Page:A History of Domestic Manners and Sentiments in England During the Middle Ages.djvu/352

 332 Hijiory of Domejiic Manners often his clothes, and gave him a change of apparel, after careful ablution. A fcene of this kind is reprefented in the accompanying cut (No. 222), taken from a manufcript of the romance of " Lancelot," of the fourteenth century, in the National Library in Paris (No, 6(^c^G). The hoft or his lady fometimes walhed the ftranger's feet themfelves. Thus, in the fabliau quoted above, when the hermit and his companion fought a lodging at the houfe of a lourgeois, they were received without quertion, and their hofts wallied their feet, and then gave them plenty to eat and drink, and a bed : — Li hojie orcnt lew p'le-z la've-z., Bien font peu et abre-vie-z; JuJ^u' aujor a ejejejurent. We might eafily multiply extrafts illuftrative of this hofpi table feeling, as it exifted and was praftifed from the twelfth century to the fifteenth. No. 222. Recii'ving- a Str •ving a otranger. No. 223. Recei'ving a Gtiejl. Our cut No. 223, taken from a manufcript of the earlier part of the fourteenth century (MS. Harl. No. 1527), is another reprefentation of the reception of a ftranger in this hofpitable manner. In the " Roman de la Violette" (p. 233), when its hero, Gerard, fought a lodging at a caftle, he was received with the greateft hofpitalityj the lord of the callle led him into the great hall, and there difarmed him, furnilTied him with a rich mantle, and caufed him to be bathed and walhed. In the fame romance (p. 237), when Gerard arrives at the little town of IMouzon, he goes to the houfe of a widow to alk for a night's lodging, and is received with