Early English Meals and Manners Part 9

If it be objected that I have in the foregoing extracts shown the dark side of the picture, and not the bright one, my answer is that the bright one--of the riches and luxury in England--must be familiar to all our members, students (as I a.s.sume) of our early books, that the Treatises in this Volume sufficiently show this bright side, and that to me, as foolometer of the Society, this dark side seemed to need showing.

But as _The Chronicle_ of May 11, 1867, in its review of Mr Fox Bourne's _English Merchants_, seems to think otherwise, I quote its words, p. 155, col. 2.

"All the nations of the world, says Matthew of Westminster, were kept warm by the wool of England, made into cloth by the men of Flanders. And while we gave useful clothing to other countries, we received festive garments from them in return. For most of our information on these subjects we are indebted to Matthew Paris, who tells us that when Alexander III. of Scotland was married to Margaret, daughter of Henry III., one thousand English knights appeared at the wedding in _cointises_ of silk, and the next day each knight donned a new robe of another kind. This grand entertainment was fatal to sixty oxen, and cost the then Archbishop of York no less a sum than 4000 marks. Macpherson remarks on this great display of silk as a proof of the wealth of England under the Norman kings, a point which has not been sufficiently elaborated. In 1242 the streets of London were covered or shaded with silk, for the reception of Richard, the King's brother, on his return from the Holy Land. Few Englishmen are aware of the existence of such magnificence at that early period; while every story-book of history gives us the reverse of the picture, telling us of straw-covered floors, scarcity of body linen, and the like. Long after this, in 1367, it is recorded, as a special instance of splendour of costume, that 1000 citizens of Genoa were clothed in silk; and this tale has been repeated from age to age, while the similar display, at an earlier date, in England, has pa.s.sed unnoticed."

For a notice of the several pieces in the present volume, I refer the reader to the Preface to Russell's _Boke of Nurture_, which follows here.

It only remains for me to say that the freshness of my first interest in the poems which I once hoped to re-produce in these Forewords, has become dulled by circ.u.mstances and the length of time that the volume has been in the press--it having been set aside (by my desire) for the _Ayenbite_, &c.;--and that the intervention of other work has prevented my making the collection as complete as I had desired it to be. It is, however, the fullest verse one that has yet appeared on its subject, and will serve as the beginning of the Society's store of this kind of material.[86] If we can do all the English part of the work, and the Master of the Rolls will commission one of his Editors to do the Latin part, we shall then get a fairly complete picture of that Early English Home which, with all its shortcomings, should be dear to every Englishman now.

3, _St George's Square, N.W._,

5th _June_, 1867.

[Footnote 1: The first sentence of Aristotle's _Metaphysics_ is 'All men by nature are actuated by the desire of knowledge.' Mr Skeat's note on l. 78 of _Partenay_, p. 228.]

[Footnote 2: Lawrens Andrewe. _The n.o.ble lyfe & natures of man, of bestes_, &c. Johnes Desborrowe. Andewarpe.]

[Footnote 3: The woodcuts are Messrs Virtue's, and have been used in Mr Thomas Wright's _History of Domestic Manners and Customs_, &c.]

[Footnote 4: If any one thinks it a bore to read these Prefaces, I can a.s.sure him it was a much greater bore to have to hunt up the material for them, and set aside other pressing business for it.

But the Boke of Curtasye binding on editors does not allow them to present to their readers a text with no coat and trowsers on. If any Members should take offence at any expressions in this or any future Preface of mine, as a few did at some words in the last I wrote, I ask such Members to consider the first maxim in their Boke of Curtasye, _Don't look a gift horse in the mouth_. Prefaces are gift horses; and if mine buck or shy now and then, I ask their riders to sit steady, and take it easy. On the present one at least they'll be carried across some fresh country worth seeing.]

[Footnote 5: scholars?]

[Footnote 6: Sir H. Nicolas, in his Glossary to his _Privy Purse Expenses of Henry VIII._, p. 327, col. 2, says, "No word has been more commented upon than 'Henchmen' or Henxmen. Without entering into the controversy, it may be sufficient to state, that in the reign of Henry the Eighth it meant the pages of honour. They were the sons of gentlemen, and in public processions always walked near the monarch's horse: a correct idea may be formed of their appearance from the representation of them in one of the pictures in the meeting room of the Society of Antiquarians. It seems from these entries (p. 79,[*] 125, 182, 209, 230, 265) that they lodged in the house of Johnson, the master of the king's barge, and that the rent of it was 40_s_. per annum. Observations on the word will be found in Spelman's _Etymol._, Pegge's _Curialia_, from the Liber Niger, Edw. IV., Lodge's _Ill.u.s.trations_, vol. i. p. 359, the _Northumberland Household Book_, Blount's _Glossary_."

