice went also, though isolated cases of exposure
of infants continued down to the tenth century.</p>

<p>In the form of exposing children of clouded birth, the
practice of infanticide grew with the lowering of morals;
but in the case of legitimate offspring the custom declined.
The Church imposed heavy penalties on those found guilty
of the practice. Fortunately for the infants so treated,
there was a prevailing superstition that to adopt one of
these foundlings brought good luck. The great prevalence
of the crime at some periods is shown by the rewards
offered by the different monarchs to those who would
adopt foundlings. All rights in the child passed to the
one who adopted it. The general willingness to adopt
such children led to many abuses. Mothers thus relieved
themselves of the duty of caring for their offspring, while
those to whom the children were committed often looked
upon them as so many units of labor, and made life very
<span class="pagenum"><a name="page61" id="page61"></a>[pg 61]</span>
hard for them. Homicide was frequently one of the effects
of the baleful practice, and generally occurred under conditions
that made it difficult to fix the guilt.</p>

<p>It is interesting to note, as Gummere points out, that
the barbaric custom of exposing infants "lies at the foundation
of the most exquisite myths&mdash;Lohengrin the swan-knight,
Arthur the forest foundling, and that mystic child
who in the prelude of our national epic, <i>Beowulf</i>, drifts in
his boat, a child of destiny, to the shores of a kingless land."</p>

<p>Grimm quotes from a Danish ballad, where a mother
puts her babe in a chest, lays with it consecrated salt and
candles, and goes to the waterside:</p>

<div class="poem">  <div class="stanza">
<p>"Thither she goes along the strand</p>
<p>And pushes the chest so far from land,</p>
<p>Casts the chest so far from shore:</p>
<p>'To Christ the Mighty I give thee o'er;</p>
<p>To the mighty Christ I surrender thee,</p>
<p>For thou hast no longer a mother in me.'"</p>
  </div>  </div>

<p>The custom of exposing illegitimate offspring shows a
retrogression from the standards of rugged chastity which
were characteristic of the earlier period of the Anglo-Saxon
settlement in Britain. In those times, as we have seen,
the German women were models of virtue; the slightest
departure from morality was viewed with horror and
visited with severe punishment. If the one guilty of misconduct
were married, she was shorn of her hair, the
greatest degradation to which she could be subjected, and
then driven naked from her husband's house, her own
relatives giving their countenance and aid to the husband
in thus banishing her. She was expelled from the village,
and not allowed to return. At a later date, such a woman,
married or unmarried, was made to strangle herself with
her own hands; her refusal to do so availed nothing, as the
<span class="pagenum"><a name="page62" id="page62"></a>[pg 62]</span>
women of the neighborhood stripped off her garments to
the waist, and then with knives, whips, and stones hunted
her from village to village until death mercifully relieved her from further torture.</p>

<p>In spite of such harsh penalties, the moral standard
could not be maintained at a high level. It is more than
likely that its decline was due in part to the women whom
the Northmen brought with them. When they touched
the shores of Britain, it was often after piratical voyages
that had taken them to the coasts of France, Spain, Italy,
and even Africa. When this was the case, they were
always accompanied by large numbers of female slaves
from these countries. Then, too, the greater part of the
British women were reduced to slavery by the new masters
of the country, and none of these were treated with
the consideration for their sex that was accorded the German
women. The repute of the women of the Anglo-Saxons
remained unimpaired, excepting as to particular
classes and particular times; the women not of Anglo-Saxon
origin were, perforce, the chief offenders against morality.</p>

<p>The era of the Danish invasion was a time of almost
unbridled license. Female character could not withstand
the tide of immorality that came in with the new wave of
heathen invaders. The women whom the Vikings brought
with them were captives of the lowest grade, ravished
from their homes for the pleasure of their captors on their
long sea voyage. On their arrival they were made slaves
of the camp, following the army wearily in its marches
from place to place. This miserable degradation was
forced upon many pure English women by the brutal lords
of the sea. When the invaders settled down to live at
peace with the English, and, by amalgamation, to be absorbed
into the larger race, it was centuries before the
<span class="pagenum"><a name="page63" id="page63"></a>[pg 63]</span>
country recovered from the blight of immorality that had
fallen upon it; but, with its rare powers of recuperation,
Anglo-Saxon virtue reasserted its principles and caused its
conquerors to subscribe to them.</p>

<p>Before considering the dress, the amusements, and the
employments of the women, a description of the Anglo-Saxon
house will serve to illustrate much of the common
life of the women. This was not evolved from that of
the Briton; it marks a departure in the architecture of the
country. Neither the rude houses of the poorer of the
Britons nor the villa of the Roman provincial appealed to
the forest nomads, who were accustomed to light, tentlike
structures that could be readily taken down and erected
elsewhere as their changing habitat directed.</p>

<p>The Anglo-Saxon town of the earliest period was only
a cluster of wooden houses&mdash;a family centre constantly
added to by the increase and dividing of the household,
until the settlement assumed something of the proportions
of a town. Stone was not in favor with the Teutons for
their dwellings. They saw in it the relic of the demigods
of a remote past; stone masonry seemed supernatural, and
they called it "the giants' ancient work." The house of
the Teutons was probably a development of the ancient
burrow; as Heyn expresses the process of its evolution:
"Little by little rose the roof of turf, and the cavern under
the house served at last only for winter and the abode of
the women." The summer house of wattles, twigs and
branches, bound together by cords, and with a thatched
roof, a rough door, and no windows, seemed to serve these
unsettled people, whose surroundings abounded with the
materials for substantial edifices.</p>

<p>The architecture of the Germans developed rapidly.
Soon there was a substantial hall, or main house, which
was the place of gathering and feasting and the sleeping
<span class="pagenum"><a name="page64" id="page64"></a>[pg 64]</span>
place of the men. The women slept, and we may say
dwelt, in the bower. Necessary outbuildings were supplied
in abundance. The floor of the hall was of hard
earth or of clay, perhaps particolored, and forming patterns
of rude mosaic. It was no uncommon thing for the
rough warrior to ride into the hall, and to stable there his
beloved steed, as will be seen from the following extract
from an English ballad of a later date, which is given us by Professor Child:</p>

<div class="poem">  <div class="stanza">
<p>"Kyng Estmere he stabled his steede</p>
<p>Soe fayre att the hall-bord;</p>
<p>The froth that came from his brydle bitte</p>
<p>Light in Kyng Bremor's beard."</p>
  </div>  </div>

<p>Rows of benches were commonly placed outside of the
hall; the exterior walls and the roof were painted in striking
colors. Huge antlers fringed the gables; the windows,
lacking glass, were placed high up in the wall, and a hole
in the roof sufficed for the escape of smoke.</p>

<p>Such was the early English hall, as it appears to us in
the ballads and stories of the times. The magnificent lace
and embroidered hangings with which were draped the
interior walls of the habitations of the nobility served the
double purpose of decoration and protection from the cold
draughts that came in through the numerous crevices.
Even the royal palace of Alfred was so draughty that the
candles in the rooms had to be protected by lanterns.
Benches and seats with fine coverings added comfort and
elegance to the hall. In front of these were placed stools,
with richly embroidered coverings, for the feet of the
great ladies. The tables in these Anglo-Saxon homes
were often of great beauty and costliness. In the reign of
King Edgar, Earl Aethelwold possessed a table of silver
that was worth three hundred pounds sterling. Many sorts
<span class="pagenum"><a name="page65" id="page65"></a>[pg 65]</span>
of candelabra, some of them of exquisite pattern and workmanship,
made of the precious metals and set with jewels,
were used to impart to these old halls the dim light that in
our fancy of the times becomes a feature of the romance of
the knightly homes of older England.</p>

<p>Warm baths were essential to the comfort of the Anglo-Saxon;
to be deprived of them and of a soft bed was one
of the severe penances imposed by the Church. The
ladies' bower was perfumed with the scents and spices of India and the East.</p>

<p>Though the houses still left much to be desired in the
way of architectural features as well as ordinary convenience,
the appointments and furnishings of a home of the
later Anglo-Saxon period showed a keen appreciation of creature comforts.</p>

<p>The law of hospitality opened all doors to the wayfaring
freeman. When he wound his horn in the forest as he
approached the hall to protect himself from being set upon
as a marauder, he was welcomed to the warm fire, the
loaded table, and the guest bed, without question. In
later times, the traveller was permitted to remain to the
third night. The guest who came hungry, weary, and
dusty to one of these hospitable homes and received admittance
might esteem himself fortunate, for the women
of the time were well versed in the art of wholesome
cookery, and had at hand a plentiful variety of foods.
For their meats they might select from the choice cuts of
venison, beef, and lamb, besides pork, chicken, goat, and
hare. Birds and fish afforded greater variety. Of the
latter there were salmon, herring, sturgeons, flounders,
and eels; and of shellfish, crabs, lobsters, and oysters.
Horse flesh was in early use as a comestible, but later became
repugnant to taste, and was discountenanced by the
Church in the latter part of the eighth century.</p>
<span class="pagenum"><a name="page66" id="page66"></a>[pg 66]</span>

<p>To the meats was added a variety of warm breads,
made of barley meal and of flour. Eggs, butter, cheese,
and curds, with many sorts of vegetables, were to be
found on the tables; while figs, nuts, almonds, pears, and
apples were probably served by the women to the company
as they sat in discourse about the fire, or, stretched
at full length upon the floor, became absorbed in games
of chance. For the Germans were such inveterate
gamblers that money, goods, chattels, their wives, and
even their own liberty, were often risked by the casting of dice.</p>

<p>The women were admitted to seats at the tables with
the men, the girls being engaged in serving the drinks,
which were as freely used then as now. Even after the
company were surfeited with food and the tables were
removed, drinking was kept up until the evening.</p>

<p>The costumes of a people are of the greatest worth in
revealing to the student their grade of civilization and
their ideals. There can be no question but that taste in
dress is one of the best gauges by which to determine
whether at a particular time the people were serious
minded or frivolous, moral or immoral, swayed by high
aspirations or the prey of indolence and sensuous gratifications.
Just as truly can we arrive at the characteristics
of a race or a period by seeing the people at their play.
If we find them given to gladiatorial exhibitions, we shall
not err in concluding that they were a vigorous and war-like
people; if they are found at the bull fight, we may
safely adjudge them to be a brutalized and enervated race.
The Anglo-Saxon can safely be brought to this test. If the
dress of the women is a criterion of morals, then were
these people of early England exemplary; if the games in
vogue denote the race characteristics, then were they rude, but wholesome.</p>
<span class="pagenum"><a name="page67" id="page67"></a>[pg 67]</span>

<p>After the conversion of the Anglo-Saxons to Christianity,
there were evidently some changes made in their
garb, to indicate their abjuration of heathenism; for in the
Church council of 785 the complaint was made that "you
put on your garments in the manner of the pagans, whom
your fathers expelled from the world; an astonishing
thing, that you should imitate those whose life you always
hated." Change of style in dress was practically unknown
among the ladies of the Anglo-Saxon period of
English history. The illuminations of the old MSS., from
which all that is definitely known on the subject is
derived, show that the dress of the women remained
practically the same during the entire period.</p>

<p>The costume of the women can be described with many
details. There was an undergarment, probably made of
linen, extending to the feet; it had sleeves that reached to
the wrists and were there gathered tightly in little plaits.
There was an absence of needlework of any sort, excepting
a simple bit of embroidery upon the shoulder. The
customary color of the garment was white. Over this
was worn the gown, which was slightly longer than the
undergarment, and reached quite to the ground. It was
bound about the waist by a girdle, by which it was sometimes
caught up and shortened. The sleeves are most
frequently pictured as extending to the wrist, and were
worn full. Sometimes, however, they reached to only the
elbow, and in some cases were wanting altogether. This
garment was prettily ornamented with embroidery, in
simple bands of sprigs, diverging from a centre. Another
form of dress that is represented seems to have been an
out-of-doors or travelling costume. It differed from the other
in being of heavier material, possibly of fine woollen goods,
and had sleeves that extended to the knees. It is possible
that this was a winter dress, and the other a summer one.</p>
<span class="pagenum"><a name="page68" id="page68"></a>[pg 68]</span>

<p>A mantle was worn about the shoulders. This, likewise,
was of a solid color, usually contrasting with that of
the gown. This garment appears to have been round or
oval in shape, with an aperture at one side, so that when
it was put on it hung much further down the back than in
front. The head was covered with a wimple, broad enough
to reach from the top of the forehead to the shoulders,
where it was generally wrapped about the neck in such a
way that the ends fell on the bosom. A less studied, but
more tasteful, way to wear it was to have it hang down on
one side as far as the knee; the effect of the contrasting
colors of the wimple, the mantle, and the gown was gratifying
to women of taste. The shoes were black, and of
simple style. They resembled the house slippers worn by
women to-day; but besides these low shoes, which came
only to the ankles, other shoes were worn, that reached
higher up the leg and appeared to have been laced much
as shoes now are. Stockings may or may not have been used.</p>

<p>It will be seen from this description of the costume of
the Anglo-Saxon woman that it was modest, complete, and
in good taste. She was, however, proud of her attire, and
of the many ornaments that were worn with it. The
ornament in most general use was the fibula, or brooch.
This was of many styles: radiated, bird-shaped, cruciform,
square-shaped, annular, and circular. It was of gold,
bronze, or iron, and showed the greatest delicacy of workmanship.
It was worn on the breast, a little to one side,
so as to fasten the mantle. When we are reminded that
the Anglo-Saxons were highly skilled in the art of dyeing,
and that they had perfected the art of gilding leather, we
can readily see that a lady of quality, when dressed in her
blue, purple, or crimson costume of state, her girdle clasped
by a finely chased brooch of gold, whose fellow gleamed
<span class="pagenum"><a name="page69" id="page69"></a>[pg 69]</span>
in the folds of her mantle, might have invited comparison,
to advantage, with the most stylishly attired woman of
to-day. But when we add to her dress a mantle, not
only of rich colors, but embroidered in ornate design, with
heavy threads of pure gold; massive arm rings of the same
precious metal, of wonderfully beautiful pattern, and fastened
about her round white arm by delicate little chains;
and numerous strings of gold, amber, and glass beads, rich
in pattern and cunningly chased, the picture presented of
the Anglo-Saxon woman is altogether pleasing. The ornaments
of the women were not considered as mere matters
of adornment. To the pagan woman, her beads served as
a protection against supernatural foes. When Christianity
came in, the beads were blessed by a pious man and
continued to serve the same useful end.</p>

<p>The bronze combs found everywhere in the graves of
the time show how careful the women of the day were to
keep in perfect order the long locks of which they were so
proud. From the graves have been recovered chatelaines,
of the fashion of those now in vogue, golden toothpicks,
ear spoons, and tweezers. These ornaments and toilet
requisites were in constant use in life; and in pagan times
they were interred with their owner, that they might still
be hers in the other world.</p>

<p>The Anglo-Saxons understood the art of inlaying enamel,
and their colors were remarkably bright and enduring.
But the most striking evidence of proficiency in the jeweller's
art was their <i>cloisonné</i> ware. This art of the East
was spread by the barbarian invasions over the whole of
Europe; De Baye, in his <i>Industrial Arts of the Anglo-Saxons</i>,
calls it "the first æsthetic expression of the
Gothic nations," and says that it was not borrowed, but
was adapted from the East. He describes it as follows:
"This <i>cloisonné</i> work, set with precious stones in a kind
<span class="pagenum"><a name="page70" id="page70"></a>[pg 70]</span>
of mosaic, and combined at times with the most delicate
filigree, is sufficiently characteristic to be remarkable in
every country where it has left traces." This beautiful
form of art penetrated Kent and the Isle of Wight, where
for some reason it became localized and assumed a particular
character. Some of the fibulæ that have been preserved
to us, and are to be found in the art collections of
England, are remarkable specimens of this beautiful craft.</p>

<p>The love of English women for outdoor sports can be
traced to Anglo-Saxon times, and much of the wholesome
vigor of the race is due to those early pastimes.
However fond women may have been of fine ornaments,
then as now it was the privilege of the few to possess them;
but the national sports were enjoyed by all. Hunting,
hawking, boating, swimming, fishing, skating, were in great favor with the people.</p>

<p>In the winter there were many long hours to be whiled
away indoors, and although spinning and weaving the
fabrics for the family wear, as well as their embroidery
and lace work, took up much of the time, the women still
had ample leisure to engage with the members of their
households and, perhaps, the passing guests in the many
simple games that delighted them. Chess was in marked
favor, and was played in much the same manner as now.
The exchange of witticisms and the guessing of conundrums
added much to the innocent mirth of a household
intent on making the long evenings pass as pleasantly as possible.</p>

<p>There were itinerant purveyors of amusement who were
to be found at every feast and at many family firesides.
These were the wandering minstrels, or gleemen. Although
they were welcomed for the entertainment they furnished,
yet as a social class they were certainly in slight repute.
Their forms of entertainment were not limited to music.
<span class="pagenum"><a name="page71" id="page71"></a>[pg 71]</span>
They presented a programme that included the performances
of trained animals, tricks of jugglery, feats of magic,
and other exhibitions of skill and daring. Along with the
gleemen went the glee maidens, who were the dancing
and acrobatic girls of the day. Dancing itself was a very
rudimentary performance, but the enthusiasm of the audience
was aroused by the acts of tumbling and contortion
that were introduced into it. Convinced that dancing alone
could not account for the bewitchment of Herod by the
daughter of his brother Philip's wife, the translators into
the vernacular of that Biblical circumstance say of Herodias
that she "tumbled" before Herod; and the illuminations
in a prayerbook of the time show Herodias in the act
of tumbling, with the assistance of a female attendant.</p>

<p>Slight protection, either from law or custom, was
afforded women of the lower classes from gross insults.
Any female was likely to be stopped on the road and
partially or altogether denuded of her clothing, and then
sent on her way with taunts and jeers. But, despite the
coarseness of the Anglo-Saxon times, sentiment finally
made Itself felt for the correction of such manners. The
women were responsible for the diffusion of notions of greater refinement.</p>

<p>While there was little deserving the name of education,
and even reading and writing were the accomplishments
of but a small part of the people, the monastic orders conserved
some notion of scholarship. Unfavorable as were
the times to productive thought, scholars of no mean ability
nevertheless flourished, and among men and women alike
there was a desire for learning. To his female scholars
the monk Anghelm dedicated his works: <i>De Laude Virginitatis</i>.
Certain Saxon ladies of leisure occupied themselves
with the study of Latin, which they came to read
and write with some ease. The literary antecedents
<span class="pagenum"><a name="page72" id="page72"></a>[pg 72]</span>
of the brilliant women of the sixteenth century are to be
found in that little group of studious women of the Anglo-Saxons,
of whom the Abbess Eadburga and her pupil
Leobgitha, with both of whom Saint Boniface corresponded
in Latin, were the most notable.</p>

<p>The nuns were a class apart. The separation of the
monks and the nuns in the monastic establishments was
gradually brought about by Church regulations and the
rules of the orders. By the end of the seventh century the
separate monasteries had effected the separation of the men
and the women, and in the eighth century the erection of
double monasteries was forbidden. Long before this time,
however, the more earnest of the ladies in superintendence
of the monasteries had prohibited the admission of men to
the female side of the establishments, excepting such men
as the sainted Cuthbert and the venerable Bede. These
regulations were very strict and almost put an end to
the scandalous allegations about the religious establishments.
The charge that the priests resorted to the monasteries
for mistresses probably had no better foundation
than the fact that many of the priests continued to marry,
in spite of the rule of celibacy. Whatever truth there is
in the assertion that kings obtained their mistresses from
the ranks of the nuns must be laid to the civil interference
and claims of jurisdiction over religious institutions. But
while the headship of convents was frequently offered to
women of high rank and low morals, whom it was convenient
thus to get rid of, and in this way certain institutions
became debauched, the monastic system itself did
not become corrupt, and there were monasteries of notable purity and great worth.</p>

<p>The story of Eadburga, the widow of Beorthric, King of
Kent, illustrates the hardships inflicted upon the monasteries,
through the assumption of royal personages to
<span class="pagenum"><a name="page73" id="page73"></a>[pg 73]</span>
appoint their heads. Eadburga was a notable beauty,
and was renowned as well for her talents and her ambition.
She ruled her husband with a jealous tyranny,
removing from court by false accusation or by poisoning
all who stood in her path. The Earl Worr, a young man
of great personal charm, was one of those who exerted an
influence over her husband. On some occasion of public
hospitality she proffered him a cup of poisoned liquor; the
king, who was present, claimed his right of precedence,
and, after drinking from the cup, passed it to the earl, who
drained it. Both of them died, leaving the guilty queen
exposed to the wrath of the royal family. Eadburga fled
to the court of Charlemagne, where she was graciously
received, and after a time the king suggested to her that
she lay aside her widow's weeds and become his wife. She
showed so little tact as to say that she would prefer his
son. Charlemagne, piqued by her answer, said that had
she expressed a preference for him, it had been his purpose
to give her in marriage to his son; as it was, she
should marry neither of them. She remained at the court
until the king, scandalized by her wicked life, placed her
at the head of an excellent monastery. In this responsible
position, Eadburga behaved herself as badly as ever;
and as the result of an amour with a countryman of low
birth, she was expelled from the convent. This widow of
a monarch ended her career as a common beggar in the streets of Pavia.</p>

<p>A very different class from the nuns, but, like them, a
distinct class in the social life of Anglo-Saxon times,
were the slaves. The least amiable trait of the women of
the times was their treatment of servants. Although
there were striking instances of kindly and considerate
regard for this class on the part of their mistresses, yet
the slight legal protection afforded them, and the rough,
<span class="pagenum"><a name="page74" id="page74"></a>[pg 74]</span>
impetuous natures of the masters, made the existence of
the servile class miserable. It was not unusual for slaves
to be scourged to death; and for comparatively slight
offences they were loaded with gyves and fetters and
subjected to all kinds of tortures. On one occasion, the
maidservant of a bellmaker of Winchester was, for a slight
offence, fettered and hung up by the hands and feet all
night. The next morning, after being frightfully beaten,
she was again put in fetters. The following night, she
contrived to free herself, and fled for sanctuary to the
tomb of Saint Swithin. This was not an exceptional instance;
it illustrates the severity that was customarily meted out to serfs.</p>

<p>The queens and other ladies of rank among the Anglo-Saxons
included some who were ornaments to the sex in
industry and intelligence as well as charity. Their influence
on politics for good or for evil was often the result of
their position as members of rival houses. Christianity was
often furthered by the alliance of a Christian princess to a
pagan king; Bertha, the daughter of a famous Frankish
king, was in this way instrumental in the introduction of
Christianity into England. Herself a Christian, she married
Ethelbert, King of Kent, on condition that she should
be permitted to worship as a Christian under the guidance
of a Frankish bishop named Lindhard. The condition was
observed, and Bertha had her Frankish chaplain with her
at court. She seems not to have made any attempt to
convert her husband; and he never disturbed her in her
religion. The pope was probably informed of the auspiciousness
of the outlook for the introduction of Christianity
into the Kentish kingdom, and, being still under the influence
of the impression made upon him by the flaxen-haired
Angles he had seen in the slave markets of Rome before
his elevation to the pontificate, he determined to make good
<span class="pagenum"><a name="page75" id="page75"></a>[pg 75]</span>
the vow he had then registered to send missionaries to the
land of the boy slaves. Augustine was selected for the
mission, and on arriving, with his companions, in England,
after a great deal of trepidation for their personal safety,
they presented themselves at the court of the King of Kent
Ethelbert received them in the open air, with a great show
of pomp, and gave them his promise to interpose no hindrance
to their missionary endeavors among his people.
To Bertha must be ascribed the credit for the complaisance
of her husband and the opening that was made to restore
the Christian faith, which had perished with the Britons.</p>

<p>Edith, the gentle queen of Edward the Confessor, was
noted alike for her skill with the needle and her conversance
with literature. Ingulf's <i>History</i>, though perhaps
not authentic, gives us a delightful picture of the simplicity
of her Anglo-Saxon court. "I often met her," says this
writer,&mdash;meaning Edith,&mdash;"as I came from school, and then
she questioned me about my studies and my verses; and
willingly passing from grammar to logic, she would catch me
in the subtleties of argument. She always gave me two
or three pieces of money, which were counted to me by
her hand-maiden, and then sent me to the royal larder to refresh myself."</p>

<p>Ethelwyn, another royal lady, and a friend of Archbishop
Dunstan, was accustomed to decorate the ecclesiastical
vestments, and the art needlework of herself and her companions
became celebrated. On account of his well-known
skill in drawing and designing, Dunstan was frequently
called into the ladies' bower to give his views in such
matters. While they worked, he sometimes regaled them with music from his harp.</p>

<p>These pleasing views of the character and the employments
of the royal ladies in Anglo-Saxon times, seen in
their simple pursuits, are more agreeable than the stories
<span class="pagenum"><a name="page76" id="page76"></a>[pg 76]</span>
of those who were engaged in court intrigues, to relate
which would necessitate a history of the political movements
of the day. We shall later have ample opportunity
to see woman as an influence in affairs of thrones and
dynasties. For the present, it will suffice to regard royal
woman in the way in which she is prominently presented
to us in Anglo-Saxon annals&mdash;as the lady of refined domesticity.</p>
<span class="pagenum"><a name="page77" id="page77"></a>[pg 77]</span>




<h2>Chapter IV</h2>

<h2>The Women of the Anglo-Normans</h2>
<!--Blank page #78 omitted.-->
<span class="pagenum"><a name="page79" id="page79"></a>[pg 79]</span>


<p>A picture of the social life of England during the Norman
period is a picture of manners and customs in a state
of flux. But amid all the instability of the times, when
political institutions, laws, customs, and language were
inchoate, the tendencies were so marked that it is quite
possible to watch the emergence of a solidified people.
The two great social factors to be considered are the
baronial castles and the women of those castles. The
castle was the characteristic feature of the Anglo-Norman
period; its conspicuousness increased as time went on,
until, in the reign of Stephen, there were no less than
eleven hundred of these units of divided sovereignty scattered over the country.</p>

<p>During the period of national unsettlement which followed
upon the Conquest, these frowning castles arose;
they owed their existence to the lack of adequate laws for
the safeguarding of life and of property, and to the absence
of the machinery of government for the enforcement
of law. But, principally, they represented the mutual
jealousies of the Norman barons, to whom had been apportioned
the lands of the Saxons&mdash;jealousies which found
a common attraction in an aversion to the centralizing of
power in the hands of any monarch who had ambitions to
be more than a superior overlord.</p>
<span class="pagenum"><a name="page80" id="page80"></a>[pg 80]</span>

<p>This social insecurity was intensified during the reign of
William by the danger of attack from the implacable Saxon
bands of warriors who had retired into the swamps and
from those fastnesses conducted a fierce guerrilla warfare
upon the Normans. So full of danger was the period, that
the closing of the castle for the evening was always an occasion
for serious prayer and commitment of the inmates to
Divine protection, as there was no knowing but that before
morning a besieging force might appear before the gates
and institute all the horrors of attack and beleaguerment.</p>

<p>The elevation of woman to the plane of companionship
with her husband was largely due to the peculiar conditions
of the feudal state of society, of which the frowning
castle that crowned the many hilltops was the sinister
characteristic. Exposed as she was to the same dangers,
and sharing the responsibilities of her husband, there was no
room for a distinction of status to be drawn between them.
By reason of environment, wifely equality with her husband
was not a matter of theoretical but simply of practical
settlement. It was needful that the wife should be a
woman of courage and of resources. But while the matter
of sex did not constitute a badge of inferiority in the home
relations, the peculiar perils to which the women were
exposed constituted an appeal to manhood that evoked a
chivalrous response; and when life became less hard and
there was better opportunity for the expression of the
tenderer sentiments, this especial regard for woman rose
to the height of an exalted devotion.</p>

<p>It would not be right to assume, however, that the
greater prominence and influence of woman outside of her
home was a sudden emergence from former conditions. In so
unsettled an era it became, however, a more general, more
pronounced feature. We may find an earlier indication of
the interest of the great lady in the affairs of her lord and
<span class="pagenum"><a name="page81" id="page81"></a>[pg 81]</span>
in the welfare of his dependants, as well as of the advance
of chivalrous sentiments, in the story of Lady Godiva. It
was in 1040 that Leofric, Earl of Mercia, was besought by
his wife, who was remarkable for her beauty and piety, to
relieve his tenantry of Coventry of a heavy toll. Probably
little inclined to grant her request, he imposed what
he may have thought impossible terms, when he consented
to her plea on condition that she would ride naked through
the town. To his amazement, doubtless, the Lady Godiva
accepted the condition; and Leofric faithfully carried out
his agreement. The lady, veiled only by her lovely hair,
rode through the streets; and to the honor of the good
people of Coventry, it is said that they kept within doors
and would not look upon their benefactress to embarrass
her. One person only is said to have peeped from behind
the curtain of his window, and the story runs that
he was struck blind, or, according to another version, had
his eyes put out by the wrathful people. This curious
person was the "Peeping Tom of Coventry," whose name has become proverbial.</p>

<p>Society develops in strata, so that the elevation of the
women of the castles did not enable the women of the
hovels to profit by conditions out of the range of their lives.
The lower classes, or villains, which included the grades of
society styled, in the Anglo-Saxon period, the freemen
and the serfs, were the social antitheses of the society of
the castles. The women of the lower class benefited not
at all by the new dignity that was acquired by the women
of the castles during the feudal régime; in fact, they suffered
the imposition of new burdens and the exactions of a feudal
practice which took the form of tribute, based on the persistent
idea of the vassalage of their sex. The great middle
class, which was to play such an important part in the
social and industrial history of England, had not emerged
<span class="pagenum"><a name="page82" id="page82"></a>[pg 82]</span>
as a separate section of the people of the country. But what
the lady of the Norman castle obtained for her class through
one phase of feudalism, the woman of the guild aided in
securing by another in the centuries which marked the rule
of the Angevin kings; and in both Norman and Angevin
times the influence of the Church was constantly on the side
of the womanhood of the country, and was probably a more
potent force than any other, for the exaltation of woman
was the one policy which proceeded on fixed principles.</p>

<p>The castles too often degenerated into centres of rapine
and pillage; perpetual feuds led to constant forays, and no
traveller could be assured that he would not be set upon by
one of these robber barons and his band of retainers&mdash;little
better than remorseless banditti. But there were castles
of a better sort, nor were all knights recreant to their vows.
In assuming the obligations of his order, the newly vested
knight swore to defend the Church against attack by the
perfidious; venerate the priesthood; repel the injustices of
the poor; keep the country quiet; shed his blood, and if
necessary lose his life, for his brethren. Nothing was
said in the oath about devotion to women, nor was such a
thing at first contemplated as a part of the knight's office.
His office was a military one, and sentiment did not enter
into it. The chivalrous feature grew out of the circumstances
of the times&mdash;the unprotected situation of woman,
the fact that the knight who enlisted in the service of a
baron, and the baron as well, often had to leave the
women of their households dependent for protection upon
the opportune courtesy of other knights and lords. When
the country had become more orderly and manners had
softened, with the increased security given to life and
property and the better means of obtaining justice, this
chivalrous feature continued and became prominent in the
knightly character and office.</p>
<span class="pagenum"><a name="page83" id="page83"></a>[pg 83]</span>

<p>In the early times, when the life of the knight was of
the roughest, there were adventurous young women,
caught by the excitement it offered, who donned the
habiliments of the knight and plunged into the dangers of
his career. The story is told of the quarrel of two Norman
ladies, Eliosa and Isabella, both of them high-strung, loquacious,
and beautiful, and both dominating their husbands
by the forcefulness of their natures. But while Eliosa was
crafty and effected her ends by scheming, Isabella was
generous, courageous, sunny-tempered, merry, and convivial.
Each gathered about her a band of knights and
made war upon her adversary. Isabella led her knights
in person, and, armed as they were and as adept in the
use of her weapons, she advanced in open attack upon her
foe. Such incidents, though not usual, were yet in accord
with the spirit of the time.</p>

<p>Every lady was trained in the use of arms for the needs
of her own protection when the occasion should arise.
Sometimes the practice of sword drill was carried on in
the privacy of the lady's apartment. Thus, it is related
of the Lady Beatrix&mdash;who, by reason of her expertness
and her intrepidity in the actual use of arms, gained for
herself the sobriquet <i>La belle Cavalier</i>&mdash;that the first knowledge
that her brother had of her martial proclivities was
when, through a crevice in the wall, he happened to observe
her throw off her robe, and, taking his sword out of
its scabbard, toss it up into the air and, catching it with
dexterity, go through all the drill of a knight with spirit
and precision; wheeling from right to left, advancing, retreating,
feinting, and parrying, until she at last disarmed
her imaginary foe. We read of the Knight of Kenilworth
that he made a round table of one hundred knights and
ladies, to which came, for exercise in arms, persons from
different parts of the land.</p>
<span class="pagenum"><a name="page84" id="page84"></a>[pg 84]</span>

<p>In such setting is found the life of the woman of the
day. But below whatever of chivalry was to be found in
this turbulent age, which extended from the coming of
William the Conqueror to the end of the reign of Stephen,
it was preëminently a rude, boisterous, and uncultured
era. The lack of uniformity of language was as much
opposed to the development of literature as was the general
unsettled condition of the times. Education, slight as
it was, had suffered a relapse, and it was not until the
twelfth century that anything like real literature was developed.</p>

<p>As the castle was the characteristic feature of the time,
and within its walls will be found much of the matters of
interest relating to the women of the day, a description
of one of these domestic fortresses will make clearer the
customs of the times in so far as they relate to the women of the higher classes.</p>

<p>The site selected for the ancient castle was always a
hilltop or knoll that lent itself to ready defence. The foot
of the hill was enclosed by a palisade and a moat; these
circumvallations frequently rendered successful assault impossible,
and the only recourse open to the attacking force
was a protracted siege. As the stranger on peaceful mission
bent approached one of these massive structures,
rearing its frowning walls in silhouette against the blue of
the sky, he could not fail to be impressed with the majesty
and grandeur of its walls and turrets. He would notice
the round-headed windows, with their lattice of iron and
the numerous slitlike openings which supplemented the
windows for the access of light and, as loopholes, played
an important part in the defence of the fortress. On
coming to the gateway, flanked on either side by bastions,
pierced to admit of the flight of arrows, the warden would
open to him, and he would be conducted into a courtyard,
<span class="pagenum"><a name="page85" id="page85"></a>[pg 85]</span>
whose sides were made by the walls of the hall, the chapel,
the stable, and the offices. Within the courtyard, he
would observe a garden of herbs and edible roots, and
also a fine display of flowers; perhaps, too, a small enclosure
in the nature of a cage, containing a number of
animals&mdash;the trained animal collection of the jongleurs,
who commonly attached themselves to the following of barons.</p>

<p>On passing into the hall, he would be at once struck
by its absolute meagreness; a few stools, some seats in
the alcoves of the wall, a few forms, some cushions and
a sideboard, making its complement of furniture. The
abundance and beauty of the plate on the sideboard might
partially redeem in his eyes the barrenness of the place.
The minstrel's gallery in the rear of the hall would be
suggestive of the convivial uses of that portion of the
castle. No elaborate draperies would be seen; some strips
of dyed canvas upon the walls alone served to make up
for the lack of plaster, and to afford some protection from
damp and the spiders whose webs could be seen in the
ceiling corners. On passing out again into the courtyard,
he would observe the tokens of domestic pursuits in the
kitchen utensils and the dairy vessels upon benches, and
cloths hung upon poles above. Passing by the subsidiary
buildings, and ascending to the ladies' bower by the outside
staircase, he would find a few more evidences of comfort
than greeted him in the hall below. Instead of common
canvas, the walls would be draped with some embroidered
materials, cushions would be more plentiful, the touches of
femininity would be observed in various little elements
of comfort and adornment; but, with all this, he would find
it dreary enough. Should he return, however, to this
boudoir when the ladies were gathered for their afternoon's
sewing, the scene would make up in animation
<span class="pagenum"><a name="page86" id="page86"></a>[pg 86]</span>
what it lacked in attractiveness of surroundings. On
going into the bedchamber, a glance would reveal its contents.
Seats in the wall, a stool, a curiously shaped bed,
candelabra, and two projecting poles, the one for falcons
and the other for clothes, would complete the sum of its
furniture. The bed furnishings would consist of a drapery,
pendent from an odd roof, rather than a canopy, over the
bed. The bed would look to him comfortable enough,
with its quilted feathers and pillow attached, and, over
these, sheets of silk or of linen, and over all a coverlet of
haircloth, or of woollen fabric, lined with skins. One compartmented
bed fixture, with its curious divisions, was
thought to afford sufficient privacy for honored guests
of different sexes, who were all cared for in the same
chamber; if the number of the guests and of the household
was large, several bed fixtures or bedsteads might be
observed. The servants slept indiscriminately in the hall below.</p>

<p>Such was the simplicity of the interior arrangements
and furnishings of the castle. But within these rooms,
devoid of many of the ordinary comforts of modern life
and altogether lacking in its luxuries, assembled women
who prided themselves on their noble estate and extraction;
here, too, were held many assemblies of state; kings
in their progresses through their kingdom tarried for entertainment,
bringing with them magnificent retinues. Feasts
and social functions called forth all the highbred graces of
the fair hostess and made the castle a scene of merriment
and of joyous conviviality. Here, too, were held orgies of
drunkenness and of depravity; intrigues smouldered within
these walls, to break out into an open flame of rebellion;
while dramas of noble self-abnegation and plightings of
faithful love were enacted there as well. Amid all these
scenes moved the lady of the castle.</p>
<span class="pagenum"><a name="page87" id="page87"></a>[pg 87]</span>

<p>A few of the typical views of castle life in which the
women figured conspicuously will serve to give a more
particular setting to the general idea of their status and
employments. While men gave themselves up to feats of
arms, the women had the task of hospitably entertaining
the guests who frequented the castles; in the interim of
these festivities and the exacting care of a host of servants,
they applied themselves assiduously to needlework,
and in no other way does the woman of the times
appear in so pleasant a light as when thus engaged. Her
facility in lace and embroidery work is not attested alone
by contemporary writers, but has come down to us in its
finest expression. The famous Bayeux tapestry, possibly
the most ingenious specimen of needlework that the world
has known, calls up the most interesting of the castle
scenes as related to woman. It is the expression of the
artistic and historical sense of Matilda, the wife of William
I. In some such lady's bower as has been described,
the fair queen assembled the ladies of her court, and the
Bayeux tapestry was created amid the interchange of
small talk, becoming more serious as at times the figures
of the pattern recalled some particular horror of personal
loss on the part of some of the ladies present, entailed by
the great battle whose glory was the central theme of their
labors. With womanly self-effacement, they had in mind
only those whose deeds were in this unique manner to
be handed down to posterity, and had no thought of the
monument to womanly devotion that they were erecting
for the honor of the sex. Every scene involved the perpetuation
of the memories and the valor of those who were
dear to them; and as the record passed into the embroidered
pattern, it was dwelt upon with words of glowing pride.
In some such way took shape the picture-history of the
event that found its consummation in the battle of Senlac.
<span class="pagenum"><a name="page88" id="page88"></a>[pg 88]</span>
By its wealth and accuracy of detail, this monument of
woman's skill became a historical document of the first
order for the period to which it relates. But to the student
of the English woman its chief value must lie in its revelation
of the depth of the pride and devotion to husbands,
brothers, and lovers that it reveals&mdash;devotion to the living
and the dead alike, which is the secret of its reverent
accuracy, excluding as it does vainglorious exaggeration.
It thus becomes a memorial of deeds of valor and of defeat,
of triumph and of death; a monument to the Norman, but,
unwittingly, a monument to the defeated Saxon as well.</p>

<p>We are reminded by this historic tapestry of the pathetic
story of Edith of the Swan's Neck. King Harold had been
slain on the battlefield by a Norman arrow which had
pierced his brain. His mother and the Abbot of Waltham
had successfully pleaded with Harold's victorious
rival for permission to bury the king within the abbey.
Two Saxon monks, Osgod and Ailrick, were deputed by
the Abbot of Waltham to search for and bring to the
abbey the body of their benefactor. Failing to identify on
the field of Senlac (Hastings) the bodies denuded of armor
and clothing, they applied to a woman whom Harold, before
he was king, had had for a companion, and begged her to
assist them in their search. She was called Edith, and
surnamed la belle an you de cygne. Edith consented to aid
the two monks, and readily discovered the body of him who had been her lover.</p>

<p>The queen who conceived and furthered the execution
of the Bayeux tapestry was representative of the best
type of Norman womanhood. Her devotion to her husband
was proverbial, and his faithfulness to her has never
been questioned. Intrigues among persons who could not
brook the moral atmosphere of a court such as Matilda
maintained were common enough, and the envious breath
<span class="pagenum"><a name="page89" id="page89"></a>[pg 89]</span>
of scandal even sought to shake the confidence of her royal
husband in her; but all such attempts were unavailing.
Matilda became in every sense the consort of William, and
thus marked a forward step for the womanhood of the
country. Without such recognition of the wife of William
I., England would never have had the brilliant and
versatile Elizabeth or the wise and womanly Victoria to
number among the great examples of high worth which
make the list of England's notable women one of the chief
glories of her history. As the manners of the court affect
the standard of the nation, that the tone of the times was
not lower in an age of turbulence, when moral standards
were debased, must be to some extent accredited to the example of the queen.</p>

<p>When Matilda died, the country was still rent by fierce
hatreds and passionate outbursts; the unplacated Saxon
had been little influenced by her. It was reserved for
another Matilda, the wife of Henry I., to aid in healing the
breach, and, by uniting the discordant elements, put the
country in a position for the development of those arts of
civilization which only can flourish in an atmosphere of
peace. When Matilda, then a <i>religieuse</i>, was adjudged by
the Church authorities not to have taken the veil, or to
have assumed the vows that would have severed her from
the world and committed her to a life of virginity, she
reluctantly heeded the clamor of the Saxon element of the
people, and yielded to the importunities of Henry to become
his wife and the country's queen. So was secured
to the land a queen in whose veins ran Saxon blood and
who had received an Anglo-Saxon education. Through
her influence, many salutary laws were enacted to relieve
the disabilities of the people. The wives and daughters of
the Saxons were secured from insult; the poor and honest
trader was assured equity in his business transactions,
<span class="pagenum"><a name="page90" id="page90"></a>[pg 90]</span>
and other matters of equal import owed their enactment
to the kindly disposed queen. In this manner were
allayed animosities which had continued to smoulder under
a sense of repeated injustices, and with the growth of
mutual confidence there came about an identity of aspiration
and effort on the part of the two elements of the
population. Intermarriage facilitated this happy tendency,
and the perseverance of the Anglo-Saxon tongue, modified
indeed by Norman admixture, did much for its furtherance.
Thus, the two peoples gradually fused into one nation.
That Matilda did much to secure this desirable end entitles
her to be regarded as the mother of reconciliation.</p>

<p>The Norman ladies of rank came under the influence of
the queen, and it was not uncommon to find them, like
the Anglo-Saxon ladies, engaged in the profitable concerns
of the poultry yard and the dairy, instead of giving themselves
up to court intrigues. The two Matildas represent
the best element of the noble womanhood of the day;
neither of them was faultless, and the first was charged
with an act of vindictiveness toward a Saxon who spurned
her love that ill comports with the accepted estimate of her
amiability and worth; but while not impeccable, yet both
reflected in their lives the signal qualities which, when
illustrated in times adverse to them, ennoble the sex.</p>

<p>Returning to the employments of the ladies of the castles,
the most typical of these as illustrating the manners
of the times, next to the industry of the bower, was the
hospitality of the hall. The hostess took her place beside
her lord, by virtue of her recognized equality of position,
and directed the movements of the servants, who were
kept busily employed passing around the dishes&mdash;the meat
being served upon the spits, from which the guests might
carve what they pleased. No forks were used at the
table, fingers answering every purpose. On very great
<span class="pagenum"><a name="page91" id="page91"></a>[pg 91]</span>
occasions the <i>pièce de résistance</i> was a boar's head, which
was brought into the hall with a fanfare of trumpets, the
guests greeting its appearance with noisy demonstrations.
Another delicacy, which a hostess was always pleased to
serve to persons of consequence, was peacock. The presence
of this bird was the signal for the nobility to pledge
themselves afresh to deeds of knightly valor. Cranes
formed another of the unusual dishes generally found at
these state banquets. As the dinner proceeded, the thirst
of the company was assuaged by copious draughts of ale
or mead and of spiced wines. That such festivities invariably
developed scenes of hilarity and disorder was in the
nature of the case, and it was not a strange thing to see
the valorous knights, under the mellowing influence of
too frequent potations, indulge in such disgraceful acts as
throwing bones about the room and at one another, until
these bone battles passed into more serious fracases. The
woman of refinement had reason to dread these carnivals
of gluttony and debauch; and when they became too offensive,
she sought the seclusion of her private apartments.</p>

<p>All the while the minstrels played their instruments
and sang their songs, often improvising from incidents in
the careers of those present, or taking for a theme some
vaunting sentiment to which a cup-valorous knight gave
expression. No bounds of propriety were observed in the
theme or in its treatment by these paid entertainers.</p>

<p>As the dishes were brought in, amid the rude songs and
coarse jests of these jongleurs, another company, even
more reprobate than they, gathered about the hall door
and sought to snatch the dishes out of the hands of the
servants. These were the <i>ribalds</i> or <i>letchers</i>&mdash;a set of
degraded hangers-on at the castle, lost to all self-respect
and ready for any base deed that might be required of
them. To them was allotted the refuse of the feast.</p>
<span class="pagenum"><a name="page92" id="page92"></a>[pg 92]</span>

<p>A vivid picture of a wedding banquet of the times is
afforded in a scene from the earlier career of Hereward,
the last of patriotic leaders of the Saxons. The daughter
of a Cornish chief had been affianced to one of her countrymen,
who was notoriously wicked and tyrannical; but she
herself had pledged her affections to an Irish prince. Hereward,
who was a guest in the country of Cornwall, became
an object of hatred to the Cornish bully, who picked a
quarrel with him and in the encounter was slain. This
awakened a spirit of vengeance among his fellows, and it
was only through the assistance of the young princess
that Hereward was enabled to escape from the prison
where he had been confined and to flee the country. He
carried with him a tender message from the lady to her
Irish suitor. In the latter's absence she was again betrothed
by her father, and sent a messenger to notify her
lover of the near approach of the wedding. He sent forty
messengers to her father to demand his daughter's hand
by virtue of a promise one time made to him. These
were put in prison. Hereward doubted the success of the
lover's embassage; and having dyed his skin and colored
his hair, he made his way, with three companions, to the
young lady's home, arriving there the day of the nuptial
feast. The next day, when she was to be conducted to her
husband's dwelling, Hereward and his companions entered
the hall, and, as strangers, came under especial observation.
He saw the eyes of the princess fixed upon him as
though she penetrated his disguise; and as if moved by the
recollections his presence awakened, she burst into tears.</p>

<p>As was the custom of the times, the bride, in her wedding
costume, assisted by her maidens, served the cup to
the guests before she left her father's home; and the
harper, following, played before each guest as he was
served. Hereward had registered an oath not to receive
<span class="pagenum"><a name="page93" id="page93"></a>[pg 93]</span>
anything at the hands of a lady until it was proffered by
the princess herself. So, when the cup was offered to
him by a maiden, he refused it with abruptness, and declined
to listen to the harper. His rude conduct raised a
tumult of excitement and indignation, whereupon the princess
herself approached him and offered the cup, which he
received with courtesy. The princess, entirely confirmed
in her suspicions as to his identity, threw a ring into his
bosom, and, turning to the company, craved indulgence
for the stranger, who was not acquainted with their customs.
The minstrel remained sullen, whereupon Hereward
seized his harp and played with such exquisite skill
as to awaken the astonishment of the company. As he
played and sang, his companions, "after the manner of
the Saxons," joined in at intervals; whereupon the princess,
to help him in his assumed character, presented him
the rich cloak which was the reward of the minstrel.
Suspicions as to his real character were not, however,
entirely allayed; and these were increased by his request
to the father of the bride for the release of the Irish messengers.</p>

<p>Finding that he had endangered his safety and the success
of his plans by his indiscretion, Hereward slipped
away unobserved, and, with his companions, lay in ambush
the next day along the road by which he knew the
bride would be conducted by her father to her new home.
As the bridal procession passed, and with it the Irish prisoners,
Hereward rushed out upon the unsuspecting company;
and while his companions released the prisoners, he
seized the lady and bore her away in true knightly fashion.
It may well be believed that the bride was soon united in
wedlock to the husband of her choice.</p>

<p>One other circumstance in the history of this man,
whose life was a series of bold undertakings, serves to
<span class="pagenum"><a name="page94" id="page94"></a>[pg 94]</span>
illustrate the superstitions of the times. When King William
had besieged the island of Ely, which was the headquarters
of Hereward and his large following of Saxon
warriors, and had failed to subdue them, he gave heed to
the counsel of one of his courtiers, to have recourse to a
celebrated witch for aid in the destruction of his foes.
Hereward, to spy upon his adversary and discover his
plans, disguised himself as a potter, and stopped at the
house of the old woman whose magic was to be used
against him; that night he followed her and another crone
out into the fields, where they engaged in their curious
rites. From their conversation he learned of the scheme
against him, which was to have a platform erected in the
marshes surrounding the island; the hag was to repeat
thrice her charm, when he and his followers would be destroyed.
Accordingly, when the platform was erected and
the besiegers drew as near as they could, expectantly awaiting
Hereward's destruction, he and his companions, under
the cover of the brush, crept close to the platform and,
taking advantage of the favorable direction of the wind, set
fire to the reeds. The witch, who was about to repeat
her charm for the third time, leaped from the platform in
terror, and was killed, while in the panic many of the
soldiers lost their lives by fire or by water. The scene
here depicted bears a remarkable similarity to the weird
rites of the ancient British Druidesses, and doubtless represents
a continuance of the mysteries of that order, which
came down in forms of magic and witchcraft through many centuries.</p>

<p>This glimpse of the witchcraft that was to become more
prominent, or at least with which we become more familiar
at a later period, will suffice to show that the plane of
general intelligence was not yet high. Education was
limited to subjects that have no special interest for us
<span class="pagenum"><a name="page95" id="page95"></a>[pg 95]</span>
to-day. Such as it was, it was accessible to the lower
classes as well as to the upper. There were schools connected
with the churches and the monasteries. Apparently,
there was no distinction in the subjects pursued by
the sexes, excepting in the case of the nobility, whose
sons were trained for the positions they were to occupy.
It would appear that some priests were so zealous for the
prosperity of their schools that they sought to entice scholars
from other schools to their own. A law to correct the
practice provided "that no priest receive another's scholar
without leave of him whom he had previously followed."
Latin was in the list of the studies pursued by the ladies,
but few could read in the vernacular.</p>

<p>At that day there was the same tendency that is familiar
to-day,&mdash;to cast alleged feminine inconsistencies into
the form of adages. One of these proverbs is found in
the instructions of a baron who was counselling his son on
his going out from the paternal roof: "If you should know
anything that you would wish to conceal," says this generalizer
from a personal experience, "tell it by no means
to your wife, if you have one; for if you let her know it,
you will repent of it the first time you displease her."</p>

<p>The amusements that were popular in the Anglo-Saxon
days continued during the Norman period, but hunting
and hawking, by reason of the stringent game laws, were
sports practically limited to the upper class. The lady
kept her falcons and knew well how to set them on the
quarry, and with the men she could ride in the hunt to
the baying of the hounds. It is interesting to note that
with women the usual method of riding was on a side-saddle;
seldom are they found seated otherwise in the
representations of riding scenes. Among all classes dancing
seems to have been in favor. The exercise was
more graceful and intricate than the dance of the Saxons.
<span class="pagenum"><a name="page96" id="page96"></a>[pg 96]</span>
Among the young people of the lower classes it was the
chief amusement, and was attended by much mirth and
boisterousness. Games of chance were popular among
both sexes, and chess was a favorite pastime.</p>

<p>The art of the Anglo-Saxon gleemen and maidens under
the Normans was represented by two classes of public
entertainers, the minstrels and the jongleurs. The minstrels
confined themselves for the most part to music and
poetry; while the jongleurs were the jugglers, tricksters,
and exhibitors of trained animals. But the distinction was
not sharply drawn, although in general the minstrels were
considered to afford a higher form of entertainment than
did the jongleurs. Both sexes were represented in these
bands of itinerant amusement purveyors. Companies of
them were more or less permanently attached to the retinues
of the great barons, for the whiling away of the
long evenings and the entertainment of the guests. The
sentiments of the songs and stories of these people were
full of suggestiveness and coarseness. The merry and
licentious lives of the disreputable traffickers in amusement
brought them under moral reprobation, even in that
rude age. They drew into their ranks many persons of
depraved life, who, when the times improved, contributed,
by their abandon, to create sentiment against all profligate
strollers. Yet these minstrels represented the beginnings
of music and of vernacular literature after the conquest of England.</p>

<p>In the matter of dress there was a marked departure
from the Anglo-Saxon costume, which varied little. Just
as long as England was not in touch with continental ideas
and customs, the women of the country wore the costumes
of their ancestors. That dress is cosmopolitan never
entered into their conceptions, any more than it does into
those of any of the Eastern nations who in modern times
<span class="pagenum"><a name="page97" id="page97"></a>[pg 97]</span>
have been brought suddenly into the stream of European
customs and manners. But with the coming of the Normans,
national conservatism yielded to comparison with
the fashions of other peoples, and fashion assumed the
sceptre that it has continued to wield over the English
woman. The changes in dress were at first slight, but by
the end of the twelfth century they had become sufficiently
marked to be the target of witticism and the subject of
satire. The foibles of the women were little regarded by
the writers of the time. The dress of the men was not
passed over in like silence, however; it drew from the
censors of the day the severest strictures on account of its
flaunting meagreness and its improprieties in the eyes of
its monkish critics. The same condemnation was visited
upon the practice of the men of dyeing their hair or otherwise
coloring it, wearing flowing locks, and painting their
faces. Such fashions were styled reprehensible and effeminate.
It would have been instructive to subsequent generations
if these censorious critics had not been so gallant
toward women, and had given to us the spicy descriptions
of feminine attire that, in their indignation, they have
afforded us of that of the men. Had they but realized that
it was the sex whose sins of dress they passed over so
lightly, with charity or indifference, that was to follow
the inconsequential wake of fashion into the wildest vagaries
of costume and adornment, they would have let the
men have their brief day, and massed their strictures
against those who were to elevate fashion to an art and
make of its following a devotion. As it is, for our knowledge
of the dress of the weaker sex we are dependent
upon the illuminations, whose brilliant coloring and faithfulness
of detail left little for the text to elucidate. That
the new styles were not received with approbation by the
clerical artists is clear enough from the caricatures and
<span class="pagenum"><a name="page98" id="page98"></a>[pg 98]</span>
exaggerations of them that appear in their drawings. The
inordinate length of the sleeves, reaching as they did, in a
long, mandolin-shaped pocket, to the knees of the wearer,
made them surely hideous enough to draw out the indignation
of those who had artistic sensibilities to be shocked.</p>

<p>That the notion of fashionable dress as Satanic is very
old is shown by one of the representations of his infernal
majesty, where he is portrayed dressed in the height of
feminine fashion. One of the sleeves of his gown is short
and full, while the other, in caricature of the style of the
day, is so long that it has to be tied in a knot to get it out
of the way. The gown, also, being of impossible length and
fulness, is disposed of by the simple expedient of knotting.</p>

<p>In the dress of Satan, as an exponent of the iniquity of
feminine attire, there also appears unmistakable evidence
of a tight bodice of stays, the lacing of which, after drawing
his majesty's waist into approved dimensions, hangs
carelessly down to view and terminates in a tag. As stays
were not commonly worn, and as a writer at a little later
time is found vehemently inveighing against them, it is
fair to conclude that their presence on Satan is to indicate,
in the eyes of the better element of the day, the indelicacy
and impropriety of their use. Ridiculous and unsightly
as were the long sleeves and other novelties of dress, the
particular displeasure with which they were regarded by
the element whose views the ecclesiastics reflected must
be attributed somewhat to their foreign origin. Although
they were introduced into the country by the Normans,
the long sleeves, at least, appear to have originated in
Italy. Down to the twelfth century, there was sufficient
conservatism remaining to deprecate the introduction of
foreign novelties, just as in Elizabeth's days the economists
strongly protested against bringing into the country "foreign gewgaws."</p>
<span class="pagenum"><a name="page99" id="page99"></a>[pg 99]</span>

<p>The girdle remained a part of the dress of the women,
although it was not so much in evidence as in the Anglo-Saxon
time. It was probably worn under the gown, and
in some cases may have been dispensed with. That queens
and princesses, however, wore very fine girdles, ornamented
with pearls and precious stones, is abundantly
attested by the contemporary writers.</p>

<p>The mantle was the most changeful article of dress at
this period. Sometimes it was worn in the old way, being
put on by passing the head through an aperture made for
that purpose; but more often it was worn opening down
the front and fastened at the throat by an embroidered
collar clasped by a brooch. Again, it was fastened in a
similar way at the throat, but covered only one side of
the form, falling coquettishly over the shoulder and hanging
down the side. A particularly pleasing effect was obtained
by having it fasten at the throat by a collar, whose
rich, gold-embroidered border continued down the front to
the waist. Sometimes the garment was sleeveless, and
again it was worn with short sleeves, or sleeves long
and full. For winter wear, it covered the form entirely
and terminated in a hood. These mantles were often of
the finest imported textiles, embroidered in elegant figures
and with richly wrought borders, and were lined throughout with costly furs.</p>

<p>The kerchief, like the mantle, quite lost its conventional
style in the period we are describing, and was often omitted
altogether. It was usually worn over the head, and hanging
down to the right breast, while the end on the left side
was gathered about the neck and thrown over the right
shoulder. Sometimes it was gathered in fulness upon the
head and bound there by a diadem, though otherwise worn
as just described. Toward the end of the twelfth century
it became much smaller, and was tied under the chin,
<span class="pagenum"><a name="page100" id="page100"></a>[pg 100]</span>
looking very much like an infant's cap. The women's
shoes were very much the same as those worn by the
Anglo-Saxons. It is quite likely that the stockings were
close-fitting and short, as was the style among the men.</p>

<p>There were different ways of wearing the hair, but the
most usual was to have it parted in front and flowing
loosely down the back, with a lock on either side falling
over the shoulders and upon the breast; this was the style
for young girls especially. Another fashion was to have
it fall down the back in two masses, where it was wrapped
by ribbons and so bound into tails. Young girls never
wore a headdress of any sort. On reaching maturity, it
was usual for the women to enclose their hair in a net,
with a kerchief cap drawn tightly over it.</p>

<p>The ornaments in use need no particular description,
because of their similarity to those worn during the
Anglo-Saxon period. Crowns were, of course, the chief
adornments of queens on state occasions; circlets of gold,
elegantly patterned, formed the diadems of the noble ladies;
and half-circlets of gold, connected behind, constituted the
distinctive headdress of women of wealth. Rings, armlets,
and necklaces, as well as the generally serviceable brooch, were in use.</p>

<p>Turning from the fashions of the wealthy to the condition
of the poor, what a difference appears! The age was
one of sharp contrasts; for while gayety reigned in the
high circles of court and castle, wretchedness was more
usual in the hovels with their mud walls and thatched
roofs, to which nature may have added the gracious garniture
of herbs, mosses, and lichens. But it would be too
much to assume that the persons of humble estate were
not happy in their own way. Lacking the luxuries of the
table and the fine attire of the ladies of the castles, life
still had for them many elements of pure joy. But while
<span class="pagenum"><a name="page101" id="page101"></a>[pg 101]</span>
the women of the lower ranks would have contrasted well
in the matter of morals with the women of the nobility,
yet no more then than now was virtue the exclusive possession of any class.</p>

<p>The monasteries were not only centres of culture, but
were also the great distributing centres of charity, the
nuns being looked upon as the especial friends of the poor.
We hear little of complaint against the character of these
houses at this time, and it is clear that the rules for their
direction had become efficacious for the establishing of a
discipline sufficiently rigid, on the whole, to ensure exemplary
character. Many penances and mortifications were
imposed on the nuns, besides others which were voluntarily
assumed. In a book of rules published at this time
appears the following, which seems to indicate that even
sunshine savored too much of worldliness for the occupants
of the religious houses: "My dear sisters, love your windows
as little as you may, and let them be small, and the
parlor's the narrowest; let the cloth in them be twofold,
black cloth, the cross white within and without." It may
be, however, that it was not too much sunlight that was
to be avoided, but men, who sought to converse with the
nuns at their windows. This indeed appears to be the
true meaning of the recommendation, as is indicated by
another enjoinment: "If any man become so mad and unreasonable
that he put forth his hand toward the window
cloth, shut the window quickly and leave him."</p>

<p>Besides the nuns, whose office dedicated them to acts
of charity, many of the noble ladies found pleasure in
alleviating the afflictions of the poor. In their care of the
distressed they were incited to acts of humility by the very
high value that the Church placed upon the performance
of such deeds. Matilda, the good wife of Henry I., had
the training of the monastery in developing her benevolent
<span class="pagenum"><a name="page102" id="page102"></a>[pg 102]</span>
instincts, and set an example to the ladies of her court by
establishing the leper hospital of Saint Giles; there she
herself washed the feet of lepers, esteeming such lowly
service as done unto Christ. In a hard and cruel age, the
gentler sentiments common to womanly nature, especially
when under the influence of Christian feeling, poured themselves
out in a wealth of affection upon those who were
stricken and left helpless by the hardness of the times.</p>
<span class="pagenum"><a name="page103" id="page103"></a>[pg 103]</span>




<h2>Chapter V</h2>

<h2>The Women of the Middle Ages</h2>
<!--Blank page #104 omitted.-->
<span class="pagenum"><a name="page105" id="page105"></a>[pg 105]</span>


<p>There was an almost total lack of central authority or
of legal restraint throughout the land during the long conflict
between Stephen and Matilda, wife of the Count of
Anjou, whom the feudal party, in violation of their vows
to Henry I., refused to accept as queen; and to the other
terrors of war were added the depredations of a host of
mercenary soldiers brought over from the continent. To
quote the chronicler William of Newburgh: "In the olden
days there was no king in Israel, and everyone did that
which was right in his own eyes; but in England now it
was worse; for there was a king, but impotent, and every
man did what was wrong in his own eyes." The Petersborough
continuation of the <i>English Chronicle</i> gives as dark
a picture of the state of affairs: "They filled the land full
of castles and filled the castles full of devils. They took
all those they deemed had any goods, men and women,
and tortured them with tortures unspeakable; many thousands
they slew with hunger&mdash;they robbed and burned all
the villages, so that thou mightest fare a day's journey
nor ever find a man dwelling in a village nor land tilled.
Corn, flesh, and cheese there was none in the land. The
bishops were ever cursing them, but they cared naught
therefor, for they were all forcursed and forsworn and
forlorn.... Men said openly that Christ slept and
<span class="pagenum"><a name="page106" id="page106"></a>[pg 106]</span>
His saints. Such and more than we can say we suffered
for our sins," Such grim experiences of unlicensed feudalism
did much for the social education of the English
people, and similar lawlessness was never repeated in the
history of the country. Out of the furnace through which
England passed, the English character emerged, purified
of some of its dross of Anglo-Saxon sluggishness and
Norman arrogance, and finely representative of the tempered
elements of both peoples. A sense of solidarity was awakened.</p>

<p>The feudal system found its expression in various forms
of homage and of fealty, upon which it was founded. It
embraced, among many services and liabilities, some that
related to women. On the death of a tenant leaving an
heiress under fourteen years of age, the lord upon whose
lands the tenant had dwelt, and to whom he owed the
military and other services of his lower position, became
the guardian in chivalry to the maiden, and had charge of
her person and her lands until she was twenty-one&mdash;unless,
on reaching the age of sixteen, she availed herself
of her right to "sue out her livery" by the payment of a
half-year's income of her estate. Moreover, he was entitled
to dispose of her in marriage to any person of rank
equal to her own. In case the young lady did not approve
of the selection made for her, and rejected her guardian's
choice or married without his consent, she had to forfeit
to him a sum of money equal to what was called the value
of her marriage&mdash;a sum equal to what the lord might have
expected to receive if the marriage as planned by him had
taken place. During her wardship the lord had the right
to her land, and might assign or sell his guardianship over
her. These rights which the lord held over the person
and possessions of his ward applied, in the later feudal
period, equally to male and female.</p>
<span class="pagenum"><a name="page107" id="page107"></a>[pg 107]</span>

<p>Such was the relationship of the ward to her lord, and
the same system of knight service which gave him these
rights in orphaned minors gave him, as well, the right to
collect a fee upon the marriage of the daughters of any of
his tenants. Such a system, while it deprived the young
woman of absolute freedom in her selection of a husband,
did not of necessity work great hardship, as each fair
young woman had her knight dedicated to her by the
solemn vows of chivalry, from whom her troth, once
given, was not apt to be easily wrested. Upon the merits
of the system itself we are not called upon to pass judgment;
but certainly chivalry, which was its finest product,
was responsible for the introduction into the English
character of splendid ideals of womanhood, which found
expression in a deference amounting almost to worship.</p>

<p>Yet the picture has a reverse side as well, and it is only
by considering both aspects of the age that its real meaning
as regards its effect upon the womanhood of the time
becomes clear. This other side of chivalry is well expressed
by Freeman, than whom no one is better qualified
to speak. He says: "The chivalrous spirit is, above all
things, a class spirit. The good knight is bound to endless
fantastic courtesies towards men and still more towards
women of a certain rank; he may treat all below that rank
with any degree of scorn or cruelty.... Chivalry
is short in its morals very much what feudalism is in law:
each substitutes purely personal obligations, obligations
devised in the interest of an exclusive class, for the more
homely duties of an honest man and a good citizen."</p>

