Page:A History of Domestic Manners and Sentiments in England During the Middle Ages.djvu/125

 and Sentiments. 105 doing which you ought not to lee, and it will coft you nothing to give this notice of your approach, while thole who happen to be there will love you the better for it. Do not quarrel with your neighbour, and avoid difputing with him before other people ; for if he know anything againft you, he will let it out, and you will have the Ihame of it. When you are at court, play at tables, and if you have any good points of behaviour (depors), {how them ; you will be the more prized, and gain the more advantage. Never make a noife or joke in church ; this is only done by unbelievers, whom God loves not. Honour all the clergy, and fpeak fairly to them, but leave them as little of your goods as you can 3 the more they get from you, the mere you will be laughed at ; you will never profit by enriching them. And if you wifli to fave your honour undiminiilied, meddle with nothing you do not underftand, and don't pretend to be a proficient in what you have never learnt. And if you have a valet, take care not to feat him at the table by you, or take him to bed with you ; for the more honour you do to a low fellow, the more will he defpile you. If you lliould know anything that you would wilh to conceal, tell it by no means to your ^'ife, if you have one ; for if you let her know it, you will repent of it the firll time you difpleafe her." The eftimate of the female charafter at this period, even when given in the romances of chivalry, is by no means flattering. With thefe counfels of a father, we may compare thofe of a mother to her fon. In the romance of Huon de Bordeaux (p. i8), when the youthful hero leaves his home to repair to the court of Charlemagne, the duchefs addreffes her fon as follows: "My child," flie faid, "you are going to be a courtier j I require you, for God's love, have nothing to do with a treacherous flatterer ; make the acquaintance of wife men. Attend regularly at the fervice of holy church, and fliow honour and love to the clergy. Give your goods 'illingly to the poor ; be courteous, and fpend freely, and you will be the more loved and cheriftied." On the whole, higher fentiments are placed in the mouth of the lady than in that of the baron. We muft, however, return to the outward, and there- fore more apparent, charaaeriftics of focial life during the Norman period. P The