The _Promptorium_ has "Heyncemann (henchemanne) _Gerolocista, duorum generum, (gerolocista)_," and Mr Way in his note says, "The pages of distinguished personages were called henxmen, as Spelman supposes, from Ger. _hengst_, a war-horse, or according to Bp.

Percy, from their place being at the side or _haunch_ of their lord." See the rest of Mr Way's note. He is a most provokingly careful editor. If ever you hit on a plum in your wanderings through other books you are sure to find it afterwards in one of Mr Way's notes when you bethink yourself of turning to the Promptorium.

In Lord Percy's Household (_North. H. Book_, p. 362) the Henchemen are mentioned next to the Earl's own sons and their tutor (?) in the list of "Persones that shall attende upon my Lorde at his Borde Daily, ande have no more but his Revercion Except Brede and Drynk."

My Lordes Secounde Son to serve as Kerver.

My Lordes Thurde Son as Sewer.

A Gentillman that shall attende upon my Lord's Eldest Son in the rewarde, and appoynted Bicause he shall allwayes be with my Lord's Sonnes for seynge the Orderynge of them.

My Lordes first _Hauneshman_ to serve as Cupberer to my Lorde.

My Lords ij^de _Hanshman_ to serve as Cupberer to my Lady.

See also p. 300, p. 254, The _Hansmen_ to be at the fyndynge of my Lord, p. 47]

[Footnote 6*: p. 79, It{e}m the same daye paied to Johnson the mayster of the king{is} barge for the Rent of the house where the henxe men lye xl s.]

[[Footnote 6a: 'Your Bele Babees are very like the _Meninos_ of the Court of Spain, & _Menins_ of that of France, young n.o.bles brought up with the young Princes.' H. Reeve.]]

[Footnote 7: When writing this I had forgotten Warton's section on the Revival of Learning in England before and at the Reformation, _Hist. English Poetry_, v. iii. ed. 1840. It should be read by all who take an interest in the subject. Mr Bruce also refers to Kynaston's _Museum Minervae_. P.S.--Mr Bullein and Mr Watts have since referred me to Henry, who has in each volume of his _History of England_ a regular account of learning in England, the Colleges and Schools founded, and the learned men who flourished, in the period of which each volume treats. Had I seen these earlier I should not have got the following extracts together; but as they are for the most part not in Henry, they will serve as a supplement to him.]

[Footnote 8: First of these is Mr Charles H. Pearson, then the Rev. Prof. Brewer, and Mr William Chappell.]

[Footnote 9: Mr Wm. Chappell gave me the reference.]

[Footnote 10: In the Romance of Blonde of Oxford, Jean of Dammartin is taken into the service of the Earl of Oxford as _escuier_, esquire. He waits at table on knights, squires, valets, boys and messengers. After table, the ladies keep him to talk French with them.]

[[Footnote 10a: This is not intended to confine the definition of Music as taught at Oxford to its one division of _Harmonica_, to the exclusion of the others, _Rythmica, Metrica_, &c. The Arithmetic _said_ to have been studied there in the time of Edmund the Confessor is defined in his Life (MS. about 1310 A.D.) in my _E. E. Poems & Lives of Saints_, 1862, thus,

Arsmetrike is a lore: at of figours al is & of drau?tes as me drawe in poudre: & in numbre iwis.]]

[Footnote 11: It was in part a principle of Anglo-Saxon society at the earliest period, and attaches itself to that other universal principle of fosterage. A Teuton chieftain always gathered round him a troop of young retainers in his hall who were voluntary servants, and they were, in fact, almost the only servants he would allow to touch his person. T. Wright.]

[Footnote 12: Compare Skelton's account of Wolsey's treatment of the n.o.bles, in _Why come ye not to Courte_ (quoted in Ellis's _Letters_, v. ii. p. 3).

