Page:A History of Domestic Manners and Sentiments in England During the Middle Ages.djvu/271

 ajid Sentiments. 251 extinguifli their candles before they go into their bed with the mouth, or with the hand, and not with their chemiie," i. e., they were to blow their candle out, or put it out with their fingers, not to extinguilli it by throwing their fliifts upon it— another allufion to the pradice of lleeping naked.* Extinguifliers had not yet come into general ufe. People went to bed with a candle placed in a candleftick of a difterent defcription from that ufed at table ; and we learn from a fiory in the " Menagier de Paris" that it was cuftomary for the lervant or fervants who had charge of the candles, to accompany them into their bedroom, remain with them till they were in bed, and then carry the candles away. Candles were, however, ufually left in the chamber or bedroom all night ; and there was frequently a fpike, or candleftick, attached to the chimney 5 No. 177. T/ie Cellar as in the fabliau juft quoted there was, no doubt, a fimilar fpike attached to the wood-work of the bed. The ftick, whether fixed or movable, was made for convenience in placing the candle in the chamber, and not for the purpofe of carrying it about ; for the latter purpofe, it appears to have been generally taken off the ftick, and carried in the hand. Our cut No. 177, taken from one of the carved ftalls of a platine pour mettre sa chandelle, et les aiez fait introduire sas;ement de Testaindre a la houche ou a la main avant qu'ils entrent en leur lit, et non mie a la chemise. — (Menagier de Paris, ii. 71.) the
 * Et ayez fait adviser par avant, qu'ils aient chascun loino^ de son lit chandelier