 Section 5 of Manners, Customs, and Dress. Private Life in the Castles, the Towns, and the Rural Districts. The Merovingian Castles. Pastimes of the Nobles. Hunting. War. Domestic Arrangements. Private Life of Charlemagne. Domestic Habits under the Karlovingians. Influence of chivalry. Simplicity of the court of Philip Augustus not imitated by his successors. Princely Life of the 15th Century. The Bringing Up of Le Tour Landry, a Noble of Anjou. Varlets. Pages. Esquires. Maids of Honor. Opulence of the Bourgeoisie. Le Ménangier de Paris. Ancient Dwellings. State of Rustics at various periods. Rustic Sayings by Noël Dufile. Augustin Thierry, taking Gregory of Tours, the Merovingian Herodotus, as an authority, thus describes a royal domain under the first royal dynasty of France. This dwelling in no way possessed the military aspect of the Chateau of the Middle Ages. It was a large building surrounded with porticoes of Roman architecture, sometimes built of carefully polished and sculptured wood, which in no way was wanting in elegance. Around the main body of the building were arranged the dwellings of the officers of the palace, either foreigners or Romans, and those of the chiefs of companies, who according to Germanic custom, had placed themselves and their warriors under the king, that is to say under a special engagement of vassalage and fidelity. Other houses of less imposing appearance were occupied by a great number of families who worked at all sorts of trades such as jewelry, the making of arms, weaving, currying, the embroidering of silk and gold, cotton, etc. Farm buildings, paddocks, cowhouses, sheepfolds, barns, the houses of agriculturalists, and the cabins of the serfs, completed the royal village, which perfectly resembled, although on a larger scale, the villages of ancient Germany. There was something too in the position of these dwellings which resembled the scenery beyond the Rhine. The greater number of them were on the borders and some few in the center of great forests, which have since been partly destroyed and the remains of which we so much admire. Although historical documents are not very explicit respecting those remote times, it is only sufficient to study carefully a very small portion of the territory in order to form some idea of the manners and customs of the Franks, for in the royal domain we find the existence of all classes from the sovereign himself down to the humblest slave. As regards the private life, however, of the different classes in this elementary form of society, we have but approximate and very imperfect notions. It is clear, however, that as early as the beginning of the Merovingian race there was much more luxury and comfort among the upper classes than is generally supposed. All the gold and silver furniture, all the jewels, all the rich stuffs which the Gallo-Romans had amassed in their sumptuous dwellings had not been destroyed by the barbarians. The Frank kings had appropriated the greater part and the rest had fallen into the hands of the chiefs of companies in the division of spoil. A well-known anecdote, namely that concerning the vase of Soissons, which King Clovis wished to preserve and which a soldier broke with an axe, proves that many gems of ancient art must have disappeared owing to the ignorance and brutality of the conquerors, although it is equally certain that the latter soon adopted the tastes and customs of the native population. At first they appropriated everything that flattered their pride and sensuality. This is how the material remains of the civilization of the Gauls were preserved in the royal and noble residences, the churches and the monasteries. Gregory of Tours informs us that when Freda Gundah, wife of Shil Perik, gave the hand of her daughter Raguthah to the son of the Gothic king, fifty chariots were required to carry away all the valuable objects which composed the princesses Dower. A strange family scene related by the same historian gives us an idea of the private habits of the court of that terrible queen of the Franks. The mother and daughter had frequent quarrels which sometimes ended in the most violent encounters. Freda Gundah said one day to Raguthah, Why do you continually trouble me? Here are the goods of your father, take them and do as you like with them. And conducting her to a room where she locked up her treasures, she opened a large box filled with valuables. After having pulled out a great number of jewels which she gave to her daughter, she said, I am tired. Put your own hands in the box and take what you find. Raguthah bent down to reach the objects placed at the bottom of the box, upon which Freda Gundah immediately lowered the lid on her daughter and pressed upon it with so much force that the eyes began to start out of the princess's head. A maid began screaming, Help! My mistress is being murdered by her mother! And Raguthah was saved from an untimely end. It is further related that this was only one of the minor crimes attributed by history to Freda Gundah the terrible who always carried a dagger or poison about with her. Amongst the Franks, as amongst all barbaric populations, hunting was the pastime preferred when war was not being waged. The Merovingian nobles were therefore determined hunters and it frequently happened that hunting occupied whole weeks and took them far from their homes and families. But when the season or other circumstances prevented them from waging war against men or beasts, they only cared for feasting and gambling. To these occasions they gave themselves up with a determination and wildness well worthy of those semi-civilized times. It was the custom for invited guests to appear armed at the feasts which were the more frequent in as much as they were necessarily accompanied with religious ceremonies. It often happened that these long repasts, followed by games of chants, were stained with blood either in private quarrels or in a general melee. One can easily imagine the tumult which must have arisen in a numerous assembly when the hot wine and other fermented drinks such as beer, etc. had excited everyone to the highest pitch of unchecked merriment. Some of the Merovingian kings listened to the advice of the ministers of the Catholic religion and tried to reform these noisy excesses and themselves abandoned the evil custom. For this purpose they received at their tables bishops who blessed the assembly at the commencement of the meal and were charged besides to recite chapters of holy writ or to sing hymns out of the Divine Service so as to edify and occupy the minds of the guests. Gregory of Tours bears witness to the happy influence of the presence of bishops at the tables of the Frank kings and nobles. He relates to that Shilperic, who was very proud of his theological and secular knowledge, liked when dining to discuss, or rather to pronounce authoritatively, his opinion on questions of grammar before his companions in arms who for the most part neither knew how to read nor write. He even went as far as to order three ancient Greek letters to be added to the Latin alphabet. The private properties of the Frank kings were immense and produced enormous revenues. These monarchs had palaces in almost all the large towns. At Bourges, In Paris they occupied the vast residents now known as the Thames de Julien, hotel de Cluny, which then extended from the hill of Saint Genevieve as far as the Seine, but they frequently left it for their numerous villas in the neighborhood on which occasions they were always accompanied by their treasury. All these residences were built on the same plan. High walls surrounded the palace. The Roman Atrium, preserved under the name of Proaulium, Proaulium, anti-court, was placed in front of the Salutarium, Hall of Reception, where visitors were received. The Consistorium, or great circular hall surrounded with seats, served for legislation, councils, public assemblies, and other solemnities at which the kings displayed their royal pomp. The Trichorium, or dining room, was generally the largest hall in the palace. Two rows of columns divided it into three parts, one for the royal family, one for the officers of the household, and the third for the guests, who were always very numerous. No person of rank visiting the king could leave without sitting at his table, or at least draining a cup to his health. The king's hospitality was magnificent, especially on great religious festivals such as Christmas and Easter. The royal apartments were divided into winter and summer rooms, in order to regulate the temperature hot and cold water was used according to the season. This circulated in the pipes of the Hypocost, or the subterranean furnace which warmed the baths. The rooms with chimneys were called Epicaustoria, stoves, and it was the custom hermetically to close these when anyone wished to be anointed with ointments and aromatic essences. In the same manner as the Gallo-Roman houses, the palaces of the Frank, kings, and principal nobles of ecclesiastical or military order had therms or bathrooms. Two the therms were attached a columbum, or wash house, a gymnasium for bodily exercise, and a hypodrome, or covered gallery for exercise, which must not be confounded with the hypodrome, a circus where horse races took place. Sometimes after the repast in the interval between two games of dice, the nobles listened to a bard who sang the brilliant deeds of their ancestors in their native tongue. Under the government of Charlemagne, the private life of his subject seems to have been less rough and coarse, although they did not entirely give up their turbulent pleasures. Science and letters, for a long time buried in monasteries, reappeared like beautiful exiles at the imperial court, and social life thereby gained a little charm and softness. Charlemagne had created in his palace, under the direction of Alquin, a sort of academy called the School of the Palace, which followed him everywhere. The intellectual exercises of this school generally brought together all the members of the imperial family, as well as all the persons of the household. Charlemagne, in fact, was himself one of the most attentive followers of the lessons given by Alquin. He was indeed the principal interlocutor and discourseer at the discussions, which were on all subjects religious, literary, and philosophical. Charlemagne took as much pains with the administration of his palace as he did with out of his states. In his copy-to-layer, a work he wrote on legislature, we find him descending to the minutest details in that respect. For instance, he not only interested himself in his warlike and hunting equipages, but also in his kitchen and pleasure gardens. He insisted upon knowing every year the number of his oxen, horses, and goats. He calculated the produce of the sale of fruits gathered in his orchards, which were not required for the use of his house. He had a return on the number of fish caught in his ponds. He pointed out the shrubs best calculated for ornamenting his garden and the vegetables which were required for his table, etc. The emperor generally assumed the greatest simplicity in his dress. His daily attire consisted of a linen shirt and drawers with a woolen tunic fastened with a silk belt. Over this tunic he threw a cloak of blue stuff, very long behind and before but very short on each side, thus giving freedom to his arms to use his sword, which he always wore. On his feet he wore bands of stuffs of various colors, crossed over one another and covering his legs also. In winter, when he traveled or hunted on horseback, he threw over his shoulders a covering of otter or sheepskin. The changes in fashion which