<p>The extravagant reverence and regard paid to women
of the higher ranks of society did not have a firm basis in
inherent moral principle either in them or in their worshippers,
so that it was an easy passage from idealized woman
to materialized woman. Life cannot long subsist on the
<span class="pagenum"><a name="page108" id="page108"></a>[pg 108]</span>
perfervid products of a social imagination. As a revulsion
of noble minds from coarseness and as a protest against
tyranny and vice, chivalry fulfilled a high mission; but,
unfortunately, its exalted admiration of woman fell to a
physical appreciation of its subject. Not her womanhood,
but her graces of person came to evoke the passionate
devotion of the knight. An admiration fantastic and romantic,
expressing itself in all sorts of extravagance, a
worship of mere physical beauty&mdash;such was the nature of
chivalry in its later expression. Instead of an idol, woman became but a toy.</p>

<p>In no respect was this sentimentality better illustrated
than in the nature of the knightly devotion of the time.
When not in the camp, the life of the knight was an idle
one, and was spent for the most part in sentimental
attendance upon ladies at court or castle. It was there
that his deeds of prowess won rewards rather more generously
than discreetly given by the lady to whom he had
pledged his devotion; so that, with all the circumstances
of outward respect for women, surpassing in ostentatious
display that shown by any other age, it is a painful fact
that in no other age was there such license in the association
of the sexes. It is a striking comment upon the manners
of the times that "gallantry" should have come to
signify both bravery and illicit love. Chastity was not
one of the ornaments of the age of chivalry.</p>

<p>In curious contrast to the attitude of chivalry&mdash;a product
of the Church&mdash;toward women was that of the Church in
its official character and expression. The knight elevated
woman to the plane of angels, while the priest went to the
other extreme. Saint Chrysostom's definition of woman
as "a necessary evil, a natural temptation, a desirable
calamity, a domestic peril, a deadly fascination, and a
painted ill," continued to be the orthodox view of the
<span class="pagenum"><a name="page109" id="page109"></a>[pg 109]</span>
Church, Woman was to be avoided as a temptation by
all those who valued the security of their souls; and yet
it was the Church, more than any other social force, which
gave to woman the dignity and worth that she achieved.</p>

<p>The Church stood for order and even for progress; it
summed up in itself all the knowledge and the culture of
the times. In the midst of the turmoil and dangers of war
and strife, it afforded to women the one haven to which
they might flee for security. But its protection was bought
at the price of authority over the lives and consciences of
its adherents. The lives of women were spent in a round
of narrow experience and of duty, and the feasts of the
Church, with their processions and ceremonials, furnished
to them merely an agreeable break in the monotony of
their existence. This was especially true of the lower
classes. In an age when belief in supernatural appearances
and interferences formed part of the common credence of
the masses, the emotional sensibilities of the women were
easily appealed to by the priests. By taking advantage
of this ignorance, the Church was enabled to hold in absolute
control the lives of the simple and credulous women.
Women did not hesitate to yield to the Church their freedom
of thought and of action, their minds and consciences
alike being at the disposal of their ecclesiastical directors;
but when the Church taught men to respect their wives,
and raised its voice and exerted its influence against the
tyranny which placed women in subjection to their male
relatives, it was indeed befriending them in a way that
hastened the acquirement by them of the real equality
which they now enjoy with the other sex.</p>

<p>The relation of women and the Church was not without
its anomalies. This is shown curiously in the contrast
between the Mariolatry of the age and the attitude of the
Church toward the sex of which Mary was the exalted
<span class="pagenum"><a name="page110" id="page110"></a>[pg 110]</span>
type The women were not esteemed fit to receive the
Eucharist with uncovered hands; they were forbidden to
approach the altar; their married state was yet, in theory
at least considered a condition of sin, for, even among the
women of the laity, virginity and celibacy were regarded
as almost a state of especial sanctity. But the Church
was entirely consistent in its attitude toward women in
that it made no distinctions as to class or condition. Queen
Philippa, wife of Edward III., while on a visit to Durham
Cathedral, after having supped with the king, retired to
rest in the priory. The scandalized monks sought an
interview with the king and made vigorous protests, so
that the queen was obliged to rise, and, clad only in her
night apparel, sought accommodations in the castle, beseeching
Saint Cuthbert's pardon for having polluted the holy confines with her presence.</p>

<p>Ecclesiastical law operated disastrously against women
in declaring for a celibate priesthood. In Anglo-Saxon
times the priests married; but the Council of Winchester,
in 1076, took a stand against the marriage of the clergy,
and forbade priests to take to themselves wives, although
it permitted the parish clergy who were already married
to continue in the marital state. In 1102, however, it was
declared that no married priest should celebrate mass, and
in 1215 the Lateran Council definitely pronounced against
marriage of priests. Many of the clergy had by no means
shown a docile spirit in relation to this invasion of what
they considered the domain of their personal rights; when
forced into submission, they evaded the ordinances by
taking concubines. Even in the fifteenth century, it was
not uncommon to find married priests. In the document
entitled <i>Instructions for Parish Priests</i>, those who were too
weak to live uprightly in the celibate state were counselled
to take wives. Concubinage, as a substitute for the
<span class="pagenum"><a name="page111" id="page111"></a>[pg 111]</span>
interdicted marriage, continued to be practised down to
the sixteenth century, nor was this form of illicit living the
worst vice of the clergy. Debauchery spread throughout
the country, until in the sixteenth century it is said that
as many as one hundred thousand women fell under the
seductions of the priests, for whose particular pleasures
houses of ill fame were kept. From the laity, complaints
became general that their wives and daughters were not
safe from the advances of the priests. In 1536 the clergy
of the diocese of Bangor sent to Cromwell the following
remarkable plea against taking away their women from
them: "We ourselves shall be driven to seek our living
at all houses and taverns, for mansions upon the benefices
and vicarages we have none. And as for gentlemen and
substantial honest men, for fear of inconvenience, and
knowing our frailty and accustomed liberty, they will in
no wise board us in their houses." All the literature of
the Middle Ages leads to but one conclusion&mdash;that the clergy
were the great corrupters of domestic virtue among the
burgher and agricultural classes. The morals of the lords
and ladies of the upper strata of the aristocratic class were
of no higher grade; the offenders, however, were seldom
the priests, but the gallants of that privileged circle. The
lower rank of the aristocracy,&mdash;the knights and lesser
landholders,&mdash;which, with the decline of feudalism, came to
be more strongly defined as a separate class, appears
to have preserved the best moral tone of any of the classes of mediæval society.</p>

<p>A great deal of light is thrown upon the manners and
thought of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries by a body
of literature which arose during those centuries. The
estimation in which the classes of society were held is
indicated by one of these <i>fabliaux</i>. A party of knights
passed through a pleasant and shady meadow, in the midst
<span class="pagenum"><a name="page112" id="page112"></a>[pg 112]</span>
of exquisite scenery; they were enchanted by the spot,
and wished for meat and wine that they might tarry there
and dine on the grass. There followed them a party of
clerks, whose feelings were also aroused by the beauty
of the place; and, in accord with the frivolous character
given them throughout the <i>fabliaux</i>, they exclaimed:
"Had we fair maidens here, how pleasant a spot for
play!" After they had passed on, there came a party of
villains, who, with their grosser ideas, thought not of the
beauty of the place at all, but proceeded to indulge themselves
in carnal pleasures and to use it for mean purposes.</p>

<p>These <i>fabliaux</i> show us that Cupid disdained conventional
restraint then as now; for in them the marriage of
persons in different classes often furnishes a theme for
the story&mdash;this, too, notwithstanding the sharp caste distinctions
which existed. Usually, the maiden is possessed
of more beauty than wealth and belongs to the poor-knight
class; she is wedded to a peasant or villain who has become
wealthy. The husband turns out to be a brute; the lady is
crafty and cunning. He beats and abuses her, according to
the instincts of his boorish nature; she, on the other hand,
proves faithless as often as opportunity presents. The
writers never visit condemnation upon her, for her husband
is considered as undeserving of the possession of
such a prize. It is a curious commentary on the manner
of the times that upon the same manuscript, written by
the same person, appear <i>fabliaux</i> of this sort and stories
of holy women dying in defence of their chastity. This
contradiction runs throughout the literature of the period&mdash;the
praise of virtue and the narration of gross immorality
without an effort to condemn it. One of the most peculiar
facts of the age is the extreme to which was carried the
adoration of the Virgin and the strange things she is made
to do and to countenance, in the mythology of the Middle
<span class="pagenum"><a name="page113" id="page113"></a>[pg 113]</span>
Ages&mdash;for so we must class most of the mediæval stories
of the saints and of the Virgin&mdash;to ardent and imaginative
temperaments the Virgin took the character of Venus, and
is frequently represented as the patroness of love. One
of the religious stories tells us that some young men, while
playing ball in front of a church, approached the porch of
the edifice, upon which was a beautiful statue of Our Lady.
One of them laid down his ring, which he had received
from his lady-love. Then, to his amazement, he saw the
image, which was "fresh and new," fix its eyes upon
the ring. He became enamored of it, and, after due obeisance,
he addressed Our Lady thus:</p>

<div class="poem">  <div class="stanza">
<p class="i10">"I promise duly,</p>
<p>That all my life I'll serve thee truly;</p>
<p>For never saw I maiden fair</p>
<p>Whose beauty could with thine compare,</p>
<p>So courtly and so debonaire:</p>
<p>And she who gave this ring to me,</p>
<p>Though fair and sweet herself, than thee</p>
<p>A hundred times less fair, I trow,</p>
<p>Shall yield to thee her empire now.</p>
<p>'Tis true I've loved her long and well,</p>
<p>As many a fond caress can tell;</p>
<p>But now, forgotten and neglected,</p>
<p>Her meaner charms for thine rejected,</p>
<p>I give her ring&mdash;a lasting token</p>
<p>Of faith which never shall be broken,</p>
<p>Nor shared with maid or wife shall be</p>
<p>The love I proffer unto thee.'"</p>
  </div>  </div>

<p>With this address, he placed the ring upon the finger of
the image. Our Lady appeared flattered by the conquest
she had made, and bent the finger on which the ring had
been placed in order that it might not be withdrawn.
The lover was astounded by the miracle, and was advised
by his friends to retire from the world and to devote himself
to the adoration and service of the Blessed Virgin.
<span class="pagenum"><a name="page114" id="page114"></a>[pg 114]</span>
Neglecting this advice, he allowed love to resume its place
and led to the altar the maiden who had given him the
ring. But Our Lady was not to be deprived of her adorer,
and when he laid himself upon the nuptial couch she immediately
threw him into a profound slumber, and when he
awoke he found her lying between him and his bride:</p>

<div class="poem">  <div class="stanza">
<p>"She showed him straight her finger, where</p>
<p>Was still the ring he'd given her;</p>
<p>And well became her hand that ring</p>
<p>Upon her soft skin glittering.</p>
<p>'Instead of love, thou'st shown,' said she,</p>
<p>'But falseness and disloyalty.</p>
<p>And ill hast kept thy faith to me.</p>
<p>Behold the ring thou gavest, for token</p>
<p>And pledge of love fore'er unbroken,</p>
<p>And call'd me a hundred times more fair</p>
<p>Than ever earthly maidens were.</p>
<p>I have been ever true, but thou</p>
<p>Hast taken a meaner leman now;</p>
<p>Hast left for stinking nettle the rose,</p>
<p>Sweet eglantine for flower more gross.'"</p>
  </div>  </div>

<p>In the end, Our Lady forces him to leave his wife that
he may dedicate himself entirely to her service. In other
<i>fabliaux</i> and in the chronicles, Mary is represented under
the guise of the Lady Venus, who often appears in these
romances. In this adoration of the Virgin as a maiden impelled
by the same loves and hates as any mortal woman,
it is not difficult to see the spirit of chivalry in its sensual
expression. Surely, if every lady had her knight, the
Blessed Virgin, also, must have her devoted admirers; and
by the height of her position and greater worthiness as the
Queen of Heaven, by so much should she rise above any
other woman in her right to command such adorers.</p>

<p>When we pass from the status of woman in the Middle
Ages to her occupations, the subject becomes narrowed,
not only by the lesser importance of the facts which
<span class="pagenum"><a name="page115" id="page115"></a>[pg 115]</span>
merely illustrate rather than demonstrate her position, but
also because we shall exclude from our general consideration
the women of the manors, the nuns, and, in their
industrial capacities, the women of the guilds. These
important classes demand separate treatment.</p>

<p>After the middle of the twelfth century, it is easier to
study the domestic manners of the people. We can, for
instance, obtain very precise information as to the style of
the dwellings in which they lived. There was a general
uniformity in the houses, however they might vary in
particulars. In the twelfth century, the hall continued to
be the main part of the dwelling. Adjoining it at one end
was the chamber, while at the other end might be found
the stable. The whole building stood in an enclosure consisting
of a yard in front and a garden in the rear, surrounded
by a hedge and ditch. The house had a door in
the front, and within, one door led to the chamber, and
another to the stable. The chamber, also, frequently had
a door leading out to the garden. There were usually
windows in the hall, the stable and the chamber being
lighted by openings in the partitions between them and
the hall, as well as by slits in the outer walls. The windows
themselves were commonly merely openings, which
might be closed by wooden shutters. There was usually
one such window in the chamber, besides those in the
hall, so that it was better lighted than the stable.</p>

<p>From the <i>fabliaux</i> we can obtain very precise ideas of
the distribution of the rooms in the houses of the twelfth
and thirteenth centuries. Thus, in one of the <i>fabliaux</i>, an
old woman of mean condition of life is represented as visiting
a burgher's wife, who, from a feeling of vanity, takes
her into the chamber to show her the new bed, a very
handsome affair. Afterward, when this lady takes refuge
with the old dame, the latter conducts her from the hall to
<span class="pagenum"><a name="page116" id="page116"></a>[pg 116]</span>
the chamber adjoining. The outer door of the chamber,
by which egress could be had from the house without
going through the hall, often figures in the stories as aiding
the escape of the lovers of guilty wives, on the unexpected
entrance of the husbands into the hall. It was in the
chamber that fireplaces and chimneys were first introduced into mediæval houses.</p>

<p>As the grouping of the rooms upon the ground floor
made the house less compact and more susceptible to successful
attack, the custom arose of having upper chambers.
The upper room was called the solar, because it received
much light from the sun. At first it was but a small chamber,
approached from the outside. These outer stairs are
often referred to in the <i>fabliaux</i>, as in the <i>fabliau</i> of D'Estourmi,
where a burgher and his wife deceive three monks
of a neighboring abbey, who make love to the lady; she
conceals her husband in the upper chamber, to which he
goes by an outer staircase. The monks enter the hall,
and the husband sees from the upper room, through a
lattice, all that happens. In another <i>fabliau</i>, a lady uses
the solar as a hiding place for her husband, who has disguised
himself as a gallant in order to test his wife's faithfulness.
She penetrates his disguise, and, after closing
the door of the solar upon him, sends a servant to give
him a good beating, as an importunate suitor whom she
desires to cure of his annoying passion. The husband,
too mortified to reveal his identity and disclose his doubts
as to his wife, has no redress but to sustain his assumed
character and to escape down the outer stairs, pursued by
the servants. The chamber soon came to be the most
important part of the house, and frequently its name was
given to the whole dwelling, a house with a solar being
called an upper-storied chamber. The more considerable
manors and castles differed from the ordinary houses only
<span class="pagenum"><a name="page117" id="page117"></a>[pg 117]</span>
in having a greater assemblage of rooms and more details
than were found in the smaller dwellings.</p>

<p>Toward the fourteenth century, the rooms of houses
generally began to be numerous, and the houses were
often built around a court, the additions being chiefly to
the number of offices and chambers. Wood continued
to be the usual material for their construction. A new
apartment was added to the house&mdash;the parlor, so called
because it was the talking room. It was derived from
the religious houses, in which the parlor was the reception
room. As furniture was scanty, the rooms of the
mediæval house were almost bare. Chairs were very
few, and seats in the masonry of the wall continued for
centuries to be the principal accommodation of the kind;
benches for seats and places of deposit of personal or
household articles were usually made of a few boards laid
across trestles. In the thirteenth century, the beds in the
chamber came to be partitioned off by curtains, which
showed an advance in modesty, as it was customary to
sleep wholly undressed. Throughout the Middle Ages,
the comforts of the houses were quite primitive; even the
houses themselves were generally without architectural
grace and frequently very unsubstantial. When watchmen
were appointed in the towns, they were provided
with a "hook" with which to pull down a house when on
fire, if its proximity to others threatened their destruction.
As there was an absence of luxury in the houses
and their furnishings, much value was placed on plate,
which came to be a sign of wealth and social distinction.
Dress, also, aided in marking distinctions between the
wealthy and those in less fortunate circumstances, as did
the luxuries found upon the tables of the former.</p>

<p>This fact of the general character of the discomforts of
living, without regard to rank or condition, gave occasion
<span class="pagenum"><a name="page118" id="page118"></a>[pg 118]</span>
for sumptuary laws&mdash;"the toe of the peasant pressed
closely on the heel of the lord, and the gulf that parted
them was the number of dishes upon their table, the quality
of the cloth they put on, and the kind of fur they might wear to keep off the cold."</p>

<p>Glass began to be introduced into dwelling houses in the
time of Henry III., but was regarded as a great luxury.
Pipes for carrying the refuse water and slops from the
houses to sewers or cesspools were one of the great sanitary
reforms of the reign of Edward I. The same able
monarch made the use of baths popular among his people.
The floors of the houses continued to be covered with an
armful of hay, or a bundle of birch boughs or of rushes,
although during the fourteenth century some of the
wealthier farmers and persons of the trading classes and
the nobility had begun to use imported carpets and hangings.
Table linen and napkins were also coming into
service. The use of forks was confined to royalty.</p>

<p>When the fine ladies went abroad in their vehicles or
were carried in their chairs, they had to plow through
streets deep with mire and filth; so much so, that it was
not unusual for coaches to stick fast and depend upon the
aid of some friendly teamster to extricate them. The
sanitation of the dwellings was little better than that of
the streets. The stench of the houses of the poor was so
great that the priests made it an excuse for failure to pay
parochial visits to them. The better class of houses were,
of course, kept much cleaner.</p>

<p>The impression that food in the Middle Ages was coarse
and not elaborate is not borne out, as we have seen, by
the facts; for, from Anglo-Saxon times down, the people
were very fond of the table, and in the higher circles
elaborate banquets stood as one of the most usual resources
of a hospitality which had to make up for its
<span class="pagenum"><a name="page119" id="page119"></a>[pg 119]</span>
barrenness in other ways by the bounties of elaborate
feasts, so that we are quite prepared for Alexander Neckam's
list of kitchen requisites. This ecclesiastic of the
latter half of the twelfth century has left us a list of
the things to be found in a well-ordered kitchen. Besides
his list, we have the testimony of cookbooks of the time,
which give directions for making dishes that are both complicated
and toothsome. Indeed, the position of cook was
one of importance, and upon him often rested, in great
houses, the honor of the establishment.</p>

<p>In this connection may be given some of the curious
injunctions of the Anglo-Saxon penitentials, which continued
to be quoted throughout the Middle Ages, becoming
superstitious beliefs after they had lost their ecclesiastical
character and undergone the changes which, with the lapse
of time, develop folklore. One of the oddest prescribed
that in case a "mouse fall into liquor, let it be taken out,
and sprinkle the liquor with holy-water, and if it be alive,
the liquor may be used, but if it be dead, throw the liquor
out and cleanse the vessel." Another said: "He who uses
anything a dog or mouse has eaten of, or a weasel polluted,
if he do it knowingly, let him sing a hundred psalms; and if
he knew it not, let him sing fifty psalms." These are but
samples of many superstitions with which the thought of
the Middle Ages was tinctured.</p>

<p>A considerable treatise might be written upon the superstitions
of the English women; it would contain astonishing
disclosures as to the effect of the unreal world of
fairies, goblins, and the like upon woman's development
and status during the Middle Ages. She was undoubtedly
influenced in her daily life, in almost all her duties and
undertakings, by the terrors with which her superstitions
filled her. The legacy of a pagan system was slowly
thrown off, and, with all the credulity of the religion of
<span class="pagenum"><a name="page120" id="page120"></a>[pg 120]</span>
the times, it is to the credit of the Church that, by its
proscriptions as well as by its healthier teaching, superstition
in many of its forms lessened its hold upon the minds
of the people. And yet it was needful, if historical fact
denotes a social necessity, that these superstitions should
culminate in a belief in witchcraft, and woman, because of
her credulity, become the scapegoat of the gnomes and
witches which existed in her simple faith. Even so cultured
a person as Augustine, one of the most prominent
of the Church Fathers of his time, declared it to be insolent
to doubt the existence of fauns, satyrs, and suchlike
demoniac beings, which lie in wait for women and have
intercourse with them and children by them. It was this
belief which extended into a labyrinth of darkness and
superstition throughout the Middle Ages. The reasoning
of the Church was perfectly simple: if the miracles of the
Apostles and of Christ were of divine agency, then the
marvels performed by magicians before the astonished
eyes of the heathen were to be accredited to Satan.
The Church never doubted the existence of malignant
spirits, but bent its endeavors toward persuading the
people to give up converse with them. If a woman gave
herself over to Satan or any of his minions, the only
resource was to put her to death. Horrible as were the
witch burnings of the Middle Ages, the Church sincerely
believed that it was exorcising the Devil from the lives of
the people; and by the terrible examples it made of those
who were accounted as having sold themselves to the Evil
One, it believed it was placing a deterrent upon others
who might be minded to yield themselves to diabolical
possession. The Church was but sharing the universal
belief of the times, and, as the guardian of the spiritual
interests of mankind, it sought the purification of society
by severe measures which, it felt, were alone suited to
<span class="pagenum"><a name="page121" id="page121"></a>[pg 121]</span>
the gravity of the subject. From this belief in devil
possession arose a veritable system of Christian magic;
charms, amulets, exorcisms, abounded; thus, white magic was opposed to black magic.</p>

<p>But when the belief in witchcraft led to papal promulgations
against it and against all who dared entertain doubts
upon the subject, and when it led also to the appointment
of tribunals for the trying of "witches," there was placed
in the hands of malice and ignorance a power from which
no woman, however exalted in rank or pure in character,
was secure, provided only she incurred the enmity of
someone bent upon effecting her ruin.</p>

<p>The genesis of the belief lies even back of the prevailing
superstitions of the times, and is to be found in the
lower regard in which the female sex was held. As we
have said, chivalry did not cover with its ægis all women,
but only those of a certain class; in the Middle Ages, the
opinion held of women in general was not flattering to the
sex. The descriptions of witch trials and the processes
for the extortion of confessions; the indignities of many
sorts to which women were subjected; the horrors of a
system which virtually made one become an informer
upon her neighbor, lest she be anticipated by charges
preferred against herself; the whole dreary round of the
subject and its literature: all these are too uninviting to
permit of detail. It is sufficient for our purpose to say
that throughout Europe&mdash;for the delusion was so widespread&mdash;certainly
not less than a million persons were
burned, or otherwise put to death, as witches during the
Middle Ages. So great a holocaust had to be offered up
by women as a sin offering for their sex!</p>

<p>The state of education had much to do with the manners
and opinions of the Middle Ages. In the thirteenth and
fourteenth centuries there was a feeling of the necessity
<span class="pagenum"><a name="page122" id="page122"></a>[pg 122]</span>
for extending and improving education. There was spread
abroad a degree of popular instruction. It was not an
uncommon thing for ladies to be able to read and write.
Among the amusements of their leisure hours, reading
began to have a very much larger place than formerly.
Yet, popular literature&mdash;the tales, ballads, and songs&mdash;was
still communicated orally rather than in writing,
though books were more extensively circulated. Often
persons of wealth and culture had extensive libraries.
Excepting in the case of those who followed or desired to
follow the career of scholars, the women were less illiterate than the men.</p>

<p>In considering the dress of the women of England during
the Middle Ages, the sumptuary laws passed for its regulation
are of interest in themselves as affording a view of
the dress of the several classes of society, and they also
serve to illustrate upon what simple lines the distinctions of society were drawn.</p>

<p>In the thirty-seventh year of the reign of Edward III., a
curious complaint was submitted to Parliament by the
Commons against general extravagance in the use of
apparel; whereupon an act was passed in regulation of
the matter. One of the provisions of this act, as it related
to women, prescribed that the wives and children of
the grooms and servants of the lords and of tradesmen
and artificers should not wear veils costing more than
twelvepence each. The wives and children of the tradesmen
and artificers themselves should wear no veils excepting
those made with thread and manufactured in the
kingdom; nor any kind of furs excepting those of lambs,
rabbits, cats, and foxes. The cloth for their dresses was
also to be of a prescribed kind. The wives and children
of esquires&mdash;gentlemen under the estate of knighthood&mdash;might
not wear cloth of gold, of silk, or of silver; nor any
<span class="pagenum"><a name="page123" id="page123"></a>[pg 123]</span>
ornaments of precious stones, nor furs of any kind; nor
any purfling or facings upon their garments; neither
should they use <i>esclaires</i>, <i>crinales</i>, or <i>trosles</i>&mdash;certain forms
of hairpins, and suchlike ornaments.</p>

<p>In the case of knights of a certain income, their wives
and children were prohibited from wearing miniver or
ermine as linings for their garments or trimming for their
sleeves. The lower classes were restricted to blankets
and russets for their attire, and these were not to cost
more than twelvepence per yard, unless the income of
the man was above forty shillings. It is not probable
that these enactments were rigidly enforced, and when
Henry IV. came to the throne he found it necessary to
revive the prohibiting statutes of his predecessor. A number
of such sumptuary laws were passed during succeeding
reigns, but it is not probable that they were ever
really effective. Nor were the satires and witticisms of
the poets and other writers of the day more effectual than
legislation in correcting the extravagances and vices of
dress. Whether the poet or the moralist pointed their
shafts against them, the dames and the dandies of the
time continued to dress as pleased them.</p>

<p>Some of these criticisms so sum up the dress of the day,
that to quote them is to see the fine lady attired in all her
bewildering array of beautiful stuffs. William de Lorris,
in his celebrated poem, the <i>Romance of the Rose</i>, has drawn
the character of Jealousy, and represents him as reproaching
his wife for her insatiable love of finery, which, he
tells her, is solely to make her attractive in the eyes of
her gallants. He then enumerates the parts of her dress,
consisting of mantles lined with sable, surcoats, neck
linens, wimples, petticoats, shifts, pelices, jewels, chaplets
of fresh flowers, buckles of gold, rings, robes, and rich
furs. Then he adds: "You carry the worth of one hundred
<span class="pagenum"><a name="page124" id="page124"></a>[pg 124]</span>
pounds in gold and silver upon your head&mdash;such garlands,
such coiffures with gilt ribbons, such mirrors framed in
gold, so fair, so beautifully polished; such tissues and
girdles, with expensive fastenings of gold, set with precious
stones of smaller size; and your feet shod so primly, that
the robe must be often lifted up to show them." And in
a subsequent part of the poem the ladies are advised,
satirically, if their ankles be not handsome and their feet
small and delicate, to hide them by wearing long robes,
trailing upon the pavement. Those, on the contrary,
who were more favored in this respect were advised to
elevate their robes, as if it were to give access to air,
that the passer-by might see and admire their trim feet and ankles.</p>

<p>Such were some of the adornments of the fine ladies of
the thirteenth century. It is instructive to turn to Chaucer's
Canterbury Tales and study the costumes of some of
the characters as they are interpreted by Strutt. This
will afford a view of the dress of typical persons in the
ordinary ranks of life. The Wife of Bath is drawn by
Chaucer at full length as a shameless woman, pert, loquacious,
and bold, whose favorite occupation is gossiping and
rambling abroad in search of fashionable diversions, in the
absence of her husband. She had the art of making fine
cloth. Her dress materials were expensive, for she had
kerchiefs, or head linen, which she wore on Sunday, so
fine that they were equal in value to ten pounds; and
her stockings were made of fine red scarlet cloth, and
"straightway gartered upon her legs"; her shoes were
also new, and to them she had a pair of spurs attached,
because she was to ride upon horseback; she wore a hat
as broad as a buckler or a target; and she herself informs
us that upon holidays she was accustomed to wear gay scarlet gowns.</p>
<span class="pagenum"><a name="page125" id="page125"></a>[pg 125]</span>

<p>The Carpenter's Wife, the heroine of the Miller's Tale,
has her dress partly described: the collar of her shift was
embroidered both before and behind with black silk; her
girdle was barred or striped with silk; her apron, bound
about her hips, was clean and white, and full of plaits.
The tapes of her white headdress were embroidered in the
same manner as the collar of her shift; her fillet, or headband,
was broad and was made of silk, and "set full high";
probably meaning with a bow or topknot on the upper
part of her head. Attached to her girdle was a purse of
leather, tasselled or fringed with silk, and ornamented with
<i>latoun</i>&mdash;a kind of copper alloy of which ornaments were
made&mdash;in the shape of pearls. She wore a brooch or
fibula upon "her low collar," as broad, says the poet, as
the boss of a buckler; her shoes "were laced high upon her legs."</p>

<p>In addition to these characters of Chaucer, it may be
added that the country Ale-Wife is thus described by a
contemporary writer: "She put on her fairest smocke;
her petticoat of a good broad red; her gowne of grey,
faced with buckram; her square-thrumed hat; and before
her she hung a clean white apron."</p>

<p>The subject of public entertainment in the Middle Ages
brings to light curious practices. In the towns, the burghers
were not willing to entertain strangers gratuitously, notwithstanding
the Scriptural injunction to do so, reinforced
by the reminder that thereby some have entertained angels
unawares. The custom of offering entertainment to travellers
was, however, still practised in the country districts,
but the Anglo-Saxon notion of three days as a reasonable
limit for the tarrying of wayfarers seems still to have obtained.
Aside from the public inns, rich burghers opened
their homes, with their superior comforts, to royal personages
and to rich barons, for an honorarium. They
<span class="pagenum"><a name="page126" id="page126"></a>[pg 126]</span>
frequently practised extortion upon their accidental guests,
and had arts to allure such to their homes. While having
the appearance of great exclusiveness, they nevertheless
employed persons to be on the watch for travellers. These
would approach such strangers, engage them in conversation,
and, on pretence of being from the same part of the
country, offer guidance and advice to the stranger, who
was usually glad to be directed to an "exclusive" place
for entertainment. In some of these places, as well as in
the public inns, the guest would be beguiled into contracting
gambling or other debts beyond his ability to pay in
money, whereupon his belongings were seized, although
their value might be greatly in excess of his obligation.
The manners and morals of the women in these private
places of entertainment were not always commendable.</p>

<p>The tavern was the place of resort for a large part of the
middle class and practically all the lower class of mediæval
society. Even the women spent much of their time gossiping
and drinking in such places, where they found great
latitude for carrying out low intrigues. The tavern was,
in short, the great rendezvous for those who sought amusement
of any sort. It was the ordinary haunt of gamblers.
In one of the <i>fabliaux</i>, a young profligate is represented
as turning into a tavern before which the tavern boy is
calling out the price of the beverages on tap there. After
inquiring the price of the wines, and receiving the information
from the host, the latter goes on to enumerate the
attractions of his house: "Within are all sorts of comforts;
painted chambers, and soft beds, raised high with
white straw, and made soft with feathers; here within is
hostel for love affairs, and when bedtime comes you will
have pillows of violets to hold your head more softly;
and, finally, you will have electuaries and rose-water, to
wash your mouth and face." He orders a gallon of wine,
<span class="pagenum"><a name="page127" id="page127"></a>[pg 127]</span>
and immediately afterward a <i>belle demoiselle</i> makes her
appearance, for such in those times were reckoned among
the attractions of the tavern. It is soon arranged that she
shall share his apartment with him, and then a general
carousal ensues in which he loses all his money and has
to leave even his clothes in payment of his bill. These
alewives were looked upon as past masters in deceit, and
were heartily despised by those who did not fall into their
clutches. In a carved <i>miserere</i> in Ludlow Church, representing
Doomsday, one of these characters is depicted as
about to be cast into the jaws of hell, carrying with her
nothing but the finery of her enticement and her short ale
measure. The amusements of the times, excepting those
of a grosser order, or such as have already been mentioned
in the previous chapter, centred around the nobility and
persons of position; so that their consideration can be deferred
for the time being and be taken up in connection
with the sports and pastimes of the ladies of rank, as
treated in the chapter following.
<!--Blank page #128 omitted.-->
<span class="pagenum"><a name="page129" id="page129"></a>[pg 129]</span></p>




<h2>Chapter VI</h2>

<h2>The Women of the Manors</h2>
<!--Blank page #130 omitted.-->
<span class="pagenum"><a name="page131" id="page131"></a>[pg 131]</span>


<p>The limited means of travel and communication caused
the lives of the women of the early English manors to be
secluded and, in a sense, protected the wives and daughters
of the titled nobility. The manor house was a world
to itself, a centre of law, of society, of industry, and, ofttimes, of culture.</p>

<p>On account of the bad state of the roads and the lack of
the modern convenience of quick transmittal of information,
the turmoils and upheavals of the cities left the
manors unaffected by more than a ripple of their excitement.
The manor had its own social and administrative
system, which provided for the performance of duties by
the various elements of the manorial establishment. In
times of wide social disorder, the manor, by reason of its
isolation, was often subject to attack; then the courage
and fortitude of its female occupants were called forth to
the uttermost. Women whose names might otherwise
have passed into obscurity have been enrolled among
England's heroines by reason of just such circumstances;
one such, whose fame carries us back to the Wars of the
Roses, was Lady Joan Pelham, wife of Sir John Pelham,
Constable of Pevensey Castle. While Sir John was in
Yorkshire with the Lancastrian Duke Henry, fighting
against Richard II., Pevensey Castle was fiercely attacked
<span class="pagenum"><a name="page132" id="page132"></a>[pg 132]</span>
by Yorkist forces. The continuance of the siege brought
on a scarcity of provisions; in this strait, Lady Joan addressed
a letter to her husband, which, besides displaying
the courage of a noble English lady, has the additional
interest of being the earliest letter extant written by an
English woman of quality. It reads as follows:</p>

<p>"<span class="sc">My Dere Lorde</span>:</p>

<p>"I recommande me to yowr his Lordeshippe wyth heart
and body and all my pore myght, and wyth all this I think
zou, as my dere Lorde, derest and best yloved of all earth
lyche Lordes; I say for me and thanke yhow me der
Lorde, with all thys that I say before, off your comfortable
lettre, that ze send me from Pownefraite that com to me
on Mary Magdaleyn day; ffor by my trowth I was never
so gladd as when I herd by your lettre that ye was
stronge ynogh wyth the grace off God for to kepe you
fro the malyce of your ennemys. And dere Lorde iff it lyk
to your hyee Lordeshippe that als ye myght, that smythe
her off your gracious spede whych God Allmyghty contynue
and encresse. And my dere Lorde, if is lyk zow
for to know of my ffare, I am here by layd in a manner
off a sege, wyth the counte of Sussex, Sudray, and a green
parsyll off Kentte; so that I ne may nogth out, nor none
vitayles gette me, hot wyth my die hard. Wharfore my
dere if it lyk zow, by the awyse off zowr wyse counsel
for to sett remadye off the salvation off yhower castells
wt. stand the malyce off ther sehures foresayde. And
also that ye be fullyehe enformede off there grett malyce
wyker's in these schyres whyche yt haffes so dispytfful
wrogth to zow, and to zowl contell, to zhowr men, and
zuor tenaunts ffore this cuntree, have yai wastede for
grett whyle. Farewell my dere Lorde, the Holy Tryn
zow kepe fro zour ennemys and son send me gud tythyng
<span class="pagenum"><a name="page133" id="page133"></a>[pg 133]</span>
off yhow. Ywryten at Pevensey in the castell, on Saynt
Jacobe day last past.</p>

<center>"By yhowr awnn pore,</center>

<p class="author"><span class="sc">"J. Pelham.</span></p>

<p>"To my trew Lorde."</p>

<p>While her position gave her equal rank with her husband,
it also laid upon the lady of the manor the cares
natural to her station. A great lady had always her
bodyguard of maidens, and the lord his following of pages,
these young people being thus provided for that they
might receive the training of gentility and courtesy which
were the essentials in the character of the noble persons
of the times. These maidens, who were intrusted to the
care of the lady of the manor, had to be trained in all
domestic accomplishments as well as in polite attainments.
It is singular that this custom of sending children from
home was often interpreted by foreigners as an evidence
of a lack of parental affection; and, indeed, it did at times
furnish a means of easy riddance of daughters whose
tempers were incompatible with those of their parents, or
whose self-will&mdash;or the selfish policy of the household&mdash;made
it desirable for the parents to sever the tie which
lacked the strength of affection. Thus, in 1469, Dame
Margaret Paston writes to her son, Sir John Paston, regarding
his sister Margery: "I wuld ye shuld purvey for
yur suster to be with my Lady of Oxford, or with my
Lady of Bedford, or in sume other wurshepfull place,
wher as ye thynk best, and I wull help to her fyndyng,
for we be eyther of us werye of other."</p>

<p>It will be seen from this fashion of the times&mdash;more
particularly of the latter part of the Middle Ages&mdash;that a
knight's lady performed many of the functions of a mistress
of a boarding school. Those intrusted to her care,
<span class="pagenum"><a name="page134" id="page134"></a>[pg 134]</span>
regardless of their rank or station, were subjected to rigid
discipline and were required to perform the arduous duties
of the household. These tasks embraced the varied forms
of plain and fancy needlework, for every lady was expected
to be proficient in such matters; all wearing apparel
and fabrics of all sorts required for household use, and the
banners and altar cloths of the churches as well, were
made in the household. When the household was a large
one, the lady and her maidens were kept busily employed
in attending to its needs. It is, however, entirely probable
that the manufacture of the coarser materials and their
making into clothing were delegated to the servants, of
whom every manor had a large retinue. The designing
and making of the costumes of the wealthy&mdash;especially
those that were to be worn on court and other high occasions&mdash;were
given over to professional tailors, who were called "scissors."</p>

<p>The round of domestic duty made daily drafts upon the
time of the wives. In every family of the higher class, the
lady of the household had to see to the provisioning as well
as to the clothing of its members and servitors. This was
not a simple matter, as the provisions had to be supplied
at the cost of great inconvenience, excepting in the case of
the products of the manor farms belonging to the estate.
The stewards' accounts are often a valuable source of
information as to the grade of living of the times.</p>

<p>In view of the industry of the women in the manufacture
of textile fabrics, the poet's eulogy is deserved:</p>

<div class="poem">  <div class="stanza">
<p>"Of gold tissues, and cloth of silk;</p>
<p>Therefore say I, whate'er their ilk,</p>
<p>To all who shall this story find</p>
<p>They owe them all to womankind."</p>
  </div>  </div>

<p>The limits of the manor formed the horizon of its women;
the men frequently had to make long journeys in the
<span class="pagenum"><a name="page135" id="page135"></a>[pg 135]</span>
pursuit of their larger concerns, and were often in foreign
lands serving as soldiers or crusaders. But the lack of
variety in the lives of the women was more than compensated
for by the opportunities which were furnished them
by quiet and seclusion for the improvement of their minds
and the cultivation of those finer qualities of character
which are the basis of the refinement and good manners of
the cultivated English women of the present day. It is
not too much to say of the Middle Ages that without the
peculiar circumstances of manorial living, the culture, confidence,
self-containment, and initiative of the English
woman would not have become as they are&mdash;her predominant
characteristics. So effectual, indeed, were the conditions
of the times for seclusion, and so greatly were its
privileges appreciated, that it could be said of many a fine
lady, as was asserted of Lady Joan Berkeley, that she
never "humored herselfe with the vaine delightes of
London and other cities," and never travelled ten miles
from her husband's houses in Somerset and Gloucester.</p>

<p>The life of the manors was not, however, a round of
tireless industry. The ruddy-cheeked, simple-minded English
women of the better class were possessed of a redundant
vitality and a fund of joyousness and humor which
sought and found expression in a variety of healthful outdoor
recreations, as well as indoor amusements. The
pleasing art of letter writing had come to hold a position
of interest in polite circles; for although the women may
not have been skilled with the quill, their letters were
nevertheless natural, simple, and sincere, and they were
fairly proficient in the art of reading. Their religious
duties occupied a part of each day, as did their visitation
of the homes of the dependants on the estate; for it was
the lady of the manor who was looked to by the poor for
herbal medicines and such delicacies as were supplied to
<span class="pagenum"><a name="page136" id="page136"></a>[pg 136]</span>
the sick. Great ladies sometimes recognized their duties
to the poor not only by giving individual doles, but by
founding almshouses. Nearly every lady of distinction
felt it incumbent upon her to do something for the relief
of suffering and distress. It is especially pleasing to know
that it was the women whose sensibilities were thus
touched, and who were first influenced by the idea of
social responsibility for the less fortunate classes of society.
The records of the times abound with instances of
benevolence in institutional forms. When it was impracticable
for her to be her own almoner, the lady employed
for the office a monk or a priest, and so associated her
charities with the Church, by the teachings of which her
impulses were trained. The saints' days were customarily
observed by especial and important contributions for the poor.</p>

<p>Were it not for the manors, the Middle Ages would lack
almost altogether poetry and literature other than that of the
monkish chroniclers. Literature and poetry in this period
were chiefly centred around the women of the nobility.
It was probably due to the fondness of Henry I. for letters
that a literary taste was excited among his queens. The
earliest specimens existing of vernacular poetry are some
verses addressed to Henry's second spouse, Adeliza. Feminine
taste and royal patronage combined to free poetry
from the pollution of the minstrel and his circle of vulgar
auditors, to cause it to be cultivated by studious men and
women, whose tastes had become refined by the study of
the Latin classics, and who were themselves emulous of
gaining a literary reputation by the cultivation of the art of serious composition.</p>

<p>Vernacular poetry, having the sanction and esteem of
the higher circles of life, came to be generally appreciated;
and the mind, which is naturally responsive to matters of
<span class="pagenum"><a name="page137" id="page137"></a>[pg 137]</span>
good taste, was willing to throw aside the incubus of low
stories, dependent for their interest upon prurient situations,
and to rise to the acceptance of literature whose
interest centred around persons and situations that made
their appeal by reason of worthiness or dignity. The
patronage of letters by the nobility led many, especially
ecclesiastics, to develop their talents in that direction.
Wace, a canon of Bayeux and a prolific rhymester, expressly
states that his works were composed for the "rich
gentry who had rents and money." Even the stormy
reign of Stephen seems to have been no impediment to
the cultivation of the literary taste which had its beginning
in the court of Henry I. and in the patronage of his queens.
The vernacular histories were either written or rendered
into the popular tongue, and in this way became the intellectual
property of the female world; they were not infrequently
inspired by the wish of some lady&mdash;a wish which
became the law of the lay or clerical writer.</p>

<p>The story of Eleanor of Aquitaine, the unhappy queen
of Henry II., who in her later life frequently signed herself
"queen by the wrath of God," illustrates a phase
of domestic infelicity which was not without many parallels.
It also serves to show that, with the perfervid
sentiment of chivalrous devotion to women, it was easy
enough to forget the higher demands of faithfulness in the
real relations of life. This queen herself was not blameless,
and to an extent must be regarded as suffering the
penalties of her own indiscretions. The story is almost
too familiar to need reciting. She discovered that, although
ostensibly Henry's wife, the position was really filled by
one with whom the king had previously contracted marriage.
The family of Rosamond Clifford was as respectable
as and scarcely less illustrious than her own. During
a sojourn at Woodstock, the jealous eye of the queen had
<span class="pagenum"><a name="page138" id="page138"></a>[pg 138]</span>
observed the king following a silk thread through the
labyrinth of trees, by which means she came to knew of
her rival. The meeting of the two women can better be
imagined than described: the queen poured out a torrent
of reproaches and invectives, ending by offering to Rosamond
the cup of poison or a dagger, and did not leave the
place until the victim of her jealousy was no more.</p>

<p>But the tragic death of Rosamond did not serve to enlist
for the queen the affections of her consort, nor did it tend
to promote her domestic peace. Never was a family so
torn by dissension and sin; her children were arrayed
against their father and one another, and all were opposed
to herself. Her husband added to her many troubles the
further shame of installing in her place the wife of his son.
Seeking release from a situation past all endurance, she
eloped from a castle in Aquitaine, intending to find an
asylum in the dominions of King Louis of France, her former
husband. She was captured by Henry's myrmidons and
thrown into prison, there to remain sixteen years until
liberated by her renowned son, Richard C&oelig;ur de Lion.
The sufferings of her life tempered her spirit and brought
her into reliance upon religion for her comfort and strength.</p>

<p>Another example of the high courage and decision of
purpose which the life of Eleanor of Aquitaine furnished
in its later history is found at a subsequent period in another
Eleanor, the daughter of Edward II. This patient,
suffering wife, roused to indignant resistance of an unpardonable
indignity, exhibited the spirit of an undaunted
character. She had been married, at the tender age of
fifteen, to the stern Reynald II., Earl of Gueldres and
Zutphen. When the large dower she brought her husband
had been spent by him, he sought pretext for a
divorce from one with whom he could feel no sympathy;
but for this her blameless life furnished no excuse.
<span class="pagenum"><a name="page139" id="page139"></a>[pg 139]</span>
Although the countess was constantly surrounded by spies
and her every act and word reported to her lord, she
moved with stately dignity in the atmosphere of intrigue
and deceit. In default of any other plea, her husband
represented to the pope that she was afflicted with leprosy.
Arrayed solely in a tunic, and enveloping herself in a
capacious mantle, she made her way with majestic mien
into the council room of the palace, where the perfidious
lord was in consultation with his assembled nobles about
the details of the sinister purpose which he was seeking to
effect. With the words, "I am come, my beloved lord,
to seek a diligent examination respecting the corporeal
taint imputed to me," she threw aside the mantle, disclosing
the healthy texture of her skin, while a wave of emotion
passed over her, and her eyes suffused with tears.
"These," she continued, "are my children and yours; do
they too share in the blemish of their mother? But it may
come to pass that the people of Gueldres may yet mourn
our separation, when they behold the failure of our line."
Husband and nobles alike were profoundly affected by
so sublime an appeal, and the royal pair were reconciled;
but the male line of Reynald failed in his son, and
the crown passed to the female branch, as though the
almost predictive words of the noble English woman were destined to be fulfilled.</p>

<p>Yet another daughter of fair France became the queen
of a Plantagenet. Richard II., the last Plantagenet, from
the date of his accession, was involved in constant struggles,
first with his Parliament, and then with Henry of
Lancaster. His first queen, Anne of Bohemia, died in
1394. Richard's thoughts were thereupon directed to the
necessity of choosing a second consort. He would consider
only Isabelle of Valois, daughter of Charles VI., who was
less than nine years old. The marriage was solemnized
<span class="pagenum"><a name="page140" id="page140"></a>[pg 140]</span>
by proxy, and arrangements were made for the king to
repair to Calais and receive his child-bride at the hand of
Charles VI. The preliminaries having been completed,
the ceremony is thus recorded by Froissart:</p>

<p>"On the morrow, the King of England visited the King of
France in his tent, where the kings sat apart at one table.
During the serving of dinner, the Duke de Bourbon said
many things to enliven the kings, and addressed the King
of England: 'Monseigneur, you ought to make good cheer;
you have all you desire and demand. You have, or will
have, your wife, she is about to be given to you.' The
French king then said: 'Bourbonnais, we could wish that
our daughter were of the age of our cousin of Saint-Pol,
although it should have cost us dearly, for our son of
England would have taken her more willingly.'</p>

<p>"The King of England heard this and responded to the
French king: 'Father-in-law, our wife's age pleases us
well; we think less of that than we do of the affection
between us and our kingdoms, for with mutual friendship
and alliance, there is no king, Christian or other, who
could give umbrage to us.' The dinner was soon over,
and then the young Queen of England was brought into
the king's tent, accompanied by a great number of dames
and demoiselles, and given to the King of England, her
hand being held by her father, the King of France."</p>

<p>This marriage brought nearly twenty years of peace
between France and England. The young queen was
carefully nurtured and educated by King Richard, whose
attachment to her soon grew very deep. Turbulent factions
disturbed Richard's rule, and Isabelle had always
before her the menace of a prison rather than the prospect
of a throne. Before leaving to quell a rebellion in Ireland,
Richard visited his "little queen," for thus she was popularly
styled, at Windsor Castle, to take farewell. This
<span class="pagenum"><a name="page141" id="page141"></a>[pg 141]</span>
interview, at which it is said the young queen first realized
how deeply she loved the king, was to be their last.
Henry of Lancaster, taking advantage of Richard's absence
to gather a force to wrest the sceptre from him, met Richard
on his return, made him captive, and finally secured
his resignation of the crown in 1399. Simultaneously, the
young queen fell into Henry's power, and was moved
from castle to castle at the will of Henry. All this time
she was kept in ignorance of the fate of her husband, and
tortured by suspense and anxiety. Richard alive was too
serious a danger to Henry's supremacy, and, a plot to
restore him to his throne having failed, he was killed at
Pontefract Castle soon after, in a heroic struggle against the myrmidons of Henry.</p>

<p>Meantime, the "little queen" had joined in the movement
against Henry, in the hope that her husband would recover
his crown and be restored to her, but she was soon again
a captive at Havering Bower. For some time the child-widow&mdash;she
was not yet thirteen&mdash;was kept in ignorance
of the death of Richard. Soon, however, she was importuned
by Henry IV. on behalf of Monmouth, his son, but,
faithful to the memory of Richard, she rejected with horror
the proposed union. Finally, all hope of the alliance being
destroyed, Henry consented to Isabella's return to her
parents. She had endeared herself to the hearts of the
English by her graces, and especially by her steadfast devotion to Richard.</p>

<p>After Isabelle's return to France, Henry still persisted
in suing for her hand, but it was impossible to move her
determination. In 1406, it seemed that joy might yet
brighten the life of this unfortunate princess, for in that
year she was betrothed to her cousin, the young Charles
of Orléans, whom she married in 1409. The affection
of husband and wife appeared to offer every prospect
<span class="pagenum"><a name="page142" id="page142"></a>[pg 142]</span>
of happiness, but she was permitted to enjoy her newly
found state for only a brief period, as she died during the
following year, a few hours after the birth of an infant
daughter. The memory of this sweet but unfortunate
princess is enshrined in the poetic tributes of the Duke of
Orléans, nor did the English fail to sing in ballads her praise.</p>

<p>The origin of the Order of the Garter is traceable to the
spirit of chivalry; it was instituted by Coeur de Lion, and
in 1344 was revived by Edward III. Froissart appears to
credit the story which connects the revival of the order
to Edward's passion for the Countess of Salisbury, whose
garter he is said to have picked up and presented to her
in the presence of the court, with this exclamation: <i>Honi
soit qui mal y pense!</i> The chronicler gives us a full account
of the attachment of Edward for the countess, and places
in excellent light the integrity of her character. When
she was besieged in her husband's castle at Wark, Edward
advanced to her relief, compelling the Scots to retreat.
At the interview which followed, the king looked upon her
with such an air of profound thoughtfulness that she was
led to inquire: "Dear sire, what are you musing on?
Such meditation is not proper for you, saving your grace."
"Oh, dear lady!" replied the monarch; "you must know
that since I have been in this castle, some thoughts have
oppressed my mind that I was not before aware of."
"Dear sire, you ought to be of good cheer, and leave off
such pondering; for God has been very bountiful to you
in your undertakings." Whereupon the king replied with
more directness: "There be other things, O sweet lady,
which touch my heart, and lie heavy there, beside what
you talk of. In good truth, your beauteous mien and the
perfection of your face and behavior have wholly overcome
me; and my peace depends on your accepting my
<span class="pagenum"><a name="page143" id="page143"></a>[pg 143]</span>
love, which your refusal cannot abate." "My gracious
liege," the countess exclaimed, "God of his infinite goodness
preserve you, and drive from your noble heart all
evil thoughts; for I am, and ever shall be, ready to serve
you; but only in what is consistent with my honor and your own."</p>

<p>The first chapter of the Garter was graced by another
queen who adorns the history of England's women of
rank&mdash;Queen Philippa. She was attended by the principal
ladies of the court, who, with herself, were admitted
dame-companions of the order, and the wives of the knights
continued to enjoy this dignity during several succeeding reigns.</p>

<p>In even the best homes of the Middle Ages we must
not expect to find the refinements which are regarded as
the commonplaces of modern life. The essence of refinement
is the same in all ages, and, while it involves manners,
these change with the standards and conventions of
different times. Much that is amusing, absurd, or even
disgusting, as we regard manners to-day, was entirely in
good form during the Middle Ages. It will be of interest
to notice some of the things which were regarded as commendable
in the deportment of the young ladies of the
aristocratic class of mediæval society, and what they were
cautioned to avoid. A <i>trouvère</i> of the thirteenth century,
named Robert de Blois, compiled a code of etiquette which
he put in French verse under the title, <i>Chastisement des
Dames</i>. The young ladies who would deport themselves
in an irreproachable manner must avoid talking too much,
and especially refrain from boasting of the attentions paid
to them by the other sex. They were recommended to
be discreet, and, in the freedom of games and amusements,
to leave no room for adverse criticism of their
actions. In going to church, they were not to trot or run,
<span class="pagenum"><a name="page144" id="page144"></a>[pg 144]</span>
but to walk with due seriousness, with eyes straight before
them, and to salute <i>debonairely</i> all persons they met. They
were enjoined not to let men kiss them on the mouth, as
it might lead to too great familiarity; they were not to
look at a man too much unless he were an acknowledged
lover; and when a young woman had a lover, she was
not to talk too much of him. They were not to manifest
too much vanity in dress, and to be entirely delicate in
the matter of costume; nor were they to be too ready
in accepting presents from the other sex. The ladies are
particularly warned against scolding and disputing, against
swearing, against eating and drinking too freely at the
table. They were exhorted not to get drunk, a practice
from which, they were advised, much mischief might arise.
That the restrictions were, on the whole, sensible is apparent
from our statement of them, and the good sense of the
times receives special point from the rule of society which
recommended the ladies not to cover their faces when in
public, as a handsome face was made to be seen. An exception
is made in the case of ugly or deformed features,
which might be covered. Another rule was as follows:
"A lady who is pale-faced or who has not a good smell
ought to breakfast early in the morning, for good wine
gives them a very good color; and she who eats and
drinks well must heighten her color." Anise seed, fennel,
and cumin were recommended to be taken at breakfast to
correct an unsavory breath, and persons so affected were
told not to breathe in other persons' faces.</p>

<p class="mid"><img alt="" src="images/bk9-1.png" /><br />
</p>

<p class="mid"><i>HONI SOIT QUI MAL Y PENSE,<br />

After the painting by A. Chevalier Taylor<br />

________<br /><br />

The origin of the Order of the Garter is traceable to the spirit<br />
of chivalry; it was instituted by Coeur de Lion, and in 1344 was<br />
revived by Edward III. Froissart appears to credit the story<br />
which connects the revival of the order to Edward's passion for<br />
the Countess of Salisbury, whose garter he is said to have picked<br />
up and presented to her in the presence of the court, with this<br />
exclamation:</i> Honi soit qui mal y pense! <i>The chronicler gives<br />
us a full account of the attachement of Edward for the countess,<br />
and places in excellent light the integrity of her character.</i></p>


<p>A special set of rules was given for the lady's behavior
while in church, and if she could sing she was to do so
when asked and not require too much pressing. Ladies
were further recommended to keep their hands clean, to
cut their nails often, and not to suffer them to grow beyond
the finger or to harbor dirt. When passing the
<span class="pagenum"><a name="page145" id="page145"></a>[pg 145]</span>
houses of other people, ladies were not to look into them:
"for a person often does things privately in his house,
which he would not wish to be seen, if anyone should
come before his door." For the same reason a lady was
not to go into another person's house, or into another's
room, without coughing or speaking to give notice to the
inmates. The directions for a lady's behavior at the table
were also very precise. "In eating, you must avoid
much laughing or talking. If you eat with another (<i>i.e.</i>,
in the same plate, or of the same mess), turn the nicest
bits to him and do not go picking out the finest and largest
for yourself, which is not courteous. Moreover, no one
should eat greedily a choice bit which is too large or too
hot, for fear of choking or burning herself.... Each
time you drink, wipe your mouth well, that no grease go
into the wine, which is very unpleasant for the person
who drinks after you. But when you wipe your mouth
for drinking, do not wipe your eyes or nose with the tablecloth,
and avoid spilling from your mouth or greasing your
hands too much." Added to these directions for deportment,
particular emphasis was laid on the avoidance of
falsehoods, which suggests the prevalence of the vice.</p>

<p>The modern "servant question" was not without its
counterpart in the Middle Ages. We find instances of
advice tendered upon the subject to the ladies of those
times. An early writer on domestic economy divided the
servants who might be found in a manorial establishment
into three classes: those who were employed on a sudden
and only for a certain work, and for these a previous bargain
should be made regarding their payment; those who
were employed for a certain time in a particular description
of work, as tailors, shoemakers, butchers, and others,
who always came to work in the house upon materials
provided there, or the harvest men for the gathering of
<span class="pagenum"><a name="page146" id="page146"></a>[pg 146]</span>
the crops; and domestic servants who were hired by the
year, these latter being expected to pay an absolute and
passive obedience to the lord and lady of the household
and any others who were set in authority over them.</p>

<p>Naturally, it was the female servants who came under
the supervision of the lady of the house, and minute
directions are given for their ordering. She was to require
her maids to repair early in the morning to their
work; the entrance to the hall and all other places by
which people enter, or places in the hall where they tarry
to converse, were to be swept and made clean, "and that
the footstools and covers of the benches and forms be
dusted and shaken, and after this that the other chambers
be in like manner cleaned and arranged for the day."
After this, the pet animals were to be attended to and
fed. At midday the servants were to have their first
meal, which was to be bountiful, but "only of one meat
and not of several, or of any delicacies; and give them
only one kind of drink, nourishing but not heady, whether
wine or other; and admonish them to eat heartily, and to
drink well and plentifully, for it is right that they should
eat all at once, without sitting too long, and at one breath,
without reposing on their meal or halting, or leaning with
their elbows on the table; and as soon as they begin to
talk or to rest on their elbows, make them rise and remove
the table." After their "second labor" and on feast days
also&mdash;when seemingly the workday was not so long as
usual&mdash;they were to have another lighter repast, and in
the late evening, after all their duties were performed,
another abundant meal was served. It then devolved
upon the lady of the house or her deputy to see that the
manor was closed, and to take charge of the keys, preventing
anyone from going in or out; and then, having
had all the fires carefully "covered," she sent the servants
<span class="pagenum"><a name="page147" id="page147"></a>[pg 147]</span>
to bed and saw that their candles were extinguished to
prevent the risk of fire. The lady was always careful
as to whom she received into her house as servitors;
female servants who came to her as strangers were not
well regarded, and were not given trusts of importance,
and their characters, so far as was possible, were looked
into, as well as the circumstances of their leaving their former place of employment.</p>

<p>The term "spinster," which is now confined to unmarried
women, was a term of consideration applied to all
women of the better class during the Middle Ages. It was
indicative of her superior rank, and was especially adhered
to by gentlewomen who married out of their station, as a
sign of their good birth and gentle breeding.</p>

<p>The term "gentle blood," as now understood, means
only that some persons have the fortunate circumstance
of refined parentage or ancestry; but in the Middle Ages,
when the pride of gentle blood was one of the most distinguishing
characteristics of the prevailing feudal society,
it was seriously believed that through the whole extent
of the aristocratic classes there ran one blood, distinguishable
from the blood of all other persons. So strongly was
this view entertained, that it was commonly thought that
if a child of gentle blood should be stolen or abandoned in
infancy, and then bred up as a peasant or a burgher,
without knowledge of its origin, it would display, as it
grew toward manhood, unmistakable proofs of its gentle
origin, in spite of education and example. Whatever the
fallacy of this belief, its effect upon the ladies of superior
birth was to make them prize their station highly; but it
also created a spirit of haughtiness toward those who were
below their station, and a harshness in their relation to
their domestics which was not always conformable to the
graciousness and consideration which these very ladies
<span class="pagenum"><a name="page148" id="page148"></a>[pg 148]</span>
often displayed where there was no question involving their caste.</p>

<p>In considering the dress of the women of the Middle
Ages, we remarked upon the censure and sarcasm which
were passed upon the vanities into which women were led
by their devotion to the changing fashions of the day.
Every class of society was pervaded by a love of dress,
which expressed itself in the greatest extravagances and
absurdities. A knight of the fourteenth century compiled
for three young ladies, the daughters of a knight of Normandy,
a manuscript which contains advice and directions
for the regulation of their conduct through life. It contains
several very curious passages relative to dress:
"Fair daughters," says their mentor, "I pray you that
ye be not the first to take new shapes and guises of array
of women of strange countries." He then inveighs against
the wearing of superfluous quantities of furs as edging for
their gowns, their hoods, and their sleeves. After commenting
upon the sinfulness of useless fashions and their
effect upon the lower classes, he proceeds to portray the
absurdities into which the latter were led by aping their
betters, and suggests that the furs which they wore in
profusion had better at least be dispensed with in summer,
as they served only "for a hiding place for the fleas."
The knight whose daughters are thus counselled is unable
to deter them from falling into extravagances of attire, and
has recourse to the legend of a chevalier whose wife was
dead and who made application to a hermit to know if her
soul had gone to Paradise or to punishment. The holy
man, after long praying, fell asleep, and saw the soul of
the fair lady weighed in the balance; with Saint Michael
standing on one side and the Devil on the other. The
latter addressed Saint Michael and claimed the woman as
his own on the score that she had ten diverse gowns, and
<span class="pagenum"><a name="page149" id="page149"></a>[pg 149]</span>
a less number than that would have sufficed to lose her
soul; besides which, with what she had wasted she might
have clothed two or three persons who for the lack of her
charity died of want. So saying, the fiend gathered up all
her gay attire, ornaments, and jewels, and cast them in
the balance with her evil deeds, which determined the
balance against her, and he bore her away to the lake of
fire. The same night, in order to deter his daughters from
painting their faces, the knight recounts a horrible legend
of a fine lady who was punished in hell because she had
"popped and painted her visage to please the sight of the world."</p>

<p>It is not by such incidentals as dress, but by the enduring
qualities of character, that the women of the higher
circles of the English Middle Ages were able to make an indelible
impress upon the life and character of the nation.
And more especially may this be said of the women whose
lives were largely spent in the sheltered circle of a pure
domesticity,&mdash;the women of the manors.
<!--Blank page #150 omitted.-->
<span class="pagenum"><a name="page151" id="page151"></a>[pg 151]</span></p>




<h2>Chapter VII</h2>

<h2>The Women of the Monasteries</h2>
<!--Blank page #152 omitted.-->
<span class="pagenum"><a name="page153" id="page153"></a>[pg 153]</span>


<p>In general, the routine of the nunnery was the same as
that of a monastery. There was the same rotation, hour
by hour, of sacred services, with monotonous regularity
and repetition; the only variety offered was that of labor
of one sort or another, with brief intervals for rest and
refreshment. The industry of the nuns usually took the
form of working in wool, for it devolved upon them to
make the clothing of the monks, who were associated with
the convents to perform the outdoor labor and to serve as
confessors for the female inmates. Great care was necessary
to prevent too close proximity of the nunneries and
monasteries and to limit the intercourse of the inmates of
the respective institutions to the bare necessities of their mutual dependence.</p>

<p>The rules by which women were governed in the life of
the convent did not differ much from those for the men.
Some of these regulations were very rigorous: the inmates
were to have nothing of their own, nor were they allowed
to go out of the convent, and they were permitted the luxury
of a bath only in time of sickness. Continual silence, frequent
confessions, a spare diet, and hard labor were to be
endured uncomplainingly, on penalty of excommunication.</p>

<p>In the fifth century, prohibitions were issued proscribing
the founding of any more monasteries for monks and
<span class="pagenum"><a name="page154" id="page154"></a>[pg 154]</span>
nuns together and ordering the partitioning of those which
already existed. No man excepting the officiating clergy,
the bishop, and the steward of the convent was allowed
to enter within its walls; and, indeed, one of the rules enjoined
that the nuns were to make confession to the bishop
through the abbess. Under no pretext whatever were the
nuns to lodge under the roof of a monastery, nor was any
person who was not a monk or a cleric of high repute to be
allowed within the precincts of the convent on temporal
business; but in spite of the many rules by which they
were hedged about, in the eighth century nuns are found
admitted into the monasteries on the ground of the necessity
for their presence in sickness and similar emergencies.</p>

<p>Besides the nuns, strictly so called, in the eighth and
subsequent centuries there were canonesses, who differed
from the nuns in retaining more of their secular character.
Their vows were not perpetual, and they confined their
labors chiefly to the instruction of the children of the nobles.</p>

<p>Having cited some of the rules for the government of
those who committed themselves to the life of the nun, it
now remains to perform the delicate task of showing the
degree of success which attended the attempt to isolate a
class of unmarried women, that, by religious offices and
meditations, they might wholly dedicate their time and
their faculties to the cultivation of the Christian graces,
and serve as the benefactresses of the poor in giving alms
at the convent gate. The century that witnessed the
outbreak of the Reformation is commonly regarded as
exceptional for laxity of religious principle and perversion
of the institutional ideals of the Church; but, from the
eighth century, the ecclesiastical morality was of such a
low order as seriously to affect the moral tone of the
people and to invalidate the efficacy of the Church as a
<span class="pagenum"><a name="page155" id="page155"></a>[pg 155]</span>
teacher of religion. The celibacy which was enjoined
upon the clergy was largely responsible for this state of
affairs. It is unfortunately not true that the ages of faith,
so called, were ages of great moral purity. In spite of the
interdict of councils, priestly marriages were looked upon
as common events. The marriage of priests being under
the ban of the Church, concubinage was regarded as
almost a legitimate relationship, and carried less of stigma
than the proscribed marriages. It is not singular that such
impairment of moral ideas was not confined to the priests,
and that the same low moral tone invaded the convents,
many of whose inmates became the partners of the priests in their derelictions.</p>

