Page:A History of Domestic Manners and Sentiments in England During the Middle Ages.djvu/215

 and Sentiments. 195 danifel (Blonde) ; he often fays 'check' and ' mate' to her, and he taught her to play many a game :" — Dejus de cambres feut ajjes, D^ejchh^ de tables, et de de's, Dont il fa damoijele ejbat ; Sou vent li d'lfi ejchek et mat ; De maint jeu a juer Paprlj}. — iJlonde of Oxford, 1. :Yy). This is a correct picture of the ufual occupations of the after-part of the day among the fuperior claffes of fociety in the feudal ages ; and fcenes in accordance with it are often found in the illuminations of the mediaeval manufcripts. One of thefe is reprefented in the engraving (No. 138) on the following page, taken from a manufcript of the fifteenth century, containing the romance of the " Quatre Fils d'Aymon," and preferved in the Library of the Arfenal, in Paris. In the chamber in front a nobleman and one of the great ladies of his houfehold are engaged at chefs, while in the background we fee other ladies enjoying themfelves in the garden, which is Ihown to us with its fummer-houfe and its flower-beds furrounded with fences of lattice-work. It may be remarked, that the attention of the cheff-players is withdrawn fuddenly from their game by the entrance of an armed knight, who appears in another compartment of the illumination in the manulcript. Of the chamber games enumerated in the foregoing extra6l from the romance of" Blonde of Oxford," that of chels was no doubt looked upon as by far the moft dillinguillicd. To play well at chefs was confidered as a very important part of an ariftocratic education. Thus, in the " Chanfon de Gefte" (metrical romance) of Parife la Ducheile, the Ion of the heroine, ^^'ho was brought up by the king in his palace, had no fooner reached his fifteenth year, than " he was taught firft his letters, until he had made fufficient progrefs in them, and then he learnt to play at tables and chefs," and learnt thefe games fo well, " that no man in this world was able to mate him :" — ^ant Paiifa ct x-v. an-z et compU'z et pajfcz-. Premiers apr'ift a lettres, tatit quil en Jot ajjc" >" Puis apriji-il as tables et a ejchas joier. It na ome an cejl mcnde qui Pen peiijl mater. — Pnrisi; la Diiclicssc, p. 8(. In