PART II — LAY WAYFARERS
[231] “Diz de l’Erberie.” “Œuvres complètes de Rutebeuf,” Jubinal’s edition, 1874, vol. ii. p. 58.
[232] Isambert, “Recueil Général des anciennes lois Françaises,” vol. iii. p. 16, and iv. p. 676.
[233] “The Play of the Sacrament,” “Philological Society Transactions,” ed. Whiteley Stokes, 1860, p. 127.
[234] “Let scarlet cloth be taken, and let him who is suffering small-pox be entirely wrapped in it or in some other red cloth; I did thus when the son of the illustrious King of England suffered from small-pox; I took care that all about his bed should be red, and that cure succeeded very well.” Original in Latin, “Joannis Anglici, Praxis Medica Rosa Anglica dicta,” Augsburg, 1595, lib. ii. p. 1050.
To which Gaddesden, I now make humble apologies: for since the above lines were written years ago, modern discoveries, those especially of Niels Finsen, of Copenhagen, a man of the truest worth, whom I saw at work, have justified him. Red light, it has been found, really has an influence on the healing of the scars left by small-pox, and even of the disease itself. So, biding the time when his beetle remedy, mentioned next, may prove operative too, I hold Gaddesden justified in turning, from above, the laugh on his deriders: and I submit to the penance in the same contrite spirit as Dr. Johnson once did at Uttoxeter.
[235] “Rosa Anglica,” vol. i. p. 496.
[236] A remedy for diseases of the spleen (“Rosa Anglica”).
[237] “Memorials of London,” documents relating to the thirteenth, fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, edited by H. Riley, London, 1868, p. 466.
[238] “L’ordinance encontre les entremettours de fisik et de surgerie,” “Rolls of Parliament,” 9 Hen. V, vol. iv. p. 130.
[239] Their charter of 1461 is given in Report and Appendix of the City Liveries’ Commission, 1884, vol. iii. p. 74. [L. T. S.]
[240] “The Foure P.” London, 1545.
[241] Statute 3 Hen. VIII, cap. 11.
[242] Statutes 32 Hen. VIII, cap. 42; 34 and 35 Hen. VIII, cap. 8.
[243] “The Fox,” Act II, sc. 1 (1605).
[244] “Coryat’s Crudities,” reprinted from the edition of 1611, London, 1776, vol. ii. pp. 50, 53. Coryat set out from Dover, 14 May, 1608.
[245] Visited in 1875, not since.
[246] Horn and his companions, in the romance of “King Horn,” disguise themselves as minstrels, and range themselves at the gate of Rymenhild’s castle:
“Hi yeden bi the gravel
Toward the castel,
Hi gunne murie singe
And makede here gleowinge.
Rymenhild hit gan ihere
And axede what hi were:
Hi sede, hi weren harpurs,
And sume were gigours.
He dude Horn inn late
Right at halle gate,
He sette him on a benche
His harpe for to clenche.”
“King Horn,” ed. J. R. Lumby, Early English Text Society, 1866, l. 1465.
[247] Wordsworth, “The Solitary Reaper.”
[248] “Cursor Mundi,” a Northumbrian poem of the fourteenth century, edited by R. Morris for the Early English Text Society, vol. v. p. 1651 and vol. i. p. 8.
[249] It began to be customary to read aloud verses too, instead of singing them. Chaucer foresees that his poem of “Troilus” may be indifferently read or sung, and he writes, addressing his book:
“So preye I to God, that non myswrite the,
Ne the mys-metere, for defaute of tonge!
And red wher so thow be, or elles songe,
That thow be understonde, God I beseche!”
(“Troilus,” book v., l. 1809.)
[250] “Sir Gawayne and the Green Knight,” ed. R. Morris, Early English Text Society, 1864, pp. 38, ff.
[251] Brilliantly illuminated manuscripts of romances continued, however, to multiply; they were very well paid for. Edward III bought, in 1331, of Isabella of Lancaster, nun of Aumbresbury, a book of romance for which he paid her £66 13s. 4d., which was an enormous sum. When the king had this book he kept it in his own room (Devon’s “Issues of the Exchequer,” 1837, p. 144). Richard II (ibid. 213) bought a bible in French, a “Roman de la Rose,” and a “Roman de Perceval” for £28. To give an idea of these prices we must recall, for example, that a few years before Edward bought his book of romance, the inhabitants of London entered in the City accounts £7 10s. for ten oxen, £4 for twenty pigs, and £6 for twenty-four swans, which they had given to the king. Year 1328, Riley’s “Memorials of London,” 1868, p. 170.
[252] The “Thornton Romances,” edited by J. O. Halliwell for the Camden Society, pp. 88, 121, 177. The romances in this volume are, “Perceval,” “Isumbras,” “Eglamour,” and “Degrevant”; the longest scarcely reaches 3,000 lines, “Isumbras” not 1,000. The manuscript, which is in Lincoln Cathedral, is a collection containing many other romances, especially a “Life of Alexander,” a “Mort d’Arthur,” an “Octavian,” and a “Diocletian,” besides numerous prayers in verse, recipes for curing toothache, prophecies of the weather, etc.
[253] From Golias, the type of the debauched and gluttonous prelate, made famous by Latin poems attributed to Walter Map, twelfth century, ed. Th. Wright, Camden Society, 1841; cf. “The Cambridge Songs, a Goliard’s song book of the eleventh century,” ed. Karl Breul, Cambridge, 1916.
