Page:A History of Domestic Manners and Sentiments in England During the Middle Ages.djvu/299

 ajid Sentiments. 279 men were not then at hand to be confulted, and the fick or wounded man was handed over to the care of the miftrefs of the houfe and her maidens. The reader of Chaucer will remember the medicinal know- ledge difplayed by dame Pertelot in the " Nonne-Preftes Tale." Medi- cinal herbs were grown in every garden, and were dried or made into decodtions, and kept for ufe. In the early romances we often meet with ladies who poirelTed plants and other objeds which pofleffed the power of miraculous cures, and which they had obtained in fome myflerious manner. Thus, in the Carlovingian romance of " Gaufrey," when Robaftre was lb dangeroully wounded that there remained no hope of his life, the good wife of the traitor Grifon undertook to cure him. "And flie went to a coffer and opened it, and took out of it a herb which has fo great virtue that whoever takes it will be relieved from all harm. She pounded and mixed it in a mortar, and then came to Robaftre and gave it him. It had no fooner pafted his throat than he was as found as an apple" ("Gaufrey," p. 119). So in "Fierabras" (p. 67), the Saracen princefs Floripas had in her chamber the powerful "mandeglore" (man- drake), which file applied to the wounds of Oliver, and they were inftantly healed. In the " Roman de la Violette" (p. 104), when Gerart, defperately wounded, is carried into the caftle, the maiden who was lady of it took him into a chamber, and there took oft^ his armour, undrefTed him, and put him to bed. They examined all his wounds, and applied to them ointments of great efficacy, and under this treatment he foon recovered. In the Englilh romance of "Amis and Amiloun," when fir Amiloun is difcovered firuck with leprofy, the wife of his friend Amis takes him into her chamber, ftrips him of all his clothing, bathes him herfelf, and then puts him to bed — Into Mr chaumber Jhe can him Icde, And kejl of al his po-ver ivede (poor clothes), And bathed his bodi al bare ; And to a bedde fivithe (quickly.) him brought. With clothes riche and ivele yivrought ; Ful blithe of him thai ivare. — Weber, ii. 45;). To the knowledge of medicines was too often added another knowledge, that of poifons — a fcience which was carried to a great degree of per- fection