the custom of the times necessitated but to which he would never submit personally, induced him to issue several strenuous orders which, however, in reality had hardly any effect. He was most simple in regards to his food and drink and made a habit of having pious or historical works read to him during his repasts. He devoted the morning, which with him began in summer at sunrise and in winter earlier, to the political administration of his empire. He dined at twelve with his family. The dukes and chiefs of various nations first waited on him and then took their places at the table and were waited on in their turn by the Counts, Prefects and Superior Officers of the Court who dined after them. When these had finished, the different chiefs of the household sat down and they were succeeded lastly by the servants of the lower order who often did not dine till midnight and had to content themselves with what was left. When occasion required, however, this powerful emperor knew how to maintain the pomp and dignity of his station. But as soon as he had done what was necessary, either for some great religious festival or otherwise, he returned as if by instinct to his dear and native simplicity. It must be understood that the simple tastes of Charlemagne were not always shared by the princes and princesses of his family, nor by the magnets of his court. Poets and historians have handed down to us descriptions of hunts, feasts and ceremonies at which a truly Asiatic splendor was displayed. Eganhard, however, assures us that the sons and daughters of the king were brought up under their father's eye in liberal studios. That, to save them from the vice of idleness, Charlemagne required his sons to devote themselves to all bodily exercises such as horsemanship, handling of arms, etc., and his daughters to do needlework and to spin. From what is recorded, however, of the frivolous habits and irregular morals of these princesses, it is evident that they but imperfectly realized the end of their education. Science and letters, which for a time were brought into prominence by Charlemagne and also by his son Louis, who was very learned and was considered skillful in translating and expounding scripture, were, however, after the death of these two kings for a long time banished to the seclusion of the cloisters, owing to the hostile rivalry of their successors, which favored the attacks of the Norman pirates. All the monuments and relics of the Gallo-Roman civilization which the great emperor had collected disappeared in the civil wars or were gradually destroyed by the devastations of the Northerners. The vast empire which Charlemagne had formed became gradually split up so that from a dread of social destruction, in order to protect churches and monasteries as well as castles and homesteads from the attacks of internal as well as foreign enemies, towers and impregnable fortresses began to rise in all parts of Europe and particularly in France. During the first period of feudalism, that is to say from the middle of the 9th to the middle of the 12th centuries, the inhabitants of castles had little time to devote to the pleasures of private life. They had not only to be continually under arms for the endless quarrels of the king and the great chiefs, but they had also to oppose the Normans on the one side and the Saracens on the other, who, being masters of the Spanish peninsula, spread like the rising tide in the southern counties of Languedoc and Provence. It is true that the Carlevingian warriors obtained a handsome and rich reward for these long and sanguinary efforts, for at last they seized upon the provinces and districts which had originally been entrusted to their charge and the origin of their feudal possession was soon so far forgotten that their descendants pretended that they had held the lands, which they had really usurped regardless of their oath, from heaven and their swords. It is needless to say that at the time the domestic life in these castles must have been dull and monotonous, although, according to Monsieur Guiseau, the loneliness which was the result of this rough and laborious life became by degrees the pioneer of civilization. When the owner of the thief left his castle, his wife remained there, though in a totally different position from that which women generally held. She remained as mistress representing her husband and was charged with the defence and honour of the thief. This high and exalted position in the centre of domestic life often gave to women an opportunity of displaying dignity, courage, virtue and intelligence which would otherwise have remained hidden and no doubt contributed greatly to their moral development and to the general improvement of their condition. The importance of children and particularly of the eldest son was greater in feudal houses than elsewhere. The eldest son of the noble was, in the eyes of his father and of all his followers, a prince and heir presumptive and the hope and glory of the dynasty. These feelings and the domestic pride and affection of the various members one to another united to give families much energy and power. Add to this the influence of Christian ideas and it will be understood how this lonely, dull and hard castle life was nevertheless favourable to the development of domestic society and to that improvement in the condition of women which plays such a great part in the history of our civilisation. Whatever opinion may be formed of chivalry it is impossible to deny the influence which this institution exercised on private life in the Middle Ages. It considerably modified custom by bringing the stronger sex to respect and defend the weaker. These warriors who were both simple and externally rough and coarse required association and intercourse with women to soften them. In taking women and helpless widows under their protection they were necessarily more and more thrown in contact with them. A deep feeling of veneration for women inspired by Christianity and above all by the worship of the Virgin Mary ran throughout the songs of the troubadours and produced a sort of sentimental reverence for the gentle sex which culminated in the authority which women had in the courts of love. End of Section 5 Recording by Donna Stewart, Seattle, Washington Section 6 of Manners, Customs and Dress This is the LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org Recording by Donna Stewart Manners, Customs and Dress during the Middle Ages and during the Renaissance period by Paul de Croix Section 6 We have now reached the reign of Philip Augustus that is to say the end of the 12th century. This epic is remarkable not only for its political history but also for its effect on civilization. Christianity had then considerably influenced the world. Arts, sciences and letters animated by its influence again began to appear and to add charms to the leisure of private life. The castles were naturally the first to be affected by this poetical and intellectual regeneration although it has been too much the custom to exaggerate the ignorance of those who inhabited them. We are too apt to consider the warriors of the Middle Ages as totally devoid of knowledge and as hardly able to sign their names as far as the kings and princes are concerned. This is quite an error for many of the knights composed poems which exhibit evidence of their high literary culture. It was in fact the epic of troubadours who might be called professional poets and actors who went from country to country and from castle to castle relating stories of good king Artus of Brittany and of the Knights of the Round Table repeating historical poems of the great Emperor Charlemagne and his followers. These minstrels were always accompanied by jugglers and instrumentalists who formed a travelling troop having no other mission than to amuse and instruct their feudal hosts. After singing a few fragments of epics or after the lively recital of some ancient fable the jugglers would display their art or skill in gymnastic feats or conjuring which were the more appreciated by the spectators in that the latter were more or less able to compete with them. These wandering troops acted small comedies taken from incidents of the times sometimes too the instrumentalists formed an orchestra and dancing commenced. It may be here remarked that dancing at this epic consisted of a number of persons forming large circles and turning to the time of the music or the rhythm of the song. At least the dances of the nobles are thus represented in the manuscripts of the Middle Ages. To these amusements were added games of calculation and chance the fashion for which had much increased and particularly such games as backgammon, drafts and chess to which certain knights devoted all their leisure. From the reign of Philip Augustus a remarkable change seems to have taken place in the private life of kings, princes and nobles. Although his domains and revenues had always been on the increase this monarch never displayed in ordinary circumstances at least much magnificence. The accounts of his private expenses for the years 1202 and 1203 have been preserved which enable us to discover some curious details bearing witness to the extreme simplicity of the court at that period. The household of the king or royal family was still very small one chancellor, one chaplain, a squire, a butler, a few knights of the temple and some sergeants at arms were the only officers of the palace. The king and princes of his household only changed apparel three times during the year. The children of the king slept in sheets of surge and their nurses were dressed in gowns of dark-colored woollen stuff called brunette. The royal cloak which was of scarlet was jewelled but the king only wore it on great ceremonies. At the same time enormous expenses were incurred for implements of war, arrows, helmets with visors, chariots and for the men at arms whom the king kept in his pay. Louis IX personally kept up almost similar habits. The seer de juanville tells us in his chronicles that the holy king on his return from his first crusade in order to repair the damage done to his treasury by the failure of this expedition would no longer wear costly furs nor robes of scarlet and contented himself with common stuff trimmed with hair-skin. He nevertheless did not diminish the officers of his household which had already become numerous and being no doubt convinced that royalty required magnificence he surrounded himself with as much pomp as the times permitted. Under the two Philips, his successors, this magnificence increased and descended to the great vassals who were soon imitated by the knights' bannerets. There seemed to be a danger of luxury becoming so great and so general in all classes of feudal society that in 1294 an order of the king was issued regulating in the minutest details the expenses of each person according to his rank in the state or the fortune which he could prove. But this law had the fate of all such enactments and was either easily evaded or was only partially enforced and that with great difficulty. Another feudal attempt to put it in practice was made in 1306 when the splendor of dress, of equipages and of table had become still greater and more ruinous and had descended progressively to the bourgeois and merchants. It must be stated in praise of Philip Lebel that notwithstanding the failure of his attempts to arrest the progress of luxury he was not satisfied with making laws against the extravagances of his subjects for we find that he studied a strict economy in his own household which recalled the austere times of Philip Augustus. Thus in the curious regulations relating