Page:A History of Domestic Manners and Sentiments in England During the Middle Ages.djvu/184

 164 Hijiory of Domejiic Manners panion to the other. The monk here holds the office of cellarer, and is taking advantage of it to confole himfelf on the fly. When the laft courfe of the dinner had been ferved, the ewer and his companion again carried round the water and towel, and each gueft waflied. The tables were then cleared and the cloths withdrawn, but the drinking continued. The minftrels were now introduced. To judge by the illuminations, the moft common mulical attendant on fuch occalions was a harper, who repeated romances and told ftories, accom- panying them with his inftrument. In one of our cuts of a dinner party (No. 112), given in a former page, we fee the harper, apparently a blind man, led by his dog, introduced into the hall while the guefts are ftill occupied with their repaft. We frequently find a harper thus introduced, who is fometimes reprefented as fitting upon the floor, as in the accompanying illuflration (No. i t6) from the MS. Reg. 2 B. vii. fol. 71, v°. Another fimilar reprefentation occurs at folio 203, v° of the fame MS. 5. Monajik De-votions. The Harper in the Hall The barons and knights themfelves, and their ladies, did not difdain to learn the harper's craft; and Gower, in his " Confeflio Amantis," defcribes a fcene in which a princefs plays the harp at table. Appolinus