 section 14 of Manners, Customs and Dress. Repasts and Feasts. We have had to treat elsewhere of the rules and regulations of the repasts under the Merovingian and Carlovingian kings. We have also spoken of the table service of the thirteenth century, c. CHAPTER ON PRIVATE LIFE. The earliest author who has left us any documents on this curious subject is that excellent bourgeois to whom we owe the ménagier de Paris. He describes, for instance, in its fullest details, a repast which was given in the fourteenth century by the Abbe de Lanyee, to the Bishop of Paris, the President of the Parliament, the King's Attorney and Advocate, and other members of his council, in all sixteen guests. We find from this account that, quote, my lord of Paris, occupying the place of honour, was, in consequence of his rank, served on covered dishes by three of his squires, as was the custom for the king, the royal princes, the dukes, and peers. That master-president, who was seated by the side of the bishop, was also served by one of his own servants, but on uncovered dishes, and the other guests were seated at table according to the order indicated by their titles or charges, end quote. The bill affair of this feast, which was given on a fast day, is the more worthy of attention, in that it proves to us what numerous resources cookery already possessed. This was especially the case as regards fish, notwithstanding that the transport of fresh sea fish was so difficult owing to the bad state of the roads. First a quarter of a pint of Cronach was given to each guest on sitting down, then, quote, hot est chaud des roast apples with white sugar-plums upon them, roasted figs, sorrel and watercress and rosemary, end quote. Soups A rich soup composed of six trout, six tenches, white herring, freshwater eels, salted twenty-four hours, and three whiting, soaked twelve hours, almonds, ginger, saffron, cinnamon powder, and sweet meats. Saltwater fish, souls, guernets, congas, turbots, and salmon. Freshwater fish, looks, fardies, pike with row, carps from the man, breams. Side dishes, lampreys à la beurre, orange apples, one for each guest, porpoise with sauce, mackerel, souls, bream, and chad à la cameline, with verjuice, rice, and fried almonds upon them, sugar, and apples. Dessert, stewed fruit with white and vermilion sugar-plums, figs, dates, grapes, and filbits. Hippocrates, for issue de table, with oublie and supplication. Wines and spices compose the bought ore, end quote. To this fasting repast we give by way of contrast the bill of fare at the nuptial feast of Master Ellie, quote, to which forty guests were bidden on a Tuesday in May, a day of flesh, end quote. Soups, capons with white sauce, ornamented with pomegranate and crimson sweet meats. Roasts, quarter of rodea, gozlings, young chickens, and sauces of orange, cameline, and verjuice. Side dishes, jellies of crayfish and loach, young rabbits, and pork. Dessert, fraumonté, and venison. Issue, Hippocrates, bought ore, wine, and spices, end quote. The clever editor of the ménagier de Paris, M. Le Baron Jérôme Pichon, after giving us this curious account of the mode of living of the citizens of that day, thus sums up the whole arrangements for the table in the fourteenth century, quote. The different provisions necessary for food are usually entrusted to the squires of the kitchen, and were chosen, purchased, and paid for by one or more of these officials, assisted by the cooks. The dishes prepared by the cooks were placed by the help of the squires on dressers in the kitchen until the moment of serving. Thence they were carried to the tables. Let us imagine a vast hall hung with tapestries and other brilliant stuffs. The tables are covered with fringed tablecloths and strewn with odoriferous herbs. One of them, called the Great Table, is reserved for the persons of distinction. The guests are taken to their seats by two butlers, who bring them water to wash. The Great Table is laid out by a butler, with silver salt-sellers, golden goblets with lids for the high personages, spoons, and silver drinking-cups. The guests eat at least certain dishes in tranchoir, or large slices of thick bread, afterwards thrown into vases called couloirs, drainers. For the other tables the salt is placed on pieces of bread, scooped up for that purpose by the intendants, who are called porte-chup. In the hall is a dresser covered with plate and various kinds of wine. Two squires, standing near this dresser, give the guests clean spoons, pour out what wine they ask for, and remove the silver when used. Two other squires superintend the conveyance of wine to the dresser. A violet, placed under their orders, is occupied with nothing but drawing wine from the casks. End quote. At that time wine was not bottled, and they drew directly from the cask the amount necessary for the day's consumption. Quote. The dishes, consisting of three, four, five, and even six courses, called meh, or asiet, are brought in by violets and two of the principal squires, and in certain wedding-feasts the bridegroom walked in front of them. The dishes are placed on the table by an assaeur, placer, assisted by two servants. The latter take away the remains at the conclusion of the course, and hand them over to the squires of the kitchen, who have charge of them. After the meh, or asiet, the tablecloths are changed, and the entre meh are then brought in. This course is the most brilliant of the repast, and at some of the princely banquets the dishes are made to imitate a sort of theatrical representation. It is composed of sweet dishes, of coloured jellies, of swans, of peacocks, or of pheasants adorned with their feathers, having the beak and feet guilt, and placed on the middle of the table on a sort of pedestal. To the entre meh, a course which does not appear on all bills of fair, succeeds the dessert. The issu, or exit from the table, is mostly composed of hippocrats and a sort of oublie called messier, or in summer, when hippocrats is out of season on a count of its strength, of apples, cheeses, and sometimes of pastries and sweetmeats. The bout or, wines and spices, end the repast. The guests then wash their hands, say grace, and pass into the chambre de parlement, or drawing-room. The servants then sit down and dine after their masters. They subsequently bring the guests wine and a piste de chambre, after which each retires home. End quote. But all the pomp and magnificence of the feasts of this period would have appeared poultry a century later, when royal banquets were managed by Thayavon, head cook to Charles VII. The historian of French cookery, Le Grand Dossier, thus describes a great feast, given in 1455, by the Count of Anjou, third son of Louis II, King of Sicily. Quote, On the table was placed a centerpiece, which represented a green lawn, surrounded with large peacock's feathers and green branches, to which were tied violets and other sweet-smelling flowers. In the middle of this lawn a fortress was placed covered with silver. This was hollow, and formed a sort of cage, in which several live birds were shut up, their tufts and feet being gilt. On its tower, which was gilt, three banners were placed, one bearing the arms of the Count, the two others, those of Me de Moiseuil de Château-Brain and de Villecuil, in whose honour the feast was given. The first course consisted of a civet of hair, a quarter of stag, which had been a knight in salt, a stuffed chicken, and a loin of veal. The two last dishes were covered with a German sauce, with gilt sugar plums and pomegranate seeds. At each end outside the green lawn was an enormous pie, surmounted with smaller pies, which formed a crown. The crust of the large ones was silvered all round and gilt at the top. Each contained a whole rodea, a gozzling, three capons, six chickens, ten pigeons, one young rabbit, and, no doubt to serve as seasoning or stuffing, a minced loin of veal, two pounds of fat, and twenty-six hard-boiled eggs, covered with saffron and flavoured with cloves. For the three following courses there was a rodea, a pig, a sturgeon cooked in parsley and vinegar, and covered with powdered ginger, a kid, two gozzlings, twelve chickens, as many pigeons, six young rabbits, two herons, a leveret, a fat capon stuffed, four chickens covered with yolks of eggs, and sprinkled with powdered de duque, spice, a wild boar, some wafers, daryol, and stars, a jelly, part white and part red, representing the crests of the three above mentioned persons, cream with duque powder covered with fennel seeds preserved in sugar, a white cream, cheese in slices, and strawberries, and lastly plums stewed in rose water. Besides these four courses there was a fifth entirely composed of the prepared wines then in vogue and of preserves. These consisted of fruits and various sweet pastries. The pastries represented stags and swans, to the necks of which were suspended the arms of the count of Anjou and those of the two young ladies. End quote. In great houses dinner was announced by the sound of the hunting-horn. This is what Frossa calls corne l'athiette, but which was at an earlier period called corne l'eau, because it was the custom to wash the hands before sitting down to table as well as on leaving the dining-room. For these ablutions scented water, and especially rose water, was used, brought in ewers of precious and delicately wrought metals by pages or squires who handed them to the ladies in silver basins. It was at about this period, that is in the times of chivalry, that the custom of placing the guests by couples was introduced, generally a gentleman and lady, each couple having but one cup and one plate, hence the expression to eat from the same plate. Historians relate that in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries at certain gala feasts the dishes were brought in by servants in full armour mounted on comparison horses, but this is a custom exclusively attached to chivalry. As early as those days powerful and ingenious machines were in use which lowered from the story above or raised from that below ready-served tables which were made to disappear after use as if by enchantment. At that period the table-service of the wealthy required a considerable staff of retainers and violets, and at a later period this number was much increased. Thus, for instance, when Louis of Orléans went on a diplomatic mission to Germany from his brother Charles VI, this prince, in order that France might be worthily represented abroad, raised the number of his household to more than two hundred and fifty persons, of whom about one hundred were retainers and table attendants. Olivier de la Marche, who in his memoir gives the most minute details of the ceremonial of the court of Charles the Bold, Duke of Burgundy, tells us that the table-service was as extensive as in the other great princely houses. This extravagant and ruinous pomp fell into disuse during the reigns of Louis XI, Charles VIII, and Louis XII, but reappeared in that of France as the first. This prince, after his first wars in Italy, imported the cookery and the gastronomic luxury of that country, where the art of good living, especially in Venice, Florence, and Rome, had reached the highest degree of refinement and magnificence. Henry II and France II maintained the magnificence of their royal tables, but after