Help me God, my wit es then,
he says himself. “Poems,” ed. T. Hall, Oxford, 1887, p. 21.
[255] “Issues of the Exchequer,” p. 244.
[256] “Extracts from the Municipal Records of the City of York,” by Rob. Davies, London, 1843, p. 230.
[257] Wardrobe Accounts; “Archæologia,” vol. xxvi. p. 342.
[258] Thomas Wright, “Domestic Manners and Sentiments,” 1862, p. 181.
[259] 40 Ed. III, Devon’s “Issue Rolls of the Exchequer,” p. 188.
[260] See two examples of like cases in the introduction to the “Issue Roll of Thomas de Brantingham,” p. xxxix.
[261] “Roll of Household Expenses of Richard de Swinfield, Bishop of Hereford,” ed. J. Webb, Camden Society, 1854–55, vol. i. pp. 152, 155. On the condition of minstrels, jugglers, bear-wards, etc., in France, see e.g. “Histoire économique de la Propriété, des Salaires . . . et de tous les Prix,” by Vicomte d’Avenel, Paris, 1914, vol. v. p. 264, and Bédier, “Les Fabliaux,” 1895, p. 389.
[262] Ed. P. Meyer, in “Revue Critique,” vol. x. (1870), p. 373.
[263] “Piers Plowman,” Text C, pass. xii. ll. 35–39.
[264] “Sir Gawayne and the Green Knight,” ed. R. Morris, Early English Text Society, 1864, ll. 484, 1652–1656, and 1952. In the same manner Arthur, after an exploit by Gawain, sits down to table, “Wythe alle maner of mete and mynstralcie bothe.”
[265] “This indenture, made 5 June in the 3rd year of our sovereign lord King Henry the fifth since the Conquest, witnesseth that John Clyff, minstrel, and 17 other minstrels, have received from our said lord the king, through Thomas, Earl of Arundel and Surrey, treasurer of England, forty pounds as their wages, to each of them 12d. a day for a quarter of a year, for serving our said lord in the parts of Guyenne or elsewhere.” Rymer’s “Fœdera,” ed. 1704–32, year 1415, vol. ix. p. 260.
[266] The chief of the minstrels of Beverley was called alderman. [L.T.S.]
[267] “Fœdera,” year 1387, vol. vii. p. 555. In Sir John Hawkins’ “History of Music,” London, 1893, vol. i. p. 193, John of Gaunt’s charter to the king of his minstrels in Tutbury, dated 4 Richard II, is given at length. [L.T.S.]
[268] “Fœdera,” year 1464, vol. xi. p. 512.
[269] “Issue Roll of Thos. de Brantingham,” ed. Devon, pp. 54–57 and 296–298. These pensions were granted for life.
“La feumes nous en joie et en depport
Dix jours entiers, atendant le vent nort
Pour nous partir.
Mainte trompette y povoit on oir
De jour, de nuit, menestrelz retentir.”
MS. Harl. 1319, in the British Museum, printed in “Archæologia,” vol. xx. p. 297.
[271] Of which letters, models have come down to us, “and judging by the lavish eulogy they employ, the minstrels themselves must have had a hand in drawing them up.” E. K. Chambers, “The Mediæval Stage,” Oxford, 1903, 2 vols., i. p. 53; three chapters on minstrels of great interest and importance, beginning with a bibliography of the subject, i. 23.
[272] Warton’s “History of English Poetry,” Hazlitt’s edition, 1871, ii. p. 98. John of Gaunt orders £16 13s. 4d. to be paid to “various minstrels of his very dear cousin the count of Flanders,” and £65 to various heralds, etc., of “our most redoubted lord and father, the king at Eltham.” “John of Gaunt’s Register,” ed. S. A. Smith, 1911, vol, ii. p. 279. Langland notices the good reception given, when they were travelling, to the king’s minstrels, in order to please their master, known to be sensible of these marks of good will.
[273] November 26, 1372. “John of Gaunt’s Register,” ed. S. A. Smith, 1911, ii. 98.
[274] Chambers, ibid. i. 51.
[275] “Piers Plowman,” Text C, pass. viii. l. 97.
[276] See a drawing of such a gallery in a miniature reproduced by Eccleston, “Introduction to English Antiquities;” London, 1847, p. 221. To the sound of the minstrels’ music four wild men or mummers are dancing with contortions; sticks lie on the ground, no doubt for their exercises; a barking dog is jumping between them.
[277] “Album de Villard de Honnecourt,” edited by Lassus and Darcel, 1858, plate I.
“Si vint de sà Loundres; en un prée
Encontra le roy e sa meisnée;
Entour son col porta soun tabour,
Depeynt de or e riche azour.”
“Le roi d’Angleterre et le jongleur d’Ely,” edited with “La riote du monde,” by Francisque Michel, Paris, 1834, p. 28.—“Viola. Save thee, friend, and thy music: Dost thou live by thy tabor?” And the tabor player, in “Twelfth Night” (iii. 1) is the Clown.