to the domestic arrangements of the palace the queen, Genda Navarre, was allowed only two ladies and three maids of honour in her suite and she is said to have had only two four-horse carriages one for herself and the other for these ladies. In another place these regulations require that a butler specially appointed should buy all the cloth and furs for the king take charge of the key of the cupboards where these are kept know the quantity given to the tailors to make clothes and check the accounts when the tailors send in their claims for the price of their work. After the death of the pious Genda Navarre to whom perhaps we must attribute the wise measures of her husband Philip Lebel the expenses of the royal household materially increased especially on the occasions of the marriages of the three sons of the king from 1305 to 1307. Gold, diamonds, pearls and precious stones were employed profusely both for the king's garments and for those of the members of the royal family. The accounts of 1307 mention considerable sums paid for carpets, counterpaints, robes, work linen, etc. A chariot of state ornamented and covered with paintings and gilded like the back of an altar is also mentioned and must have been a great change to the heavy vehicles used for travelling in those days. Down to the reign of Saint-Louis the furniture of castles had preserved a character of primitive simplicity which did not however lack grandeur. The stone remained uncovered in most of the halls or else it was whitened with mortar and ornamented with moulded roses and leaves coloured in distemper. Against the wall and also against the pillars supporting the arches arms and armour of all sorts were hung, arranged in suits and interspersed with banners and penance or emblazoned standards. In the great middle hall or dining room there was a long massive oak table with benches and stools of the same wood. At the end of this table there was a large arm chair overhung with a canopy of golden or silken stuff which was occupied by the owner of the castle and only relinquished by him in favour of his superior or sovereign. Often the walls of the Hall of State were hung with tapestry representing groves of cattle, heroes of ancient history or events in the romance of chivalry. The floor was generally paved with hard stone or covered with enameled tiles. It was carefully strewn with scented herbs in summer and straw in winter. Philip Augustus ordered that the hotel-dure of Paris should receive the herbs and straw which was daily removed from the floors of his palace. It was only very much later that this troublesome system was replaced by mats and carpets. The bedrooms were generally at the top of the towers and had little else by way of furniture besides a very large bed with or without curtains, a box in which clothes were kept which also served as a seat and a pre-deo chair which sometimes contained prayer or other books of devotion. These lofty rooms whose thick walls kept out the heat in summer and the cold in winter were only lighted by a small window or loophole closed with a square of oiled paper or of thin horn. A great change took place in the abodes of the nobility in the 14th and 15th centuries. It was defined, for instance, in Soval's history and researches of the antiquities of the city of Paris, that the abodes of the kings of the First Dynasty had been transformed into palaces of justice by Philip Lebel. The same author also gives us a vivid description of the Chateau du Louvre and the Hotel Saint-Paul which the kings inhabited when their court was in the capital. But even without examining into all the royal abodes it was a faize to give an account of the Hotel de Bohème which, after having been the home of the Seer de Nel of Queen Blanche of Castile and other great persons was given by Charles VI in 1388 to his brother, the famous Duke Louis of Orléans. I shall not attempt, says Soval, to speak of the cellars and wine cellars, the bakehouses, the fruiteries, the vault stores, the fur rooms, the porters lodges, the stores, the guard rooms, the woodyard, or the glass stores, nor of the servants, nor of the place where Hippocrates was made. Neither shall I describe the tapestry room, the linen room, nor the laundry, nor indeed any of the various conveniences which were then to be found in the yards of that palace as well as in the other abodes of the princes and nobles. I shall simply remark that amongst the many suites of rooms which composed it two occupied the first two stories of the main building. The first was raised some few steps above the ground floor of the court and was occupied by Valentine de Milan. And her husband, Louis of Orléans, generally occupied the second. Each of these suites of rooms consisted of a great hall, a chamber of state, a large chamber, a wardrobe, a closet, and a chapel. The windows of the halls were thirteen and a half feet high by four and a half wide. The state chambers were eight twazas, that is about fifty feet and a half long. The Duke and Duchess's chambers were six twazas by three, that is about thirty-six feet by eighteen. The others were seven twazas and a half square, all lighted by long and narrow windows of wire work with trellis work of iron. The wainscots and the ceilings were made of Irish wood, the same as at the Louvre. In this palace there was a room used by the Duke hung with cloth of gold bordered with vermilion velvet embroidered with roses. The Duchess had a room hung with vermilion satin embroidered with crossbows, which were on her coat of arms. That of the Duke of Burgundy was hung with cloth of gold embroidered with windmills. There were besides eight carpets of glossy texture with gold flowers, one representing the seven virtues and the seven vices. Another the history of Charlemagne, another that of Saint-Louis. There were also cushions of cloth of gold, twenty-four pieces of vermilion leather of Aragon, and four carpets of Aragon leather to be placed on the floor of rooms in summer. The favorite armchair of the princess is thus described in an inventory. A chambered chair with four supports painted in fine vermilion, the seat and arms of which are covered with vermilion Morocco or Cordovin worked and stamped with designs representing the sun, birds and other devices bordered with fringes of silk and studded with nails. Among the ornamental furniture were a large vase of massive silver for holding sugar plums or sweet meats shaped like a square table supported by four satyrs also of silver. A fine wooden casket covered with vermilion Cordovin nailed and bordered with a narrow gilt band shutting with a key. In the daily life of Louis of Orléans and his wife everything corresponded with the luxury of their house. Thus for the amusement of their children two little books of pictures were made illuminated with gold, azure and vermilion and covered with vermilion leather of Cordovin which cost sixty sol Parisie i.e. four hundred francs. But it was in the custom of New Year's gifts that the Duke and Duchess displayed the true royal magnificence as we find described in the accounts of their expenses. For instance in 1388 they paid four hundred francs of gold for sheets of silk to give to those who received the New Year's gifts from the king and queen. In 1402 one hundred pounds tournois was given to Jehan Taïenne Goldsmith for six silver cups presented to Jacques de Pochein the Duke's Squire. To the sire de la Tramouie Valentin gives a cup and basin of gold. To Queen Isabella a golden image of Saint John surrounded with nine rubies, one sapphire and twenty-one pearls. To Mademoiselle de Luxembourg another small golden sacred image surrounded with pearls. And lastly in an account of 1394 headed portion of gold and silver jewels bought by Madame la Duchesse d'Orléans as a New Year's gift we find a clasp of gold studded with one large ruby and six large pearls given to the king, three Paternosteres for the king's daughters, and two large diamonds for the dukes of Burgundy and Berry. Such were the habits in private life of the royal princes under Charles VI. And it can easily be shown that the example of royalty was followed not only by the court but also in the remotest provinces. The great tenants or vassals of the crown each possessed several splendid mansions in their fiefs. The dukes of Burgundy at Souvigny at Moulin and at Bourbon-la-Chambord. The counts of Champagne at Trois. The dukes of Burgundy at Dijon. And all the smaller nobles made a point of imitating their superiors. From the fifteenth to the sixteenth centuries the provinces which now compose France were studded with castles, which were as remarkable for their interior architecture as for the richness of their furniture. And it may be asserted that the luxury which was displayed in the dwellings of the nobility was the evidence, if not the result, of a great social revolution in the manners and customs of private life. At the end of the fourteenth century there lived a much respected noble of Anjou named Geoffrey de la Tourlanderie who had three daughters. In his old age he resolved that considering the dangers which might surround them in consequence of their inexperience and beauty he would compose for their use a code of admonitions which might guide them in the various circumstances of life. This book of domestic maxims is most curious and instructive from the details which it contains respecting the manners and customs, mode of conduct, and fashions of the nobility of the period. The author mostly illustrates each of his precepts by examples from the life of contemporary personages. The first advice the knight gives his daughters is to begin the day with prayer, and in order to give greater weight to his counsel he relates the following anecdote. A noble had two daughters, the one was pious always saying her prayers with devotion and regularly attending the services of the church. She married an honest man and was most happy. The other, on the contrary, was satisfied with hearing low mass and hurrying once or twice through the church's prayer after which she went off to indulge herself with sweet meats. She complained of headaches and required careful diet. She married a most excellent knight, but one evening, taking advantage of her husband being asleep, she shut herself up in one of the rooms of the palace and, in company with the people of the household, began eating and drinking in the most riotous and excessive manner. The knight awoke and surprised not to find his wife by the side, got up and armed with a stick but took himself to the scene of festivity. He struck one of the domestics with such force that he broke his stick in pieces and one of the fragments flew into the lady's eye and put it out. This caused her husband to take a dislike to her and he soon placed his affections elsewhere. My pretty daughters, the moralizing parent proceeds, be courteous and meek for nothing is more beautiful, nothing so secures the favour of God and the love of others. Be then courteous to great and small, speak gently with them. I have seen a great lady take off her cap and bow to a simple ironmonger. One of her followers seemed astonished. I prefer, she said, to have been too courteous toward that man than to have been guilty of the least incivility to a knight. La Tour Landry also advised his daughters to avoid outrageous fashions in dress. Do not be hasty in copying the dress of foreign women. I will relate a story on this subject respecting a bourgeois of Guyenne and the seer de Beaumanois. The lady said to him, Cousin, I come from Brittany where I saw my fine cousin your wife, who was not so well dressed as the ladies of Guyenne and many other