them, notwithstanding the soft effeminacy of the manners at court, the continued wars which Henry III and Charles IX had to sustain in their own states against the Protestants and the League, necessitated a considerable economy in the households and tables of those kings. It was only by fits and starts, says Brandtum, that one was well fed during this reign, for very often circumstances prevented the proper preparation of the repasts, a thing much disliked by the courtiers, who prefer open table to be kept at both court and with the army, because it then costs them nothing. Henry IV was neither fastidious nor greedy. We must therefore come down to the reign of Louis XIII to find a vestige of the splendour of the banquets of France since the first. From the establishment of the francs in Gaulle down to the 15th century inclusive there were but two meals a day. People dined at ten o'clock in the morning and supped at four in the afternoon. In the 16th century they put back dinner one hour and supper three hours to which many people objected, hence the old proverb. To rise at six, dine at ten, supp at six, to bed at ten, makes man live ten times ten. End of section 14. Section 15 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 Donna Stewart. Manor's Customs and Dress during the Middle Ages and during the Renaissance period by Paul Lacroix. Section 15. Hunting. Vennery and Hawking. Origin of Isla Chapelle. Gaston Fieber sent his book. The presiding deities of sportsmen. Sporting societies and brotherhoods. Sporting kings. Charlemagne. Louis IX. Louis XI. Charles VIII. Louis XII. Francis I. Etc. Treatise on Vennery. Sporting popes. Origin of Hawking. Training birds. Hawking retinues. Book of King Modus. Technical terms used in Hawking. Persons who have excelled in this kind of sport. Fowling. By the general term hunting is included the three distinct branches of an art, or it may be called a science, which dates its origin from the earliest times but which was particularly esteemed in the Middle Ages and was especially cultivated in the glorious days of chivalry. Vennery, which is the earliest, is defined by Monsieur Elzay Arblaise as the science of snaring, taking or killing one particular animal from amongst a herd. Hawking came next. This was not only the art of hunting with the falcon, but that of training birds of prey to hunt feathered game. Lastly, Lois-Zell Rie, Fowling, which according to the author of several well-known works on the subject we are discussing, had originally no other object than that of protecting the crops and fruits from birds and other animals whose nature it was to feed on them. Vennery will be first considered. Sportsmen always pride themselves in placing Xenophon, the general philosopher and historian, at the head of sporting writers, although his treatise on the chase, translated from Greek into Latin under the title of De Venatione, which gives excellent advice respecting the training of dogs, only speaks of traps and nets for capturing wild animals. Amongst the Greeks, Arian and Opian, and amongst the Romans, Gradius Feliscus and Nemesianus, wrote on the same subject. Their works, however, except in a few isolated or scattered passages, do not contain anything about Vennery properly so called, and the first historical information on the subject is to be found in the records of the Seventh Century. Long after that period, however, they still hunted, as it were, at random, attacking the first animal they met. The sports of Charlemagne, for instance, were almost always of this description. On some occasions they killed animals of all sorts by thousands after having tracked and driven them into an enclosure composed of cloths or nets. This illustrious emperor, although usually at war in all parts of Europe, never missed an opportunity of hunting. So much so that it might be said that he rested himself by galloping through forests. He was, on these occasions, not only followed by a large retinue of huntsman and a tendence of his household, but he was accompanied by his wife and daughters, mounted on magnificent coarsers, and surrounded by a numerous and elegant court who vied with each other in displaying their skill and courage in attacking the fiercest animals. It is even stated that Isla Chapelle owes its oraging to a hunting adventurer of Charlemagne. The emperor, one day, while chasing a stag, required to cross a brook which came in his path, but immediately his horse had set foot in the water, he pulled it out again and began to limp as if it were hurt. His noble rider dismounted, and on feeling the foot, found it was quite hot. This induced him to put his hand into the water, which he found to be almost boiling. On that very spot, therefore, he caused a chapel to be erected in the shape of a horse's hoof. The town was afterwards built, and to this day the spring of hot mineral water is enclosed under a rotunda, the shape of which reminds one of the old legend of Charlemagne and his horse. The sons of Charlemagne also held hunting in much esteem, and by degrees the art of venery was introduced and carried to great perfection. It was not, however, until the end of the 13th century that an anonymous author conceived the idea of writing its principal precepts in an instructive poem called Le Dî de la Chasse du Seuf. In 1328 another anonymous writer composed the Live du Roi Maudou, which contains the rules for hunting all furred animals from the stag to the hare. Then followed other poets and writers of French prose such as Gas de Lavigne, 1359, Gaston Phoebus, 1387, and Hardouin, Lord of Fontaine Guerin, 1394. None of these, however, wrote exclusively on venery, but described the different sports known in their day. Toward 1340 Alphonse XI, King of Castile, caused a book on hunting to be compiled for his use, but it was not so popular as the instruction of Gaston Phoebus. If hunting with hounds is known everywhere by the French name of the Chase, it is because the honor of having organized it into a system, if not having originated it, is due to the early French sporting authors who were able to form a code of rules for it. This also accounts for so many of the technical terms now in use in venery being of French origin, as they are no others than those adopted by these ancient authors whose works, so to speak, have perpetuated them. The curious miniatures which accompany the text in the original manuscript of Gaston Phoebus, and which have been reproduced in nearly all the ancient copies of this celebrated manuscript, give most distinct and graphic ideas of the various modes of hunting. We find, for instance, that the use of an artificial cow for approaching wild fowl was understood at that time, the only difference being that a model was used more like a horse than a cow. We also see sportsmen shooting at bears, wild boars, stags, and such live animals with arrows having sharp iron points, intended to enter deep into the flesh not withstanding the thickness of the fur and the creature's hard skin. In the case of the hare, however, the missile had a heavy, massive end, probably made of lead, which stunned him without piercing his body. In other cases, the sportsmen is represented with a crossbow seated in a cart, all covered up with bows, by which plan he was supposed to approach the prey without alarming it any more than a swinging branch would do. Gaston Phoebus is known to have been one of the bravest knights of his time, and after fighting, he considered hunting as his greatest delight. Somewhat ingenuously, he writes of himself as a hunter that he doubts having any superior. Like all his contemporaries, he is eloquent as to the moral effect of his favorite pastime. By hunting, he says, one avoids the sin of indolence, and, according to our faith, he who avoids the seven mortal sins will be saved. Therefore the good sportsmen will be saved. From the earliest ages, sportsmen placed themselves under the protection of some special deity. Among the Greeks and Romans it was Diana and Phoebe. The Gauls, who had adopted the greater number of the gods and goddesses of Rome, invoked the moon when they sallied forth to war or to the chase. But as soon as they penetrated the sacred obscurity of the forests, they appealed more particularly to the goddess Arduina, whose name of unknown origin has probably since been applied to the immense well-stocked forests of Ardennes. They erected in the depths of the woods monstrous stone figures in honor of this goddess, such as the heads of stags on the bodies of men or women, and, to propitiate her during the chase, they hung round these idols, the feet, the skins, and the horns of the beasts they killed. Curnanus, who was always represented with a human head surmounted by stag's horns, had an altar even in Lutitia, which was no doubt in consequence of the great woods which skirted the banks of the Sen. The Gallic Curnanus, which we also find among the Romans since Ovid mentions the votary stag's horns, continued to be worshipped to a certain extent after the establishment of the Christian religion. In the fifth century, Germain an intrepid hunter, who afterwards became Bishop of Oaksair, possessed not far from his residence an oak of enormous diameter, a thorough Curnanus, which he hung with the skins and other portions of animals he had killed in the chase. In some countries, where the Curnanus remained an object of veneration, everybody bedected in the same way. The largest oak to be found in the district was chosen on which to suspend the trophies both of warriors and of hunters. And at a more recent period, sportsmen used to hang outside their doors, stag's heads, boar's feet, birds of prey, and other trophies, a custom which was evidently a relic of the one referred to. On pagan idolatry being abandoned, hunters used to have a presiding genius or protector whom they selected from amongst the saints most in renown. Some chose Saint Germain of Oaksair, who had himself been a sportsman, others Saint Martin, who had been a soldier before he became Bishop of Tours. Eventually they all agreed to place themselves under the patronage of Saint Hubert Bishop of Liège, a renowned hunter of the 8th century. This saint devoted himself to a religious life after one day haying encountered a miraculous stag whilst hunting in the woods, which appeared to him as bearing between his horns a luminous image of our savior. At first the feast of Saint Hubert was celebrated four times a year, namely at the anniversaries of his conversion and death, and on the two occasions on which his relics were exhibited. At the celebration of each of these feasts a large number of sportsmen in fine apparel came from great distances with their horses and dogs. There was in fact no magnificence or pomp deemed too imposing to be displayed both by the kings and nobles in honour of the patron saint of hunting. Hunters and sportsmen in those days formed brotherhoods, which had their rank defined at public ceremonials and especially in processions. In 1455 Gerard, Duke of Cleves and Burgrave of Ravensburg created the order of the Knights of Saint Hubert, into which those of noble blood only were admitted. The insignia consisted of a gold or silver chain formed of hunting horns, to which was hung a small likeness of the patron saint in the act of doing homage to our Lord's image as it shown on