--"Our barons be so bolde, Into a mouse hole they wold Runne away and creep Like a mainy of sheep: Dare not look out a dur For drede of the maystife cur, For drede of the boucher's dog

"For and this curre do gnarl, They must stande all afar To holde up their hand at the bar.

For all their n.o.ble bloude, He pluckes them by the hood And shakes them by the eare, And bryngs them in such feare; He bayteth them lyke a beare, Like an Ox or a Bul.

Their wittes, he sayth, are dul; He sayth they have no brayne Their estate to maintaine: And make to bowe the knee Before his Majestie."]

[Footnote 13: Compare also the quotation from Piers Plowman's Crede, under No. 5, p. xlv, and Palsgrave, 1530 A.D., 'I mase, I stonysshe, _Je bestourne_. You mased the boye so sore with beatyng that he coulde not speake a worde.' See a gross instance of cruelty cited from Erasmus's Letters, by Staunton, in his _Great Schools of England_, p. 179-80.]

[Footnote 14: "And therfore do I the more lament that soch [hard]

wittes commonlie be either kepte from learning by fond fathers, or _bet from learning by lewde scholemasters_," ed. Mayor, p. 19. But Ascham reproves parents for paying their masters so badly: "it is pitie, that commonlie more care is had, yea and that emonges verie wise men, to finde out rather a cunnynge man for their horse than a cunnyng man for their children. They say nay in worde, but they do so in deede. For, to the one they will gladlie give a stipend of 200. Crounes by yeare, and loth to offer to the other, 200.

shillinges. G.o.d, that sitteth in heauen, laugheth their choice to skorne, and rewardeth their liberalitie as it should: for he suffereth them to have tame and well ordered horse, but wilde and unfortunate Children." _Ib._ p. 20]

[Footnote 15-15: _Sanctae memoriae _Robertum_ Cognominatum _Grodsted_ dudum _Lincolniendem_ Episcopum, Regi _Henrico_ quasi admirando, c.u.m interrogavit, ubi Noraturam didicit, qua Filios n.o.bilium Procerum Regni, quos sec.u.m habuit Domisellos, instruxerat, c.u.m non de n.o.bili prosapia, sed de simplicibus traxisset Originem, fertur intrepide respondisse, In Domo seu Hospitio Majorum Regum quam sit Rex Angliae; Quia Regum, _David, Salomonis_, & aliorum, vivendi morem didicerat ex Intelligentia scripturarum._]

[Footnote 16: DOMICELLUS, Domnicellus, diminutivum a _Domnus_.

Gloss. antiquae MSS.: _Heriles, Domini minores, quod possumus aliter dicere Domnicelli_, Ugutio: _Domicelli et Domicellas dic.u.n.tur, quando pulchri juvenes magnatum sunt sicut servientes._ Sic porro primitus appellabant magnatum, atque adeo Regum filios.

Du Cange.]

[Footnote 17: Mr Bruce sends me the More extracts.]

[Footnote 18: How Wolsey broke off the _insurance_ is very well told. Mistress Anne was "sent home again to her father for a season; _whereat she smoked_"; but she "was revoked unto the Court," and "after she knew the king's pleasure and the great love that he bare her _in the bottom of his stomach_, then she began to look very hault and stout, having all manner of jewels or rich apparel that might be gotten with money" (p. 67).]

[Footnote 19: Under the heading "Gentylmen of Houshold, viz.

Kervers, Sewars, Cupberers, and Gentillmen Waiters" in the _North.

Household Book_, p. 40, we find

Item, Gentillmen in Housholde ix, Viz. ij Carvers for my Loords Boorde, and a Servant bitwixt theym both, _except thai be at their frendis fyndyng_, and than ather of theym to have a Servant.

--Two Sewars for my Lordis Boorde, and a Servant bitwixt theym, _except they be at their Frendis fyndynge_, and than ather of theym to have a Servant.--ij Cupberers for my Lorde and my Lady, and a Servant allowed bitwixt theym, _except they be at their Frendis fyndynge_, And than ather of theym to have a Servant allowid.

Under the next heading "My Lordis Hansmen at the fyndynge of my Lorde, and Yonge Gentyllmen _at there Frendys fyndynge_," is

Item, my Lordis Hansmen iij. Yonge Gentyllmen in Houshold _at their Frendis fyndynge_ ij = v.]

[Footnote 20: Grammar usually means Latin. T. Wright.]

[Footnote 21: The exceptions must have been many and marked.]