Page:A History of Domestic Manners and Sentiments in England During the Middle Ages.djvu/428

 4o8 Hiftory of Domefiic Mimners bed. But a bed of a new conflruftion had now come into ufe, called a truckle or trundle bed. This was a fmaller bed which rolled under the larger bed, and was deligned ulually for a valet, or fervant. The illu- minations in the manufcript of the romance of the " Comte d'Artois," already quoted more than once, furnifli us with the early example of a truckle-bed reprefented in our cut No. 260. The count d'Artois lies in the bed under the canopy, while the truckle-bed is occupied by his valet (in this cafe, his wife in difguife). The truckle-bed is more frequently mentioned in the fixteenth and feventeenth centuries. Every reader will remember the fpeech of mine hoft of the Garter, in the "Merry Wives of Windfor" (act iv. fc. 5), who fays of FalftafF's room, "There's his chamber, his houfe, his calHe, his ftanding bed and truckle-bed." It was the place allotted to the fquire, when accompanying the knight on " adventures." So in Hudibras (part ii. canto ii.) — Whin Hudibras, ivhom thoughts and ak'tng ^Tivixt Jleeping kept all night and luaking. Began to rub his droivjy eyes. And from his couch prepared to rife, ReJoMng to dijpatch the deed He •voio'd to do, ivith trujly fpeed ; But fir fl, ivith knocking loud and iaivling. He roujed the fquire, in truckle lolling. In the Englilli univerfitles, the mafter-of-arts had his pupil to lleep in his truckle-bed. The chamber, as the moft private part of the houfe, was ftored with chefts and coffers, in which the perfon who occupied it kept his money, his deeds and private papers, and his other valuables. Margaret Pafton, writing from Norwich to her hufband about the year 1459, gives a curious account of the preparations for his reception at home. "I have," fhe fays, " taken the meafure in the drawte chamber, there as ye would your coffers and your cowntewery {fuppofed to mean a dejk for writing) fhould be fet for tlie while, and there is no fpace betide the bed, though the bed were removed to the door, for to fet both your board {table) and your coffers there, and to have fpace to go and fit befide ; wherefore I have purveyed that ye fhall have the fame drawte chamber {withdrawing room — the