[279] At Exeter Cathedral may be seen many of the musical instruments used in the fourteenth century, sculptured in the “Minstrels’ Gallery,” where angels are performing (see the plate). The instruments they use have been identified by M. Carl Engel as being: the cittern, the bag-pipe, the clarion, the rebec, the psaltery, the syrinx, the sackbut, the regals, the gittern, the shalm, the timbrel, the cymbals. “Musical Instruments,” South Kensington Museum Art Handbook, p. 113. [The duties of the court minstrels of Edward IV are declared in the Black Book of the Orders of that king’s household (Harl. MS. 610, fol. 23), and their instruments are enumerated; “some vse trumpetts, some shalmes, some small pipes, some are stringe-men.” L. T. S.]
[280] Rymer’s “Fœdera,” April 24, 1469. See Appendix XI. On minstrels’ gilds in various English cities, the Beverley one being perhaps the most famous (none, however, possessing documentary proofs of its existence so old as the French ones, the Paris gild, for example, which was reformed in 1321 and lasted till 1776), see Chambers, “Mediæval Stage,” ii. 258. Having known various vicissitudes, the royal or London gild “still exists as the Corporation of the Master, Wardens and Commonalty of the Art and Science of the Musicians of London.” Ibid. ii. 261.
[281] “Rolls of Parliament,” iii. p. 508, A.D. 1402.
[282] See Appendix XII, p. [437].
[283] The songs about him were collected by J. Ritson; “Robin Hood Ballads,” London, second edition, 1832. Most of them are only of the sixteenth century, but a few are of an earlier date. Robin Hood’s popularity was, however, well established in the fourteenth century, as shown by a line in “Piers Plowman,” Skeat’s edition, Text B, passus v., l. 79. On Robin Hood as the hero of popular songs, of many games and of plays, see Chambers, “Mediæval Stage,” i. 174.
[284] “The Wyf of Bathes Tale” (sixty-eight lines on the equality of men and on nobility); again, in the “Parson’s Tale”: “Eek for to pryde him of his gentrye is ful greet folye . . . we ben alle of o fader and of o moder; and alle we been of o nature roten and corrupt, both riche and poure” (Skeat’s edition of the “Canterbury Tales,” vol. iv. p. 596). Not less striking, these lines of a French poem of the same century, quoted in the Discourse upon the state of letters in the fourteenth century, “Histoire Littéraire de la France,” vol. xxiv. p. 236:
“Nus qui bien face n’est vilains,
Mès de vilonie est toz plains
Hauz hom qui laide vie maine:
Nus n’est vilains s’il ne vilaine.”
[285] “Sicut lex justissima, provida circumspectione sacrorum principum stabilita, hortatur et statuit ut quod omnes tangit ab omnibus approbetur, sic.,” etc. Rymer’s “Fœdera,” year 1295, vol. ii. p. 689.
[286] “Fœdera,” year 1297, vol. ii. p. 783.
[287] Isambert’s “Recueil,” vol. iii, pp. 102, 104.
[288] A not at all rare occurrence. See in the fabliau, “Le povre Clerc,” how the itinerant verse teller is asked by the peasant who receives him to say, while the supper is cooking: “Some of those things that are in writing, either a song or a story of adventure.” Bédier, “Les Fabliaux,” 2nd ed., 1895, p. 391.
[289] Performing animals or wild ones in cages enjoyed a popularity which proved more constant than that of minstrels, since it has continued unabated from the early middle ages to the present time. Ursinarii frequently appear in the accounts of the Shrewsbury corporation quoted by Chambers who gives, e.g. this noteworthy entry: “In regardo dato ursinario domini Regis pro agitacione bestiarum suarum ultra denarios tunc ibidem collectos. . . .” (Mediæval Stage, ii. 251; year 1517). The English kings, as is well known, had their ménagerie in the Tower, as the French ones had theirs in Paris. St. Louis sent, “as a great gift,” in 1255, an elephant to Henry III; “and we do not believe any had been seen before in England,” wrote Matthew Paris who, good draughtsman as he was, painted the portrait of the wondrous beast. The miniature in MS. Nero D I, in the British Museum, fol. 169, is by him, according to Madden, “Historia Anglorum,” Rolls, Preface.
“There saugh I pleyen jugelours,
Magiciens and tregetours,
And phitonisses, charmeresses,
Olde wiches, sorceresses
That use exorsisaciouns
And eke thes fumygaciouns.”
(Chaucer’s “House of Fame,” l. 169.)
[291] Chambers, “Mediæval Stage,” i. 58, quoting, the “Summa Theologiæ”: “Sicut dictum est, ludus est necessarius ad conservationem vitæ humanæ,” etc. On the distinction between the higher and lower minstrelsy, see ibid. pp. 59 ff.
[292] Lib. i. chap. viii.
[293] “Historical Papers from the Northern Registers,” ed. Raine, Rolls Series, p. 398. Cf. Bodleian MS. 264, fos. 21, 51, 56, 91, etc.
“Ich can nat tabre ne trompe · ne telle faire gestes,
Farten ne fithelen · at festes, ne harpen,
Japen ne jogelen · ne gentelliche pipe,
Nother sailen ne sautrien · ne singe with the giterne.”
(“Piers Plowman,” ed. Skeat, Text C, passus xvi. l. 205.)
[295] “Loci e libro veritatum; Passages selected from Gascoigne’s Theological Dictionary” (1403–48), ed. Thorold Rogers, Oxford, 1881, p. 144.
[296] For instance, MS. Add. 29704, fol. 11. This particular illumination seems to be of the fourteenth century.
[297] Devon’s “Issues of the Exchequer,” p. 212.
