Page:A History of Domestic Manners and Sentiments in England During the Middle Ages.djvu/254

 written on a roll called Ragman's Roll, and had firings attached to them, by which each perfon drew his or her chance. The Englifli fet has a fhort preface, in which the author addreffes himfelf to the ladies, for whofe fpecial ufe it was compiled : — My ladyes and my maijirejfes echone, Lyke hit unto yow humhylle nuommanhede Rejave in gre (good part) of my fympille pcrfjtie This rolle, ivhlch ivithouten any drede Kynge Ragman me had mefoure in brede, And crijlyned yt the meroure of your chauncc ; Dratveth a ftrynge, and that fhal freight yciu leyde Unto the -verry path of your go-vernaunce — I. e. it will tell you exaftly how you behave yourfelf, what is your character. This game is alluded to by the poet Gower in the " Confelho Amantis :" — Venu%^ ivhiche flant ivithoute laive. In non certeyne, but as men dratve Of Ragemon upon the chaunce, Sche leyeth no peys (weight) in the balaunce. The ragman's roll, when rolled up for ufe, would prefent a confufed mals of firings hanging from it, probably with bits of wax at the end, from which the drawer had to fele£t one. This game pofTefTes a peculiar hiftorical interefl. When the Scottifh nobles and chieftains acknowledged their dependence on the Englifh crown in the reign of Edward I., the deed by which they made this acknowledgment, having all their feals hung to it, prefented, when rolled up, much the appearance of the roll ufed in this game ; and hence, no doubt, they gave it in derifion the name of the Ragman s Roll. Afterwards it became the cuftom to call any roll with many fignatures, or any long catalogue, the various headings of which were perhaps marked by firings, by the fame name. This game of chance or fortune v/as continued, under other names, to a late period. In the faxteenth and feventeenth centuries the burlefque chara6ters were often infcribed on the back of roundels, which were no doubt dealt round to the company like cards, with the infcribed fide downwards. Sometimes the ladies and young men indulged within doors in more aftive