Page:A History of Domestic Manners and Sentiments in England During the Middle Ages.djvu/281

 and Sentiments. 261 It was ufually the place for private converfation, and we often hear of perfons entering the chamber for this purpofe, and in this cafe the bed feems to have ferved ufually for a feat. Thus, in the romance of " Eglamour," when, after fupper, Chrilhibelle led the knight into her chamber— That lady ivas not for to hyde, Schejctt hym on hur bcddys Jydc, And ivclcomyd home tliet knyght. Again, in a fabliau printed by Meon, a woman of a lov/er grade, wifliing to make a private communication to a man, invites him into her chamber, and they lit on the bed to converfe — En line chanbre andu'i en 'uont, Dejor un lit afnjcfont. And in the fabliau of " Guillaume au Faucon," printed by Barbazan, Guillaume, vifiting the lady of a knight in her chamber, finds her leated creation in the Chamber, on the bed, and he inuuediately takes a feat by her fide to converfe with her. In the ihuminated manufcripts, fcenes of this kind occur fre- quently; but in the fourteenth century, inftead of being featcd on the bed, the perfons thus converfing fit on a bench which runs along the fide of the bed, and feems to belong to the bedftead. A fcene of this kind is reprefented