[298] Phillip Stubbes’ “Anatomy of Abuses,” ed. F. J. Furnivall, New Shakspere Society, 1877–79, pp. 171, 172. Stubbes’ opinion was shared by all the religious writers or moralists of the sixteenth century.
[299] All the extracts here are from the “House of Fame,” book iii. “Complete Works,” ed. Skeat, Oxford, 1894, vol. iii. pp. 33 ff.
[300] “A suit respecting civil matter was commenced in this reign (Ed. I), as in earlier or subsequent reigns, by the purchase of a writ and sometimes by bill. . . . The writs were committed to messengers who had to travel into the different parts of the kingdom and deliver them to the sheriffs or other proper officers to be served on the defendants.” Horwood, “Year-books of Edward I,” years 30–31, p. xxv. Against the purchase of the writs the Commons protested, claiming (35 Ed. III, year 1351–2) that this was contrary to Magna Charta, according to which the king “ne vendra ne deleiera droit à nulli.” The king refused to give up what he considered as a legitimate profit, but promised that the tariff would be lowered. “Rolls of Parliament,” ii., 241.
[301] See the representation of lords and ladies dictating their letters to scribes, and of messengers carrying them to their destinations in the MSS. at the British Museum, Royal 10 Ed. IV, fol. 305, 306, etc., and Add. 12228 fol. 238.
[302] “King Edward II’s Household and Wardrobe Ordinances,” 1323, ed. Furnivall, 1876, p. 46. The French kings had a much larger number: “Les riches personnages entretenaient des messagers de pied et des chevaucheurs: de ces derniers le roi de France en avait une centaine . . . de moindres seigneurs se contentaient de deux ou trois. Les chevaucheurs étaient payés à forfait: au XIVe siécle, 18 francs par jour (present value) pour un parcours de 55 kilomètres environ. . . . Les messagers de pied, par journée de 30 kilomètres en moyenne, touchaient 9 francs chez le Roi (1380); à la solde des particuliers ou des villes leur salaire variait de 5 à 10 francs. Un voyage de nuit valait le double: 20 francs: de même les courses périlleuses.” D’Avenel, “L’évolution des moyens de transport,” Paris, 1919, p. 142. Cf. Thorold Rogers, “History of Agriculture and Prices,” i. 665, iv. 712.
[303] Anne of Bohemia, first wife of Richard II, born at Prague in 1366, grand-daughter of blind King John of Bohemia killed at Crécy, herself dying of the plague at Shene, 1394, leaving her husband almost crazy with grief. “Issue roll of Thomas de Brantingham,” ed. F. Devon, London, 1835, pp. xxxii, xxxvii, xliv, 408; “Issues of the Exchequer,” 1837, pp. 220, 255. Whole pages of Thomas de Brantingham’s roll (e.g. pp. 154–155) are filled with payments received by messengers, which show the frequent use made of their services.
[304] 32 Ed. III, “Issues of the Exchequer,” p. 169.
[305] 2 Rich. II, year 1378, “Rolls of Parliament,” vol. iii. p. 36.
[306] Rymer’s “Fœdera,” April 3, 1396 (19 Rich. II).
[307] “Issues of the Exchequer,” p. 202.
[308] “Rolls of Parliament,” i. p. 48 (18 Ed. I).
[309] “Wardrobe Accounts of Edward II,” Archæologia, xxvi. 321, 336.
[310] Extract from a letter to the author: “Yesterday I was reading your ‘Vie Nomade,’ and that portion of it which speaks of the rewards given in fourteenth and fifteenth centuries to messengers who brought good tidings to the king. It may interest you to know that a remnant of this custom still survives. The officer sent by a general after a victory to convey the despatch to the Queen, receives besides a promotion in rank (or a decoration), a pecuniary reward. The officer who brought the news of the fall of Sebastopol to the Queen received the rank of Colonel, and a present of 500 guineas.
“My brother A.D.C., Major Anson, who carried home from China the despatch announcing the fall of Pekin, was promoted Colonel, and received a present of 500 guineas.—St. James’ Club, May 30, 1890.—F. Grant.”
What happened, in our less ceremonious days, when the news was brought of the Marne, of Ypres, of Messines? Doubtless it was not brought; it came.
[311] “Item, be it prohibited everywhere that any alien send letters beyond the sea, or receive letters which come thence; unless he shew them to the chancellor or to some other lord of the Privy Council, or at least to the chief wardens of the ports or their lieutenants, who shall further show them to the said Council.” “Rolls of Parliament,” vol. ii. p. 163, 20 Fd. III.
[312] Text C, pas. xiv. ll. 33–59.
[313] 5 and 6 Ed. VI, ch. 21. Statutes, vol. iv. part i. p. 155.
[314] 14 Eliz. ch. v. “Statutes,” vol. iv. part i. pp. 590 ff.
[315] 8 and 9 Will. III, ch. 25.
[316] Cf the contents of the pack of a French “porte-balle” of the eighteenth century: “ . . . Un de ces merciers ambulants qu’on appelle porte-balles et qui lui crie: Monsieur le chevalier, jarretières, ceintures, cordons de montre, tabatières du dernier goût, vraies jaback, bagues, cachets de montre. . . .” Diderot, “Jacques le Fataliste.” Ed. Asseline, p. 30.
[317] Text B, pas. v. l. 257.