<p>"The known luxury and believed immoralities of the
wealthy monasteries" in England, says Sharon Turner,
"made a great impression on the public mind. Even
some of the clergy became ashamed of it, and contributed
to expose it, both in England and elsewhere." Nor was
the tone of morals outside the cloister of higher grade than
that of the monks. In 1212 a council commanded the
clergy not to have women in their houses, nor to suffer in
their cloisters assemblies for debauchery, nor to entertain
women there. Nuns were ordered to lie single. In England,
these and many other moral prohibitions were repeated
at various intervals, showing that, in spite of the
prevailing corruption, there was an appreciation of pure
ideals; and in its councils the Church took cognizance of
and endeavored to stem the rising tide of unchastity.
Thus, inquiries were made in 1252 as to whether the
clergy frequented the nunneries without reasonable cause,
and a year or two afterward an inquisition was made all
over England into the character and actions of the various
religious personages. The conduct of the nuns is frequently
alluded to in terms of the severest censure, while
<span class="pagenum"><a name="page156" id="page156"></a>[pg 156]</span>
the ecclesiastics were enjoined not to frequent taverns or
public spectacles, or to resort to the houses of loose characters,
or to visit the nuns; they were not to play at dice
or improper games, nor to leave their property to their
children. The vices of the clergy were the unavoidable
consequence of the independence of their hierarchy from
civil control. The release of the clergy from secular
jurisdiction was productive of much personal depravity.
They had to fear their abbot only, and he was frequently
a mild censor of their morals. At a time when any profligate
woman of position might retire to a convent and, by
elevation or appointment, become abbess, it is not strange
that the moral tone of the convent was not determined by
the rules of the order, but by the standards which were actually established.</p>

<p>Yet, in spite of many instances of reprehensible conduct,
the nuns as a class did not break the vows that bound
them to chastity, and within the convent walls were found
many examples of women of illustrious character. In the
Anglo-Saxon times, women of the most admirable traits
are found in charge of convents; the names of some of the
abbesses of the seventh century, and earlier, are notable
as those of women of high rank as well as of high character.
Saint Werburga of Ely, the daughter of Wulfere,
King of Mercia, was made ruler over all the female religious
houses, and became the founder of several convents
of note. Her qualities and character were set forth in the following lines:</p>

<div class="poem">  <div class="stanza">
<p>"In beaute amyable she was equall to Rachell,</p>
<p>Comparable to Sara in fyrme fidelyte,</p>
<p>In sadness and wysedom lyke to Abygaell:</p>
<p>Replete as Deibora with grace of prophecy,</p>
<p>Aeqyvalent to Ruth she was in humylyte,</p>
<p>In purchrytude Rebecca, lyke Hester in Colynesse,</p>
<p>Lyke Judyth in vertue and proued holynesse."</p>
  </div>  </div>
<span class="pagenum"><a name="page157" id="page157"></a>[pg 157]</span>

<p>But such examples of high worth among the abbesses,
while not exceptional in the early Middle Ages, are not
frequently met with in the closing centuries of the period.</p>

<p>The position of the abbess was not one of honor only,
but of privilege; the cloister rule was relaxed for her&mdash;she
might go and come as she pleased, and see anyone whom
she wished to see. In the early times, she is even found
taking part in synods. Thus, in 649, the abbesses were
summoned to the council at Becanceld, in Kent, and the
names of five of them were subscribed to the constitutions
which were there made, while the name of not a single
abbot appears on the document. Coming down to much
later times, abbesses were summoned to attend or to send
proxies to the king's council which was held to grant "an
aid on the knighting the Prince of Wales." Also, they
were required to furnish military service by proxy. While
they were more amenable to the clergy than were the
monks, the abbesses were nevertheless tenacious of their
privileges. They were never ordained, nor did they ever
have the right to ordain others, although they claimed the
latter as one of their privileges.</p>

<p>They were subject to deposition if they abused their
office. Not infrequently the nuns would carry their complaints
to the bishop, and seek from him redress for their
grievances. If the circumstances warranted his so doing,
the bishop would occasionally take the direction of the
nunnery into his own hands instead of appointing an
abbess, or else he might place it temporarily in the charge
of one or more of the nuns. All the affairs of the convent
were directed by the abbess&mdash;the tillage of the grounds
and4the repairs to the buildings, as well as the internal
ordering of the establishment and the discipline of its
inmates. Also, she was directed to assist, by her own
labor as far as she was able, in clothing herself. When a
<span class="pagenum"><a name="page158" id="page158"></a>[pg 158]</span>
nun became refractory, she might be consigned to punishment
outside of the convent. Thus, by the decree of a
council near Paris in the eighth century, it was ordered
that the bishop as well as the abbess might send a nun
to a penitentiary. The same council prescribed that an
abbess should not superintend more than one monastery
or quit its precincts more than once a year. One of the
rules which was at one time in force prohibited abbesses
from walking alone, thus placing them under the surveillance
of the sisterhood. But their powers varied according
to the period and the order with which they were connected.</p>

<p>Through the necessities of their office, the abbesses
were brought into closer relationship with the outside
world than were the other nuns. Sometimes they were
made respondents in a suit at law with regard to the
estates of the convent, or to retain the property brought
to them by some one of the sisters, who, renouncing her
vows, sought to recover her possessions. In 1292 the
prioress of an abbey in Somersetshire had to answer in a
suit brought against her by a widow and two men in
regard to the right of common pasturage upon lands held
by the convent, and the case was decided against the religious
house; but both the prioress and the widow escaped
paying their respective costs in the case, on the plea of poverty.</p>

<p>Not only were the abbesses sued, but they themselves
did not hesitate to institute legal proceedings in defence
of what they believed were their rights. In the reign of
Edward III., a prioress sued a sheriff for the recovery of a
pension granted during the reign of Henry III., which had
been allowed to lapse. The case was carried to the king's
court and won for the convent. Legal difficulties frequently
occurred over grants made to convents without
<span class="pagenum"><a name="page159" id="page159"></a>[pg 159]</span>
the observance of the set formalities. An abbess had a
great many secular duties, for all the money that came
into the establishment, or was paid out, had to be accounted
for by her. The entertainment which the convent
dispensed to those who, on one pretext or another,
claimed it, furnished another occasion for the intercourse
of the abbess with the outer world. Sometimes ladies
who were temporarily in want of a home repaired to a
convent and were there received. The bishops frequently
sent friends to the priory for entertainment; though such
persons were charges upon the hospitality of the institution,
they, as a rule, either paid for their entertainment
themselves or were provided for by their friends. It was
not unusual for visitors who came under the authority of
the bishop's order to bring with them a retinue of servants
and to remain a considerable time.</p>

<p>During the time of Henry VIII., rigid inquiries were
made with regard to the regulations and the character of
the inmates of the monasteries, especially the abbots and
abbesses. The investigations with regard to the character
of the abbots and abbesses need not concern us, as we have
sufficiently noticed the looseness of conduct which prevailed
in many of the religious houses. Among the questions asked
were inquiries as to whether hospitality was maintained,
and especially toward the poor, whether Church anniversaries
were observed, whether proper records were kept,
whether any of the conventual property had been alienated,
whether the head of the house was given to sober
and modest conversation both toward the inmates and lay
persons, whether any of the inmates had been punished,
whether there had been any overlooking of the faults of a
brother or sister through favoritism, whether any novices
were received before reaching sufficient age because of
friendship and affection or the inducement of money or
<span class="pagenum"><a name="page160" id="page160"></a>[pg 160]</span>
any other ulterior reason. Besides these inquiries, which
were common to the abbots and abbesses, particular questions
were asked the latter, looking to the abandonment of
all ornaments and superfluities of dress and the keeping in
good repair of all the accessories of divine service. They
were asked whether the sisters attended divine worship at
the proper seasons, whether they taught the novices the
rule, whether they maintained proper oversight of them,
and whether they saw that they were engaged at proper
work. Also, the abbess was to report on the character of
the nuns as to whether she suspected any of incontinence,
whether any of them slept without the convent walls or
walked abroad, and, if so, in whose company. She was
asked whether the confessor or chaplain did his duty, and
whether she had found any "ancient, sad, and virtuous"
woman as mistress of the novices.</p>

<p>Among the Gilbertine nuns, whom we may mention as
a typical order, there were three prioresses, one of whom
presided, the other two acting as coadjutors. It was the
duty of the presiding prioress to enjoin penance, grant all
the licenses or allowances, visit the sick, or see that they
were visited by one of her companions. The prioresses
cut, fitted, and superintended the manufacture of the
vestments of the sisters. It was the duty of the presiding
prioress to visit the sisters in the infirmary whenever
they asked for her presence, unless she were
detained by urgent duties. Other rules regulated her
conduct on festival days, when she was especially to use
diligence in inquiring after the order and religion of the house.</p>

<p>The sub-prioress was under more rigid rules than those
which governed her superior; if, in the absence of the
prioress, she spoke of anything excepting labor, she confessed
having done so, in the chapter. If, in the absence
<span class="pagenum"><a name="page161" id="page161"></a>[pg 161]</span>
of the prioress, some other of the sisters failed to observe
silence, it was not she but the sub-prioress who was held
responsible and took the blame. She could not go to the
window of the gate without a "sage companion."</p>

<p>When the cellaress assumed office, her duties were to
see what was owing to the different farmers and tax gatherers,
to receive the sums due from the collectors on the
nunnery estates, and to take account of all the sales of
the products of the lands of the convent. Also, she was
to see to the provisioning of the house, to pay the wages,
and to attend to the mowing of the hay and to the repairs to
the buildings. She might have associated with her a lay
sister, with whom she was at liberty to talk concerning
the business affairs of their office.</p>

<p>Of the other convent officials, the precentrix had charge
of the library; the sacrist rose at night to ring the bell,
attended to the adornment of the church in the vigil of
Easter, lighted the lamp in the interval at lessons, had the
preparation of the coals for the censer, and performed
other duties of a like nature; and the duty of the mistress
of the novices was to see that those in her charge behaved
in an orderly manner. She was the disciplinarian of those
who had not taken the full vows of the order. If the
infirmaress desired anything, she had to indicate it by a
sign; when the want was of such a nature that it could
not be so indicated, the cellaress was summoned, for this
was the only official in whose presence the infirmaress
could speak. She never served in the kitchen when there
were any serious cases of sickness to need her attention.
There were other officials who performed special or occasional
duties, who need not be mentioned. All the servants
in a convent took an oath of fidelity not to reveal the secrets
of the house. They were brewers, bakers, kitcheners,
gardeners, shoemakers, and the like.</p>
<span class="pagenum"><a name="page162" id="page162"></a>[pg 162]</span>

<p>The confessor made periodical visits to the convent; and
if the prioress found it necessary that anyone should confess,
the latter was told to go to the place appointed, and
two "discreet sisters" sat apart from the window of the
confessional, where they could hold the nun under observation
and see how she behaved. The confessor also was
under supervision as to his conduct, for he was to "shun
talking vain and unnecessary things; nor ask who she
was, whence she came, and such things."</p>

<p>The ceremony with regard to the taking of vows by the
nuns was threefold. The first was called the consecration
of the nun, and was made on solemn days, preferably
Epiphany or on the festivals of the Virgin. After the
Epistle was read, the virgin who was to be consecrated
came before the altar, dressed in white, carrying in her
right hand the religious habit and in her left an extinguished
taper. After the bishop had consecrated the habit,
he gave it to her, saying: "Take, girl, the robe which you
shall wear in innocence." After assuming this, the taper
in her hand was lighted, and she intoned the words:
"I love Christ, into whose bed I have entered." Then,
after the Epistle, Gospel, and Creed, the bishop said:
"Come, come, come, daughter, I will teach you the fear
of the Lord." The nun then prostrated herself before the
altar, and after the <i>Veni Creator</i> began, she arose. The
bishop then invested her with the veil and pronounced
a curse against all those who would disturb her holy
purpose. The second ceremony related to a nun who
was to make profession, but who had before been blessed,
and the third ceremony related to the consecration of a
nun who was not a virgin. Such, in brief, is a sketch
of the convent routine and exercises. It will now be
in place to take a more general view of the nun's environment.</p>
<span class="pagenum"><a name="page163" id="page163"></a>[pg 163]</span>

<p>As the hospitality of the convent was often extended to
strangers, it will not be without interest to give a list of
the contents of a chamber which was allotted to a "Dame
Agnes Browne" in the Priory of Minster, in Sheppey:
"Stuff given her by her friends:&mdash;A fetherbed, a bolster,
2 pyllows, a payre of blankatts, 2 corse coverleds, 4 pare
of shets good and badde, an olde tester and selar of
paynted clothes and 2 peces of hangyng to the same; a
square cofer carvyd, with 2 bed clothes upon the cofer,
and in the wyndow a lytill cobard of waynscott carvyd
and 2 lytill chestes; a small goblet with a cover of sylver
parcell gylt, a lytill maser with a brynne of sylver and
gylt, a lytill pese of sylver and a spore of sylver, 2 lytyll
latyn candellstyks, a fire panne and a pare of tonges, 2
small aundyrons, 4 pewter dysshes, a porrenger, a pewter
bason, 2 skyllotts (a small pot with a long handle), a lytill
brasse pot, a cawdyron and a drynkyng pot of pewter."</p>

<p>That, in the mind of the religious recluse, cleanliness
was not associated with godliness was due to the idea of
penance. Washing was regarded as a luxury not to be
indulged in excepting at infrequent intervals or by special
permission. This idea of ablutions was probably derived
at first in reaction from the public baths which were so
much in vogue among the Romans, and which were associated
in the public mind with luxury, and were often the
scenes of conduct quite at variance with the principles for
which the nuns stood. The licentiousness which centred
around these places brought them into such ill repute that
to the ascetic mind washing did not so much signify cleanliness
as sin. The virtue of dirt did not extend to the
abbesses, who were allowed to wash whenever it was
necessary and as frequently as they pleased. By a similar
process of deduction, the nuns remained untonsured.
In the early times, a woman whose hair was cut short
<span class="pagenum"><a name="page164" id="page164"></a>[pg 164]</span>
was looked upon as a disreputable character, so that it
was repellent to conventional ideas of propriety to conform
to the practice of the monks in having the head shaved.</p>

<p>The nuns were not always of the most serious disposition
and deportment, as is shown by the peculiar enjoinment
that they were not to look fixedly on any man, or to
romp or frolic with him; neither were they to allow any
man to see them unveiled, nor to embrace any man, either
an acquaintance or a stranger. The convivial nature of
some of the nuns is revealed by an order commanding
them not to "use the alehouse or the watercourses
where strangers daily resort, or bring in, receive, or
take any layman, religious or secular, into the chamber,
or any secret place, day or night, or with them in such
private places to commune, eat, or drink, without license
of your prioress." The monastery which is described by
Wriothesley as the most virtuous religious house in England,
Sion Monastery, was under an even stricter rule.
Conversation with secular persons was permitted only by
the license of the abbess from noon to vespers, and only
then on Sundays and the great feast days of the saints.
Sion Monastery was subjected to the further restriction
that the nuns might not receive their friends, but could
converse with them by sitting at appointed windows, in
the presence of the abbess. If any sister desired to be
seen by "her parents or honest friends," she might, by
the special permission of the abbess, open the window
occasionally during the year; but if she had the self-denial
to forego this privilege, a greater reward was assured her in the hereafter.</p>

<p>Despite the criticism to which the monastic system of
the Middle Ages may justly be subjected, it would be
great remissness to fail in appreciation of the tremendous
work of civilization which was performed by its expositors.
<span class="pagenum"><a name="page165" id="page165"></a>[pg 165]</span>
They were the centres of culture, as well as of benevolence;
in the convents, and also in the monasteries,
there could always be found a select library, which included
works of the classic authors, as well as books of
religion. The nuns, as a class, were well educated for
their time. They could read Latin, and were qualified to
direct the education of the novices who came under their
training. Even in the ninth century, some of the continental
convents had such high repute as educational
centres that children were sent long distances to get the
benefit of the opportunities they offered; and in this respect
England was no whit behind, for children were sent
from the continent to be educated in the schools established
by Theodorus and Hadrian. This fact is the more
to the credit of the English schools, as the tide had been
setting strongly in the other direction.</p>

<p>The addition of literary and pedagogic duties to the religious
routine and manual labor of the convents made the
lives of the nuns extremely busy, for, in addition to their
reading theological and classical literature, they had the
duty of copying and embellishing manuscripts. It was
not unusual for a nun to become proficient in Latin versification
and to correspond in that language with others
of a similar literary taste and training. These women
were thus often highly qualified to teach the subjects
which were then included in polite education. For many
centuries theirs were the only schools for girls. The
suppression of the convents was, educationally, a disaster
to England. They were not merely schools for book learning,
but such little knowledge as was current in regard to
the treatment of various disorders and the care of the sick
was obtained in the convent schools. The general custom
of bleeding people for every form of illness, as well as to
prevent possible sickness, made necessary some kind of
<span class="pagenum"><a name="page166" id="page166"></a>[pg 166]</span>
bandage ready prepared to apply to the wound, and it was
a common practice for nuns to make such bandages and to
present them as gifts to friends. The convent pupils were
also taught the finer sorts of cooking, such as the preparation
of special dishes and the making of sweetmeats and
pastry. Needlework, as the most characteristic employment
of women of refinement, music, both vocal and
instrumental, and writing and drawing, entered into the curricula of the convents.</p>

<p>The educational record of the various convents at the
time of their suppression shows that this act of Henry VIII.,
whatever other justification it may have had, cannot be
supported on the ground that the convents were not performing
a useful service to society in the education of the
youth of the country. Gasquet, in his <i>Suppression of the
Monasteries</i>, says: "In the convents, the female portion
of the population found their only teachers, the rich as
well as the poor, and the destruction of the religious
houses by Henry was the absolute extinction of any systematic
education for women during a long period." Thus,
at Winchester Convent the list of ladies being educated
within the walls at the time of the suppression shows that
these Benedictine nuns were training the children of the
first families in the country. Carrow, in Norfolk, for
centuries gave instruction to the daughters of the neighboring
gentry; and as early as A.D. 1273 a papal prohibition
was obtained from Pope Gregory X., restraining the
nobility from crowding this monastery with more sisters
than its income would support. Again, we read of Mynchin
Buckland that it was a noted seminary for the daughters
of the families in its vicinity. Many families whose names
were the highest in the list of the English gentry of the
day owed to the convent systems all the accomplishments
which enabled them to shine brilliantly in their after life.</p>
<span class="pagenum"><a name="page167" id="page167"></a>[pg 167]</span>

<p>"Reading, writing, some knowledge of arithmetic, the art
of embroidery, music and French, 'after the scole of Stratford
atte Bowe,' were the recognized course of study,
while the preparation of perfumes, balsams, simples, and
confectionery was among the more ordinary departments
of the education afforded." There was as great
protest aroused among the laity against the suppression
of the convents as has been latterly witnessed in France
against the rigid enforcement of the law as to unregistered
schools, resulting in the closing of many schools
which were established on a religious foundation and taught by the nuns.</p>

<p>Many pathetic pleas were addressed to Thomas Cromwell
in behalf of the convents at the time of the Reformation.
The abbess of the famous convent of Godstow, in
Oxfordshire, wrote to Cromwell as follows: "Pleaseth hit
your Honour with my moste humble dowyte, to be advertised,
that where it hath pleasyd your Lordship to be the
verie meanes to the King's Majestie for my preferment,
most unworthie to be Abbes of this the King's Monasterie
of Godstowe.... I trust to God that I have never
offendyd God's laws, neither the King's, wherebie this
poore monasterie ought to be suppressed." She then
continues in an earnest strain to set forth that the recommendation
for the suppression of her convent arose from
private malice on the part of her enemies, and closes with
a denial of the charges preferred, as follows: "And notwithstanding
that Dr. London, like an untrew man, hath
informed your Lordship that I am a spoiler and a waster,
your good Lordship shall know that the contrary is trew;
for I have 'not alienated one halporthe' of goods of this
monastery, movable or unmovable, but have rather incres'd
the same, nor never made lease of any farme or
peece of grounde belonging to this House, or thet hath
<span class="pagenum"><a name="page168" id="page168"></a>[pg 168]</span>
been in times paste, alwaies set under Convent Seal for the wealthe of the House."</p>

<p>The convents were charitable as well as educational
centres, although their benevolent methods would not
meet the approval of modern ideas as to wise almsgiving.
At the set time for the disbursement of alms, the mendicants
thronged the institution, and, by the liberality of the
donors, were encouraged to continue in a life of shiftlessness
and beggary. The disbursement of alms was really
regarded by the recipients not so much as an act of charity
as something which they had a right to expect.</p>

<p>One of the best phases of conventual charity was its influence
in developing the benevolent tendencies of women
of position and means. The feudal system, as we have
seen, was largely a system of dependent relations, so that
those who were in the lowest social scale felt that they
had a right to the gifts of those who were above them.
By the inevitable working of the system, the lives of the
poor were interwoven into the lives of their betters. It
was a gracious work of the Church to teach those who
were in the fortunate places of life their responsibility
toward their less happily situated fellow creatures, and
the monastic almsgiving was a practical exemplification of
the spirit of the Gospel in so far as the customs and practices
of the times made possible a clear interpretation of
its benevolent teachings. Although charity was not organized,
and was dealt directly to the needy without investigation
of their claims on any other ground than actual and
manifest want, and thus was in violation of modern social
tenets and methods, it yet furnishes one of the most engaging
chapters of mediæval life. Modern benevolences,
however different from those of earlier times, nevertheless
derive their spirit and inspiration from the gracious
charities of the mediæval nuns.</p>
<span class="pagenum"><a name="page169" id="page169"></a>[pg 169]</span>

<p>Under the incentive of the example of the monasteries,
the great ladies recognized and frequently performed their
full duty toward their dependants. The Countess of Richmond
maintained a number of poor people within her own
walls. In the sixteenth century, Lady Gresham left, by
her will, tenements in the city, the rents of which were to
be used for the poor. The Countess of Pembroke built
an almshouse and procured for it a patent of corporation.
These are but a few of many illustrious examples of large
charities which serve to brighten the pages of mediæval history.</p>

<p>In the Middle Ages, charity was a personal obligation.
With the elimination of personal service, charity came
increasingly to be dispensed by voluntary associations.
Of such organizations may be instanced the Sisters of
Charity and, in recent years, the various orders of deaconesses.
For although charity has gone outside the bounds
of the Church, its ministrations are directly traceable to
the convents, and it yet finds its most appropriate relations
and allies to be religion and the Church.
<!--Blank page #170 omitted.-->
<span class="pagenum"><a name="page171" id="page171"></a>[pg 171]</span></p>




<h2>Chapter VIII</h2>

<h2>The Women of the Industrial Classes</h2>
<!--Blank page #172 omitted.-->
<span class="pagenum"><a name="page173" id="page173"></a>[pg 173]</span>


<p>The most remarkable fact of the twelfth century in
England was the growth of the towns. As has been
already observed in a previous chapter, the conquest of
Britain by the Normans modified the insularity of the
people and brought them into closer communication with
the people of the continent. One of the most marked
effects of this change was the introduction into the country
of skilled Norman craftsmen. The stimulating effect of
the influx of these specialized workmen was in result not
unlike the general awakening of trade and commerce
throughout Europe, at a later time, as the result of the Crusades.</p>

<p>The expansion of England's industry was also favored
by the vigorous administrations of Henry I. and Henry II.
Another contributive factor was the decline in power of
the barons. Henry I. pitted the town against the castle
in order to counterbalance the vast influence which was
exerted by each. Henry's policy of limiting the independence
of the barons was furthered by the introduction
of scutage, by which the king was enabled to call to his
aid mercenary troops and did not have to rely wholly upon
the feudal forces. Then, too, the Assize of Arms restored
the national militia to its former importance. Such, in
brief, were the constitutional measures by which the towns
<span class="pagenum"><a name="page174" id="page174"></a>[pg 174]</span>
were advantaged and their position as related to the castles
in a sense reversed. The liberty of the latter became
increasingly curtailed, while that of the former was correspondingly augmented.</p>

<p>The town and the castle, however, were not antagonistic,
the interests of the former being furthered by the
protection of the latter. The monastery, also, aided the
town by attracting trade. There was little difference in
conditions of life between the town and the country; both
engaged in agriculture as well as in trade, and both were
governed by a royal officer, or, it might be, by some lord's
steward, while, of course, the houses were somewhat
more clustered in the town than in the country, and the
town possessed the merchant guild. It is impossible to
trace guilds to their origin, although Brentano seeks to fix
England as their birthplace. This is possible, however,
only by narrowing the definition of a guild to fit the English type.</p>

<p>The earliest unmistakable mention of the merchant guild
is at the end of the eleventh or the beginning of the twelfth
century. Under Henry I., grants of merchant guilds appear
in royal town charters, and are frequently met with
during succeeding reigns. By such charters the original
voluntary associations became exclusive bodies, to which
trade was confined. The retail trade of the town was restricted
to members of the guild individually, while the
trade coming to the town was shared by them all collectively.
The burgesses generally found it to their interest
to become members of the guild, and all townsmen of
importance were traders. Ecclesiastics and women might
also be members of the guild, but they were, of course,
debarred from becoming burgesses.</p>

<p>The exclusive tendencies which the merchant guild developed
made it really an oligarchy, and so there grew up
<span class="pagenum"><a name="page175" id="page175"></a>[pg 175]</span>
in the towns an ever increasing population that did not
share the guild privileges. As the town and its trade
developed, the complexity of trade regulations made it a
convenience to have guilds with specialized functions, to
which the merchant guild might deputize its powers. It
was quite natural, too, that men working at the same
trade, and having social and neighborhood association,
should desire to have a guild which would represent their
distinctive interests. Thus the craft guild arose, not in
antagonism to the merchant guild, but as a special agent
of it. So, in the reign of Henry I., there came about the
associations of the weavers, cordwainers, and fullers. By
the end of the fourteenth century craft guilds were numerous,
and in some places the merchant guild was superseded
by them. In their composition the guilds were made up
of masters, journeymen, and apprentices, from whom were
elected the officers and assistances. Women were members
of these craft guilds, although they do not appear to
have taken part in the business administration. "The
charter of the Drapers speaks of both brethren and sistren,
and the list of members, as given on the occasions of
'cessments' shows women-members, both wives of corn-brethren,
independent tradeswomen, and widows of deceased brothers."</p>

<p>The relation of the women to some of the guilds seems
to have been largely a social one. Thus, we read in the
rules of the Calendar Guild, a religious fraternity, that the
wives of guild members had gone to such extremes in
their entertainment of the guild as to cause it to be stipulated
that no woman should spend in excess of a certain
specified sum for hospitality toward the guilds; for these
guilds were formed for various purposes besides trade, and
were in the nature of friendly societies. In addition to
their commercial side, they were "associations for mutual
<span class="pagenum"><a name="page176" id="page176"></a>[pg 176]</span>
help and social and religious intercourse amongst the
people." The proportion of women in the membership
was always large. In her introduction to <i>English Guilds</i>,
Miss Toulmin Smith says that "scarcely five out of five
hundred were not formed equally of men and women....
Even where the affairs were managed by a company of
priests, women were admitted as lay members, and they
had many of the same duties and claims upon the guilds as the men."</p>

<p>Women's association with the guild was not a merely
nominal one, for they shared in all of its privileges and
contributed to all of its funds, although the payments
asked of them were sometimes smaller. The female as
well as the male members had a right to wear the livery
of the guild. Women were engaged in trade and even in
manufacture, and so had direct interest in the craft guilds,
aside from that which they would naturally feel through
the relations thereto of their husbands and brothers. In
the work of his trade a member was always allowed to
employ his wife, his children, and his maid, for the whole
household of the guild brother belonged to the guild. In
later times this led to the degeneration of the guilds into mere family monopolies.</p>

<p>The fraternal feature of the craft guild reminds one of
the same features of the benevolent orders of the present
time. If a member of the guild, male or female, became
impoverished through mishap, they were cared for, and, if
need arose, were buried; dowerless daughters were provided
with marriage portions, or, in case they wished to
enter the religious life, they were provided with the means
to do so. Nor must we overlook the large influence which
the guilds exerted on the side of morality, attaching, as
they did, the greatest importance to the moral character of their members.</p>
<span class="pagenum"><a name="page177" id="page177"></a>[pg 177]</span>

<p>The great Drapers Company embraced in its membership
many women who trained apprentices and carried on
business, as did the male members. The rules of the
company provided that "every brother or sister of the fellowship
taking an apprentice shall present him to the
wardens, and shall pay 1&#190;." The craft guilds exerted
an admirable influence in the raising of woman to the same
plane of respect as that held by men. The equality which
was accorded them in these associations amounted to a
recognition of their intellectual and business capabilities
as being of the same order as those of the men. The
respect which was shown them is illustrated by a provision
of the same company to which we have just referred.
It was ordered that when a "sister" died she should be
interred with fullest honors; the best pall was to be thrown
over her coffin, and the fraternity were to follow her to
the grave "with every respectful ceremony equally as the
men." On the death of a male member of a guild, his
widow was privileged to carry on his trade as one of the
guild; and if a woman married a man of the same trade
who did not have the freedom of the guild, he acquired it
by virtue of the marriage; but should a woman marry a
man of another trade, she was thereby excluded from her
guild connection. Such were the relations of woman to
the guilds. But Brentano notes an exception to the rule
that a widow who married again a man of the same trade
conferred the freedom of the guild upon him: "The wife
of a poulterer may carry on the said mystery after the
death of her husband, quite as freely as if her sire were
alive; and if she marries a man not of the mystery, and
wishes to carry it on, she must buy the (right of carrying
on the) mystery in the above described manner; as she
would be obliged to buy the mystery, if her husband was
of the mystery and had not yet bought it; for the husband
<span class="pagenum"><a name="page178" id="page178"></a>[pg 178]</span>
is not in the dominion of the wife, but the wife is in the dominion of the husband."</p>

<p>The democratic nature of the guilds tended to lessen
class distinctions and to bring about a true fellowship on
the plane of equality. The associations, as has been
said, provided for their members with loving care, and followed
them with love to the grave: "the ordinances as
to this last act breathed the same spirit of equality among
her sons on which all her regulations were founded, and
which constituted her strength." In cases of insolvency
at death, the funerals of poor members were to be respected
equally with those of the rich. "The honor paid
to the dead was also associated with the duty of benevolence;"
thus, for instance, in the statutes of the fullers of
Lincoln, it is said: "When any of the brethren and sistren
die, the rest shall give a halfpenny each to buy bread to
be given to the poor, for the soul's sake of the dead."
The Grocers Company admitted women after marriage to
membership in their fraternity, and they "enter and are
looked upon as of the fraternity for ever, and are assisted
and made as one of us; and after the death of the husband,
the widow shall come to the dinner and pay 40d. if she is able."</p>

<p>In the fourteenth century it was by no means unusual
for women, even though they were married, to carry on
successfully large commercial enterprises in their own
name and by their individual effort. In the <i>Liber Albus
of London</i>, which was compiled in the fourteenth century,
there occurs an ordinance relating to this subject: "and
where a woman <i>coverte de baron</i> follows craft within the
said city by herself apart, with which the husband in no
way intermeddles, such woman shall be bound as a single
woman as to all that concerns her said craft. And if the
husband and wife are impleaded in such case, the wife
<span class="pagenum"><a name="page179" id="page179"></a>[pg 179]</span>
shall plead as a single woman in the Court of Record,
and shall have her law and other advantages by way of
plea just as a single woman. And if she is condemned,
she shall be committed to prison until she shall have made
satisfaction; and neither the husband nor his goods shall
in such case be charged or interfered with." It will be
seen from this that women were accorded wide liberty in
the conduct of business and, whether married or single,
preserved their independence of action and control of property.
The right that woman enjoyed before the courts
of being sued and of suing was, however, a negative one.</p>

<p>The distresses to which women were subjected by the
peculiar form of liberty which they enjoyed is illustrated
by the following quotation from an enactment in the Statute
of Laborers in the reign of Edward III: "Every man
and woman of our realm of England, of what condition he
be, free or bond, able of body and within the age of threescore
years, not living in merchandise, not exercising any
craft nor having of his own whereof he may live, nor
proper land about whose tillage he may himself occupy,
and serving any other, if he be in convenient service (his
estate considered), be required to serve, he shall be
bounden to serve him which so shall him require....
And if any such man or woman being so required to serve
will not the same do,... he shall be committed to
the next gaol, there to remain under strait keeping, till he
find surety to serve in the form aforesaid."</p>

<p>All of the oppressive enactments regulating the wages
of laborers and fixing the maximum of the sum that they
were at liberty to accept affected women equally with
men. An enactment of Richard II. provided "that no
artificer, labourer, servant, nor victualler, man or woman,
should travel out of the hundred, rape, or wapentake
where he is dwelling, without a letter-patent under the
<span class="pagenum"><a name="page180" id="page180"></a>[pg 180]</span>
King's seal, stating why he is wandering, and that the
term for which he or she had been hired has been completed."
Otherwise the offender might be put in a pair of
stocks, which was to be provided in every town.</p>

<p>The guild system, despite its attitude toward women,
was the beginning of the narrowing of her industrial
sphere. Prior to the importation of skilled laborers in
textile and other branches of industry, such activities were
identified with the homes of the people, not merely in that
the industry itself was conducted in them, but that the
product was limited to the needs of the household, the demands
of charity, and such surplus as was used in trade.
The guild broadened the meaning of industry to meet the
demands of a rising commercial system whose trade routes
became clearly established and extended throughout Europe
and into the East. So that, while the industry of
the women artificers became limited in that many things
which had largely occupied their hands became the settled
occupations of men, the products which still depended
mainly upon their industrial activity became much more
widely dispersed, and made them factors in the developing
industries to which England is so deeply indebted for her
trade supremacy. With the decline of guilds, there was
a return on a very large scale to the system of home
industry, when every farmstead and rural cottage became
a manufacturing centre. The development of the factory
system of the eighteenth century, upon the introduction
of improved machinery for manufacture, completely removed
industry from the home and created the modern factory town.</p>

<p>It is not our purpose to do more than suggest the influence
which the guilds exerted in bringing woman into the
larger stream of English life by the definition of her legal
status which her industrial consequence and activities
<span class="pagenum"><a name="page181" id="page181"></a>[pg 181]</span>
made necessary. It has been already remarked that the
statutes of the times made her personally responsible before
the law as an industrial factor. In this way, woman
became increasingly regarded as a social integer rather
than as simply a domestic incident. This was a distinct
gain in the end, however crude the conception at first.
The complex questions of woman's social status are still
largely centred about the question of her industrial place.
The insistent claim of the sex that they shall be regarded
as worthy of a part in the world's work projects into the
discussion of the place that she shall occupy many other
questions concerning matters which are immediately involved.
It is not too much to say that all of the issues
which arose during the modern period, and together form
the specifications of the platform of "woman's rights,"
find their beginning in this first responsible relation of
woman to the industry of the nation. Society is established
upon an economic basis, and so the problem of the
duties and responsibilities of woman in a public way
must be centred about industry. It will not do to criticise
the crudeness of the early legislation regarding
woman when she first stepped into the arena of associated
industry, and to remain oblivious to the fact that
the question of her industrial status is no more satisfactorily
determined after the lapse of centuries. It is true
that the question during these centuries became greatly
involved at times, as, for instance, at the period of the
great industrial revolution; but, with all the aspects which
the question assumes to-day and the problems which are
related to it, the crux of the matter is the same as it was
at the time of the rise of the guilds.</p>

<p>The guild ordinances took the view of woman as an
industrial unit, without regard to her personal relations.
If she became a merchant and associated herself with the
<span class="pagenum"><a name="page182" id="page182"></a>[pg 182]</span>
guild, she was under the same laws regarding financial
responsibility as was any other member. The fact that
she was a woman, or that she was married and had
children, did not constitute a plea in her behalf for different
treatment from that accorded a guild brother. If a
woman-merchant became a debtor, she had to answer in
court as any other merchant, and "an accyon of dette be
mayntend agenst her, to be conceyved aft' the custom
of the seid lite, w[^t] out nemyng her husband in the seid accyon."</p>

<p>The legislation of the period generally recognized the
equality of the sexes in the matter of labor. An ordinance
of Edward IV., made in the borough of Wells, provided
that both male and female apprentices to burgesses should
themselves become burgesses at the expiration of their
term of service. Similar statutes relating to apprentices
in London likewise made no distinction between boys and
girls. The problems centring about woman's relation to
industry not having arisen, the fact of her employment
presented no serious difficulties. When the proclamation
of 1271, relating to the woollen industry, was issued, it
permitted "all workers of woolen cloths, male and female,
as well of Flanders as of other lands, to come to England
to follow their craft." Indeed, the women were less fettered
than the men in their industrial avocations, for, while by
the statute of 1363 the men were limited to the pursuit of
one craft, women were left free in the matter.</p>

<p>In this connection, it is interesting to refer to the development
of the silk industry as a typical occupation of
woman. It is impossible to determine the time when "the
arts of spinning, throwing, and weaving of silk" were first
brought into England. We do know, however, that, when
first established, they were pursued by a company of
women called "silk women." The fabrics of their skill
<span class="pagenum"><a name="page183" id="page183"></a>[pg 183]</span>
were in the many forms of laces, ribbons, girdles, and
other narrow goods. Toward the middle of the fifteenth
century, these women were greatly distressed by the Lombards
and other Italians, who imported into the country
the same sort of goods, and in such quantities that their
sale was hindered and the workers placed in danger of
starvation. This led to a reference of their complaint to
Parliament, with a statement of the grievances for which
they desired redress. This document bore the title: <i>The
petition of the silk women and throwesters of the craftes and
occupation of silk-work within the city of London, which be,
and have been, craftes of women within the same city of time
that no man remembereth the contrary</i>. The petition then
goes on to set forth "that by this business many reputable
families have been well supported; and young women kept
from idleness by learning the same business, and put into
a way of living with credit, and many have thereby grown
to great worship; and never any thing of silk brought into
this land, concerning the same craftes and occupations in
any wise wrought but in the raw silk alone, unwrought,
until now of late that divers Lombards and others, aliens
and strangers, with a view of destroying the silk-working
in this kingdom, and transferring the manufactories to foreign
countries, do daily bring into this land," etc. Then
follows a statement of the inferior grades of fabrics thus
introduced, which the complaint said was "to the great
detriment and utter destruction of the said craftes; which
is like to cause great idleness among the young gentlewomen
and other apprentices to the same craftes." The
petition that the importation of these goods should be prohibited
was granted, and we hear no more of these estimable
ladies and little of their infant industry. It was
then thought no disgrace for a lady of quality to conduct
such household manufactories.</p>
<span class="pagenum"><a name="page184" id="page184"></a>[pg 184]</span>

<p>The town-dwelling woman looked down upon her rural
sister, a fact that is not at all surprising when the difference
in the condition of the two classes of women is considered.
The town-dwelling woman had the privileges of
guild association and the liberties which it gave her, while
the woman in the agricultural districts was but a drudge.
The former were identified with manufactures and commerce,
while the latter were tied to the soil. Even after the
rise of copyhold tenure of land, the grievances of the agricultural
population were considerable, and of many sorts.
While the villains flocked to London to demand legal exemption
from the old labor obligations which went along
with such servile condition, the cottars claimed freedom
from labor rents for their homes, and the copyholders of
all kinds demanded that they should not be compelled to
grind at the lord's mill the corn which they raised for
their household needs. The rising tide of industrial revolution
represented a climax of centuries of grievance; and
when the revolt did come, it was as a demand for the
manumission of property held in villanage. There was
at the time hardly any personal servitude demanding such
strenuous measures for betterment. The popular agitation
seemed to be enlisted against class impositions, and so the following lines:</p>

<div class="poem">  <div class="stanza">
<p>"When Adam delved and Eve span,</p>
<p>Who was then the gentleman?"</p>
  </div>  </div>

<p>became the slogan of the insurgents.</p>

<p>It is not possible to ascertain how particular grievances
in Kent and Essex became identified with the general
movements of the peasantry south of the Thames and
in many parts of the midland. The vast movement,
however, extended throughout the agricultural districts,
and included burgesses of towns, rural priests, yeomen
<span class="pagenum"><a name="page185" id="page185"></a>[pg 185]</span>
and farm laborers. It is unlikely that a personal grievance
should have caused it, but it was precipitated by
such. The immediate occasion was the indignation which
was aroused at an outrage committed by one of the tax
collectors on the daughter of Wat the Tyler. As the indignation
which centred in the sentiment against this
act served to cement the feeling of injustice which was
prevalent among the peasantry, so it is probable that
the act itself was not a solitary instance, but only
one of many indignities which were suffered by the
peasantry at the hands of the representatives of those
above them. Although the insurrection soon came to an
end, and those who were responsible for it suffered the
severest penalties, nevertheless the various "statutes of
laborers" which from this date appear on the statute book
show that the day had gone by when the lords of manors
could require the personal services of tenants in return for
the lands they held; so that the one thousand five hundred
persons who were executed for this social uprising died as
a protest against grievances of the poor tenantry, which
were corrected by legislation.</p>

<p>By the close of the fourteenth century the manorial
courts had lost much of their former vigor; and there were
frequent instances of villain tenants sending their daughters
to service beyond the bounds of the manors, in spite
of the requirement of a license so to do. Daughters were
also married without reference to the lord, or obtaining his
permission, or paying the fee. As a result of their extended
liberties, women as well as men deserted the
country in large numbers and resorted to the towns. The
population thus became much more mobile, and among
the people there was a wider degree of intelligence because
of this fact and of their more varied experience.
As women are the progenitors of the race, it is always
<span class="pagenum"><a name="page186" id="page186"></a>[pg 186]</span>
important for the intelligence of a people that the mothers
shall not be stupid and inane creatures such as were for the
most part the women of the agricultural classes in England
during the greater part of the Middle Ages. They were
limited to the narrow confines of homes, humble indeed,
and yet homes which they could not feel were their own,
and they could not leave these habitations excepting under
conditions which were practically prohibitive. Their days
were spent in an unvarying monotony of domestic duties
and farm labor, which afforded no stimulus to the mind or
food for the soul. It is not strange that morals were as
depraved as manners were uncouth. In the imagination,
superstition took the place that was unoccupied by intelligence;
and the world of the peasant woman, who went
about her round of daily hardship, was peopled by a throng
of supernatural creatures, and her life spent in fear of
violation of some of those strange rules of conduct which
now form interesting matter for the student of folklore.</p>

<p>It is difficult to exaggerate the hardship of the agriculturist
of the Middle Ages; and as she was an active
participant in such labors, besides having upon her the
burdens which commonly belong to the mother of a household,
the woman of the times had to bear duties much
beyond those of a woman in a similar grade of life in England
to-day. The great pestilences of the thirteenth and
fourteenth centuries swept away so many lives that, for
two centuries and a half before the accession of Henry VII.,
the growth of population was so slight as to be scarcely
calculable. The unsanitary condition of the homes in general
was greatly injurious to health; but this was especially
so of the homes of the humble, the women of which
had no ideas of cleanliness, either in person or surroundings.
The weekly shilling or ninepence of the agricultural
laborer must have been distressingly inadequate for the
<span class="pagenum"><a name="page187" id="page187"></a>[pg 187]</span>
needs of the household. These included wheat or rye,
which formed the staple of living, the rent of the cottage,
the usual manor dues, the national tax, something for
clothing, medicine for the children, and occasional items
which would enter into a complete enumeration. Even if the
wife, as was frequently the case, had to bear the burden
of her own support by engaging in some form of industrial
activity in connection with her other duties, the wage of
the husband was barely enough to meet the needs of the
remainder of the family, and he had not a farthing left for
"rainy days," which were of frequent occurrence, or
for those common and extraordinary exactions which could
not be evaded. So rigidly were the taxes levied, even
upon the poorest, that every form of possession came
under tribute; thus, the pet lamb of a poor man, which
may have been the one source of joy to his children and
pleasure to his wife, appears in an inventory of Colchester
as amerced for sixpence. In the fifteenth century, to
which this entry refers, the master of a tenant was forbidden
by the Statutes of Laborers to assist him by relieving
his poverty; and even in case of illness of his wife or
children, the master could not legally furnish him aid. So
onerous was the income tax, levied to meet the expenses
of foreign wars, that it was not uncommon for bequests of
money to be made for the relief of the poor in paying it.
The laborer had attached to his cottage a small piece of
ground, which his wife and himself tilled; he might also
feed his goose or his sheep upon the manor waste, but
only on the sufferance of his master.</p>

<p>By the end of the fifteenth century the lot of this class
of England's population became almost unendurable. The
women, who bore more than their share of the burden of
work in an attempt to provide the bare necessities of existence,
were bowed under a weight of misery which made
<span class="pagenum"><a name="page188" id="page188"></a>[pg 188]</span>
that existence endurable only because they knew of none
better, or none which could possibly come within the
range of their narrow hopes. The wretched condition of
life among those whose possessions were so limited is well
summed up in the following quotation from an article by
Dr. Augustus Jessup in the <i>Nineteenth Century</i>, February,
1884; he says: such people "were more wretched in
their poverty, incomparably less prosperous in their prosperity,
worse clad, worse fed, worse housed, worse taught,
worse tended, worse governed," than the peasants of the
present day; "they were sufferers from loathsome diseases
their descendants know nothing of; the very beasts
of the field were dwarfed and stunted in their growth; the
death rate among children was tremendous; the disregard
of human life was so callous that we can hardly conceive
it; there was everything to harden, nothing to soften;
everywhere oppression, greed, and fierceness."</p>

<p>Although wages were higher by the end of the century,
reaching fourpence a day, meat, cheese, and butter were
much dearer than at its beginning, so that it is doubtful if
the last of the century found the condition of the laborer
at all improved in this respect. As labor was suspended
on the holidays of the Church and for a half-day on the
eves of those holidays, and as the laborer was forbidden
to receive more than a half-day's wage every Saturday,
the men and women most anxious to work, even if they
could obtain constant employment, could not average more
than four and one-half profitable days per week. It is not
surprising that, for want of nutrition, there was throughout
the Middle Ages a wide prevalence of fever, the large
death rate of women and children from this cause affording
evidence of their physical weakness.</p>

<p>The wage of women employed in agricultural labor in
the first half of the fourteenth century was at the rate of
<span class="pagenum"><a name="page189" id="page189"></a>[pg 189]</span>
a penny a day, although this was not uniform; and in
some parts of the kingdom they received considerably
more. Their duties on the farm consisted, in part, in
"dibbling beans, in weeding corn, in making hay, in assisting
the sheep shearers and washing the sheep, in filling
the muck carts with manure and in spreading it upon the
lands, in shearing corn, but especially in reaping stubble
after the ears of corn had been cut off by the shearers,
in binding and stacking sheaves, in thatching ricks and
houses, in watching in the fields to prevent cattle straying
into the corn, or, armed with a sling, in scaring birds from
the seed or ripening corn, and similar occupations. That
they might not fail of employment to fill up the measure
of the hours, there was the winding and spinning of wool
to stop a gap." But these were not the sole employments
of the wives and daughters of the mediæval farmer, for
they took their part in all farmwork together with their
husbands and fathers. After the "black death" had made
such terrible inroads upon the rural population of England,
a woman received a wage that seldom went below twopence
for a day's work; but this amount was diminished
by the effect of one of the Statutes of Laborers, which required
that every woman not having a craft&mdash;that is, not
a town dweller, nor possessed of property of her own&mdash;should
work on a farm equally with a man, and, like the
man, she should not leave the manor or the district in
which she customarily lived, to seek work elsewhere. It
was difficult for a woman of the agricultural classes to pass
out of the dreary sphere in which she lived, for it was
enjoined that if a girl before the age of twelve years&mdash;significant
of the time when she was supposed to be a
woman&mdash;put her hands to works of industry, she must
remain for the rest of her life an agricultural laborer, and
was not permitted to be apprenticed to learn a trade.
<span class="pagenum"><a name="page190" id="page190"></a>[pg 190]</span>
These regulations were, of course, very often honored in
the breach, but nevertheless they were frequently enforced.</p>

<p>The poverty of the peasantry made it necessary for
them to make for themselves almost everything that
entered into the needs of their life,&mdash;their houses, their
clothing, their agricultural implements, and most of their
household articles. Flax was raised, and from it the
women manufactured the linen for the ladies of the hall;
from hemp they made the coarse sackcloth for their underclothing,
and they spun and wove the wool shorn from
the backs of their few sheep for their outer clothing. The
women of this class frequently could not afford an oven of
their own, and so the flour which was made from the grain
that was required to be ground at the lord's mill was also
baked in his oven. The simple medicines were brewed
by the housewife from the herbs which grew by the copse
side or on the commons or in the ditches. When the
manufacture of wool and flax was withdrawn to the towns,
the labor of the women was to that extent lightened,
although their income was correspondingly lessened.</p>

<p>The condition of the very poor was pitiful in the extreme;
as there had been no opportunity for the laying up
of provision for old age, the only recourse for the women
and men alike, when indigency and age overtook them,
was to seek shelter in the almshouses which had been
founded for the decrepit and the destitute. Many yielded
to their "miserable cares and troubles," and died from
starvation. By the fifteenth century the monasteries had
ceased to be important centres for the dispensing of charity,
so that relief from destitution could not be looked for
from that source. The conventual orders, in common
with the rest of the nation, had become burdened with
debt through the wars at home and abroad. The numerous
<span class="pagenum"><a name="page191" id="page191"></a>[pg 191]</span>
regulations for the control of beggars, and the licenses
which were issued to regulate the practice, show the great
prevalence of real poverty and want during the whole of
the fifteenth century, although throughout the Middle Ages
mendicancy was familiar enough.</p>

<p>Such was the condition of the women of the industrial
classes during the Middle Ages. The period that witnessed
the transition from the Middle Ages into modern times, the
breakup of feudalism, and the construction of society upon
a different basis, was, as transitional periods are apt to be,
one of peculiar stress. And as this period in England was
marked by severe wars, with all the blight and desolation
which they bring to a land, it was one of especial severity
upon those who had to bear the burden of such undertakings.
Not only was the standard of living brought low,
and the comforts of life reduced to the bare necessities,
but manners were as disastrously affected as was the
economy of the realm. Crime and violence stalked through
the country, seemingly under no restraint; and from the
prevalence of deeds of violence, it is very clear that law
was not only ineffectual, but that public sentiment was
not strong enough to create a better state of affairs. The
condition was not unlike that which prevailed in Ireland at
the beginning of the nineteenth century. Women were
the chief sufferers from the prevalent lawlessness. They
were seized at night, and, after being dishonored, were
compelled to go to the church, where the priest, under
threats and despite the protests of the victims, performed
the ceremony which linked them to their captors. It mattered
little if the woman happened to be already married,
as such proceedings were supposed by many to constitute
a sufficient divorce. Rent riots were of everyday occurrence,
and murders were not unusual. It was not altogether
the poor who were involved in such deeds of
<span class="pagenum"><a name="page192" id="page192"></a>[pg 192]</span>
violence, as there were among them agitators from the
upper classes, who not only urged them on, but themselves
took part in all such outrages. Often murders and
other forms of violence grew out of the practice of men of
quality having about them bands of retainers who were
frequently the roughest of characters, including men under
indictment for capital offences. No class was quite secure
from the disorderly elements of the population, but the
women of the country districts were more frequently the
sufferers than were their sisters of the towns.</p>

<p>The great increase of sensuality, the low esteem in
which women were held, and the little regard they manifested
for their own characters, showed the decadence into
which the spirit of chivalry had fallen. Being a child of
feudalism, with the decay of that system it went into
eclipse. Nevertheless, chivalry contributed to English life
real benefits, apart from the elevation of women, and
these remained permanent factors in the character of the nation.</p>
<span class="pagenum"><a name="page193" id="page193"></a>[pg 193]</span>




<h2>Chapter IX</h2>

<h2>The Women of the Transition Period</h2>
<!--Blank page #194 omitted.-->
<span class="pagenum"><a name="page195" id="page195"></a>[pg 195]</span>


<p>The authorities upon whom we depend for information
as to the condition of the industrial classes&mdash;particularly
the agricultural&mdash;during the fifteenth century are in such
hopeless conflict that it is impossible to do more than
follow the views of some one of them, with such modifications
and checks as may be reasonably introduced from
the others. The picture already drawn of the utterly
miserable condition of the peasantry during that century
is not ratified by all the writers, and yet the interpretation
of the data, conflicting as it is, must lead to the conclusion
that the condition of that class of English society was far
from being roseate, and that, in the main, it would be
difficult to overdraw the misery which existed; but this
condition was ameliorated to some extent by the introduction
into rural districts of domestic manufactures, after the
decay of agriculture. The compensation that accrued to
the peasantry by a growth in the clothing trade counterbalanced,
in a measure, their other losses, while it also
brought the rural districts into industrial relation with the
towns and aided in bridging the chasm between the two.
The industry was of a nature to enlist the activities of the
women of the households and to bring them into contact
with the commercial life of the nation, in a lesser degree
than their sisters of the craft guilds, it is true, but still in
<span class="pagenum"><a name="page196" id="page196"></a>[pg 196]</span>
a way that had an important bearing upon the industrial history of the country.</p>

<p>The Wars of the Roses, which had been so destructive
to the nobility, and the tendency of the crown to depend
upon the gentry as a balance to the power of the feudal
barons, aided in making more certain and rapid the advance
of the middle class. The style of living is a sure index of
the degree of prosperity; there was a great increase in the
number as well as in the size of the houses which ranked
in importance between the castle of the baron and the
cottage of the peasant. Also, we meet with a change for
the better in the equipment of such houses. Instead of a
few pieces of furniture, rude and primitive, it is not unusual
in the inventories of this time to find complete suits of
furniture for the various rooms of the house. All of the
country gentlemen and more prosperous burghers possessed
quantities of plate. The custom of having but one
bedroom, or two at most, and obliging guests and servants
to sleep in the great hall or in rude shacks temporarily
erected for their accommodation, was no longer common
in this class of society. With the increase of the number
of rooms in the houses, the importance of the hall diminished.
Town and country houses alike were now generally
built around an interior court, into which the rooms
looked, and the windows opening upon the street and
country were small and unimportant. This was not simply
an architectural change, but was due to the necessity
of studying security on account of the disturbed state of
society. Men were beginning to appreciate good houses,
and the women had greater resources in the way of
household utensils and furnishings, particularly in those
pertaining to the kitchen. The glittering rows of pewter
and plate were a source of great satisfaction to housewives,
and were largely depended upon to establish their
<span class="pagenum"><a name="page197" id="page197"></a>[pg 197]</span>
claim to social distinction. The art of making bricks,
which had been lost since the departure of the Romans
from Britain, was revived, and the establishment of brickkilns
stimulated building. By the end of the fifteenth
century, the domestic house was entirely differentiated
from the castle. The materials for dwellings were of the
sort readiest to hand. In the eastern counties, where clay
was more abundant than stone, bricks were commonly used,
while elsewhere the houses were built of stone or wood.</p>

<p>The dwellings of the fifteenth century were commodious
and convenient. A typical country house may be described
as follows: a door on the ground floor led into the hall,
while a staircase on the outside led to the first floor
proper. Inside the door at the head of the stairs was to
be found a shorter staircase, which led to the floor on
which were situated the chambers. Passing into the hall,
the visitor would find himself in the most spacious apartment
of the house. It remained as it had been throughout
the Middle Ages, the public room, open to all who were
admitted within the precincts of the establishment. The
permanent furniture consisted chiefly of benches, and a
seat with a back to it, which was used by the superior
members of the family. In the hall there was usually at
least one table which was a fixture, but the other tables
continued to be made up from planks and trestles when
needed. Cushions and ornamental cloths to place over
the seats and backs of benches were in general use, and
on special occasions the tapestries, some of which had
been in the families for generations, were brought out,
though apparently they were not used on ordinary occasions.
The sideboard was one of the most familiar articles
of furniture, and upon it was arranged the plate, which
was in charge of the butler, and was intended as much
for display as for use. In the large mansions, as in the
<span class="pagenum"><a name="page198" id="page198"></a>[pg 198]</span>
castles, the hall was not complete without the minstrels'
gallery and a dais; though inconveniently large, it was
well warmed and lighted, and the walls were often decorated
with stags' antlers on which to hang the men's hats
and caps, hunting horns and such accessories of the chase,
beside which were suspended arms and armor and fishing
nets; while on the sideboard might be found writing materials
and a book or two. The fresh rushes with which
the floor was strewn gave forth, when first placed, a refreshing
smell when crushed by the foot.</p>

<p>The setting of the table was much the same as it had
been. Knives were not ordinarily placed upon it, because
of the custom of the times for each person to carry his
own knife. Salt was regarded with superstition, and it
was thought desirable that it should be placed upon the
table before other comestibles. There was little attempt
to keep the tiled floor clean except by strewing it with
rushes, and for guests or members of the household to
throw bones or other débris of the table upon the floor was
not looked upon as an offence against manners; indeed,
dogs were almost invariably present, and awaited, as customary,
their meals at the hands of the guests. However,
the directions for behavior at table instructed the person
not to spit upon the table, by which intimation it was delicately
hinted that the proper place upon which to expectorate
was the floor. Again, the guest is told that when he
makes sops in the wine, he must either drink all the wine
in the glass or else throw it on the floor. The uncleanliness
of the seats is also suggested by the instruction given
the learner in etiquette that he should always first look at
the seat before occupying it, to be sure there was nothing
dirty upon it. Table manners had lost some of their ceremony,
but had retained all of their rudeness. Forks were
not used to convey food to the mouth, fingers answering
<span class="pagenum"><a name="page199" id="page199"></a>[pg 199]</span>
every purpose, but it was considered bad manners to eat
with a knife. Other rules for the table are curious
enough, but are also important as illustrating the manners
of the century. Some of them are too disgusting to mention;
others, not open to this objection, may be instanced.
The guest was directed not to dip his meat in the saltcellar
to salt it, but to take a little salt with his knife and put it
on his meat, not to drink with a dirty mouth, not to offer
another person the remains of his pottage, not to eat too
much cheese, and to take only two or three nuts when
they were placed before him. Still other rules are not
without point, such as not to roll one's napkin into a
cord or tie it into knots, and not to get intoxicated during dinner time!</p>

<p>Let us now take a glance at the table service of a noble
dame of the period, where the extreme of etiquette may
be expected to prevail. The hunting horn having announced
that the meal awaits the guests, squires or pages
bear to them scented water for the customary ablutions.
This is served in delicately wrought ewers, placed in silver
basins. A further touch of delicacy to the repast is often
provided by perfumed herbs scattered over the rich damask
tablecloth. The guests are not inconvenienced by the
crowding of decorative vessels on the board. The numerous
courses are well served, for a superior domestic is
charged with this duty, and he is assisted by two varlets.
At the sideboard is a squire or page whose sole duty is to
serve the wines and drinking vessels; he too is assisted
by a varlet, who places them before the several guests.
None of these attendants are required to leave the hall, to
which the officers of the kitchen and the cellar bring the
dishes and the wines. During the meal the gallery is
occupied by the musicians, who, it is to be presumed, will
serve to enliven the formalities attendant on the scene.
<span class="pagenum"><a name="page200" id="page200"></a>[pg 200]</span>
The parlor was a more pretentious room than the hall,
and was ornamented with more care. While it was a
usual feature of town houses of the period, it had been
introduced so comparatively late that its final position in
the plan of the house had not become fixed; sometimes it
was upon the ground floor, and sometimes upon the floor
above, while the larger houses had several such apartments.
It had open recesses with fixed seats on each
side of the window, and the fireplace was smaller and
more comforting than those of the hall. When carpets
came into use, the parlor was the first room to be treated
to the luxury, and it had the additional distinction of being
the only room that contained a cupboard. An inventory
of the furniture of the parlor of a fifteenth-century house
includes the following: a hanging of worsted, red and
green; a cupboard of ash boards; a table and a pair of
trestles; a branch of latten, with four lights; a pair of andirons;
a pair of tongs; a form to sit upon, and a chair. It
will be seen from this list that the furnishings for a parlor
were not numerous, but they are suggestive of a degree of
comfort greatly in advance of that of prior centuries. This
paucity of household furniture did not arise so much from
the inability to procure it as from the insecurity of the
times. Margaret Paston, in a letter to her husband, written
in the reign of Edward IV., says: "Also, if ye be at home
this Christmas, it were well done ye should do purvey a
garnish or twain or pewter vessel, two basins and two
ewers, and twelve candlesticks, for ye have too few of
any of these to serve this place; I am afraid to purvey
much stuff in this place, till we be sure thereof."</p>

<p class="mid"><img alt="" src="images/bk9-2.png" /><br />
</p>

<p class="mid"><i>DINING IN THE FIFTEENTH CENTURY<br />

From a miniature of the period.<br />

________<br /><br />

The hunting horn having announced that the meal awaits the<br />
guests, squires or pages bear to them scented water for the<br />
customary ablutions. This is served in delicately wrought ewers<br />
placed in silver basins. . . . The guests are not inconvenienced<br />
by the crowding of decorative vessels on the board. The numerous<br />
courses are vell served, for a superior domestic is charged with<br />
this duty, and he is assisted by two varlets. At the sideboard is a<br />
squire or page whose sole duty is to serve the wines and drinking<br />
vessels; he too is assisted by a varlet who places them before the<br />
several guests. . . . During the meal the gallery is occupied<br />
by musicians.</i></p>

<p>Wall paintings had come into use in the houses of the
better sort, and the hardwood finishings of the parlor and
other important rooms displayed elaborate carvings and a
massiveness and dignity of scheme. Among the newer
<span class="pagenum"><a name="page201" id="page201"></a>[pg 201]</span>
styles of chairs was one of the folding sort, which exactly
resembled our camp stools. Griffins, centaurs, and the
like were patterns for candle and torch holders, which
were often of wrought iron of an elaborate design. The
branch of latten with four lights, mentioned in the inventory
quoted, referred to a sort of chandelier, holding four
candles, which was suspended from the centre of the ceiling
and was raised and lowered by means of a cord and pulley.</p>

<p>As the people began to lose taste for the hall, on account
of its publicity, they gradually withdrew from it to
the parlors for many of the purposes to which the hall had
been originally devoted. The recess seat at the windows
was the favorite place for the female members of the
household when employed in needlework and other sedentary
occupations, and the apartment was commonly used
for the family meals. In a little treatise dating at the
close of the fifteenth century, one of the speakers is made to
say: "So down we came again into the parlor, and there
found divers gentlemen, all strangers to me; and what
should I say more, but to dinner we went." The table,
we are told, "was fair spread with diaper cloths, the cupboard
garnished with goodly plate." Also, the parlors relieved
the bedchambers of many of the uses to which
they had been put, and secured to them greater privacy.
Largely because of the lack of any other place, ladies had
been accustomed to receive their friends in their bedchambers,
but now the parlor was used for a reception room,
and there was spent much of the time which the female
part of the family had previously passed in the bower or the chamber.</p>

<p>Young ladies of even the great families were brought up
very strictly by their mothers, who kept them constantly
at work and exacted from them an almost slavish respect.
It appears from the correspondence of the Paston family,
<span class="pagenum"><a name="page202" id="page202"></a>[pg 202]</span>
to which reference has been made, that the wife of Sir
William Paston, the judge, was a very harsh mother.
Jane Claire, a kinswoman, sent to John Paston, the lady's
eldest son, an account of the severe treatment of his sister
Elizabeth at Mrs. Paston's hands. The young lady was
of marriageable age, and a man by the name of Scroope
had been suggested as her husband. Jane Claire writes:
"Meseemeth he were good for my cousin, your sister,
without that ye might get her a better; and if ye can get
a better, I would advise you to labour it in as short time
as ye may goodly, for she was never in so great a sorrow
as she is now-a-days, for she may not speak with no man,
whosoever come, nor even may see nor speak with my
man, nor with servants of her mother's, but that she
beareth her on hand otherwise than she meaneth; and
she hath since Easter the most part been beaten once in a
week, or twice, and sometimes twice in a day, and her
head broken in two or three places. Wherefore, cousin,
she hath sent to me by friar Newton in great council, and
prayeth me that I would send to you a letter of her heaviness,
and pray you to be her good brother, as her trust is
in you." Elizabeth Paston's matrimonial desires were not
realized at this time, as she was transferred from the
household of her parents to that of the Lady Pole; this
was in accordance with the custom which we have already
noticed of sending away young ladies to great houses,
where they received their education and served to fill up
the measure of pride of the great lady to whose train they
were attached. The larger the number of such maidens a
lady could boast of, the greater was her importance; nor
did she hesitate to accept payment for the board of those
of whom she thus took charge, and from whom she derived
further profit by employing them at lace making or other suitable work.</p>
<span class="pagenum"><a name="page203" id="page203"></a>[pg 203]</span>

<p>Young ladies were taught to be very demure and formal
in their behavior in company, where they sat bolt upright,
with their hands crossed, or in other constrained attitudes.
In a poem, written about 1430, entitled <i>How the Good Wife
Taughte Hir Dougtir</i>, we have the rules which were enforced
upon girls for their conduct in society, and particularly
the advice which was tendered the girl with regard
to her marriage and her subsequent conduct. The love of
God and attendance upon church were enjoined, and in
the performance of the latter duty she was not to be deterred
by bad weather. She was to give liberally to alms,
and while in attendance upon divine service was to pray
and not to chatter. Courtesy was recommended in all of
the relations of life; and when the time came that she was
sought in marriage, she was told not to look upon her
suitor with scorn, whoever he might be, nor to keep the
matter a secret from her friends. She was not to sit close
to him, because "synne mygte be wrought," and a slander
be thereby raised, which, she is informed, is difficult to
still. She was counselled, when married, to love her husband
and answer him meekly; she was to be well mannered,
not to be rude, nor to laugh boisterously&mdash;or, to
give it as it is expressed in the poem, "but lauge thou
softe and myslde." Her outdoor conduct also was regulated
for her. She was not to walk fast, nor to toss her
head, nor to wriggle her shoulders; she was not to use
many words, nor to swear, for all such manners come to
evil. She was to drink only in moderation, "For if thou
be ofte drunke, it falle thee to schame." She was to
exercise due discretion in all of her relations with the
other sex, and to accept from them no presents. She was
herself to work and to see that those under her were kept
employed; to have faults set right at once, keep her own
keys, and to be careful whom she trusted. If her children
<span class="pagenum"><a name="page204" id="page204"></a>[pg 204]</span>
gave her trouble and were not submissive, she must not
curse or scold them, but "take a smert rodde, and bete
them on a rowe til thei crie mercy." Besides all these
enjoinments, she was impressed with the duty of benevolence,
and was to act as physician to all those about her.</p>

