Page:A History of Domestic Manners and Sentiments in England During the Middle Ages.djvu/435

 and Sentime?Jts. 4 1 5 CHAPTER XX. STATE OF SOCIETY. THE FEMALE CHARACTER. GREEDINESS IN EAT- ING. CHARACTER OF THE MEDIAEVAL SERVANTS. DAILY OCCUPA- TIONS IN THE HOUSEHOLD: SPINNING AND WEAVING J PAINTING. — - THE GARDEN AND ITS USES. GAMES OUT OF DOORS j HAWKING, ETC. TRAVELLING, AND MORE FREaUENT USE OF CARRIAGES. TAVERNS ; FREaUENTED BY WOMEN. EDUCATION AND LITERARY OCCUPATIONS; SPECTACLES. DURING the fifteenth century, fociety in England was going through a tranfition which was leLs vifible on the I'urface than it was great and effetiual at the heart. France and England were both torn by revolutionary ftruggles, but with very difierent relults ; tor while in France the political power of the middle claffes was deftroyed, and the country was delivered to the defpotifm of the crown and of the great lords, in our country it was the feudal nobility which was ruined, while the municipal bodies had obtained an increafed importance in the ftate, and the landed gentry gained more independence and power from the decline of that of the great feudal barons. Yet in both countries feudalifm itfelf, in its real charader, was rapidly pafling away — in France, before the power of the crown ; in England, before the remodelling and reformation of fociety. While the fubftance of feudalifm was thus perilliing, its outward forms appeared to be more fought than ever, and the pride and oftentation of rank, and its arrogance too, prevailed during the fifteenth century to a greater degree than at any previous period. The court of Burgundy, itfelf only in origin a feudal principality, had let itfelf up as the model of feudalifm, and there the old romances of chivalry were remodelled and publillied anew, and were read eagerly as the mirror of feudal dodrines. The court of Burgundy was remarkable for