[318] The English coaling trade had greatly increased in the fourteenth century; large quantities of coal were brought by water from Newcastle and other places to London and partly consumed on the spot, partly exported. The importance of coal mines did not escape the notice of the Commons, who stated in the year 1376–7 that, “en diverses parties deinz le Roialme d’Engleterre sont diverses miners de carbons, dont les communes du dit partie ont lour sustenantz en grande partie.” 51 Ed. III, “Rolls of Parliament,” ii. 370. Cf Salzmann, “English Industries of the Middle Ages,” 1913, ch. I, and H. Hall, “A select Bibliography for the study, sources and literature of English Political Economy,” London, 1914.
[319] The trade in wines was enormous, especially with Gascony, and subjected to the most minute regulations. Not only the importation of it was the occasion of ceaseless interfering, but the retail sale in towns was perpetually regulated anew by local ordinances. Woe to the vintner who was detected meddling in any unfair way with his liquor; he might experience the chastisement inflicted upon John Penrose, who for such an offence was sent to the pillory in 1364, was made to drink publicly there his own stuff, had what he could not drink poured over his head, and was besides sentenced to renounce his trade for ever. Riley, “Memorials of London,” 1868, p. 318.
[320] Same rules in France: “Que nul billon, vaissellemente, joyaux d’or et d’argent ne soint traits hors dudit royaume par personne quelle que ce soit, si ce n’estoit vaissellemente de prélats ou de nobles ou d’autres gens d’église pour lour service.” Ordinance of Jean le Bon, dated from London, 1358; Isambert, vol. v. p. 39.
[321] “Rolls of Parliament,” 45 Ed. III, year 1371, vol. ii. p. 306. While this legislation was strictly enforced in England, the royal government, according to petitions of the Commons and with remarkable naïveté, often wrote to princes on the continent, recommending them to allow their own subjects to bring to England money, bullion, and plate.
[322] Statute 5 Rich. II st. i. ch. 3, and 6 Rich. II, year 1381–2.
[323] “Rolls of Parliament,” 46 Ed. III, year 1372, vol. ii. p. 311.
[324] Ibid., 11 Rich II, A.D. 1387, vol. iii. p. 253. The penalties are removed for the Hanse merchants but not for the Prussians, “Et en le mesne temps soient lettre du privé seal envoié al Mestre de Pruys de repaier et due redresse faire as merchantz Engleis des arestes et autres tortz et damages à eux fait deinz la seigneurie de Pruys, come reson demande.”
[325] Statute 27 Ed. III st. ii. ch. 2.
[326] 25 Ed. III stat. iii. ch. 2.
[327] See, for particulars about the “Gildhalda Teutonicorum” in Dowgate Ward, Thames Street, and afterwards in the Steel-house, Herbert’s “Livery Companies,” London, 1837, vol. i. pp. 10–16. The importance of Italian settlements of money-changers and money-lenders (whence the “Lombard streets” or “rues des Lombards” surviving in many towns) are well known.
[328] These and many other particulars about English trade with Venice are to be found in Rawdon Brown’s “Calendars of State Papers . . . in the Archives of Venice,” London, 1864 (Rolls); see also J. Delaville le Roulx, “La France en Orient au XIVe siècle,” Paris, 1886, vol. i. p. 199.
[329] For the first time in 1397–98. He was a liberal lender of money to Kings Henry IV and Henry V.
[330] Th. Wright, “Political Poems,” Rolls Series, ii. 202; also edited by Herzberg and Pauli, Leipzig, 1878.
[331] Bk. xx, chap. 7: “Esprit de l’Angleterre sur le Commerce.”
[332] “Rolls of Parliament,” 25 Ed. III, year 1350, and Ed. I or II anno incerto, vol. ii. p. 232 and vol i. p. 475.
[333] Text B, pas. v. l. 232.
[334] Statute 2 of 27 Ed. III, A.D. 1353. Canterbury was made a staple town “en l’onur de Saint Thomas,” “Rolls of Parliament,” vol. ii. p. 253, same year. As an example of the changes affecting the staple system, see the statute 2 Ed. III, chap. 9 (A.D. 1328), by which all staples were abolished—for a time.
[335] “Pedis pulverisati curia. Ea est quæ in nundinis constituitur, ad nundinalium rixas litesque celerrime componendas. . . . Dictum præcipue de mercatoribus vagabundis, qui nundinas pagatim insectantes omnes discurrunt provincias, nec sistendi locum agnoscunt, sed de his etiam qui ex omni parte ad nundinas confluunt.” H. Spelman, “Glossarium archaiologicum,” ed. tertia, Londini, 1687, p. 455.
[336] These and other particulars about the way in which fairs were managed at Westminster and Winchester are to be found in a petition with an inquest of the year 1302, 30 Ed. I, in the “Rolls of Parliament,” vol. i. p. 150. The Winchester Fair on St. Giles’ hill, “Montem sancti Egidii,” was one of the most famous English fairs. Langland mentions it, and gives a graphic account of the cheating that went on among unscrupulous merchants. “Visions,” Text C, pas. vii. l. 211.
[337] See “Charter of Edward III [as to] St. Giles’ Fair, Winchester,” ed. G. W. Kitchin, London, 1886.
[338] This fair, immortalized by Ben Jonson, disappeared only in 1855. See H. Morley’s “Memoirs of Bartholomew Fair” (2nd ed. 1874).
