Page:A History of Domestic Manners and Sentiments in England During the Middle Ages.djvu/146

 126 Hi/lory of Domejiic MaJiners This upper apartment was called a foler {folarium, a word fuppofed to be derived from Jot, the fun, as being, by its pofition, nearer to that luminary, or as receiving more light from it). It was at firft, and in the leffer mantions, but a fmall apartment raifed above the chamber, and approached by a flight of fteps outfide, though (but more rarely) the ftaircafe was fometimes internal. In our lirft cut from the Mufeum manu- fcript (No. 8i), there is a foler over the chamber, to which the approach appears to be from the infide. In the early metrical tales the foler, and its exterior Jtaircafe, are often alluded to. Thus, in the fabliau U Eftourmi, in Barbazan, a burgher and his wife deceive three monks of a neigh- bouring abbey who make love to the lady; fhe conceals her hulband in the foler above, to which he afcends by a flight of fteps : — Tejie%, -vous montere-z, la Jus En eel Jolier tout cokment. The monk, before he enters the houfe, paffes through the court (cortil), in which there is a flieepcot (bercil), or perhaps a ftable. The hufband from the foler above looks through a lattice or grate and fees all that paffes in the hall — Par la treVlUe le porlingne. The ftairs feem, therefore, to have been outfide the hall, with a latticed window looking into it from the top. The monk appears to have entered the hall by the back door, and the chamber is adjacent to the hall (as in houfes which had no foler), on the fide oppofite to that on which were the ftairs. When another monk comes, the hufband hides himfelf under the ftairs {fou% le degre). The bodies of the monks (who are killed by the hutband) are carried out parmi unefaujfe pojlerne which leads into the fields {aus chans). In the fabliau of La Sainereffe, a woman who performs the operation of bleeding comes to the houfe of a burgher, and finds the man and his wife feated on a bench in the yard before the hall — Ef! mi Faire de Ja ir.cf'n. The lady fays flie wants bleeding, and takes her upftairs into the foler : — Monte-z la Jus en eel Jolier^ II pi'ejiuet de -vofire mejiier. They