Page:A History of Domestic Manners and Sentiments in England During the Middle Ages.djvu/413

 aiid Sentiments. 393 which he has not yet placed on his head. The firft of the infcriptions in this compartment of the tapeftry, which is on the left, tells how, while the guefts are featiing in all jollity, Banquet and his rout arm and come to ilaughter the whole affembly — Chiere il-z tyrent joyeuljement ^ Y ejtant Bancquet et la route Slui p armerent et la proprement Occ'irent rajjemblee toute. The fecond inlcription confifts of eight lines moralizing on the final ruin which often falls on thofe who make enjoyment the bulinefs of their lives : — Le% troh fol% ont grant •volonte De chercher' leur malle mefchance ; Quant on a blen ris et chante A la fin fault tourner la chance. Ha I 'vous 'velle% a'voir plaijance ! Bien Vaure vous ung tandh ; Mis gens quy prcnent leur aifence, Enfinfe trewvent plus mauldi-z. It is remarkable that thefe eight lines, taken from the tapeftry, are intro- duced into the morality, and placed in the mouth of the fool at the end of the firfl fcene. It will be remarked at once that there is a much greater difplay of luxury in the banquet fcene than in the dinner fcene. Upon the table are two peacocks, each with a fliield hung to its neck, no doubt to fliow the armorial bearings of the hoftj a boar's head, dreffed in the moft fafhionable manner 5 a fubtelty, reprefenting a fliip filled with birds, furrounded by a fea full of filhes, and having a tall maft, with a fail made of filk and ermine, and furmounted by a figure of a naked female, intended probably to reprefent the goddefs Venus. There are alfo on the table four candles, of coloured wax. A noble drefler fiands againft the wall, covered with vefTels of gold and of glafs, but the metal far predominates. The minfl:rels are Handing apparently on the floor on a level with the guefts, and confiil of a man playing on the cittern, or lute, a harper, and one who plays on the pipe and drum, the latter 3 E inftrument