[339] Mentioned as “Wy,” text C, passus vii. l. 211. Weyhill fair, near Andover, Hampshire, “is a famous one to this day, and lasts eight days. The fair for horses and sheep is on October 10th, that for cheese, hops, and general wares, on October 11th and the six days following.” W. W. Skeat, “Vision concerning Piers the Plowman,” ii, 83. See a list of English fairs in Mr. Elton’s Report, Market Rights Commission, 1889, vol. i. 5. There were fairs established especially for herrings and other fishing produce at Yarmouth, Scarborough, and other towns on the sea-coast. The rigours of Lent and the number of fasting days throughout the year gave particular importance to these articles of consumption. Hence, too, the attention paid to fisheries and the regulations to prevent the catching of small fish, the destruction of spawn and bait, etc. Great complaints are made against the use of the net called “wondyrchoun,” which drags from the bottom of the sea all the bait “that used to be the food of great fish.” Through means of this instrument fishermen catch “such great plenty of small fish that they do not know what to do with them, but fatten their pigs with them.” “Rolls of Parliament,” 1376–7, vol. ii. p. 369. As to salmon fishing in the Thames, see ibid., vol. ii. p. 331, A.D. 1376.
[340] Harrison’s “Description of England,” ed. Furnivall, 1877, first published 1577, part i. book ii. chap xviii. pp. 295, 302.
[341] “History of Agriculture and Prices in England,” vol. iv. chap. iv. p. 155. As to Stourbridge fair, ibid. vol. i. chap. vii. p. 141.
[342] “Winter’s Tale,” iv. 3. Cf. “The foure Ps,” by John Heywood, London, 1545, one of the “Ps” is a pedlar, whose wares are enumerated in full.
[343] Wordsworth, “The Excursion,” Bk. viii.
[344] “The Nut Brown Maid,” in Skeat’s “Specimens of English Literature,” Clarendon Press, 1887, p. 96.
[345] Statute of Winchester, 13 Edward I, chap. iv., confirmed by Edward III. See before p. 156.
[346] “Item videtur nulla esse utlagaria si factum, pro quo interrogatus est, civile sit et non criminale.” Bracton, Rolls Series, vol. ii. p. 330.
[347] “Year Books of Edward I.” Rolls Series, years 30–31, p. 533.
[348] “Year Books of Edward I,” Rolls Series, years 30–31, pp. 537–538. In the case of this woman, freedom was granted “propter parvitatem delicti,” and because she had been one year in prison; and no confiscation took place, because her husband was absent in Paris, and it would have been inappropriate to, maybe, wrong that man who was, like every husband, the owner of his wife’s chattels. “Et nota,” beautifully adds the judge (or the reporter), “quod melius est nocentem relinquere impunitum quam innocentem punire.” But the court, at the same time, fines an innocent, known to it as such, for fear of displeasing the king; a circumstance that the recorder is bold enough to note down: “Et nota quod fecerunt hoc Justiciarii magis ad appruyamentum (profit, for the king got the money) Regis faciendum quam ad legem manutenendum, quia hoc dixerunt in terrorem.” Ibid. pp. 503–507.
[349] “Fleta,” lib. i. chap. xxvii.
[350] “Bracton,” vol. ii. pp. 340–342.
[351] “Year Books of Edward I,” year 30–31, p. 515. Sometimes a man would profit by the absence of an enemy on the continent and affirm to a magistrate that he was in flight, and cause him to be declared an outlaw; thus the priest, John Crochille, complains to parliament of having been unjustly outlawed during a journey which he had made to the Court of Rome, in 1347 (“Rolls of Parliament,” vol. ii. p. 178); the priest, Robert of Thresk, is also declared outlaw during his absence from the kingdom, “by the malice of his accusers” (ibid., 1347, vol. ii. p. 183). John of Gaunt orders the restitution of his goods to “nostre tenant neif, Johan Piers,” whose belongings had been seized, “à cause q’il deust estre utlagé, à ce q’est dit, et ore il nous est certifié par recorde, q’il n’est pas utlagé.” Oct. 12, 1374. “John of Gaunt’s Register,” ed. S. Armitage Smith, document 1544.
[352] “Cecidit in foveam quam fecit.” Psalm vii. 16: “cecidit” should be “incidit.” “Year Books,” Edward I, year 21–22, p. 447. In another case, counsel delighted at a statement of the judge, exclaims in his joy: “Beatus venter qui te portavit.” Ibid. p. 437. Judges sometimes indulged in familiar speech, bets and witticisms: “I will wager a cask of wine on it.” “If you find it, I will give you my hood.” “Year Books of Edward II,” ed. G. J. Turner, Selden Society, 1914, years 1310–1311, pp. 44, 168.
[353] Late thirteenth century, in Madox, “Formulare Anglicanum,” London, 1702, fol., p. 416.
[354] “Sciant presentes et futuri quod ego Johannes filius Thome vendidi et quietum clamavi de me et heredibus meis domino Hugoni abbati Sancti Edmundi et successoribus suis inprimum Servalum filium Willielmi de Wurtham cum tota sequela sua et omnibus catallis suis et cum toto tenemento quod de me tenuit in Wurtham sine ullo retenemento pro sexdecim solidis argenti quos idem abbas michi dedit. Et ut hec mea vendicio . . . firma sit . . . presentem cartam meam feci . . .” Temp. Ed. I, MS. Addit. 14850, in the British Museum fol. 59. “The existing evidence,” says Vinogradoff, “entitles one to maintain that a villain could be lawfully sold, with all his family, his sequela, but that in practice such transactions were uncommon.” “Villainage in England,” Oxford, 1892, p. 151.