the head of a stag. It was popularly believed that the Knights of Saint Hubert had the power of curing madness, which, for some unknown reason, never showed itself in a pack of hounds. This, however, was not the only superstitious belief attached to the noble and adventurous occupations of the followers of Saint Hubert. Amongst a number of old legends, which mostly belonged to Germany, mention is made of hunters who sold their souls to the devil in exchange for some enchanted arrow which never missed its aim, and which reached game at extraordinary distances. Mention is also made in these legends of various animals which, on being pursued by the hunters, were miraculously saved by throwing themselves into the arms of some saint or by running into some holy sanctuary. There were, besides knights who, having hunted all their lives, believed that they were to continue the same occupation in another world. An account is given in history of the apparition of a fiery phantom to Charles the Ninth in the Forest of Lyon, and also the ominous meeting of Henry IV with a terrible grand venure in the Forest of Fontainebleau. We may account for these strange tales from the fact that hunting formerly constituted a form of free masonry with its mysterious rites and its secret language. The initiated used particular signs of recognition amongst themselves, and they also had lucky and unlucky numbers, emblematical colors, etc. The more dangerous the sport, the more it was indulged in by military men. The Chronicles of the Monk of St. Gaul describe an adventure which befell Charlemagne on the occasion of his setting out with his huntsmen and hounds in order to chase an enormous bear which was the terror of the vogue. The bear, after having disabled numerous dogs and hunters, found himself face to face with the Emperor who alone dared to stand up before him. A fierce combat ensued on the summit of a rock in which both were locked together in a fatal embrace. The contest ended by the death of the bear, Charles striking him with his dagger and hurling him down the precipice. On this the hills resounded with the cry of Vive Charles le Grand, from the numerous huntsmen and others who had assembled. And it is said that this was the first occasion on which the companions of the Attrepid Monarch gave him the title of Grand, Magnus, so from that time King Charles became King Charlemagne. This prince was most jealous of his rights of hunting which he would waive to no one. For a long time he refused permission to the monks of the Abbey of Sandani, whom he nevertheless held in great esteem, to have some stags killed which were destroying their forests. It was only on condition that the flesh of these animals would serve as food to the monks of inferior order and that their hides should be used for binding the missiles that he eventually granted them permission to kill the offending animals. If we pass from the ninth to the thirteenth century we find that Louis the Ninth, King of France, was as keen a sportsman and as brave a warrior as any of his ancestors. He was indeed as fond of hunting as of war and during his first crusade an opportunity occurred to him of hunting the lion. As soon as he began to know the country of Caesarea, as Jean-Ville, the king set to work with his people to hunt lions so that they captured many, but in doing so they incurred great bodily harm. The mode of taking them was this. They pursued them on the swiftest horses. When they came near one they shot a bolt or arrow at him and the animal, feeling himself wounded, ran at the first person he could see who immediately turned his horse's head and fled as fast as he could. During his flight he dropped a portion of his clothing which the lion caught up and tore thinking it was the person who had injured him. And whilst the lion was thus engaged the hunters again approached the infuriated animal and shot more bolts and arrows at him. Soon the lion left the cloth and madly rushed at some other hunter who adopted the same strategy as before. This was repeated until the animal succumbed, becoming exhausted by the wounds he had received. Notwithstanding the passion which this king had for hunting, he was the first to grant leave to the bourgeoisie to enjoy the sport. The condition he made with them was that they should always give a haunch of any animal killed to the lord of the soil. It is to this that we must trace the origin of giving the animal's foot to the huntsman or to the person who has the lead of the hunting party. Louis XI however did not at all act in this liberal manner, and although it might have been supposed that the incessant wars and political intrigues in which he was constantly engaged would have given him no time for amusements of this kind, yet he was nevertheless the keenest sportsman of his day. This tyrant of the castle of Pléciletour, who was always miserly except in matters of hunting, in which he was most lavish, forbade even the higher classes to hunt under penalty of hanging. To ensure the execution of his severe orders he had all the castles as well as the cottages searched and any net, engine or sporting arm found was immediately destroyed. His only son, the heir to the throne, was not exempted from these laws. Shut up in the castle of Amboise, he had no permission to leave it, for it was the will of the king that the young prince should remain ignorant of the noble exercises of chivalry. One day the dauphin prayed his governor, Monsieur Dubouchage, with so much earnestness to give him an idea of hunting, that this noble consented to make an excursion into the neighbouring wood with him. The king, however, managed to find it out, and Dubouchage had great difficulty in keeping his head on his shoulders. One of the best ways of pleasing Louis XI was to offer him some present relating to his favourite pastime, either pointers, hounds, falcons or violets who were adepts in the art of venery or hawking. When the cunning monarch became old and infirm, in order to make his enemies believe that he was still young and vigorous, he sent messengers everywhere, even to the most remote countries, to purchase horses, dogs and falcons, for which, according to Comines, he paid large sums. On his death the young prince Charles VIII succeeded him, and he seems to have had an innate taste for hunting, and soon made up for lost time in the privation to which his father had subjected him. He hunted daily and generously allowed the nobles to do the same. It is scarcely necessary to say that these were not slow in indulging in the privilege thus restored to them, and which was one of their most ancient pastimes and occupations. For it must be remembered that in those days of small intellectual culture hunting must have been a great, if not at times the only, resource against idleness and the monotony of country life. Hunting which related to sport again became fashionable among the youth of the nobility, and their chief occupation when not engaged in war. They continued as formerly to invent every sort of sporting device. For example they obtained from other countries traps, engines and hunting weapons. They introduced into France at great expense foreign animals, which they took great pains in naturalizing as game or in training as auxiliaries and hunting. After having imported the reindeer from Lapland, which did not succeed in their temperate climate, and the pheasant from Tartary, with which they stalked the woods, they imported with greater success the panther and the leopard from Africa, which were used for furred game as the hawk was for feathered game. The mode of hunting with these animals was as follows. The sportsmen, preceded by their dogs, rode across the country, each with a leopard sitting behind him on his saddle. When the dogs had started the game, the leopard jumped off the saddle and sprang after it, and as soon as it was caught the hunters threw the leopard a piece of raw flesh for which he gave up the prey and remounted behind his master. Louis XI, Charles VIII and Louis XII often hunted thus. The leopards, which formed a part of the royal venery, were kept in an enclosure of the castle of Amboise, which still exists near the gate des liens, so-called no doubt, on account of these sporting and carnivorous animals being mistaken for lions by the common people. There were, however, always lions in the menageries of the kings of France. Francis I was quite as fond of hunting as any of his predecessors. His innate taste for sport was increased during his travels in Italy, where he lived with princes who displayed great splendor in their hunting equipages. He even acquired the name of Father of Sportsmen. His netting establishment alone consisted of one captain, one lieutenant, twelve mounted huntsmen, six varlots to attend the bloodhounds, six whips who had under their charge sixty hounds, and one hundred bowmen on foot carrying large stakes for fixing the nets and tents which were carried by fifty six-horst chariots. He was much pleased when the ladies followed the chase, and amongst those who were most inclined to share its pleasures, its toils, and even its perils was Catherine de Medici, then Dauphine, who was distinguished for her agility and her graceful appearance on horseback, and who became a thorough sportswoman. The taste for hunting, having become very general and the art being considered as the most noble occupation to which persons could devote themselves, it is not surprising to find sporting works composed by writers of the greatest renown and of the highest rank. The learned William Boudet, whom Erasmus called the Wonder of France, dedicated to the children of Francis I, the second book of his philologie, which contains a treatise on stag-hunting. This treatise, originally written in Latin, was afterwards translated into French by order of Charles IX, who was acknowledged to be one of the boldest and most scientific hunters of his time. An extraordinary feat which has never been imitated by anyone is recorded of him, and that was that alone, on horseback and without dogs, he hunted down a stag. The Chasse-whial, the authorship of which is attributed to him, is replete with scientific information. Wolfhunting, a work by the celebrated Clay Morgan and Yenery by Dufoulouse, were dedicated to Charles IX, and a great number of special treatises on such subjects appeared in his reign. His brother, the effeminate Henry III, disliked hunting, as he considered it too fatiguing and too dangerous. On the other hand, according to Sully, Henry IV, Le Bernet, who learned hunting in early youth in the Pyrenees, loved all kinds of sport and, above all, the most fatiguing and adventurous pursuits, such as those after wolves, bears, and boars. He never missed a chance of hunting, even when in face of an enemy. If he knew a stag to be near, he found time to hunt it, and we find in the memoirs of Sully, that the king hunted the day after the famous Battle of Ivory. One day, when he was only king of Navarre, he invited the ladies of Beaux to come and see a bear hunt. Happily, they refused, for on that occasion their nerves would have been put to a serious test. Two bears killed two of the horses, and several bowmen were hugged to death by the ferocious animals. Another bear, although pierced in several places and having six or seven pike heads in his