places. The borders of her dress and of her bonnet are not in fashion. The seer answered, Since you find fault with the dress and cap of my wife and as they do not suit you, I shall take care in future that they are changed, but I shall be careful not to choose them similar to yours. Understand, madam, that I wish her to be dressed according to the fashion of the good ladies of France and of this country and not like those of England. It was these last who first introduced into Brittany the large borders, the bodices opened on the hips and the hanging sleeves. I remember the time and thought myself and I have little respect for women who adopt these fashions. Respecting the high headdresses which cause women to resemble stags who are obliged to cover their heads to enter a wood, the night relates what took place in 1392 at the Fête of St. Marguerite. There was a young and pretty woman there quite differently dressed from the others. Everyone stared at her as if she had been a wild beast. One respectable lady approached her and said, My friend, what do you call it fashion? She answered, It is called the jibbit dress. Indeed, but that is not a fine name, answered the old lady. Very soon the name of jibbit dress got known all around the room and everyone laughed at the foolish creature who was thus bedecked. This headdress did in fact owe its name to its summit which resembled a jibbit. These extracts from the work of this honest knight suffice to prove that the customs of French society had, as early as the end of the 14th century, taken a decided character which was to remain subject only to modifications introduced at various historical periods. Amongst the customs which contributed most to the softening and elegance of the feudal class, we must cite that of sending into the service of the sovereign for some years all the use of both sexes under the names of violets, pages, squires, and maids of honour. No noble of whatever wealth or power ever thought of depriving his family of this apprenticeship and its accompanying chivalric education. Up to the end of the 12th century the number of domestic officers attached to a castle was very limited. We have seen for instance that Philip Augustus contended himself with a few servants and his queen with two or three maids of honour. Under Louis IX this household was much increased and under Philip Lebel and his sons the royal household had become so considerable as to constitute quite a large assemblage of young men and women. Under Charles VI the household of Queen Isabella of Bavaria alone amounted to forty-five persons without counting the ominour, the chaplains, and clerks of the chapel, who must have been very numerous since the sums paid to them amounted to the large amount of four hundred and sixty francs of gold per annum. Under Charles VIII Louis XII and Francis I the service of the young nobility which was called apprenticeship of honour or virtue, had taken a much wider range. For the first families of the French nobility were most eager to get their children admitted into the royal household, either to attend on the king or queen, or at any rate on one of the princes of the royal blood. Anne of Brittany particularly gave special attention to her female attendants. She was the first, says Branthome in his work on illustrious women, who began to form the great court of ladies which has descended to our days, for she had a considerable revenue both of adult ladies and young girls. She never refused to receive anyone. On the contrary, she inquired of the gentlemen of the court if they had any daughters, ascertained who they were and asked for them. It was thus that the admiral de Gravel confided to the good queen, the education of his daughter Anne, who at this school of the court of ladies became one of the most distinguished women of her day. The same queen as Duchess of Brittany created a company of one hundred Breton gentlemen who accompanied her everywhere. They never failed, says the author of illustrious women, when she went to Mass or took a walk to await her return on the little terrace of Blois, which is still called Perche au Breton. She gave it this name herself for when she saw them she said, these are my Bretons on the perch waiting for me. We must not forget that this queen who became successively the wife of Charles the Eighth and of Louis XII had taken care to establish a strict discipline amongst the young men and women who composed her court. She rightly considered herself the guardian of the honour of the former and of the virtue of the latter. Therefore, as long as she lived, her court was renowned for purity and politeness, noble and refined gallantry, and was never allowed to degenerate into imprudent amusements or licentious and culpable intrigues. Unfortunately, the moral influence of this worthy princess died with her. Although the court of France continued to gather around it almost every sort of elegance, and although it continued during the whole of the 16th century the most polished of European courts, notwithstanding the great external and civil wars, yet it afforded at the same time a sad example of laxity of morals which had a most baneful influence on public habits, so much so that vice and corruption descended from class to class and contaminated all orders of society. If we wished to make investigations into the private life of the lower orders of those times, we should not succeed as we have been able to do with that of the upper classes, for we have scarcely any data to throw light upon their sad and obscure history. Bourgeois and peasants were, as we have already shown, long included together with the miserable class of serfs, a herd of human beings without individuality, without significance, who from their birth to their death, whether isolated or collectively, were the property of their masters. What must have been the private life of this degraded multitude bowed down under the most tyrannical and humiliating dependence we can scarcely imagine? It was in fact but a purely material existence which has left scarcely any trace in history. Many centuries elapsed before the dawn of liberty could penetrate the social strata of this multitude, thus oppressed and denuded of all power of action. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. Recording by Donna Stewart. Manners, Customs and Dress during the Middle Ages and during the Renaissance period by Paul de Croix, section 7. Many centuries elapsed and denuded of all power of action. The development was slow, painful and dearly bought, but at last it took place. First of all towns sprang up and with them, or rather by their influence, the inhabitants became possessed of social life. The agricultural population took its social position many generations later. As we have already seen, the great movement for the creation of communes and bourgeoisies predates from the unsettled period ranging from the 11th to the 13th centuries, and simultaneously we see the bourgeois appear, already rich and luxurious, parading on all occasions their personal opulence. Their private life could only be an imitation of that in the chateaus. By degrees, as wealth strengthened and improved their condition and rendered them independent, we find them trying to procure luxuries equal or analogous to those enjoyed by the upper classes and which appear to them the height of material happiness. In all times the small have imitated the great. It was in vain that the great obstinately threatened by the exercise of their prerogatives to try and crush this tendency to equality which alarmed them by issuing pecuniary edicts, summary laws, coercive regulations, and penal ordinances by the force of circumstances the arbitrary restrictions which the nobility laid upon the lower classes gradually disappeared and the power of wealth displayed itself in spite of all their efforts to suppress it. In fact occasions were not wanting in which the bourgeois class was able to refute the charge of unworthiness with which the nobles sought to stamp it, when taking a place in the Council of the King or employed in the administration of the provinces, many of its members distinguished themselves by firmness and wisdom. When called upon to assist in the national defence they gave their blood and their gold with noble self-denial. And lastly they did not fail to prove themselves possessed of those high and delicate sentiments of which the nobility alone claimed the hereditary possession. The bourgeois as Arnaud de Marvet, one of the most famous troubadours of the 13th century, have diverse sorts of merits. Some distinguish themselves by deeds of honour, others are by nature noble and behave accordingly. There are others thoroughly brave, courteous, frank and jovial who, although poor, find means to please by graceful speech, frequenting courts, and making themselves agreeable there. Self-versed in courtesy and politeness appear in noble attire and figure conspicuously at the tournaments and military games proving themselves good judges and good company. Down to the 13th century however rich their fathers or husbands might be the women of the bourgeoisie were not permitted without incurring a fine to use the ornaments and stuffs exclusively reserved for the nobility. During the reigns of Philippe Augustus and Louis IX although these arbitrary laws were not positively abolished a heavy blow was inflicted on them by the marks of confidence, esteem and honour which these monarchs found pleasure in bestowing on the bourgeoisie. We find the first of these kings when on the point of starting for a crusade choosing six from amongst the principal members of the parois au bourgeois. It was thus that the first Hotel de Ville situated in the corner of the Place de la Grève was named to be attached to the Council of Regency to whom he especially confided his will and the royal treasure. His grandson made a point of following his grand sire's example and Louis IX showed the same appreciation for the new element which the Parisian bourgeoisie was about to establish in political life by making the bourgeois Etienne Boileau one of his principal ministers of police and the bourgeois Jean Serrazin his chamberlain. Under these circumstances the whole bourgeoisie gloried in the marks of distinction conferred upon their representatives and during the following reign the ladies of this class proud of their immense fortunes but above all proud of the municipal powers held by their families bedecked themselves regardless of expense costly furs and rich stuffs notwithstanding that they were forbidden by law to do so. Then came an outcry on the part of the nobles and we read as follows in an edict of Philip Lebel who inclined less to the bourgeoisie than to the nobles and who did not spare the former in matters of taxation No bourgeois shall have a chariot nor wear gold, precious stones or crowns of gold or silver bourgeois not being either prelates or dignitaries of state shall not have tapers of wax a bourgeois possessing two thousand pounds tournoi or more may order for himself a dress of twelve sous six deniers and one for his wife worth sixteen sous at the most. The sous which was but nominal money may be reckoned as representing twenty francs and the denier one franc but allowance must be made for the enormous difference in the value of silver which would make twenty francs in the thirteenth century represent upwards of two hundred francs of our present currency But these regulations as to the mode of living were so little or so carelessly observed that all the successors of Philip Lebel thought it necessary to re-enact them and indeed Charles the Seventh one century later was