<p>The position of woman at this time was clearly defined.
Certainly the woman of the middle classes had taken her
proper place in society. She did not disdain to look after
the affairs of her establishment, nor was this regarded as
in any way derogatory to her dignity; and this was also
true of women in the highest rank. It is said that, as a
rule, the husband and wife were in full accord, and confided
in one another upon terms of equality. The wife
was careful of her charge at home, and heedful of her
husband's purse; she generally made her own as well as
her children's clothing, if the material were to be had.
No wife of to-day could show greater solicitude for the
comfort and well-being of her husband than did Dame
Paston, the wife of John Paston, who in 1449 wrote to
her husband a letter from which we may extract the following:
"And I pray you also, that ye be wel dyetyd of
mete and drynke, for that is the grettest helpe that ye
may have now to your helthe ward."</p>

<p>The wife was the companion of her husband when he
was at home, and in his absence entertained his guests
with all the graces of hospitality. The duties of the day
did not leave her a great deal of time for leisure, for,
besides directing the conduct of the establishment and
looking after her maidens, teaching them the arts of
housewifery, spinning, weaving, carding wool and hackled
flax, embroidery, and garment making, there were the pet
birds and squirrels in cages to be looked after and fed.
But life was not all labor, nor were the maidens of the
household surfeited with instruction. In their periods of
<span class="pagenum"><a name="page205" id="page205"></a>[pg 205]</span>
relaxation, they danced, played chess and draughts, and
read the latest thing in romances with as keen interest as
the modern society girl evinces in the most recent novel.
To be informed in all such matters was essential to the
standards of culture of the day.</p>

<p>One of the pleasantest features of the country life of
the period was the garden. The English women of to-day
are no fonder of outdoor recreation and exercise than were
their predecessors of the fifteenth century. Alone, or in
parties of their own sex, or with male company, they
wandered over the fields, gathering wild flowers and picnicking
in the woods, spreading upon the grass their lunch
of bread, wine, fish, and pigeon pies. They rode on horseback,
and went hunting, hawking, and rabbit chasing.
Their presence at the tournament gave it its greatest
interest, and the successful contestants considered the
awards that were made them by their ladies doubly valuable,
as indicating at once their prowess upon the field
and their conquests in that no less interesting sphere of
sentiment where Cupid bestows the favors.</p>

<p>Perhaps at no other time in English history have ladies
shown such fondness for pets as in the fifteenth century.
There are frequent references to them in the literature of
the day, and they appear in many of the illustrations;
parrots, magpies, jays, and various singing birds are often
mentioned among domestic pets. Various kinds of small
animals were also tamed and kept in the house, either
loose or in cages, squirrels being especially in favor because
of their liveliness and activity. Gambling was one
of the most popular vices of the day. It was not until
after the middle of the fifteenth century that cards came
into very general use, but by the beginning of the following
century card playing had passed from the stage of fad
and become a passion. After the table was removed, one
<span class="pagenum"><a name="page206" id="page206"></a>[pg 206]</span>
of the servants would bring in a silver bowl full of dice
and cards, and the company would be invited to play. So
general and widespread was the practice that early in the
reign of Henry VIII. an attempt was made to restrict the
use of cards to the Christmas holidays. Women were
hardly less inveterate devotees of this and other games of
chance than the men, although it is not to be concluded that
they took such games as seriously or risked as large sums
as did the other sex. Dinner was served at noon, and the
games, along with dancing, usually occupied the time of
the leisure classes until supper, which seems to have been
served at six o'clock. There was, of course, no other
form of amusement that was so well adapted to polite
circles, or that could be participated in with as much
pleasure by the ladies, as dancing. Many new dances
had been introduced and become fashionable, and these
were much more lively than those of the earlier period,
some so spirited, indeed, as to scandalize the moralists of
the time. After supper the amusements were resumed,
and continued until a late hour, when a second, or, as it
was called, a "rere-supper," was served.</p>

<p>After the members of the household and the guests
were surfeited with amusements, or the lateness of the
hour made sleep welcome, they retired to rest in the upper
chambers. These bedrooms were much more private than
they had formerly been. In the poem <i>Lady Bessy</i>, when
the Earl of Derby is represented as plotting with Lady
Bessy in aid of the Earl of Richmond, he tells her that he
will repair secretly to her chamber:</p>

<div class="poem">  <div class="stanza">
<p>"'We must depart (separate), lady,' the earl said then;</p>
<p>Wherefore, keep this matter secretly,</p>
<p>And this same night, betwixt nine and ten,</p>
<p>In your chamber I think to be.</p>
<p>Look that you make all things ready,</p>
<p>Your maids shall not our councell hear,</p>
<span class="pagenum"><a name="page207" id="page207"></a>[pg 207]</span>
<p>For I will bring no man with me</p>
<p>But Humphrey Brereton, my true esquire.'</p>
<p>He took his leave of that lady fair,</p>
<p>And to her chamber she went full light,</p>
<p>And for all things she did prepare,</p>
<p>Both pen and ink, and paper white."</p>
  </div>  </div>

<p>The bedstead now came to be much more ornamental
than in previous times. The canopy which had formerly
adorned the head of this article of furniture was now
usually enlarged so as to cover it entirely. It was often
decorated with the arms of the owner, with religious
emblems, flowers, or some other form of ornamentation.
The bed itself consisted of a hard mattress, and was often
made only of straw, although feather beds were used to
some extent throughout the century. Chaucer describes
a couch of unusual luxury as follows:</p>

<div class="poem">  <div class="stanza">
<p>"Of downe of pure dovis white</p>
<p>I wol yeve him a fethir bed,</p>
<p>Rayid with gold, and right well cled</p>
<p>In fine blacke sattin d'outremere,</p>
<p>And many a pilowe, and every bere (pillow cover)</p>
<p>Of clothe of Raines to slepe on softe;</p>
<p>Him thare (need) not to turnen ofte."</p>
  </div>  </div>

<p>This description of a bed in the latter part of the fourteenth
century holds good for the succeeding century,
although the bed increased in luxuriousness of hangings.
Feather beds and bed covers are frequently mentioned in
the bequests of the times; by their description, they show
the increase in the comfort and richness of beds, and, by
their mention in wills, the value that was placed upon
them. With the increase of privacy which the bedchambers
afforded at this time, the practice of several people
sleeping in the same room was less general.</p>

<p>The women of the manor house, who may be regarded
as succeeding the women of the castles, were notable for
<span class="pagenum"><a name="page208" id="page208"></a>[pg 208]</span>
their intelligence, purity, and good sense, as revealed to
us by the letters and literature of the times. Their features,
as depicted in illustrations, give evidence of refinement
and culture as well as beauty; to these attractions
was added that of graceful carriage. Although their
dresses fitted closely to the figure, tight lacing had not yet
become the custom. Paris was then, as now, the glass of
fashion for the women of Europe, and the English woman
considered her form to approach perfection the more nearly
as it conformed to the model established in France. At
this period, the ladies were given to similar extremes of
dress and adornment to those which have furnished an
indictment against them since fashion first held sway
over the feminine mind. All classes of society were influenced
by the all-important matter of style, and the women
of each grade of the social scale found their chief contentment
in copying the manners and dress of those above
them. Earlier we found occasion to notice, in brief, the
sumptuary legislation by which it was sought to limit extravagances
in fashion; but the laws have yet to be framed
which can serve permanently to control woman's desires.
So that we shall, perforce, have to continue our discussion
of the evolution&mdash;or as the moralists of the Middle Ages
would have expressed it, if they had possessed the facility
of verbal coinage which is common enough with us, the
"devilution"&mdash;of woman's attire, just as though law had
never attempted its regulation.</p>

<p>The intricacies of the women's coiffure were many.
The practice of dyeing the hair or otherwise altering its
color is of ancient date. Among the Saxons and Normans
it seems to have been confined to the men, for during
those periods the women kept their heads so completely
covered that there was no inducement for them to resort
to such practices; but at the time of which we are now
<span class="pagenum"><a name="page209" id="page209"></a>[pg 209]</span>
treating the custom had some vogue among the ladies,
although it does not appear to have become general until
the reign of Elizabeth, when the ladies had reduced the
art to such a nicety that they were able to produce various
colors and, indeed, almost to change the substance of the hair itself:</p>

<div class="poem">  <div class="stanza">
<p>"Lees she can make, that turn a hair that's old,</p>
<p>Or colour'd, into a hue of gold."</p>
  </div>  </div>

<p>A religious writer of the fifteenth century, declaiming
against the various adornments of the hair and the arts
which were employed to stimulate its growth as well as
alter its color, and against the practice of wearing false
hair, says: "to all these absurdities, they add that of supplying
the defects of their own hair, by partially or totally
adopting the harvest of other heads." To point a moral,
he then gravely relates an anecdote to the effect that
during the time of a public procession at Paris, which had
drawn a great multitude of people together, an ape leaped
upon the head of a certain fine lady, and seizing her veil,
tore it from her head; with it came her peruke of false
hair, so that it was discovered by the crowd that her
beautiful tresses were not her own; thus, by the very
means to which she had resorted to attract the admiration
of the beholders, she received their contempt and ridicule.</p>

<p>A preposterous form of headdress arose in the time of
Henry IV. and became more exaggerated throughout the
fifteenth century; this was styled the horned headdress.
It began with a heart-shaped headdress, which rose higher
on either side until, in the reign of Henry V., the points of
the heart had become veritable horns. This ungraceful
coiffure assumed all sorts of extravagant and absurd varieties.
It became a favorite mark for the shafts of the
satirists and the jests of the wits, to say nothing of themes
<span class="pagenum"><a name="page210" id="page210"></a>[pg 210]</span>
for sermons; but the fair ladies, invulnerable to all such
criticisms, were not to be deterred from indulging their pet
follies. One of the first references to the prevailing style
was that made by John de Meun in his poem called the
<i>Codical</i>: "If I dare say it without making them [that is,
the ladies] angry, I should <i>dispraise</i> their hosing, their
vesture, their girding, their head-dresses, their hoods
thrown back with their <i>horns</i> elevated and brought forward,
as if it were to wound us. I know not whether
they call them <i>gallowses</i> or <i>brackets</i>, that prop up the
horns which they think are so handsome; but of this I am
certain, that Saint Elizabeth obtained not Paradise by the
wearing of such trumpery." But this style of hair dress
was not made by the hair after all, but by the wimple,
which was raised on either side of the head and supported
by a frame or by pins. John de Meun flourished at the
beginning of the fourteenth century, and had he lived in
the fifteenth, when the horned headdress <i>par excellence</i>,
made up of prongs of hair protruding forward from the
forehead, was in vogue, he would have been still more
aghast. These horns were carefully constructed with the
aid of rolls of linen. Sometimes they had two long wings
on either side, and received the name of "butterflies."
The high, pointed cap which was worn was covered with
a piece of fine lawn, which hung to the ground, and the
greater part of which was tucked under the wearer's arm.
By a writer of the day we are told that the ladies of the
middle rank wore caps of cloth which consisted of several
breadths or bands twisted round the head, with two wings
on each side "like asses' ears." As one wanders through
the mazes of description of the hair dress of the period, he
is prepared to agree with the author to whom we have
just referred, that "it is no easy matter to give a proper
description in writing of the different fashions in the
<span class="pagenum"><a name="page211" id="page211"></a>[pg 211]</span>
dresses of the ladies"; and so we shall submit the case
in terms of still another writer's description; Philip Stubbs
says: "Then followeth the trimming and tricking of their
heads, in laying out their hair to the show; which, of force,
must be curled, frizzled, and crisped, laid out in wreaths
and borders, and from one ear to another; and, lest it
should fall down, it is underpropped with forkes, wires,
and I cannot tell what; then, on the edges of their bolstered
hair, for it standeth crested round about their frontiers,
and hanging over their faces, like pendices or vailes,
with glass windows on every side, there is laide great
wreathes of gold and silver, curiously wrought, and cunningly
applied toe the temples of their heads; and, for
feare of lacking anything to set forth their pride withal, at
their hair thus wreathed and crested, are hanged bugles, I
dare not say bables, ouches, ringes of gold, silver, glasses,
and such other gew-gawes, which I, being unskillful in
woman's tearmes, cannot easily recompt." He then discusses
the "capital ornaments" upon the "toppes of these
stately turrets," which he informs us consisted of a French
hood, hat, cap, kerchief, and such like. He laments the
fact that to such excesses did the fashions go, and so
widely were the women influenced by them, "that every
artificer's wife almost will not stike to goe in her hat
of velvet every day; every merchant's wife, and meane
gentlewoman, in their French hoods; and every poor cottager's
daughter's daughter in her taffeta hat, or else wool
at least, well lined with silk, velvet, or taffeta." He adds
that they had other ornaments for the head, "made net-wise,"
and which he says he believes were termed
"cawles," the object of this tinsel being to have the head
with its ornaments glisten and shine like a mass of gold.
He then dismisses with a word the "forked cappes" and
"such like apish toyes of infinite variety."</p>
<span class="pagenum"><a name="page212" id="page212"></a>[pg 212]</span>

<p>Face painting, which came in direct derivation from the
tattooing of the ancient Britons, is a practice that at
the time of which we are writing was very prevalent in
England. It came under as vigorous arraignment by the
writers of the fifteenth century as did the ridiculous forms
of hair dress. The cosmetics in use were of many sorts,
and were usually injurious to the skin of the user.</p>

<p>The dress of the women also fell under censure and
satire, although that of the men was even more strongly
reprobated by contemporary writers. It does not do to
accept too readily the strictures passed upon the dress of
any age without considering the source of the criticism.
Throughout the Middle Ages, the clergy found dress a convenient
topic for their moralizing, and there is no doubt
that the strictures were often excessive, although the
activity with which the matter was discussed indicates
the importance in which it then was held and also makes
it an important subject for our investigation as a determining
element in the study of the manners and customs
of the period as they relate to woman and reveal her to us.</p>

<p>The great variety of fabrics, many of them imported,
which were in use enabled women to make a wide choice
in the selection of material for their clothing, while it also
afforded the women of the lower orders an opportunity for
almost as varied a display as was made by those in higher
ranks. In the reign of Henry IV., who revived the sumptuary
legislation of the kingdom with regard to dress,
Thomas Occliff, the poet, in rebuking the extravagances
of the times, speaks of those who walked about in gowns
of scarlet twelve yards wide, with sleeves reaching to the
ground and lined with fur, of value beyond twenty pounds,
and who, if they had been required to pay for what they
wore, would not have been able to buy enough fur to line
a hood; and he adds that the tailors must soon shape their
<span class="pagenum"><a name="page213" id="page213"></a>[pg 213]</span>
garments in the open field for lack of room to cut them in
their houses. He mourns chiefly the extravagance of dress
on the part of the wealthy, because "a nobleman cannot
adopt a new guise, or <i>fashion</i>, but that a knave will follow his example."</p>

<p>After the middle of the fifteenth century, the ladies
ceased to wear the long trains which they had formerly
affected, and substituted excessively wide borders of fur
or velvet. By the end of the century, the dress of the two
sexes was so nearly alike that it was difficult to distinguish
between them. The men wore skirts over their lower
clothing, their doublets were laced in front like a woman's
stays, and their gowns were open in the front to the girdle
and again from the girdle to the ground, where they trailed
slightly. At first, the ladies imitated the men, who wore
greatly padded trunks, by extending their garments from
the hips with foxes' tails and "bum rolls," as they were
called; but as they could not hope to keep pace with the
vast protuberance of the men's trunks, they introduced
the farthingales, which enabled them to appear as large as they pleased.</p>

<p>Such were the manners and styles of the period with
which the Middle Ages closed and the modern era began.
They were not markedly different from those of the later
Middle Ages generally, but that was because fundamental
changes in society do not find their first expression in
matters which are superficial. The great revolution which
had been going on in the basic forms of society, through
peaceful processes as well as social upheavals and the
prowess of arms, had its reflux more in the morals than in
the manners of the age. Nevertheless, one cannot pursue
the theme of custom and manners throughout the mediæval
period without being conscious of a progress or development
significant of more than mere caprice. This, in fact,
<span class="pagenum"><a name="page214" id="page214"></a>[pg 214]</span>
was the case. Any philosophic treatment of English
society during the Middle Ages would have to take cognizance
of manners and customs as indices of the growth of
political, constitutional, and religious principles; and in
this growth would appear the consistently developing status of woman.</p>

<p>While it is difficult to fix upon any one fact as comprehending
the condition of women in English society at
the close of the Middle Ages and the beginning of the
new era, there is one which challenges attention. In
reaping the harvest of the narrow and bigoted times
through which she passed, woman found herself possessed
of one sort of fruitage, namely, public rights. The essential
equality of the woman and the man, which first
appeared in the castle, had become a general fact of English
society. Feudalism and its vassalage of the female
sex had disappeared, and the women of the industrial
classes, whatever their economic condition, became sovereigns
of themselves. The women of the towns, largely
through the instrumentality of the guilds, had established
precedents which marked the path of their progress as
"persons" before the law. Associated industry drew
them out of their homes, or at least out of the limited
sphere of home life, and placed in their hands the loom
and the spindle of the world's industry. "The candle"
of the goodwife "that went not out by night" no longer
burned for the provident industry of household needs, but
became a veritable torch to illumine the paths of England's
commerce and to add to that glory of civilization which
constitutes her commercial greatness.</p>

<p>Out of the whole body of womankind, the Church had
chosen to select a class of women who were dedicated
to its service and who taught by their acts the responsibility
of the prosperous toward their needy brethren;
<span class="pagenum"><a name="page215" id="page215"></a>[pg 215]</span>
while this does not appear to have been a benefit to
women generally, but simply a training in charity for the
classes who were consecrated to that object, nevertheless
the influence of these chosen women upon their sex, in
awakening their keener sensibilities toward poverty and
distress, aided in placing upon the brow of woman the
queenly crown of compassion which has made her so
largely a ministering force in modern society.</p>

<p>The elegance and refinement of the women of the
manors, as well as the stability and resourcefulness of
the wives of the wealthy burghers, already gave indication
of the development of the splendid type of modern English
society known as the country gentry and the no less
admirable class of the English tradespeople. Indeed, the
evolution of the middle class as a conservative force is one
of the greatest factors to be considered in mediæval study.
"Blue blood," once regarded as a peculiar strain of vital
fluid by which, through some mysterious means, the
upper stratum of society was marked off from the lower,
came to be detected in the veins of those whose only
pedigree was poverty and whose only claim upon the consideration
and respect of their fellows was real worth of
character. An aristocracy which could be repleted from
the plebeian ranks of the middle classes of society, upon
whose members titles were bestowed, not because of their
readiness to respond to the needs of the privy purse of a
monarch, but because they had assumed leading and important
positions in relation to England's honor and power,
was an aristocracy that did not become archaic or degenerate.
The equality of opportunity, which is the pride
and promise of modern society, had its beginnings in those
early days when the gate of emergence from lower class
conditions was so seldom opened far anyone to pass out to
where the ascent of Parnassus might quicken his ambition.</p>
<span class="pagenum"><a name="page216" id="page216"></a>[pg 216]</span>

<p>Long after feudalism had ceased, however, it was difficult
to disabuse the minds of people of the idea that the
blood which flowed in the veins of a gentleman was different
from that of a peasant or a burgher. It is curious to
note one of the legendary explanations of the division of
blood as given by Alexander Barclay, a poet of the reign
of Henry VII. According to his story, while Adam was
occupied with his agricultural labors, Eve sat at home
with her children about her, when she suddenly became
aware of the approach of the Creator, and ashamed of the
number of her children, she hurriedly concealed those
which were less favored in appearance. Some she placed
under hay, some under straw and chaff, some in the
chimney, and some in a tub of draff; but such as were
fair and comely she kept with her. The Lord told her
that He had come to see her children, that He might promote
them in their different degrees. When she presented
them, according to age, one was ordained to be a king,
another a duke, and so on through the list of high dignities.
The maternal solicitude of Eve made her unwilling that
the concealed children should miss all the honors, and she
brought them forth from their hiding places. Their rough
and unkempt appearance, which was due to the nature of
their places of concealment, added to their unprepossessing
personalities, disgusted the Lord with them. "None,"
He said, "can make a vessel of silver out of an earthen
pitcher, or goodly silk out of a goat's fleece, or a bright
sword out of a cow's tail; neither will I, though I can, make
a noble gentleman out of a vile villain. You shall all be
ploughmen and tillers of the ground, to keep oxen and
hogs, to dig and delve, and hedge and dike, and in this
wise shall ye live in endless servitude. Even the townsmen
shall laugh you to scorn; yet some of you shall be
allowed to dwell in cities, and shall be admitted to such
<span class="pagenum"><a name="page217" id="page217"></a>[pg 217]</span>
occupations as those of makers of puddings, butchers,
cobblers, tinkers, costard-mongers, hostlers, or daubers."
This, so the story informs us, was the beginning of servile
labor; and such a view of caste was no more displeasing
to the peasantry, who knew nothing better, than it was to
the baron, whose pride it pampered.</p>

<p>A poem of the latter part of the fifteenth century gives
the wishes appropriate to the men and women of the different
ranks of French society. Those of the women are
most characteristic. Thus, the queen wishes to love God
and the king, and to live in peace; the duchess, to have
all the enjoyments and pleasures of wealth; the countess,
to have a husband who is loyal and brave; the knight's
lady, to hunt the stag in the green woods; the lady of
gentle blood also loves hunting, and wishes for a husband
valiant in war; the chamber maiden takes pleasure in
walking in the fair fields by the riversides; while the
burgher's wife loves, above all things, a soft bed at night,
with a good pillow and clean white sheets. This statement
of the characteristic desires of the various classes of
French women holds good as well for the English women of that period.</p>

<p>The court of Burgundy, which, during the fifteenth century,
was notable for its pomp and magnificence and its
ostentatious display of wealth, was regarded as furnishing
the models of high courtesy and gentle breeding; and it
was the centre of literature and art. Circumstances had
brought the court of England into intimate connection with
it, so that England was more affected by Burgundy than
by any other part of Europe. The social character in England
and France, which, to some extent, had followed
parallel lines since the Norman conquest, now began to
diverge widely. The breakdown of feudalism in England,
where it had never been so fully developed as in France,
<span class="pagenum"><a name="page218" id="page218"></a>[pg 218]</span>
was not contemporaneous with French conditions in this
respect. Consequently, in the latter country, the chasm
between the lower and the upper strata of society grew
ever wider, the lower classes becoming more and more
miserable, and the upper more immoral. In England, as
we have seen, serfdom disappeared, or existed in name
only, and the relation between the country gentry and the
peasants became increasingly intimate and kindly. The
growth of commerce had spread wealth among the middle
classes and had added much to their social comfort. Although
social manners were still very coarse, the influence
of religious reformers, such as the Lollards, was being
felt in an improvement in the moral tone of the middle and
lower classes of society. Moreover, the discussion of great
social questions had become general among the people.
Even in the middle of the fourteenth century, the celebrated
poem of <i>Piers Plowman</i> took up such discussions,
and one of the tenets of the Lollards was the natural
equality of man. In England, conditions were ripe for the
advent of a new era, and in the fulness of time there came
forth the spirit of new learning, of new industry, of exploration,
of investigation, and of religious freedom, to lead
the English people into the inheritance for which they had
been prepared by those centuries over a part of which
hung such a pall as to secure for them the title of the Dark Ages.</p>
<span class="pagenum"><a name="page219" id="page219"></a>[pg 219]</span>




<h2>Chapter X</h2>

<h2>The Women of the Tudor Period</h2>
<!--Blank page #220 omitted.-->
<span class="pagenum"><a name="page221" id="page221"></a>[pg 221]</span>


<p>As the year has its seasons, marked by alternations of
active growth and recuperation for new development, so
likewise has history. If the Middle Ages were a time of
comparative dearth as viewed in the light of the modern
era, certainly there was ample vitality hidden in the quiet
forms and the mechanical fixity of the period. The season
of vernal glory for England, which opened with the reign
of Henry VIII. and found its climax in that of Elizabeth,
was glorious because the beauty and brilliancy which characterized
it were due to the splendid utilities which were
passed on to it from the Middle Ages. Art, literature, and
the pleasant pastimes of leisure&mdash;the affluence of prosperity&mdash;are
the efflorescence of a people's history, though the
absence of these graces and privileges of life may not
mean a dearth in any profound sense, for it may be that
their absence but indicates a lack of favoring conditions
for the root stock to put forth foliage and flower. The
simple form of social life which obtained during the Middle
Ages, as contrasted with the brilliancy of intellect and the
breadth of view of the modern era, does not denote any
important difference in the character of the great mass of
the English people, any more than it can be said of the
fallow land not under cultivation that it has less productivity
than the fields which by the waving grain give evidence of their fertile worth.</p>
<span class="pagenum"><a name="page222" id="page222"></a>[pg 222]</span>

<p>The easy acceptance in modern times of the benefits of
inventions which greatly broaden the scope of living and
add immeasurably to its comfort shows how readily people
adjust themselves to advances in the conditions of life.
So that which we look upon as an era was not so considered
by the people who witnessed the stimulus which we
regard as the beginning of all modern intellectual and
social life. For this reason, we need not expect to discover
in the women of the early modern period any radical
difference from their sisters of preceding generations;
but we shall find that, with the change of environment
and the coming of a better state of life in general, womankind
was gradually and insensibly affected in ways of
permanent improvement. The opening up of new avenues
of human interest and the enlargement of old ones
increased the sphere of woman's life and influence; yet
had it not been for the status she had achieved already,
she would no more have entered prominently into the
blessings and privileges of the new era than did the women
of Greece generally benefit by the Golden Age of Pericles.</p>

<p>It is interesting to note that at the beginning of the
modern era population was increasing so slowly as to be
practically stationary, and, indeed, for generations past
there had been no appreciable increase. Even after the
favorable conditions of the reign of Henry VIII. became
general, population made comparatively slow progress.
Families were not so numerous, or the number of their
members so great, as compared with to-day. It was an
exception for a laborer to maintain his family in a cottage
to themselves. Farm work was commonly done under the
superintendence of country esquires, and the laborers lived
in the paternal cottage and remained single, marrying only
when by their providence they had managed to save
enough to enable them to enter upon some other career.
<span class="pagenum"><a name="page223" id="page223"></a>[pg 223]</span>
The competition of other countries, notably France, with
the industries of England proved disastrous to many forms
of England's industrial activities; and to the introduction
into the kingdom of a number of wares and merchandise
of foreign make was attributed the great number of idle
people throughout the realm. To counteract this condition,
Henry issued statutes for the encouragement of manufacturing.
One of these aimed to stimulate the linen
industry. In order that the men and women living in
idleness, which was styled "that most abominable sin,"
might have profitable employment, it was ordained and
enacted that every person should sow one-quarter of an
acre in flax or hemp for every sixty acres he might have
under cultivation. The immediate purpose of the act was
to keep the wives and children of the poor at work in their
own houses, but it also indicated that the condition of
manufactures in England was not such as to encourage an enlarging population.</p>

<p>The condition of the laboring classes during the reign of
Henry VIII. was not such as to excite general dissatisfaction;
indeed, there are evidences of a general state of
contentment among the people. The laws for the encouragement
of trade and the sumptuary legislation for the
regulation of wages and prices were economic measures
which may not stand the test of examination according to
modern ideas, but which nevertheless tended, on the
whole, to benefit those in whose behalf they were made.
Industry was the spirit of the times, and idleness was the
most abhorrent of vices. Men, women, and children,
alike, were to be trained in some craft or other, to prevent
their becoming public charges. The children of parents
who could afford the fees which were exacted for apprenticeship
were set to learn trades, and the rest were bound
out to agriculture; and if the parents failed to see to
<span class="pagenum"><a name="page224" id="page224"></a>[pg 224]</span>
it that their children were started out in a career of labor,
the mayors or magistrates had authority to apprentice
such children, so that when they grew up they might not
be driven to dishonest courses by want or incapacity.</p>

<p>Throughout the sixteenth century, all classes of society
appear to have had a reasonable degree of prosperity, according
to their several needs and stations. The country
gentlemen lived upon their landed estates, surrounded by
those evidences of solid comfort which give attractiveness
to such life. The income of the squire was sufficient to
afford a moderate abundance for himself and his family,
and between him and the commons there was not a wide
difference in this respect. Among all classes of the people
there was a spirit of liberality, open and free; the practicality
of the age was not inaccordant with generous hospitality.
To every man who asked it, there were free fare
and free lodging, and he might be sure of a bountiful board
of wholesome food. Bread, beef, and beer for dinner, and
a mat of rushes in an unoccupied corner of the hall, with a
billet of wood for a headrest, did not constitute luxurious
entertainment, but were regarded as elements of real comfort.
Nor was the generous hospitality proffered to strangers
often abused; the statutes of the times kept suspicious
characters under such close notice, and were so repressive
of predatory and vicious instincts, that there was little
occasion for alarm such as is felt by the modern housewife
in country districts along much-travelled roads. The hour
of rising, both summer and winter, was four o'clock;
breakfast was served at five, after which the laborers
went to their work and the gentlemen to their business.
Life lacked much of modern refinement, although it made
up for this lack in wholesomeness and heartiness. The
large number of beggars in the reign of Henry VIII. was
due in part to the suppression of the monasteries and the
<span class="pagenum"><a name="page225" id="page225"></a>[pg 225]</span>
drying up of those springs of charity, and the open-handed
hospitality which had encouraged begging while relieving
distress. Upon the assumption that there was no excuse
for an able-bodied vagrant, the penalties imposed upon
"sturdy beggars" were severe. Such, in brief, was the
state of English society at the beginning of the modern era.</p>

<p>The influence of the Church was on the wane before the
rupture with the papacy was brought about by Henry VIII.,
and the laity were beginning to assume the positions, liberties,
and privileges which had appertained to the clergy
as the one scholarly and dominant class of the kingdom.
Under the new conditions of liberty in which we find
woman, there was no room for the continuance of even
the forms of chivalry. Idealized woman no longer existed;
she had become practical. Having sought a position of
public activity, she had been recognized as possessing the
private rights of an individual of the same nature and of
similar status as man. It was no longer needful to go to
the convent to find the religious or intellectual types of
womankind, for religion, benevolence, and literature were
no longer identified only with the cloister. However disastrous
was the suppression of the monasteries to the little
bands of women who wore the habit of the <i>religieuse</i>,
women in general did not feel the upheaval nearly so
much as they did the other social changes, which were
not so radical, but were very much more influential in
their relation to the destiny of the sex as a whole.</p>

<p>Although manners were very free, and nowhere more
so than among persons of the higher orders of society,
such coarseness is not the true criterion by which to gauge
the women of the day. Even if they did not hesitate to
use profanity, were adepts at coquetry of an undisguised
type, and were guilty of conduct which merited more than
the term "indiscreet," it must be borne in mind that they
<span class="pagenum"><a name="page226" id="page226"></a>[pg 226]</span>
were creatures of their times. While English society was
noted for its rudeness and coarseness, it was saved from
much of the effeminacy which poisoned the life of its
neighbors on the continent. The sixteenth century took
a more generous, complimentary, and true view of womankind.
In the Middle Ages, she suffered from the exaggerated
praise of the knight and the troubadour on the one
hand, and on the other from the contempt and contumely
of the ecclesiastic. From this equivocal position of being
at the same time an angel and a devil she was rescued by
the sanity and sincerity of the sixteenth century, and was
placed in her true position as a woman, possessed of essentially
the same characteristics as men, worthy of like
honor, and making appeal for no special consideration excepting
that which her sex evoked instinctively from men.
The modern idea had begun to prevail, and woman was no
longer either worshipped or shunned, but was welcomed
as a sharer of the common burdens and joys of life. To
continental observers it was marvellous that the English
woman should have the large amount of liberty that she
enjoyed; and Europeans not understanding the English
point of view were apt to construe such liberty as boldness.
Thus, one writer from abroad is found commenting
upon the sixteenth-century English woman as follows:
"The women have much more liberty than perhaps in any
other place; they also know well how to make use of it; for
they go dressed out in exceedingly fine clothes, and give
all their attention to their ruffs and stuffs to such a degree
indeed that, as I am informed, many a one does not hesitate
to wear velvet in the streets, which is common with
them, whilst at home perhaps they have not a piece of dry bread."</p>

<p>Elizabeth Lamond's <i>Discourse of the Commonweal</i> recites
that there was more employment for the men and women
<span class="pagenum"><a name="page227" id="page227"></a>[pg 227]</span>
of the towns and cities when the wants of people were
more modest. The population of London, despite the attempts
made by Queen Elizabeth to prevent the influx of
foreigners and persons from the rural districts, increased
rapidly during her reign. On coming into the city, the
rustics soon wasted their small savings in the rioting and
revels which characterized the rough life of the metropolis.
Drinking, gambling, and all forms of license enticed the
husband from his home and destroyed the domestic felicity
which had been the characteristic of country living.
Country and town life were still widely separated by bad
roads and poor means of conveyance. The wives even of
the gentry knew, as a rule, nothing of city life, excepting
from the accounts which their husbands might bring back
to them from occasional jaunts to the metropolis; to all
such accounts they listened with wide-eyed wonder.</p>

<p>The amusements of the women of the better sort, who
did not find their entertainment in the vices of the times,
took chiefly the form of spectacles, to which they readily
flocked. It mattered little whether it was a mask, a miracle
play, a church procession or a royal progress, a cock
fight or a bear baiting. The brutality of their sports no
more affected their feelings than do the revolting circumstances
of a bull fight shock the sensibilities of the women
of Spain's cultured circles. When any morning they might
see the heads of some unfortunates stuck on pikes and
gracing with their gruesome presence the city gate, it is
not surprising that the people were not repelled by brutal
exhibitions of a lesser sort. Nor did the forms of punishment
in use for malefactors of one kind or another
tend to soften the feelings of the women of the time. It
was no unusual thing for a woman convicted of being a
common scold to be seen going about the streets with her
face behind an iron muzzle clamped over her mouth, a
<span class="pagenum"><a name="page228" id="page228"></a>[pg 228]</span>
subject for the jeers and ribald mirth of coarse-minded
women no better than herself. Such characters were also
taken to the ducking stool and thoroughly doused in the
water. The punishment of thieves by branding and by
mutilation, and the punishment meted out to women whose
characters, even in that gross age, affronted public morals,
were of a public nature and matters of daily observation.
Nor was any woman quite sure that the gibbet, from
which she could at almost any time see the swaying form
of some unfortunate, might not next serve for the execution
of her own husband; for the number of capital offences
was large, and the inquiries of justice by no means lenient
on the side of the accused.</p>

<p>The destruction of the monasteries brought about, in a
large measure, the dissolution of the educational system
of the realm. The sons of the poor husbandman, who
had been taught at the convent schools, and then passed
on through the universities, and thence had gradually
worked their way into the professions of religion or the
law, had the door of opportunity to a higher station
closed to them. The deprivation was more severe in the
case of girls, although it did not signify so much for them
in relation to their future&mdash;unless, indeed, it did so by debarring
from the profession of religion some who might
have entered it. The clergy tried to meet the educational
demands which were so suddenly thrown upon them, but
it was impossible for them to afford educational facilities
for the youth of either sex at schools without endowment
or adequate support. Elizabeth, with the wide view and
the sagacity which she showed with regard to all aspects
of her kingdom, evinced her recognition of the importance
of education by establishing one hundred free grammar
schools, whose number rapidly increased during her reign.
In the course of time, these schools fell under the control
<span class="pagenum"><a name="page229" id="page229"></a>[pg 229]</span>
of the middle class and afforded education for their sons
and daughters. But in England there were certainly very
few, if any, women of the middle class who entered largely
into the benefits of the new learning which came in with
the Renaissance. The study of Latin and Greek and the
discussion of philosophy and science were confined to the
women of the leisure classes. The English universities in
the sixteenth century were closed to women; but such
lack was made up by private tutors, women of rank and
position thus having the benefit of the brightest minds of the age.</p>

<p>The great awakening of intellectual life in England, in
common with the continental countries, showed itself
in activity in all departments of thought: poetry flourished,
theology caught the infection of the new spirit of liberty,
and the classics were studied with avidity as the springs
of the world's literature and learning. The invention of
the printing press let loose the floods of knowledge, and
the women of the higher classes were caught in the flow
of books and pamphlets, and their intellects were quickened
and their characters formed by these new sources of
inspiration and wisdom. Woman was no longer designated
as the daughter of the Church, which was formerly the
highest encomium that the condescension of the Church
could afford her. She now stood on her own independence
of character, possessed of an intellect and accorded the freedom of its use.</p>

<p>The example of the Virgin Queen was held up to the
youth of England for their imitation. Elizabeth's education
had been most zealously cared for. To her remarkable
aptitude for learning she added a studious disposition.
At an early age she was an accomplished linguist; the
sciences were familiar to her, she "understood the principles
of geography, architecture, the mathematics, and
<span class="pagenum"><a name="page230" id="page230"></a>[pg 230]</span>
astronomy." Her studies, save one, however, she regarded
rather in the light of pastime; to the exception&mdash;history&mdash;she
"devoted three hours a day, and read works
in all languages that afforded information on the subject."
Thus was her mind stored with the philosophy of history;
men and events in their ever changing relations were an
open book to her. Hence, when the responsibilities of
sovereignty devolved upon her she was resourceful and
prompt. Whether dealing with her ambitious subjects, or
receiving the wily ambassador of a foreign power, her poise could not be disturbed.</p>

<p>With the example and influence of the Tudor princesses
before them, the women least needed the exhortation to
intellectual attainments. It was said by a foreign scholar
who visited England in the middle of the sixteenth century
that "the rich cause their sons and daughters to learn
Latin, Greek, and Hebrew, for, since this storm of heresy
has invaded the land, they hold it useful to read the Scriptures
in the original tongue." With all the profession of
knowledge which was assumed by the people of this age,
there went a great deal of pedantry. It became very tiresome
to listen to the conversations of select bodies of
the devotees of the new wisdom, who had touched but the
skirts of the garments of the Muses. The great number of
literary coxcombs and dilettanti who were scribbling Latin
verse and propounding philosophical theses, or pronouncing
upon new theological views, serves to impress one
with the superficiality of the learning of the day, so far as
is concerned the great body of its professed disciples,
while in contrast to these we are led to respect more profoundly
the genuine attainments of the brilliant group of
men and women who made the reign of Elizabeth illustrious
for its varied and almost matchless learning. In spite
of all the pretence to learning on the part of the great
<span class="pagenum"><a name="page231" id="page231"></a>[pg 231]</span>
mass of women who had neither the taste nor the capacity
to drink deep at the Pyrenean spring, it must be said that
in no other period of English history has there been shown
such marked and general eagerness for knowledge as in
the sixteenth century, nor has any other period exhibited
such a galaxy of great women. The wide diffusion of a
love of literature is in striking contrast to the literary
dearth of the preceding centuries.</p>

<p>It was not, however, a period of brilliant authorship
among women. The new learning had first to be imbibed
and become a part of the national thought before it could
express itself in literary products. Translations of the
classics and the works of the Church Fathers, with literary
correspondence and discussions in choice Latin prose,
as well as the composition of distiches in the same tongue,
with occasional instances of adventure into Greek and
Hebrew composition, summed up the literary labors of the
women of the times. As such matters possess little interest
to posterity, not many of these literary essays and
letters have been preserved; but such as have come down
to us mirror the intellect of the women of the age so creditably
as to invite comparison with the results of modern education for the sex.</p>

<p>Lady Jane Grey may be cited as one of the women of
the day who became notable for learning and scholarship.
Of her, Fox writes: "If her fortune had been as good as
her bringing up, joined with fineness of wit, undoubtedly
she might have seemed comparable not only to the house
of the Vespasians, Sempronians, and the mother of the
Gracchi, yea, to any other women besides that deserve
of high praise for their singular learning, but also to the
University men, who have taken many degrees of the
Schools." The facility of this noble lady in Greek composition
was strongly commended by Roger Ascham.
<span class="pagenum"><a name="page232" id="page232"></a>[pg 232]</span>
Her remarkable knowledge of the cognate tongues of the
East and of modern languages made her almost deserving
of the encomium which was passed upon Anna Maria van
Schurman, a Dutch contemporary, of whom it was said:
"If all the languages of the earth should cease to exist,
she herself would give them birth anew." The conversance
of the literary ladies of the sixteenth century with
the languages of the East, as well as with philosophy and
theology, and the really marvellous attainments of some
of them in these subjects, indicate a sound education, even
though an unserviceable one.</p>

<p class="mid"><img alt="" src="images/bk9-3.png" /><br />
</p>

<p class="mid"><i>AUDIENCE TO AN AMBASSADOR<br />

After the painting by Léon y Escosura<br />

________<br /><br />

When the responsibilities of sovereignty devolved upon her she<br />
was resourceful and prompt. Whether dealing with her ambitious<br />
subjects, or receiving the wily ambassador of a foreign power, her<br />
poise could not be distrubed.<br />
<br />
With the example and influence of the Tudor princesses before<br />
them, the women least needed the exhortation to intellectual<br />
attainments.</i></p>

<p>Erasmus warmly commended the Princess Mary for her
proficiency in Latin, and in later years she translated
Erasmus's <i>Paraphrase of the Gospel of Saint John</i>. Udall,
Master of Eton, who wrote the preface to this work, complimented
her for her "over-painful study and labour of
writing," by which she had "cast her weak body in a
grievous and long sickness." The literary attainments
and linguistic versatility of Elizabeth herself, which made
her a criterion for her times, are well enough known to
need no especial notice here. She had the benefit of
instruction from Roger Ascham, with whom she read the
classics, and from Grindal, under whom she studied theology,
which was a favorite subject with her. In Italian,
Castiglione was her master, and Lady Champernon was
her first tutor in modern languages. She became familiar
with the works of the Greek and Latin authors by hearing
them read to her by Sir Henry Savil and Sir John Fortescue.
In this way she became intimately acquainted with
Plato, Aristotle, and Xenophon, and herself translated one
of the dialogues of the latter, besides rendering two orations
of Isocrates from Greek into Latin.</p>

<p>Among other studious and accomplished women of the
times, Sir Thomas More's daughters held a high place.
<span class="pagenum"><a name="page233" id="page233"></a>[pg 233]</span>
All of them were clever and applied themselves to abstruse
subjects; but Margaret, wife of William Roper, the
daughter who clung passionately to her father's neck when
he was being led off to execution, was the most brilliant of
this family of accomplished women. Sir Anthony Coke,
whose scholarship gave him the position of preceptor to
Edward VI., had the gratification of seeing his daughters
attract the attention of the most celebrated men of the
nation. One of them married Lord Burleigh, the treasurer
of the realm; another wedded Sir Nicholas Bacon, lord
keeper of the Great Seal, becoming in time the mother of
the famous Francis Bacon, the celebrated philosopher;
and as her second husband, the third had Lord Russell.</p>

<p>Nothing delighted the brilliant women of the Elizabethan
era so much as to have themselves surrounded by great
writers, statesmen, and other celebrities. Stately magnificence
was maintained at many of the great houses,
and the presence of noted artists and celebrated authors
gave to such homes an intellectual atmosphere. One of
the centres of intellectual thought and literary life of her
time was the home of Mary Sidney, after she had become
the wife of Henry, Earl of Pembroke, and mistress of his
establishment at Wilton. Around her hospitable board
gathered poets, statesmen, and artists, drawn there not by
the rank of the hostess or to satisfy her pride by their
presence and fame, but because her cultivated intellect
made her a fit companion for the greatest intellectual personages
of the day. To have had the honor of entertaining,
as guests, Shakespeare and Ben Jonson, besides the lesser
poets of the time, and to have been recognized by such literati
as worthy of their serious consideration because of her
undoubted gifts, not only reflected high compliment upon
the lady, but lasting credit upon her sex, and was one
of the many significant things of the Elizabethan era which
<span class="pagenum"><a name="page234" id="page234"></a>[pg 234]</span>
indicated how wide open stood the door of intellectual progress
and equality of opportunity for the women of modern
times. Spenser celebrated the Countess of Pembroke as:</p>

<div class="poem">  <div class="stanza">
<p>"The gentlest shepherdess that liv'd that day,</p>
<p>And most resembling in shape and spirit</p>
<p>Her brother dear."</p>
  </div>  </div>

<p>Udall, the Master of Eton, speaks enthusiastically of the
great number of women in the noble ranks of society,
"not only given to the study of human sciences and
strange tongues, but also so thoroughly expert in the Holy
Scriptures that they were able to compare with the best
writers as well in enditeing and penning of Godly and
fruitful treatises to the instruction and edifying of realmes
in the knowledge of God, as also in translating good books
out of Latin or Greek into English for the use and commodity
of such as are rude and ignorant of the said tongues.
It was now no news in England to see young damsels in
noble houses and in the courts of princes, instead of cards
and other instruments of idle trifling, to have continually
in their hands either Psalms, homilies, and other devout
meditations, or else Paul's Epistles, or some book of Holy
Scripture matters, and as familiarly both to read and
reason thereof in Greek, Latin, French, or Italian as in
English. It was now a common thing to see young virgins
so trained in the study of good letters that they willingly
set all other vain pastimes at nought for learning's sake.
It was now no news at all to see Queens and ladies of
most high estate and progeny, instead of courtly dalliance,
to embrace virtuous exercises of reading and writing, and
with most earnest study both early and late to apply
themselves to the acquiring of knowledge, as well in all
other liberal artes and disciplines, as also most especially
of God and His holy word."</p>
<span class="pagenum"><a name="page235" id="page235"></a>[pg 235]</span>

<p>The doubts as to the utility of higher education for
women in general which trouble some minds at the
present day were not altogether unknown in the age of
Elizabeth. Ecclesiastics especially, even the more liberal,
were most prone to entertain doubts as to the advisability
of permitting women to have a free range through the
avenues of knowledge. It is probable that the middle
classes, to whom the opportunities of education were not
so general, felt the value of schools too highly to speculate
upon the utility of that which was not readily within their
grasp. Richard Mulcaster, who was the master of a school
founded by the Merchant Taylors Company in the parish
of St. Lawrence, Pultney, says: "We see young maidens
be taught to read and write, and can do both with praise;
we have them sing and playe: and both passing well, we
know that they learne the best and finest of our learned
languages, to the admiration of all men. For the daiely
spoken tongues and of best reputation in our time who
so shall deny that they may not compare even with our
kinde even in the best degree ... Nay, do we not see
in our country some of that sex so excellently well trained
and so rarely qualified either for the tongues themselves or
for the matter in the tongues: as they may be opposed by
way of comparison, if not preferred as beyond comparison,
even to the best Romaine or Greekish paragones, be they
never so much praised to the Germaine or French gentle-wymen
by late writers so well liked: to the Italian ladies
who dare write themselves and deserve fame for so
doing?... I dare be bould, therefore, to admit young
maidens to learne, seeing my countrie gives me leave and
her costume standes for me.... Some Rimon will
say, what should wymend with learning? Such a churlish
carper will never picke out the best, but be alway ready
to blame the worst. If all men used all pointes of learning
<span class="pagenum"><a name="page236" id="page236"></a>[pg 236]</span>
well, we had some reason to alledge against wymend, but
seeing misuse is commonly both the kinds, why blame we
their infirmitie whence we free not ourselves." He then
contends that a young gentlewoman who can write well
and swiftly, sing clearly and sweetly, play well and finely,
and employ readily the learned languages with some
"logicall helpe to chop and some rhetoricke to brave," is
well furnished, and that such a one is not likely to bring
up her children a whit the worse, even if she becomes a
Loelia, a Hortensia, or a Cornelia. In discussing whether
or not girls should be taught by their own sex, he inclines
to the belief that this practice were advisable, but that
discreet men might teach girls to advantage. To use his
own words: "In teachers, their owne sex were fittest in
some respects, but ours frame them best, and, with good
regard to some circumstances, will bring them up excellently
well." In the higher circles, where cynicism
frequently assumes the forms of wisdom, it was not
universally agreed that women should have the widest
opportunities of education. In one of his discourses,
Erasmus, possibly the most accomplished of the schoolmen
of the time, opens to our view the opinion of the
Church as to female scholarship when he represents an
abbot as contending that if women were learned they
could not be kept under subjection, "therefore it is a
wicked, mischievous thing to revive the ancient custom of
educating them." A remark in one of Erasmus's letters
lays him open to the suspicion of sharing somewhat in
this view, for, in his description of Sir Thomas More, he
speaks of him as wise with the wise, and jesting with
fools&mdash;"with women especially, and his own wife among them."</p>

<p>Besides the graver matters of study which claimed their
attention, the women of England were devoted to music,
<span class="pagenum"><a name="page237" id="page237"></a>[pg 237]</span>
needlework, and dancing, which were the favorite fashionable
pastimes. Erasmus speaks of them as the most accomplished
in musical skill of any people. Early as the reign of
Henry VIII., to read music at sight was not an uncommon
accomplishment, while those who aspired to the technique
of the subject were students of counterpoint. Musical
literature was scanty; the principal instruments were the
lute, the mandolin, the clavichord, and the virginals.</p>

<p>Notwithstanding its literary flavor and its identity with
the great themes of modern knowledge, the age of Elizabeth
can hardly be called a serious one from the point of
view of the spirit and manners of the people. Amusement
was sought for its own sake, without regard to its character
or quality. The spirit of enjoyment was hearty and unrestrained,
and lacked discrimination and refinement. The
society of the age, like its culture, was a reflex of the
personality of the powerful queen, who stamped her character
and her tastes upon her people. The queen, as well
as her courtiers, could restrain herself upon occasion; but
neither she nor her subjects felt that there was any moral
or conventional need to place a check upon the expression
of their emotions, and in consequence their manners were
often unbecoming. It did not offend the sense of personal
dignity of Elizabeth to spit at a courtier, the cut or color
of whose coat displeased her, just as she might box his
ears or rap out at him a flood of profanity. When Leicester
was kneeling to receive his earldom, the dignity of the
occasion was entirely destroyed by the volatile queen
bending over to tickle his neck. As it was a case of like
queen, like people, a man who could not or who would
not swear was accounted "a peasant, a clown, a patch, an
effeminate person." The <i>sine qua non</i> for obtaining the
queen's favor was to be amusing. It mattered nothing at
all at whose expense, or how personal the witticism, or
<span class="pagenum"><a name="page238" id="page238"></a>[pg 238]</span>
how sensitive the one who was made the butt of amusement;
if the queen enjoyed it, and the boisterous laughter
of the court sycophants was evoked, the sufferer had to
appear gratified at the honor of his selection for his sovereign's
entertainment. Coarse manners were but the
expression of coarser morals; even men of the cleanest
characters and highest intelligence did not shrink from
any allusion, however gross, and felt no impulse to check
their words either in speech or in writing. Nor were
women a whit more regardful of the proprieties of expression.
Ascham blamed the degradation of English morals
in part on the custom of sending abroad young men to
Italy to finish their education, and alleged that the corruption
which they underwent at the "court of Circe" was
responsible for the spread of vicious manners in English
society. He writes: "I know divers that went out of England,
men of innocent life, men of excellent learning, who
returned out of Italy, not only with worse manners, but
also with less learning." He complains of the introduction
of Italian books translated into English, which were sold
in every shop of London, by which the morals of the
youth were corrupted, and whose venom was the more
insidious because they appeared under honest titles and
were dedicated to virtuous and honorable personages. As
there was no public opinion to censure the reading of the
women, or standards to control their conversation, they
did not feel the impropriety of acquainting themselves
with such works and of openly discussing them. Indeed,
the women of the nobility felt themselves freed from all the
restraints which the modest of the sex normally cherish for their protection.</p>

<p>An illustration of the freedom of the manners of the
women is found in the correspondence of Erasmus, who,
on coming to England as a young man, was impressed by
<span class="pagenum"><a name="page239" id="page239"></a>[pg 239]</span>
the prevalence of the custom of kissing. In a letter to a
friend in Holland, he says, in effect, that the women kiss
you on meeting you, kiss you on taking their leave; when
you enter their homes, you are greeted with kisses, and
are sped on your way by the same osculatory exercises;
and he adds, after you have once tasted the freshness of
the lips of the rosy English maidens, you will not want to
leave this delightful country. A further illustration of the
same thing is found in a manual of so-called English conversation,
published in 1589: a traveller on arriving at an
inn is instructed to discourse as follows with the chambermaid,
and her conventional replies are given: "My shee
frinde, is my bed made&mdash;is it good?" "Yea, sir, it is a
good feder-bed; the scheetes be very cleane." "Pull off
my hosen and warme my bed; drawe the curtines, and
pin them with a pin. My shee frinde, kisse me once, and
I shall sleape the better. I thank you, fayre mayden."
This suggestion of the manners obtaining in the English
inns is but an indication of a similar state of freedom
throughout the lower classes of society. For while the
glory of the Elizabethan age was found mostly at the top
of society, its coarseness pervaded all ranks.</p>

<p>The rough manners of the age extended to the countenancing
of all sorts of brawls. There was nothing that
would collect a crowd sooner than two boys whose pugnacity
had led them from words to blows; the passers-by
considered such a scene fine sport, and gathered about the
young combatants to encourage them in their fighting.
Even the mothers themselves, far from punishing their
children for such conduct, encouraged it in them. Cock
fighting, bear baiting, wrestling, and sword play were
favorite pastimes. The girls delighted to play in the open
air, with little regard to grace or decorum; a game called
tennis ball was popular. The milkwomen had their dances,
<span class="pagenum"><a name="page240" id="page240"></a>[pg 240]</span>
into which they entered with zest. Pets were in favor
with the ladies almost as much as in the former century,
and exploration into new countries had increased the variety
of them. In the prints of the times, ladies are often
represented with monkeys in attendance on them.</p>

<p>With the great multiplicity of new fashions, in novelties
in customs and in costumes, in manners and even in morals,
there came into vogue, from the East, hot, or, as they
were called, "sweating baths." They became very common
throughout England, and the places where they were
to be gotten were commonly called "hothouses," although
their Persian name of <i>hummums</i> was also preserved. Ben
Jonson represents a character in the old play <i>The Puritan</i>
as saying in regard to a laborious undertaking: "Marry, it
will take me much sweat; I were better to go to sixteen
<i>hothouses</i>." They became the rendezvous of women, who
resorted to them for gossip and company. The rude manners
of the age were not conducive to the preservation of
these places from the illicit intrigues which made them
notorious, and caused the name "hothouse" to become a
synonym for "brothel." It was their acquired character
that probably led eventually to their disuse. They were
not necessarily vicious, and they furnished a convenience
for the sex, who did not have the shops and clubs of
to-day as places for meeting and the interchange of small
talk. It must be remembered that the taverns supplied
this need for the men, but, excepting in the case of the
lower orders of society, the women had no similar place
for such social intercourse as was secured to the men by
their tavern clubs. The hothouses were not simply bath
houses of the modern Turkish type, but were restaurants
as well. While seated in the steaming bath, refreshments
and lunch were served on tables conveniently arranged for
the purpose, and, after ablutions, the women remained as
<span class="pagenum"><a name="page241" id="page241"></a>[pg 241]</span>
long as they cared to, in conversation. The picnics which
had formerly taken place at the tavern were transferred to
the hot bath, each of the women carrying to the feast contributions
which were shared in common. This practice,
which began with the servant maids, passed to their mistresses
and on up the scale of society, and became fashionable
for the ladies of the higher circles. In the absence
of the modern newspaper, these places became the distributing
centres for the news of the day and the talk
of the town. The tavern served the same purpose for the men.</p>

<p>Dancing was indulged in by all classes of society, and
the variety and curious names of the new styles which
were introduced during the Elizabethan era are well set
forth in the following quotation from a festal scene in
Haywood's <i>Woman Kilde with Kindnesse</i>:</p>

<blockquote><p>
"J. SLIME.&mdash;I come to dance, not to quarrel. Come, what shall it be?
<i>Rogero</i>?</p>

<p>JEM.&mdash;<i>Rogero</i>! no! we will dance the <i>Beginning of the World</i>.</p>

<p>SISLY.&mdash;I love no dance so well as <i>John, Come Kiss Me Now</i>.</p>

<p>NICH.&mdash;I that have ere now defer'd a cushion, call for the <i>Cushion-dance</i>.</p>

<p>R. BRICK.&mdash;For my part, I like nothing so well as <i>Tom Tyler</i>.</p>

<p>JEM.&mdash;No; we'll have the <i>Hunting of the Fox</i>.</p>

<p>J. SLIME.&mdash;<i>The Hay</i>; <i>The Hay</i>! there's nothing like <i>The Hay</i>!</p>

<p>NICH.&mdash;I have said, do say, and will say again&mdash;</p>

<p>JEM.&mdash;Every man agree to have it as Nick says.</p>

<p>ALL.&mdash;Content.</p>

<p>NICH.&mdash;It hath been, it is now, and it shall be&mdash;</p>

<p>SISLY.&mdash;What, Master Nicholas? What?</p>

<p>NICH.&mdash;<i>Put on your Smock o' Monday.</i></p>

<p>JEM.&mdash;So the dance will come cleanly off. Come, for God's sake agree
on something; if you like not that, put it to the musicians; or let me speak
for all, and we'll have <i>Sellengers Round</i>."
</p></blockquote>

<p>The nuptial usages of the age included some curious
customs. Thus, we are told by Howe in his <i>Additions to
Stowe's Chronicle</i> that, in the reign of Queen Elizabeth,
<span class="pagenum"><a name="page242" id="page242"></a>[pg 242]</span>
"It was the custome for maydes and gentlewomen to give
their favourites, as tokens of their love, little Handkerchiefs,
of about three or four inches square, wrought round about,
and with a button or a tassel at each corner, and a little
one in the middle, with silke and thread; the best edged
with a small gold lace, or twist, which being foulded up in
foure crosse foldes, so as the middle might be seene,
gentlemen and other did usually weare them in their
hattes, as favours of their loves and mistresses. Some
cost six pence a piece, some twelve pence, and the richest
sixteen pence." Handkerchiefs were the customary messengers
of Cupid; the present of a handkerchief with love
devices worked in the corners was a delicate expression of
the tender sentiment. Thus, in Haywood's <i>Fayre Mayde
of the Exchange</i>, Phyllis brings a handkerchief to the
Cripple of Fanchurch to be embroidered, and says:</p>

<div class="poem">  <div class="stanza">
<p>"Only this hankercher; a young gentlewoman</p>
<p>Wish'd me to acquaint you with her mind herein:</p>
<p>In one corner of the same, place wanton Love,</p>
<p>Drawing his bow, shooting an amorous dart&mdash;</p>
<p>Opposit against him an arrow in an heart;</p>
<p>In a third corner picture forth Disdain,</p>
<p>A cruel fate unto a loving vein;</p>
<p>In the fourth, draw a springing laurel-tree,</p>
<p>Circled about with a ring of poesy."</p>
  </div>  </div>

<p>Wedding contracts in the times of the Tudors were
peculiar, not being regarded as binding unless there had
been an exchange of gold or the drinking of wine. In the
old play of <i>The Widow</i>, Ricardo artfully entices the widow
into a verbal contract, whereupon one of her suitors draws
hope for himself through the possibility of the engagement
being invalid because it lacked the observance of this
custom. He says: "Stay, stay&mdash;you broke no Gold between
you?" To which she answers: "We broke nothing,
Sir;" and on his adding: "Nor drank to each other?"
<span class="pagenum"><a name="page243" id="page243"></a>[pg 243]</span>
she replies: "Not a drop, Sir." Whence he draws this
conclusion: "That the contract cannot stand good in Law."
The custom of throwing rice after a wedded couple is a
continuance of the practice in the sixteenth century of
throwing wheat upon the head of the bride as she came
from the church. Marriage was not considered irrevocable,
because, aside from the regular forms of divorce, it
was not unusual for a husband to sell his wife for a satisfactory
consideration. Even down to recent times, the
people in some of the rural districts of England could not
understand why a husband had not a right so to dispose of
his wife, provided he delivered her over with a halter
around her neck. Henry Machyn notes in his <i>Diary</i>, in
1553, the following: "Dyd ryd in a cart Checken, parson
of Sant Necolas Coldabbay, round abowt London, <i>for he
sold ys wyff</i> to a bowcher." When the contracting parties
were too poor to pay for the ceremony and the wedding
feast, and the expenses of the occasion were met by the
guests clubbing together, the occasion was termed a "penny wedding."</p>

<p>One of the popular customs of the day was to observe
Mayday in the country districts by erecting a brightly
decorated Maypole, about which the young people danced
the simple rustic dances. It is not unusual to find people
to-day sighing for a return of the good old customs of
yore, and a favorite lament is the lapse of the observance
of Mayday in the old English manner. There was, doubtless,
some innocent amusement associated with this popular
holiday, and only the most captious Puritan could
object to it because of its derivation from the old Roman
festival of Flora; but, unfortunately, the manners of the
sixteenth century did not leave room for much of innocent
observance of sports and pastimes in the open air, so that,
in fact, the dances about the Maypole were too frequently
<span class="pagenum"><a name="page244" id="page244"></a>[pg 244]</span>
gross and unseemly. Charles Francis Adams, in his editing
of Morton's <i>Narrative</i>, in the Prince Society Publications,
in commenting upon the Merrie Mount incident in the early
settlement of New England, calls attention in a footnote to
the judgment of a contemporary writer as to the iniquities
which were practised in connection with what in the popular
imagination of the day was a wholesome and happy
pastime. The statement in the passage quoted by him of
the startling depravity which signalized the day throughout
rural England awakens the pertinent question as to what
was the moral state of the women of the rural population of
the country. The testimony of the manners and customs
of the day, and the effect upon England of the indescribable
profligacy of the peoples of France and Italy, force the unpleasant
conclusion, after making all extenuation for the
standards which then obtained, that the vice which in the
higher circles was as "the creeping thing that flieth" appeared
in the lower circles of society in all of its foulness.</p>

<p>Life in the country was very delightful; buildings of
fanciful architecture were erected, the majority of them
still being of wood, the better sort plastered inside and the
walls hung with tapestry or wainscoted with oak, against
which stood out in bold relief the glittering gold and silver
plate, which not alone the nobles and gentry, but the merchants
and even the farmers and artisans, loved to possess.
But in spite of their love of plate, Venetian glassware, because
of its rarity, was preferred for drinking vessels.
The housewife of quality no longer had to strew rushes
upon the floor, for Turkish rugs were imported and used
by the wealthy. Beds were hung with the finest silk or
tapestry, and the tables were covered with linen. The
homes of all classes showed the increase in the comfort of
living. Even the poorest women could boast of chimneys
to their houses, and were no longer suffocated by the
<span class="pagenum"><a name="page245" id="page245"></a>[pg 245]</span>
smoke which for egress depended upon a hole in the roof.
In 1589 a wise law was passed that no cottage should be
built on a tract of less than four acres of land, and that only
one family was to live in each cottage. Feather pillows
and beds took the place of straw pallets with a log of wood
for a headrest. The poorer homes, which could not afford
expensive rugs, were still strewn with sweet herbs, which,
however, were renewed and kept fresh, and the bedchambers
were made fragrant with flowers. The economy of the
kitchen was not the hard problem it had formerly been, for
in the time of Elizabeth, the period of which we are speaking,
the laboring classes could obtain meat in abundance.
The "gentry ate wheaten, and the poor barley bread; beer
was mostly brewed at home; wine was drunk in the richer
houses. Trade brought many luxuries to the English table;
spices, sugar, currants, almonds, dates, etc., came from the
East." Indeed, so many currants were imported into the
country that it is said that the people of the places from
whence they were shipped supposed that they were used
for the extraction of dye or else were fed to the hogs; but
the real explanation was the great fondness of the English
people for currants and raisins in their pastry. While they
were not gluttonous, the English then, as now, were fond of
the table, and gave much attention to eating and drinking.</p>

<p>The old people of the age regretfully looked back over
their lives to former days, when, as they said, although the
houses were but of willow, Englishmen were oaken, but
now the houses were oaken and the Englishmen of straw.
The appearance of chimneys was not greeted as an improvement,
for the poor had never fared so well as in the
smoky halls of other days; they could not bear the thought
that their windows, which were formerly of wickerwork,
were now of glass, or that now, instead of sweet rushes, foreign
carpets were upon the floors of many houses; or that so
<span class="pagenum"><a name="page246" id="page246"></a>[pg 246]</span>
many houses were being built of brick and stone, plastered
inside. It was regarded as a sure indication of a decline in
virility that the sons of the sturdy yeomen of a past generation
should crave comfortable beds hung with tapestry, and
use pillows&mdash;luxuries which once were thought suited only
for women in childbed. In the midst of an influx of new
comforts, there was a barrenness of things considered to-day
to be essential, and the absence of which was made the more
glaring by reason of the many comforts and luxuries with
which life was surrounded. "Good soap was an almost
impossible luxury, and the clothes had to be washed with
cow-dung, hemlock, nettles, and refuse soap, than which, in
Harrison's opinion, 'there is none more unkindly savor.'"</p>

<p>A Dutch traveller, who in 1560 visited England and recorded
his impressions of the English home, introduces us
to a pleasant picture of the home life of the times, in the
following words: "The neat cleanliness, the exquisite
fineness, the pleasant and delightful furniture in every
point for household, wonderfully rejoiced me; their chambers
and parlors strawed over with sweet herbs, refreshed
me; their nosegays, finely intermingled with sundry sorts
of fragrant flowers in their bedchambers and privy rooms,
with comfortable smell cheered me up." The parlors were
freshened with green boughs and fresh herbs throughout
the summer, and with evergreens during the winter.</p>