body, marched eight men who were stationed on the top of a rock, and the whole of them, with the bear, were all dashed to pieces down the precipice. The only point in which Louis XIII resembled his father was his love of the chase, for during his reign, hunting continued in France, as well as in other countries, to be a favorite royal pastime. We have remarked that Saint-Germain d'Oxer, who at a certain period was the patron of sportsmen, made hunting his habitual relaxation. He devoted himself to it with great keenness in his youth, before he became bishop, that is, when he was duke of Oaxer and general of the troops of the provinces. Subsequently, when against his will he was raised to the episcopal dignity, not only did he give up all pleasures, but he devoted himself to the strictest religious life. Unfortunately, in those days all churchmen did not understand, as he did, that the duties of their holy vocation were not consistent with these pastimes. For in the year 507 we find that councils and synods for bad priests to hunt. In spite of this, however, the ancient historians relate that several noble prelates, yielding to the customs of the times, indulged in hunting the stag and flying the falcon. It is related in history that some of the most illustrious popes were also great lovers of the chase, namely Julius II, Leo X, and previously to them Pius II, who before becoming pope, amongst other literary and scientific works, wrote a Latin treatise on venery under his Christian names Aeneas Silvius. It is easy to understand how it happened that sports formally possessed such attractions for ecclesiastical dignitaries. In early life they acquired the tastes and habits of people of their rank, and they were accordingly extremely jealous of the rites of chase in their domains. Although Pope Clement V in his celebrated institutions, called Clementine, had formally forbidden the monks to hunt. There were few who did not evade the canonical prohibition by pursuing furred game, and that without considering that they were violating the laws of the church. The papal edict permitted the monks and priests to hunt under certain circumstances, and especially where rabbits or beasts of prey increased so much as to damage the crops. It can easily be imagined that such would always be the case at a period when the people were so strictly forbidden to destroy game, and therefore hunting was practiced at all seasons in the woods and fields in the vicinity of each abbey. The jealous peasants, not themselves having the right of hunting, and who continually saw master Abbott passing on his hunting excursions, said with malice that the monks never forgot to pray for the success of the litters and nests. Pro pulleys at needys. In order that game might always be abundant. Section 16 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 LeCroix. Section 16. If venery, as a regular science, dates from a comparatively recent period, it is not so with falconry, the first traces of which are lost in obscure antiquity. This kind of sport which had become a most learned and complicated art was the delight of the nobles of the Middle Ages and during the Renaissance period. It was in such esteem that a nobleman or his lady never appeared in public without a hawk on the wrist as a mark of dignity. Even bishops and Abbots entered the churches with their hunting birds, which they placed on the steps of the altar itself during the service. The bird, like the sword, was a distinctive mark which was inseparable from the person of gentle birth who frequently even went to war with the falcon on his wrist. During the battle he would make his squire hold the bird, which he replaced on his gauntlet when the fight was over. In fact, it was forbidden by the laws of chivalry for persons to give up their birds even as a ransom should they be made prisoners, in which case they had to let the noble birds fly in order that they might not share their captivity. The falcon, to a certain degree, partook of his owner's nobility. He was, moreover, considered a noble bird by the laws of falconry, as were all birds of prey which could be trained for purposes of sport. All other birds, without distinction, were declared ignoble, and no exception was made to this rule by the naturalists of the Middle Ages, even in favor of the strongest and most magnificent, such as the eagle and vulture. According to this capricious classification, they considered the sparrow hawk, which was the smallest of the hunting birds, to rank higher than the eagle. The nickname of this diminutive sporting bird was often applied to a country gentleman who, not being able to afford to keep falcons, used the sparrow hawk to capture partridges and quail. It was customary for gentlemen of all classes, whether sportsmen or not, to possess birds of some kind, to keep up their rank, as the saying then was. Only the richest nobles, however, were expected to keep a regular falconry, that is, a collection of birds suited for taking all kinds of game, such as the hare, the kite, the heron, etc., as each sport not only required special birds, but a particular and distinctive retinue and establishment. Besides the cost of falcons, which was often very great, for they were brought from the most distant countries such as Sweden, Iceland, Turkey, and Morocco, their rearing and training involved considerable outlay, as may be more readily understood from the illustrations, showing some of the principal details of the long and difficult education which had to be given them. To succeed in making the falcon obey the whistle, the voice, and the signs of the falconer, was the highest aim of the art, and it was only by the exercise of much patience that the desired result was obtained. All birds of prey when used for sport received the generic name of falcon, and amongst them were to be found the jure falcon, the sacre hawk, the lanner, the merlin, and the sparrow hawk. The male birds were smaller than the females and were called tircelles. This name, however, more particularly applied to the gas hawk, or the largest kind of male hawk, whereas the males of the above mentioned were called lanneres, sacres, émouchés. Generally the male birds were used for partridges and quail, and the female birds for the hare, the heron, and the crane. Waso de poing, or hand birds, was the name given to the gas hawk, common hawk, the jure falcon, and the merlin, because they returned to the hand of their master after having pursued game. The lanner, sparrow hawk, and sacre hawk were called waso de lurr, from the fact that it was always necessary to entice them back again. The lure was an imitation of a bird made of red cloth that it might be more easily seen from a distance. It was stuffed so that the falcon could settle easily on it and furnished with the wings of a partridge, duck, or heron, according to circumstances. The falconer swung his mock bird like a sling and whistled as he did so, and the falcon, accustomed to find a piece of flesh attached to the lure, flew down in order to obtain it, and was thus secured. The trainers of birds divided them into two kinds, namely the nye, or simple bird, which had been taken from the nest, and the wild bird, agar, captured when full grown. The education of the former was naturally very much easier, but they succeeded in taming both classes, and even the most rebellious were at last subdued by depriving them of sleep, by keeping away the light from them, by coaxing them with a voice, by patting them, by giving them choice food, etc. Regardless of his original habits, the bird was first accustomed to have no fear of men, horses, and dogs. He was afterwards fastened to a string by one leg, and being allowed to fly a short distance was recalled to the lure, where he always found a dainty bit of food. After he had been thus exercised for several months, a wounded partridge was let loose that he might catch it near the falconer, who immediately took it from him before he could tear it to pieces. When he appeared sufficiently tame, a quail or partridge, previously stripped of a few feathers so as to prevent it from flying properly, was put in his way as before. If he was wanted for hunting hares, a stuffed hare was dragged before him, inside of which was a live chicken, whose head and liver was his reward if he did his work well. Then they tried him with a hare whose foreleg was broken in order to ensure his being quickly caught. For the kite they placed two hawks together on the same perch so as to accustom them peaceably to live and hunt together. For if they fought with one another as strange birds were apt to do instead of attacking the kite, the sport would of course have failed. At first a hen the color of a kite was given them to fight with. When they had mastered this a real kite was used, which was tied to a string, and his claws and beak were filed so as to prevent him from wounding the young untrained falcons. The moment they had secured their prey they were called off it and given chickens flesh to eat on the lure. The same system was adopted for hunting the heron or crane. It will be seen that in order to train birds it was necessary for a large number of the various kinds of game to be kept on the premises, and for each branch of sport a regular establishment was required. In falconry, as in venery, great care was taken to secure that a bird should continue at one object of prey until he had secured it. That is to say, it was most essential to teach it not to leave the game he was after in order to pursue another which might come in his way. To establish a falconry, therefore, not only was a very large poultry-yard required, but also a considerable staff of huntsmen, falconers, and whips, besides a number of horses and dogs of all sorts, which were either used for starting the game for the hawks, or for running it down when it was forced to ground by the birds. A well-trained falcon was a bird of great value, and it was the finest present that could be made to a lady, to a nobleman, or to the king himself by anyone who had received a favor. For instance, the king of France received six birds from the Abbot of St. Hubert as a token of gratitude for the protection granted by him to the abbey. The king of Denmark sent him several as a gracious offering in the month of April. The grand master of Malta in the month of May. At court in those days the reception of falcons, either in public or in private, was a great business, and the first trial of any new birds formed a topic of conversation among the courtiers for some time after. The arrival at court of a hawk dealer from some distant country was also a great event. It is said that Louis XI gave orders that watch should be kept night and day, to seize any falcons consigned to the Duke of Brittany from Turkey. The plan succeeded, and the birds, thus stolen, were brought to the king, who exclaimed, By our holy Lady of Clary, what will the Duke Francis and his Bretons do? They will be very angry at the good trick I have played them. European princes vied with each other in extravagance as regards falconry. But this was nothing in comparison to the magnificence displayed in Oriental establishments. The Count de Nevere, son of Philip the Bold, Duke of Burgundy, having been made prisoner at the Battle of Nicopolis, was presented to the Sultan