obliged to censure the excess of luxury and dress by an edict which was however no better enforced than the rest it has been shown to the said lord that of all nations of the habitable globe there are none so changeable outrageous and excessive in their manner of dress as the French nation and there is no possibility of discovering by their dress the state or calling of persons be they princes, nobles bourgeois or working men because all are allowed to dress as they think proper whether in gold or silver, silk or wool without any regard to their calling at the end of the thirteenth century a rich merchant of Valenciennes went to the court of the king of France wearing a cloak of furs covered with gold and pearls seeing that no one offered him a cushion he proudly sat on his cloak on leaving he did not attempt to take up the cloak and on a servant calling his attention to the fact he remarked it is not the custom in my country for people to carry away their cushions with them respecting a journey made by Philip Lebel and his wife Jean de Navarre to the towns of Bruges and Ghent the historian Jean Meyer relates that Jean on seeing the costly array of the bourgeois of those two rich cities exclaimed I thought I was the only queen here but I see more than six hundred in spite of the laws the Parisian bourgeoisie soon rivaled the Flemish in the brilliancy of their dress thus in the second half of the fourteenth century the famous Christine de Pison relates that having gone to visit the wife of a merchant during her confinement it was not without some amazement that she saw the sumptuous furniture of the apartment in which this woman lay in bed the walls were hung with precious tapestry of cypress on which the initials and motto of the lady were embroidered the sheets were a fine linen of reams and it cost more than three hundred pounds the quilt was a new invention of silk and silver tissue the carpet was like gold the lady wore an elegant dress of crimson silk and rested her head and arms on pillows ornamented with buttons of oriental pearls it should be remarked that this lady was not the wife of a large merchant such as those of Venice and Genoa but of a simple retail dealer who was not above selling articles for four sous such being the case the lady should have considered the anecdote worthy of being immortalized in a book it must not however be assumed that the sole aim of the bourgeoisie was that of making a haughty and pompous display this is refuted by the testimony of the Ménanger de Paris a curious anonymous work the author of which must have been an educated and enlightened bourgeois the Ménanger which was first published by the Baron Jerome Pichon is a collection of councils addressed by a husband to his young wife as to her conduct in society in the world and in the management of her household the first part is devoted to developing the mind of the young housewife and the second relates to the arrangements necessary for the welfare of her house it must be remembered that the comparatively trifling duties relating to the comforts of private life which devolved on the wife were not so numerous in those days as they are now but on the other hand they required an amount of practical knowledge on the part of the housewife which she can nowadays dispense with under this head the Ménanger is full of information after having spoken of the prayers which a Christian woman should say in the evening the author discusses the great question of dress which has ever been of supreme importance in the eyes of the female sex no dear sister the friendly name he gives his young wife that in the choice of your apparel you must always consider the rank of your parents and mine and also the state of my fortune be respectably dressed without devoting too much study to it without too much plunging into new fashions before leaving your room see that the color of your gown be well adjusted and is not put on crooked then he dilates on the characters of women which are too often willful and unmanageable on this point for he is not less profuse in examples than the Chevalier de la Tour Landry he relates an amusing anecdote worthy of being repeated and remembered I have heard the bailiff of Tournay relate that he found himself several times at table with men long married and that he had wagered with them the price of a dinner under the following conditions the company was to visit the abode of each of the husbands successively and anyone who had a wife obedient enough immediately without contradicting or making any remark to consent to count up to four should win the bet but on the other hand those whose wives show temper, laughed, or refused to obey would lose under these conditions the company gaily adjourned to the abode of Robin whose wife called Marie had a high opinion of herself the husband said before all Marie repeat after me what I shall say Willing me sire Marie say one, two, three but by this time Marie was out of patience and said and seven and twelve and fourteen why are you making a fool of me so that husband lost his wager the company next went to the house of Métrogeant whose wife Agnes Ska well knew how to play the lady Jean said repeat after me one, and two answered Agnes Ska disdainfully so he lost his wager Tassan then tried and said to Dame Tassan count one go upstairs she answered if you want to teach counting I'm not a child another said go away with you you must have lost your senses or similar words which made the husbands lose their wagers those on the contrary who had well behaved wives gained their wager and went away joyful this amusing quotations affices to show that the author of the ménangier de Paris wished to adopt a jocoste style with a view to enliven the seriousness of the subject he was advocating the part of his work in which he discusses the administration of the house is not less worthy of attention one of the most curious chapters of the work is that in which he points out the manner in which the young bourgeois is to behave towards persons in her service rich people in those days in whatever station of life were obliged to keep a numerous retinue of servants it is curious to find that so far back is the period to which we allude there was in Paris a kind of servants registry office where situations were found for servant maids from the country the bourgeois gave up the entire management of the servants to his wife but on account of her extreme youth the author of the work in question recommends his wife only to engage servants who shall have been chosen by Dame Agnes the nun whom he had placed with her as a kind of governess or companion before engaging them he says, know whence they come in what houses they have been if they have acquaintances in town and if they are steady discover what they are capable of doing and ascertain that they are not greedy nor inclined to drink if they come from another country try to find out why they left it for generally it is not without some serious reason that a woman decides upon a change of abode when you have engaged a maid do not permit her to take the slightest liberty with you nor allow her to speak disrespectfully to you if on the contrary she be quiet in her demeanor honest, modest and shows herself amenable to reproof treat her as if she were your daughter super intend the work to be done and choose among your servants those qualified for each special department if you order a thing to be done immediately do not be satisfied with the following answers it shall be done presently or tomorrow early otherwise be sure you will have to repeat your orders to these severe instructions upon the management of servants the bourgeois adds a few words respecting their morality do not be permitted to use course or indecent language or to insult one another although he is of the opinion that necessary time should be given to servants at their meals he does not approve of their remaining drinking and taking too long at table concerning which practice he quotes a proverb in use at the time which means that when a servant talks at table and a horse feeds near a watering place it is time he should be removed he has been there long enough the manner in which the author concludes his instruction proves his kindness of heart as well as his benevolence if one of your servants falls sick it is your duty setting everything else aside and you will be able to if one of your servants falls sick it is your duty setting everything else aside to see to his being cured it was thus that a bourgeois of the fifteenth century expressed himself and as it is clear that he could only have been inspired to dictate his theoretical teachings by the practical experience which he must have gained for the most part among the middle class to which he belonged we must conclude that in those days the bourgeoisie possessed considerable knowledge of moral dignity and social propriety it must be added that by the side of the merchant and working bourgeoisie who above all owed their greatness to the high functions of the municipality the parliamentary bourgeoisie had raised itself to power and that from the fourteenth century it played a considerable part in the state holding at several royal courts at different periods and at last almost hereditarily the highest in the magisterial positions the very character of these great offices of president or of parliamentary council barristers etc proves that the holders must have had no small amount of intellectual culture in this way a refined taste was created among this class which the protection of kings princes and lords had alone hitherto encouraged we find for example the groeslier at Lyon the two and Seguier in Paris regardless of their bourgeois origin becoming judicious and zealous patrons of poets scholars and artists a description of Paris published in the middle of the fifteenth century describes amongst the most splendid residences of the capital the hotels of Juvenel-des-Aussins of Bureaux-de-des-martins of Guillaume Serin of Mademoiselle Bayer and particularly that of Jacques Duchy situated in the Rue des Pouverts in which were collected at great cost collections of all kinds of arms, musical instruments rare birds, tapestry and works of art in each church in Paris and there were upwards of a hundred the principal chapels were founded by celebrated families of the ancient bourgeoisie who had left money for one or more masses to be said daily for the repose of the souls of their deceased members in the burial grounds and principally in that of the innocence the monuments of these families of Parisian bourgeoisie were of the most expensive character and were inscribed with epitaphs in which the living vainly tried to immortalize the deeds of the deceased everyone has heard of the celebrated tomb of Nicolas Flamel and Pernel his wife the cross of Bureaux the epitaph of Yolande Bayille who died in 1514 at the age of 88 and who saw or might have seen 295 children descended from her in fact the religious institutions of Paris afford much curious and interesting information relative to the history of the bourgeoisie for instance Jean Allais who levied a tax of one denier on each basket of fish brought to market and thereby amassed an enormous fortune left the whole of it at his death for the purpose of erecting a chapel called Saint Agnes which soon after became the church of Saint Eustice he further directed that by way of expiation his body should be thrown into the sewer which drained the awful from the market and covered with a large stone this sewer up to the end of the last century was still called Pont Allais very often when citizens made gifts during their lifetime to churches