<p>During the reign of Elizabeth, the hours for meals were
the same as in the fifteenth century, although between the
first meal and dinner it was customary to have a small
luncheon, mostly composed of beverages, and called a
<i>bever</i>. A character in one of Middleton's plays says: "We
drink, that's mouth-hour; at eleven, lay about us for victuals&mdash;that's
hand-hour; at twelve, go to dinner&mdash;that's
eating-hour." Dinner was the most substantial meal of
the day, and its hearty character was commented upon by
<span class="pagenum"><a name="page247" id="page247"></a>[pg 247]</span>
foreign travellers in England. It was preceded by the
same ceremony of washing the hands as in former times,
and the ewers and basins used for the purpose were often
elaborate and showy. It must be remembered that at
table persons of all ranks used their fingers instead of
forks, and the laving of the hands during the meals was
important for comfort and cleanliness. After the introduction
of forks, the washing of hands during the meal, though
no longer so necessary as before, was continued as a polite
form for a while, although the after-meal washing appears
to have been discontinued. The pageantry and splendor
which attended feasting reached their greatest height in
the first half of the sixteenth century. The tables were
arranged around the side of the hall, some for the guests,
and others to hold the tankards, the ewers, and the dishes
of food; for it had not yet become the practice to put anything
on the table in setting it other than the plates, the
drinking vessels, the saltcellars, and the napkins. The
dresser, or the cupboard, was the greatest display article
of furniture in the hall of the houses of the higher orders of
society, who invested large amounts of money in vessels
of the precious metals and of crystal, which were sometimes
set with precious stones and were always of the
most beautiful patterns and of odd and elaborate forms.
To such lengths went personal pride in the appearance of
the dresser, that points of etiquette were raised by careful
housewives as to how many steps, or gradations on which
the rows of plate were placed above each other, members
of the different ranks of society might have on their cupboards.
Five for a princess of royal blood, four for noble
ladies of the highest rank, three for nobility under the
rank of duke, two for knights-bannerets, and one for persons
who were merely of gentle blood, was fixed as proper
form. Dinner was still served in three courses, without
<span class="pagenum"><a name="page248" id="page248"></a>[pg 248]</span>
any great distinction in the character of the dishes served
at each course. One of the writers of the times says:
"In number of dishes and changes of meat the nobility
of England do most exceed." "No day passes but they
have not only beef, mutton, veal, lamb, kid, pork, coney,
capon, pig, or so many of them as the season yields, but
also fish in variety, venison, wildfowl, and sweets." As
there were but two full meals in the day, and as the households
of the nobility, including the many servants and retainers,
were large, and as it was the practice for the chief
servants to dine with the family and the guests, it will be
seen that a large and varied supply of food was needed.
The upper table having been served, the lower servants
were supplied, and what remained was bestowed upon the
poor, who gathered in great numbers at the gates of the
nobility to receive the leavings from their meals. It can be
seen that the labors of the women in supervising the
affairs of the household were onerous. Among gentlemen
and merchants, four, five, or six dishes sufficed, and if
there were no guests, two or three. Fish was the article
of greatest consumption among the poor, and could be
obtained at all seasons. Fowls, pigeons, and all kinds of
game were abundant and cheap. Butter, milk, cheese,
and curds were "reputed as food appurtenant to the inferior
sort." The very poor usually had enough ground
in which to raise cabbages, parsnips, carrots, pumpkins,
and such like vegetables, which constituted their principal
food, and of which both the raising and the preparation for
the table were largely the work of the women. Among the
lower classes, the various feasts of the year and the bridal
occasions were celebrated with great festivity, and it was
the custom for each guest to contribute one or more dishes.</p>

<p>"Sham" is the keynote to an understanding of Elizabethan
society; the Virgin Queen herself, with all her
<span class="pagenum"><a name="page249" id="page249"></a>[pg 249]</span>
undoubted worth and abilities, was the embodiment of the
vanity and pretence of her age. Young unmarried women
loved "to show coyness in gestures, mince in words and
speeches, gingerliness in tripping on toes like young goats,
demure nicety and babyishness," and when they went
out, they had silk scarfs "cast about their faces, fluttering
in the wind, or riding in their velvet visors, with two holes
cut for the eyes." The visors here mentioned bring to
mind Hamlet's "God hath given you one face, and you
make yourself another; you jig, you amble, you lisp, you
nickname God's creatures, and make your wantonness
your ignorance." The general use of masks in public
places toward the close of Elizabeth's reign did not improve
the moral status of the higher classes. The pretentiousness
and the superficiality of the times are laid bare by Harrington,
the favorite godson of the queen, whose arraignment
is in unsparing terms: "We go brave in apparel that we
may be taken for better men than we be; we use much bombastings
and quiltings to seem better framed, better shouldered,
smaller waisted, and fuller thighed than we are; we
barb and shave oft to seem younger than we are; we use
perfumes, both inward and outward, to seem sweeter,
wear corked shoes to seem taller, use courteous salutations
to seem kinder, lowly obeisance to seem humbler,
and grave and godly communication to seem wiser and devouter than we be."</p>

<p>The dress of the women of the Elizabethan era shows
the same extravagance that is apparent in all the exaggerated
social phases of the time. Philip Stubbs, who wrote
at the close of the sixteenth century a book entitled <i>The
Anatomy of Abuses</i>, appears to have been a choleric and
gloomy observer of current manners, but, with due allowance
for the spirit in which he writes, a very clear picture
can be gotten of the style and excesses of dress of the
<span class="pagenum"><a name="page250" id="page250"></a>[pg 250]</span>
several classes of society. He affirms that no people in
the world were so hungry after new-fangled styles as
were those of his country. After having dilated on the
large amounts spent for dress, he digresses in order to
moralize, and adds that the fashionable attire of the day
is unsuited to the actual needs of the wearers' bodies and
"maketh them weak, tender, and infirm, not able to abide
such blustering storms and sharp showers as many other
people abroad do daily bear." It is curious to find him
harking back to the old days of which he had heard his
father and other sages speak, when all the clothes for the
household were made by the busy housewife, and coats
were of the same color as the wool when it was on the
sheep's back. In the abandonment of the household woollen
industry and the excessive use of imported fabrics, he
sees the reason for the many thousands in England who
were reduced to the necessity of begging bread. Starch,
which is now such a homely and universally helpful laundry
assistant, and to the expert use of which so much of
the freshness and smartness of women's attire is due, was
then first introduced. "There is a certain liquid matter
which they call starch," says this censorious critic of current
customs, "wherein the devil hath learned them to
wash and dive their ruffs; which, being dry, will then
stand stiff and inflexible about their necks." The ladies
of his day must have been more expert in the use of starch
than are their sisters to-day, as they introduced into it
coloring matter, so that it temporarily dyed the fabrics
red, blue, purple, and other colors, of which yellow seems
to have been the most esteemed.</p>

<p>The yellow starch which was so much in use originated in
France, and was introduced into England by a Mrs. Turner,
a physician's widow, a vain and infamous woman, who
ended her career on the gallows in expiation of the murder
<span class="pagenum"><a name="page251" id="page251"></a>[pg 251]</span>
of Sir Thomas Overbury. Bulwer says that it is hard "to
derive the pedigree of the cobweb-lawn-yellow-starched
ruffs, which so disfigured our nation, and rendered them
so ridiculous and fantastical." It appears that when the
introducer of the custom was led to the gallows she was
conspicuous in a yellow ruff worn about her neck, and
after her execution the wearing of such ruffs rapidly declined.
Having said this much about the ruffs which were
a characteristic feature of the dress of the day of both men
and women, it may be well to add that starch was not
wholly depended upon for the support of these preposterous
neck dresses. Wire frames covered with silver or
silk thread were employed for the purpose. These ruffs
are often referred to in the literature of the period. Allusion
is made to them in the play of <i>Nice Valour</i>, by Beaumont
and Fletcher, where the madman says:</p>

<div class="poem">  <div class="stanza">
<p>"Or take a fellow pinn'd up like a mistress,</p>
<p>About his neck a ruff like a pinch'd lanthorn,</p>
<p>Which school-boys make in winter."</p>
  </div>  </div>

<p>Stubbs also pays his respects to the gowns of the
women, which he says were no less "famous" than the
rest of their attire. A quotation will serve to give an idea
of the materials which were in use for dress goods and the
embellishments of women's gowns; "Some are of silk,
some of velvet, some of grograin, some of taffeta, some
of scarlet, and some of fine cloth of ten, twenty, or forty
shillings the yard; but, if the whole garment be not of
silk or velvet, then the same must be laid with lace two
or three fingers broad all over the gown, or else the most
part; or, if it be not so, as lace is not fine enough, now
and then it must be garded with gards of velvet, every
gard four or five fingers broad at the least, and edged with
costly lace; and, as these gownes be of divers colours, so
<span class="pagenum"><a name="page252" id="page252"></a>[pg 252]</span>
are they of divers fashions, changing with the moon; for,
some be of the new fashion, some of the old; some
with sleeves, hanging down to their skirts, trailing on
the ground, and cast over their shoulders like cow-tails;
some have sleeves much shorter and cut up the arm,
drawn out with sundry colours, and pointed with silk ribbands,
and very gallantly tied with love-knots, for so they
call them." To these striking costumes were added capes
which reached down to the middle of the back, and which,
our author informs us, were "plaited and crested with
more knacks than he could express."</p>

<p>It is impossible to do more than mention the absurdities
in general of women's attire and toilette during the eccentric
Elizabethan era. Ladies painted their faces and wore
false hair, as they had done in other ages, only with greater
refinements of hideousness; they stuffed their petticoats
with tow, and drew in their waists to incredible smallness
as compared with the vast expansiveness of their form
from the waist down, which was secured by the use of
farthingales. The way they tilted up their feet with long
cork soles made them amble much after the fashion of the
women of China with their bandaged feet. They wore
jewels and ornaments in great profusion, fine colored silk
hose, which had lately been introduced among the other
foreign "gewgaws" of the times, and exchanged with
their friends as valued presents embroidered and perfumed
gloves. In the light of the varied styles of the day, the
criticism, "Like a crow, the Englishman borrows his
feathers from all nations," was a true one.</p>

<p>In the midst of the gayety and frivolity of the Elizabethan
age, the forces of reaction were hidden, but already
active; and the mutterings of discontent which were heard
presaged the social outbreak which was to lead a king to the block.</p>
<span class="pagenum"><a name="page253" id="page253"></a>[pg 253]</span>




<h2>Chapter XI</h2>

<h2>Women of the Commonwealth Period</h2>
<!--Blank page #254 omitted.-->
<span class="pagenum"><a name="page255" id="page255"></a>[pg 255]</span>


<p>The great evil of Puritanism was the tendency to hypocrisy
which it produced among the people, by forcing upon
them the simulation of a virtue greater than they in reality
possessed. An affectation of piety which was carried to
fanatical extremes, and which affected men and women
alike and made them fall into stereotyped expressions and
cant utterances having a savor of religiosity, while barren
of the spirit of true devotion, was, to say the least, unwholesome
for the nation. But the very fact that the
pendulum had swung so far in the direction of primitive
austerity in life and in worship showed that behind the
hollow and insincere forms and words of Puritanism there
was a magnificent earnestness of purpose, such as had
been foreign to English life as a whole, although to be
found among the followers of Wyckliffe and the Lollards.</p>

<p>As the spirit of Puritanism spread, its opponents, who
were styled the Libertines, became more defiant in their
attitude and less regardful of the strictures which the
narrow-minded bigots, as they styled the Puritans, cast
upon them. Thus, the women were divided by the extremes
of position occupied by the men. Drunkenness
among women of rank became very common. Intellectual
fervor declined and learning became superficial, while the
pet vices, inanities, and vain pomp of the reign of Elizabeth
<span class="pagenum"><a name="page256" id="page256"></a>[pg 256]</span>
lost much of their glitter and became mere prosaic and
gross immorality. While the women of the court indulged
in revelry, to the scandal of their sisters of the
middle classes, the latter, by their piety as well as by
their pious affectations, brought upon themselves coarse
witticisms, ribald mirth, and allegations of misconduct
under the guise of sanctity. So it happened that just
when the women of the middle classes were approaching in
position their sisters of the higher circles, by the ascent of
the class to which they belonged and by the recognition on
the part of the superior ranks of their worth as individuals
and their importance as a sound element of the nation, the
tendency toward a uniform equality, however remote its
realization, was rudely checked by an issue which sundered
the respective classes to the nethermost poles. It
then became but a question of which section of the nation
should administer its affairs and direct its destiny. When
the two opposing camps of aristocracy and democracy met
in conflict, King Charles was led to the gibbet, not because
the feeling of the people was so especially bitter against
him personally, as that he was the impersonation of an
aristocracy which had become so intrenched in power,
that, regardless of its acts, it claimed divine right to rule.</p>

<p>The female sex, as a whole, was not held in high esteem
by the Puritans, however dear to them may have
been the women of their own households. By the gayety
and licentiousness of the brilliant era of Elizabeth, women
had forfeited the esteem of these stern censors of public
virtue, and were held up as snares in the way of the
righteous and as emissaries of Satan. It would be unjust
to the sound judgment of those earnest men of powerful
thought and tested standards even to suggest that they
did not make a distinction between woman in disgrace&mdash;as
they regarded the women in representative life about
<span class="pagenum"><a name="page257" id="page257"></a>[pg 257]</span>
them&mdash;and woman in her normal and helpful relationship
to society, as illustrated in the Biblical types of exalted
womanhood. It was but natural that, at a time when the
social sin was the canker of society, woman should have
been looked upon in the light of the temptress in Eden. It
is only with such qualification that the characterization of
a writer on the period of the Commonwealth, whose description
is generally accurate, can be accepted: "Under
the Commonwealth, society assumed a new and stern
aspect. Women were in disgrace; it was everywhere
declared from the pulpit that woman caused man's expulsion
from Paradise, and ought to be shunned by Christians
as one of the greatest temptations of Satan. 'Man,' said
they, 'is conceived in sin and brought forth in iniquity; it
was his complacency to woman that caused his first debasement;
let man not therefore glory in his shame; let
him not worship the fountain of his corruption.' Learning
and accomplishments were alike discouraged, and women
confined to a knowledge of cooking, family medicines, and
the unintelligible theological discussions of the day."</p>

<p>The high tension which had been maintained during the
preceding reign was followed during those of James I. and
Charles I. by a mental inertia; and the intellectual life of
the people, which had resulted from the revival of learning
in the sixteenth century, languished and almost died of
inanition. Even among those men&mdash;the courtiers&mdash;who
amused themselves chiefly by the foibles of the other sex,
there was a morbid reaction against their associates in
frivolity. It was no longer customary to praise women
for their wit and repartee and to look upon them as brilliant,
or to regard their coarse jests as delicate humor;
instead of this, these men affected toward them great contempt,
and scoffed at all other men who manifested
respect for the sex. Whether among the nobility or
<span class="pagenum"><a name="page258" id="page258"></a>[pg 258]</span>
among the Puritans, woman was wounded in the house of her friends.</p>

<p>Amid the premonitory rumblings of civil strife and the
actual horrors of war, when the nation was rent asunder,
the matters of belief and of conduct were the burning
themes for thought and discussion; it was not possible to
maintain interest in intellectual concerns, even if there had
not been a reaction from the highly wrought state of mind
of the preceding era. That behind the Puritans' apparent
hatred of beauty and of the grace of intellect and of life
there was no real abandonment of the true principles
which underlie all permanent beauty and grace is sufficiently
shown by the production of that poet who sounded
deepest the reaches of philosophy and scaled highest the
ascents of poetic thought&mdash;the great Milton. He it was
who caught the deep significance of the movements of the
age, and brought them into harmony with the parable of
human history&mdash;a feat so mighty that it called forth the
highest flights of poetic fancy and sought the embodiment
of the best graces of language. It is not without interest
to note the absence of woman in the lofty theme of Milton,
saving only as she appears in the Puritanic conception of the temptress.</p>

<p>Another of the Puritans, who in his way was as great
as Milton, Bunyan, the Bedford tinker, caught and set
forth in magnificent allegory the meaning of the Puritan
movement for the individual; but there is an absence of
woman in the story of the pilgrimage of Christian to the
Celestial City, excepting as she appears in the character
of the temptress, as at Vanity Fair. The Christian
Graces, who are represented as women, are not types
of the sex of the day, but are used to point the contrast
the more sharply between woman in ideal and woman
as the product of the times of the Puritans. It remained,
<span class="pagenum"><a name="page259" id="page259"></a>[pg 259]</span>
however, for the Puritans to refine the sex by the fires of
relentless criticism and to produce the severer, but much
nobler, Christian woman, who became the normal type,
not only for the middle classes, but, to an extent, for the
women of the higher circles as well.</p>

<p>The state of society was not favorable for intellectual
expression on the part of woman, although it can hardly
be said that it retarded intellectual progress. The character
of the English woman was being affected in a way to
save it from becoming merely superficial and volatile, like
that of her French sister, and her intellect was being
sobered for literary production that should have worthier
qualities than mere brilliancy to recommend it. When the
women of the middle classes stepped out into the arena of
authorship, the value of the Puritan period as a corrective
of the frivolity and false standards for women which had
previously obtained becomes manifest in their writings.</p>

<p>The loss of opportunities of education for the women of
the middle classes, which was a result of the dissolution
of the religious houses, had never quite been made good,
and even down to the second half of the seventeenth century
there was no adequate system of popular education.
In the case of the children of the nobility, suitable education
and training for their station in life could be obtained
only by sending them abroad to Italy, France, or Germany,
or by bringing foreign teachers into the country. Girls
were never sent abroad for their education; and in the
case of the daughters of middle-class society, all that was
regarded as needful was training in the practical affairs of
housewifery&mdash;to which, in the case of the Puritans, was
added inculcation of the Scriptures and the reading of other
devout books. The current opinion is well expressed in
the following citation from <i>The Art of Thriving</i>: "Let them
learne plaine workes of all kind, so they take heed of too
<span class="pagenum"><a name="page260" id="page260"></a>[pg 260]</span>
open seeming. Instead of song and musick, let them learne
cookery and laundry, and instead of reading Sir Philip
Sydney's <i>Arcadia</i>, let them read the grounds of huswifery.
I like not a female poetesse at any hand: let greater personages
glory their skill in musicke, the posture of their
bodies, the greatnesse and freedome of their spirits, and
their arts in arraigning of men's affections at their flattering
faces: this is not the way to breed a private gentleman's daughter."</p>

<p>Even if higher education for women were not recognized
as important in the seventeenth century&mdash;and the facilities
were not at hand, even if the sentiment had existed&mdash;it
would be captious criticism to construe this into a grievance
against the sex. In all that pertained to dignity and
real worth, the women of the Commonwealth, with all the
narrowness of their training, were much in advance of
womankind at the beginning of the modern era, and their
moral differentiation from the women of the same class
before the spread of Puritanism was most marked. Puritanism
was a distinct gain for woman, for through that
movement the process of raising women in the social scale
received great impetus. A comparison with the girls of
France of about the same period certainly shows that the
low state of education among the sex in England was not
in any wise peculiar to English conditions. Fénelon, in
referring to the neglect of the education of the girls of his
country, says: "It is shameful, but ordinary, to see
women who have acuteness and politeness, not able to
pronounce what they read; either they hesitate or they
intone in reading, when, instead, they should pronounce
with a simple and natural tone, but rounded and uniform.
They are still more deficient in orthography, whether in
the manner of composing their letters or in reading them when written."</p>
<span class="pagenum"><a name="page261" id="page261"></a>[pg 261]</span>

<p>The Civil War itself had a wide effect upon the state of
education among the people. Families in which education
had been fostered, with the turn of their fortunes found it
impossible to continue it; families whose fortunes had risen
by political changes felt their deficiency in this respect,
and affected to despise accomplishments of which they
themselves were destitute. Certain of the more enlightened
Puritan women pretended to apply themselves to the
study of Hebrew, on the ground that they looked upon it
as necessary to eternal salvation. Such pedantry brought
no credit to those who affected it, but only served to heap
odium upon the higher studies, which were now rejected
with contempt on all sides. How effectually interest in
education was suppressed by the civil disorders is shown
by a remark of a traveller who visited the country after
the Revolution. He says: "Here in England the women
are kept from all learning, as the profane vulgar were of
old from the mysteries of the ancient religions." It is
amusing to note the theories which had arisen with regard
to female education and which were used to extenuate its
lack. Some apologists for feminine ignorance gravely
asserted and led others to believe that the women of England
"were too delicate to bear the fatigues of acquiring
knowledge," besides being by nature incapable of doing
so, for, said they, "the moisture of their brain rendered it
impossible for them to possess a solid judgment, that
faculty of the mind depending upon a dry temperature."
But the unanswerable argument of all was that death and
sin had fallen upon the race of Adam solely in consequence
of the thirst which Eve had manifested for knowledge. In
the face of such contentions, it was not difficult to lead
people generally to accept the further conclusion as to the
disastrous consequences which would certainly come upon
society when woman became puffed up with her mental
<span class="pagenum"><a name="page262" id="page262"></a>[pg 262]</span>
acquirements; the favorable opinion which she would then
have of herself would not harmonize with that obedience
to men for which she was created. Worthy of note is
the fact that these views extended in some circles to the
arresting of the progress of religious instruction, especially
that of a public nature. Evelyn, in his <i>Diary</i>, says that
while the saints inherited the earth under the Protectorate,
it was his invariable custom to devote his Sunday afternoons
to the catechising and instruction of his family; but,
he remarks, these wholesome exercises "universally
ceased in the parish churches, so as people had no principles,
and grew very ignorant of even the common points
of Christianity, all devotions being now placed in hearing
sermons and discourses of speculative and national things."</p>

<p>There was a sterner side to the religious movement in
England than its relation to matters intellectual or even
moral. The Reformation under Henry VIII. had added
the names of certain women to those of the noble army of
martyrs of all the ages. To be false to conscience was to
be false to the very principles of their being, and both
Catholic and Protestant women became intensely strong
in their convictions and intolerant of those of others. The
Roman Church offered up its holocaust to the passions and
prejudices of the leaders of the Protestant movement, just
as the Roman Church in turn exacted the tribute of their
lives from many adherents of Protestantism. Woman was
looked upon as inferior to man and less capable of responsible
action, but in meting out persecutions there was no distinction
as to sex, the weaker suffering equally with the
stronger. The history of religious persecutions in England
is one of its least engaging chapters, and extends over a
long period. Puritan, Prelatist, and Catholic alike darkened
the annals of the times by deeds of violence. To
<span class="pagenum"><a name="page263" id="page263"></a>[pg 263]</span>
recite the sufferings of women under the crossfires of persecution
would be at best an ungracious task; and as such
experiences form but a part of the history of the sex
during the period which we have broadly styled the period
of the Commonwealth, an instance or two of the sufferings
of notable women, irrespective of their party affiliations,
will suffice for citation.</p>

<p>One of the most sorrowful of the judicial murders of
which a woman was the victim, which occurred during the
whole of this extended period, was that of Lady Lisle,
who, because of her sympathies with Monmouth's rebellion
against the king, was brutally executed, the specific
charge being the harboring of fugitives. The king's project
to hand over the nation to papacy nowhere aroused
such outbursts of indignation as among the Covenanters
of Scotland, who saw in it the destruction of all their hard-wrought-out
religious liberties, and the endangering of
their lives, besides the return of the nation to the chaos
from which it was emerging. The address of Lady Lisle
before her execution is an example of the sublimity to
which woman's character may rise under persecution,
when the spirit is buoyed by faith: "Gentlemen, Friends,
and Neighbors, it may be expected that I should say something
at my death, and in order thereunto I shall acquaint
you that my birth and education were both near this
place, and that my parents instructed me in the fear of
God, and I now die of the Reformed Protestant Religion;
believing that if ever popery should return into this nation,
it would be a very great and severe judgment....
The crime that was laid to my charge was for entertaining
a Non-conformist Minister and others in my house; the
said minister being sworn to have been in the late Duke
of Monmouth's army." Continuing, she said: "I have
no excuse but surprise and fear, which I believe my Jury
<span class="pagenum"><a name="page264" id="page264"></a>[pg 264]</span>
must make use of to excuse their verdict to the world. I
have been also told that the Court did use to be of counsel
for the prisoner; but instead of advice, I had evidence
against me from thence; which, though it were only by
hearing, might possibly affect my Jury; my defence being
such as might be expected from a weak woman; but such as
it was, I did not hear it repeated to the Jury, which, as I
have been informed, is usual in such cases. However,
I forgive all the world, and therein all those that have
done me wrong." Another victim of the same "Bloody
Assize" of Jeffreys, Mrs. Gaunt, of Wapping, pathetically
says: "I did but relieve an unworthy, poor, distressed family, and lo, I must die!"</p>

<p>The age was the legatee of a spirit of venom and bigotry
which expressed itself in deeds of violence more distressing
than those incident to the religious wars. Deeds of blood,
when connected with the defence of convictions, have about
them something of the heroic, but there is absolutely no
ray of glory to fall upon and lighten the dreary records of
the war upon defenceless women charged with being
witches, which broke out with fresh virulence with the
increase of religious fervor under the Commonwealth.
The charges were many and specious, but a very common
form centred about the compassionate functions of women
as the ameliorators of human distress.</p>

<p>The history of witchcraft is so intimately associated
with that of medicine, that to write an account of the one
involves a recital of the other. The utter lack of knowledge
of the anatomy of the human body and its functions,
which continued down to quite recent times, accounts for
the mystery and magic which surrounded the whole subject
of medicine, not only earlier than and during the
period of which we are speaking, but long subsequent
to it. The one who could successfully treat disease was
<span class="pagenum"><a name="page265" id="page265"></a>[pg 265]</span>
regarded as in league with the powers of darkness. Until
the practice of medicine came to be established upon scientific
principles, the care of the sick largely devolved upon
women. Had it been men instead of women who performed
the crude but often sincere service of nurse and
physician, they would have come under the same ban
with the effects of which the practitioners of the other sex
were visited. It is not probable, however, that the public
odium would have gone to such lengths of violence in its expression.</p>

<p>Among savage peoples, as the primitive tribes of Africa
and the American aborigines, the man who can dispel disease
by a fetich&mdash;the great medicine-man of a tribe&mdash;has
always been regarded with a feeling of combined jealousy,
suspicion, and fear; but, because of the occult powers he
is supposed to control, fear predominates and passes into
a form of reverence. Not so, however, in the case of
woman, of whom we write; she was looked upon as having
forfeited, to an extent, her claims upon humanity by her
original alliance with Satan, and, being outside of the pale
of God's grace, or sustaining only a permissive relationship
to it, it was deemed a pious, a safe, and a creditable
thing to mete out to her the divine dispensation of wrath.
Thus again, amid numerous instances of woman's suffering
as a penalty for her sex, we have the occurrence of
woman being persecuted unto death because of her compassion.
It was not regarded as despicable for the very
person who had been succored by her in the hour of sickness
to turn informant and declare that he or she had been
healed by diabolical agency, and, whether under the influence
of an honest hallucination, or simply actuated by a
malicious propensity, to declare that evil spirits had actually
been conjured up in human form and been seen by the eyes of the sufferer.</p>
<span class="pagenum"><a name="page266" id="page266"></a>[pg 266]</span>

<p>Women were not blameless in the matter of their reputation
for possessing occult knowledge and having diabolical
relations; for there were many women who, being
morally not beyond reproach, separated themselves from
society as they grew older, and resorted to medicinal
knowledge and magic for a living and to maintain in the
public eye the position of unenviable notoriety of which
they had become morbidly fond. It gratified such natures
to be reputed to possess the power&mdash;which even philosophers
ascribed to them&mdash;of, at certain seasons, turning
milk sour, making dogs rabid, and producing other such
freakish manifestations. They were considered to be able
not only to heal sickness, but to cause it; and the presence
in one's clothing of a pin whose irritant end was
pointed in the wrong direction was sufficient to make the
person believe that he was under a spell of witchcraft. If
a cow or a horse fell lame, it was the village witch who
did it; if a child developed as an imbecile, or anyone became
bereft of reason, it was laid at the door of the witch;
the failure of crops, a drought,&mdash;anything that interfered
with the comfort or convenience of a person or a community,&mdash;was
due to some such representative of Satan.</p>

<p>As the number of happenings of this sort increased, or
there occurred an epidemic of disease, or a flood or famine
of especial virulence, the number of alleged witches correspondingly
increased; and so the persecution swelled in
volume, each wave of malevolence receding only to rise
in larger aspect on the next occasion of its arousing. Not
until the reign of Henry VIII. were there any enactments
against witchcraft in England; prior to the passage of these
acts, the persecution of a sorceress followed only upon an
accusation of poisoning. During some parts of the Middle
Ages the crime of poisoning was extensive, and certain
women were adepts in making the deadly potions. To such
<span class="pagenum"><a name="page267" id="page267"></a>[pg 267]</span>
abandoned characters resorted persons of state who desired
to make away with hated rivals, or the men and women of
the nobility who sought to hide or to further their intrigues
by the death of someone who stood in their way. As the
women who practised the arts of the poisoner were also
devotees of sorcery, the crime and the superstition came
to be thought of together. One reason for the detestation
of witches was the subtlety they displayed in concocting
poisons which slowly sapped the vitality of a person,
as if by a wasting illness. In 1541, conjuring, sorcery,
and witchcraft were placed in the list of capital offences.
Similar statutes were enacted during the succeeding reigns of Elizabeth and James I.</p>

<p>The curious matter of demoniacal possession called forth
a great many books and pamphlets treating of its nature,
history, methods of repression, and the dispossession of
those under witches' spells. John Wier, a physician,
wrote a treatise, in the last half of the sixteenth century,
in which he described witches as but exaggerated types of
the perversity which is found in women generally. In the
easy subjection of the sex to malign influences he saw a
proof of its greater moral weakness.</p>

<p>The seventeenth century was as prolific of cases of
persecution of women for demon possession as any of
those of the less enlightened period of mediævalism. In
1568, in a sermon before Queen Elizabeth, Bishop Jewell
said: "It may please your Grace to understand that
witches and sorcerers within these few last years are
marvellously increased within your Grace's realm. Your
Grace's subjects pine away even unto the death, their
colour fadeth, their flesh rotteth, their speech is benumbed,
their knees are bereft. I pray God they never practise
<i>further than upon the subjects</i>." The Bull of Innocent
VIII., in 1484, did not do more for the furtherance
<span class="pagenum"><a name="page268" id="page268"></a>[pg 268]</span>
of persecution of the unfortunates who came under suspicion
of using magic than did the declaration of Luther:
"I should have no compassion on these witches; I would
burn all of them." As upon the continent, so in England
reformers took up the persecution of witches with keen
zest, as a contest with the powers of darkness working
for the destruction of the peace and health of humanity
in an open and flagrant manner. The same spirit of
espionage which was one of the baleful effects of the
outbreaks of persecution during the Middle Ages attended
the persecution of witchcraft in England during the seventeenth
century. To save themselves from suspicion, persons
informed against others, and even members of a
household would give evidence leading to the trial of those
of their own kin. When an unfortunate fell under suspicion,&mdash;which
too frequently meant the animosity of an
evil-disposed person,&mdash;the minister would denounce her
by name from the pulpit, prohibit his parishioners from
harboring her or in any way giving her succor, and exhort
them to give evidence against her. The Puritans had
conned well the story of the Witch of Endor, and, with
their tendency to reproduce the Old Testament spirit, felt
that the existence of witches was an abomination in the
sight of the Lord, which would bring divine wrath upon
the community that sheltered them unless the sin were
purged from it by their death. In this they were but the
inheritors of the faith of the Church from the early ages,
and are liable to no more serious censure for their persecution
of witches than that which they merit for the
vindictive and splenetic spirit and the satisfaction in
barbarities and cruelty which too often they evinced.</p>

<p>The persecutions attendant upon witchcraft are chargeable
to no one division of the Church more than to another,
for Protestant as well as Catholic, Puritan as well as
<span class="pagenum"><a name="page269" id="page269"></a>[pg 269]</span>
Prelatist, felt that in this work he was fulfilling the will
of God and safeguarding society. King James I., in his
<i>Demonology</i>, asks: "What can be the cause that there are
twentie women given to that craft where there is only one
man?" He gives as his reason for the disparity in numbers
the greater frailty of women, which he easily and
satisfactorily proves by reference to the fall of Eve, as
marking the beginning of Satan's dominance of the sex.</p>

<p>In entering upon a crusade of persecution of witches,
the Puritans were in harmony with the enactments of the
sovereigns before the Commonwealth, and were in conformity
with the temper of the times and the universally
prevailing belief of the country. The austerity they assumed
toward the sex in general made it easy for them to
believe that particular characters, given over to vagabondage,
were by reason of their moral turpitude especial subjects
of Satan for the temptation of men. With them, the
persecution of witches was not solely a matter of superstition,
but of public morals as well. They were often
actuated by a sincere desire to raise the standard of morality,
and to preserve order and decency. That the women
rather than the men should have suffered for evil courses
was due, of course, to the conception that moral reprobation
is to be visited upon the weaker sex.</p>

<p>In the second half of the seventeenth century the witchcraft
superstition became a veritable epidemic, and persecution
broke out in different sections of the country.
Hardly had the stories of the execution of witches in one
place ceased to be a nine days' wonder, when the tongues
of the people were busy with stories of similar occurrences
somewhere else. An angry sailor threw a stone at a boy;
and the boy's mother roundly cursed the assailant of her
offspring, and added the hope that his fingers would rot off.
When, two years later, something of the sort actually
<span class="pagenum"><a name="page270" id="page270"></a>[pg 270]</span>
did happen, her imprecation was remembered against her,
and there was also brought to light the fact that a neighbor
with whom she was at odds had been seized with
severe pains and felt her bed rocking up and down. The
evidence was conclusive, the woman must be a witch;
such was the verdict, and death was her sentence. Two
women who lived alone, and, probably partly because of
their solitary existence, had developed irascible tempers
and demeanors which enlisted the hearty dislike of the
inhabitants of the fishing hamlet near by, were subjected
to the petty persecutions in which children instigated by
their parents are such adepts; finding existence too miserable
to care very much for their reputations, they endangered
their security by their attitude toward their
tormentors. At last, nobody would even sell them fish,
and their cursing and prophecies of evil for their enemies
became increasingly violent. In the order of nature, some
children were seized with fits, and, under the inspiration
of their elders, declared that they saw the two women
coming to torment them. After being eight years under
accusation, the women were brought to trial, and Sir Matthew
Hale, the presiding judge, after expressing his belief
that the Scriptures proved the reality of witchcraft, decided
against the unhappy women and condemned them to be
hanged. This occurred in 1664, and constituted the celebrated
witch trial of Bury St. Edmunds.</p>

<p>These instances serve to illustrate the fate of a vast
number of hapless women during the seventeenth century;
it is said that during the sittings of the Long Parliament
alone, as many as three thousand persons were
executed on charges of witchcraft. Besides these unhappy
wretches, a great many more suffered the terrible fate
of mob violence. The frenzied populace were often
too impatient to await legal procedure, and stoned the
<span class="pagenum"><a name="page271" id="page271"></a>[pg 271]</span>
miserable women to death. In the minds of the great
majority of the people, such women were not human
beings at all, and so there was no cruelty in treating them
with the greatest violence possible. Indeed, such earnestness
of purpose against the adversaries of God could but
redound, they thought, to their eternal advantage. After
all, was it not a devil, who for the time being assumed
human form, that they were treating with such violence?
to-morrow, the same demon might be found in a dog or in
some other animal, or perhaps afflicting with cholera the
swine of some peasant, to his severe loss. A description
of a witch in the first half of the seventeenth century says:
"The devil's otter-hound, living both on land and sea, and
doing mischief in either; she kills more beasts than a
licensed butcher in Lent, yet is ne'er the fatter; she's but
a dry nurse in the flesh, yet gives such to the spirit. A
witch rides many times post on hellish business, yet if a
ladder do but stop her, she will be hanged ere she goes
any further." The penal statutes against witchcraft were
not formally repealed until 1751, when there was closed
for England one of the saddest chapters in the history of
human mistakes. The last judicial executions for witchcraft in England were in 1716.</p>

<p>In pleasing contrast to the unhappy creatures who were
the victims of fanatical persecutions during the Commonwealth
period&mdash;the women executed for witchcraft&mdash;stand
the noble women who were developed by the stern
conditions of the Civil War&mdash;the heroines of internecine
strife. The domestic incidents of the Civil War form an
interesting commentary upon the character of the English
woman, as they reveal her in brave defence of castle or
homestead, patient in hardship, courageous in danger, and
fertile in resources to avert misfortune. Every important
family was ranged on one side or the other, and the line
<span class="pagenum"><a name="page272" id="page272"></a>[pg 272]</span>
of division often passed through households. To all other
issues which aroused human passion, or touched the
springs of human character and brought forth the reserve
heroism of human life, was added that issue which stirs
deepest the human heart,&mdash;the issue of religion. The
contest was not merely between king and people: it was
a contest as well between the people themselves as to the
form of religion they desired as the expression of their faith.</p>

<p>Under such conditions women could not be kept out of
the turmoil and the strife; perhaps one of the important
ends which this distressful period brought about was the
crystallizing of the convictions of many women, who
otherwise would not have thought or felt deeply upon that
subject which is fundamental to the welfare of a nation
and the character of its people,&mdash;the subject of religion.
Royalists and Puritans, the women were arrayed on each
side. They followed the issues with an earnest alertness
born of an intelligent understanding of the causes involved
and their own vital relation to the contest in its results.</p>

<p>One of the Puritan women who literally entered into
the fray was Mrs. Hutchinson. Her father, Sir Allen
Apsley, was governor of the Tower during Sir Walter
Raleigh's incarceration. It is probable that Mrs. Hutchinson
had some knowledge of medicine, because during the
siege of Nottingham she was actively engaged in dressing
the soldiers' wounds and furnishing them with drugs and
lotions suitable to their cases, and met with great success
in her rôle of physician even in the cases of those of some
who were dangerously wounded. But it was not solely in
the character of nurse and physician that she was so
active, for, in conjunction with the other women of the
town, after the departure of the Royalist forces, she aided
in districting the city for patrols of fifty, the courageous
<span class="pagenum"><a name="page273" id="page273"></a>[pg 273]</span>
women thus taking an active share in the arduous duties
of the town's defence. This intrepid woman later appeared
in the character of peacemaker. The elections of 1660
were of a violent character, on account of the ill feeling
between the Royalists of the town and the soldiers of the
Commonwealth. At the critical moment, Mrs. Hutchinson
arrived, and, being acquainted with the captains,
persuaded them to countenance no tumultuous methods,
whatever might be the provocation, but to make complaint
in regular form to the general and let him assume the
work of preserving the peace. This they consented to do;
and the townsmen were equally amenable to her wise
counsel, and contracted to restrain their children and servants
from endangering the peace of the people.</p>

<p>Courage and initiative were not limited to the women
on one side of the contest, as is well illustrated by the
conduct of the Countess of Derby, who, in 1643, made a
remarkable defence of Latham House; the countess was of
French birth and had in her veins the indomitable spirit
of the Dutch, for she was a descendant of Count William
of Nassau. She was called upon either to yield up her
home or to subscribe to the propositions of Parliament,
and, upon her refusal to do either, was besieged in her
castle and kept in confinement within its walls, with no
larger range of liberty than the castle yard. Her estate
was sequestered, and she was daily affronted with mocking
and contemptuous language. When she was requested by
Sir Thomas Fairfax to yield up the castle, she replied with
quiet dignity that she wondered how he could exact such
a thing of her, when she had done nothing in the way of
offence to Parliament, and she requested that, as the
matter affected both her religion and her life, besides her
loyalty to her sovereign and to her lord, she might have a
week's consideration of the demand. She declined the
<span class="pagenum"><a name="page274" id="page274"></a>[pg 274]</span>
proposition of Sir Thomas Fairfax to meet him at a certain
house a quarter of a mile distant from the castle for purposes
of conference, saying that it was more knightly that
he should wait upon her than she upon him. After further
parleyings failed of conclusion, she finally sent a message
that brought on a renewal of the siege. She said that she
refused all the propositions of the Parliamentarians, and
was happy that they had refused hers, and that she would
hazard her life before again making any overtures: "That
though a woman and a stranger, divorced from her friends
and robbed of her estate, she was ready to receive their
utmost violence, trusting in God for deliverance and protection."</p>

<p>The siege dragged on wearily for six or seven weeks, at
the end of which time Sir Thomas Fairfax resigned his
post to Colonel Rigby. The castle forces amounted to
three hundred soldiers, while the besieging force numbered
between two and three thousand men. In the contest five
hundred of these were killed, while the countess lost but
six of her soldiers, who were killed through their own
negligence. The colonel manufactured a number of grenadoes,
and then sent an ultimatum to the countess, who
tore up the paper and returned answer by the messenger
to "that insolent" [Rigby] that he should have neither
her person, goods, nor house; and as to his grenadoes, she
would find a more merciful fire, and, if the providence of
God did not order otherwise, that her house, her goods,
her children, and her soldiers would perish in flames of
their own lighting, and so she and her family and defenders
would seal their religion and loyalty. The next morning
the countess caused a sally of her forces to be made, in
which they got possession of the ditch and rampart and a
very destructive mortar which had been used to bombard
the besieged. Rigby wrote to his superiors, begging
<span class="pagenum"><a name="page275" id="page275"></a>[pg 275]</span>
assistance and saying that the length of the siege and the
hard duties it entailed had wearied all his soldiers, and that
he himself was completely worn out. In the meanwhile,
the Earl of Derby and Prince Rupert made their appearance,
and Rigby made a hurried retreat; in his endeavor
to escape the Royalist forces, he fell into an ambush and
received a severe punishment before he reached the town
of Bolton. Such were the deeds of women of spirit upon
each side of the civil conflict; and because of their elements
of character and loyalty to conviction, the women
of the better classes of England, irrespective of their affiliations,
mark a high point of progress in the sex toward the
goal of independence and individuality which the civil strife aided them to secure.</p>

<p>The Society of Friends, or Quakers, was one of the
religious communities of the Commonwealth, whose members
suffered grievously on account of their religion. To the
lot of their women fell an abundant share of persecutions
and martyrdoms; they were scourged, and ill treated in
every conceivable way. Their lives, inoffensive and pure,
were a constant rebuke to those of the loose livers about
them. Although Charles II. had promised, on coming to
the throne, that he would befriend them, their miseries
were not greatly abated. The persecution of Quaker
women had continued from the middle of the sixteenth
century, when, in the west of England, Barbara Blangdon
was imprisoned for preaching, and other Quakeresses
were placed in the stocks by the Mayor of Evansham,
and also treated with other indignities. Throughout the
seventeenth century, cruel persecutions of women of the
Quaker persuasion were often repeated.</p>

<p>With the Friends, the idea of the ministry of the Gospel
was broadened so as to include in its preachers and
teachers those who possessed the necessary gift, without
<span class="pagenum"><a name="page276" id="page276"></a>[pg 276]</span>
regard to sex. Whatever may be individual opinion as to
woman's prerogative in this respect, there can be no
manner of doubt but that the advance in the status of
woman which was marked by the Society of Friends was
a real contribution to the times and a gift of permanent
value to the English women in general. Those women
who claimed the right to preach were as ready to suffer on
behalf of their ministry. They were scourged, and ill
treated in every possible way; Bridewell Prison opened to
receive many within its gloomy interior; but they remained
steadfast to the cardinal articles of their belief,
declaring: "As we dare not encourage any ministry but
that which we believe to spring from the influence of the
Holy Spirit, so neither dare we to attempt to restrain this
ministry to persons of any condition in life, or to the male
sex alone; but as male and female are one in Christ, we
hold it proper that such of the female sex as we believe
to be imbued with a right qualification of the ministry
should exercise their gifts for the general edification of the Church."</p>

<p>Having considered the conditions which existed during
the period of the Commonwealth in England, and particularly
the rise of the Puritan spirit and its dominance, as
related to the women of the times, it now remains to bring
this period into connection with that of the Restoration,
which offers to it such a strong contrast. It is not conceivable
that, if the Puritan leaven had so thoroughly permeated
the mass of the English people as appeared to be
the case upon the surface of English society, there would
have been so sudden and radical a reaction upon the return
of Charles II. from his long sojourn abroad. That so
many who cried "crucify him" should now be found with
"all hail" upon their lips, that women who had assumed
the Puritan twang and pious demeanor should throw off
<span class="pagenum"><a name="page277" id="page277"></a>[pg 277]</span>
their assumed character and stand out in their true light
under the glare of a court that was brilliant with revelry,
is evidence of the futility of attempting to force ideals and
standards upon a people who have not been gradually
developed to the attainment of the qualities which they are commanded to assume.</p>

<p>Even those women who could not abide the insufferable
weight of piety which spread over the period frequently
found it politic not to antagonize that which formed the
very atmosphere they had to breathe; but these women
were not shameless profligates because they could not
enter into the intense introspection and the outward circumspection
of the Puritan dame. When the return of
Charles II. brought to the front a code of manners which
revealed the real morals of the people, many women who
had walked "circumspectly," and were not under suspicion
of playing a part, did not any longer conceal their real
proclivities, but stood forth as women of pleasure. The
Countess of Pembroke, Lady Crawshaw, and Mrs. Hutchinson,
all ornaments of their sex during the Puritan régime,
were yet alive at the Restoration, and beheld with dismay
the shameless performances of their countrywomen.</p>

<p>As marking an epoch, Puritanism is to be regarded as
having destroyed the last relics of medievalism. "Under
the Stuarts," says Creighton, "society became essentially
modern, and many of the institutions upon which the
comfort of modern life depends had their origin."
<!--Blank page #278 omitted.-->
<span class="pagenum"><a name="page279" id="page279"></a>[pg 279]</span></p>




<h2>Chapter XII</h2>

<h2>The Women of the Restoration Period</h2>
<!--Blank page #280 omitted.-->
<span class="pagenum"><a name="page281" id="page281"></a>[pg 281]</span>


<p>"I stood in the Strand and beheld it and blessed
God," wrote John Evelyn in his <i>Diary</i>, referring to the
magnificent pageantry with which Charles II., on returning
from his exile in France, was received by the London
populace. With this pious ejaculation, the courtly Royalist
welcomed the presence in England of that scion of the
house of Stuart whose reign of profligacy was to mark his
period as one of the most reprehensible in the history of
the country. It is little wonder that Charles was so affected
by the great demonstration in his honor that he
marvelled that he should have remained away from the
country so long when the people were languishing for his
return. The manner with which London threw off its
garb of Puritanical gray and manners grave, and donned
bright attire and assumed the airs of gayety and frivolity,
showed how insincere and superficial was the religious
seriousness which had been worn as suited to the temper
and times of the austere Protector.</p>

<p>The change was not so sudden but that it had begun to
appear during the weak rule of the second Cromwell&mdash;Richard.
But the spontaneousness with which the people
welcomed Charles in all the towns through which he
passed on his way, and the abandonment and joyousness
which spread over the land, signalized one of the most
<span class="pagenum"><a name="page282" id="page282"></a>[pg 282]</span>
important reactions which have occurred in public sentiment
and public morals of any age. Music, dancing,
revelry, and license suddenly wrenched the times from all
their wonted decorum, and in the flood tide of pleasure
and frivolity were borne away many who had long subsisted
upon their reputations for peculiar piety. Not only
did the leopard who had changed his spots, and the Ethiopian
his skin, for political purposes when the Civil War
bore the Puritans into power, return to their real markings,
but great numbers of those who had sustained their
Puritanical professions with greater or lesser degrees of
sincerity and earnestness caught the maddening thrill of
levity with which the very atmosphere seemed surcharged,
and rapidly passed down the gradations of character into recklessness and vice.</p>

<p>The Royalists were well prepared for the change from
piety to profligacy, and hailed the advent of the light-hearted
monarch as a veritable release of souls in prison.
During the Commonwealth, the wretchedness of their
condition had wrought the widespread depravity which
existed among them. The uncertainty of their fortunes
and the necessity of often meeting together made them
<i>habitués</i> of the taverns, which were the centres for social
intercourse; and it may have been thus that the habit of
excessive drinking, so prevalent in this period, was contracted.
Upon the principle that no one gives serious
heed to the doings of a drunkard, abandoned and dissolute
habits were looked upon by the Royalist plotters as a
safeguard for themselves and a security to their plans:</p>

<div class="poem">  <div class="stanza">
<p>"Come, fill my cup, until it swim</p>
<p>With foam that overlooks the brim.</p>
<p>Who drinks the deepest? Here's to him.</p>
<p>Sobriety and study breeds</p>
<p>Suspicion in our acts and deeds;</p>
<p>The downright drunkard no man heeds."</p>
  </div>  </div>
<span class="pagenum"><a name="page283" id="page283"></a>[pg 283]</span>

<p>The very vices, however, which the Royalists acknowledged
having been led to cultivate by their "pride, poverty,
and passion" were imitated by the baser element
among the Puritans when the Cavaliers became triumphant.
Those who formerly had boasted that they "would
as soon cut a Cavalier's throat as swear an oath, and
esteem it a less sin," now assumed the rôle of sinners as
complacently as they had previously played the part of saints.</p>

<p>A period of industrial depression subtracts, in the estimation
of the people, from the merits of a government,
however noble may be its policy; and for twenty years
previous to the Restoration the condition of the masses of
the people had steadily been growing worse, so that there
was a widespread longing for more provisions and less
piety. Before the Civil War, the state of the people had
reached high-water mark; so vast had been the increase
of England's commerce, owing to the strife among the
neighboring powers, that the revenue from customs had
almost doubled, and the blessings of prosperity were felt
among all classes. Sir Philip Warwick even asks us to
believe that there was scarcely any cobbler in London
whose wife did not include a silver beaker among the
furnishings of her modest sideboard. During the Commonwealth,
pauperism increased to an alarming extent, so
that at the time of the coming of Charles ten thousand
men and women were languishing in the debtors' prisons,
and thousands of others were living in continual dread of the sheriff's executions.</p>

<p>The condition of English society at the coming of
Charles II. explains somewhat the tremendous outburst
of popular enthusiasm with which that event was greeted.
The people on the village green received him with morris
dances to the music of pipe and tabor, and with other
<span class="pagenum"><a name="page284" id="page284"></a>[pg 284]</span>
rustic festivities which for so long a time had been banished
as sinful engagements. At some of the towns
through which the triumphal procession passed, young
damsels to the number of hundreds lined the way and
strewed flowers in the path of the king. The women
were especially noticeable for their active participation in
all the popular demonstrations. It was as if they had felt
so heavily the repression of the rigorous theocracy of
Cromwell that they were ready to accept to the fullest
the pledge of better times which the return of Charles
gave them, and to pass from fuller liberty into the wildest
license. The king himself, by his own example, lost no
time in establishing the new standards of conduct. Even
the reckless spirit of the Londoners was somewhat surprised
when it was bruited abroad that the king, who was
received as a Divine dispensation to a waiting people, had
slunk out of the palace the first night after his return,
under cover of darkness, in the furtherance of one of the
unsavory intrigues which made his life and his court
notorious in the annals of English history. The sensibilities
of the English people were not seriously shocked,
however,&mdash;we are speaking of the Royalist following and
not of the Puritans,&mdash;and in the rebound from the first
amazement at the revelation they received of the kingly
character, they were ready to follow his lead; and so English
social life during the reign of Charles was greatly
corrupted. As the key to the times is to be sought in the
tone of the court, the unwelcome task must be fulfilled in
the interests of history, as it relates to woman, of setting
forth the actual conditions which were instituted and prevailed
at the court of Charles II.</p>

<p>The king came to England fresh from the court of
Louis XIV., and tainted by all the vices which made that
court infamous. For the first time, England became widely
<span class="pagenum"><a name="page285" id="page285"></a>[pg 285]</span>
affected by the gross iniquities which had for a long while
been a familiar fact of the noble circles of French society.
So long as England imported from France only its dress
goods, jewelry, and novelties, the influence exerted upon
it by its continental neighbor touched society in only a
superficial way; but when England's "Merrie Monarch"
brought over with him the low standard of French morals,
England paid tribute to France in a more serious way and
modelled its conduct after that of the more frivolous people.
The reign of Charles brings to view as the principal fact
of the times the personality of the monarch himself, not
because he was a strong man, but because he was so
thoroughly weak in his character and abandoned in his
conduct. We have nothing to do with political or constitutional
measures, but, in passing judgment upon the state
of society, we are constrained to say that the reign of
King Charles marked a distinct retrogression, and, in its
effect upon the status of woman, is notable for the distinction
it bestowed upon the courtesan class. The honoring
of such characters discounted greatly the gain for the
higher ideals of womanhood which had been secured by the Puritans.</p>

<p>The woman whom Charles had signalized by his favor
immediately upon his entrance into London was known
simply as Barbara Palmer until, by the ratio of her decline
in morals, she was elevated in honors and received the
titles of Countess of Castlemaine and Duchess of Cleveland.
It needs not the saying that beauty and graces of
manner and of form were her chief recommendations to
the royal notice. This woman, who became notorious
throughout England,&mdash;and who, upon the retirement of
Clarendon, whose dismissal she had secured, stood upon
the balcony of the palace in her night attire to rain down
upon his head curses and vile epithets,&mdash;was the woman
<span class="pagenum"><a name="page286" id="page286"></a>[pg 286]</span>
who, through her influence over Charles, occupied a commanding
position in England. Her amours before coming
under the royal notice absolve the king from responsibility
for her moral ruin, but the offence of thrusting her
before the English people and the contamination exerted
upon society by her presence and conduct at court are
what make up the indictment of womanhood against him.
Although many glimpses are afforded in the gossipy news of
the corrupt court of this courtesan's imperious domination
of Charles, nowhere is the story told more simply than by
Pepys in his <i>Diary</i>. He says: "Mr. Pierce, the surgeon,
tells me that, though the king and my Lady Castlemaine
are friends again, she is not at White Hall, but at Sir D.
Harvey's, whither the king goes to her; but she says she
made him ask her forgiveness upon his knees, and promise
to offend her no more so, and that indeed she hath nearly
hectored him out of his wits."</p>

<p>Such incidents were not confined to the knowledge of
the court circles, but percolated all classes of society, and
not only furnished the newsmongers with racy scandal,
but set in a whirl the light heads of many foolish women
who without such incitement from court example might have remained models of virtue.</p>

<p>Another of the king's favorites&mdash;and indeed one who
was, unlike the disagreeable countess, a favorite as well
with the English people, and whose name has not yet lost
its popularity&mdash;was Nell Gwynn. Pretty, witty, and open-hearted,
her face an index of the simplicity and purity of
character which the unfortunate circumstances of her birth
and bringing-up denied her, a veritable gem of womankind
lost amid the flotsam and jetsam of a coarse age, she is to
be regarded less as a sinner than as one sinned against,
although she herself, perhaps, seldom paused to reflect
upon the moral value of her actions.</p>
<span class="pagenum"><a name="page287" id="page287"></a>[pg 287]</span>

<div class="poem">  <div class="stanza">
<p>"How sweet and lovely dost thou make the shame</p>
<p>Which, like the canker in a fragrant rose,</p>
<p>Doth spot the beauty of thy budding name."</p>
  </div>  </div>

<p>It will not do to judge too harshly the character of one
whose whole conduct showed how essentially guileless and
gentle, as well as generous, were her instincts by the
rigorous standards which, however severe, are none too
exacting to be held up for women as representing the only
possible assurance of security for the status which they
have attained; but it is in no spirit of apology for her
wrong courses that all who undertake to discuss the life
of Nell Gwynn are irresistibly drawn to a recital of her
virtues rather than to a reprobation of her faults.</p>

<p>The poor orange girl, who, according to some authorities,
first saw the light of day in a miserable coalyard
garret in Drury Lane, and whose tutelage was the vulgarity
of the London streets, and her training a barroom
where she entertained the patrons by the sweetness of
her voice, courtesan though she became in the court of
Charles II., yet numbered among her descendants Lord
James Beauclerk, Bishop of Hereford, who died in 1782.
Nor was she associated with religion merely in this remote
way, for she herself, as patroness of Chelsea Hospital,
and promoter of many charities and the dispenser of private
benefactions, may reasonably claim consideration. In
her own behalf as a woman instinct with all the virtues
saving one only,&mdash;the one she had never had an opportunity
to possess. The effect of Nell Gwynn's presence
at court upon the minds of the populace was in some
respects more insidious than that of the professional courtesan
Castlemaine, for, by the pleasing philosophy of her
winsome nature, the vices of the court became transmuted
into pure gold in the estimation of the young women who
were affected by her as their ideal.</p>
<span class="pagenum"><a name="page288" id="page288"></a>[pg 288]</span>

<p>When the irascible temper of the Duchess of Cleveland
became too intolerable to be borne, the king's excitable
fancy was adroitly directed by the Duke of Buckingham,
English envoy to the court of France, to Mademoiselle de
Quéroualle, whom he planned to set up as a rival to her
in the king's affections, and thus to further his own ambitious
ends, which were antagonized by the duchess. Thus
to place in control of the king's volatile sentiments the
seductive French woman, who would represent the duke's
interests, seemed a veritable stroke of masterful politics of
a character not unworthy of Machiavel himself. It was
not difficult to persuade Louis that such a sentimental
alliance would cement Charles to the French interests;
and as the project would save her from a French convent,
mademoiselle was not found intractable. A decorous invitation,
so worded as to spare the blush of the lady's
modesty, was sent from the English court, and she was
forthwith despatched to the court of Charles to fulfil the
double rôles of courtesan and diplomat, which were so
often combined in the person of astute females. Her appearance
at court was hailed by Dryden, the court poet, in
some complimentary stanzas of indifferent worth. Evelyn
recorded in his <i>Diary</i> that he had seen "that famous
beauty, the new French Maid of Honor"; but adds: "In
my opinion, she is of a childish, simple, and baby face."
After the birth of a son to the king, who was created
Duke of Richmond and Earl of Marsh in England, Mademoiselle
de Quéroualle was made Duchess of Portsmouth.
At the same time, she was drawing a considerable pension
from Louis in recognition of her services to France. The
noble-minded English gentleman Evelyn records the extravagant
tastes of the duchess, whose control over the
king had become unbounded, in these words: "Following
his Majesty this morning through the gallery, I went with
<span class="pagenum"><a name="page289" id="page289"></a>[pg 289]</span>
the few who attended him into the Duchess of Portsmouth's
dressing-room, within her bed-chamber, where she
was in her loose morning garment, her maids combing her,
newly out of her bed, his Majesty and the gallants standing
about her; but that which engaged my curiosity was
the rich and splendid furniture of this woman's apartment,
now twice or thrice pulled down and rebuilt to satisfy her
prodigality and expensive pleasures, while her Majesty's
does not exceed some gentlemen's wives' in furniture and
accommodations. Here I saw the new fabric of French
tapestry, for design, tenderness of work, and incomparable
imitation of the best paintings, beyond anything I had ever
beheld. Some pieces had Versailles, St. Germaines, and
other places of the French king, with huntings, figures,
and landscapes, exotic fowls, and all to the life rarely
done. Then the Japan cabinets, screens, pendule clocks,
great vases of wrought plate, tables, stands, chimney
furniture, sconces, branches, brasures, and all of massive
silver, and out of number; besides of his Majesty's best
paintings. Surfeiting of this, I dined at Sir Stephen Fox's,
and went contented home to my poor but quiet villa.
What contentment can there be in the riches and splendour
of this world, purchased with vice and dishonour!"</p>

<p>"There was, in truth, little of contentment within those
sumptuous walls;" a weak queen helpless under the indignities
imposed upon her, a duchess burning with passionate
resentment, and light-hearted Nell Gwynn laughing
with amusement; a group of courtiers and courtesans with
little sense of honor, tossed about by conflicting emotions
of fear and jealousy, perplexity and heartaches; involved in
disgraceful intrigues and malicious conspiracies; attended
by all the demons which wait upon the mind that has sold
itself to sordidness and sin; mocked at by a troupe of perfidious
spirits of pride, avarice, and ambition&mdash;such was
<span class="pagenum"><a name="page290" id="page290"></a>[pg 290]</span>
the company within the palace walls that opened to receive
the woman who was to be, if possible, the most despicable
of them all, and certainly the most detested.</p>

<p>In pleasing contrast to the fashionable and often brilliant
debauchees of the court of Charles II. may be placed the
Countess de Grammont, to whom the description of the poet Fletcher applies:</p>

<div class="poem">  <div class="stanza">
<p>"A woman of that rare behaviour,</p>
<p>So qualified, that admiration</p>
<p>Dwells round about her; of that perfect spirit,</p>
<p>That admirable carriage,</p>
<p>That sweetness in discourse&mdash;young as the morning,</p>
<p>Her blushes staining his."</p>
  </div>  </div>

<p>She moved in the profligate sphere of the English court,
and later in that of France, without for a moment having
the brilliancy of her intellect, the acuteness of her wit,
or the whiteness of her character tarnished by vulgarity
of action or of word. Importuned by lovers of high degree
for alliances that were not regarded as compromising in
that gay atmosphere, and, when it was found futile to seek
to entice her into an equivocal position, as ardently sought
by the beaux for the honorable relation of wife, she held
them all at arm's length. Strong and resolute, she, like a
brilliant moth, circled about the passionate flame of the English
court without singeing her wings, neither did she seek,
by an adventitious flame of responsive passion, to draw on
to haplessness any of the courtiers who sought her with
ardent protestations of affection. Though light-hearted
and vivacious, she had none of the arts of a coquette; but
when the persistence of the Comte de Grammont convinced
her, in spite of the scepticism which her surroundings
created, and of his known character of frivolity, that
in him she might find a faithful and devoted husband, she
allowed her heart to hold sway of her destiny and yielded
<span class="pagenum"><a name="page291" id="page291"></a>[pg 291]</span>
herself in marriage to him. It had been better for her,
however, if she had remained a maid of honor than to
have become, by marriage to an unprincipled man, a wife
of dishonor. The exceptional worth of character, the
brilliancy of intellect, and the steadiness of purpose which
La Belle Hamilton exhibited, did not, in the eyes of the
voluptuous count, constitute a charm sufficient to wean
him from his evil courses to a life of consistency and of
uprightness. Her husband lived to an advanced age, yet
she survived him a brief while. Her brother has left us a
word picture of her at about the time of her introduction
to the court of Charles II., which, in connection with her
portrait by Sir Peter Lely, leaves no doubt of her matchless
charms. He says: "Her forehead was open, white,
and smooth; her hair was well set, and fell with ease into
that natural order which it is so difficult to imitate. Her
complexion was possessed of a certain freshness not to be
equalled by borrowed colours; her eyes were not large,
but they were lovely, and capable of expressing whatever
she pleased; her mouth was full of graces, and her contour
uncommonly perfect; nor was her nose, which was small,
delicate, and turned-up, the least ornament of so lovely a
face. She had the finest shape, the loveliest neck, and
most beautiful arms in the world; she was majestic and
graceful in all her movements; and she was the original
after which all the ladies copied in their tastes and air of dress."</p>

<p>In reading the memoirs of the court of Charles II., one
is apt to overlook the fact that at the period there was a
queen in England. There was a time when the consort
of the king was not so styled; her position was a personal
one, as related to her husband, but she did not share the
honors of the throne. How strangely reversed since the
later Anglo-Saxon period, as contrasted with the reign of
<span class="pagenum"><a name="page292" id="page292"></a>[pg 292]</span>
Charles II., had become the relation of the wife of the
monarch! for in these last times the full recognition was
tendered Catherine of Braganza to which her position as
consort of Charles gave her title&mdash;there was no question
as to there being a queen in England in the full meaning
of the term. But her personal relation to the king as her
husband was an equivocal one; perhaps once in a month
he might honor her with his presence at supper, and
occasionally absent himself from the enticements of his
mistresses. It was so from the very first; for, before
Catherine had landed in England, the intrigue of Charles II.
with the notorious Castlemaine was a matter of common
knowledge. The graceless king had the effrontery to include
Lady Castlemaine in the list of appointees for the
queen's following. The indignant bride had not yet learned
the futility of seeking to assert her rightful position, and,
haughtily declaring that she would return to her own
country rather than submit to such an indignity, drew her
pen across the name and swept Lady Castlemaine from
proximity to her person. In so doing she incurred the
deeper enmity of the female fury who ruled Charles with
an iron will and was for long years to be the queen's evil
genius. The queen was not brilliant, but she was in every
sense a woman; and when on a particular occasion, similar
to a present-day drawing room, Lady Castlemaine was
introduced by the king, the queen, who did not know her
and imperfectly caught the name, received her with grace
and benignity; but realizing in a moment who it was, she
became transformed, her urbanity disappeared, and, fully
alive to the insult which had been publicly offered her, she
was swept with a wave of passion: "She started from her
chair, turned as pale as ashes, then red with shame and
anger, the blood gushed from her nose, and she swooned
in the arms of her women." Lord Clarendon, who was a
<span class="pagenum"><a name="page293" id="page293"></a>[pg 293]</span>
witness of the contest between the wife and mistress and
sought to prevent the king from becoming controlled by
the latter, finally absented himself from court; thereupon
the king wrote him a letter in which, after declaring his
purpose of making Lady Castlemaine a lady of his wife's
bedchamber, he added: "And whosoever I find to be my
Lady Castlemaine's enemy, I do promise upon my word
to be his enemy as long as I live." The king's missive
had its effect; and Lord Clarendon undertook to persuade
the queen to bear the indignity, although he had replied
to the king that it was "more than flesh and blood could
comply with," and reminded him of the difference between
the French and English courts: "That in the former, such
connections were not new and scandalous, whereas in
England they were so unheard of, and so odious, that the
mistress of the king was infamous to all women of honour."</p>

<p>The king himself succeeded better in reconciling the
queen to the shameful situation than did his minister, for,
after several scenes between them, he treated her with
studied coldness and indifference, and in her presence
assumed an air of exceptional gayety toward all other
women. The unhappy queen finally acquiesced in a situation
which she could not improve, and suffered much
greater indignities than those which she had futilely resented.
There is little more of interest to add with regard
to this woman, whose position placed her first at court,
but who really was regarded by the king and his courtiers
as the most insignificant of its personages. She never
quite gave up the hope that she might win at least a share
of the affection which her husband bestowed upon others,
and to that end she eventually laid aside her retiring ways,
dressed décolleté, and gave magnificent balls, to which she
invited the fairest women of the nobility, thus seeking, by
humoring the fancy of her husband, to gain his love.</p>
<span class="pagenum"><a name="page294" id="page294"></a>[pg 294]</span>

