Page:A History of Domestic Manners and Sentiments in England During the Middle Ages.djvu/248

 228 Hijiory of Domejiic Manners crufades, the weftern jougleurs had adopted many of the pra6lices of their brethren in the eaft, and, among others, it is evident from many allufions in old writers that they had brouglit vveflward that of the " almehs," or eaftern dancing-girls. Thefe dances formed, hke the vulgar fabliaux, a part of the jougleur's budget of reprefentations, and were moftly, like thofe, grofs and indecent. The other clafs of dances were of a limpler chara6ler, — the domefiic dances, which confifted chiefly of the carole, in which ladies and gentlemen, alternately, held by each other's hands and danced in a circle. This mode of dance prevailed fo generally, that the word carole became ufed as a general term for a dance, and caroler, to No. 158. Dancing the Carole. carole, was equivalent with to dance. The accompanying cut (No. 158), taken from a manufcrlpt of the Roman de Triftan, of the fourteentji century, in the National Library at Paris (No. 6956), reprefents a party dancing the carole to the muiic of pipe and tabor. A dance of another defcription is reprefented in our next cut (No. 159), taken from a manu- fcript in the Britifli Mufeum (MS. Reg. 2 B. vii. fol. 174), alfo of the fourteenth century. Here the minftrels themfelves appear to be joining in the faltitation which they infpire. It is a good illuftration of the fcene defcribed from the romance of " La Violette." On feflive occafions this dancing often continued till fupper-time. Other