Bajazette, who showed him his hunting establishment consisting of seven thousand falconers and as many huntsmen. The Duke of Burgundy, on hearing this, sent twelve white hawks, which were very scarce birds as a present to Bajazette, the Sultan was so pleased with them that he sent him back his son in exchange. The leave du Hois Maudou gives the most minute and curious details on the noble science of hawking. For instance, it tells us that the nobility of the falcon was held in such respect that their utensils, trappings, or feeding dishes were never used for other birds. The glove on which they were accustomed to a light was frequently elaborately embroidered in gold and was never used except for birds of their own species. In the private establishments the leather hoods, which were put on their heads to prevent them seeing, were embroidered with gold and pearls and surmounted with feathers of birds of paradise. Each bird wore on his legs two little bells with his owner's crest upon them. The noise made by these was very distinct and could be heard even when the bird was too high in the air to be seen, for they were not made to sound in unison. They generally came from Italy, Milan especially being celebrated for the manufacture. Straps were also fastened to the falcon's legs by means of which he was attached to the perch. At the end of the strap was a brass or gold ring with the owner's name engraved upon it. In the royal establishments each ring bore on one side I belong to the king and on the other the name of the grand falconer. This was a necessary precaution for the birds frequently strayed and if captured they could thus be recognized and returned. The ownership of a falcon was considered sacred, and by an ancient barbaric law the stealer of a falcon was condemned to a very curious punishment. The unfortunate thief was obliged to allow the falcon to eat six ounces of flesh of his breast, unless he could pay a heavy fine to the owner and another to the king. A man thoroughly acquainted with the mode of training hawks was in high esteem everywhere. If he was a freeman the nobles outbid each other as to who should secure his services. If he was a serf the master kept him as a rare treasure only parted with him as a most magnificent present or sold him for a considerable sum. Like the clever huntsman a good falconer was bound to be a man of varied information on natural history, the veterinary art and the chase. But the profession generally ran in families and the son added his own experience to the lessons of his father. There were also special schools of vennery and falconry, the most renowned being of course in the royal household. The office of Grand Falconer of France, the origin of which dates from 1250, was one of the highest in the kingdom. The Maréchelle de Flouange says in his curious memoirs, the Grand Falconer whose salary is 4,000 florins, the golden florin was worth then 12 or 15 francs and this amount must represent upwards of 80,000 francs of present currency, has 50 gentlemen under him, the salary of each being from 5 to 6,000 livres. He has also 50 assistant falconers at 200 livres each all chosen by himself. His establishment consists of 300 birds. He has the right to hunt wherever he pleases in the kingdom. He levies attacks on all bird dealers who are forbidden under penalty of the confiscation of their stock from selling a single bird in any town or at court without his sanction. The Grand Falconer was chief at all the hunts or hawking meetings. In public ceremonies he always appeared with the bird on his wrist as an emblem of his rank, and the king, whilst hawking, could not let loose his bird until after the Grand Falconer had slipped his. Falconery, like Vennery, had a distinctive and professional vocabulary which it was necessary for everyone who joined in hawking to understand unless he wished to be looked upon as an ignorant yeoman. Flying the hawk is a royal pastime, says the Jesuit Claude Binet, and it is to talk royally to talk of the flight of birds. Everyone speaks of it, but few speak well. Many speak so ignorantly as to excite pity among their hearers. Sometimes one says the hand of the bird instead of saying the talon, sometimes the talon instead of the claw, sometimes the claw instead of the nail, etc. The fourteenth century was the great epic of Falconery. There were then so many nobles who hawked that in the rooms of inns they were purchased made under the large mantelpieces on which to place the birds while the sportsmen were at dinner. Histories of the periods are full of characteristic anecdotes which proved the enthusiasm which was created by hawking in those who devoted themselves to it. Emperors and kings were as keen as others for this kind of sport. As early as the tenth century the Emperor Henry I had acquired the subraque of the birdcatcher, from the fact of his giving much more attention to his birds than to his subjects. His example was followed by one of his successors, the Emperor Henry VI, who was reckoned the first falconer of his time. When his father, the Emperor Frederick Barbarossa, Redbeard, died in the Holy Land in 1189, the Archdukes, electors of the Empire, went out to meet the Prince so as to proclaim him Emperor of Germany. They found him surrounded by dogs, horses and birds ready to go hunting. The day is fine, he said, allow us to put off serious affairs until tomorrow. Two centuries later we find at the court of France the same ardor for hawking and the same admiration for the performances of falcons. The Constable Bertrand de Gesslin gave two hawks to King Charles VI and the Count de Tancerville, whilst witnessing a combat between these two noble birds and a crane, which had been powerful enough to keep two greyhounds at bay, exclaimed, I would not give up the pleasure which I feel for a thousand Florence. The court poet William Creighton, although he was canon of the Holy Chapel of Incense, was as passionately fond of hawking as was his good master Louis XII, he thus describes the pleasure he felt in seeing a heron succumb to the vigorous attack of the falcons. Qui arois l'amour au don, il revivoire d'avoue un tel paston. He who is about to die would live again with such amusement. At a hunting party given by Louis XII to the Archduke Maximilian, Mary of Burgundy, the Archduke's wife, was killed by a fall from her horse. The King presented his best falcons to the Archduke with a view to divert his mind and to turn his attention from the sad event, and one of the historians tells us that the bereaved husband was soon consoled. The partridges Harren's wild ducks and quails which he was unable to take on his journey home by means of the King's present, materially lessening his sorrow. Falconry, after having been in much esteem for centuries, at last became amenable to the same law which affects all great institutions, and having reached the height of its glory it was destined to decay. Although the art disappeared completely under Louis the Great, who only liked stag hunting, and who, by drawing all the nobility to court, disorganized country life, no greater adept had ever been known than King Louis XIII. His first favorite and grand falconer was Albert de Luen, whom he made prime minister and constable. Even in the Tuileries' gardens on his way to Mass at the convent of the Fouillon, this prince amused himself by catching linets and wrens with noisy magpies trained to pursue small birds. It was during this reign that some ingenious person discovered that the words Louis XIII, roi de France et de Navarre, exactly gave this anagram. Roi très rare estimei dieu de la faux connerie. It was also at this time that Charles Darkugia, the last author who wrote a technical work on Falconry, after praising his majesty for devoting himself so thoroughly to the divine sport, compared the king's birds to domestic angels and the carnivorous birds which they destroyed he likened to the devil. From this he argued that the sport was like the angel Gabriel destroying the demon Asmodeus. He also added in his dedication to the king, as the nature of angels is above that of men, so is that of these birds above all other animals. At that time certain religious, or rather superstitious, ceremonies were in use for blessing the water with which the falcons were sprinkled before hunting, and supplications were addressed to the eagles that they might not molest them. The following words were used. I adjure you, O eagles, by the true God, by the holy God, by the most blessed Virgin Mary, by the nine orders of angels, by the holy prophets, by the twelve apostles, etc., to leave the field clear to our birds and not to molest them, in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. It was at this time that in order to recover a lost bird, the Cyr de la Brizardière, a professional necromancer, proposed beating the owner of the bird with birch rods until he bled, and of making a charm with the blood, which was reckoned infallible. Elziar Blaise expressed his astonishment that the ladies should not have used their influence to prevent falconry from falling into disuse. The chase, he considered, gave them an active part in an interesting and animated scene, which only required easy and graceful movements on their part and to which no danger was attached. The ladies knowing, he says, how to fly a bird, how to call him back, and how to encourage him with their voice, being familiar with him, from having continually carried him on their wrist, and often even from having broken him in themselves, the honor of hunting belongs to them by right. Besides, it brings out to advantage their grace and dexterity as they gallop among the sportsmen, followed by their pages and violets, and a whole herd of horses and dogs. The question of precedence and of superiority had at every period been pretty evenly balanced between venery and falconry, each having its own staunch supporters. Thus, in the leave de Juan Muldoo, two ladies contended in verse, for the subject was considered to exalted to be treated of in simple prose, the one for the superiority of the birds, the other for the superiority of dogs. Their controversy is at length terminated by a celebrated huntsman and falconer who decides in favor of venery for the somewhat remarkable reason that those who pursue it enjoy oral and ocular pleasure at the same time. In an ancient treatise by Gas de la Vigne, in which the same question occupies no fewer than ten thousand verses, the king, unnamed, ends the dispute by ordering that in future they shall be termed pleasures of dogs and pleasures of birds, so that there may be no superiority on one side or the other. The court poet William Creighton, who is in great renown during the reigns of Louis XII and Francis I, having asked two ladies to discuss the same subject in verse, does not hesitate, on the contrary, to place falconry above venery. It may fairly be asserted that venery and falconry have taken a position of some importance in history, and in support of this theory it will suffice to mention a few facts borrowed from the annals of the Chase. The King of Navarre, Charles the Bad, had sworn to be faithful to the alliance made between himself and King Edward the Third of England. But the English troops, having been beaten by du Gueslain, Charles saw that it was to his advantage to turn to