<p>The maids of honor at the court of Charles, who were
for the most part mistresses of the king and of the courtiers,
and the male sycophants, whose only pursuit in life
was intrigue, made a choice group of profligate spirits,
who, without any restraint, but with every encouragement
from their royal master, assiduously furthered the chief interest of their existence.</p>

<p>There are not wanting those who utterly disparage the
morals of the Commonwealth, and affirm that both Cromwell
and his followers generally were guilty of as base
conduct as King Charles and his courtiers, and that the
only difference was that which exists between covert and
open practices of an evil nature. The fact remains, however,
that even down to the present day the English
people, and the American as well, are inheritors of the
spirit of the Puritans, to the great good of society. It was
the Puritans who taught reverence for the Sabbath and
made the Bible a common textbook of life; and although
they were strict and narrow in their views, earnestness
always is straitened in its bounds until it bursts them and
floods society with the power of the principles it advocates.</p>

<p>The apologists for King Charles, who hold to the ancient
formula of the faith of the Fathers and of the Puritans,&mdash;that
woman from the days of Eden unto the present time
has stood for the downfall of man,&mdash;seek to enlist sympathy
for him by saying that in his various peccadilloes
the women seemed to be the aggressors. This plea, which
was advanced by his friendly contemporaries, who sought
to whitewash the outside of the sepulchre of the king's
character while leaving undisturbed the inward corruption,
is still gravely repeated by partisan historians to-day. Sir
John Reresby said: "I have since heard the King say they
would sometimes offer themselves to his embrace." It is
unfortunate that the integrity of the chivalrous king should
<span class="pagenum"><a name="page295" id="page295"></a>[pg 295]</span>
have suffered such assaults; but as no other English monarch
seems to have been so desperately set upon to his destruction
by the women of his times, it may not be too great a
piece of temerity to put in a plea for the women of the
reign of the glorious Charles II. by suggesting the bare
possibility that all the moral probity was not possessed
alone by him who reigned King of England!</p>

<p>We can much better accept the description of society
given by Clarendon. It is not, however, to be taken as
an index to the innate perversity of woman in wicked
ways, but as indicating the natural effect of the lowering
of the esteem in which the sex was held by the evil living
of men in the higher circles of society. Yet not all the
indictments which are brought forward by Clarendon
would be considered to-day as of a serious nature. He
comments: "The young women conversed without any
circumspection of modesty, and frequently met at taverns
and common eating-houses; they who were stricter and
more severe in their comportment became the wives of
the seditious preachers or of officers of the army. The
daughters of noble and illustrious families bestowed themselves
upon the divines of the time, or other low and
unequal matches. Parents had no manner of authority
over their children, nor children any obedience or submission
to their parents, but every one did that which was good in his own eyes."</p>

<p>That the change in the feminine character was not simply
due to the unsettled state of society from the Civil
War, which undoubtedly did affect the standard of the
times, but was attributable more largely to the imported
French manners with which Charles made the nation
familiar, is beyond doubt. Peter Heylin, who had travelled
in France and published an account of his observations,
and who was led to pass severe strictures upon the
<span class="pagenum"><a name="page296" id="page296"></a>[pg 296]</span>
conduct of the French women, modified his gratulatory
expressions with regard to English women as follows:
"Our English women, at that time, were of a more retired
behaviour than they have been since, which made the confident
carriage of the French damsels seem more strange to
me; whereas of late the garb of our women is so altered,
and they have in them so much of the mode of France, as
easily might take off those misapprehensions with which
I was possessed at my first coming thither."</p>

<p>It was not until after the death of the king, which
occurred on February 6, 1685, that the nation recovered
from the spell of debauchery through which it had passed,
and assumed its wonted sobriety. Seven days prior,
Evelyn wrote in his <i>Diary</i>: "I saw this evening such a
scene of profuse gaming, and the king in the midst of his
three concubines, as I had never before seen, luxurious
dallying and profaneness." After the death of Charles
and the proclamation of James II., he reverted again to
that scene and said: "I can never forget the inexpressible
luxury and profaneness, gaming and all dissoluteness, and,
as it were, total forgetfulness of God (it being Sunday
evening) which this day se'nnight I was witness to, the
king sitting and toying with his concubines&mdash;Portsmouth,
Cleveland, Mazarine, etc.&mdash;a French boy singing love
songs in that glorious gallery, whilst about twenty of the
great courtiers and other dissolute persons were at basset
round a large table, a bank of at least 2000 pounds in gold
before them, upon which two gentlemen who were with
me made reflexions with astonishment. Six days after was all in the dust!"</p>

<p>Although the monarch who made England merry with
all sorts of frivolities had passed away, the influences of
his life did not quickly cease. One of the social changes
which came about in his reign was destined to become very
<span class="pagenum"><a name="page297" id="page297"></a>[pg 297]</span>
widely extended and to have an important bearing upon
the structure of English society. This was the introduction
of women upon the stage. In discussing the amusements
of the English people in the several periods, we have as
yet said nothing with regard to the theatre, because it did
not relate to woman in an especial manner. The old
mediæval mystery and morality plays were given under
the auspices of the Church, and formed a part of the religious
instruction of a people who neither knew how nor
had the facilities to read. With the rise of the modern
drama and of such masterly interpreters of human passion
as the dramatists of the Elizabethan era, the stage was
secularized and the range of subjects and appeal was very much widened.</p>

<p>In 1660, for the first time, women were engaged to perform
female characters. Before that time, they had been
prohibited from appearing on the stage; largely because
the female parts were usually&mdash;and especially in the beginning
of the popularity of the theatre&mdash;so vulgar and
obscene that it not only would have been highly disgraceful
for a woman to appear in such characters, but
the vulgarity was too great even for the countenance of
females in the audience without resorting to the expedient
of wearing masks. This practice led to shameful intrigues
and discreditable escapades which added to living the zest
which was craved by the women of the court who, thus
disguised, were <i>habituées</i> of the theatre. If it was thought
that by allowing women to take female parts in the plays
the tone of such characters might be improved, the ordinances
which permitted the practice certainly failed of
effect. D'Israeli, taking the æsthetic view of this innovation
of the time of Charles II., says: "To us there appears
something so repulsive in the exhibition of boys or men
personating female characters, that one cannot conceive
<span class="pagenum"><a name="page298" id="page298"></a>[pg 298]</span>
how they could ever have been tolerated as a substitute for
the spontaneous grace, the melting voice, and the soothing looks of a female."</p>

<p>The absurdity which he suggests was aptly expressed
by a poet of the reign of Charles II., in a prologue which
was written as an introduction to the play in which appeared the first actress:</p>

<div class="poem">  <div class="stanza">
<p>"Our women are defective, and so sized,</p>
<p>You'd think they were some of the guard disguised</p>
<p>For to speak truth, men act, that are between</p>
<p>Forty and fifty, wenches of fifteen;</p>
<p>With brows so large and nerve so uncompliant,</p>
<p>When you call Desdemona&mdash;enter giant."</p>
  </div>  </div>

<p>Nell Gwynn is said first to have attracted the attention
of King Charles when she appeared in a humorous part at
the theatre; she was one of the earliest actresses to appear
<i>in propria persona</i>. As ungraceful as were the female
parts when taken by men, the innovation of women was
not received kindly by many critics of the stage. Thus
Pepys, in his <i>Diary</i>, is found lamenting the new custom:
"The introduction of females on the stage was the beginning
of a change ever to be regretted. Pride of birth, but
not insolence, is, to a certain extent, highly commendable,
and which had hitherto been the chief characteristic of the
old English aristocracy, who had kept themselves till now
almost universally free from stained alliances; but from
this time they became the patrons, and even the husbands,
of any lewd, babbling, painted, pawed-over thing
that the purlieus of the theatre could produce."</p>

<p>Evelyn comments upon the theatre to the same effect,
and remarks that he very seldom attended it, because of
its godless liberty: "Foul and indecent women now (and
never till now) permitted to appear and act, who, inflaming
several young noblemen and gallants, become their
<span class="pagenum"><a name="page299" id="page299"></a>[pg 299]</span>
misses, and to some their wives." He then instances
several of the nobility whom he says fell into such snares,
to the reproach of their families and the ruin of themselves
in both body and soul. He laments the fact that the
splendid products of Shakespeare and Ben Jonson were
crowded off the stage to make room for the pasteboard
and tinsel of John Dryden and Thomas Shadwell. At the
time that Evelyn and Pepys were recording their comments
upon the tone of the stage, thousands were
living who well remembered the vehement denunciation of
plays by the sturdy old Puritan William Prynne, who was
rewarded for his ardent crusades against the iniquities of
the theatre by the snipping off of his ears. The condemnation
of the theatre was not confined to any party or
church, for Bishop Burnet is found vigorously denouncing
theatres, under the new conditions inaugurated by
Charles II., as "nests of prostitution."</p>

<p>The depravity of the taste of the patrons of the theatres
had its influence upon the writers of the plays. Men whose
personal lives were unexceptionable did not scruple, when
writing pieces intended for representation upon the stage,
to introduce as much indecency as they possibly could,
knowing full well that unless their works were highly
seasoned they would never get a hearing. The manners
and tastes of the court of Charles II. established the standard
of the theatres during his reign; the depravity of
public sentiment and the general corruption of the times
were greatly increased by these mirrors of the manners and
life of the court. So utterly foul became the repute of the
stage, that, to quote from Sydney's <i>Social Life in England</i>,
"Every person who had the slightest regard for sobriety
and morality avoided a playhouse as he would have
avoided a house on the door of which the red cross bore
witness to the awful fact that the inmates had been
<span class="pagenum"><a name="page300" id="page300"></a>[pg 300]</span>
smitten by the pestilence which walketh in darkness and by
the sickness that destroyeth in noon-day. The indecorous
character of the stage inflicted much less injury than it
would have done had it been covered with a thin veil
of sentiment. Those dramatic representations, at which
women desirous of maintaining some reputation for modesty
deemed it incumbent upon them to wear masks, were,
as may be supposed, studiously avoided by those who
really were virtuous." The influence of the metropolis
did not extend over the kingdom as it does to-day, so that
outside of the tainted circles there were to be found social
spheres where the old gentility of the Elizabethan age was
maintained, although subjected to such sneers as were
directed against them by Dryden, who looked upon them
as unfortunate enough to have been bred in an unpolished
age, and still more unlucky to live in a refined one. "They
have lasted beyond their own, and are cast behind ours."</p>

<p>Artificiality without any pretence to sincerity was the
spirit of the times of Charles II.; the maundering sentiments
and flagitious bearing of the actors upon the stage
were not different from the conduct of the buffoons who
masqueraded in titles and elegant attire at the court of the
king of revels. Foppery in speech and in dress and the
interlarding of conversation with French phrases found
favor among the court followers. It was regarded "as ill
breeding to speak good English, as to write good English,
good sense, or a good hand."</p>

<p>Women as artists appeared earlier than women as
players. For several centuries they had been accustomed,
as a polite accomplishment, to illuminate manuscripts, and
indeed this for a long time was the only form of art worthy
of the name in England. There had developed, however,
considerable taste and skill in wood carving, as well as
further advancement of the ancient art of the goldsmith,
<span class="pagenum"><a name="page301" id="page301"></a>[pg 301]</span>
which, as we have seen, was developed enough in Anglo-Saxon
times to constitute an English school. But art in
its more particular meaning was not found domestic to
England until the reign of Charles I. It was the influence
of the great school of Dutch artists that awakened in
England art instinct and created artistic talent. England's
art history may be dated from the time of Van Dyke's
residence in the country, at least in so far as it embraces
women. When Van Dyke was at the English court, Anne
Carlisle shared with him the royal patronage. The king's
fine taste in art matters had unerringly led him to fix his
favor upon this woman, and her works show the undoubted genius she possessed.</p>

<p>The Puritan embroilment, which was destructive to all
forms of intellectual advancement as long as it kept the
nation in an unsettled state, had a repressive effect upon
art; but from the time of the Restoration the stream flowed
on with increasing depth and volume, and the list of England's
woman painters not only became creditable to the
country, but afforded another criterion by which to prove
the lofty possibilities of the sex. Mary Beale, a painter
in oil and in water-colors, who received high commendation
from the famous portrait painter Sir Peter Lely, was
a painstaking and industrious artist. Anne Killigrew, who
was maid of honor to the Duchess of York, in the brief
span of her life acquired a permanent reputation, not only
by her portraits, which included those of the Duke and
Duchess of York, but by her verses as well. These and
other women of talent were the precursors of the women
who did so much for the art history of the eighteenth century.</p>

<p>In considering the place of woman in literature during
the period of which we are writing, it is well to keep in
mind the words of Lady Mary Wortley Montague: "We
<span class="pagenum"><a name="page302" id="page302"></a>[pg 302]</span>
are permitted no books but such as tend to the weakening
and effeminating of our minds. We are taught to place
all our art in adorning our persons, while our minds are
entirely neglected." This opinion of woman has not yet
become obsolete, so that it is too much to expect to find,
in the seventeenth century, women of the highest literary
attainments, and certainly one need not look for women
among the creators of literary style and founders of English
literature. A literary woman is to some masculine
minds a matter of everlasting scorn. Such minds will not
be offended in the perusal of the literature of the seventeenth
century by finding women wielding the pen for the
instruction or the edification of elect circles of superior
intellects or to please the vulgar taste of the common
people. Excepting as writers of occasional verse or of
memoirs, the names of few female authors appear in the literary annals of the period.</p>

<p>Amusement and not intellect was the contribution which
women were supposed to make to the times of Charles II.,
and, excepting in matters reprehensible, there was often a
degree of simplicity about the amusements indulged in that
makes one wonder if such ingenuous entertainment does
not bespeak less design and craftiness in the natures of
those women than is usual to associate with plotters and
intriguers. Lady Steuart, one of the most noted court
beauties, found her chief diversion in sitting upon the
floor, with subservient courtiers about her, building card
houses. Lord Sunderland treated his visitors to an exhibition
of fire eating by the renowned Richardson, who
awakened the wonder of his beholders by his feats of
devouring brimstone on glowing coals, eating melted beer
glasses, and roasting a raw oyster upon a live coal held
upon his tongue. Such mountebanks and jugglers were
the successors of similar characters who wandered through
<span class="pagenum"><a name="page303" id="page303"></a>[pg 303]</span>
the country from castle to castle during the Middle Ages,
or became attached to some great lord's following. Other
forms of indoor amusements, which would hardly comport
with the gravity of the same high circles of society in the
nation in these latter times, may be stated. Pepys speaks
of one day going to the court, where he found the Duke
and Duchess of York, with all the great ladies, sitting
upon a carpet on the ground, playing: "I love my love
with an A, because he is so-and-so; and I hate him with
an A, because of this and that;" and he observed that
some of the ladies were mighty witty, and all of them
very merry. Blindman's-buff was a favorite game among
even older people; and Burnett says that at one time the
king, queen, and whole court "went about masked, and
came into houses unknown, and danced there with a great
deal of wild frolic. In all this they were so disguised that,
without being in the secret, none could distinguish them.
They were carried about in sedan chairs, and once the
queen's chairman, not knowing who she was, went from
her; so she was alone and much disturbed, and came to
Whitehall in a hackney coach (some say it was in a cart)."</p>

<p>Scarcely a week passed by but that Whitehall was brilliantly
illuminated for a ball, at which the king, queen,
and courtiers danced the "bransle," which was a sort of
country dance, the "corant," swift and lively as a jig, and
in which only two persons took part, and other French
figures. Billiards and chess were played a great deal, and
gambling was a ruling passion of the day. All the great
women at court had their card tables, around which
thronged the courtiers, who won and lost enormous sums.
The passions which were aroused by gambling often led
to violent quarrels, and frequently these were settled by
duels, although duelling had been prohibited by the king
at the time of the Restoration.</p>
<span class="pagenum"><a name="page304" id="page304"></a>[pg 304]</span>

<p>Many fantastic changes had taken place in women's
attire during the reign of Charles. During the Commonwealth,
Puritan sentiment, and proscription as well, had
reduced the dress of all classes to a remarkable uniformity.
The costume most common to women consisted of a gown
with a lace stomacher and starched kerchief, a sad-colored
cloak with a French hood, and a high-crowned hat. The
Geneva cloak was no fit covering for the courtesan, and
was instantly thrown aside that the butterfly which had
hidden in this demure chrysalis might emerge fluttering in
all its gay and brilliant colors. Loose and flowing draperies
of silk and satin took the place of woollen and cotton
gowns; the stiff ruff which in the reign of Elizabeth had
been facetiously styled "three steps to the gallows," because
the fashionables of her day would go to any length
to possess it in the most extravagant size and value, had,
under the Commonwealth, become much more circumspect
as to its appearance and circumference, and was
esteemed entirely too respectable to comport well with
the freedom of the reign of Charles. Then, too, the
artistic taste of the day, which ran to portrait painting,
had enhanced the estimate of ladies with regard to the
matter of their personal charms. So it was regarded
not only as artistic, but æsthetic, in a wider sense, to
run to realism. The word "run" is used advisedly,
for there was a veritable scramble to get rid of the formal
and, it must be conceded, ridiculous ruff. But when
the latter disappeared from the neck and shoulders,
there was nothing adapted to fulfil its functions, so
that, through a lamentable omission on the part of the
English women or their too hasty adoption of French
fashions, the shoulders and bosoms of the ladies were
given little consideration by the designers or the makers of their gowns.</p>
<span class="pagenum"><a name="page305" id="page305"></a>[pg 305]</span>

<p>But the head was not treated so indifferently as the
shoulders, for, when the plain top hat of the Puritan was
abandoned, the milliner already had something at hand to
compensate the ladies for their loss. Feathers of rare
plumage and rich color were employed in the widest profusion.
The hoods, too, underwent the general metamorphosis,
and emerged from their penitential gray into
"yellow bird's eye," and other tints as indescribable. The
new styles exposed their votaries to wide criticism. Many
pamphlets appeared whose straightforward titles showed
in what an undisguised manner the subject was to be
found treated within them. The general complaint was
that immodest dress was not confined to balls and chambers
of entertainment, but that women brazenly appeared in
similar costume at church, braving all criticism to satisfy
their morbid desire for observation. The mode of hair-dressing
of the period ran largely to ringlets, which, as
they appear in the portraits of the great ladies of the day,
seem at the present time stiff and unartistic. The art of
using cosmetics, which had lapsed during the Puritan
period, was actively revived, and it was not only the stage
beauties, but the court women as well, who used paint in
such profusion as almost to disguise their identity.</p>

<p>It can easily be seen that a woman of the period must
have been a gorgeous spectacle in full dress, with painted
face adorned with black patches cut in designs of hearts,
Cupids, and occasionally even coaches and four, and with
her hair dressed in the prevailing mode, which was to
have "false locks set on wyres to make them stand at a
distance from the head, as fardingales made the clothes
stand out in Queen Elizabeth's reign." A woman thus
attired, leaning upon the arm of a gallant with head
adorned by the periwig worn by the men of the day, was
ready for any fashionable function. As hospitality on a
<span class="pagenum"><a name="page306" id="page306"></a>[pg 306]</span>
large and generous scale was a circumstance of the times,
it might be that she would pass into the hall, with its massive,
carved furniture, magnificent tapestries, sumptuous
furnishings, glittering crystal, elegant plate, and beautiful
wall paintings, to assume her position of mistress of a
household and do the honors at a table generous with its
viands and ample in all the varied range of English and
French cookery. In doing so, she would be governed by
the etiquette in whose precepts she had been schooled,
and of which the following is a sample: "<i>Instruction to
British Ladies When at Table</i>&mdash;A gentlewoman, being at
table, abroad or at home, must observe to keep her body
straight, and lean not by any means on her elbows, nor by
ravenous gesture disclose a voracious appetite. Talke not
when you have meate in your mouthe, and do not smacke
like a pig, nor eat spoone-meate so hot that the tears stand
in your eyes. It is very uncourtly to drink so large a
draughte that your breath is almost gone, and you are
forced to blow strongly to recover yourself; throwing down
your liquor as into a funnel, is an action fitter for a juggler
than a gentlewoman. In carving at your table, distribute
the best pieces first; it will appear very decent and comely
to use a forke; so touch no piece of meate without it."</p>

<p>The table furnished an opportunity for many pleasant
passages of repartee, which, however, were apt to be
broader in their point and more undisguised in their language
than would be tolerated in any society of to-day
pretending to the least gentility. Here, too, was engendered
frequently the tender sentiment which gave rise to
proper attentions to ladies or to gallantry, according to the
character of the courtier and his lady-love. When gallantry
palled upon the satiated spirits of the courtiers,
to preserve their unsavory reputations they had nothing
more difficult to do than to stuff their pockets with
<span class="pagenum"><a name="page307" id="page307"></a>[pg 307]</span>
billets-doux, which they paraded in view of their fellows
as evidence of their successful intrigues. When love took
a more creditable form, and the lover in formal and open
fashion went to pay his addresses to his lady-love, he sallied
forth in the evening, accompanied by a band of fiddlers,
and serenaded her with some choice verses. After the
suitor was accepted and the marriage arranged for, little
of sentiment entered into it. There was no attempt to
hide the mercenary motives, which were frankly displayed.
Indeed, women's marriage portions were regarded by the
seventeenth-century writers as the cause of much wedded
misery and sin. It was argued that if these marriage portions
were dispensed with, marriage would be more likely
to be contracted upon the enduring basis of compatibility
and love; but among the nobility, monetary considerations
and questions of rank were usually regarded as sufficient
motives for marriage, unless passion swept aside
caution and led to a <i>mésalliance</i>. Gallants who serenaded
with dishonorable motives were generally treated roughly.
A life spent between a town residence and a country house,
with frequent attendance at court, comprised the ambitions
of the young nobility. Marriage was frequently regarded
simply as an incident which did not materially alter the
attitude of either of the contracting parties to the rest of the court personnel.</p>

<p>The manners of the times of Charles II. were not the
manners of England sober, but of England intoxicated with
the new wine of French frivolity; and with the passing
away of the king who had led them to worship false gods,
the English people gradually returned to their habitual
steadiness. Yet, the dalliance with frivolity had effects to
be seen throughout the greater part of the eighteenth century,
in the superficiality of the era in regard to woman,
and, finally, in a stiff and artificial scheme of convention.
<!--Blank page #308 omitted.-->
<span class="pagenum"><a name="page309" id="page309"></a>[pg 309]</span></p>




<h2>Chapter XIII</h2>

<h2>The Women of the Eighteenth Century</h2>
<!--Blank page #310 omitted.-->
<span class="pagenum"><a name="page311" id="page311"></a>[pg 311]</span>


<p>The artificiality of eighteenth-century society was a
precursor of the practicality of that of the nineteenth. The
influences which had given shape to the society of the time
of the Stuarts had passed away, and the new influences
and forces were in operation. The result of the contest between
the Puritan and the sensualist had been a broadened
social apprehension; and into this new concept entered
harmoniously the catholicity of the worldly spirit and the
conservatism of the religious spirit. This was the society
which was productive of women of eminence in the arts
and literature, as well as of women untalented, but blessed
with a broader scope of life, more varied experience and
controlled natures, than those who had gone before them.</p>

<p>Society as a whole indirectly profited by the English
dalliance with French manners. Corruption was but a
circumstance of the closer relationship, in social ways, of
England with the continent. Political animosities and
ambitions had more largely than anything else brought
England and the rest of Europe into contact, nor was the
contact by clashing at an end. A nation generally is not
greatly concerned in the projects of princes, so that, while
territorial aggrandizement or curtailment or similar benefits
or injuries resulted from the wars of England, the salient
fact as a social consideration is that the English people
<span class="pagenum"><a name="page312" id="page312"></a>[pg 312]</span>
were still further broadened from the provincialism which
the insularity of their country induced. At the beginning
of the eighteenth century, the women of England had
escaped the local and narrow spirit and separateness of
customs which threatened them from England's beginning,
and from which they were saved by recurrent and ever
more frequent contact with continental nations.</p>

<p>English society, however, had not become so imbued with
the cosmopolitan spirit as to feel at ease in it as in a loose
garment; the people were straitened and formal. They
were lacking the versatility and adaptability which developed
in the nineteenth century, when, amongst women,
convention became settled custom, and custom the careful
promulgator of social laws. There were present all the
evidences of the finer sensibilities which give clear notions
in matters intellectual, and society in the last half of the
eighteenth century became thoroughly aroused to a social
consciousness with regard to the middle and lower classes.
The industrial revolution and the rise of the school of
classic economists brought forward great discussions which
had for their purpose the determination of the fundamental
basis of a nation's prosperity. Into this discussion women
entered as participants, but very much more largely as
interested subjects of the matters involved.</p>

<p>The growth of England's industries, more than any other
single thing, contributed to the well-being of the masses of
English society, while at the same time it tended to make
sharper distinctions among them. The increase of ease
and comfort in living affected largely the character of
domestic life; and the wider scope of industry and sterner
demands for labor, which were the outcome of a desire to
participate largely in the benefits of the new industries,
gave opportunity to individual talent and application; while
the unfrugal and shiftless, or the unfortunate, experienced
<span class="pagenum"><a name="page313" id="page313"></a>[pg 313]</span>
in proportionately greater degree the severity of living.
To mining, fishing, farming, sheep rearing, fruit cultivation,
weaving, seafaring,&mdash;the industries of England other
than manufactures,&mdash;were added during the seventeenth
century glass manufacture, cotton manufacture, and other
industries which were the foundation of England's material
greatness. This list was greatly augmented during the
eighteenth century, and the development of manufactures
of all sorts created the factory towns, which drew to them,
as into a vortex, the populations of the rural districts, and
created many problems of modern society in which female and child labor are involved.</p>

<p>Among the women in everyday life, social habits were
easy and existence had many elements of contentment.
Gossip&mdash;which had become differentiated from scandal,
because of a wider variety of subjects to chatter about
than flagitious conduct, occupied a large proportion of the
time of the women. The public gardens and the promenades
of the cities, notably the capital, were as much
resorted to as during the reign of Charles, and there was
as keen an interest in the display of styles and the parade
of wealth by the women who rode in their carriages or
were carried in their sedan chairs as formerly there had
been in the conduct of the gilded set of the Restoration.</p>

<p>Society as such had not as yet reached the coherence
which it knows to-day. It was much a matter of classes
or sections. The "democracy of aristocracy," which
makes a cross-section of all the social grades and includes
the wealthy, the noble born, the intellectual and the gifted
of all ranks of society, was a later development. It is
true that women of gifts did not have to rely upon patrons
for their reputation, but had direct access to the public
and were sustained by their own worth; nevertheless, the
pride of birth was still strong enough to make those who
<span class="pagenum"><a name="page314" id="page314"></a>[pg 314]</span>
possessed it hold themselves far above even the most
gifted and talented of the sex who were not born within
the narrow circle of noble society. Yet it was no longer
simply the person garnished with titles of nobility who
attracted the popular eye and was singled out in the
crowd; for when women whose only claim to notice was
their saintliness of character and Christian service, or their
philanthropy, or their literary gifts, or their art attainments,
were seen in the places of general resort, they
attracted as much attention as did women of rank.</p>

<p>The prosperous and well-domiciled woman of the middle
classes could rest in the comfortable feeling that the demarcations
of society no longer absolutely precluded the
possibility of her daughters' entering the ranks of those
famous for their signal worth of one sort or another; but
as yet the great movements of modern society had not
come into close touch with the lives of ordinary women.
Newspapers were published, but women seldom read them.
Philanthropy was making headway, but women had little
part in its movement, nor had they fully entered as yet
into their birthright in the realm of literature. In the rural
districts, their life was so contracted that a weekly newsletter,
passed from hand to hand, was the chief medium
of information as to the outside world; but even this was
not usually read by the womenfolk, who were content to
receive their news by hearsay. Unlike the women of the
aristocracy, the women of the middle classes did not become
beneficiaries to any large degree in the wider connections
of their husbands, because such connections were
for the most part of a business nature and not social. They
were women of mediocrity, and their rôle was domestic.
It was still thought unimportant to widen woman's
horizon beyond the elements of an education. To these,
in the case of the more prosperous, were added those
<span class="pagenum"><a name="page315" id="page315"></a>[pg 315]</span>
accomplishments which are still looked upon by ignorant
persons with disdain, but which serve to bridge the chasms
of society by establishing tests of good breeding irrespective
of social birth; so that to reading, writing, geography,
and history there were added music, French, and Italian.
Such a curriculum, faithfully followed, prepared young
women to move in polite circles.</p>

<p>The old cry of women's incapacity for intellectual attainments
of the same order as those of men is audible throughout
the eighteenth century. One writer, after speaking
of the regard in which the sex were held in England, discusses
the matter of their education and concludes that it
is not easy to comprehend the possibility of raising them
to a higher plane than that to which they had been lifted,
because of their natural incapacity for other than the
domestic and social functions which they so gracefully
fulfilled. To English people generally, it was a matter of
pride that their women received greater respect and were
held in greater affection than those of continental countries.
This was often remarked upon by foreign visitors,
one of whom observes that "among the common people
the husbands seldom make their wives work. As to the
women of quality, they don't trouble themselves about
it." The position of the wife in middle-class society has
been set before us by Fielding in a satire that has in it
much of truth: "The Squire, to whom that poor woman
had been a faithful upper-servant all the time of their
marriage, had returned that behavior by making what the
world calls a good husband. He very seldom swore at
her, perhaps not above once a week, and never beat her.
She had not the least occasion for jealousy, and was perfect
mistress of her time, for she was never interrupted
by her husband, who was engaged all the morning in
his field exercises, and all the evening with his bottle
<span class="pagenum"><a name="page316" id="page316"></a>[pg 316]</span>
companions." Certainly home had come to have attached
to it a notion of greater sanctity than ever before, and
women were accorded their natural rights and position,
with the respect and deference in the tenderer relations of
life, which signified much more than the profuse chivalry
of the Middle Ages or the mock courtesy of the time of Charles II.</p>

<p>The English people were above all domestic; and the
period, in its emphasis upon this phase of social life,&mdash;the
English home,&mdash;marks in a way the beginning of that conception
which is now regarded as being at the very foundation
of a secure society. While France was going on in
its iconoclastic way, destroying all things sacred in a mad
desire to seize for the Third Estate the rights which they
realized belonged to them, and the grasping of which was
to cause French history to be written in the blood and fire
of the great Revolution, the English, having passed out of
the social depravity of the reign of Charles II., became
eminently steady and conservative of those elements of
social progress which, in their case, unlike that of their
French neighbors, had already been secured for them by
progressive and largely peaceful measures.</p>

<p>It is interesting to note that the term "old maid"
had now entered into the popular vernacular, although
"spinster," with its transferred meaning, was the more
respectful way of speaking of unmarried women. "An old
maid is now thought such a curse," says the author of the
<i>Ladies' Calling</i>, "as no Poetick Fury can exceed; looked
on as the most calamitous creature in nature. And I so far
yield to the opinion as to confess it to those who are kept
in that state against their wills; but sure the original of
that misery is from the desire, not the restraint, of marriage;
let them but suppress that once, and the other will
never be their infelicity. But I must not be so unkind to
<span class="pagenum"><a name="page317" id="page317"></a>[pg 317]</span>
the sex as to think 'tis always such desire that gives them
an aversion to celibacy; I doubt not many are frightened
only with the vulgar contempt under which that state
lyes: for which if there be no cure, yet there is the same
armous against this which is against all other causeless
reproaches, viz., to contemn it."</p>

<p>The esteem in which matrimony was held as the manifest
destiny of the fair sex is illustrated by all the social
manners of the day. Women had, however, the good
taste to conduct themselves without reproach, and not to
invite attention even while they most appreciated it. In a
word, the young women of the eighteenth century were
not coquettes, and with them modesty was not a lost art.
They were not masculine, and indeed might have been
regarded from the standards of to-day as prudes. But the
prudery of the British women excited the admiration of
foreigners, thoroughly satiated with the arts, the flaunting
manners, and the gilded charms of the young women of the European capitals.</p>

<p>One foreigner is found recording his astonishment at the
diversity in the manner of walking of the ladies, and sees
in it an index of their characters; for, says he, when they
are desirous only of being seen, they walk together, for
the most part without speaking. He suggests that the
stiffness and formality of their demeanor when not thus
on dress parade are laid aside for greater naturalness. But
he says that, with all their care to be seen, they have no
ridiculous affectations. In former times, it was not customary
for young women to go about without the attendance
of some older person, and a girl so doing was brought
under suspicion as to her character; but in the eighteenth
century, young girls went about freely with their fellows
and without any other company, and a writer of the
period assures us that if a young girl went out with a
<span class="pagenum"><a name="page318" id="page318"></a>[pg 318]</span>
parent, unless such parent were as wild as herself, she
felt as though she was going abroad with a jailer. It was
not usual, however, for girls to go about unchaperoned.</p>

<p>It would be an unwarranted assumption to suppose that
demureness was any deeper than demeanor in the maidens
of the eighteenth century, for the feminine character&mdash;and
not times and customs&mdash;determines the effectiveness of
the sex. Matters of custom and of dress signify little, and
yet the Solons who passed the act of 1770 to lessen the
potency of woman's charms appear to have been utterly
oblivious of the important consideration that these do not
rest in outward circumstance, but in inward grace. This
curious act prescribed: "That all women, of whatever age,
rank, profession, or degree, whether virgins, maids, or
widows, that shall, from and after such Act, impose upon,
seduce, or betray into matrimony, any of his Majesty's
male subjects by the scents, paints, cosmetic washes, artificial
teeth, false hair, Spanish wool, iron stays, hoops,
high-heeled shoes, etc., shall incur the penalty of the law
now enforced against witchcraft and like misdemeanours,
and that the marriage upon conviction shall stand null and
void." And this, too, just six years before the American Declaration of Independence!</p>

<p>Allusion to this act proscribing aids to beauty leads
to the consideration of the matter of costume and adornment.
This can be summarized in the censure which was
called forth from an Italian visitor: "The ladies of England
do not understand the art of decorating their persons
so well as those of Italy; they generally increase the volume
of the head by a cap that makes it much bigger than
nature, a fault which should be always avoided in adorning
that part." After this observation, the writer passes
on to criticise the length of the ladies' skirts, affirming
that they wore their petticoats too short behind, unlike
<span class="pagenum"><a name="page319" id="page319"></a>[pg 319]</span>
the ladies of Italy and France, for&mdash;and we are indebted
to him for his explication of trains&mdash;these ladies "pattern
after the most graceful birds." By their failure to emulate
the peacock or the bird-of-paradise in the matter of their
splendid appendages, the English women are said to lose
"the greatest grace which dress can impart to a female."
He continues, saying: "In truth, not beauty, but novelty
governs in London, not taste, but copy. A celebrated
woman of five foot six inches gives law to the dress of
those who are but four feet two.... This is not the
case in Italy and France; the ladies know that the grace
which attends plumpness is unbecoming the slender; and
the tall lady never affects to look like a fairy; nor the
dwarf like the giantess, but each, studying the air and
mien which become her figure, appears in the most engaging
dress that can be made, to set off her person to the greatest advantage."</p>

<p>Passing from the generalities of female dress and coming
to particular descriptions thereof, here is an account of the
costuming of the ladies who assembled at court to congratulate
his majesty George II. and his queen, Caroline,
on their nuptials: "The ladies were variously dressed,
though with all the richness and grandeur imaginable;
many of them had their heads dressed English, of fine
Brussels lace of exceeding rich patterns, made up on narrow
wire and small round rolls, and the hair pinned to
large puff-caps, and but a few without powder; some few
had their hair curled down on the sides; pink and silver,
white and gold, were the general knots worn. There was
a vast number of Dutch heads, their hair curled down in
short curls on the sides and behind, all very much powdered,
with ribbands frilled on their heads, variously disposed;
and some had diamonds set on ribbands on their
heads; laced tippets were pretty general, and some had
<span class="pagenum"><a name="page320" id="page320"></a>[pg 320]</span>
ribbands between the frills; treble-lace ruffles were universally
worn, though abundance had them not tacked up.
Their gowns were either gold stuffs or rich silks, with
either gold or silver flowers, or pink or white silks,
with either gold or silver nets or trimmings; the sleeves to
the gowns were middling (not so short as formerly), and
wide, and their facings and robings broad; several had
flounced sleeves and petticoats and gold or silver fringe set
on the flounces; some had stomachers of the same sort as
the gown, others had large bunches of made flowers at
their breasts; the gowns were variously pinned, but in
general flat, the hoops French, and the petticoats of a
moderate length, and a little slope behind. The ladies
were exceedingly brilliant likewise in jewels; some had
them in their necklaces and ear-rings, others with diamond
solitaires to pearl necklaces of three or four rows;
some had necklaces of diamonds and pearls intermixed,
but made up very broad; several had their gown-sleeves
buttoned with diamonds, others had diamond sprigs in
their hair, etc. The ladies' shoes were exceeding rich,
being either pink, white, or green silk, with gold or silver
lace braid all over, with low heels and low hind-quarters and
low flaps, and abundance had large diamond shoe-buckles."</p>

<p>The preposterous hooped petticoats which ladies wore
out of doors subjected them to the good-natured banter of
the wits of the time. One of these sallies, which appeared
about 1720, runs as follows:</p>

<div class="poem">  <div class="stanza">
<p>"An elderly lady, whose bulky squat figure</p>
<p>By hoop and white damask was rendered much bigger,</p>
<p>Without hood and bare-neck'd to the Park did repair</p>
<p>To show her new clothes and to take the fresh air;</p>
<p>Her shape, her attire, raised a shout in loud laughter:</p>
<p>Away waddles Madam, the mob hurries after.</p>
<p>Quoth a wag, then observing the noisy crowd follow,</p>
<p>'As she came with a hoop, she is gone with a hollow.'"</p>
  </div>  </div>
<span class="pagenum"><a name="page321" id="page321"></a>[pg 321]</span>

<p>The hoopskirt was the characteristic feature of eighteenth-century
styles, and it grew to such enormous proportions
as seriously to inconvenience the wearer and to
interfere with the cubic feet of space which a pedestrian
might reasonably claim as his right on a crowded thoroughfare.
But there were eighteenth-century styles which
were more reprehensible than the oft-caricatured hoop.</p>

<p>There was a class of votaries of fashion, in contrast to
the mass of society, whose only notion of dress was display,
and toward the middle of the eighteenth century
these imported the most extravagant and immodest of
French styles. As they paraded the public gardens, to
which all classes resorted, the staid people were scandalized
by their appearance. T. Wright, in his <i>Caricature History
of the Georges</i>, says that "what was looked upon as the
<i>beau-monde</i> then lived much more in public than now, and
men and women of fashion displayed their weaknesses to
the world in public places of amusement and resort, with
little shame or delicacy. The women often rivalled the
men in libertinism, and even emulated them sometimes in
their riotous manners." Women of the town were greatly
in evidence, and a trustworthy traveller of the times affirms
that they were bolder and more numerous in London than
in either Paris or Rome. Not only at night, but in broad
daylight, they traversed the footpaths, selecting out of the
passers-by the susceptible for their enticement, particularly
directing themselves to foreigners. Archenholz says:
<i>On compte cinquante mille prostitueés à Londres, dans les
maîtresses en titre. Leurs usages et leur conduite déterminent
les différentes classes où il faut les ranger. La plus
vile de toutes habite dans les lieux publics sous la direction
d'une matrone qui les loge et les habille. Ces habits mêe
pour les filles communes, sont de soie, suivant l'usage que le
luxe a généralement introduit en Angleterre.... Dans</i>
<span class="pagenum"><a name="page322" id="page322"></a>[pg 322]</span>
<i>la seule paroisse de Marybonne, qui est la plus grande et la
plus peuplée de l'Angleterre, on en comptoit, il y a quelques
années, treize mille, dont dix-sept cents occupoient des maisons
entières à elles seules</i>.</p>

<p>Such a picture of social vice in the metropolis is a sad
commentary upon the tendency of the young women of
the country districts to drift to the city. The "lights o'
London" had already begun to possess that fascination
for the weak in morals, the light-headed and frivolous,
which has made them a wrecker's beacon on a rockbound
shore, luring to destruction untold hosts of inexperienced
country youth. Nor was the drift Londonward due altogether
to the fascination which the gay and pleasure-pandering
city possessed, for there were not wanting
methods of enticement such as are still employed, in spite
of legal penalties. The example of city dwellers of outward
respectability did not tend to elevate the moral tone
of those who came fresh from the country, with its purer
home life; for while the sanctity of the home was an
appreciable fact of the seventeenth century, it was much
less so in the metropolis and in the cities generally than it was in the country.</p>

<p>A notorious fact that attracted the notice of continental
visitors to England was that lax morality prevailed
in many English families. Muralt, a Frenchman, even
asserts that he found it customary for husbands generally
to maintain mistresses and also to bring them to their
homes and place them on a footing with their wives.
This is doubtless an exaggerated statement of the case;
but when the king was not faultless, the people were apt
to pursue folly. Although no king after Charles II., except
George II., disgraced the nation by the profligacy
which he exhibited, yet Charles's successor, James II.,
kept a mistress, as did most of the kings following him.</p>
<span class="pagenum"><a name="page323" id="page323"></a>[pg 323]</span>

<p>Referring again to Fielding, we get what is probably a
truer picture of the times in this respect than could be
penned from the hasty observations of a traveller. A
young fellow who has led astray his landlady's daughter is
addressed by his uncle in the following manner: "Honour
is a creature of the world's making, and the world has
the power of a creator over it, and may govern and direct
it as they please. Now, you well know how trivial these
breaches of contract are thought; even the grossest make
but the wonder and conversation of the day. Is there a
man who afterwards will be more backward in giving you
his sister or daughter, or is there any sister or daughter
who would be more backward to receive you? Honour is
not concerned in these engagements." It need not be
supposed that such sentiments were general; but that
they were all too prevalent is manifested by the literature that mirrors the times.</p>

<p>Drinking and swearing, the coarse associations of the
alehouse, the obscene jokes and sallies which were indulged
in freely in such places and made up a great part
of the conversation, were conducive to a very low moral
standard for men, and there was nothing in the times to
lead women to uphold higher ideals of conduct than those
which were imposed upon them by the male sex. Consequently,
they were accustomed to a lower standard than
would be tolerated to-day; but as libertinism was largely
concerned with the outcast element of society, the women
of the homes were not called upon to sacrifice integrity of
character for its satisfaction. So that the lower moral
standard was set up for men, and a woman who would
attempt at once to maintain her respectability and follow
such courses would very soon have found that difference
in standards for the sexes visited a stricter condemnation
upon her than upon the male delinquent.</p>
<span class="pagenum"><a name="page324" id="page324"></a>[pg 324]</span>

<p>The testimony of foreigners to the chastity of the English
matron quite coincides with that which comes from
English sources. Le Blanc remarks: "Most of those who
among us pass for men of good fortune in amours would
with difficulty succeed in addressing an English fair. She
would not sooner be subdued by the insinuating softness
of their jargon than by the amber with which they are
perfumed." Another observer, of the same nationality,
speaking of the unassailability of the English woman,
attributes it to the insurmountable rampart which she had
in the love for her family, the care of her household, and
her natural gravity, and says that he does not know any
city in the world where the honor of husbands is in less
danger of deflection than in London.</p>

<p>The social hypocrisy of the eighteenth century, as it
relates to woman, was due to the failure as yet to place
the sex in correct adjustment with the times. Instead of
considering her as having serious qualities and value other
than the realization of matrimony, everything that entered
into woman's life pointed in that one direction. The art
of pleasing was not cultivated as an opportunity of the
sex due to their special graces of spirit and of person,
which might legitimately be employed for their own sake
to make the world happier and brighter. There was not
afforded to men the restfulness and pleasure in the company
of women which would serve as a delightful foil to the practical
and anxious cares of their daily lives; nor were women
taught to believe in themselves as capable persons in the
spheres of life in which feminine personality, taste, and
touch best affect and mould civilization. Except in a few
notable cases, literature and art, to say nothing of science,
were outside of woman's sphere, because she neither believed
in herself nor was seriously regarded by men as a
factor in any of the wide relations of life other than those
<span class="pagenum"><a name="page325" id="page325"></a>[pg 325]</span>
which were involved in her sex. The arts of the toilette,
conversation, and deportment were all in which she was
considered to need to be adept. Where naturalness was
suppressed, it is not strange that the young women should
have been influenced by false standards; false modesty,
false sensitiveness, false ignorance, were depended upon
to give them the artlessness and innocence of deportment
which should recommend them to the blasé men of the times.</p>

<p>The estimate in which the sex was held was not quietly
accepted by all women; although the new woman had not
appeared upon the horizon, there were not wanting women
who realized that their position was a humiliating one, and
who sought to create a sentiment for its betterment.
Mary Astell was one such, and the case as presented by
her shows the superficiality of the conventional routine of
a woman's life. She says: "When a young lady is taught
to value herself on nothing but her cloaths, and to think
she's very fine when well accoutred; when she hears say,
that 'tis wisdom enough for her to know how to dress herself,
that she may become amiable in his eyes to whom it
appertains to be knowing and learned; who can blame her
if she lays out her industry and money for such accomplishments,
and sometimes extends it farther than her misinformer
desires she should?... If from our infancy
we are nurs'd upon ignorance and vanity; are taught to
be proud and petulant, delicate and fantastick, humourous
and inconstant, 'tis not strange that the ill effects of this
conduct appear in all the future actions of our lives....
That, therefore, women are unprofitable to most, and a
plague and dishonor to some men, is not much to be regretted
on account of the men, because 'tis the product of
their folly in denying them the benefits of an ingenuous
and liberal education, the most effectual means to direct
<span class="pagenum"><a name="page326" id="page326"></a>[pg 326]</span>
them into, and secure their progress in, the ways of virtue."</p>

<p>A French writer criticised the Englishmen of the day
for their failure to avail themselves of the refining influence
of women, in whose graces, he affirmed, there could
be found constant charm and a certain sweetness peculiar
to the sex. He said that the conversation of the women
would polish and soften the manners of the men and enable
them to contract a manner and tone which would be
agreeable to both sexes; and he ascribed the bluntness of
the English character to this lack of the refining influence of female society.</p>

<p>As women were left so largely to their own devices,
falling the comradeship of men, they gave themselves over
to the needle as the chief resource for idle hours. The
<i>Female Spectator</i> protested against this excessive needlework
on the part of women: "Nor can I by any means
approve of your compelling young ladies of fortune to
make so much use of the needle, as they did in former
days, and some few continue to do.... It always
makes me smile when I hear the mother of fine daughters
say: 'I always keep my girls at their needle;' one, perhaps,
is working her a gown, another a quilt for a bed, and a
third engaged to make a whole dozen shirts for her father.
And then, when she had carried you into the nursery and
shown you them all, add: 'It is good to keep them out of
idleness; when young people have nothing to do, they
naturally wish to do something they ought not,'" With
such a narrow circle of interest, it was not strange that
women who had leisure should have wasted it in frivolity.</p>

<p>Gambling among women of fashion was more a result
of too much leisure and too little intellectual stimulus than
an indication of vicious propensities. <i>The Female Spectator</i>,
from which we have quoted, in an article in 1745, relating
<span class="pagenum"><a name="page327" id="page327"></a>[pg 327]</span>
an account of the visit of a country lady to a London
friend, furnishes an illustration of the extent and effects of
the vice. The article recites that after knocking a considerable
time at the door of her friend's house,&mdash;the hour
was between eleven and twelve o'clock in the day,&mdash;a
footman, with his nightcap on and a general appearance of
having risen from the dead, responded to her inquiry for
her friend, in the interim of his yawns: "We had a racquet
here last night, and my lady cannot possibly be stirring
these three hours." The surprised visitor refrained from
asking any questions concerning this unintelligible answer,
and, after leaving her name, returned again at three
o'clock. She had the good fortune to be admitted, and
found her friend at her chocolate. She had a dish of this
in one hand, and with the other she seemed to have been
busy in sorting a large pile of guineas, which she had
divided in two heaps on the table before her. Rising, she
greeted her visitor with great civility, and expressed regret
at the latter's disappointment on first calling, saying, with
a smile, that when her friend had been a little longer in
town, she would lie longer in bed in the morning. She
then enlightened her as to the term "racquet," telling her
that when the number assembled for cards exceeded ten
tables the game was so styled; if fewer, it was called a
"rout"; and if there were but two tables, it was a "drum."</p>

<p>It must always appear a curious and an unfortunate circumstance
that at the time of the great industrial awakening
in England in the last half of the eighteenth century,
when men, women, and children were losing their individuality
and becoming mere industrial units, representing
so many pounds of human energy to be added to a machine,
the women and children of the factories and of the hovels
of the factory towns cried piteously to the Church for bread
and received but a stone. And this was at a time when the
<span class="pagenum"><a name="page328" id="page328"></a>[pg 328]</span>
social needs were so great and the sympathies of all other
classes seemed to be alienated by diversity of interest
from those who were called upon to toil for the making of
England's wealth. Professor Thorold Rogers, the painstaking
and acute investigator of England's industry, says
with regard to the lethargy which constituted a veritable
Dark Age for the English Church: "It is hard indeed to
see what there is to relieve the darkness of the picture
which the Anglican Church presents from the death of
Queen Anne to the time of the Evangelical Revival. Over
against the Anglican Church, formal, jealous of laymen,
fearful of schism or irregularity, should be set the nonconformist
churches." Although there was a great deal of
religious enthusiasm in the religious communities of the
Commonwealth, the principal branches of the Protestant
nonconformists soon became wedded to their own systems,
and, in a way, as narrow in their application of the principles
of the New Testament as the church from which
they had separated. It was not until the last quarter of
the seventeenth century that a movement began which
opened the way to lines of development which have been
going on ever since. The vast number of present-day
religious societies, whether in direct connection with the
Church or outside of its pale, may be traced in some ways
to the period just before and during the reign of William III.</p>

<p>Then arose societies for the reformation of manners in
all parts of the kingdom. These societies represented the
early stirring of the spirit of reform which found its expression
in so many forms of activity in later times. They
resembled somewhat the modern societies for the correction
of social evils, such as societies for the prevention of
vice, or societies for preventing the corrupting of the youth.
It was all done under the impulse of religion, but was not
initiated by the Church; it was a lay movement. The first
<span class="pagenum"><a name="page329" id="page329"></a>[pg 329]</span>
distinctively women's movements in religious matters were
outside of the Church. The great preacher Whitfield
attracted the attention of the Countess of Huntingdon,
whose drawing rooms were thrown open for his preaching
and were filled by fashionable auditors. Other titled
women joined the countess, and among them was the
famous Duchess of Marlborough. The interest of noblewomen
in a movement essentially plebeian has its parallel
in the nineteenth century, when the Salvation Army enlisted
the interest and support of women of rank and title.</p>

<p>The attitude of the countess in her loyal support of the
new evangelical movement brought her under the criticism
that is always encountered by a zeal which is not understood
by people generally. The Duchess of Buckingham
wrote to her: "I thank your Ladyship for the information
concerning the Methodist preachers; their doctrines are
most repulsive, and strongly tinctured with impertinence
and disrespect towards their superiors, in perpetually endeavouring
to level all ranks and do away with all distinctions.
It is monstrous to be told that you have a heart
as sinful as the common wretches that crawl on the earth.
This is highly offensive and insulting, and I cannot but
wonder that your Ladyship should relish any sentiments
so at variance with high rank and good breeding." The
Countess of Suffolk on one occasion was so incensed at
a sermon of Whitfield in the Countess of Huntingdon's
drawing room, that she rushed out of the house in a passion,
under the impression that the discourse was a
personal attack. The attitude of the clergy generally to
the Methodist movement within the Church was one of indifference.</p>

<p>The suffering among the wives of the inferior clergy,
who were impoverished and suffered under the defeat of
the endeavor to make their scanty resources meet the
<span class="pagenum"><a name="page330" id="page330"></a>[pg 330]</span>
demands of household expenses, the lack of opportunity
for educating their children, and their own loss of self-respect,
must have made their lives more miserable in
some ways than those of the wives of the potters, whose
sphere of existence and needs were much more limited.
One of the clergymen of this order plaintively sets forth
his pecuniary distress as follows: "Oh, my Lord, how
prettily and temperately may a wife and half a dozen children
be maintained with almost £30 per annum! What
an handsome shift will an ingenious and frugal divine
make, to take by turns and wear a cassock and a pair of
breeches another! What a primitive sight it will be to
see a man of God with his shoes out at the toes, and his
stockings out at heels, wandering about in an old russet
coat and tatter'd gown for apprentices to point at and
wags to break jest on! And what a notable figure will he
make in the pulpit on Sundays who has sent his <i>Hooker</i> and
<i>Stillingfleet</i>, his <i>Pearson</i> and <i>Saunderson</i>, his <i>Barrow</i> and
<i>Tillotson</i>, with many more fathers of the English Church,
into limbo long since to keep his wife's pensive petticoat
company, and her much lamented wedding ring!" Such a
picture belongs rather to the latter part of the eighteenth
century than to its beginning, for in its earlier days the
Church was prolific of quiet scholars and antiquaries, in
both parsonage and manse, living peaceful, comfortable, and cultured existences.</p>

<p>The attitude of the Church of the eighteenth century
toward women is hardly one of record, as there was not
enough animation or interest displayed in social conditions&mdash;or,
indeed, during a part of the century, enough of intellectual
comprehension&mdash;to serve the Church for any discrimination
as to women's status. When the change of
attitude of the Church in respect to its indifference toward
that element of its body which before the Reformation,
<span class="pagenum"><a name="page331" id="page331"></a>[pg 331]</span>
and continuously since then, has been so serviceably employed
by the Roman Catholic Church did occur, it was
the High Church party which brought it about, and so
preserved for English Protestantism the work of women.</p>

<p>Although the Church was indifferent to the great mission
that lay before it in the eighteenth century,&mdash;a mission
that had to be met by the raising up from the laity of men
and women who should stand for the spiritual rights of the
lower orders of society especially,&mdash;there was a notable
band of Christian philanthropic women who brightened the close of the century.</p>

<p>By harnessing human compassion to social needs, the
distressed classes of society came to be lifted to that position
of betterment which is theirs to-day, largely through
agencies that owe their beginnings to the More sisters,
Elizabeth Fry, and Harriet Martineau. It is always
a pleasing task to turn to such women as these, exemplifying
as they do the attainments of the sex in those
peculiar and special ways which so well represent the
adaptations of women. The greatest woman who graced
the annals of helpfulness of the last half of the eighteenth
century in England was Hannah More. The beautiful devotion
of her long and honorable life to the cause of teaching,
and the widespread interest which, by her writings, she
attracted to the subject both in Europe and America, place
her at the source of one of the mighty streams of pervasive
influence that have ever permeated human society.
So great was her appreciation of the character and the
position of woman, that she was able to forecast well-nigh
everything that has been enunciated in modern times with
regard to the place of the sex in education and in society.</p>

<p>Hannah More was born in 1745, in a little village near
Bristol. Her father, who was the village schoolmaster,
gave his five daughters educations adapted as near as
<span class="pagenum"><a name="page332" id="page332"></a>[pg 332]</span>
might be to the peculiar talents of each. Three of the
girls opened a boarding school in Bristol, when the oldest
was only twenty years of age. This school soon became
fashionable and ultimately famous. It was to this institution
that the early labors of Hannah More were given,
and it was here that she attracted the attention of such
men as Ferguson the astronomer, the elder Sheridan,
Garrick the tragedian, Goldsmith, Reynolds, Burke,
and indeed nearly all men of eminence in intellectual and
state life. But her associations were not solely with the
fashionable world, by which she was petted and flattered,
for she turned her attention to labors for the poor and the
ignorant. She sought to do for the children who lived
amid the savage profligacy of the peasant class what
Madame de Maintenon sought to do for girls of the aristocratic
class in her country. Both alike aimed to offset the
perversion of character which threatened the girls of their
respective schools, from different sources, but to the same
end,&mdash;their destruction. Madame de Maintenon worked to
counteract the insidious infidelity that permeated the upper
walks of life&mdash;Hannah More, to counteract the practical
atheism of the lowest plane of life. The fundamental
principle of her educational system was the necessity of
Christian instruction. She recognized the close relationship
of education and religion, and gauged well the significance
of the historical fact of woman's debt to Christianity
for her elevation. The question which she asked was not
that of social utility, but that of personal character. She
saw too much of the utilitarian principle in its actual workings,
the reducing of human life to the plane of mechanism,
to permit her to base her educational efforts upon a utilitarian
foundation. She sought to cultivate that "sensibility
which has its seat in the heart rather than in the
nerves." Anything which detracted from modesty or
<span class="pagenum"><a name="page333" id="page333"></a>[pg 333]</span>
delicacy, or tended to make a girl bold or forward, she
severely rebuked. She taught the wastefulness of expending
time upon the cultivation of a talent which one
does not possess, and held that excessive cultivation of
the æsthetic range of subjects contributes to a decline in
those more stable factors upon which is based the security
of states. Neither indelicate exposure of the person in
style of dress nor extravagance in dancing found favor at
her hands. Such were some of the views which were
entertained and promulgated by the woman who created
an epoch in the attitude of society toward her sex. She
taught the dignity of womanhood, from which the duties
of domesticity cannot detract, the performance of them as
a function of womankind being of all things honorable.
The pure common sense of Hannah More did for the women
of her time the service which had failed of performance by the Church.</p>

<p>Passing from the theoretical to the practical part of
Hannah More's work, it is interesting to see her putting
into effect her philanthropic labors. The people among
whom she labored were destitute of almost everything
that makes life comfortable. Among the Mendip Hills,
out from Bristol, lived a wild, barbarous, lawless population,
compared with which the millers and the colliers of
the mines were mild and tractable. Among these people
Hannah More established her schools. Some of the children
had already had the schooling of the prison, and all
of them had been tutored in vice beyond comprehension
for persons so young. Hannah More's schemes were
regarded by many as visionary and impracticable, and received
opposition from sources where sympathy and helpfulness
were to be expected. Gradually, however, her
school work was extended until it covered an area of twenty-eight miles.</p>
<span class="pagenum"><a name="page334" id="page334"></a>[pg 334]</span>

<p>In the Sunday schools the children received religious
instruction, and in the day schools they were taught to
spin flax and wool. No missionary bishop travelled more
constantly, no Methodist itinerant cultivated his circuit
district more assiduously, than did Hannah and her sister
Patty More their lay diocese. The many difficulties which
had to be overcome by them cannot be appreciated by
workers among the destitute to-day, with all the appliances
and books and methods which represent a century's
experience in such lines. Nothing of the sort was to hand
for these sisters; but Hannah More was an author as well
as a philanthropist, and the tales for the interest and instruction
of the children she wrote herself.</p>

<p>While Hannah More lived and worked in the eighteenth
century, her life's service extended over into the nineteenth
century also. She was a contemporary of Miss
Mitford, Mary Carpenter, Mrs. Summerville, and Maria
Edgeworth. The eighteenth century brought forth the
women who were to carry into the nineteenth century
the elements of service for society, which were to be like
the seed sown in good ground and to bring forth the maximum fold of fruitage.</p>

<p>The national system of education had not been developed
in the eighteenth century, making the acquirement
of an education somewhat dependent upon individual circumstances
as affected by personal ambitions. There was
nothing in the way of general education for women. But
the dawn of better things intellectually was shown by the
development of a group of women of literary comprehension
and productivity, who formed a set apart and yet
were in a real sense prophets in a wilderness, proclaiming
the democracy of letters. Lady Mary Wortley Montagu
writes very bitterly of the low esteem in which was held
the intellectuality of the sex, and in speaking of the study
<span class="pagenum"><a name="page335" id="page335"></a>[pg 335]</span>
of classics, says: "My sex is usually forbid studies of this
nature, and folly reckoned so much our proper sphere we
are sooner pardoned any excesses of that, than the least
pretensions to reading or good sense.... Our minds
are entirely neglected, and, by disuse of reflections, filled
with nothing but the trifling objects our eyes are daily
entertained with. This custom so long established and
industriously upheld makes it even ridiculous to go out of
the common road, and forces one to find as many excuses
as if it was a thing altogether criminal not to play the fool
in concert with other women of quality, whose birth and
leisure only serve to render them the most useless and
most worthless part of the creation. There is hardly a
creature in the world more despicable or more liable to
universal ridicule than a learned woman! These words
imply, according to the received sense, a tattling, impertinent,
vain, and conceited creature.... The Abbé
Bellegarde gives a reason for women's talking over much:
they know nothing, and every outward object strikes their
imagination and produces a multitude of thoughts, which,
if they knew more, they would know not worth thinking
of. I am not now arguing for an equality of the two sexes.
I do not doubt God and nature have thrown us into an
inferior rank; we are a lower part of the creation, we owe
obedience and submission to the superior sex, and any
woman who suffers her folly and vanity to deny this
rebels against the laws of the Creator, and indisputable
order of nature; but there is a worse effect than this,
which follows the careless education given to women of
quality&mdash;it's being so easy for any man of sense, that
finds it either his interest or his pleasure to corrupt them.
The common method is to begin by attacking their religion:
they bring a thousand fallacious arguments their
excessive ignorance hinders them from refuting; and, I
<span class="pagenum"><a name="page336" id="page336"></a>[pg 336]</span>
speak now from my own knowledge and conversation
among them, there are more atheists among the fine ladies
than among the lowest sort of rakes." This bitter plaint
of a lady of quality, with its humiliating acknowledgment
of the inferiority of her sex and the hopelessness of that
inferiority, sounds very pathetic in the light of the present-day
estimate of woman and her acknowledged equality
with man in all matters, saving only in the exercise of the
public functions for which the advocates of the full programme
of woman's rights contend.</p>

<p>It is not surprising that women of intellectual gifts grew
morbid under a sense of social inferiority; it is not strange
that they hid their light under a bushel, and were afraid
of acknowledging their talents or their aspirations, when
men regarded learning for their daughters "as great a
profanation as the clergy would do if the laity should
undertake to exercise the functions of the priesthood."
In matters intellectual, woman was negative. She must
not embarrass her superiors by displaying in their presence
indications of talent or evidences of learning; her
theories and opinions were not worthy of statement or
consideration in the presence of the male sex. Her gentility
was one of breeding, but it did not involve the brain.
Of necessity the intellectual development of woman in
such a mental atmosphere was slow. Her elevation was
dependent upon an awakening of thought in all departments
of life. There was lacking an incentive to intellectual
industry when the fruits of such toil might not be enjoyed.</p>

<p>Under such adverse conditions, the names of the women
of exceptional intellectual gifts in the eighteenth century
constitute a roll of honor worthy to be inscribed in every
hall of learning devoted to the education of women. This
literary coterie included, besides Lady Mary Wortley
<span class="pagenum"><a name="page337" id="page337"></a>[pg 337]</span>
Montagu, Mrs. Elizabeth Montagu, Elizabeth Parker, Mrs.
Vesey, Hannah More, Mrs. Chapone, Elizabeth Carter, and Miss Talbot.</p>

<p>Lady Montagu was of an aggressive nature, and well
fitted to conquer difficulties rather than to despair in their
presence. She was a good classical scholar, a student
under Bishop Burnet, and was abreast of all the thought
of her time. She is credited, among other things, with
the courage to introduce the system of inoculation for
smallpox, having had her son so treated.</p>

<p>Mrs. Elizabeth Montagu was an insatiable devotee of
society, and abounded with a fund of mirth for the enlivenment
of the dullest company. In her correspondence,
amid a lively flow of chatter, she introduces discussions of
Dr. Middleton's <i>Life of Cicero</i> and other critical and historical
allusions relating to the classic authors, and evinces
familiarity with such literature. Again, she is found descanting
in a critical vein on the qualities of Warburton's
<i>Notes on Shakespeare</i>. Her observations upon English history
are appreciative of its distinguishing features. In
these remarks she says: "In some reigns, the kingdom
is in the most terrible confusion, in others it appears mean
and corrupt; in Charles II.'s time, what a figure we make
with French measures and French mistresses! But when
our times are written, England will recover its glory; such
conquests abroad, such prosperity at home, such prudence
in council, such vigor in execution, so many men clothed
in scarlet, so many fine tents, so many cannon that do not
so much as roar, such easy taxes, such flourishing trade!
Can posterity believe it? I wish our history, from its incredibility,
may not get bound up with fairy tales and
serve to amuse children, and make nursery maids moralize."
The same light touch and whimsical insight displayed
in this quotation are evidenced in all her writings.
<span class="pagenum"><a name="page338" id="page338"></a>[pg 338]</span>
It matters not the subject&mdash;balls or books, flirtations or
syllogisms, the same delicate vein of humor runs throughout them.</p>

<p>Miss Carter, the particular friend of Mrs. Montagu, frail
in health and devoted, a beauty, a wit, a brilliant conversationalist,
was yet of a much more retiring disposition
than was her friend. She created no Hillstreet and Portman
Square assemblies, although she was by no means a
recluse; and even if she did not have so strong a social
following as Mrs. Montagu, her presence possessed charm
for those who assembled about her. She had a wide acquaintance
with literature, and patronized the libraries extensively;
her linguistic accomplishments included French,
Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, and, most rare acquirement
in those days, German. She was discriminating in her
literary tastes, and is found commenting upon German
books of fiction. She says that they are dangerous for
young people, for the reason that they possess the singular
art of sanctifying the passions. Mere sentimentality was
repugnant to her feelings, and she dismissed from her
attention a German book, with the expression: "A detestable
book, but I know of no other in German that is
exceptionable in the same horrid way."</p>

<p>Mrs. Vesey was another literary character whose salon,
made thoroughly delightful, was frequented only by persons
of the greatest culture. Just how the name <i>bas-bleu</i>
came to be identified with the assembly which Mrs. Vesey
gathered about her is not known. One explanation which
was current at the time attributes the term to a foreign
gentleman who was invited to go to either Mrs. Montagu's
or Mrs. Vesey's, and was assured as to the informality of
the occasion by an acquaintance, who told him that full
dress was quite optional, and, in fact, he might go in blue
stockings if he was so minded. Other accounts do not
<span class="pagenum"><a name="page339" id="page339"></a>[pg 339]</span>
agree with this; one lays the phrase at the door of Mr.
Benjamin Stillingfleet, the naturalist, who always wore
blue stockings; but it is asserted by Miss Carter's biographer
that Stillingfleet died before the name came into
vogue. Hannah More, in some whimsical lines, describes a <i>bas-bleu</i> assembly:</p>

