Page:A History of Domestic Manners and Sentiments in England During the Middle Ages.djvu/187

 afid Soi time fits. 67 minations. In the account of the death of John the Baptill, as given in the gofpels (Matthew xiv. 6, and Mark vi. 21), we are told, that at the feall given by Herod on his birthday, his daughter Herodias came into the fearting-hall, and (according to our EngHlh verfion) danced before him and his guells. The Latin vuIgate ha^ fa/lojjct, which is equivalent to the Englilh word 3 but the mediaeval writers tool; the lady's perh^-m- ances to be thofe of a regular wandering jongleur ; and in two illu- minated manufcripts of the early part of the fourteenth century, in the Britilh Mufeum, the is piiilured as performing tricks very fimilar to Q. King Herod and Ms Daughter Herodias. thofe exhibited by the modern beggar-boys in our l^reets. In the firft of thefe (No. 119), taken from MS. Reg. 2 B. vii., the princefs is fup- porting herfelf upon her hands with her legs in the air, to the evident admiration of the king, though the guefts feem to be paying lefs attention to her feats of adivity. In the fecond (No. 120), from the Harleian MS. No. 1527, Ihe is reprefented in a fimilar pofition, but more evidently making a fomerfault. She is here accompanied by a female attendant, who exprclfes no lefs delight at her ikill than the king and his guefts. It