CHAPTER XXX.

MEDIEVAL ENGLAND (continued).

The knights. The state of education. The households, dress, and luxury of the rich. The condition of the poor.

CHAUCER gives a charming account of the knight who went on the famous pilgrimage, accompanied by his son and one servant. We cannot conceive a more perfect gentleman. Though he had fought many battles, and seen a great deal of the world, there is no boasting Chivalry. or bluster about him. His manners are as gentle as a maid's. He rides pleasantly with the rest, agrees to the host's proposal, draws lots with the others, and tells his story courteously.

This brave warrior, who had been in fifteen battles, besides sieges, had a very tender heart. One of the other pilgrims tells, for his tale, of a great many people, who from happiness and prosperity, had fallen into misery; at last he tells a most piteous story of one who was starved to death with his three children. The knight cannot bear this; he breaks in and prays there may be no more of it. He says it is great sorrow to him to hear of the unhappiness of those who have been happy.

"And the contrar is joye, and gret solas!
As when a man hath been in poor estate
And climbeth up, and waxeth fortunate
And there abideth in prosperitee-

Such thing is gladsome, as it thinketh me."

We see in him the best and beautiful side of chivalry. Chaucer teaches us, in another place, what it is to The genbe a gentleman. He says we are not to think it is tleman. to be rich and nobly born, but we should look who is most virtuous, and tries always

"to do the gentil dedës that he canAnd take him for the greatest gentleman."

Froissart had something of the same conception, for he tells us of a squire who did a very base and cowardly deed, and adds that "he was scarcely a gentleman, for no gentleman would ever have practised such base wickedness." This is a more noble idea of a 66 gentleman" than many people hold now-a-days, for it is to be feared a great many think "gentillesse" lies in gold and silver more than in "gentil deeds."

*

The only lady who went on the pilgrimage was a prioress, that is, the head of a nunnery. In both monasteries and convents they seem to have paid much attention to The lady. manners. All the little things which are taught to children in the nursery now, were serious matters of regulation then. The monks of Westminster had special rules for their behavior at dinner, forbidding them to stare, or to put their elbows on the table, or to crack nuts with their teeth. This lady was very refined, indeed, she took great pains to be elegant and stately in her demeanor, as if she had been at court. She talked French too, to seem more fashionable; but Chaucer slyly says that her French was

"after the school of Stratford atte Bow. For French of Paris was to her unknowe."

Fine ladies were fond of lap-dogs; in the pictures painted at this time we frequently see ladies sitting idly in gardens, or even riding on horseback, nursing little dogs. So this lady had "small hounds" that she fed with roast meat, and milk, and the finest bread. And if one of them died she wept sore. She was so tender-hearted, indeed, that she would weep if a mouse were killed or hurt in a trap.

The knights and ladies had some refined tastes. They loved gardens and flowers; above all, roses, though Chaucer loved best the English daisy. They loved the songs of birds; walking in a grove with the soft grass under their feet, and the thrushes and nightingales singing above their heads, was as sweet to them as to us. By this time, also, education had become more general. We may be sure all these English books would not have been written Education of a gen- if there had been no one to read them. And it was evidently the pleasant custom for those who knew how, to read aloud to those who did not. One man (a little

tleman.

* Excepting the coarse Wife of Bath.

before this time), who wrote a history of England in rhyme, says expressly that he wrote it in English, not for learned people, but for unlearned, who knew neither Latin nor French, that they might have solace and pleasure when they were sitting together in fellowship.

Chaucer's knight had a son with him, about twenty years old. He was an esquire as yet, but of course would be a knight like his father in due time. Chaucer fortunately tells us what he had been taught, so we see the best education which a gentleman's son would get in those days. He had learned to sit well on his horse, and all things belonging to the soldier's art, for he had already seen real fighting, and "borne him well," besides jousting, or the fighting in play, which was then so fashionable. Moreover, he could sing and play on the flute; he could write, and of course he could read; he could draw; he could even make songs himself; and he could dance.

Reading, writing, poetry, music, drawing, dancing, riding, and fighting a very fair education for a young officer. But he had learned with all this, besides, to be modest and polite.

"Curteis he was, lowly and servisable,
And carf before his fader at the table."

