Page:A History of Domestic Manners and Sentiments in England During the Middle Ages.djvu/357

 and Sentiments. 337 between the lady and the landlord that flie is to be Cortois' chamber- companion, and they all begin drinking together, the taverner perfuading his gueft that he owes this choice m ine to the lady's love. They then go to caroufe in the garden, and they finilli by plundering him of his money, and he is obliged to leave his clothes in pledge tor the payment of his tavern expenfes. The ale-wife was efpecially looked upon as a model of extortion and deceit, for flie cheated unblufliingly, both in money and No. 226. The Ale-Wtfe End. meafure, and fhe is pointed out in popular literature as an objeft of hatred and of fatire. Our cut No. 226, alio furniflied by one of the carved mifereres in Ludlow Church, reprefents a fcene from Doomfday : a demon is bearing away the deceitful ale-wife, who carries nothing with her but her gay head-drefs and her falfe meallire ; he is going to throw her into "hell-mouth," while another demon is reading her otiences as entered in his roll, and a third is playing on the bagpipes, by way of welcome.