Page:A History of Domestic Manners and Sentiments in England During the Middle Ages.djvu/410

 390 Hijiory of Domejlic Manners likely to follow their exceffes. This fcene is reprefented in the firft com- partment of the tapeftry, as it now exifts (for it has undergone confider- able mutilation), and is reprefented in our cut No. 254. It is a good pifture of a feignorial repafl of the fifteenth century. There are people at table, beiides thofe enumerated in the morality, who are here indicated by their names : Paffe-Temps at one end of the table, a lady to his left, and after her Je-Boy-a-Vous, who has Bonne-Compagnie by his fide, and to her left Dinner, the hofl:. To the right of Pafle-Temps fits the lady Gourmandize, and to her right Je-Vous-Pieige (I pledge you), and next to him Friandize. The cups in which they are drinking are flat-fhaped, and appear, by the colours in the original, to be of glals, v ith the brims, and other parts in fome, gilt. The minftrels, in the gallery, are playing with trumpets. Among the attendants, we fee the court fool, with his bauble, who had now become an ordinary, and almofl: a necelTary, per- fonage in the houfehold of the rich j it was the refult of an increafing tafi:e for the coarfe buffoonery which charafterifed an unrefined fi:ate of fociety. The court fool was licenfed to utter with impunity whatever came to his thought, however mordant or however indecent. Befide him are two valets with dogs, which appear to have been ufually admitted to the hall, and to have eaten the refute on the fpot, A window above gives us a view of the country, with buildings in the diftance, and Supper and Banquet looking in upon the company. An infcription in the upper corner to the right tells us how theie two perfonages came flyly to look at the affembly, and how through envy they confpired to take vengeance upon the feafi^ers — Soupper et Banc(juet Vindrent rajjemblee ad'vifer, Dont par en-vie prejiement Compindrent de -viengevce ufer. The morality next introduces the Difeafes who are to be the executors of the vengeance of Supper and Banquet, and who, according to the fl:age direftions, are to be dreffed "very fl:rangely, fo that you would hardly know whether they are women or men." Thefe are Apoplexy, Paralyfis, Pleurify, Cholic, Quinfy, Dropfy, Jaundice, Gravel, and Gout. At the end of this fcene. Supper and Banquet addrefs themfelves to thefe people