[355] “Chronica Monasterii de Melsa,” Rolls, ii. 97 ff., the case being of the second half of the thirteenth century. The duel was, of course, one cum fuste et scuto, the fighters clubbing each other to their best, as in the case of the before mentioned Thomas de Bruges. Above, p. [117].
[356] The year books of Edward I show a marked tendency in the judge to interpret the laws and customs in a sense favourable to the freeing of the villein. One of the harsh theories of former days is declared by him “pejus quam falsum pur ce qe ce est heresie.” “Year Books of Ed. I,” years 30–31, A.D. 1302, ed. Horwood, Rolls, p. 167. See also, in the vol. for the years 34–35, the suit p. 13. But the judge could act thus only in doubtful cases: a man having acknowledged, in the presence of his master, that he was a villein, the judge says to the master: “Prenez le par le cou, comme votre vilain, lui et sa descendance à toujours.” Vol. for the years 30–31, p. 201.
[357] See an example of such commutation, with a tariff established, “ex antiqua et usitata consuetudine,” for various services according to the season, for oats to be supplied to the lord (the abbot of Bury), etc., in MS. Addit. 14850, British Museum, fol. 143; year 1438.
[358] This was a last resort, more and more frequently adopted however, especially after the plague. As Mr. Oman has justly observed, by natural disposition the villeins “were reluctant to abscond and throw up their share of the manorial acres, for only in extremity will the peasant, who has once got a grip on the soil, consent to let it go.” “The Great Revolt of 1381,” Oxford 1906, p. 9.
[359] “A . . . n. Sr le Roi et Seigneurs de Parlement monstrent les chivalers des countees en ycest present Parlement, que come les Seigneurs parmy le Roialme d’Engleterre eient plusours vileins queux s’enfuont de lour Seigneurs et de lour terres en diverses citees et burghs enfranchisez, de jour en autre, et la demuront tout lour vies, par cause desqueux franchises les ditz Seigneurs ne pount aprocher lour ditz vileins. . . .” They want to be enabled to forcibly take them back. Their petition is rejected: “Le Roi s’advisera.” 15 Rich. II, “Rolls of Parliament,” iii. p. 296.
[360] “Ad similitudinem cervorum domesticorum.”—“Henrici de Bracton, De Legibus et Consuetudinibus Angliæ Libri V,” ed. Travers Twiss, London, 1878, i. p. 48.
[361] According to Seebohm (“The Black Death and its place in English History,” two articles in the Fortnightly Review in 1865), more than half of the population died during the epidemic which had begun in July 1348 and lasted till the end of 1349. Three archbishops of Canterbury died in one year. Knyghton, a contemporary, gives a striking picture of the plague at Leicester. “There were scarcely any who took heed of riches or cared for anything. . . . And sheep and oxen wandered through the fields and among the crops; there was no one to go after and collect them; but there perished an untold number in out of the way ditches and under hedges.” In the autumn the price of labour was so exorbitant that a large part of the crops were left on the ground (Twysden’s “Decem Scriptores,” col. 2599). “Through this pestilence,” say the Commons in Parliament, “cities, boroughs and other towns and hamlets throughout the land have decayed, and from day to day are decaying and several are entirely depopulated.” 25 Ed. III, A.D. 1351, “Rolls of Parliament,” vol. ii. p. 227.
[362] See a concrete example of such reports being brought from the north to the south by pilgrims, further, p. [279].
[363] As shown by the surnames of the members, at that period; in numerous cases, a mere indication of profession: Johannes le Baker, Galfridus le Fisshere, Johannes le Carpenter, Robertus Chaundeler, Ricardus Orfevre, Radulphus le Taverner, etc. “Return of the names of every member returned to serve in every Parliament,” London, 1878, a blue book, pp. 18, 31, 146 and passim; on p. 229, duly appears, as a knight of the shire, for Kent, “Galfridus Chauceres.”
[364] Both documents, the first in Latin, the second in French, in “Statutes of the Realm”; a text, revised on the originals, is in the Appendix to Miss Bertha H. Putnam’s “Enforcement of the Statutes of Labourers during the first Decade after the Black Death,” New York, 1908, pp. 8* and 12*.
[365] The taking of money out of the realm was especially feared: “Quamplures ejusdem regni nostri cum pecunia quam in eodem regno habere poterunt, ad partes exteras in dies se transferunt et transferre proponunt.” Dec. 1, 1349, Rymer’s “Fœdera,” vol. v. p. 668.
[366] “Rolls of Parliament,” vol. ii. p. 233. Compare the French ordinances; that of John the Good, January 30, 1350 (Isambert, “Recueil général des anciennes lois françaises,” iv. p. 576), orders the idle people of Paris, picturesquely described as “gens oiseux ou joueurs de dez ou enchanteurs (singers) es rues ou truandans ou mandians, de quelque estat ou condition qu’ils soient, ayans mestier ou non, soient hommes ou femmes,” to either work or go away, which was less radical and still less to the point than the English rules. Another order of the same king (Nov. 1354, ibid. p. 700) was directed against the workmen who since the plague were exacting exorbitant wages, and, in addition to that, “wine, meat and other unwonted things.” If denied, they preferred to do nothing but would go to taverns and there had been heard to say that, “owing to the great price they are accustomed to take, they will work only two days a week,” a kind of difficulty which, dating back six centuries, is not entirely of the past.
