Page:A History of Domestic Manners and Sentiments in England During the Middle Ages.djvu/460

 440 Hijlory of Domejlic Manners Lydgate, addrelTing an old man M^ho was on the point of marrying a young wife, tells him to Lake /one after a potent (staff) and spectacle; Be not ajhamed to take hem to thyn eafe. John Baret, of Bury St. Edmunds, in 1463, left by will to one of the monks of Bury, his ivory tables (the tahidce for writing on), and a pair of fpeftacles of filver-gilt : — " Item : To daun Johan Janyng, my tablees of ivory, with the combe, and a payre fpeftacles of fylvir and ovir-gilt." This fliows that already in the middle of the fifteenth century, a pair of fpeftacles was not an uncommon article.