Page:Archaeological Journal, Volume 1.djvu/231

Rh tom. i. p. 318), the house of the burgher (bourgeois) is described by this title:—

In the fabliau Du bouchier d' Abbeville (Barbazan, iv. 1), the house of the priest is called a manor—

while in the fabliau Du vair palefroy (Barbazan, i. p. 164.) the same term is applied to the residence of a knight, which appears by the context to have been rather what we should now call a fortified manor-house than a baronial castle:—

At the period of which we are speaking (the thirteenth century) the houses of the people had in general no more than a ground-floor, of which the principal apartment was the aire, aitre, or hall (atrium), into which the principal door opened, and which was the room for cooking, eating, receiving visitors, and the other ordinary usages of domestic life. Adjacent to this was the chamber (chambre), which was by day the private apartment and resort of the female portion of the household, and by night the bed-room. We might give many extracts shewing the juxtaposition of the chamber and the hall. In the fabliau D'Auberée (Jubinal, Nouveau Recueil, i. p. 199), the old woman, visiting the burgher's wife, is led out of the hall into the chamber to see her handsome bed:—

And when the lady has taken refuge with Dame Auberée, who holds a much lower rank in society and is represented as very poor, she takes her in the same manner out of the hall into her chamber:—

Strangers and visitors generally slept in the hall, beds being made for them apparently on the floor. In the fabliau Du