the side of the King of France. In order not to appear to break his oath, he managed to be taken prisoner by the French whilst out hunting, and thus he sacrificed his honor to his personal interests. It was also due to a hunting party that Henry the Third, another King of Navarre, who was afterwards Henry the Fourth, escaped from Paris on the 3rd February 1576 and fled to Saint-Lis, where his friends of the Reformed religion came to join him. Hunting formed a principal entertainment when public festivals were celebrated, and it was frequently accompanied with great magnificence. At the entry of Isabel of Bavaria into Paris, a sort of stag hunt was performed when the streets, according to a popular story of the time, were full to profusion of hares, rabbits, and goslings. Again, at the solemn entry of Louis the Eleventh into Paris, a representation of a doe hunt took place near the fountain Saint-Innocent, after which the Queen received a present of a magnificent stag made of confectionery and having the royal arms hung round its neck. At the memorable festival given at Lille in 1453 by the Duke of Burgundy, a very curious performance took place. At one end of the table, says the historian Mathieu de Goussi, a heron was started which was hunted as if by falconers and sportsmen, and presently from the other end of the table a falcon was slipped which hovered over the heron. In a few minutes another falcon was started from the other side of the table which attacked the heron so fiercely that he brought him down in the middle of the hall. After the performance was over and the heron was killed, it was served up at the dinner table. We shall conclude this chapter with a few words on bird-fowling, a kind of sport which was almost disdained in the Middle Ages. The anonymous author of the Live du Roi Maudou, called it in the 14th century, the pastime of the poor, because the poor who can keep neither hounds nor falcons to hunt or to fly take much pleasure in it, particularly as it serves at the same time as a means of subsistence to many of them. In this book, which was for a long time the authority in matters of sport generally, we find that nearly all the methods and contrivances now employed for bird-fowling were known and in use in the Middle Ages, in addition to some which have since fallen into disuse. We accordingly read in the Roi Maudou a description of the dragnet, the mirror, the screech owl, the bird pipe, the traps, the springs, etc., the use of all of which is now well understood. At that time, when falcons were so much required, it was necessary that people should be employed to catch them when young, and the author of this book speaks of nets of various sorts and the pronged piece of wood in the middle of which a screech owl or some other bird was placed in order to attract the falcons. Two methods were in use in those days for catching the woodcock and pheasant which deserved to be mentioned. The pheasants, says King Modus, are of such a nature that the male bird cannot bear the company of another. Taking advantage of this weakness, the plan of placing a mirror which balanced a sort of wicker cage or coop was adopted. The pheasant, thinking he saw his fellow attacked him, struck against the glass and brought down the coop, in which he had the leisure to reflect on his jealousy. Woodcocks, which are, says the author, the most silly birds, were caught in this way. The birdfowler was covered from head to foot with clothes of the color of dead leaves, only having two little holes for his eyes. When he saw one he knelt down noiselessly and supported his arms on two sticks so as to keep perfectly still. When the bird was not looking towards him, he cautiously approached it on his knees, holding in his hands two little dry sticks covered with red cloth, which he gently waved so as to divert the bird's attention from himself. In this way he gradually got near enough to pass a noose which he kept ready at the end of a stick, round the bird's neck. However ingenious these tricks may appear, they are eclipsed by one we find recorded in the Igzuticon, a very elegant Latin poem by Angelus de Barga, written two centuries later. In order to catch a large number of starlings, this author assures us, it is only necessary to have two or three in a cage, and, when a flight of these birds is seen passing, to liberate them with a very long twine attached to their claws. The twine must be covered with bird-lime, and as the released birds instantly join their friends, all those they come near get glued to the twine, and fall together to the ground. As at the present time the object of bird fouling was twofold, namely to procure game for food, and to capture birds to be kept either for their voice or for fancy as pets. The trade in the latter was so important, at least in Paris, that the birdcatchers formed a numerous corporation, having its statutes and privileges. The Pont de Changes, then covered on each side with houses and chops occupied by goldsmiths and money changers, was the place where these people carried on their trade, and they had the privilege of hanging their cages against the houses, even without the sanction of the proprietors. This curious rite was granted to them by Charles VI, in 1402, in return for which they were bound to provide four hundred birds whenever a king was crowned, and an equal number when the queen made her first entry into her good town of Paris. The goldsmiths and money changers, however, finding that this became a nuisance and that it injured their trade, tried to get it abolished. They applied to the authorities to protect their rights, urging that the approaches to their shops, the rents of which they paid regularly, were continually obstructed by a crowd of purchasers and dealers in birds. The case was brought several times before Parliament, which only confirmed the orders of the kings of France and the ancient privileges of the bird catchers. At the end of the 16th century, the quarrel became so bitter that the goldsmiths and changers took to throwing down the cages and birds and trampling them under foot, and even assaulted and openly ill treated the poor bird dealers. But a decree of Parliament again justified the sale of birds on the Pont-au-Changes by condemning the ringleader, Pierre Filacier, the master goldsmith who had commenced the proceedings against the bird catchers, to pay a double fine, namely twenty crowns to the plaintiffs and ten to the king. It is satisfactory to observe that at that period measures were taken to preserve nests and to prevent birdfowling from the 15th of March to the 15th of August. Besides this, it was necessary to have an express permission from the king himself to give persons the right of catching birds on the king's domains. Before anyone could sell birds, it was required for him to have been received as a master bird catcher. The recognized bird catchers therefore had no opponents except dealers from other countries who brought canary birds, parrots, and other foreign specimens into Paris. These dealers were, however, obliged to conform to strict rules. They were required on their arrival to exhibit their birds from ten to twelve o'clock on the marble stone in the palace yard on the days when Parliament sat, in order that the masters and governors in the king's aviary, and after them the presidents and councillors, might have the first choice before other people of anything they wished to buy. They were, besides, bound to part the male and female birds in separate cages with tickets on them, so that purchasers might not be deceived, and in case of dispute on this point some sworn inspectors were appointed as arbitrators. No doubt emboldened by the victory which they had achieved over the goldsmiths of the Pont-au-Changes, the bird dealers of Paris attempted to forbid any bourgeois of the town from breeding canaries or any sort of cage birds. The bourgeois resented this and brought their case before the marshals of France. They urged that it was easy for them to breed canaries, and it was also a pleasure for their wives and daughters to teach them, whereas those bought on the Pont-au-Changes were old and difficult to educate. This appeal was favorably received, and an order from the tribunal of the marshals of France permitted the bourgeois to breed canaries, but it forbade the sale of them, which it was considered would interfere with the trade of the masterfowlers of the town, phoburgs, and suburbs of Paris. End of Section 16. Recording by Donna Stewart, Seattle, Washington. Section 17 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 17. Games and Pastimes. Games of the Ancient Greeks and Romans. Games of the Circus. Animal combats. Daring of King Pepin. The King's Lions. Blind men's fights. Cockneys of Paris. Champ de Marre. Cour pleinière and Cour Couronnet. Jugglers, tumblers, and minstrels. Rope dancers. Fireworks. Gymnastics. Cards and dice. Chess, marbles, and billiards. La soule, la pirouette, etc. Small Games for Private Society. History of Dancing. Ballet des Ardents. The Okésographie, Art of Dancing, of Toineau-Arbor. List of dances. People of all countries and at all periods have been fond of public amusements and have indulged in Games and Pastimes with a view to make time pass agreeably. These amusements have continually varied according to the character of each nation and according to the capricious changes of fashion. Since the learned antiquarian J. Mercius has devoted a large volume to describing the Games of the Ancient Greeks, Deleutus Grey Corum, and Roblé has collected a list of 220 Games which were in fashion at different times at the court of his gay master. It will be easily understood that a description of all the Games and Pastimes which have ever been in use by different nations and particularly by the French would form an encyclopedia of some size. We shall give a rapid sketch of the different kinds of Games and Pastimes which were most in fashion during the Middle Ages and to the end of the 16th century. Omitting, however, the religious festivals which belong to a different category, the public festivals which will come under the chapter on ceremonials, the tournaments and tilting matches and other sports of warriors which belong to chivalry, and lastly the scenic and literary representations which specially belong to the history of the stage. We shall therefore limit ourselves here to giving in a condensed form a few historical details of certain court amusements and a short description of the Games of Skill and of Chance and also of Dancing. The Romans, especially during the times of the Emperor's, had a passionate love for performances in the Circus and amphitheater as well as for chariot races, horse races, foot races, combats of animals and feats of strength and agility. The daily life of the Roman people may be summed up as consisting of taking their food and enjoying Games in the Circus. Panem et Circiensis. A taste for similar amusements was common to the Gauls as well as to the whole Roman Empire and were historians silent on the subject, we need no further information than that which is to be gathered from the ruins of the numerous amphitheaters which are to be found at every center of Roman occupation. The Circus disappeared on the establishment of the Christian religion for the bishops condemned it