Page:A History of Domestic Manners and Sentiments in England During the Middle Ages.djvu/294

 274 Hijiory of Domejl'ic Manjiers both by day and by night. In " Blonde of Oxford," a falhionable romance compofed for the entertainment of the beft fociety. Blonde thus leaves her bed, throwing only a mantle over her perfon, to pafs M'hole nights with Jean of Dammartin, and their interviews are defcribed in language which would not be allowed in any refpe6table book at the prefent day. The chevalier de la Tour-Landry, in his moral inftrudions to his daughters, tells them a ftory to illuftrate the ill refults of a quarrel- fome temper. There was a young lady, he fays, the daughter of " a very gentle knight," who quarrelled at the game of tables with a gentle- man who had no better temper than herfelf, and who, provoked by the irritating language flie ufed towards him, told her that flie was known to be in the habit of going by night into the men's chambers, and kifling and embracing them in their beds without candle j and this is told, not in reproof of conduft which was unufually bad, but to fliow that people who fpeak ill of others run the rilk of having their own failings expofed. Examples of this intercourfe of perfons of different fexes in their chambers, and of the refults M'hich frequently followed, from the mediaeval romances and ftories, might be multiplied to almoft any extent. In thefe ftories, the ladies in general Ihow no great degree of delicacy, but, on the contrary, they are commonly very forward. It is ufual with them to fall in love with the other fex, and, fo far from attempting to conceal their paffion, they often become fuitors, and make their advances with more warmth and lefs delicacy than is fhown by the gentlemen in a fimilar pofition. Not only are their manners diflblute, but their language and converfation are loofe beyond anything that thofe who have not read thefe interefting records of mediaeval life can eafily conceive, which was a common failing with both fexes. The author of the "Menagier de Paris " (ii. 60), in recommending to his daughters fome degree of modefty on this point, makes ufe of words which his modern editor, although printing a text in obfolete language, thought it advifable to fupprefs. It might be argued that the ufe of fuch language is evidence rather of the coarfenefs than of the immorality of the age, but, unfortunately, the latter inter- pretation is fupported by the whole tenor of contemporary literature and anecdote,