<div class="poem">  <div class="stanza">
<p>"Here sober Duchesses are seen,</p>
<p>Chaste wits and critics void of spleen:</p>
<p>Physicians fraught with real science,</p>
<p>And Whigs and Tories in alliance;</p>
<p>Poets fulfilling Christian duties,</p>
<p>Just Lawyers, reasonable Beauties,</p>
<p>Bishops who preach and Peers who pray,</p>
<p>And Countesses who seldom play,</p>
<p>Learn'd Antiquaries who from college</p>
<p>Reject the rust and bring the knowledge;</p>
<p>And hear it, <i>age</i>, believe it, <i>youth</i>,&mdash;</p>
<p>Polemics really seeking truth;</p>
<p>And Travellers of that rare tribe</p>
<p>Who've seen the countries they describe."</p>
  </div>  </div>

<p>The brilliant woman who gathered about her such a
representative gathering of celebrities as is suggested by
these lines&mdash;an assemblage in which Dr. Johnson could
discourse in one corner on moral duties, and Horace Walpole
amuse another group with his lively wit, while the
younger portion discussed the opera or the fashions&mdash;was
the daughter of Sir Thomas Vesey, Archbishop of Tuam.
By her second marriage&mdash;with a relative, Mr. A. Vesey&mdash;she
resumed her maiden name. Prominent persons, other
than those mentioned, who were attracted to her salon were
Burke, Pulteney, Garrick, Lord Lyttleton, Dr. Burney, and Lord Monboddo.</p>

<p>Women were not only given to shining in exclusive
social circles, but brilliant representatives of the sex were
keenly interested in the political trend of the times. The
Duchess of Marlborough was one of the most notable and
<span class="pagenum"><a name="page340" id="page340"></a>[pg 340]</span>
politically active women of the age of Anne. This was a
time of ascendency in politics of the Dissenters, who are
described by Burton in his history of that age as a clog
upon the free movements of the complicated machinery of
British social and political life. Another of the famous
women at court was the Countess of Suffolk, who appears
in Swift's correspondence as Mrs. Howard. These women
were thoroughly informed as to the political movements of
their time, as is revealed by their correspondence; and
they, with others as noteworthy, often shaped state policy.
Among names which appear prominently in the political
movements of the century are those of the Countess of
Bristol, Mrs. Selwyn, who was one of the ladies of the
bedchamber to the queen of George II., Lady Hervey, and
the Duchess of Queensborough. The latter declared herself
so wearied of elections that, in all good conscience,
they ought to occur only once in an age. The Countess
of Huntingdon, the supporter of Whitfield, the Duchess of
Devonshire, and other women of position, had vital interest in public questions.</p>

<p>The interest which English ladies took in politics was
a matter of constant surprise to foreigners, but it was
significant of the awakening to a sense of privilege which
led in the next century to the various female declarations
of rights, of which the most extreme was the claim to suffrage.</p>
<span class="pagenum"><a name="page341" id="page341"></a>[pg 341]</span>




<h2>Chapter XIV</h2>

<h2>The Women of the Nineteenth Century</h2>
<!--Blank page #342 omitted.-->
<span class="pagenum"><a name="page343" id="page343"></a>[pg 343]</span>


<p>At the opening of the nineteenth century, practically
unfettered opportunity extended in all directions before
women; but it was necessary for the century to spend its
force before they had fully availed themselves of the
privileges which were objected to only by those who still
descanted on woman's sphere as a purely domestic one.
The "woman question" is very modern, because woman
has so lately come to be seriously regarded as a factor in
the work of life. The changed conditions of the nineteenth
century resulted from those forces which were
operating for the larger liberty of the sex. Contributions
to the widening of the scope of their lives came from
many sources. Religion has been the evangel of woman;
but even it cannot claim that the modern woman, with
her versatility of touch and her multiform influence, is its
product. Law reluctantly acknowledged the rights of the
sex where it was futile to deny them; but it has sinned
too grievously in the years that are past to receive recognition
as a promoter of the new Renaissance, although it
cherishes the rights which woman has achieved, and is
to-day one of her most chivalrous defenders. Convention
is too unadaptive to do more than recognize adjustments
which have been otherwise brought about, but, as representing
the rules of society, it is promotive of the dignity
<span class="pagenum"><a name="page344" id="page344"></a>[pg 344]</span>
and the rights of the sex to the extent that these dignities
and rights have been otherwise afforded.</p>

<p class="mid"><img alt="" src="images/bk9-4.png" /><br />
</p>

<p class="mid"><i>MRS. ELIZABETH FRY<br />

After the painting Mrs. E. M. Ward<br />

________<br /><br />

Mrs Elizabeth Fry was a Quakeress of gentle birth; though the<br />
mother of a large family, she made the condition of the social outcasts<br />
her constant care. The moral and physical degradation and suffering<br />
of the inmates of prisons particularly appealed to her compassionate<br />
nature, and she set herself the task of alleviating their<br />
condition. Her first visit to Newgate Prison was in 1813; she<br />
entered the pandemonium where nearly two hundred women were<br />
confined, among them some of the most degraded and desperate of<br />
their sex. Mrs. Fry's sincere compassion, gentleness and purity<br />
conquered these women. Though her name is chiefly associated<br />
with the reform of prisons and prisoners, her philanthropy embraced<br />
the promotion of ecucation of the needy, religious movements, the<br />
cause of freedom, and private charity.</i></p>

<p>Acknowledgment for the position which woman attained
during the last century is due not to any one of these
forces, but to all working together, although Nature must
be chiefly credited with having brought it about. The
great increase in population in England, and the excess of
the female portion, led women to ponder the question of
other spheres for their lives than solely the domestic. At
the same time, the complex nature of modern business
offered, to some extent, a practical solution of the problem.
While the question of woman's sphere was greatly
agitated, and was academically and forensically debated
pro and con, women themselves were practically settling
the matter at issue by accepting positions in commercial
life, with little regard to the censure of critics or the praise
of friends. The independence shown by women, their
self-assertiveness, indicated that their failure previously
to break into the outer world of affairs was not due to the
force of convention, but to the lack of opportunity. Their
excess in the population of the country afforded them
strong ground for the claim, which they practically made
in accepting the opportunities of business life,&mdash;that the
sphere of domesticity was not open to them all. It is not
a question as to whether woman is or is not in her sphere
outside of the home or the limited circle of æsthetic following;
for the time of theorizing is already past, and women
have become so identified with industry as to preclude the
possibility of a return to the narrower life. <i>Vestigia nulla
refrorsum</i> is the motto of woman to-day, and has been
from the early part of the nineteenth century. She is in
the line of progress, and following her manifest destiny.
The fears of the faint-hearted and the regrets of the conservative
cannot alter the established fact that the practical
<span class="pagenum"><a name="page345" id="page345"></a>[pg 345]</span>
status which women achieved in the nineteenth century is
theirs, to be recognized and furthered.</p>

<p>The views prevailing in the nineteenth century with
regard to matrimony were not greatly different from those
of the eighteenth: it was considered just as discreditable
to be an old maid, and marriage was the goal of existence
for young women; but there was a portion of the sex who
were willing to brave the aspersions cast upon them and
to remain single&mdash;when the opportunity to do otherwise
was not wanting&mdash;in order that they might follow careers
which offered to them greater interest or profit. It was
inevitable that such choice should lay them open to the
charge of unsexing themselves and of being recreant to
that <i>esprit de corps</i> of womankind which finds its common
interest in the achieving of matrimony. Women would
never have wrought out their independence of action if
there had not been a great widening of life's opportunities.
The ease of locomotion, abundant opportunities for education,
and the lightening of domestic labor by inventions,
were the important factors which made it possible for
women to step out into the avenues of active business.
The middle-class women, who were thrust out into the
arena of life, were still the women who best preserved
the pure idea of marriage. They were not subjected to the
temptations which assailed those in the higher and the
lower ranks of society, and, being less affected by tradition,
they wrought out for themselves independent ideals.
The marriage of convenience of the higher ranks and the
marriage of necessity of the lower were not the forms
which were common to the middle-class women. Unaffected
by either of these influences, they regarded well
the character of the men to whom they were to plight
their troth, and were not disposed to pass over the weaknesses
of suitors. Marriages were no longer contracted at
<span class="pagenum"><a name="page346" id="page346"></a>[pg 346]</span>
the early ages of fifteen and sixteen years, which had been
commonly the case heretofore. A bride under twenty-one was thought very youthful.</p>

<p>The entrance of woman into the ranks of labor has not
been uncontested, for she has been charged with taking
the bread out of the mouths of husbands and fathers; and,
by working for much less wage than is given the men, she
has been thought dangerously to affect the standard of
payment for men's work. Just what will be the effect
of the innovation of woman in industry cannot at present
be stated, as she has not as yet gotten into normal and
recognized relationship to men as a sharer of their work.
One effect, however, of woman's contact with the other
sex in the brusque business world has been to reduce her
claim to special consideration in the way of the amenities
which were accorded her at a time when she was not
nearly so sincerely respected as she has become in recent
years. A modern writer has summed up the matter in
the following words: "Not the least among the changes is
that effected by the fuller and freer life led by all women.
A greater companionship and friendship is permitted them
with the other sex; there is a larger sharing of interest,
and women are expected to have a higher standard of
education and to conceal their knowledge and culture with
tasteful skill. Their interest in the political life of the
country, and their acknowledged usefulness in their place
in the working out of the political machine, the works,
philanthropical and social, which are admitted by all to
be within their sphere, have broadened and deepened the
stream of life which is common to both sexes, and brought
the social life on to a different level."</p>

<p>This broadening influence brought greater recognition of
woman's activities in social and philanthropic measures
and a corresponding increase of responsibility on her part.
<span class="pagenum"><a name="page347" id="page347"></a>[pg 347]</span>
There are many women of this century whose noble deeds
will never be forgotten, but one may be singled out as a
splendid example of self-sacrifice and devotion to others,
Mrs. Elizabeth Fry was a Quakeress of gentle birth,
though the mother of a large family, she made the condition
of the social outcasts her constant care. She was, in
truth, a worthy successor to John Howard. The moral
and physical degradation and suffering of the inmates of
prisons particularly appealed to her compassionate nature,
and she set herself the task of alleviating their condition.
Her first visit to Newgate Prison was in 1813; alone and
unprotected, she entered the pandemonium where nearly
two hundred women were confined, among them some of
the most degraded and desperate of their sex. Mrs. Fry's
sincere compassion, gentleness, and purity conquered these
women. Four years later she organized an association for
the reformation of female prisoners. Though her name is
chiefly associated with the reform of prisons and prisoners,
her philanthropy embraced the promotion of education of
the needy, religious movements, the cause of freedom, and
private charity. The influence of this good woman was
widespread, and her labors were not confined to her own
country, but extended to the continent of Europe.</p>

<p>One of the most striking of the phenomena of modern
life which came about in the nineteenth century is the
fusion of classes, making it increasingly difficult to use
class definitions. The passage from one to another has
become so easy as to make mobility the principal characteristic
of modern society. Travel, education, art appreciation,
and home decoration are not confined to any section
or class. The degree of luxury of living, and not the distinction
between luxury and lack, is the only way to set
aside one circle of society from another. A result of
this wider diffusion of the comforts of life has been the
<span class="pagenum"><a name="page348" id="page348"></a>[pg 348]</span>
awakening of the altruistic spirit, which finds expression
in many and varied benevolences&mdash;so many, in fact, that
the danger of the times is over-organization. This tendency,
if pursued, will react to the disadvantage of women
by depriving them of a sense of personal responsibility and individual initiative.</p>

<p>The assumption by society, as a whole, of the responsibility
of its members of necessity gives an organized form
to all efforts for its improvement. The nature of problems
of this sort requires wide organization in order to
bring into touch with the social need, for its satisfying, as
many persons as possible of means and talent. If the
philanthropist is rich, she employs her money as the expression
of her interest in and recognition of her duty
toward society. If not wealthy, but possessed of time
and talent, the woman herself becomes the instrument
of social amelioration, and the money from the coffers of
others is placed in her hands for judicious expenditure.
The great interest in philanthropy which in modern times
is evinced by all classes of society tends to unite the
women of to-day in a bond of common sympathy and purpose.
It is not solely because they have more abundant
leisure than men that the burden of philanthropy rests
upon their shoulders, for their wider sympathy and clearer
insight lead them to perceive more readily and to meet
more effectively the needs of mankind.</p>

<p>One of the prominent women of England who gave
herself largely to benevolent labors was the Baroness
Burdett-Coutts. The generous and wise use of her immense
fortune has secured her an enduring name; she
built churches, she founded charities; and although London
was the chief field for her philanthropy, her native
country of Ireland was remembered in a way to shrine her
name there in grateful memory. She possessed the spirit
<span class="pagenum"><a name="page349" id="page349"></a>[pg 349]</span>
of the great ladies of old England, who felt a responsibility
toward the dependent and necessitous classes about them,
and to this spirit she gave the wide expression her fortune
and her exceptional environment made possible. The
great variety of her benevolent sympathies and the personal
part she took in the various charities which enlisted
them cause her life to mark an era in the history of
philanthropy. There was nothing beyond the catholicity of her spirit.</p>

<p>The modern temperance movement, which enlisted
largely the interest of the women of England and America,
and which led, in the latter country, to the organization of
the Women's Christian Temperance Union, found its best
representative in England in the person of Lady Henry
Somerset. Lady Somerset's efforts in behalf of temperance
and social reforms in England are too much matters
of present-day knowledge to need more than a notice of
them in these pages; they have enrolled her name in the
list of great women of the century, where it had already
been long placed by the affections of a nation. Another
expression of the interest of women in society is found in
the Young Women's Christian Association, Girls' Friendly
Society, the Metropolitan Association for Befriending Young
Servants, and other organizations which care for the interests
of young women exposed to imposition or temptation.
It is impossible to enumerate even the more important of
the organizations which owe their institution to women
and are conducted by the sex for the benefit of society.
Wide as has been the field in the past, new phases of
modern life are constantly coming under the purview of
women's societies, which, although to a large extent voluntary,
are none the less splendidly organized and disciplined
forces, occupying, for the most part, independent fields.</p>
<span class="pagenum"><a name="page350" id="page350"></a>[pg 350]</span>

<p>Woman as a nurse is not a new aspect of her nature,
but not until the last quarter of the century was nursing
elevated to the dignity of a profession. There were not
wanting women who bore the title of professional nurse,
but these did not have the training to justify the name.
Before the Crimean War there were upward of two thousand
five hundred such nurses in England. Florence
Nightingale, whose name will ever be identified with the
founding of schools for nurses, said: "Sickness is everywhere.
Death is everywhere. But hardly anywhere is
the training necessary to relieve sickness, to delay death.
We consider a long education and discipline necessary to
train our medical man; we consider hardly any training at
all necessary for our nurse, although how often does our
medical man himself tell us, 'I can do nothing for you
unless your nurse will carry out what I say.'" The
revelation of suffering on the part of uncared-for soldiers
which Miss Nightingale brought back from the Crimea
profoundly moved English society; and a large sum of
money was presented to her, with which she founded the
Nurses' Training Institution at St. Thomas's Hospital. At
about the same time, the Anglican sisterhood founded
training schools of a similar kind. From these sources
arose the sentiment for trained service for the sick which
has led to the wide respect with which modern society
regards the nurse who has been thoroughly trained for her
profession. This feeling toward nurses is in striking contrast
to the one which prevailed before the days of special
training: that which was once considered a degrading
occupation has come to be thought of as an ennobling
ministry. In 1870, the date of the founding of the Metropolitan
and National Nursing Association by the Duke of
Westminster, James Hinton, in a paper in the <i>Cornhill
Magazine</i> on "Nursing as a Profession," called attention
<span class="pagenum"><a name="page351" id="page351"></a>[pg 351]</span>
to this new activity as a trained service for women: "It
is considered, though an excellent and most respectable
vocation, not one for a lady to follow as a means of livelihood,
unless she is content to sink a little in the social
scale.... Can any one think it is, in its own nature,
more menial than surgery? Could any occupation whatever
call more emphatically for the qualities characteristically
termed professional, or better known as those of
the gentleman and the lady?... Here is a profession,
truly a profession, equal to the highest in dignity, open to
woman in which she does not compete with man."</p>

<p>Nursing no longer has to be defended as a suitable occupation
for the sex, for in its ranks can be found women of
all grades of society; it is one of the levelling influences
of modern times, as well as one of the most elevating of
callings. No other sphere of public activity has opened
up to woman in which she has not met the opposition of
men. Nursing is a striking instance of the modern trend
toward specialization, which is but another term for professionalism.
Consonant with the whole spirit of the
times, the amateur nurse was relegated to the background by the modern trained nurse.</p>

<p>Society, however, has not taken so kindly to women's
departure in another direction: women as physicians are
still regarded as a novelty and a doubtful expedient. Nursing
created a profession, and so conservative sentiment
did not have to be met; but the old faculties of law, medicine,
and theology had been so long intrenched in their
privileged places in relation to society that any attempt to
widen their confines or to enlist their hospitality toward
innovations is met with the resistance which custom and
precedent always present to novelty. Although their
progress into the medical profession has been slow, yet
the nineteenth century records the opening of this calling
<span class="pagenum"><a name="page352" id="page352"></a>[pg 352]</span>
to women. During the last quarter of the century women
were admitted to the ranks of accredited practitioners.
Yet, the vocation is not a novel one for the sex, for in the
remote past they have been looked upon as possessing
knowledge and skill in the treatment of diseases; but, as
we have seen, the woman who followed the art of healing
as a profession was often regarded as in league with the
powers of evil. Down to the nineteenth century, women
never held any recognized place as practitioners, excepting
in the capacity of midwives.</p>

<p>In the eighteenth century there were, outside of the
recognized profession, a number of women who practised
medicine with considerable success; but, although skilful,
they would be regarded to-day as mere quacks. Mrs. Joanna
Stephens, who proclaimed that she had found a remarkable
cure for a painful disease, appears to have been
so successful in her treatment of cases as to enlist genuine
respect for her attainments. Parliament voted her a grant
of five thousand pounds sterling. Mrs. Mapp, commonly
termed "Crazy Sally," who had repute as a bonesetter,
received from the town of Epsom the offer of an annuity
of one hundred pounds sterling if she would remain in that
neighborhood. She was such a popular character that the
managers of Lincoln's Inn Fields Theatre sent her a special
request to attend a performance at which they desired to
have a large audience. She complied, and the attendance was satisfactory.</p>

<p>Early in the century there was a renewal of attempts
which had formerly been made to require women who
practised obstetrics to come under some form of registration;
but when the matter came before Parliament, in
the form of an enactment prepared by the Society of
Apothecaries, a committee of the House of Commons reported
that "It would not allow any mention of female
<span class="pagenum"><a name="page353" id="page353"></a>[pg 353]</span>
midwives." Although women were not received into the
regular profession as qualified practitioners until after
the middle of the century, they were under no legal prohibition
to practise medicine; but in 1858 the passage of the
Medical Act, which required a doctor to qualify by passing
the examination of one of the existing medical boards, set
up a barrier to women, as it placed them subject to the
discretion of the boards, which unanimously refused to
admit them. The only exceptions to this rule were made in
favor of those persons who had received a medical degree
abroad and had been practising before the passage of the
act. It was in this way that Dr. Elizabeth Blackwell became
registered. Miss Elizabeth Garret, whose studies
did not begin till two years after the compulsory registration
law, was also enrolled under exceptional conditions.</p>

<p>At last matters came to an issue, and a notable struggle
occurred which marked an era in the medical profession of
England in its attitude toward female practitioners. The
case of Miss Sophia Jex-Blake brought on the contest.
She applied to the London University for admission, and
was informed that the charter of that institution had been
purposely framed to exclude women who sought medical
degrees. Returning to Edinburgh, she exhausted every
legal resource in a combat with the authorities, and was
signally worsted. The plucky fight she made won the
admiration of Sir James Simpson, the dean of the medical
faculty, and others, but Professor Laycock observed to
her that he "could not imagine any decent woman wishing
to study medicine; as for any lady, that was out of the
question." Success finally crowned persistent endeavor,
and, the University Court having passed a resolution that
"Women shall be admitted to the study of medicine in the
university," Miss Jex-Blake and four other ladies passed
the preliminary examinations for entrance. Other women
<span class="pagenum"><a name="page354" id="page354"></a>[pg 354]</span>
soon entered the open door; but the contest was not yet
ended, for, after these ladies had pursued their studies for
three years and paid the fees, they were informed by the
University Court that no arrangement could be effected
by which they could continue their studies with a view to
a degree, instead of which they were offered certificates
of proficiency; the latter, however, would not be recognized
by the Medical Act. They then took legal measures
to secure redress, and followed the matter up by a bill in
Parliament, which was lost. In 1876 another bill was
introduced to enable all British examining bodies to extend
their examinations and qualifications to women, and this
became a law. A number of colleges availed themselves
of the privilege and opened their doors to women, until at
the present time there are medical schools for women in a
number of the principal cities in England, Scotland, and Ireland.</p>

<p>The advance of women in the professions was in line
with the general widening of the educational horizon of
the sex. Partly as the result of her broader education,
and partly as a cause of it, there was a juster appreciation
of the relative position of the sexes, and into this
there entered as well the new economic measure of value.
Society was no longer regarded as a congeries of individuals,
but as an organism, and an organism whose function
was chiefly the creation of wealth. This broader
economic estimate of society could but be favorable to
women, whose valuation as a part of the commonwealth
was largely regulated by their utility. The ideal of political
economy is that everyone shall be employed, and
employed at that for which he is best adapted, under the
condition of freedom of self-development. The prevalence
of such truer theories of society aided in dispelling the
mists of error which had surrounded the popular notions
<span class="pagenum"><a name="page355" id="page355"></a>[pg 355]</span>
as to women. Buckle observes, in his <i>Influence of Women
on the Progress of Knowledge</i>, that women are quicker in
thought than men, and he says: "Nothing could prevent
its being universally admitted except the fact that the
remarkable rapidity with which women think is obscured
by that miserable, that contemptible, that preposterous
system called their education, in which valuable things
are carefully kept from them, and trifling things carefully
taught to them, until their fine and nimble minds are too
often irretrievably injured."</p>

<p>The close of the nineteenth century witnessed a complete
revolution in the constituents of girls' education.
French, dancing, flower painting, and music no longer
comprised a young lady's accomplishments. The fear of
singularity, which was a social bugbear to the young
women of other generations, no longer served to prevent
them from studying classics and mathematics and science.
To-day, they are expected to add their quota to the contribution
of the times, in thought as well as in the graces
of deportment. The latter can no longer atone for the
absence of the former. It is no more the case among
the middle classes that only the girl who intends fitting
herself to take the position of governess needs an education
above the rudiments and the embellishments. Not
the least of the departures in the educational scheme for
women is the notable change of attitude which has taken
place with regard to the development of their bodies. It
is but recently that physical training has entered into the
curriculum of colleges, but it is even more recently that
an opinion has prevailed favorable to the physical culture of women.</p>

<p>Before the educational revolution occurred, women were
making their mark in intellectual spheres. In 1835 the
names of two women, Mary Somerville and Caroline
<span class="pagenum"><a name="page356" id="page356"></a>[pg 356]</span>
Herschell, were enrolled as members of the Astronomical
Society. In its report containing the recommendation of
the election of these ladies, the council of the society
observed: "Your Council has no small pleasure in recommending
that the names of two ladies distinguished in
astronomy be placed on the list of honorary members.
On the propriety of such a step from an astronomical point
of view, there can be but one voice: and your Council is
of opinion that the time is gone by when either feeling or
prejudice, by whichever name it may be proper to call it,
should be allowed to interfere with the payment of a well-earned
tribute of respect. Your Council has hitherto felt
that, whatever might be its own sentiment on the subject,
or however able and willing it might be to defend such a
measure, it had no right to place the name of a lady in
a position the propriety of which might be contested,
though upon what it might consider narrow grounds and
false principles. But your Council has no fear that such
a difference could now take place between any men whose
opinion would avail to guide that of society at large,
and, abandoning compliments on the one hand, and false
delicacy on the other, submits that while the tests of
astronomical merit should in no case be applied to the
works of a woman less severely than to those of man,
the sex of the former should no longer be an obstacle to
her receiving any acknowledgment which might be held
due the latter. And your Council, therefore, recommends
this meeting to add to the list of honorary members the
names of Miss Caroline Herschell and Mrs. Somerville, of
whose astronomical knowledge, and of the utility of the
ends to which it has been applied, it is not necessary to recount the proofs."</p>

<p>Mrs. Somerville suffered from the educational limitations
of her day, and when she desired to learn Latin, in
<span class="pagenum"><a name="page357" id="page357"></a>[pg 357]</span>
order that she might study the <i>Principia</i>, she referred to
Professor Playfair with regard to the propriety of her
doing so, and was assured by him that there was no impropriety
involved for the purpose she had in mind. At
that time there were many women with the best of education,
acquired outside of university halls, but such were
usually brought up by scholarly parents possessed of well-stocked
libraries. To-day, the position of Ruskin is a commonplace
of experience. In his lecture on the <i>Queen's
Gardens</i>, he advised that women have free access to books,
and asserted that they would find out for themselves the
wholesome and avoid the pernicious with an instinct as
unerring as that which directs the browsing of sheep in
pasture lands. It has been sufficiently demonstrated that
wholesome-minded girls are ever less in danger of contamination
from literature than are their brothers.</p>

<p>The opening of Queen's College in 1848 marked the beginning
of an attempt to give a wider education to women.
This college grew out of the Governesses' Benevolent
Institution. It was a training school for teachers, a normal
institute; but, besides this, it was open to all who cared
to enter. The name of that leader in modern educational
movements, Frederick Denison Maurice, was identified
with this departure. In the face of hostile comment, he
defended the system which was adopted by himself and
his brother professors, all of whom had come from King's
College. The educational opportunities offered by this
college were exceptional; the fees were low, and many
students hastened to avail themselves of the new privilege.</p>

<p>It was twenty years later, however, before there was
fought out the issue through which women came to be admitted
to the universities. In 1856, Miss Jessie Merriton
White was applying vainly for admittance to the matriculation
examination of the University of London. In 1869,
<span class="pagenum"><a name="page358" id="page358"></a>[pg 358]</span>
Girton College, the building of which cost fourteen thousand
seven hundred pounds sterling, was established largely
through the efforts of women. It was intended to afford
training for women along university lines, and the plan of
study was modelled on that of Cambridge University; the
idea in the adoption of this parallel course was to establish
beyond doubt women's fitness for pursuing the same
studies as men. Other colleges of the same nature were founded soon after.</p>

<p>In the last century, the old theory that women were not
capable of higher education on account of the "moisture
of their brains" was not one of the pleas upon which was
based the opposition to the higher education of women.
The more plausible ground was taken that women ought
to avoid certain lines of study which are a part of a university
course. But it is coming to be realized that the
proprieties of knowledge do not reside in the subject or
in the sex of the student&mdash;that whatever is important for
higher investigation is worthy of the pursuit of women as
well as men, and can be pursued by them at the point
of ripened discretion to which they have arrived when
capable of meeting the requirements for entrance into a university.</p>

<p>The high-school system that has developed in England
during the last quarter of a century has done much for the
education of the middle classes, affording sound instruction
and mental discipline for all. At the present day, poor
girls, who, if they were dependent upon their personal resources,
would never acquire an education, have wider
facilities than were enjoyed by the women of the aristocracy a century earlier.</p>

<p>Of those who promoted the secondary education for
girls, perhaps no name among female educators in England
stands higher than that of Frances Mary Buss. Her
<span class="pagenum"><a name="page359" id="page359"></a>[pg 359]</span>
splendid powers of organization and administration raised
to such a degree of efficiency the private school which she
had established in the north of London, that, when the
Brewers Company desired to invest a sum of money for
the education of girls, it entered into negotiations with
Miss Buss and acquired her establishment, retaining her as head mistress.</p>

<p>Voluminous as are the works of women in the realm of
fiction, it is nevertheless a field little exploited by them
until recent years. In the eighteenth century the sex
had produced few historians, poets, or essayists who could
be compared with the group of romance writers which included
such names as Catherine Macauley, Eliza Haywood,
Elizabeth Carter, Fanny Burney, Mrs. Inchbald, and Mrs.
Radcliffe; but when we pass to the nineteenth century,
while women as romanticists are more prominent than
women as authors in any other field, there is no limit upon
the versatility which they exhibit, and all branches of
literature have felt their moulding impress. To take the
names of women out of the list of authors of the nineteenth
century would be to diminish the glory of the literary
skies by blotting out the lustre of some of its brightest constellations.</p>

<p>Beginning with Jane Austin and continuing to Mrs.
Humphry Ward, the line of literary descent in the realm
of fiction is a roll of honor for womankind; but it is a far
cry from these to that earliest of women novelists, Mrs.
Aphra Behn, who, at the direction of Charles II., wrote
her novel <i>Oronooko</i>, the purpose of which was not dissimilar
to the social end which Mrs. Harriet Beecher Stowe
had in mind in her <i>Uncle Tom's Cabin</i>. Thus, the sixteenth
century is brought into touch with the nineteenth,
although the connecting links were few and slight until
the middle of the latter. The number of women novelists
<span class="pagenum"><a name="page360" id="page360"></a>[pg 360]</span>
indicates that women have found in fiction the line of
literary pursuit which is most agreeable to their tastes
and adapted to their natures. There seems to be absolutely
no limit to the range of subjects which women are
capable of working up in romance; whether in novels of
incident or novels of character, treating historical or social
subjects, didactic or imaginative themes, with the plot in
any period of time, among any people or set of conditions,
women writers appear to be equally at home.</p>

<p>While the vast majority of literary women have been
writers of fiction, every branch of literature numbers in
its promoters the names of eminent females. In poetry
and in dramatic literature women have not achieved the
fame of men. Lord Byron gave as the reason for women's
apparent lack of imaginative and creative power that they
had not seen and felt enough of life. As translators,
editors, compilers, as writers on social topics and current
questions, as well as on educational subjects, memoirs,
travels, literary studies, they have been prolific and excellent
workers. Besides which, they have given to
journalistic and magazine work their special capabilities.</p>

<p>Women no longer fear to write under their own names,
and do not resort to pseudonyms as did Charlotte Brontë,
and Mary Ann Evans&mdash;George Eliot. It was at one time
thought that the demands of research and study outside of
the range of ordinary feminine acquaintance precluded the
sex from doing many forms of intellectual work which
were open to men. Fiction did not present special difficulties;
and as the line of least resistance, as well as that
of especial adaptation, women took to this form of writing.</p>

<p>At the present day, however, there is no question as
to woman's faithfulness, accuracy, and ability to attend to
detail; and so there are no lines of research or of authorship
in which women are not engaged. This is in part
<span class="pagenum"><a name="page361" id="page361"></a>[pg 361]</span>
due to the similar lines upon which women and men are
now educated. Their broad acquaintance with the whole
range of intellectual subjects eminently fits the sex for
special work in any department. To distinguish by their
method of treatment the writings of women is no longer
possible. Their pens have the same grace and vigor of
style as those of men, while there is no fineness or
daintiness of touch in their writings which does not find
counterpart in those of men.</p>

<p>The fiction of the century reveals woman intrepidly discussing
political, economic, and labor questions with a
large degree of assurance, and others with a great deal of
acuteness and insight. Although there is intense competition
in the realm of literature, yet the complexity of
modern society, the universality of education, the opportunities
of leisure for reading, the social demands for
acquaintance with standard and recent works, and the incitement
to reading given through the newspapers, magazines,
book reviews, and lectures of the times, furnish
unlimited opportunities for gifted women to exercise their talents in writing.</p>

<p>It was not until 1861 that women were admitted to all
the privileges and opportunities of art education which
centred in the Royal Academy schools. In that year
these were opened to women students. It is interesting
to notice how in almost an accidental manner the limitations
placed upon women were removed. At the annual
dinner of the Academy in 1859, Lord Lyndhurst felicitated
those present on the benefits which were conferred upon
all her majesty's subjects by the Academy schools. Miss
Laura Herford, an artist, wrote to Lord Lyndhurst and
pointed out the fact that half of her majesty's subjects
were excluded. This made the discussion of the propriety
of admitting women a kindly one, and a memorial was
<span class="pagenum"><a name="page362" id="page362"></a>[pg 362]</span>
prepared and signed by thirty-eight women artists, copies
of which were sent to every member of the Academy, praying
the admission of women and pointing out the benefit it
would be to them to study, under qualified teachers, from
the antique and from life. It was regarded as impracticable
that women and men should study life subjects
together, and the request was refused. There was nothing
in the constitution of the Academy either for or against
the admission of women. A drawing with the signature
"L. Herford" was then sent in by Miss Herford, and it
was admitted by a letter addressed to "L. Herford, Esq."
The question then arose whether a woman who had been
accepted as a man should be allowed to enter. Miss Herford had her way.</p>

<p>No women had been admitted into the Academy since
the days of Angelica Kaufmann and Mary Moser. The
reason for their non-reception, as assigned by Sanby in
his <i>History of the Royal Academy of Arts</i>, and quoted by
Georgiana Hill in her <i>Women in English Life</i>, is as follows:
"One or two ladies, if elected members, could scarcely be
expected to take part in the government or in the work of
the society; and as the practice even of giving votes by
proxy has long since been abolished, the effect of their
election as Royal Academicians would be, virtually, to reduce
the number of those who manage the affairs of the
institution and the schools in proportion as ladies were
admitted to that rank: and as long as the number of
Associates is limited, a difficulty would arise in the fact
that the higher rank has to be recruited from that body."
Miss Hill regards this as a grievance, because it virtually
makes the matter of sex a disqualification, and quotes
with endorsement Miss Ellen Clayton, as follows: "The
Academy has studiously ignored the existence of women
artists, leaving them to work in the cold shade of utter
<span class="pagenum"><a name="page363" id="page363"></a>[pg 363]</span>
neglect. Not even once has a helping hand been extended,
not once has the most trifling reward been given for
highest merit and industry. Accidents made two women
Academicians&mdash;the accident of circumstances and the accident
of birth. Accident opened the door to girl students&mdash;accident,
aided by courage and talent. In other countries,
they have the prize fairly earned quietly placed in their
hands, and can receive it with dignity. In free, unprejudiced,
chivalric England, where the race is given to the
swift, the battle to the strong, without fear or favour, it is
only by slow, laborious degrees that women are winning
the right to enter the list at all, and are then received with
half-contemptuous indulgence."</p>

<p>Whether or not women artists have a real grievance
against the Royal Academy, certain it is that the last
half of the nineteenth century has been notable for the
progress of women in art. It was in the galleries of
the Society of Lady Artists, which came into existence in
1859, that Lady Butler first exhibited and pictures by
Rosa Bonheur were displayed. With the multiplicity of art
schools and every facility for obtaining instructions under
the most favorable conditions, women have been brought
into prominence as artists. Landscape, portrait painting,
oil, water-colors, pastel&mdash;the whole range of subjects and
styles of painting includes pictures of merit by women.</p>

<p>In many of the lesser branches of art, hundreds of women
have found congenial vocations. They have shown excellent
taste and aptitude in china painting and other forms
of decorative work&mdash;in book illustration, as designers of
carpet and wall-paper patterns, as preparers of advertisements,
designers of calendars, and a host of other minor art industries.</p>

<p>Women as musical composers had appeared in the last
half of the eighteenth century. Mrs. Beardman, who made
<span class="pagenum"><a name="page364" id="page364"></a>[pg 364]</span>
her début as a singer at the Gloucester festival in 1790,
was equally gifted as composer, singer, and pianist. Ann
Mounsey displayed early talent, and her precocity brought
her into notice when she was but nine years of age. In
her maturity, her compositions gave her high rank among
female composers, and in 1855 her oratorio <i>The Nativity</i>
was produced in London. She was a member of the Philharmonic
Society and also of the Royal Society of Musicians.
Another gifted woman, whose talents brought her
early into notice and who was a member of the Royal
Academy of Music, was Kate Fanny Loder. She had been
instructed in piano-forte by Mrs. Lucy Anderson, teacher
to Queen Victoria when she was princess and afterward to
the children of her majesty. Miss Loder was a king's
scholar at the Royal Academy, and when but eighteen
years of age was appointed professor of harmony at her
<i>alma mater</i>. Eliza Flower&mdash;whose sister, Mrs. Adams,
wrote the words of the hymn <i>Nearer, my God, to Thee</i>&mdash;was
another of the gifted composers of the century, and
her name appears as the author of many hymn tunes.</p>

<p>To give the names of all the women composers of hymn
tunes would be to give a history of hymnology in modern
times, for there is no sacred song collection but embraces
the compositions of many women gifted in music. To
give the names of those who have figured in opera would
involve a history which includes a great many more foreign
artists than English; but without seeking to do more
than mention a few of those whose names have figured in
popular favor as operatic <i>prima donnas</i>, and omitting particular
mention of their individual capabilities, there are
some names which suggest themselves to the patrons of
the opera as worthy of first mention in the list of England's
great singers. Catherine Tofts, Anastasia Robinson,
Lavinia Fenton,&mdash;afterward Duchess of Bolton,&mdash;achieved
<span class="pagenum"><a name="page365" id="page365"></a>[pg 365]</span>
celebrity in the opera during the first thirty
years of the century. Lavinia Fenton was the heroine of
<i>The Beggars' Opera</i>, which took London by storm. The
names of Catherine Hayes and Louisa Pyne are still
treasured by those whose recollections go back to the forties.</p>

<p>The general ill repute under which the stage rested in the
seventeenth century continued to hang about it throughout
the eighteenth. There was still a great deal of license
allowed spectators, and it was not unusual for them to
pass on the stage and behind the scenes. The rude and
boisterous conduct of the patrons of the theatre made it
extremely unpleasant for persons of refinement to attend
it. The city streets had not yet become well protected,
and the degree of security which is now afforded to pedestrians
was lacking in the eighteenth century. It was out
of the question for any gentlewoman to attend the theatre
unaccompanied by male escort. There were always loiterers
about the streets, and any man of rank whose character
was bad enough to permit him to do so felt at liberty
to salute a woman with insults&mdash;which, when they came
from such a source, were then styled as gallantries; and
women who adopted the stage as a profession, being looked
upon as having forfeited their claims to gentility, were
regarded as fair game by the rakes of the day. Notwithstanding
the attempts of Queen Anne to reform the manners
of theatre-goers by the passage of edicts looking to
that end, the evils which made it so unpleasant to a
respectable person to attend the theatre and which brought
the playhouse under odium continued to be flagrant.</p>

<p>In the nineteenth century came a great uplift of the
status of the stage and workers upon it, and, in contrast to
the opinions which prevailed in the eighteenth century,
an actress suffered no disparagement and had the same
<span class="pagenum"><a name="page366" id="page366"></a>[pg 366]</span>
opportunity for cherishing her reputation as any others of
the sex. The stage no longer brought its followers into
disrepute, for it rested with the actress herself to preserve
or to tarnish her character. She was no longer, by virtue
of being an actress, regarded as a Bohemian, and it was
not considered a regrettable thing for a girl of character to
enter upon a histrionic career. It was her course and
conduct after she had entered the profession, and the
nature of the plays in which she appeared and the parts
which she allowed herself to present, that determined
the public verdict with regard to her. As a result of the
changed character of the theatre,&mdash;although it was by no
means cleared of all the odium that had so long attached to
it,&mdash;a larger number of men and women attended dramatic
performances than ever before.</p>

<p>The introduction of women into commercial life was
followed by the opening up of civil service appointments
and a change of sentiment with regard to women engaging
in trade. In 1870, when the government bought the interests
of the telegraph company, the officials were brought
under the existing civil service rules. Some of them happened
to be women, and thus, inadvertently, women were
admitted to civil service appointments under the government.
In 1871 the postmaster-general bore striking testimony
to the efficiency of the women employed in his
department. When commenting upon the transfer of the
telegraphs from private control to post office direction, he
said: "There had been no reason to regret the experiment.
On the contrary, it has afforded much ground
for believing that, where large numbers of persons are
employed with full work and fair supervision, the admixture
of the sexes involves no risk, but is highly beneficial."
Then, remarking upon the better tone of the male
staff by reason of their association with women as fellow
<span class="pagenum"><a name="page367" id="page367"></a>[pg 367]</span>
employés, he added: "Further, it is a matter of experience
that the male clerks are more willing to help the female
clerks with their work than to help one another; and
on many occasions pressure of business is met and difficulties
are overcome through this willingness and cordial coöperation."</p>

<p>The experience of employing women in the post office
was duplicated in other departments of the public service,
until it has become a recognized fact that women can be employed
in connection with men without any of the results
which it was apprehended would follow the departure. In
the country districts, postmistresses and female carriers
are not a novelty. It was the post office which first
Opened up to women employment under the government,
and its various departments now utilize them extensively.
Although other of the public services have received women
as clerks, their position is still in a measure tentative, but
it can hardly be said that the employment of them by the
government is any longer an experiment. In addition to
the large numbers of young women who have found employment
in the government service, there is no railroad
company, insurance company, or any other large semi-public
or private business firm or company, which has not
found women to be of peculiar serviceability. The great
number of women who, during the latter part of the nineteenth
century, fitted themselves for business careers indicates
not only a change of ideal, with a realization of their
self-sufficiency, but the increased adaptability of women
to the peculiar conditions of modern society.</p>

<p>It is no longer a curious phenomenon to see the name
of a woman upon a business letterhead, or on the sign
over some large commercial establishment, for frequently,
when their husbands die, women themselves now take in
hand the business interests of the deceased and conduct
<span class="pagenum"><a name="page368" id="page368"></a>[pg 368]</span>
them with marked success, and with no question from
their business competitors as to the propriety of their so
doing. Nor do such women forfeit the esteem of society.
Society as such is no longer concerned chiefly with matters
of pedigree, but more largely with the question of prosperity.
While it would be asserting too much to say that
the nineteenth century witnessed the iconoclastic shattering
of the old aristocratic ideals, nevertheless, while the
woman of blood maintains her rightful place in the select
circles of society, the door stands ajar for women who
have no other claim for recognition than that they have
amassed fortunes, or inherited them, or are the wives of
wealthy men. However, they must not have clinging to
them the odor of their humble beginnings, if they rose
from lowly walks of life. The real test applied to them is
not the test of breeding, which relates to the past, but of
gentility, which is the measure of the present life.</p>

<p>Besides the women who managed large business interests
in their own names, the nineteenth century witnessed
the advent of the business woman in numerous lines of
small trade. To name the various kinds of business in
which women are found making for themselves a sustenance
would be to give a list of the many lines of retail
trade; but the shopwoman of the earlier part of the nineteenth
century is quite a different person from the tradeswoman
of the latter half. Instead of a small, obscure
shop, conducted in a hesitating, apologetic manner, to-day
women are as aggressive advertisers, make as fine displays
in their shops, and sustain the same business relations
with the wholesale dealers, as do the retail dealers
of the other sex. Beyond any peradventure, women have
become a part of the business organism of England, and
are competing upon terms of equality with men for the
patronage of the public; and they have before them just
<span class="pagenum"><a name="page369" id="page369"></a>[pg 369]</span>
as hopeful prospects of amassing a competence for an easy and independent old age.</p>

<p>Great as is the army of women who enrolled themselves
in the ranks of commerce and clerkship during the nineteenth
century, they are in a minority as compared with
the greater host of industry,&mdash;the women who are found
in the factories, working upon the raw materials of human
comforts and luxuries, toiling unremittingly and often under
hard conditions for a mere pittance as compared with the
value of their products. In 1895 there were one hundred
thousand women in England holding membership in the
various trade unions, and, besides these, a far larger number
who were without such enrolment, such as fifty-two
thousand shirtmakers and seamstresses and four hundred
thousand dressmakers and milliners; and these were
but a mere fraction of the immense host of women who,
outside of the home, found themselves earning their own
bread by their personal labor. With the growth of manufactures,
women were drawn from the rural districts. It
became an uncommon thing, where formerly it was the
usual practice, for women to perform the work of field
laborers, or to depend chiefly for support upon butter and
cheese making, or service at the inns or in the shops of
the neighboring towns. It is now only the women of the
lowest rank who devote themselves for a livelihood to
berry picking, hop picking, garden weeding, and like menial outdoor services.</p>

<p>The competition of women with men in manufactures
was greeted at first with the sullen resentment and open
opposition with which machinery was viewed when first introduced;
but as women have been drawn into manufactures,
men have absorbed many of the outdoor duties which
formerly fell to woman's lot in the country districts. The
"bakeresses," "brewsters," and the "regrateresses"&mdash;retailers
<span class="pagenum"><a name="page370" id="page370"></a>[pg 370]</span>
of bread&mdash;are now known simply in the history
of industry; their names have become archaic and their
offices obsolete. As machinery took the place of the
individual intelligence of the handworker of other days,
leaving only a monotonous series of mechanical manipulations
for the men, aside from the superior skill called
into play by the complexity of the machinery, which demanded
expert and intelligent direction, women found relegated
to them the simplest parts of factory work and those
which did not require any large degree of mentality. As
a result, the women of the factories have not developed
coördinately in intelligence with their sisters in other lines
of active work. This has unfortunately led them to be
looked down upon as inferior to girls who work in stores
or in offices. As the factory laws came to be framed with
regard to greater investigation and regulation of the conditions
of women's work in factories, many of the abuses
were to a degree corrected. It is not now commonly the
case that a self-respecting operative is without redress
if subjected to the coarse insults of brutalized foremen,
nor are women now permitted to work as formerly under
conditions so harmful to their peculiar constitutions. Better
sanitation, fewer hours of employment, and greater regard
for their comfort, have done much to brighten what was in
the early part of the nineteenth century the dreariest life
to which any woman could be chained.</p>

<p>Along with the improvements in the condition of
women's labor have gone improvements in the housing
of factory people. The industrial evils that brought out
such chivalrous champions of the poor as the younger
Lord Shaftesbury and his associates no longer generally
prevail in factory life. There yet remains much to be
done for the congregated women and girls of the factories.
It was inevitable that by the bringing of them together in
<span class="pagenum"><a name="page371" id="page371"></a>[pg 371]</span>
great numbers, many from homes of abject poverty where
they had none of the benefits of careful training, and
by the herding of them together in factories where the
nature of their work did not furnish employment for their
minds, the moral tone of the young women of daily toil
should have been lower than that of their sister workers
in other lines. But the dictum of Lord Shaftesbury has
been sinking into the social consciousness, and has borne
splendid fruit in the improvement of the conditions of factory
work for women. "In the male," says he, "the
moral effects of the system are very bad; but in the female
they are infinitely worse, not alone upon themselves, but
upon their families, upon society, and, I may add, upon
the country itself. It is bad enough if you corrupt the
man; but if you corrupt the woman, you poison the waters
of life at the very fountain." In the first half of the nineteenth
century, the actual number of women employed in
factories appears to have been larger than that of men.</p>

<p>The existence of the factory, drawing out from the
homes so many women and making their home life only a
secondary consideration and an additional burden, presents
one of the gravest problems of modern times&mdash;a problem
that must be approached harmoniously by the philanthropists
and the legislators if it is to be satisfactorily solved.
Habit begets contentment, so that it is not the employés
of the factory who feel most keenly the unfortunate circumstances
of their existence. It is the social reformer,
whose one aim is not the uplifting of the individual as such,
but the betterment of the individual as the unit of the
social fabric, who is most concerned for the betterment of
the town life of England. As to the women themselves,
when they are compensated by extra wage they have
no complaint to make about the long hours; indeed, they
sometimes even prefer the factory and the excitement
<span class="pagenum"><a name="page372" id="page372"></a>[pg 372]</span>
of their surroundings to the dreary and forbidding prospect
of their desolate tenements. One unnatural result
of women's work in factories is the reversal of the positions
respectively of husband and wife in the home. It is
not an extraordinary occurrence for women to go out to
the factories and earn the bread of the family, while the
men remain at home to mind the babies and care for the
house. This begetting of shiftlessness in men, who are
buoyed up to the point of self-supporting labor only by
the dependence of their families upon them, is an incidental
but a significant result of factory life upon women.
It is seriously to be doubted that, in the aggregate earnings
of the family, there is any real compensation for the
binding of wives and children to the wheel of toil. It has
been observed by careful students of industrial conditions
that, for one reason or another, the maximum wage of a
family and the degree of comfort in their living are not,
ordinarily, greater than that of the family whose sole wage earner is the husband.</p>

<p>There is not a concurrence of views as to the wisdom
of special legislation with regard to the industrial place of
women. Some see in the various acts passed to regulate
the circumstances of their employment a distinct gain,
while others view all such enactments as a regrettable
interference of the state in a matter where it is not capable
of taking cognizance of all the circumstances involved
and of displaying the broadest wisdom in dealing with the
subject. Then, too, it is objected on the part of some
that sex legislation is unwise of itself. The women themselves
have not always looked with favor upon the passage
of acts for the regulation of their labor, and often
complain of such as an infringement of their personal
privileges as adults. They complain that the competition
of labor is already severe, and that by imposing upon
<span class="pagenum"><a name="page373" id="page373"></a>[pg 373]</span>
them the limitations of certain acts the difficulty of making
a subsistence is increased. They complain against the
association of female with child labor, and assert that
the conditions are dissimilar and the abuses to be corrected
cannot be classed under the same legislative conditions.
Industrial legislation was first directed to the correction of
offences against women on account of their sex, but the
later enactments, and those most complained of, were resented
because of their making the securing of a livelihood
more precarious. The <i>Times</i> in 1895 pointed out that
there were eight hundred and eighty thousand women
affected by the Factories and Workshops Bill, introduced
into Parliament in that year. The lack of flexibility of the
measure, failing to take account of the different natures
and conditions of the various employments affected, made
it obviously unjust to the women employed in certain
trades. Some industries have their seasons of activity
and of dulness, while others fluctuate without regard to
periods; and to class all such under legislation regulating
the hours of labor at the same number for them all could
but work injury to the women employed in such trades
and disproportionate advantage to other women employed
in industries pursued evenly throughout the year.</p>

<p>The crux of such contentions lies in the paternal attitude
of the state to the female sex. The expediency of depriving
women of the same amount of liberty to regulate their
own affairs as is accorded to men is a matter of doubt.
Women feel that they can decide better for their own
needs than can the legislators who have as their guide
only industrial statistics, the petitions of well-meaning
social reformers, and the views of those who claim expert
knowledge from the outside. Just what will be the outcome
of the attempt to resolve woman into a normal relationship
to modern industry without violation of the rights
<span class="pagenum"><a name="page374" id="page374"></a>[pg 374]</span>
of self-direction and protection, which she claims as her
prerogative, and at the same time to preserve society from
the social blight of the reduction of considerable numbers
of workingwomen to prostitution and abandoned living,
remains to be determined by the wisdom and experience of the twentieth century.</p>

<p>One of the most curious of the industrial problems at
the front in the nineteenth century was the servant question.
While the wheels of work were set to moving with
more or less smoothness in all other ways, this important
wheel in the domestic machinery has never run without
friction, jarring to the nerves of housewives. Such women
find a common bond of sympathy in the incompetence and
dereliction of their domestics; domestics find a common subject
of interest in their grievances against their mistresses.
The whole matter is almost ludicrous, because it is one
simply of adjustment. After the sex has asserted for
itself a position in the realm of industry not inconsistent
with the self-respect which it has sought to maintain, the
women who work in the kitchens and the chambers of
other women sullenly resent the imputation of their menial
status in so doing. Just why the modern servants should
be looked upon as inferior to other women workers is a
difficult question, for their close relation to their mistresses
would appear to give them an individuality which the
"hands" in a factory do not possess. The line of demarcation
between the domestic employers and employés is
not always a clearly pronounced one, for it not uncommonly
occurs that those who themselves employ a maid
send out their own daughters to similar service. The low
regard in which servants are held, and the application to
them of this very term, which carries with it an implication
of ignominy, is responsible for the poor grade of efficiency,
intelligence, and character found among domestics
<span class="pagenum"><a name="page375" id="page375"></a>[pg 375]</span>
as a class. There is no reason, in the nature of the case,
why a young girl with intelligence and fair education
should not self-respectingly take domestic service, and
rank above factory hands and many of her sister workers
in inferior clerical positions.</p>

<p>In earlier times domestic work fell largely to men. The
kitchen work which now is performed by scullery maids
was done by boys and youths; and before the office of
housemaid had been established, that of chamberlain signified
the service of men for the work which maids are
now employed to do. The very titles of those who are
connected with the person of majesty signify the lowly
household functions which were ordinarily performed by
those to whom now fall the honors, but none of the duties,
of those offices. In ecclesiastical households there were
no women employed at all in former times, excepting
"brewsters." The personal relationship which used to
endear the tie between servant and mistress no more exists
than it does between other working people and their
employers. Instead of the idea of personal attachment,
the monetary consideration is the only one that enters
into the relationship. The maid is but a part of the
machinery of the household, and must deport herself in a
deferential and often an abject manner, assuming a mask
of propriety which is thrown off as soon as she is among
her companions, when the pent-up animosity and resentment
find expression. How different the modern condition
from that which obtained in other times, when a lady considered
no one fitting to attend upon her excepting those
who were of gentle blood and between whom and herself
were ties of endearment and a measure of equality!
Gentle maidens performed many household duties which
to-day are disdained by young ladies of lesser position.
The real "servants" did only the coarse and rough work
<span class="pagenum"><a name="page376" id="page376"></a>[pg 376]</span>
of the household. They had no particular place to sleep,
and, even down to the time of Elizabeth, it was not
thought important to provide regular beds for "menials"
in the great houses&mdash;"As for servants, if they had any
shete above them it was well, for seldom had they any
under their bodies to keep them from the pricking strawes
that ranne off thorow the canvas and raxed their hardened
hides." The servants who were thus treated were, of
course, the antecedents of the present-day servants. It is
from the traditional attitude toward them that much of the
present-day spirit of superiority toward domestics is derived.
During the eighteenth century the condition of
domestics improved, and, during the last quarter, the
description of them, their tastes and their manners, is
such as would be quite applicable to-day. Already the
scarcity of good servants had come to be a matter of
domestic concern. The lament of the lady of to-day, that
her maid dresses as well as she herself, is not a new one,
for it is met as far back as the seventeenth century, and
in the eighteenth century Defoe remarks upon the same
fact. He says, writing in 1724: "It would be a satire
upon the ladies such as perhaps they would not bear the
reading of, should we go about to tell how hard it is
sometimes to know the chamber-maid from her mistress;
or my lady's chief woman from one of my lady's daughters."
He adds that: "From this gaiety of dress must
necessarily follow encrease of wages, for where there is
such an expence in habit there must be a proportion'd
supply of money, or it will not do." The same subject
furnished concern for people generally, and a correspondent
to the <i>Times</i> wrote, in 1794: "I think it is the duty of
every good master and mistress to stop as much as possible
the present ridiculous and extravagant mode of dress
in their domestics.... Formerly a plaited cap and
<span class="pagenum"><a name="page377" id="page377"></a>[pg 377]</span>
a white handkerchief served a young woman three or four
Sundays. Now a mistress is required to give up, by
agreement, the latter end of the week for her maids to
prepare their caps, tuckers, gowns, etc., for Sunday, and
I am told there are houses open on purpose where those
servants who do not choose their mistresses shall see
them, carry their dresses in a bundle and put them on,
meet again in the evening for the purpose of disrobing,
and where I doubt not many a poor, deluded creature had
been disrobed of her virtue. They certainly call aloud for
some restraint, both as to their dress as well as insolent manner."</p>

<p>The great majority of domestic servants come from the
rural districts, and upon entering into town life have no
one to exercise any personal concern in their welfare, and,
where they do not fall into worse courses, they acquire an
extravagant and reckless habit of life that uses up their
earnings simply in the furthering of their vanity or
pleasure. The servant question, as that of women's position
in the factory system of the country, presents problems
which have proved as yet stubborn to all attempts at their solution.</p>

<p>One of the most curious facts of the last quarter of
the nineteenth century was the evolution of the "new
woman." Women, representing all manner of social pleas,
running the gamut of the extremes, sought a hearing upon
the platform, in the pulpit, through the press, and in literature.
It looked as if the Anglo-Saxon race were on the
verge of a great revolution in which the men would, either
passively or in strenuous opposition, be ignominiously relegated
to the rear in the lines of new progress. The new
movement grew out of a sense of social inequality on the
part of some women, and this grievance was exploited
in all ways and illustrated from all viewpoints. Some of
<span class="pagenum"><a name="page378" id="page378"></a>[pg 378]</span>
these strenuous advocates for the "rights" of the sex
gave themselves over to the question of dress reform, and
their diverse views represented the whole range of the
question, from the sensible and sane declaration for the
abolishment of the tyranny of style to the adoption of
male attire. Others discussed the injustice to women
from the physiological viewpoint, and affirmed that motherhood
was not an honorable office, but a type of feudalism
to men and a subservience to their wills that was highly
dishonoring to womankind. It looked as though the
household gods were to be tumbled out of the home without
much ado; but while some of the advocates of reform
went to absurd lengths and presented extreme views and
sought by all the ingenuity of sophistry to present the
status of woman as a most deplorable one, there were
others, more moderate in their views and expressions, who
felt that there might be a clear gain for women in the
affirming of her rights in the matter of conventions which
held over from the eighteenth century. Whether in deportment
or in dress, in intellectual pursuits or in the
province of amusement, women were to exercise their
judgment and common sense and live in the light of
their own reason and not with reference to the mandates of men.</p>

<p>When the "new woman" craze passed away, it left, as
its effect, young women more self-reliant, more independent,
a little more pert and self-assured, with less reverence
and greater capability, than before. On the whole, the
English girl of to-day has wrought out of the complex conditions
of modern society the naturalness which was
asserting itself throughout the eighteenth century, but
was hampered by new conventions, rigid customs, and
stately formalisms. It is true that the English girl of
to-day would be to her grandmother a revelation, and
<span class="pagenum"><a name="page379" id="page379"></a>[pg 379]</span>
perhaps not an agreeable one; but the standards by which
estimates are made are safest and most satisfactory when
contemporary. It would be venturesome to forecast the
view of the <i>fin de siècle</i> girl which may be taken at the
close of the new century by those who shall cast back
over the years a historical glance. Certain it is that, on
the whole, she comes approximately up to the best standards
of to-day, although a certain air of flippancy and the
flavor of the independence of judgment, not always balanced
by reason, suggest the possibility of an intellectual
and spiritual trend not consistent with her most fortunate lines of development.</p>

<p>It will be seen that the twentieth century takes woman
as a practical matter of fact, and proposes to bestow upon
her no fulsome eulogies, chivalrous dalliance, to place her
in no position of inferiority, or to exalt her to the transcendent
estate of the celestial beings. She has demanded
recognition in the practical affairs of life; she has claimed
the right to determine her own destiny; she has achieved
the freedom of the outer world. Lofty as are the summits
of human ambition, she has climbed up to the very highest
peaks and written her name in letters of immortality on
the scroll of the great ones of the earth, in the arts, in
literature, in philanthropy. Does she ever pause to take
a backward look over the steps by which she has come to
her present eminence? Does she ever consider the "pit
from which she was digged"? It is a far cry from the
twentieth century to the early dawn of history, and none
but the Eye which runs to and fro throughout the whole
earth can trace the entire course of woman's ascendency
from degradation to exaltation. But it is always well to
pause and to ask of the past years what report they
have borne to Heaven; and the history of woman, studied
in the light of fact and with such proper reflections as
<span class="pagenum"><a name="page380" id="page380"></a>[pg 380]</span>
historical circumstance suggests, must not only be a
profitable one for the correction of any ill-balanced tendencies
which may appear to close observation of woman
in her present position and spirit, but it must as well be
an important section of, and, in a sense, interpretation of,
the social development of England.</p>
<span class="pagenum"><a name="page381" id="page381"></a>[pg 381]</span>




<h2>Chapter XV</h2>

<h2>The Women of Scotland and Ireland</h2>
<!--Blank page #382 omitted.-->
<span class="pagenum"><a name="page383" id="page383"></a>[pg 383]</span>


<p>The women of Scotland are remarkable for the strength
of their domestic sentiments and for their loyalty to the
land of the heather. The stream of national life, by its
merging and mingling with that of England, has never lost
the individuality which has been the pride of the Scotch
people in all their periods. Like two rivers meeting in
confluence,&mdash;the one slow and clear, but steady and strong
in its flow, the other, dashing and foaming its turbulent
flood over the breakers in its rough channel,&mdash;refusing for
a long time to do other than divide their common course
until after long periods of associated flow they finally
merge, still showing in their different shadings the mark
of their diverse origin, so was it with England and Scotland.
The union is complete, but national characteristics remain.</p>

<p>Not so, however, with unhappy Ireland. Fundamental
differences in life, in temperament, in religion, in ideals,
have served to perpetuate the alienation of a people whose
connection with England might seem to depend on the
power of but one principle&mdash;that of force. Not strange
is it that among a people which considers itself deprived
of a future the influence of the past should be predominant,
and that in the recital of the mighty deeds of the
Irish chieftains of yore should be found the chief delight
<span class="pagenum"><a name="page384" id="page384"></a>[pg 384]</span>
of those who mingle their tears at the shrine of such
a representative of their national defeat as the patriot O'Connell.</p>

<p>With the curious contradiction of nature which infusion
of Celtic blood effects, no livelier or more light-hearted race
of women exists upon the earth than that of Erin, yet, at
the same time, none which can be plunged so deeply into
melancholy and feel so profoundly the pangs of sorrow.
Not to original contributions of race characteristics, however,
is this contradictory temperament solely to be
attributed, but to the long years of denationalization which
have made Ireland the wailing place of women whose
traditions are glorious with the deeds of mighty queens
and amazons like Macha, Méave, Dearbhguill and Eva;
the dawn of whose cycles of religious glory is marked
by the life and deeds of a Bridget.</p>

<p>To write a history of the women of Great Britain and
not speak of the differences which the names Scot and Irish
connote would be as grave an error as to describe the
flora of the islands and omit mention of the shamrock and
the thistle. Not that the flora of the island group is
essentially distinctive any more than that the differences
in society, in manners and customs of the separate peoples,
are radical. It is not that there is much of diverse interest
in the broad aspects of the life of the women that the
recital of the history of the women of Scotland and Ireland
is to have separate treatment, but to throw in strong light
upon the pages of history the figures of women who belonged
not to Great Britain, as such, but to Scotland or to
Ireland, and who, if they date after the cementing of the
union of the peoples, still perpetuate that which is distinctive
in quality of life and of character.</p>

<p>To figure forth the famous women of these peoples will
serve as sufficient commentary upon the effect of difference
<span class="pagenum"><a name="page385" id="page385"></a>[pg 385]</span>
of life and of customs. All else has entered into the story of
the women of Great Britain as it has been told, for, after
all, there is a real oneness between them.</p>

<p>The tribal influence in both Ireland and Scotland continued
to be the predominant force of patriotic purpose
long after the welding of its various elements had eliminated
this influence in English life. In the earlier history
of both the Scotch and Irish peoples, we have to do with
the force in society of this family idea, centred in great
chieftains and kings, but none the less a fact of prevailing
influence, an idea incarnate that served to quell the strife
of warring factions in the face of a common enemy. The
patriotism of both peoples has been the patriotism of the
family and the fireside. The love of the tartan among
the Scotch and the perpetuation of the Irish clans attest this fact to-day.</p>

<p>Many are the pages of British history rendered glorious
by the deeds of the women of Scotland. In those early
days, when the light of history is too faint to show clearly
their characters or their deeds, the women of Caledonia
went forth to battle with men at the sound of the pibroch.
Some of the noblest of them reigned as queens, were
hailed as deliverers, or gave their blood in martyrdom to
warm the soil of their country. The Scotch-Irish tribes
accorded their women place in the deliberative bodies, and
listened to their counsel. The magnificent virility which
they displayed was not different from that of British women
generally. The noble Boadicea was no more valorous
than the Irish Méave. From the dim shadow land of the
past must some of the characters of this recital be called
up, but the Middle Ages and modern periods will be most
largely drawn upon to tell the story of the Celtic woman,
as a part of the chronicle of a country where, as we have
fully seen, women have always counted as factors.
<span class="pagenum"><a name="page386" id="page386"></a>[pg 386]</span>
Macha of the Red Tresses is the first of the Irish
queens whose figure stands out with sufficient boldness
to fix it upon the pages of history. Would one marvel at
her beauty or her prowess, let him have recourse to the
praises of the early bards and the laudations of the chroniclers.
We can well believe that, to her countrymen, she
appeared as the incarnation of some divinity as she rode
at the head of her body of stalwart warriors; her auburn
tresses floating loose in the wind, her mantle flung carelessly
over her shoulder, her neck and arms and ankles
girdled with massive gold ornaments, her eyes flashing
determination as she pointed the advance to the foray
with her lance directed toward the foe drawn up in battle line to receive the charge.</p>

<p>A quarrel as to the succession to the throne or to the
headship of the tribe, which was precipitated by the death
of her father without posterity excepting this intrepid
daughter, was the occasion of her appearance upon the
page of national affairs, or rather of tribal history. She
gained the victory over her adversaries, and ruled her
people for seven years. The romantic annals of this
valorous lady relate how she pursued the sons of her adversary
to effect their destruction; and the more certainly
to accomplish her purpose, she disguised herself as a leper,
by rubbing her face with rye dough. Away in the depths
of a dense forest she finds them cooking the wild boar
they had just slain. Having successfully used her disguise
to achieve her end, she rid herself of the leprous-looking
splotches. With honeyed words and the judicious
flashing of love-light from a pair of wondrous eyes, the
supposed leper charms her enemies. One brother follows
her into a remote part of the forest, where by guile she
effects the binding of him hand and foot. Returning to
the camp, she successively lures the remaining brothers
<span class="pagenum"><a name="page387" id="page387"></a>[pg 387]</span>
into the woods in the same manner and with the same
result. She brought them "tied together" to Emhain.
There, in a council of the tribe, womanly sentiment prevailed
over sanguinary counsels, and, instead of being
condemned to death, the prisoners were given over to
slavery in the queen's following; and with the romantic
ideas common to her sex, she had them build her a fortress
"which shall be forever henceforth the capital city of this
province." With her golden brooch she measured the
bounds of the future castle, and it received the name "the
Palace of Macha's Brooch." So runs the legend, and so
is fixed by the brooch of Macha the first date in Irish history,
at a period, however, when dates have little significance,
for time meant but duration, and not economy or expenditure of force.</p>