as a profane and sanguinary vestige of paganism and, no doubt, this led to the secession of combats between man and beast. They continued, however, to pit wild or savage animals against one another and to train dogs to fight with lions, tigers, bears, and bulls. Otherwise it would be difficult to explain the restoration by King Chilperic, AD 577, of the Circuses and Arenas at Paris and Soissons. The remains of one of these Circuses was not long ago discovered in Paris whilst they were engaged in laying the foundations for a new street on the west side of the hill of St. Genevieve, a short distance from the old palace of the Caesars known by the name of the Thirms of Julian. Gregory of Tours states that Chilperic revived the ancient games of the Circus but that Gaul had ceased to be famous for good athletes and racehorses, although animal combats continued to take place for the amusement of the kings. One day King Pepin halted, with the principal officers of his army, at the Abbey of Feriaire and witnessed a fight between a lion and a bull. The bull was of enormous size and extraordinary strength but nevertheless the lion overcame him, whereupon Pepin, who was surnamed the Short, turned to his officers who used to joke him about his short stature and said to them, Make the lion loose its hold of the bull or kill him. No one dared to undertake so perilous a task and some said aloud that a man who would measure his strength with a lion must be mad. Upon this Pepin sprang into the arena sword in hand and with two blows cut off the heads of the lion and the bull. What do you think of that? he said to his astonished officers. Am I not fit to be your master? Size cannot compare with courage. Remember what little David did to the giant Goliath. Eight hundred years later there were occasional animal combats of the Court of Francis I. A fine lady, says Brant Tome, went to see the king's lions in company with a gentleman who much admired her. She suddenly let her glove drop and it fell into the lion's den. I beg of you, she said, in the calmest way to her admirer, to go amongst the lions and bring back my glove. The gentleman made no remark but, without even drawing his sword, went into the den and gave himself up silently to death to please the lady. The lions did not move and he was able to leave their den without a scratch and return the lady her missing glove. Here is your glove, madam. He coldly said to her, who evidently valued his life at so small a price. See if you can find anyone else who would do the same as I have done for you. So, saying, he left her and never afterwards looked at or even spoke to her. It has been imagined that the kings of France only kept lions as living symbols of royalty. In 1333 Philip de Valois bought a barn in the Rue Fuadmantel near the Château de Louvre where he established a menagerie for his lions, bears, leopards, and other wild beasts. This royal menagerie still existed in the reigns of Charles VIII and Francis I. Charles V and his successors had an establishment of lions in the quadrangle of the Grand Hotel de Saint Paul on the very spot which was subsequently the site of the Rue de Léon Saint Paul. These wild beasts were sometimes employed in the combats and were pitted against bulls and dogs in the presence of the king and his court. It was after one of these combats that Charles IX, excited by the sanguinary spectacle, wished to enter the arena alone in order to attack a lion which had torn some of his best dogs to pieces. And it was only with great difficulty that the audacious sovereign was dissuaded from his foolish purpose. Henry III had no disposition to imitate his brother's example. For dreaming one night that his lions were devouring him, he had them all killed the next day. The love for hunting wild animals such as the wolf, bear, and boar, sea-chapter on hunting, from an early date took the place of the animal combats as far as the court and the nobles were concerned. The people were therefore deprived of the spectacle of the combats which had had so much charm for them, and as they could not resort to the alternative of the chase, they treated themselves to a feeble imitation of the games of the circus in such amusements as setting dogs to worry old horses or donkeys, etc. Bullfights nevertheless continued in the southern provinces of France as also in Spain. At village feasts not only did wrestling matches take place, but also queer kinds of combats with sticks or birch bows. Two men, blindfolded, each armed with a stick and holding in his hand a rope fastened to a stake, entered the arena and went round and round trying to strike at a fat goose or a pig which was also let loose with them. It can easily be imagined that the greater number of the blows fell like hail on one or the other of the principal actors in this blind combat amidst shouts of laughter from the spectators. Nothing amused our ancestors more than these blind encounters. Even kings took part at these burlesque representations. At mid-lent annually they attended with their court at the Cans-Van in Paris in order to see blindfolded persons armed from head to foot fighting with a lance or stick. This amusement was quite sufficient to attract all Paris. In fourteen twenty-five on the last day of August the inhabitants of the capital crowded their windows to witness the procession of four blind men clothed in full armor like knights going to a tournament and preceded by two men, one playing the eau de bois and the other bearing a banner on which a pig was painted. These four champions on the next day attacked a pig which was to become the property of the one who killed it. The lists were situated in the court of the Hotel d'Amagnac, the present site of the Palais Royale. A great crowd attended the encounter. The blind men, armed with all sorts of weapons, belabored each other so furiously that the game would have ended fatally to one or more of them had they not been separated and made to divide the pig which they had all so well earned. The people of the Middle Ages had an insatiable love of sight seeing. They came great distances from all parts to witness any amusing exhibition. They would suffer any amount of privation or fatigue to indulge this feeling and gave themselves up to it so heartily that it became a solace to them in their greatest sorrows and they laughed with that hearty laugh which may be said to be one of their natural characteristics. In all public processions in the open air, the crowd, or rather as we might say the cockneys of Paris, in their anxiety to see everything that was to be seen, would frequently obstruct all the public avenues and so prevent the procession from passing along. In consequence of this, the provosts of Paris on these occasions distributed hundreds of stout sticks amongst the sergeants who used them freely on the shoulders of the most obstinate sightseers. See chapter on ceremonials. There was no religious procession, no parish fair, no municipal feast, no parade or review of troops which did not bring together crowds of people whose ears and eyes were wide open if only to hear the sound of the trumpet or to see a dog rush past with a frying pan tied to his tail. This curiosity of the French was particularly exhibited when the kings of the first royal dynasty held their chante de marre, the kings of the second dynasty, their court pleinière, and the kings of the third dynasty, their court couronnée. In these assemblies where the king gathered together all his principal vassals once or twice a year to hold personal communication with them and to strengthen his power by ensuring their feudal services, large quantities of food and fermented liquors were publicly distributed among the people. The populace were always most enthusiastic spectators of military displays, of court ceremonies and, above all, of the various amusements which royalty provided for them at great cost in those days. And it was on these state occasions that jugglers, tumblers, and minstrels displayed their talents. The chante de marre was one of the principal fets of the year and was held sometimes in the centre of some large town, sometimes in a royal domain, and sometimes in the open country. Bishop Gregory of Tours describes one which was given in his diocese during the reign of Chalperic at the Easter festivals, at which we may be sure that the games of the circus, re-established by Chalperic, excited the greatest interest. Charlemagne also held chante de marre, but called them court voyale, at which he appeared dressed in cloth of gold, studded all over with pearls and precious stones. Under the Third Dynasty King Robert celebrated court days with the same magnificence, and the people were admitted to the palace during the royal banquet to witness the king, sitting amongst his great officers of state. The Cour Plainier, which were always held at Christmas, Twelfth Day, Easter, and on the Day of Pentecost, were not less brilliant during the reigns of Robert's successors. Louis IX himself, notwithstanding his natural shyness and his taste for simplicity, was noted for the display he made on state occasions. In 1350 Philip de Valois wore his crown at the Cour Plainier, and from that time they were called Cour Cournay. The kings of jugglers were the privileged performers, and their feats and other amusements which continued on each occasion for several days were provided for at the sovereign's sole expense. These kings of jugglers exercised a supreme authority over the art of jugglery and over all the members of this jovial fraternity. It must not be imagined that these jugglers merely recited snatches from tails and fables in rhyme. This was the least of their talents. The cleverest of them played all sorts of musical instruments, sang songs, and repeated by heart a multitude of stories after the example of their reputed forefather, King Borgabed, or Bedaby, who, according to these troubadours, was the king of Great Britain at the same time that Alexander the Great was king of Macedonia. The jugglers of a lower order especially excelled in tumbling and in tricks of ledger domain. They threw wonderful summer salts, they leaped through hoops placed at certain distances from one another. They played with knives, slings, baskets, brass balls, and earthenware plates. And they walked on their hands with their feet in the air or with their heads turned downwards so as to look through their legs backwards. These acrobatic feats were even practiced by women. According to a legend the daughter of Herodias was a renowned acrobat and on a bar relief in the cathedral of Rouen, we find this Jewish dancer turning summer salts before Herod, so as to fascinate him and thus obtain the decapitation of John the Baptist. The jugglers, as monsieur de la belle d'olière in his clever work on the private life of the French, often led about bears, monkeys, and other animals which they taught to dance or to fight. A manuscript in the national library represents a banquet and around the table, so as to amuse the guests, performances of animals are going on such as monkeys riding on horseback, a bear feigning to be dead, a goat playing the harp, and dogs walking on their hind legs. We find the same grotesque figures on sculptures, on the capitals of churches, on the illuminated margins of manuscripts of theology, and on prayer