Page:A History of Domestic Manners and Sentiments in England During the Middle Ages.djvu/124

 1 04 Hijiory of T)o7neJiic Manners vice. Under fuch circumftances, a new clafs had arifen which was pecuUar to feudal fociety, who hved entirely upon the extravagance of the ariftocracy, and who had fo completely abandoned every fentiment of morality or fliame, that, in return for the proteftion of the nobles, they were the ready inftraments of any bafe work. They ^'ere called, among various other names, ribalds {rihaldi) and /etchers {leccatores) ; the origin of the firfl: of thefe words is not known, but the latter is equivalent to dilh-lickers, and did not convey the fenfe now given to the word, but was applied to them on account of their gluttony. "We have already feen how, in the crowd which attended the feafts of the princes and nobles, the letchers (lecheurs) were not content with waiting for what was fent away from table, but feized upon the diflies as they were carried from the kitchen to the hall, and how it was found neceflary to make a new office, that of ulhers of the hall, to reprefs the diforder. " In thole great courts," fays the author of the "Rule of Nuns," " they are called letchers who have fo loft fliame, that they are alhamed of nothing, but feek how they may - work the greateft villany." This clafs fpread through fociety like a great fore, and from the terms ufed in fpeaking of them we derive a great part of the opprobrious words which ftill exift in the Englilh language. The early metrical romances of the Carlovingian cycle give us an infight into what were confidered as the praifeworthy features in the charafter of the feudal knight. In Doon of Mayence, for example, when (p. 74) the aged count Guy fends his young fon Doon into the world, he counfels him thus : " You Ihall always alk queftions of good men, and you fliall never put your truft in a ftranger. Every day, fair fon, you fliall hear the holy mafs, and give to the poor whenever you have money, for God will repay you double. Be liberal in gifts to all ; for the more you give, the more honour you will acquire, and the richer you will be ; for a gentleman who is too fparing will lofe all in the end, and die in wretchednefs and difgrace ; but give without promifing wherever you can. Salute all people when you meet them, and if you owe anything, pay it willingly, but if you cannot pay, alk for a refpite. When you come to the hoftelry, don't ftand fquabbling, but enter glad and joyoufly. When you enter the houle, cough very loud, for there may be fomething doing