[367] “Rolls of Parliament,” vol. ii. p. 261, parliament of 1354.
[368] Statute 34 Ed. III, chap. 10, A.D. 1360–1.
[369] “Rolls of Parliament,” ii. p. 312.
[370] “Rolls of Parliament,” ii. p. 340, A.D. 1376. To have them outlawed brings no relief to their masters, for they manage not to be caught and carefully avoid the places where they are known: “Et si les ditz servantz corores soient utlagez à la sute de la partie, il n’est profit al sutour, ne damage ne chastiement al servant futyf, par cause q’ils ne poont estre trovez ne jà ne pensent repeirir en pays là cù ils ont ensi servi.” Same petition.
[371] Langland shows, in the same way, the shameless beggar who goes, bag on shoulder, asking from door to door, who may very well if he pleases gain his bread and beer by work; he knows a trade, but he prefers not to exercise it:
“And can som manere craft · in cas he wolde hit use,
Thorgh whiche craft he couthe · come to bred and to ale.”
“Piers Plowman,” Text C, pass. x. l. 155; see also ibid., pass. i. l. 40.
[372] “ . . . Par colour de certains exemplificacions faitz hors de livre de Domesday des manoirs et villes deinz queux ils sont demurantz, et par vertue d’icelles exemplificacions et lour male interpretacion d’icelles, ils s’aferment (affirm) d’estre quites et outrement deschargez de tout manere de servage due sibien de lour corps come de lour tenures. . . . Et qe plus est, ils se coillient ensembles à grantz routes et s’entrelient par tiel confederacie qe chescun aidra autre à contester lours seignurs à fort mayn.” Rich. II, chap 6, year 1377; “Rolls of Parliament,” vol. iii. pp. 17, 46, 65.
[373] Statute 7 Rich. II, cap. 5.
[374] Statute 12 Rich. II, cap. 3.
[375] “Gleanings from the Public Records,” by Mr. H. Hewlett, in the “Antiquary,” March, 1882, vol. v. p. 99. Concerning ill-treatment inflicted on prisoners, see a petition of the Commons, 1 Ed. III, A.D. 1326–7, “Rolls of Parliament,” vol. ii. pp. 9, 12.
[376] See, besides the plates here, representations of these instruments of punishment in, e.g. Foxe’s “Actes and Monuments.” London, 1563, fol. pp. 390, 1272, etc., and in Butler’s “Hudibras, adorned with cutts designed and engraved by Mr. Hogarth,” London 1761; at p. 140, the knight and his squire, “check by joul,” says the poet, in the stocks.
[377] 12 Rich. II, cap. 7.
[378] 12 Rich. II, cap. 7. Cf. above, p. [236].
[379] On which see, e.g. André Réville and Ch. Petit-Dutaillis, “Le soulèvement des travailleurs d’Angleterre en 1381,” Paris, 1898; G. M. Trevelyan, “England in the age of Wycliffe,” chapters vi and vii; “The Peasants’ rising and the Lollards, a collection of unpublished documents,” edited by E. Powell and G. M. Trevelyan, London 1899, with data not only on the great rising, but on some later troubles (1392, 1398) of lesser magnitude, but important as signs; C. Oman, “The Great Revolt of 1381,” Oxford, 1906.
[380] Statute 3 Ed. I, stat. 1, cap. 34, A.D. 1275.
[381] Statute 2 Rich. II, chap. 5.
[382] Document published (but only in an English translation) by W. E. Flaherty: “Sequel to the great rebellion in Kent, of 1381,” “Archæologia Cantiana,” vol. iv. pp. 67 ff. The author interprets peregrini, at one place by strangers, at another by pilgrims; the latter is the real meaning.
Some traces of kindness to his tenants, on the part of John of Gaunt are found in his Registers. He orders wood and charcoal to be carried to the castle of Tutbury where his wife was to spend the winter, and insists that the work be done in summer, so that his tenants and bondmen be not grieved by the carrying thereof in the bad season. . . “Si voullons et vous mandons que vous faces faire et carier à nostre dit chastel ccc quarters de carbons, et aussint vous faces carier tout la boys abatuz par vent que vous bonement pourrez en nostre dit chastel pur fuaille, et que ce soit fait toute voies en ceste saison d’estée, issint que noz tenantz et bondes ne soient pas tariez ne grevez ove la cariage d’ycelle en temps de yver.” “John of Gaunt’s Register,” ed. S. A. Smith, 1911, vol. ii. p. 203, year 1373.
[383] And they said it in the most peremptory language, highly approving of the king’s breaking his word and revoking the sweeping manumissions (“manumisimus universos ligeos et singulos subditos nostros,” Walsingham, ii. 467, Rolls) he had granted out of fear; the lords and the commons answer: “à une voice qe cele repele fuist ben faite, adjoustant que tiele manumission ou franchise des neifs ne poast estre fait sanz lour assent q’ont le greindre interesse: a quoy ils n’assentèrent unques de lour bone grée, n’autrement, ne jamais ne ferroient pur vivre et murrir touz en un jour.” “Rolls of Parliament,” iii. p. 100; year 1381. So they would rather die, all of them in a day, than assent to a freedom granted “without the assent of those most interested”: and it never occurred to them that those most interested could possibly be the villeins themselves and not the villeins’ masters.