<p>The romance of another of Ireland's early queens centres
about the possession of a bull whose marvellously
good points had awakened the queen's envy; the pastoral
relates the contest which arose therefrom. This queen
was the daughter of the King of Connaught, Ecohaidh by
name, and her mother was the handmaid of his wife, the
Lady Edain, who herself was a leader of great beauty
and courage. The contest for the throne resulted in the
elevation of Méave to the royal dignity. Before this,
she had contracted marriage with a prince, with whom she
lived unhappily. She returned to her father's court,
and, after her coronation, married the powerful chief
Ailill. The death of her husband and that of her father,
which occurred at about the same time, left her solitary.
The queen's misfortune in marriage did not deter
her from seeking a further union. One day, the court
of Ross-Ruadh, King of Leinster, was thrown into a
great stir by the arrival of the heralds of Méave dressed
in "yellow silk shirts and grass-green mantles," who
<span class="pagenum"><a name="page388" id="page388"></a>[pg 388]</span>
announced that the famous queen was on a royal progress
throughout the land in quest of a husband suited to one of
her state and character. She was fêted and catered to in
every way, and finally fixed her choice upon the seventeen-year-old
son of Ross-Ruadh, whose character promised
enough meekness to insure the dominance over him of his much older spouse.</p>

<p>The event which the chroniclers make the prominent
one of her reign had its origin in a heated dispute between
the queen and her spouse as to their respective
possessions. The result of the controversy was an actual
inventory of their belongings. "There were compared
before them all their wooden and their metal vessels of
value; and they were found to be equal. There were
brought to them their finger-rings, their clasps, their bracelets,
their thumb-rings, their diadems, and their gorgets
of gold; and they were found to be equal. There were
brought to them their garments of crimson and blue, and
black and green, and yellow and mottled, and white and
streaked; and they were found to be equal. There were
brought before them their great flocks of sheep, from
greens and lawns and plains; and they were found to be
equal. There were brought before them their steeds and
their studs, from pastures and from fields; and they were
found to be equal. There were brought before them their
great herds of swine, from forest and from deep glens and
from solitudes; their herds and their droves of cows were
brought before them, from the forests and most remote
solitudes of the province; and, on counting and comparing
them, they were found to be equal in number and excellence.
But there was found among Ailill's herds a young
bull, which had been calved by one of Méave's cows, and
which, not deeming it honourable to be under a woman's
control, went over and attached himself to Ailill's herds."</p>
<span class="pagenum"><a name="page389" id="page389"></a>[pg 389]</span>

<p>Deeply chagrined that she had not in all her herds a
bull to match this one, which seems to have been a remarkable
animal, she asked her chief courier where in all
the five provinces of Erin its counterpart might be found.
He replied that not only could he direct her to its equal,
but to its superior. The possessor of this animal was
Daré, son of Fachtna of the Cantred of Cualigné, in the
province of Ulster. Its name was the Brown Bull of
Cualigné. Straightway was the courier, MacRoth, sent
to Daré with an offer of fifty heifers for the animal, and
the further assurance that, if he so desired, he and his
people might have the best lands of what are now the
plains of Roscommon, besides other valuable considerations,
which included the permanent friendship of the queen herself.</p>

<p>Swiftly upon his errand sped the courier, accompanied
by an impressive train of attendants. A friendly and
hospitable reception and entertainment awaited them, and
Daré accepted the terms they offered. One of the courtiers
expressed admiration for the amiability of the king who
thus consented to part from that which, on account of his
power, the four other provinces of Erin could not have
wrested from him. From this praise a cup-valorous associate
dissented, and maintained that it was no credit to
him, since, had he refused, Méave of herself could have
compelled him to surrender it. The steward of Daré,
coming in at this inopportune moment, heard the insulting
vaunt, and went out in a rage and bore to his master the
remark he had heard. Daré, in a passion of resentment,
withdrew his offer, swearing by all the gods that Méave
should not have the Brown Bull by either consent or force.
Méave, on hearing of his determination, was correspondingly
incensed, and without delay gathered together her
forces and declared war upon Daré.</p>
<span class="pagenum"><a name="page390" id="page390"></a>[pg 390]</span>

<p>In a hotly contested battle, the army of Méave defeated
that of her adversary, and the Brown Bull was carried
back to her own country. According to the grave narrative
of the chronicler, the issue of the bulls had yet to be
fought out by the animals themselves, for no sooner did
the captive bull come into the province of Connaught than
there was precipitated a tremendous conflict with his rival,
the bull of Ailill. The tale describes vividly and with
much of fabulous admixture the contest, which resulted in
the rout of the White-horned. Thus was the honor of
Méave doubly sustained by the wage of battle.</p>

<p>This and many other strange narratives with regard to
the undoubtedly historical Méave have vested her with a
halo of romance, and so veiled her real personality that it
is rather in her mythical than her historical character that
she has come down to us; for there is little doubt of her
being the original of Queen Mab of fairy fame. Spenser
gathered much of his fairy lore in Ireland, and in the section
where this famous queen lived and where grew up
the mass of tradition and fable which must have appealed
strongly to the imagination of the author of the <i>Faërie Queen</i>.</p>

<p>The intense religious character of the Irish people is not
to be accredited to the persistence of superstitious influences
and beliefs in the new garb of Christian enlightenment;
for although their exuberant fancy has always
peopled their land with races of malign as well as of
amiable spirits, the real impress of religion is that which
they received from early Christian sources. Bridget, the
saint who heads the calendar of Irish women of sanctity,
was born in the first half of the fifth century A.D., and
survived until the end of the first quarter of the sixth.
She it was who, despite the disadvantages of her sex,
performed a work paralleled by but few persons in the
<span class="pagenum"><a name="page391" id="page391"></a>[pg 391]</span>
religious history of the country. It was inevitable that
there should have grown up about her a fund of story and
fable from which it is now difficult to distinguish in order to
give her real work its full appreciation without sanctioning
stories that have their roots in the soil of the fond fancy of a grateful people.</p>

<p>As one divests a rare parchment of its later writing in
order that the original manuscript may be studied, so,
when the after-traditions and the excrescences of the
supernatural are removed from the character of Bridget,
her real worth is seen and the value of the record of her
life, which is thereby disclosed, is greatly enhanced. As to
her learning, her blameless character, her wisdom, her
charity, and her honesty, there is no manner of doubt.
To swear by her name was to give to the asseveration the
sanctity of inviolable truth.</p>

<p>It must be remembered that in the middle of the fourth
century female monasteries upon the continent had
aroused among women a great deal of religious enthusiasm.
Already had the seeds of religion been sown in
Ireland by Patrick, when Bridget came, imbued with the
ardor of religious training and stimulation received upon
the continent. The religious order for women which she
instituted spread in its ramifications to all parts of the
country. Many were the widows and young maidens
who thronged to her religious houses; indeed, so great
was the throng, that it became necessary to form one
great central establishment, superior to and controlling the
activities of numerous other establishments which were
scattered throughout the land. She herself made her
abode among the people of Leinster, who became endeared
to her as her own people. The monastery she reared amid
the green stretches of pasture received the name of Cill
Dara, or the Cell of the Oak, from a giant oak which
<span class="pagenum"><a name="page392" id="page392"></a>[pg 392]</span>
grew near by, and which continued down to the twelfth
century, "no one daring to touch it with a knife." On
account of the monastery and its sacred surroundings, the
section became the place of residence of an increasing
number of families, and from the settlement thus begun
arose the modern town of Kildare.</p>

<p>Such sanctity and devotion to good works as that of
Bridget attracted to her monastery many visitors of note.
Among those who esteemed it an honor to have her friendship
was the chronicler Gildas. The Ey-Bridges, <i>i.e.</i>, the
Isles of Bridget, or the Hebrides, according to the modern
form of their name, claim the honor of holding in loving
embrace her mortal remains. In this claim, however,
they have a vigorous disputant in the town of Kildare,
which claims the renown of her burial.</p>

<p>Passing from the vague borderland between legend and
history, we come down to the twelfth century, when
mediæval conditions were in full force and the manners
and customs already described in connection with the
women of the times had full hold upon their lives. As
representative of the spirit of the period, the life of the
renowned Eva, Princess of Leinster and Countess of Pembroke,
may be briefly considered.</p>

<p>The history of the sad princess centres about the struggles
of Dermot to regain the throne of Leinster, from
which he had been deposed by the federated kings. First
he equipped a body of mercenaries from Wales, only to be
met with defeat in his endeavor to take Dublin from the
enemy. He appealed for aid to the English king, Henry II.,
who was then engaged in a campaign in France. He did
not receive direct help from that monarch, who himself
was looking with covetous eyes upon Ireland, but he did
receive permission to make recruits from among his Anglo-Norman
subjects. His real aid came from the Earl of
<span class="pagenum"><a name="page393" id="page393"></a>[pg 393]</span>
Pembroke, called Richard Strongbow. With a large fleet,
Dermot now set sail for Ireland, bent not only upon the
recovery of his possession of Leinster, but the conquest of the whole island.</p>

<p>The consideration offered by Dermot to Pembroke for
his services was the hand of his daughter Eva, with the
kingdom of Leinster for a dowry. Waterford, a town
then of equal importance with Dublin, was successively
besieged and sacked; the Danes, who held it, were driven
out with great slaughter. Amid all the horror of the sacked
city was consummated the union of Eva and Richard, Earl
Strongbow. Dublin became the place of their residence.
A few years thereafter, the husband's checkered career
was closed by a wound in the foot. In Christ Church,
Dublin, lies the body of the warrior, and the monument
displays the figure of a recumbent knight in armor, with
that of his bride at his side.</p>

<p>The national struggles of Scotland are as replete with
examples of illustrious women as those of Ireland; the
tragedy of the lives of some of Scotia's daughters not only
serves to mark the brutal spirit of times which, with all
their superficial glorifying of the sex, yet could with good
conscience make war upon women, but also serves to illustrate
the height of feminine devotion when called forth by
some great occasion with its demand for self-abnegation.
Among such heroic characters must ever be honorably
numbered the fair Isobel, Countess of Buchan, of whom the poet Pratt says:</p>

<div class="poem">  <div class="stanza">
<p>"Mothers henceforth shall proudly tell</p>
<p>How cag'd and prison'd Isobel</p>
<p class="i2">Did serve her country's weal."</p>
  </div>  </div>

<p>The nine years which saw the struggles of a Wallace
and a Bruce, from the appearance of the former as the
<span class="pagenum"><a name="page394" id="page394"></a>[pg 394]</span>
champion of Scottish rights to the crowning of the latter
at Scone, were years big with the fate of a people full of
heroic purpose and undaunted fortitude. The story of the
national conquest must be sought elsewhere. In 1305,
upon the death of Wallace, the younger Bruce was impelled
to abandon the cause of the King of England, who
had been pleased to name him in a commission for the
direction of the affairs of Scotland. He made his peace
with Red Comyn, the leader of the rival Scottish faction,
and closed with him a pact on the terms proposed by
Bruce: "Support my title to the crown, and I will give
you my lands." The story of the perfidy of the treacherous
Comyn and of the revolt of Bruce against Edward
of England is well-known history. The actual crowning
of the Scottish chieftain occurred on March 27, 1306. At
that time appeared Isobel, wife of John, Earl of Buchan,
who asserted the claim to install the king, which had come
down of ancient right in her family.</p>

<p>With great pomp, this illustrious scion of the house of
the Earls of Macduff led Bruce to the regal chair. The
English chronicler crustily remarks: "She was mad for
the beauty of the fool who was crowned." The English
king was enraged at the presumption of his vassal, and
sent out his soldiers against the Scottish sovereign. In the
notable battle which followed, the forces of Bruce were
routed and he himself made a fugitive. Other reverses
befell the arms of the Scotch, and among those who were
carried away captive to gratify the lust for vengeance
of the English was the noble lady who had proudly
inducted Bruce into the royal power. Isobel of Buchan
was carried to Berwick, and condemned to a fate which
can best be described in the words of an early chronicler:
"Because she has not struck with the sword,
she shall not die by the sword, but on account of the
<span class="pagenum"><a name="page395" id="page395"></a>[pg 395]</span>
unlawful coronation which she performed, let her be closely
confined in an abode of stone and iron, made in the shape
of a cross, and let her be hung up out of doors in the open
air of Berwick, that both in her life and after her death
she may be a spectacle and an eternal reproach to travellers."
For four years she suffered the imposition of this
heinous punishment, which was then mitigated to imprisonment
in the monastery of Mount Carmel at Berwick.
After three years she was removed to the custody of
Henry de Beaumont. Her final fate is unknown, but it is
presumable that, if she lived, her release from durance
was secured by the victory of Bannockburn.</p>

<p>Amid the misfortunes which pressed thickly upon the
house of those whose name, more than that of any other,
is linked with Scotland's history&mdash;the mighty Douglases&mdash;must
ever appear the sad-visaged Janet, Lady Glamis.
When under the royal ban, remorseless as the will of fate,
the house of Douglas was expelled from its native heath,
a woman of unusual nobility suffered death in the general
disaster to her kin. Gratitude is not a virtue of kings, or
else there would have been some remembrance of that
earlier lady of the Douglas line, Catherine Douglas, who,
when the assassins upon midnight murder bent appeared
at the chamber of the queen of James I., opposed to their
entrance&mdash;fruitlessly, indeed, but none the less nobly&mdash;her
slender arm, which she thrust into the staple to replace
the bar that had been treacherously removed. The ambition
of the Douglases, however, knew no bounds, and in
actual fact their power often not only rivalled but overtopped
that of the crown. The feud, with varying degrees
of irritation and occasions of outbreak, had gone on until
the time of James V., when the reverses suffered by the
Douglases effectually destroyed their power and made
them fugitives during the reign of that monarch. That
<span class="pagenum"><a name="page396" id="page396"></a>[pg 396]</span>
king had an undying resentment to the Earl of Angus,
who had obtained possession of his person as a child and
had continued to be his keeper until he finally slipped the
leash to take up the sovereignty unhampered. One of
the sisters of the mighty earl, in the flower of her youth,
became the wife of Lord Glamis. While her kinsmen
were in exile, she secretly did what she could to further
their designs against the Scottish throne. Charges were
formulated against her, but do not appear to have been
pressed. Other actions against her for treason were instituted
by her enemies, and she lived under continual
harassment and apprehension of danger. All her property
was confiscated as that of a fugitive from the law and one
tainted with treason. Her enemies were not satisfied with
the measure of revenge they had wrought upon her, and
were content with nothing short of her life.</p>

<p>The venom of the persecution is shown by the nature
of the charge which was trumped up against her to ensure
her death. Four years after the death of her husband,
she was indicted on the charge of killing him by poison.
Three times the majority of those summoned to serve on
the jury to hear the charges against her refused to attend,
thus showing how little faith the popular mind had in the
sincerity of the indictment against her. As it seemed impossible
to secure a jury to hear the odious charge against
an innocent and high-minded lady, the case was allowed
to lapse. Soon after this she again married.</p>

<p>A description of her which was penned by a writer in
the early part of the seventeenth century represents her
as having been reputed in her prime the greatest beauty
in Britain. "She was," he says, "of an ordinary stature,
not too fat, her mien was majestic, her eyes full, her face
was oval, and her complection was delicate and extremely
fair. Besides all these perfections, she was a lady of
<span class="pagenum"><a name="page397" id="page397"></a>[pg 397]</span>
singular chastity; as her body was a finished piece, without
the least blemish, so Heaven designed that her mind
should want none of those perfections a mortal creature
can be capable of; her modesty was admirable, her courage
was above what could be expected from her sex, her judgment
solid, her carriage was gaining and affable to her inferiors,
as she knew well how to behave herself to her
equals; she was descended from one of the most honorable
and wealthy families of Scotland, and of great interest
in the kingdom, but at that time eclipsed." This is the
testimony of hearsay, but, allowing for exaggeration, the
great impression which she made upon her contemporaries is amply shown.</p>

<p>The very nemesis of misfortune seemed to pursue this
innocent lady. The next turn of envious fate brought to
light a plot for her destruction which was hatched in the
dark recesses of a heart burning with passionate resentment
over its inability to invade her wifely integrity.
William Lyon had been one of the suitors who were disappointed
at her acceptance of the son of the Earl of
Argyll. After several years had elapsed, this man sought
to pass the limits of friendship, and had the baseness to
seek to draw her away from the path of honor. Her contemptuous
and indignant rebuff rankled in his mind, and
led him to lay a deep plot tending to bring Lady Glamis
under suspicion of attempting to poison the king. Her
former indictment as a poisoner was counted upon to give
probability to the charge. She, with all other persons
under suspicion as parties to the plot, was arrested and immured in Edinburgh Castle.</p>

<p>So much of political matter entered into the testimony,
and so skilfully was it wrought, that the jury found her
guilty of the crimes charged, namely, treasonable communication
with her relatives, the enemies of the king,
<span class="pagenum"><a name="page398" id="page398"></a>[pg 398]</span>
and of conspiring to poison her monarch. The sentence
was that she should be burned at the stake, and the same
day of its delivery it was executed. "She seemed to be
the only unconcerned person there, and her beauty and
charms never appeared with greater advantage than when
she was led to the flames; and her soul being fortified with
support from Heaven, and the sense of her own innocence,
she outbraved death, and her courage was equal in the
fire to what it was before her judges. She suffered those
torments without the least noise: only she prayed devoutly
for Divine assistance to support her under her sufferings."
She died as a burnt offering to the hate which was engendered
against her line, but which could be visited only
upon her, as all others of her house were out of reach of the royal anger.</p>

<p>Returning to Ireland and leaving behind the atmosphere
of political machinations and persecutions, it is pleasant to
take up the characters of some women of the fifteenth
and the sixteenth centuries who for different reasons have
written their names lastingly in the memories of their
race. To be hailed as the best woman of her times was
the happy privilege of Margaret O'Carroll, who died in
1461. McFirbis, the antiquary of Lecan, her contemporary,
says of her: "She was the one woman that made
most of preparing highways, and erecting bridges, churches
and mass-books, and of all manner of things profitable to
serve God and her soul." Her life was most celebrated
for her pilgrimage to the shrine of Saint James of Compostella
in Spain, and her unbounded charity. The pilgrimage
followed upon a great revival of religion which
seems to have swept over Ireland in 1445. The occasion
of the awakening is not known, other than that following
upon the signs of religious discontent upon the continent
the monks of Ireland roused themselves to earnest and
<span class="pagenum"><a name="page399" id="page399"></a>[pg 399]</span>
arduous religious labors. The chronicler gives illustration
of her practical charity in the account of her two
"invitations": twice in the one year did she call upon all
persons "Irish and Scottish" to bestow largely of their
money and goods as a feast for the poor. Thousands
resorted to the place of distribution, and, as each was
aided in an orderly manner, they had their names and the
amount and nature of their relief entered in a book kept
for the purpose. In summing up her life's work, the
chronicler says: "While the world lasts, her very many
gifts to the Irish and Scottish nations cannot be numbered.
God's blessing, the blessing of all saints, and every our
blessing from Jerusalem to Innis Glauir be on her going to
Heaven, and blessed be he that will reade and will heare
this, for the blessing of her soule. Cursed be the sore in
her breast that killed Margrett." Such a picture as this
serves to offset the more usual idea of the women of Ireland
during the Middle Ages as coarse, half-civilized beings.
Such a character would lend dignity and worth to any people during any age.</p>

<p>The many benefactions and the public spirit of this great
lady make her deserving of mention in any account of the
development of charities. The poet D'Arcy McGee has
immortalized her in a poem in which, referring to the
occasion of her "great Invitation," he says:</p>

<div class="poem">  <div class="stanza">
<p>In cloth of gold, like a queen new-come out of the royal wood</p>
<p>On the round, proud, white-walled rath Margeret O'Carroll stood;</p>
<p>That day came guests to Rath Imayn from afar from beyond the sea</p>
<p>Bards and Bretons of Albyn and Erin&mdash;to feast in Offaly!"</p>
  </div>  </div>

<p>To be celebrated for beauty alone is the prerogative of
a few of the women of the ages. What nation is there
that does not hold in as cherished regard the women who
have represented its noblest physical possibilities as their
<span class="pagenum"><a name="page400" id="page400"></a>[pg 400]</span>
women of unusual sanctity or those who have glorified
their literature or ennobled their arts? A beautiful woman&mdash;a
woman whose beauty is not alone flawless in feature
and full of the instinctive intellectuality of a soul mirrored
in a countenance, but also typical of the expression of
racial characteristics, is as much a product of ages, as
much a climax of evolution at the point of perfection,
as the saint, the artist, the dramatist who marks a
period and exalts a people. To pass down in history as
an exceptional beauty is to inspire art ideals and to
furnish a theme for the lyricist. Frailty is often found
united with such exceptional beauty, so is it with exceptional
genius; alas! that predominating gifts should be
so often inimical to balance. To find such beauty in the
way of virtue is as grateful as to find an orchid exhaling perfume.</p>

<p>In the tales of fair women, the Fair Geraldine, who was
born in the first half of the sixteenth century, must always
be celebrated, not only as a typical Irish beauty, but as a
woman whose virtues were of a similar order to her physical
charms. She was the second daughter of the Earl of
Kildare by his second wife, Lady Elizabeth Grey, and inherited
from both sides of this union, which was most
auspicious, the high breeding and gentle graces which
fitted well her gracious carriage and great beauty and
served, by enhancing her physical charms, to attract to
her a wide circle of friends and to secure for her the
knightly attendance of a band of distinguished suitors.
She was taken to England to be educated, and at court received
the polish which perfected the jewel of her beauty.
She made her home with a second cousin of her mother,
Lady Mary, who was afterward England's queen. While
quite young she was appointed maid of honor to her kinswoman.
Already her charms had ripened to the point of
<span class="pagenum"><a name="page401" id="page401"></a>[pg 401]</span>
eliciting from the poet, soldier, and politician, Henry, Earl
of Surrey, the high praise of the following sonnet:</p>

<div class="poem">  <div class="stanza">
<p>"From Tuscane came my lady's worthy race,</p>
<p class="i2">Fair Florence was sometime her ancient seat.</p>
<p>The western isle, whose pleasant shore doth face</p>
<p class="i2">Wild Cambor's cliffs, did give her lively heat.</p>
<p>Fostered she was with milk of Irish breast;</p>
<p class="i2">Her sire an Earl, her dame of Princes' blood,</p>
<p>From tender years in Britain doth she rest,</p>
<p class="i2">With King's child; where she tasteth costly food.</p>
<p>Hunsdon did first present her to mine eyes;</p>
<p class="i2">Bright is her hue, and Geraldine she hight.</p>
<p>Hampton me taught to wish her first as mine,</p>
<p class="i2">And Windsor, alas! doth chase her from my sight.</p>
<p>Her beauty of kind; her virtues from above,</p>
<p>Happy is he that can attain her love."</p>
  </div>  </div>

<p>The noble earl who lamented that Windsor chased her
from his sight was suffering incarceration in Windsor
Castle for eating meat in Lent. That the Fair Geraldine
had made full conquest of his heart is shown by his conduct
at a tournament at Florence, where he defied the
world to produce her equal. He was victorious, and the
palm was awarded the Irish beauty. Again, he is found
resorting to a famous alchemist of the day to enable him to
peer into the future, that he might know what disposition
of her heart would be made by the lady of his affections.
The only satisfaction he obtained was the seeing of Geraldine
recumbent upon a couch reading one of his sonnets.
This must have stirred his blood and have strengthened
his faith in the ultimate success of his wooing. Had he
obtained the revelation he sought, he would have seen the
adored beauty, with that curious inconsistency of her sex,
bestowing herself upon Sir Anthony Brown, a man sixty
years of age, and who was forty-four years her senior.
After his death she married the Earl of Lincoln, whom she
also survived. There is no further record of the beauty
<span class="pagenum"><a name="page402" id="page402"></a>[pg 402]</span>
whose fame extended over England and Ireland. The circumstance
of Surrey's visit to the alchemist has been
preserved in Scott's <i>Lay of the Last Minstrel</i>:</p>

<div class="poem">  <div class="stanza">
<p>"Fair all the pageant&mdash;but how passing fair</p>
<p class="i2">The slender form that lay on couch of Ind!</p>
<p>O'er her white bosom strayed her hazel hair,</p>
<p class="i2">Pale her dear cheek, as if for love she pined;</p>
<p class="i2">All in her night-robe loose she lay reclined</p>
<p>And, pensive, read from tablet eburine</p>
<p class="i2">Some strain that seemed her inmost soul to find;</p>
<p>That favored strain was Surrey's raptured line,</p>
<p>That fair and lovely form, the Ladye Geraldine."</p>
  </div>  </div>

<p>In the picturesque annals of the piracy of the sixteenth
century, when England was getting that sea training which
was to make her the undisputed naval power of the world,
when the Turkish corsair spread the terror of his savage
brutality through the hearts of the brave seamen who
manned the craft of legitimate commerce, at a time when
the trade routes of the sea were the paths of piracy, and
the sabre, the cutlass, and the newly invented gunpowder
were depended upon to establish the right of way for the
ships of the nations, there appears no more daring character
than Grainne O'Malley. Many stories of her prowess are
still current in the west of Ireland, and the political ballads of
her time make frequent allusion to the sea queen. For the
greater part of the sixteenth century she lived, an example of
that splendid virility which is yet characteristic of the hardy
Irish peasantry, when not under the shadow of famine.</p>

<p>She came of right by her seafaring proclivities, for from
the earliest period the O'Malleys have been celebrated as
rivalling the Vikings in their love of the sea. In the fourteenth
century a bard is found singing:</p>

<div class="poem">  <div class="stanza">
<p>"A good man never was there</p>
<p>Of the O'Mailly's but a mariner;</p>
<p>The prophets of the weather are ye,</p>
<p>A tribe of affection and brotherly love."</p>
  </div>  </div>
<span class="pagenum"><a name="page403" id="page403"></a>[pg 403]</span>

<p>Grainne O'Malley, with all her depredations upon the
sea, was no common pirate; through her veins ran the
royal blood of the line of Connaught, and, despite her
serviceability to the English as a freebooting ally upon
the western coasts of the island, she acknowledged no
higher power than her own. Her title of dignity was regarded
as inviolable. Quite worthy of the brush of an
artist was the scene presented by the reception at court
of the wild Irish chieftainess. Disdaining land travel, she
performed the whole trip to London by water, sailing up
the Thames to the Tower Gate. The little son who was
born upon this voyage was fittingly called Theobald of
the Ship. There has come down to us no account of the
meeting of the two queens, but one may readily imagine
the scene&mdash;the blonde Elizabeth, thin, unbeautiful, her
scant features lined by petulance, but with indomitable
will shown in the turn of her mouth and the strength of
her chin, and the large-limbed, full-bodied Irish woman,
dressed in the semi-wild attire of her race and of her calling,
her arms, her wrists, her ankles, gleaming with circlets
of gold, a fillet of massive metal binding her hair, her
mantle caught up at the shoulder by an immense, ornately
wrought brooch. Courteously, but with no sign of inferiority
in her demeanor, her swarthy skin showing the dash
of Spanish blood in her veins, and her eyes flashing with
the light of an unconquered spirit, stood the female buccaneer
before the woman who had rule of England. The best
tradition of the results of the interview tell us that a
treaty was effected between the two, but that the Irish
chieftainess did not yield an iota of her royal claims.</p>

<p>Thus was cemented a union between the English throne
and the piratical leader. It must be borne in mind, however,
that piracy was not then the despicable vice that it
afterward came to be regarded. The commerce of the
<span class="pagenum"><a name="page404" id="page404"></a>[pg 404]</span>
enemy was always lawful spoil, and, even when there
was not actually a state of hostilities existing between
countries, preying upon one another's commerce was often
regarded as a semi-legitimate industry; and if the freebooter
kept out of reach of the enemy, he was not likely
to be seriously sought out for punishment by the authorities
of his own country. The exploiters of the New World,
under the title of merchant-adventurers, were for the most
part pirates; the Spanish galleons were always lawful
spoil for the English merchantman, who knew the trick of
painting out the name of his craft, giving it a garb of piratical
black, using a false flag, spoiling the enemy after some
swift, hard fighting, and then resuming again his real or
assumed pacific character. In the light of her times must
Grainne O'Malley be regarded.</p>

<p>As a sea queen she is without parallel in any time; and
if the stain of their piracy does not attach to her English
contemporaries, Drake, Raleigh, and Gilbert, no more
should it to her. By force of a powerful individuality,
she ruled a race of men who were noted as the most lawless
of all Ireland, men among whom women as a class
were so little esteemed that they were not allowed to hold
property. An early traditional account of this woman of
the waves, which is preserved in manuscript at the Royal
Irish Academy, Dublin, describes her as follows:</p>

<p>"She was a great pirate and plunderer from her youth.
It is Transcended to us by Tradition that the very Day
she was brought to bed of her first Child that a Turkish
Corsair attacked her ships, and that they were Getting
the Better of her Men, she got up, put her Quilt about
her and a string about her neck, took two Blunder Bushes
in her hands, came on deck, began damming and Capering
about, her monstrous size and odd figure surprised the
Turks, their officers gathered themselves talking of her; this
<span class="pagenum"><a name="page405" id="page405"></a>[pg 405]</span>
was what she wanted, stretched both her hands, fired the
two Blunder Bushes at them and Destroyed the officers."
Many are the deeds of prowess ascribed to her, and so widespread
was her fame that desperate characters came from
all parts to enroll themselves under her standard. Her serviceability
to the English, to whose extending power she
had the good sense not to put herself in opposition, secured
to her the right to continue her depredations.</p>

<p>With all her daring and the romance with which tradition
has surrounded her, she was not, nor does the report
of her times represent her as having been, handsome. In
fact, notwithstanding that the Anglicized form of her given
name is Grace, its real meaning is "the ugly." Her first
husband was an O'Flaherty, the terror of which name is
preserved in the litany of the Anglo-Norman, recalling the
capture of the city of Galway and the surrounding country:
"From the ferocious O'Flaherties,&mdash;Good Lord, deliver
us." The same words, as a talisman, were inscribed over
the gate of the city. We know little of the representative
of this family who became the husband of Grainne
O'Malley. Her second husband was Sir Richard Bourke,
of the Mayo division of a great Norman-Irish clan. It was
after contracting this alliance that Grainne O'Malley put
herself under the protection of the English rule in Connaught.
Sidney, the lord-deputy, referring to his visit to
Galway in 1576, says: "There came to me a most famous
female sea-captain, called Granny-I-Mallye, and offered
her services to me, wheresoever I would command her,
with three galleys and two hundred fighting men, either in
Ireland or Scotland. She brought with her her husband,
for she was, as well by sea as by land, more than master's
mate with him. He was of the nether Bourkes, and now,
as I hear, MacWilliam Euter, and called by the nickname
'Richard in Iron.' This was a notorious woman in all the
<span class="pagenum"><a name="page406" id="page406"></a>[pg 406]</span>
coasts of Ireland. This woman did Sir Philip see and
speak with: he can more at large inform you of her."</p>

<p>The personal character of this female buccaneer was
never called into question; saving only her piratical proclivities,
she seems to have been exemplary. The circumstances
of her life at the death of her first husband
forced her, a daughter of a pirate, to the seas as a "thrade
of maintenance," as she apologetically put it to Queen
Elizabeth. She founded and endowed religious houses,
and the attitude she maintained toward the powers higher
than she was in the furtherance of the peace of her country.
Yet her good deeds have not been borne in the same
remembrance as her piratical performances. With this
account of the adventurous Irish woman, we may turn to
a very different picture, taken from Scotland.</p>

<p>The annals of the Scottish border are replete with stories
of cruel warfare and of savage vengeance. The wars of
England with the valorous Scots present hardly more instances
of heroism and of brutality than do the accounts
of the feuds which arose between the clans themselves. Of
the first sort was the expedition which Bluff King Hal sent
out to punish the Scots for becoming incensed at the insolent
tone and the humiliating conditions he imposed on the negotiations
looking to the marriage of his young son, afterward
Edward VI., and the infant Mary, Queen of Scots.</p>

<p>The English conducted a series of savage forays across
the Scottish border. Their success led the leaders of the
invading army to represent to Henry that, owing to the
distracted condition of Scotland on account of the internal
disorders, the time was peculiarly auspicious for a permanent
conquest of a large part of the border. Under commission
of the English king to effect such a conquest, they
returned and renewed their attack. The tower of Broomhouse,
held by an aged woman and her family, was consigned
<span class="pagenum"><a name="page407" id="page407"></a>[pg 407]</span>
to the flames, and she and her children perished in the
conflagration. Melrose Abbey was wantonly plundered
and ruined, and the bones of the Douglases were taken
from their tombs and scattered about. Next, the little village
of Maxton was burned. All its inhabitants had made
good their escape excepting a maiden of high courage and
deep devotion, who remained with her bed-ridden parents.
The approach of the enemy meant their destruction. The
village maid had a lover, who, on finding that she was not
with the refugees, returned to the town and forcibly carried
her off, although he was grievously wounded in the
act of doing so. After he had effected her rescue, the
brave savior, breathing with his expiring breath a prayer
of thankfulness that he had been permitted to yield up his
life for her who was more than life to him, died of exhaustion
and of his wounds. The measure of iniquity
was complete, and, although many other bloody deeds
were perpetrated in this warfare, the instrument of vengeance
was at hand; when the hour came that marked a turn in the tide:</p>

<div class="poem">  <div class="stanza">
<p class="i8">"Ancrum Moor</p>
<p class="i4">Ran red with English blood;</p>
<p>Where the Douglas true and the bold Buccleuch</p>
<p class="i4">'Gainst keen Lord Evers stood."</p>
  </div>  </div>

<p>When the battle was over and the English had been
driven with great slaughter from the field, the body of the
English general was found near that of a young Scottish
soldier with flowing yellow tresses, who was mangled by
many wounds. The delicacy of feature soon led to the discovery
that the slayer of the English leader was a woman,
and her identification as the maiden Liliard of the hamlet of
Maxton followed. So had she avenged the cruel slaughter
of her aged and helpless parents and that of the devoted
lover who had laid down his life in her behalf. In a borrowed
<span class="pagenum"><a name="page408" id="page408"></a>[pg 408]</span>
suit of armor and weapons she had arrayed herself under
the Red Douglas, that she might seek out him who was the
author of her calamities, to visit upon him the vengeance of
her desolation, and yield up the life she no longer valued.</p>

<p class="mid"><img alt="" src="images/bk9-5.png" /><br />
</p>

<p class="mid"><i>ASSASSINATION OF RIZZIO<br />

After the painting Mrs. E. Siberdt<br />

________<br /><br />

Romantic adventure, however, best describe the life of Mary<br />
Queen of Scots. She was beset with suiters and pestered with<br />
intrigue for her favor. The most popularly known story in connection<br />
with her life is that of her relation to Rizzio, her Italian confidant.<br />
He it was who arranged Mary's marriage to Darnley, and it was<br />
his influence over her that finally led to his own assassination by<br />
Darnley and his companions in Holywood Palalace in 1566.</i></p>


<p>Upon the bloody field her compatriots interred her who
was thereafter to be held in dear regard as one of Scotland's
noblest daughters. Above the head of "Liliard of
Ancrum" was erected a gravestone with the following inscription
to commemorate her valor:</p>

<div class="poem">  <div class="stanza">
<p>"Fair maiden Liliard lies under this stane,</p>
<p>Little was her stature, but great was her fame;</p>
<p>Upon the English loons she laid mony thumps,</p>
<p>And when her legs were cutted off, she fought upon her stumps."</p>
  </div>  </div>

<p>Ancrum Moor was fought in 1544. James V. had died
two years earlier, and the crown of Scotland had devolved
upon his infant daughter, Mary. Henry VIII. was bent on
securing the Scotch kingdom, and to that end persisted in
urging the betrothal of Prince Edward to the infant Mary,
Queen of Scots; but the Scots were equally averse to the
alliance, hence Henry continued to harass the kingdom by
armed forces. After Edward VI. succeeded his father, he
continued to sue for Mary's hand, and made use of military
force in the hope of accomplishing his object. The child-queen's
safety being in constant jeopardy, she was betrothed
to the Dauphin of France, and in 1548 left for the
court of France. In her sixteenth year she married
Francis, making at the same time a secret treaty bestowing
the kingdom of Scotland on France, in case she died
without an heir. Francis II., however, died in 1560, and
Mary returned to Scotland the following year. Here, her
Roman Catholic practices soon brought her into conflict
with Knox, but for a time she managed to rule without
serious troubles. Romantic adventure, however, best
<span class="pagenum"><a name="page409" id="page409"></a>[pg 409]</span>
describes the life of this lovely queen. She was beset with
suitors and pestered with intrigue for her favor. The most
popularly known story in connection with her life is that
of her relation to Rizzio, her Italian confidant. He it was
who arranged Mary's marriage to Darnley, and it was his
influence over her that finally led to his own assassination
by Darnley and his companions in Holyrood Palace in
1566. Shortly thereafter the queen gave birth to Prince
James; and from this time troubles and conspiracies constantly
involved the unhappy queen, until her execution
in 1586 for her association in the Babington conspiracy
against the life of Queen Elizabeth.</p>

<p>It was while the partisans of Queen Mary and those of
her young son James were imbruing the soil of Scotland
with one another's blood, and when all the horrors of
internecine warfare were being perpetrated, there was
lighted a flame that added a heroine to the country's list
of women who have honorably earned that title. There
appeared one day before Corgaff Castle, in Strathdon,
Captain Kerr and a party of men, sent by the deputy
lieutenant of the queen, Sir Adam Gordon of Auchindown,
to capture and to hold it. Between the houses of Gordon
and Forbes existed a deadly feud, although they were
united by marriage. The Forbeses had espoused the
cause of the king, while the Gordons were arrayed on
the side of the queen. This added to the bitterness of
their feeling, and accounts for the stubbornness which
Lady Towie displayed when called upon to surrender.
Her husband, John Forbes, the Laird of Towie, was in the
field with his three sons; the defence of the castle accordingly
fell upon her. When the Gordons appeared before
the castle and demanded its subjection, its noble defender
replied in such scornful terms to Captain Kerr, the leader
of the besieging force, that he swore that he would wipe
<span class="pagenum"><a name="page410" id="page410"></a>[pg 410]</span>
out the stigma of her insult with her blood. As it was impossible
to carry the castle by assault without the aid of
artillery, he resorted to fire&mdash;not, however, before the
brave lady had shot her pistol at him pointblank, missing
her aim, but yet grazing the captain's knee with the bullet.</p>

<p>In spite of the plea of her sick stepson, she resolutely
determined to perish in the flames which were spreading
through the castle from the fire started by the enemy in a breach of the castle wall.</p>

<p>This incident of the siege is described in an old ballad:</p>

<div class="poem">  <div class="stanza">
<p>"Oh, then out spake her youngest son,</p>
<p class="i2">Sat on the nurse's knee:</p>
<p>Says&mdash;'Mither, dear, gie o'er this house,</p>
<p class="i2">For the reek it smithers me.'</p>
  </div><div class="stanza">
<p>"'I would gie all my gold, my bairn,</p>
<p class="i2">Sae would I all my fee,</p>
<p>For ae blast o' the Westlin' wind</p>
<p class="i2">To blaw the reek frae thee.'"</p>
  </div>  </div>

<p>Next, her daughter appealed to her that she might be
sewed up in a sheet and let down the tower wall. To
this the mother assented. The maiden was thus lowered
to the ground, only to be received upon the spear of the brutal captain:</p>

<div class="poem">  <div class="stanza">
<p>"O then out spake her daughter dear.</p>
<p class="i2">She was baith jimp and small:</p>
<p>'Oh, row me in a pair of sheets,</p>
<p class="i2">And tow me o'er the wall.'</p>
  </div><div class="stanza">
<hr />
  </div><div class="stanza">
<p>"Oh, bonnie, bonnie was her mouth,</p>
<p class="i2">And cherry was her cheeks;</p>
<p>And clear, clear was her yellow hair,</p>
<p class="i2">Whereon the red bluid dreeps.</p>
  </div><div class="stanza">
<hr />
  </div><div class="stanza">
<p>"Then with his spear he turned her o'er;</p>
<p class="i2">Oh, gin her face was wan!</p>
<p>He said&mdash;'You are the first that e'er</p>
<p class="i2">I wish'd alive again.'"</p>
  </div>  </div>
<span class="pagenum"><a name="page411" id="page411"></a>[pg 411]</span>

<p>Of the thirty-seven persons in the castle, Lady Towie,
her stepson, her three young children, and her retainers,
none escaped the holocaust; the roof of the keep fell in
and carried them down into the flames. So perished one
of the bravest and most spirited women of her times. The
retribution which, in the later circumstances of the feud,
was wrought upon those responsible for this massacre
does not concern us here. The heroism of Lady Towie's
defence of Corgaff Castle has furnished a theme for other
poets than the obscure bard whom we have quoted; the
bravery to the point of rashness which she displayed
endears her to the heart of the Scotchman who glories in
the deeds of courage of his race.</p>

<p>One of the sweetest stories of devotion to be found in
the history of Scotland's women is that which centres
about the knightly house of Cromlix and Ardoch. Sir
James Chisholm was born in the early part of the sixteenth
century, and, as a youth, was sent to France for
the completion of his education. Before his departure he
had exchanged with fair Helen Stirling, of the house of
Ardoch, vows of undying affection. This young lady,
because of her beauty, had achieved wide local celebrity,
and throughout the countryside she was called "Fair
Helen of Ardoch." The two young people had been
brought up in each other's society, and, as they grew in
years, began to feel for each other that tenderness of sentiment
which, while they were yet in their teens, led to
mutual avowals of love. Their parents were not averse
to the match, after the young people should have arrived
at a more suitable age for marriage. The course of their
love ran smoothly, until the separation came by Sir James
going abroad. As their relatives were not favorable to a
correspondence between the young people, the good offices
of a friend were invoked. He received the letters of both
<span class="pagenum"><a name="page412" id="page412"></a>[pg 412]</span>
parties, and saw that they were sent to their respective
destinations. The correspondence went happily on; his
letters were full of pleasing gossip about the belles and
beauties of France, of society and manners, everything,
indeed, that a young lover of reflective and poetic temperament
would be likely to pen to the lady of his heart
from whom he was separated by a distance which could
be made communicable only by correspondence.</p>

<p>Almost a year had sped away when the letters received
by Helen became less frequent and then stopped. She
wrote again and again, but in vain; she received no replies.
The agent of the young people then professed to
write himself to her recreant lover, and informed her that
he had discovered that the attachment of the young man
for her had waned and that he was to marry a French
beauty. His condolence was apparently so sincere and
delicately phrased that when he proffered her his love
there was in her breast some degree of kindly sentiment
toward him, which, while of a very different nature from
her feeling for the one who had discarded her, was yet such
as to lead her to assent finally to his suit; not, however,
before many considerations had been skilfully brought to
bear upon her, not the least of which were the desires of her kindred.</p>

<p>The wedding day was set, and before the assembled
guests, forming a brilliant gathering, the bride appeared in
rich adornings, but pale, her bosom, heaving with sobs.
The ceremony was performed. Then occurred a dramatic
scene; some whisper seemed to reach the bride's ear; to
the amazement of the guests, she turned upon her husband
and denounced him as the blackest of traitors. She declared
that her own letters and those of her lover had been
kept back, and that she knew that her lover had landed in
Scotland and would vindicate his honor. She vowed in the
<span class="pagenum"><a name="page413" id="page413"></a>[pg 413]</span>
presence of Heaven that she would never acknowledge as
her husband the man she had just wedded, nor would she
ever leave for him her father's roof. Amid shouts of
derision, the false bridegroom hastily left the house. The
young lover had indeed landed in the country, and was
hastening to his beloved that he might prove to her that
he had been grossly slandered and she grievously deceived.
The knowledge of the situation did not reach him in time
to forestall the plans of his rival, and not until his arrival
home did he find out the full facts of the case and have his
mind entirely relieved of the thought of his love's perfidy.
Legal measures were speedily taken for the dissolution of
the hateful bonds, and the young lady was united to the one
to whom, notwithstanding her acquiescence in the wishes
of others, her heart had been true.</p>

<p>The maid of Ardoch's story has been variously told.
The most familiar form of it is that found in Robert Burns's
<i>Observations on Scottish Songs</i>. The romance has taken
strong hold upon the hearts of the Scotch race, through
a simple melody which has held the interest of the people
for nearly three centuries. This ballad was written by
the young lover himself on board the ship that was bearing
him back to Scotland. The first verse is as follows:</p>

<div class="poem">  <div class="stanza">
<p>"Since all thy vows, false maid,</p>
<p class="i2">Are blown to air,</p>
<p>And my poor heart betrayed</p>
<p class="i2">To sad despair,</p>
<p>Into some wilderness,</p>
<p>My grief I will express,</p>
<p>And thy hard-heartedness,</p>
<p class="i2">O cruel fair!"</p>
  </div>  </div>

<p>As fearless as the Scotch heroine Lady Towie in the
defence of her castle was the Irish heroine Lettice, Baroness
of Ophaly, in the famous defence of the castle of Geashill
<span class="pagenum"><a name="page414" id="page414"></a>[pg 414]</span>
in Queen's County. The one lived in the sixteenth, the
other belonged to the seventeenth century. The Baroness
Ophaly was of the famous house of Geraldine, heir in
general to the house of Kildare, and inherited the barony
of Geashill. She married Sir Robert Digby, and after his
death returned to Ireland. She was a model mistress to
her household and her tenantry. Although a woman of
brilliant attainments, she was yet content to live in a quiet
way, performing the congenial duties of administrator
of the affairs of her household, and being held in affectionate
regard by all those dependent upon her. In 1641,
however, the quiet current of her daily life was broken in
its flow; civil war devastated the land. The rebels thought
to find in the defenceless situation of the widowed lady, with
her brood of young children, an opportunity for plunder
and ravage with little prospect of serious resistance. A
motley throng appeared before the castle and demanded
possession. They then presented to her a written order as
follows: "We, his Majesty's loyal subjects, at the present
employed in his Highnesses service, for the sacking of
your castle; you are therefore to deliver unto us the free
possession of your said castle, promising faithfully that your
ladyship, together with the rest within your said castle
<i>resiant</i>, shall have reasonable composition; otherwise, upon
the non-yielding of the castle, we do assure you that we
shall burn the whole town, kill all the Protestants, and
spare neither woman nor child, upon taking the castle
by compulsion. Consider, madam, of this our offer; impute
not the blame of your folly unto us. Think not
that here we brag. Your ladyship, upon submission,
shall have safe convoy to secure you from the hands
of your enemies, and to lead you whither you please.
A speedy reply is desired with all expedition, and then we surcease."</p>
<span class="pagenum"><a name="page415" id="page415"></a>[pg 415]</span>

<p>To this demand she sent a reply temperate and dignified,
but unyielding. It was as follows:</p>

<p>"I received your letter wherein you threaten to sack
this my castle by his Majesty's authority. I have ever
been a loyal subject and a good neighbor among you, and
therefore cannot but wonder at such an assault. I thank
you for your offer of a convoy, wherein I hold little safety;
and therefore my resolution is that, being free from offending
his Majesty, or doing wrong to any of you, I will live
and die innocently. I will do the best to defend my own,
leaving the issue to God; and though I have been, I am
still desirous to avoid shedding blood, yet, being provoked,
your threats shall no way dismay me."</p>

<p>The rebels took no notice of her answer, but kept up
the siege. After two months, Lord Viscount Clanmalier
brought to bear against the castle a piece of ordnance.
Before using this formidable instrument, which was cast
by a local ironworker out of pots and pans contributed for
the purpose, Clanmalier, who was her kinsman, sent her
a letter repeating the demand for the surrender of the
castle. She replied to this missive, which was signed
"your loving cousin," by saying that she had not expected
such treatment at the hands of a kinsman, repeating
her innocence of wrong-doing, and expressing her
adherence to her position as stated in her former reply to similar demands.</p>

<p>After this answer had been delivered to his lordship he
discharged the home-made cannon at the castle, and it
promptly exploded at the first shot; to which fact was
due the ability of Baroness Ophaly to hold the castle
against all attack through the long months until the rebellion
had waned and the besiegers withdrew. What she
must have suffered during all the dangers of the siege, in
which ingenuity was taxed to the utmost to effect an
<span class="pagenum"><a name="page416" id="page416"></a>[pg 416]</span>
entrance within the strong walls, can never be stated; on
the one hand was the terror of famine, on the other,
death. When she was rescued from her perilous situation
by Sir Richard Greville, she went to her husband's late
property of Colehill and there spent the remainder of her life, dying in 1648.</p>

<p>Among the Scotch Covenanters, the names of Isobel
Alison of Perth and Marion Harvie of Bo'ness take high
rank because of their undaunted courage and the strength
of conviction displayed by them. It was in 1679 that a
band of horsemen slew Archbishop Sharp upon Magnus
Moor and then dispersed. Four of them, among whom
was John Balfour of Kinloch,&mdash;the redoubtable Burley of
<i>Old Mortality</i>,&mdash;took refuge in the house of a widow of the
vicinity of Perth. Here they remained hidden, to watch
as to what steps would be taken in regard to their apprehension.
Afterward they retired to Dupplin, thereby
escaping seizure. On June 22d the battle of Bothwell
Brig was fought and lost to the Covenanters. At about
this time the first subject of this sketch, Isobel Alison, an
obscure maiden, comes into the stream of historical occurrence.
She was about twenty-five years of age, resided
at Perth, and was of excellent repute. She had been
trained in the strictest Presbyterian faith, and was well
versed in the Scriptures. She had occasionally had the
privilege of hearing field preaching, although field conventicles
were not common in the country. Her sympathies
with the persecuted ministers of her faith and her personal
acquaintance with several of them enlisted her aid for the
fugitives in hiding them from the authorities, whose search
for them was relentlessly pursued. The work of bloody
persecution continued for eighteen months, during which
many of the Covenanters died in the maintenance of their
convictions. But it was not until the end of 1680 that
<span class="pagenum"><a name="page417" id="page417"></a>[pg 417]</span>
Isobel attracted attention by reason of her outspoken
utterances against the tyranny under which the country
suffered. It was not long, then, before she was arraigned
for her sentiments, and, in the simplicity of her nature,
volunteered the confession that she was in communication
with some of those who had been declared rebels. The
magistrates, however, charitably sought to shield her from
the effects of actions the serious purport of which they did
not believe that she fully realized, and so dismissed her
with a caution to be more circumspect in her speech. But
she was not to escape thus easily; some busybodies
speedily reported what she had said to the Privy Council,
which issued a warrant for her arrest. Under a charge of
treason, she was carried from the peaceful seclusion of her
humble home, and immured in the prison at Edinburgh.
At her hearing before the Privy Council, she acknowledged
to acquaintance with all those for whom the authorities
were seeking as assassins of Archbishop Sharp. When
asked if she did not know that she was aiding those whose
hands were dyed with the blood of murder, she replied
that she had never regarded the death of the "Mr. James
Sharp" as being murder. Her testimony was so self-condemnatory
that, according to the law of the day, there
appeared to be no recourse but to sentence her to hanging.
She says: "The Lords pitied me, for [said they] we find
reason and a quick wit in you; and they desired me to take
it to advisement. I told them I had been advising on it
these seven years, and I hoped not to change now. They
asked if I was distempered? I told them that I was always
solid in the wit that God had given me." She was then
remanded for trial before the Judiciary Court. Leaving
the thread of her story for a while, we will take up that of
another young woman, who at about this time had come
under a like accusation and was suffering imprisonment.
<span class="pagenum"><a name="page418" id="page418"></a>[pg 418]</span>
She was but a poor serving woman, who had been a
domestic at the house of a woman who had sheltered one
of the same fugitives whose cause had gotten Isobel Alison
into her straits. The story of her relations with the Covenanters,
as told by her to the authorities, was a simple
one. From the age of fourteen she had heard the field
preaching of the Covenanters, and finally she had been
informed against and arrested. Her demeanor during the
ordeal of examination was firm and composed. The questions
put to her she answered without hesitancy or reservation.
The result of the examination showed her full
sympathies with those who were under the taint of rebellion
and treason. She justified their acts by affirming
that the king had broken his covenant oath, and it was lawful to disown him.</p>

<p>She and her older sister in misfortune were brought
together before the Judiciary Court, and both of the young
women declined to acknowledge the authority of the king
and lords. There was nothing remaining to do but to put
them on trial, which was accordingly done. They both
stood indicted for treason. The only evidence adduced
against them was their own confessions, and because of
the nature of these a verdict of guilty was rendered. The
court postponed sentence until the following Friday, when
they were condemned to be hanged. Not a particle of
proof had been produced of their having joined in concocting
any schemes against either Church or State; they had
simply let their tongues wag too freely upon the impersonal
question, so far as it concerned them, as to whether
a certain assassination was justified. The prosecution had
been conducted by the king's advocate, Sir George Mackenzie,
that "noble wit of Scotland," as he was styled by
Dryden, but whom the Scotch people have branded as the
"bluidy Mackenzie" of the popular rhyme. This same
<span class="pagenum"><a name="page419" id="page419"></a>[pg 419]</span>
advocate who secured the sentencing of the two young
girls for expressions of opinion upon a question which
was purely one of casuistry wrote in one of his <i>Essays</i>:
"Human nature inclines us wisely to that pity which we
may one day need; and few pardon the severity of a
magistrate, because they know not where it may stop."</p>

<p>During the period intervening between their condemnation
and their execution, they were visited by kindly disposed
ministers of the Established Church and others, who
sought to persuade them out of their beliefs. But to no
purpose; even the promise of a full pardon failed to move
either of them from the steadfastness of their expressed
convictions. In order to surround their execution with as
much of ignominy as possible, it was ordered that five
women, convicted of the murder of their illegitimate children,
should be hanged along with them. In their last
hour upon earth, the young women were sustained by the
fortitude of their faith. The attempt to make them hear
the ministrations of a curate was frustrated by the two
young women singing together the Twenty-third Psalm.
Upon the scaffold they continued their religious devotions;
and in the midst of their calm, confident declarations of
faith in Christ and of their innocence of any real wrong, they perished.</p>

<p>The transit from religion to pleasure is, after all, but a
short passage from one department of life to another, and
the story of the women of Scotland and of Ireland would
not be complete without notice of some of that group of
famous Irish women who were conspicuous upon the stage
of Great Britain in the eighteenth century&mdash;women whose
excellence served to raise the dramatic art to the point of
prominence and dignity which it attained during that
period. One of the earliest of that group who gave lustre
to the stage was Margaret Woffington. The story of her
<span class="pagenum"><a name="page420" id="page420"></a>[pg 420]</span>
life is a record of high achievement in the histrionic profession,
although it is as well a record of frailty&mdash;a fact
unfortunately too often true of actresses in the eighteenth
century, when the standards of their art were supposed to
absolve them to an extent from the ordinary demands of
circumspection in conduct. She had all the susceptibility
of the Celtic temperament, and her warm Irish blood was
easily made to surge through her veins in waves of passion,
although, when not indulging in a fit of temper, she
was bright, vivacious, witty, and entertaining to a degree.
Arthur Murphy, in his <i>Life of Garrick</i>, says: "Forgive her
one female error, and it might fairly be said of her that
she was adorned with every virtue; honour, truth, benevolence,
and charity were her distinguishing qualities."
This much said for the weakness of her character, we can
concern ourselves altogether with the strength of her
genius. The circumstances of her birth were not fortunate,
nor was there anything in them to predicate the distinguished
place she was to fill in the public eye. The year
of her birth is variously given. It was probably in 1714
that she first saw the light, in a miserable slum of the
city of Dublin. Her father was a bricklayer, and died
when she was but five years old. At that early age she
had to take her part of the home responsibilities and earn
money to aid in the support of her family; this she did by
serving as a water carrier. The advent of a French
dancer into Dublin at about this time marked an epoch
in the life of Peggy. She brought with her a troupe of
acrobats and rope dancers, and the exhibition she offered
attracted large audiences. In order to afford a novel feature,
which should at the same time affect local interest,
Madame Violante, the head of the amusement company,
arranged for an operatic presentation which should be
participated in by some of the bright Irish children to
<span class="pagenum"><a name="page421" id="page421"></a>[pg 421]</span>
whom she had been drawn. The <i>Beggars' Opera</i> was then
in the height of its popularity, and this was the play she
fixed upon. Little Peggy Woffington, not quite ten years
old, had the chief female part. From this simple introduction
to the amusement-loving public started the train of
development in the life of this young Irish girl, which was
to make her the captivating actress, the beautiful and witty
woman, who bewitched Garrick and Sheridan.</p>

<p>The novelty of the conception attracted much notice,
and the opera was given before large houses. Other
plays and farces were staged in the same way. While
Peggy played principal parts on the stage, her mother
sold oranges to the patrons at the entrance to the theatre.
Matters continued this way until Peggy Woffington was
sixteen years of age, by which time she had become noted
for ease and grace as a dancer, although her coarseness of
voice and pronounced brogue debarred her from any important
playing part. Her opportunity came, however,
when a favorite actress who was to take the part of
Ophelia was, at the eleventh hour, incapacitated from so
doing. There was no recourse but to permit Peggy Woffington
to take it. Notwithstanding the difficulties under
which she labored, her interpretation of the character was
quite favorably received. She had been developing in
grace of figure and of feature, and had ripened into a
young woman of dazzling fairness, perfect form, with eyes
luminous and black, shaded by long lashes and arched by
exquisitely pencilled eyebrows.</p>

<p>She was just twenty years of age when she completely
turned the heads of the Dublin theatre-goers by the magnificence
of her impersonation of Sir Harry Wildare in <i>The
Constant Couple</i>. Her first appearance in London was not
at the behest of her art, but, unfortunately, as a result of
the arts of an admirer to whose addresses she had given
<span class="pagenum"><a name="page422" id="page422"></a>[pg 422]</span>
some favor, and who led her to go to the English metropolis
with him under promise of marriage. This regrettable
circumstance was soon followed by her repudiation of the
man on finding out his real character. She was not long
off the stage, and in 1740 the playbills announced the
first appearance of Miss Woffington in England. She drew
large houses, and greatly widened her reputation as a leading
actress of her time. To give the plays in which she
took principal parts during her first London season would
be to enumerate the best productions of the English stage
at that time. It is said of her that before the season was
half over, Miss Woffington had become the fashion. Among
the many swains who followed in her wake and indited
to her amorous missives and verses was Garrick. He
pursued his lovemaking with all seriousness, and made his
assault not solely upon the heart of the butterfly beauty,
but upon her mind as well. He saw that beneath all the
audacities of her mind and irregularities of life there was
a noble nature, which the circumstances of her birth and
training had never permitted true expression. His intentions
were entirely honorable, but whenever the subject
of marriage was broached by him she managed to switch
off the conversation to a lighter subject. Her coquettishness
would not permit her to take seriously the addresses
of the man whom she doubtless greatly admired and loved.
When she was regarded by everyone else as without a
moral equivalent for her artistic temperament, Garrick
steadfastly refused to regard her simply as a vain, flighty,
and vacillating person. He was rewarded by being the only
man whom she ever seriously thought of marrying.</p>

<p>Her mode of life was not conducive to the furtherance
of her health, and at the comparatively early age of thirty-seven
years her friends saw a change both in the demeanor
and the appearance of the witty woman. The seeds of
<span class="pagenum"><a name="page423" id="page423"></a>[pg 423]</span>
an internal disorder had been sown, but, with her usual
recklessness, she failed to heed the premonitions of nature
until the malady was too far advanced for cure. At about
this time the famous John Wesley was stirring London
with his preaching. She attended his chapel through
curiosity, and afterward from conviction. She was clearheaded
and honest enough to see the force of the religious
truth which he presented, and was brought quite under
the influence of the great preacher. As a result of the
awakening of her religious nature, she determined on the
reformation of her private life, although she does not appear
to have linked with that the purpose of quitting her
profession. She resolved, however, not to remain before
the public until they tired of her. As she herself expressed
it: "I will never destroy my reputation by clinging
to the shadow after the substance is gone. When I can
no longer bound on the boards with elastic step, and when
the enthusiasm of the public begins to show symptoms of
decay, that night will be the last appearance of Margaret Woffington."</p>

<p>She was not destined to remain before the public until
they wearied of her; on May 3, 1757, she appeared as
Rosalind in <i>As You Like It</i>. The circumstances of the
tragic close of her dramatic career, as quoted from a contemporary
writer in Blackburn's <i>Illustrious Irish Women</i>,
were as follows: "She went through Rosalind for four acts
without my perceiving she was in the least disordered; but
in the fifth she complained of great indisposition. I offered
her my arm, the which she graciously accepted; I thought
she looked softened in her behaviour, and had less of the
hauteur. When she came off at the quick change of dress,
she again complained of being ill, but got accoutred, and
returned to finish the part, and pronounced in the epilogue
speech,&mdash;'If it be true that good wine needs no bush, it is
<span class="pagenum"><a name="page424" id="page424"></a>[pg 424]</span>
as true that a good play needs no epilogue,' &amp;c., &amp;c. But
when she arrived at 'If I were among you, I would kiss as
many of you as had beards that pleased me,' her voice
broke, she faltered, endeavoured to go on, but could not
proceed; then, in a voice of tremor, screamed, 'O God!
O God!' and tottered to the stage door speechless, where
she was caught. The audience, of course, applauded until
she was out of sight, and then sunk into awful looks of
astonishment&mdash;both young and old, before and behind the
curtain&mdash;to see one of the most handsome women of the
age, a favourite principal actress, and who had for several
seasons given high entertainment, struck so suddenly by
the hand of death in such a situation of time and place,
and in her prime of life, being about forty-four."</p>

<p>Such were the circumstances attending the last appearance
of Margaret Woffington, who, notwithstanding she
died in the prime of life at the age of forty-seven, had
been for twenty-seven years the delight of the play-going
public. The three years she lingered as a mere skeleton
of her former self were spent in trying to awaken the
consciences of her late theatrical associates. Some of
these scouted her new spirit as hypocrisy, and insinuated
that religion was her recourse only when beauty and spirits
had been lost. But the One who judgeth the secrets of
men's hearts is not so uncharitable in His judgment of His
creatures. It may be believed that the influence which
she received from the chapel meetings of John Wesley was
the beginning of a genuine religious life and character,
and that it brought from her Maker that commendation
which was ungenerously denied her by her associates.</p>

<p>These brief sketches of the lives of some of the daughters
of Scotland and of Ireland illustrate the principal characteristics
of the women of the Scotch-Irish race. Among
all the nations of the world no women hold as high a place
<span class="pagenum"><a name="page425" id="page425"></a>[pg 425]</span>
for pure morals and high courage. The spiritualizing effect
of the profound religious feeling of these people&mdash;although
in the form of their religious faith the Scotch and the Irish
are for the most part so diametrically different&mdash;accounts
in a large measure for their conservation of the facts and
forces of the religious life. The soil of both Ireland and
Scotland was bedewed for centuries with the tears of affliction
and of persecution; the blood of martyrs who cheerfully
laid down their lives at the dictates of religion and
that highest social expression of the religious instinct, the
noblest piety of the human race&mdash;patriotism. Out of
all the oppression, rapacity, confiscation, which the two
peoples experienced in different forms and different degrees,
arose an unworldly ideal, a sense of the invisible
realm. The sturdy Calvinist matron of the Scottish Highlands
is no more religious, no more the product of the
travails of her country, no more under the inspiration and
exaltation of high principle, than her less fortunately placed
sister of the Green Isle, whose religion is at the opposite
extreme of the forms of Christian faith. The women of
both peoples can point with tearful joy to the history
of their sex as a scroll of fame and a record of noble achievement.</p>

<hr class="full" />
<br /><br />

<h3>LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS</h3>

<table cellpadding="2" cellspacing="2"
 style="width: 100%; text-align: left;" summary="List of illustrations">
  <tbody>
    <tr>
      <td style="vertical-align: top; width: 45%; text-align: center;">SUBJECT
      </td>
      <td style="vertical-align: top; width: 45%; text-align: center;">ARTIST
      </td>
      <td style="vertical-align: top; width: 10%; text-align: center;">PAGE
      </td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td style="vertical-align: top; width: 45%;">Charles II, and Lady
Castlemaine, <br />
Duchess of Cleveland.<br />
      <br />
<i>Honi soit qui mal y pense.</i><br />
      <br />
Dining in the fifteenth century.<br />
      <br />
Audience to an ambassador.<br />
      <br />
Mrs. Elizabeth Fry.<br />
      <br />
Assassination of Rizzio.<br />
      </td>
      <td style="vertical-align: top; width: 45%;">
<i>W. P. Frith, R. A.</i><br />
      <br />
<i>A. Chevalier Tayler.</i><br />
      <br />
<i>From a miniature of the period.</i><br />
      <br />
<i>L&eacute;on y Escosura.</i><br />
      <br />
<i>Mrs. E. M. Ward.</i><br />
      <br />
<i>E. Sieberdt.</i><br />
      </td>
      <td style="vertical-align: top; width: 10%; text-align: right;">
<a href="#front">Fronts.</a><br />
      <br />
<a href="#page144">144</a><br />
      <br />
<a href="#page200">200</a><br />
      <br />
<a href="#page232">232</a><br />
      <br />
<a href="#page344">344</a><br />
      <br />
<a href="#page408">408</a><br />
      </td>
    </tr>
  </tbody>
</table>

<br /><br />











<pre>





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