Page:A History of Domestic Manners and Sentiments in England During the Middle Ages.djvu/114

 94 Hiflory of T)omeftic Manners to amufe themfelves on the fea-lliore. In Doon de Mayence (p, 24^), they play at chels and dice after dinner ; and on another occafion, in the fame romance (p. 314), the barons, after their dinner, fing and dance together 5 while in Fierabras (p. 185), Charlemagne and his court ride out on horfeback, and fet up a quintain, at which they jufted all day (tout le jour — which would imply that they began early), until vefpers (probably feven o'clock), when they returned into the palace to refrefli themfelves, and afterwards to go to bed. Supper was certainly ferved in the evening, and in thefe romances people are fpoken of as going to bed immediately after it. On one occafion, in Doon de Mayence (p. 303), Charlemagne's barons take no fupper, but, after their beds are prepared, they are ferved plentifully with fruits and wine. In the fame romance (p. 16), the guards of a caftle go out, becaufe it was a warm evening in fummer, and have their fupper laid out on a table in the field, where they remain long amufing themfelves. In Fierabras (p. 68), the barons take a hot bath after dinner. Of the articles of houfehold furniture during the period of which we are now writing, we cannot give many examples. We have every reafon to believe that they were anything but numerous. A board laid upon treffels formed the ulual dining table, and an ordinary bench or form the feat. In the French Carlovingian romances, the earlier of which may be confidered as reprefenting fociety in the twelfth cen- tury, even princes and great barons fit ordinarily upon benches. Thus, in the romance of Huon de Bordeaux (pp. 2>3y 36), Charlemagne invites the young chieftain, Huon, who had come to vifit him in his palace, to fit on the bench and drink his wine ; and in the fame romance (p. 263), when Huon was received in the abbey of St. Maurice, near Bordeaux, he and the abbot fit together on a bench. Chairs belonged to great people. Our cut No. 66, taken from the Trinity College Pfalter, reprefents iVo. 66. A Faldcjiol.