books which seems to indicate that jugglers were the associates of painters and illuminators even if they themselves were not the writers and illuminators of the manuscripts. Jugglery, monsieur de la belle d'olière, goes on to say, at that time embraced poetry, music, dancing, sleight of hand, conjuring, wrestling, boxing, and the training of animals. Its humblest practitioners were the mimics or grimacers in many colored garments and brazen-faced mountain banks who provoked laughter at the expense of decency. At first, and down to the 13th century, the profession of a juggler was a most lucrative one. There was no public or private feast of any importance without the profession being represented. Their mimicry and acrobatic feats were less thought of than their long poems or lays of wars and adventures which they recited in dogaral rhyme to the accompaniment of a stringed instrument. The doors of the chateaus were always open to them, and they had a place assigned to them at all feasts. They were the principal attraction at the Cour Plainier, and according to the testimony of one of their poets they frequently retired from business loaded with presents such as riding-horses, carriage-horses, jewels, cloaks, fur robes, clothing of violet or scarlet cloth, and above all with large sums of money. They loved to recall with pride the heroic memory of one of their own calling, the brave Norman Tailifer, who, before the Battle of Hastings, advanced alone on horseback between the two armies about to commence the engagement, and drew off the attention of the English by singing them the song of Roland. He then began juggling and taking his lance by the hilt. He threw it into the air and caught it by the point as it fell. Then, drawing his sword, he spun it several times over his head, and caught it in a similar way as it fell. After these skillful exercises, during which the enemy were gaping in mute astonishment, he forced his charger through the English ranks and caused great havoc before he fell, positively riddled with wounds. Notwithstanding this noble instance, not to belie the old proverb, jugglers were never received into the Order of Nighthood. They were, after a time, as much abused as they had before been extolled. Their licentious lives reflected itself in their obscene language. Their pantomimes, like their songs, showed that they were the votaries of the lowest vices. The lower orders laughed at their coarseness and were amused at their juggleries, but the nobility were disgusted with them, and they were absolutely excluded from the presence of ladies and girls in the chateaus and houses of the bourgeoisie. We see in the tale of le jouglier that they acquired ill-fame everywhere in as much as they were addicted to every sort of vice. The clergy and Saint Bernard especially denounced them and held them up to public contempt. Saint Bernard spoke thus of them in one of his sermons written in the middle of the twelfth century. A man fond of jugglers will soon enough possess a wife whose name is poverty. If it happens that the tricks of jugglers are forced upon your notice, endeavor to avoid them and think of other things, the tricks of jugglers never please God. From this remark we may understand their fall as well as the disrepute in which they were held at the time, and we are not surprised to find in an old edition of the Memoir du Cieux de Joinsville this passage, which is perhaps an interpolation from a contemporary document. Saint-Louis drove from his kingdom all tumblers and players of sleight of hand through whom many evil habits and tastes had become engendered in the people. A troubadour's story of this period shows that the jugglers wandered about the country with their trained animals nearly starved. They were half-naked and were often without anything on their heads, without coats, without shoes, and always without money. The lower orders welcomed them and continued to admire and idolize them for their clever tricks, but the bourgeois class, following the example of the nobility, turned their backs upon them. In 1345 Guillaume de Gourmand, provost of Paris, forbade their singing or relating obscene stories under penalty of fine and imprisonment. Having been associated together as a confraternity since 1331, they lived huddled together in one street of Paris which took the name of Wou des Jugglers. It was at this period that the church and hospital of Saint-Julien were founded through the exertions of Jacques-Gœur, a native of Pistoia, and of Yue, the Lorraine, who were both jugglers. The newly formed brotherhood at once undertook to subscribe to this good work, and each member did so according to his means. Their aid to the cost of the two buildings was sixty livres, and they were both erected in the Rue Sémontin, and placed under the protection of Saint-Julien the martyr. The chapel was consecrated on the last Sunday in September 1335, and on the front of it there were three figures, one representing a troubadour, one a minstrel, and one a juggler, each with his various instruments. The bad repute into which jugglers had fallen did not prevent the kings of France from attaching buffoons or fools, as they were generally called, to their households, who were often more or less deformed dwarves, and who, to all intents and purposes, were jugglers. They were allowed to indulge in every sort of impertinence and waggery in order to excite the rissibility of their masters. These buffoons or fools were an institution at court until the time of Louis XIV, and several, such as Cayet, Triboulay and Brusquet, are better known in history than many of the statesmen and soldiers who were their contemporaries. At the end of the 14th century the brotherhood of jugglers divided itself into two classes, the jugglers proper and the tumblers. The former continued to recite serious or amusing poetry, to sing love songs, to play comic interludes, either singly or in concert, in the streets or in the houses, accompanying themselves or being accompanied by all sorts of musical instruments. The tumblers, on the other hand, devoted themselves exclusively to feats of agility or of skill, the exhibition of trained animals, the making of comic grimaces, and tight rope dancing. The art of rope dancing is very ancient. It was patronized by the Franks, who looked upon it as a marvelous effort of human genius. The most remarkable rope dancers of that time were of Indian origin. All performers in this art came originally from the East, although they afterwards trained pupils in the countries through which they passed, recruiting themselves chiefly from the mixed tribe of jugglers. According to a document quoted by the learned Fonce Magne, rope dancers appeared as early as 1327 at the entertainments given at state banquets by the kings of France. But long before that time they are mentioned in the poems of troubadours as the necessary auxiliaries of any feast given by the nobility or even by the monasteries. From the 14th to the end of the 16th century they were never absent from any public ceremonial, and it was at the state entries of kings and queens, princes and princesses, that they were especially called upon to display their talents. One of the most extraordinary examples of the daring of these tumblers is to be found in the records of the entry of Queen Isabel of Bavaria into Paris in 1385, C. CHAPTER ON CEREMONIALS. And indeed all the chronicles of the 15th century are full of anecdotes of their doings. Matudakissi, who wrote a history of the time of Charles VII, relates some very curious details respecting a show which took place at Milan and which astonished the whole of Europe. The Duke of Milan ordered a rope to be stretched across his palace about 150 feet from the ground and of equal length. On to this a Portuguese mounted walked straight along going backwards and forwards and dancing to the sound of the tambourine. He also hung from the rope with his head downwards and went through all sorts of tricks. The ladies who were looking on could not help hiding their eyes and their handkerchiefs from fear lest they should see him over balance and fall and kill himself. The Chronicle of Charles XII, Jean D'Artin, tells us of a not less remarkable feat performed on the occasion of the obsequies of Duke Pierre de Bourbon, which were celebrated at Moulin in the month of October 1503 in the presence of the King and his court. Amongst other performances was that of a German tightrope dancer named George Menustre, a very young man who had a thick rope stretched across from the highest part of the tower of the castle of Macon to the windows of the steeple of the church of the Jacobites. The height of this from the ground was twenty-five fathoms and the distance from the castle to the steeple some two hundred and fifty paces. On two evenings in succession he walked along this rope and on the second occasion when he started from the tower of the castle his feat was witnessed by the King and upwards of thirty thousand persons. He performed all sorts of graceful tricks such as dancing grotesque dances to music and hanging to the rope by his feet and by his teeth. Although so strange and marvelous these feats were nevertheless actually performed unless human sight had been deceived by magic. A female dancer also performed in a novel way cutting capers, throwing somersaults and performing graceful moorish and other remarkable and peculiar dances. Such was their manner of celebrating a funeral. In the sixteenth century these dancers and tumblers became so numerous that they were to be met with everywhere in the provinces as well as in the towns. Many of them were Bohemians or Zingari. They traveled in companies sometimes on foot, sometimes on horseback and sometimes with some sort of conveyance containing the accessories of their craft and a traveling theatre. But the people began to tire of these sorts of entertainments the more so since they were required to pay for them and they naturally preferred the public rejoicings which cost them nothing. They were particularly fond of illuminations and fireworks which are of much later origin than the invention of gunpowder. Although the Sarazans at the time of the Crusades used a Greek fire for illuminations which considerably alarmed the Crusaders when they first witnessed its effects. Regular fireworks appear to have been invented in Italy where the pyrotechnic art has retained its superiority to this day and where the inhabitants are as enthusiastic as ever for this sort of amusement and consider it in fact inseparable from every religious, private or public festival. This Italian invention was first introduced into the Low Countries by the Spaniards where it found many admirers and it made its appearance in France with the Italian artists who established themselves in that country in the reigns of Charles VIII, Louis XII, and Francis I. Fireworks could not fail to be attractive at the court of the Valois to which Catherine de' Medici had introduced the manners and customs of Italy. The French, who up to that time had only been accustomed to the illuminations of St. John's Day and of the first Sandian Lent, received those fireworks with great enthusiasm and they soon became a regular part of the program for public festivals. End of section 17, recording by Donna Stewart, Seattle, Washington.