or parishes the donors reserved to themselves certain privileges which were calculated to cause the motives which had actuated them to be open to criticism thus in 1304 the daughters of Nicolas Arrod formerly provost of the merchants presented to the church of Saint Jacques La Boucherie the house and grounds which they inhabited but one of them reserved the right of having a key of the church that she might go in whenever she pleased Guillaume Rochequel in 1405 bought a similar right for the sum of 18 sol parici per annum equal to 25 francs and Alain and his wife whose house was close to two chapels of the church undertook not to build so as in any way to shut out the light from one of the chapels on condition that they might open a small window into the chapel and so be enabled to hear the service without leaving their room we thus see that the bourgeoisie especially of Paris gradually took a more prominent position in history and became so grasping after power that it ventured at a period which does not concern us here to aspire to every sort of distinction and to secure an important social standing what had been the exception during the 16th century became the rule two centuries later End of Section 7 Recording by Donna Stewart, Seattle, Washington Section 8 of Manners, Customs and Dress this is a LibriVox recording all LibriVox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org Recording by Donna Stewart Manners, Customs and Dress during the Middle Ages and during the Renaissance period by Paul Lacroix Section 8 we will now take a glance at the agricultural population who as we have already stated were only emancipated from serfdom at the end of the 18th century but whatever might have been formally the civil condition of the rural population everything leads us to suppose that there were no special changes in their private and domestic means of existence from a comparatively remote period down almost to the present time a small poem of the 13th century entitled de l'Houiste du Mont-au-Villain gives a clear though rough sketch of the domestic state of the peasantry strange as it may seem it must be acknowledged that with a few exceptions resulting from the progress of time it would not be difficult even at the present day to find the exact type maintained in the country districts farthest away from the capital and large towns at all events they were faithfully represented at the time of the Revolution of 1789 we gather from this poem which must be considered an authentic document that the mants or dwelling of the villain comprised three distinct buildings the first for the corn the second for the hay and straw the third for the man in his family in this rustic abode a fire of vine branches and faggots sparkled in a large chimney furnished with an iron pot hanger a tripod, a shovel large fire irons, a cauldron and a meat hook next to the fireplace was an oven and in close proximity to this an enormous bedstead on which the villain, his wife his children and even the stranger who asked for hospitality could all be easily accommodated a kneading trough a table, a bench, a cheese cupboard a jug and a few baskets made up the rest of the furniture the villain also possessed other utensils such as a ladder a mortar, a hand mill for everyone then was obliged to grind his own corn a mallet, some nails, some gimlets fishing lines, hooks and baskets, etc his working implements were a plow, a scythe, a spade a hoe, large shears a knife and a sharpening stone he also had a wagon with harness for several horses so as to be able to accomplish the different tasks required of him under feudal rights either by his proper lord for the villain was liable to be called upon to undertake every kind of work of this sort his dress consisted of a blouse of cloth or skin fastened by a leather belt round the waist an overcoat or mantle of thick woollen stuff which fell from his shoulders to halfway down his legs shoes or large boots short woollen trousers and from his belt there hung his wallet and a sheath for his knife he generally went bareheaded but in cold weather or in rain he wore a sort of hat of similar stuff to his coat or one of felt with a broad brim he seldom wore moufle or padded gloves except when engaged in hedging a small kitchen garden which he cultivated himself was usually attached to the cottage which was guarded by a large watchdog there was also a shed for the cows whose milk contributed to the sustenance of the establishment and on the thatched roof of this and his cottage the wild cats hunted the rats and mice the family were never idle even in the bad season and the children were taught from infancy to work by the side of their parents if then we find so much resemblance between the abodes of the villains of the 13th century and those of the inhabitants of the poorest communes of France in the present day we may fairly infer that there must be a great deal which is analogous between the inhabitants themselves of the two periods for in the chateaus as well as in the towns we find the material condition of the dwellings modifying itself conjointly with that of the moral condition of the inhabitants another little poem entitled on the 24 kinds of villains composed about the same period as the one above referred to gives us a graphic description of the varieties of character among the feudal peasants one example is given of a man who will not tell a traveller the way but merely in a surly way answers you know it better than I another sitting at his door on a Sunday laughs at those passing by and says to himself when he sees a gentleman going hawking with a bird on his wrist ah that bird will eat a hen today and our children could all feast upon it another is described as a sort of madman who equally despises God the saints the church and the nobility his neighbor is an honest simpleton who stopping in admiration before the doorway of Notre-Dame in Paris in order to admire the statues of Pepin and Charlemagne and their successors has his pocket picked of his purse another villain is supposed to make trade of pleading the cause of others before Messios Lubaille he is very eloquent in trying to show that in the time of their ancestors the cows had a free rite of pasture in such and such a meadow or the sheep on such and such a ridge then there is the miser and the speculator who converts all his possessions into ready money so as to purchase grain against a bad season but of course the harvest turns out to be excellent and he does not make a farthing but runs away to conceal his ruin and rage there is also the villain who leaves his plow to become a poacher there are many other curious examples which altogether tend to prove that there has been but little change in the village class since the first periods of history not withstanding the miseries to which they were generally subject the rural population had their days of rest and amusement which were then much more numerous than at present at the period the festivals of the church were then rigidly kept and as each of them was the pretext for a forced holiday for manual labor the peasants thought of nothing after church but of amusing themselves they drank, talked, sang, danced and above all laughed for the laugh of our forefathers quite rivaled the Homeric laugh and burst forth with a noisy joviality the wakes or evening parties which are still the custom of the French provinces and which are a very ancient origin formed important events in the private lives of the peasants it was at these that the strange legends and vulgar superstitions which so long fed the minds of the ignorant classes were mostly created and propagated it was there that those extraordinary and terrible fairy tales were created as well as those of magicians witches, spirits, etc. it was there that the matrons whose great age justified their experience insisted on proving by absurd tales that they knew all the marvelous secrets for causing happiness or for curing sickness consequently in those days the most enlightened rustic never for a moment doubted the truth of witchcraft in fact one of the first efforts at printing was applied to reproducing the most ridiculous stories under the title of the Evangel de Connui or Kenui and which had been previously circulated in manuscript and had obtained implicit belief the author of this remarkable collection asserts that the matrons of his neighborhood had deputed him to put together in writing the sayings suitable for all conditions of rural life which were believed in by them and were announced at the wakes the absurdities and childish follies she has dared to register under their dictation are almost incredible the Evangel de Connui which was as much believed in as Holy Rit tells us amongst other secrets which it contains for the advantage of the reader that a girl wishing to know the Christian name of her future husband has but to stretch the first thread she spins in the morning across the doorway and that the first man who passes and touches the thread will necessarily have the same name as the man she is destined to marry another of the stories in this book was that if a woman on leaving off work on Saturday night left her dis-staff loaded she might be sure that the thread she would obtain from it during the following week would only produce linen of bad quality which could not be bleached this was considered to be proved by the fact that the Germans wore dark brown colored shirts and it was known that the women never unloaded their dis-staffs from Saturday to Monday should a woman enter a cow-house to milk her cows without saying God and Saint Bridget bless you she was thought to run the risk of the cows kicking and breaking the milk-pail and spilling the milk this silly nonsense compiled like oracles was printed as late as 1493 80 years later a gentleman of Brittany named Noelle Dufile Lord of Erhissey counselor in the Parliament of Rennes published under the title of Rustic and Amusing Discourses a work intended to counteract the influence of the famous Evangel des Kenouis this new work was a simple and true sketch of country habits and proved the elegance and artless simplicity of the author as well as his accuracy of observation he begins thus occasionally having to retire into the country more conveniently and uninterruptedly to finish some business on a particular holiday as I was walking I came to a neighbouring village where the greater part of the old and young men were assembled in groups of separate ages for according to the proverb each seeks his like the young were practicing the bow jumping, wrestling, running races and playing other games they were looking on some sitting under an oak with their legs crossed and their hats lowered over their eyes others leaning on their elbows criticising every performance and refreshing the memory of their own youth and taking a lively interest in seeing the gambles of the young people the author states that on questioning one of the peasants to ascertain who was the cleverest person present the following dialogue took place the one you see on his elbow hitting his boots which have white strings with a hazel stick is called Ann Selm he is one of the rich ones of the village he is a good workman and not a bad writer for the flat country and the one you see by his side with his thumb in his belt hanging from which is a large game bag containing spectacles in an old prayer book is called Paschier one of the greatest wits within a day's journey nay were I to say too I should not be lying anyhow he is certainly the readiest of the whole company to open his purse to give drink to his companions and that one I asked with the large