Page:A History of Domestic Manners and Sentiments in England During the Middle Ages.djvu/246

 2 26 Hijlory of Domejiic Manners CHAPTER XI. DOMESTIC AMUSEMENTS AFTER DINNER. THE CHAMBER AND ITS FURNITURE. PET ANIMALS. OCCUPATIONS AND MANNERS OF THE LADIES. SUPPER. CANDLES^ LAMPS, AND LANTERNS. WHEN the dinner was over, and hands wallied, a drink was ferved round, and then the ladies left the table, and went to their chambers or to the garden or fields, to feek their own amufements, which confiHed frequently of dancing, in which they were often joined by the younger of the male portion of the houfehold, while the others remained drinking. They feem often to have gone to drink in another apartment, or fecondary hall, perhaps in the parlour. In the romance of " La Violette" (p. 159), we read of the father of a family going to fleep after dinner. In the fame romance (p. 152), the young ladies and gentlemen of a noble houfehold are defcribed as fpreading themfelves over the caftle, to amufe themfelves, attended by minftrels with mufic. From other romances we find that this amufement confifted often in dancing, and that the ladies fometimes fang for themfelves, inftead of having minftrels. We find thefe amufements alluded to in the fabliaux and romances of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. In one of the fabliaux, a knight having been received hofpitably at a feudal caftle, after dinner they wafti, and drink round, and then they go to dance — Ses mains Lava, et puis P autre gent toute, Kt puis fe hurent tout a route, Et for Vamor dou chevalier Se njont trejiuit apparillier Defaire karoles et dances. In the early Englifti romance of" Sir Degrevant," after dinner the ladies go