He

To carve the meat for their elders and betters was considered part of the duty of the young squires and pages. "He was at fresh as is the month of May," and had curly hair. wore a sort of short tunic, with long and wide sleeves, embroidered like a meadow, with "fresh flowers, white and red." His father was very soberly dressed. "His horse was good, but he ne was not gay."

The country gentlemen lagged far behind in the matter of education. There was one of them in this company, a rich man who had often been knight of the shire, or member of Parliament for his part of the country. The principal thing he cared about was eating and drinking. When his turn came to tell his tale, he begged all his hearers to excuse him for his plain way of speaking, because he has never learned. much. But he certainly wished for something better. He took a great liking for the curly-headed young squire, and appreciated the pleasing way in which he told his tale. He wished his own son were like him; instead of which, he thought of nothing but playing at dice and wasting his

money, and he did not care about talking with gentlemen, that he might "learn gentillesse aright."

Learning and philosophy.

There was one of the company who was a scholar --an Oxfordman. He was a hard student, very poor and very learned.

"As lenë was his horse as is a rake,

And he was not right fat, I undertake."

He did not care for fine clothes, nor for music and dancing. All he wanted was books. Though he had "but little gold in coffer," he did not care for that. He liked to have learned books at his bed's head; they were his delight and joy.

"And gladly wolde he lerne and gladly teche."*

In the universities there was a great deal of hard study; they went deeply into logic and metaphysics and other profound matters, and sometimes seem to have wasted a great deal of labor and cleverness on what led to very little result. Besides pondering upon abstruse questions very difficult to solve, and perhaps not worth solving after all, learned people who gave their attention to visible and material objects, believed a great many things which we know now to be un

true.

Besides their belief about comets and eclipses, which were still considered as supernatural, and having much to do with the affairs of men, they had many other strange Astrology ideas about the heavenly bodies. They thought that a man's life and fortunes in the world depended on what stars could be seen in the sky, and in what part of the sky, at the moment he was born. We still have the saying of a person having been born under a lucky or an unlucky star, or being of a jovial, mercurial, or saturnine temper, though we do not now think a man will be of a joyous, friendly spirit if the planet Jupiter shone upon his birth, or gloomy and morose if he was born under Saturn.

It was also thought that the stars continued to have an influence over the actions of men. Before beginning any business, or doing anything important, people would consult some astrologer or learned man, that he might tell by the

* It is to be hoped that students of English history will not be content with this meagre and imperfect summary of the immortal poem, but will study it for themselves.

stars whether it would prosper or not. A lady would perhaps take his opinion about her marriage, whether her suitor loved her or not, etc. Others would consult astrologers as to whether they would prosper if they took to dealing in sheep or pigs. Doctors also attempted to cure their patients by studying the stars, and making images of them when particular stars were in the ascendant.

The astrologers had considerable knowledge, and no doubt by observing the sky they found out many things which helped on the real science of astronomy; but as yet the wisest of them still believed that our earth was the centre of the universe, and that it alone was fixed and immovable, while the sun, moon, and stars revolved around it. They had begun, however, to believe that it was not flat, but a round globe, and the traveller who had thought it was the moon made Englishmen restless, was convinced that it would be possible to go all round it. In the very centre of the earth they believed hell was placed.

Learned men wasted a great deal of time, and wore out their lives, in trying to make gold. They were fully convinced that, in some way or other, by mix- Alchemy. ing, melting, and evaporating, or by some chemical process, they would be able to make the precious metal which all men coveted. They never succeeded, and it has now been long believed that gold is one of the simple elements; but, doubtless, though they never succeeded in that, they found out many curious facts about the things with which they made their experiments. So that as the astrologers helped to find out the truths of astronomy, the alchemists found out many of the truths of chemistry, as, for instance, about gases, salts, acids, etc., which it is very useful to know, and we have the comfort of thinking that all their toil was not wasted.

Dress of

the rich.

The well-bred young squire, of whom Chaucer gives such a pleasant account, was, perhaps, hardly a fair specimen of his class. Langland has a great deal to say about the fashionable young lords who cared for nothing but idleness, gayety, and fine clothes. They spend all their money in chains and ornaments, and " except their sleeves slide on the earth," they are very wroth. Parliament interfered with the love of finery, and tried to fix rules for the dress of people according to their rank. Kings and the royal family were to have the best furs, as