millonies cap on his head who holds an old book that one he answered who was scratching the end of his nose with one hand and his beard with the other that one I replied and who has turned towards us why he said that is Roger Bonton a merry, careless fellow who up to the age of 50 kept the Paris school but changing his first trade he has become a wine grower however he cannot resist the feast days when he brings us his old books and reads to us as long as we choose such works as the Calendres des Bergés Faubles des Saupres Le Romain de la Rose Mathiolo Alain Chartier Charles and others neither with his old habit of war-blink and he helps singing on Sundays in the choir and he is called Uguet the other sitting near him looking over his shoulder into his book and wearing a seal skin belt with a yellow buckle is another rich peasant of the village not a bad villain named Lubin who also lives at home and is called the little old man of the neighborhood after this artistic sketch the author dilates on the Goodman Anselm he says this good man possessed a moderate amount of knowledge was a goodish grammarian, a musician somewhat of a sophist and rather given to picking holes and others some of Anselm's conversation is also given and after beginning by describing in glowing terms the bygone days which he and his contemporaries had seen she stated to be very different to the present he goes on to say I must own my good old friends that I look back with pleasure on our young days at all events the mode of doing things in those days was very superior and better in every way to that of the present oh happy days oh fortunate times when our fathers and grandfathers whom may god absolve were still among us and he said this he would raise the rim of his hat he contended himself as to dress with a good coat of thick wool well lined according to the fashion and for feast days and other important occasions one of thick cloth lined with some old gabardine so we see says Monsieur le roue de l'anci at the end of the 15th century that the old peasants complained of the changes in the village customs and of the luxury that everyone wished to display in his furniture or apparel on this point it seems there has been little or no change we read that from the time of Homer down to the excellent author of rustic discourses and even later the old people found fault with the manners of the present generation and extolled those of their forefathers which they themselves had criticized in their own youth End of Section 8 Recording by Donna Stewart, Seattle, Washington Section 9 of Manor's Customs and Dress This is a LibriVox recording All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain For more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org Recording by Ruth Golding Manor's Customs and Dress during the Middle Ages and during the Renaissance period by Paul Lacroix Section 9 Food and Cookery History of bread vegetables and plants used in cooking fruits, butchers, meat poultry, game milk, butter, cheese and eggs fish and shellfish beverages, beer, cider wine, sweet wine refreshing drinks, brandy Cookery Soups, boiled food pies, stews salads, roasts, grills seasoning, truffles sugar, verjuice sweets, desserts, pastry meals and feasts rules of serving at table from the 15th to the 16th centuries The private life of a people says Le Grand Dossier who had studied that of the French from a gastronomic point of view only from the foundation of monarchy down to the 18th century must, like that of mankind generally, commence with obtaining the first and most pressing of its requirements. Not satisfied with providing food for his support man has endeavoured to add to his food something which pleased his taste. He does not wait to be hungry, but he anticipates that feeling and aggravates it by condiments and seasonings. In a word his greediness has created on this score a very complicated and widespread science which amongst nations which are considered civilized has become most important and is designated the culinary art. At all times the people of every country have strained the nature of the soil on which they lived by forcing it to produce that which it seemed destined to refuse them. Such food as human industry was unable to obtain from any particular soil or from any particular climate commerce undertook to bring from the country which produced it. This caused Rabelay to say that the stomach was the father and master of industry. We will rapidly glance over the elementary matters which our forefathers obtained from the animal and vegetable kingdom and then trace the progress of culinary art and examine the rules of feasts and such matters as belong to the Epicurean customs of the Middle Ages. Alamance Bread the galls who principally inhabited deep and thick forests fed on herbs and fruits and particularly on acorns it is even possible that the veneration in which they held the oak had no other origin. This primitive food continued in use at least in times of famine up to the eighth century and we find in the regulations of St. Croedigand that if in consequence of a bad year the acorn or beech-nut became scarce it was the bishop's duty to provide something to make up for it. Eight centuries later when René Dubelay Bishop of Moles came to report to Francis I the fearful poverty of his diocese he informed the king that the inhabitants in many places were reduced to subsisting on acorn bread. In the earliest times bread was cooked under the embers the use of ovens was introduced into Europe by the Romans who had found them in Egypt but notwithstanding this importation the old system of cooking was long after employed for in the tenth century Rambol, abbot of the monastery of Saint Thierry Nyrins ordered in his will that on the day of his death bread cooked under the embers Parnes subchinericios should be given to his monks. By feudal law the lord was bound to bake the bread of his vassals for which they were taxed but the latter often preferred to cook their flour at home rather than to carry it to the public oven. It must be stated that the custom of leavening the dough by the addition of a ferment was not universally adopted amongst the ancients for this reason as the dough without leaven could only produce a heavy and indigestible bread they were careful in order to secure their loaves being thoroughly cooked to make them very thin. These loaves served as plates for cutting up the other food upon and when they thus became saturated with the sauce and gravy they were eaten as cakes. The use of the torto small crusty loaves which were at first called tranchoir and subsequently tailloir remained long in fashion even at the most splendid banquets. Thus in 1336 the Dauphin of Vienna Humbert II had inside the small white bread four small loaves to serve as tranchoir at table. The Ménagier de Paris mentions des peins de tranchoir half a foot in diameter and four fingers deep and Frasard, the historian also speaks of tailloir. It would be difficult to point out the exact period at which leavening bread was adopted in Europe but we can assert that in the Middle Ages it was anything but general. Yeast, which according to Pliny was already known to the Gauls was reserved for pastry and it was only at the end of the 16th century that the bakers of Paris used it for bread. At first the trades of miller and baker were carried on by the same person. The man who undertook the grinding of the grain had ovens near his mill which he led to his lord bread when he did not confine his business to persons who sent him their corn to grind. At a later period public bakers established themselves who not only baked the loaves which were brought to them already needed but also made bread which they sold by weight and this system was in existence until very recently in the provinces. Charlemagne, in his capitulaire statutes, fixed the number of bakers in each city according to the population and Saint Louis relieved them as well as the millers from taking their turn at the watch so that they might have no pretext for stopping or neglecting their work which he considered of public utility. Nevertheless bakers as a body never became rich or powerful. It is pretty generally believed that the name of Boulanger Baker originated from the fact that the shape of the loaves made at one time was very like that of a round ball. But loaves varied so much in form, quality and consequently in name that in his dictionary of obscure words the learned du conge specifies at least twenty sorts made during the 12th and 13th centuries and amongst them may be mentioned the court loaf, the pope's loaf the knight's loaf the squire's loaf the pier's loaf the valet's loaf, etc. The most celebrated bread was the white bread of Chagy or Chilly a village four leagues ten miles south of Paris which necessarily appeared at all the tables of the elite of the 14th century. The paimolle, or soft bread made with milk and butter although much in use before this only became fashionable on the arrival of Marie de Medici in France 1600 on account of this Tuscan princess finding it so much to her taste that she would eat no other. The ordinary market bread of Paris comprised a rousseau bread made of meslin and employed for soup the bourgeoisie bread and the chelon, or customers bread which last was a general name given to all descriptions which were sent daily from the neighbouring villages to the capital. Amongst the best known varieties we will only mention the courbet bread, the dog bread the bread of two colours which last was composed of alternate layers of wheat and rye and was used by persons of small means. There was also the gonnès bread which has maintained its reputation to this day. The table loaves which in the provinces were served at the tables of the rich were of such a convenient size that one of them would suffice for a man of ordinary appetite even after the crust was cut off which it was considered polite to offer to the ladies who soaked it in their soup. For the servants an inferior bread was baked called common bread. In many counties one called the bread before putting it into the oven with powdered linseed a custom which still exists. They usually added salt to the flour accepting in certain localities especially in Paris where on account of its price they only mixed it with the expensive qualities. The wheats which were long most esteemed for baking purposes were those of bruit, champagne and bassigny while those of the Dauphiné were held of little value because they were said to contain so many tears and worthless grains that the bread made from them produced headache and other ailments. An ancient chronicle of the time of Charlemagne makes mention of a bread twice baked or biscuit. This bread was very hard and easier to keep than any other description. It was also used as now for provisioning ships or towns threatened with a siege as well as in religious houses. At a later period delicate biscuits were made of a sort of dry and crumbling pastry which retained the original name. As early as the 16th century France had earned a great renown for these articles of food. Bread made with barley, oats or millet worked as coarse food to which the poor only had recourse in years of want. Barley bread was, besides used as a kind of punishment and monks who had committed any serious offence against discipline were condemned to live on it for a certain period. Rye bread was held of very little value although in certain provinces such as Lyonnais, Forres and Auvergne it was very generally used among people and contributed Cès-Broyerin-Champier in his treatise Des Rés Qibarias to preserve beauty and freshness amongst