Page:A History of Domestic Manners and Sentiments in England During the Middle Ages.djvu/364

 344 Hijlory of Domejlic Manners A material part of the punilhment of the ftocks, when employed in the open air, confifted, of courfe, in the public difgrace to which the vidim was expofed. We might fuppofe that the fhame of fuch expofure was keenly felt in the middle ages, from the frequency with which it was employed. This expofure before the public was, we know, originally, the chief charafteriftic of the cucking-ftool, for the procefs of ducking the vi6tim in the water feems to have been only added to it at a later period. Our cut No. 231, taken from an illumination in the unique manufcript of No. 231. An Offender Expofed to Public Shame. the " Cent Nouvelles Nouvelles," in the Hunterian Library, at Glafgow, reprefents a perfon thus expofed to the fcorn and derifion of the populace in the executioner's cart, which is drawn through the ftreets of a town. To be carried about in a cart was always coniidered as efpecially dif- graceful, probably becaufe it was thus that malefa6tors were ufually con- ducted to the gallows. In the early romances of the cycle of king Arthur we have an incident which forms an apt illuftration of the preva- lence of this feeling. Sir Lancelot, when haftening to refcue his lady, queen