Page:A History of Domestic Manners and Sentiments in England During the Middle Ages.djvu/144

 124 Hijiory of Do?neJiic Manner^ manufcript, reprefents part of the houfe of a knight, whofe wife has an intrigue with one of the heroes of thefe romances, king Claudas. The knight lay in wait to take the king, as he was in the lady's chamber at night, but the king, being made aware of his danger, efcaped by the chamber-window, while the knight ex- pefted to catch him by entering at the hall door. The juxtapofition of hall and chamber is here fliown very plainly. In another chapter of the fame romances, the king takes Lancelot into a chamber to talk with him apart, while his knights wait for them in the hall; this is piftorially reprefented in an illumination copied in the accompanymg cut (No. 83), which fhows exaftly the rela- tive pofition of the hall and chamber. The door here is probably intended for that which led from the hall into the chamber. d Chamber. No. 83. The Knights in ivahing. We fee from continual allufions that an ordinary houfe, even among men of wealth, had ufually only one chamber, which ferved as his fleeping-room, and as the fpecial apartment of the female portion of the houfehold