women. At a later period the doctors of Paris frequently ordered the use of bread made half of wheat and half of rye as a means of preserving the health. Black wheat or buck wheat which was introduced into Europe by the Moors and Saracens when they conquered Spain quickly spread to the northern provinces especially to Flanders whereby its easy culture and almost certain yield it averted much suffering from the inhabitants who were continually being threatened with famine. It was only later that maize or turkey wheat was cultivated in the south and that rice came into use. But these two kinds of grain both equally useless for bread were employed the one for fattening poultry and the other for making cakes which, however, were little appreciated. Vegetables and plants used in cooking. From the most ancient historical documents we find that at the very earliest period of the French monarchy fresh and dried vegetables were the ordinary food of the population. Pliny and Columella attribute a Gallic origin to certain roots and among them onions and parsnips which the Romans cultivated in their gardens for use at their tables. It is evident, however, that vegetables were never considered as being capable of forming solid nutriments since they were almost exclusively used by monastic communities when under vows of extreme abstinence. A statute of Charlemagne in which the useful plants which the emperor desired should be cultivated in his domains are detailed shows us that at that period the greater part of our cooking vegetables were in use for we find mentioned in it fennel, garlic, parsley shallot, onions, watercress andif, lettuce beetroot, cabbage leeks, carrots, artichokes besides long beans broad beans peas or Italian veggies and lentils. In the thirteenth century the plants fit for cooking went under the general appellation of aigre and amongst them at a later date were ranked oranges, lemons and other acid fruits. St. Louis added to this category even fruits with hard rinds such as walnuts, filberts and chestnuts but the fruterers of Paris received its statutes in 1608 they were still called vendors of fruits and aigre The vegetables and cooking plants noticed in the ménagier de Paris which dates from the fourteenth century and in the treatise d'Obsonies of Platina the name adopted by the Italian Bartholomew Saki which dates from the fifteenth century do not lead us to suppose that elementary horticulture had made much progress since the time of Charlemagne. Moreover, we are astonished to find the thistle placed among choice dishes though it cannot be the common thistle that is meant but probably this somewhat general appellation refers to the vegetable marrow which is still found on the tables of the higher classes or perhaps the artichoke which we know to be only a kind of product by cultivation and which at that period had been recently imported. About the same date melons begin to appear but the management of this vegetable fruit was not much known it was so imperfectly cultivated in the northern provinces that in the middle of the sixteenth century Breurard-Champier speaks of the Longadocians as alone knowing how to produce excellent wine. Thus called sable's chars estienne and liable in the Mésor rustique because gardeners watered them with honeyed or sweetened water. The watermelons have never been cultivated but in the south. Cabbage is the elementary reputation of which dates from the remotest times were already of several kinds most of which have descended to us amongst them may be mentioned the apple-headed, the Roman the white, the common white-head, the Easter cabbage, etc. But the one held in the highest estimation was the famous cabbage of Saint-Lee whose leaves, say an ancient author, when opened exhaled a smell more agreeable than musk or amber. This species no doubt fell into disuse when the man of employing aromatic herbs in cooking which was so much in repute by our ancestors was abandoned. By a strange coincidence at the same period as marjoram, caraway seed, sweet basil, coriander lavender and rosemary were used to add their pungent flavour to sauces and hashes on the same tables might be found herbs of the coldest and most insipid kinds such as mallows, some kinds of mosses etc. Cucumber, though rather in request was supposed to be an unwholesome vegetable because it was said that the inhabitants of Forres, who ate much of it, were subject to periodical fevers which might really have been caused by noxious emanation from the ponds with which that country abounded. Lentils considered so wholesome were also long looked upon as a doubtful vegetable. According to Liebel they were difficult to digest and otherwise injurious. They inflamed the inside, affected the sight and brought on the nightmare etc. On the other hand small fresh beans especially those sold at Landy Fair were used in the most delicate repasts peas passed as a royal dish in the 16th century when the custom was to eat them with salt pork. Turnips were also most esteemed by the Parisians. This vegetable is to them says Charles Estienne what large radishes are to the limousins. The best was supposed to come from Maison, Vos Girards and Aubert Villiers. Lastly there were four kinds of pettices grown in France according to Liebel in 1574. The small, the common, the curled and the Roman. The seed of the last named was sent to France by François Rable when he was in Rome with Cardinal Dubelle in 1537 and the salad made from it consequently received the name of Roman salad which it has ever since retained. In fact our ancestors were much appreciated salads for there was not a banquet without at least three or four different kinds. Fruits Western Europe was originally very poor in fruits and it only improved by foreign importations mostly from Asia by the Romans. The apricot came from Armenia the pistachio nuts and plums from Syria the peach and nut from Persia Ceresis the lemon from Medea the filbert from the helispont and chestnuts from Castana a town of Magnesia. We are also indebted to Asia for almonds. The pomegranate according to some came from Africa to others from Cyprus. The quints from Sidon in Crete the olive, fig, pear and apple from Greece. The statutes of Charlemagne show us that almost all these fruits were reared in his gardens and that some of them were of several kinds or varieties. A considerable period however elapsed before the finest and more luscious productions of the garden became as it were almost forced on nature by artificial means. Thus in the 16th century we find Rabelais Charles Estienne a boisière, physician to Henry IV praising the Corvée peach which was only an inferior and almost wild sort and describing it as having dry and solid flesh not adhering to the stone. The culture of this fruit which was not larger than a damask plum had then, according to Champier, only just been introduced into France. It must be remarked here that Jacques Coitier, physician to Louis XI, in order to curry favour with his master who was very fond of new fruits, took us his crest and apricot tree from which he was jokingly called Abrie Coitier. It must be owned that great progress has been made in the culture of the plum, the pear and the apple. Champier says that the best plums are the Royal, the Père Trégant and the Dama of Tours. Olivier de Serre mentions eighteen kinds amongst which, however, we do not find the celebrated Rennes-Claude, Green Gauge which owes its name to the daughter of Louis XII, first wife of Francis I. Of pears the most esteemed in the 13th century were the Astiveaux which was an early sort and no doubt the golden pear of Saint-Jean. The Cailloux or Chailloux a hard pear which came from Cailloux in Burgundy and Longoise, Agony so called on account of its bitterness which, however, totally disappeared in cooking. In the 16th century the palm is given to the Cuis d'âme or madame. The bon chrétien brought it is said by Saint-François de Paul Bergamotte, which came from Bergamo in Lombardy the Tambonne so named from its aroma and the Cailloux Rosa a rose-water pear. Amongst apples the Blondureau hard white of Auvergne the Rouveau and the Paradis of Provence are of oldest repute. This reminds us of the couplet by the author of the street of the 13th century. Prime et pomme de Rouveau et d'auvergne le Blondureau give me first the russet apple and the hard white frutable verne. The quince which was so generally cultivated in the Middle Ages was looked upon as the most useful of all fruits. Not only did it form the basis of the farmer's dried preserves of the Orléans called Cotignac a sort of marmalade but it was also used for seasoning meat. The Portugal quince was the most esteemed and the Cotignac of Orléans had such a reputation that boxes of this fruit were always given to kings, queens and princes on entering the towns of France. It was the first offering made to Joan of Arc on her bringing reinforcements to the English siege. Several sorts of cherries were known but these did not prevent the small wild or wood cherry from being appreciated at the tables of the citizens whilst the Cornouille or wild Cornelian cherry was hardly touched accepting by the peasants. Thence came the proverbial expression more particularly in use at Orléans when a person made a silly remark he has eaten Cornelians i.e. he speaks like a rustic. In the 13th century chestnuts from Lombardy were hawked in the streets but in the 16th century the chestnuts of the Lyonnais and Auvergne were substituted and were to be found on the royal table. Four different sorts of figs in equal estimation were brought from Marseille Nîmes, Saint-Andéole and Ponce-Saint-Esprit and in Provence filberts were to be had in such profusion that they supplied from there all the tables of the kingdom. The Portuguese claim the honour of having introduced oranges from China however in an account of the house of Humbert Dauphin of Viennois in 1333 i.e. long before the expeditions of the Portuguese to India mention is made for some of money being paid for transplanting orange trees. In the time of Breyrin-Champier physician to Henry II raspberries were still completely wild. The same author states that wood-strawberries had only just at that time been introduced into gardens by which he says they had attained a larger size though they at the same time lost their quality. The vine are climatised and propagated by the Gauls ever since the followers of Brenovus had brought it from Italy five hundred years before the Christian era never ceased to be productive and even to constitute the natural wealth of the country. In the sixteenth century L'Éboe enumerated nineteen sorts of grapes and Olivier de Serre twenty-four amongst which notwithstanding the eccentricities of the ancient names we believe that we can trace a greater part of those plants which are now cultivated in France. For instance it is known that the excellent vines of Tomerri near Fontainebleau which yield in abundance the most beautiful table-grape which art and care can produce were already in use in the reign of Henry IV. In the time of the Gauls the custom of drying grapes by exposing them to the sun or to a certain amount of artificial heat was already known. And very soon after the same means were adopted for preserving plums an industry in which then as now the people of Tours and Rains excelled. Drying apples in an oven was also the custom and formed delicacy which was reserved for winter in spring banquets. Dried fruits were also brought from abroad as mentioned in the Book of Streetcriers in Paris. Figue de Melité sont fin J'ai Roisan d'Autre-Mère Roisan. Figs from Malta without end and grapes from over the sea. End of section 9