The History of Chivalry Volume I Part 10

The mental education of women of those days was not of a very high polish.

To repeat the prayers of the church, to sing the brief piece of poetry called the lai, or the longer romaunt were the only tasks on the intellect.

"The king had a daughter dear, That maiden Ysonde hight; That glee was lef to hear And romance to read aright."[203]

The ladies also played upon the harp.

"They were wont to harp and syng, And be the merriest in chamber comyng."[204]

The same particular of ancient manners is recorded by another poet:

"The lady that was so fair and bright, Upon the bed she sat down right, The harpers notes sweet and fine, Her maids filled a price of wine.

And Sir Degore sat him down, For to hear the harper's sown."[205]

[Sidenote: Graver sciences.]

But sometimes the graver sciences were introduced into female education, and Felice, the daughter of Rohand, Earl of Warwick, was not without parallels.

"Gentle she was, and as demure As ger-fauk, or falcon to lure, That out of mew were y-drawe.

So fair was none, in sooth sawe.

She was thereto courteous, and free and wise, And in the seven arts learned withouten miss.

Her masters were thither come Out of Thoulouse all and some, White and h.o.a.r all they were; Busy they were that maiden to lere; And they her lered of astronomy, Of armsmetrick, and of geometry; Of sophistry she was also witty, Of rhetorick, and of other clergy: Learned she was in musick; Of clergy was her none like."[206]

Maidens were taught that a mild dignity of demeanour beseemed them, and moralising their duty into a thousand similies, their teachers declared that they ought not to resemble the tortoise or the crane, which turn the visage and the head above their shoulders, and winde their head like a vane; but their regard and manner ought to be steadfast, in imitation of the beautiful hare, which always looks right on. If an occasion required a damsel to look aside, she ought to turn the visage and body together, and so her estate would be more firm and sure; for it was unmaidenly lightly to cast about her sight and head, and turn her face here and there.[207]

[Sidenote: Dress.]

Simplicity of dress was another part of instruction: but there was to be no lack of jewels of price and other splendid ornaments on festive occasions, and, consistently with the general magnificence of religious worship of the age, maidens were commanded to wear their gorgeous robes at church, and not merely at courtly festivals. There was a gravity about chivalry which accorded well with the recommendation for women not quickly to adopt new dresses introduced from strange countries. Modesty of attire was the theme of many a wise discourse, and every castle had its story of the daughter of a knight who lost her marriage by displaying too conspicuously the graces of her figure, and that the cavalier who was her intended suitor preferred her sister who had modesty, though not beauty, for her dower.[208]

[Sidenote: Knowledge of medicine.]

All the domestic oeconomy of the baronial mansion was arranged by these young maidens: and the consideration which this power gave them was not a little heightened by their sharing with the monks in the knowledge which the age possessed of vulnerary medicaments. This attribute of skill over the powers of nature was a clear deduction from that sublime, prophetic, and mysterious character of women in the ages which preceded the times both of feudalism and chivalry. The healing art was not reduced to an elaborate system of principles and rules, for memory to store and talent to apply, but it was thought that the professors of medicine enjoyed a holy intercourse with worlds unknown to common minds. The possession of more than mortal knowledge was readily ascribed to a pure, unearthly being like woman, and the knight who felt to his heart of hearts the charm of her beauty was not slow in believing that she could fascinate the very elements of nature to aid him. There are innumerable pa.s.sages in the various works which reflect the manners of chivalric times on the medicinal practice of dames and damsels. A pleasing pa.s.sage of Spenser ill.u.s.trates their affectionate tendance of the sick.

"Where many grooms and squires ready were To take him from his steed full tenderly; And eke the fairest Alma met him there With balm and wine and costly spicery, To comfort him in his infirmity.

Eftesoones she caus'd him up to be conveyed, And of his arms despoiled easily: In sumptuous bed she made him to be laid, And, all the while his wounds were dressing, by him stay'd."[209]

Chirurgical knowledge was also a necessary feminine accomplishment, and we will accept the reason of the cavalier with "high thoughts, seated in a heart of courtesy," for such a remarkable feature in their character. "The art of surgery," says Sir Philip Sidney, "was much esteemed, because it served to virtuous courage, which even ladies would, even with the contempt of cowards, seem to cherish."[210] A fair maiden could perform as many wonderful cures as the most renowned and skilful leech. The gentle Nicolette successfully treated an accident which her knight Auca.s.sin met with.

"So prosper'd the sweet la.s.s, her strength alone Thrust deftly back the dislocated bone; Then, culling curious herbs of virtue tried, While her white smock the needful bands supplied: With many a coil the limb she swath'd around, And nature's strength return'd, nor knew its former wound."

Spenser favours us with the ladies' method of treating a wound.

"Mekely she bowed down, to weete if life Yet in his frozen members did remain; And, feeling by his pulses beating rife That the weak soul her seat did yet retain, She cast to comfort him with busy pain: His double-folded neck she reared upright, And rubb'd his temples and each trembling vein; His mailed haberieon she did undight, And from his head his heavy burganet did light.

Into the woods thenceforth in haste she went, To seek for herbs that mote him remedy; For she of herbes had great intendiment, Taught of the nymph from whom her infancy Her nourced had in true n.o.bility.

The soveraine weede betwixt two marbles plain, She powder'd small, and in pieces bruize; And then atweene her lily handes twain Into his wound ye juice thereof did scruze; And round about, as she could well it use, The flesh therewith she suppled and did steepe T'abate all spasm and soke the swelling bruise; And, after having search't the intuse deep, She with her scarf did bind the wound, from cold to keep."[211]

[Sidenote: Every-day life of the maiden.]

The every-day life of a young maiden in chivalric times is described with a great deal of spirit in the fine old English tale, of the Squire of Low Degree. I am not acquainted with any other pa.s.sage of the metrical romances which contains so vivid a picture of the usages of our ancestors.

To dissipate his daughter's melancholy for the loss of her lover, the King of Hungary says,

"To-morrow ye shall on hunting fare, And ride, my daughter, in a chair,[212]

It shall be covered with velvet red, And cloths of fine gold all about your head; With damask white and azure blue Well diapered with lilies new.

Your pomelles shall be ended with gold, Your chains enameled many a fold; Your mantle of rich degree, Purple pall and ermine fre.

Jennets of Spain that be so white Trapped to the ground with velvet bright.

Ye shall have harp, sawtry, and song, And other myrthes you among; Ye shall have Rumney and Malmesyne, Both ypocra.s.s and vernage wine, Mount rose and wine of Greek, Both algrade and despice eke; Antioch and b.a.s.t.a.r.d, Piment also and gamarde; Wine of Greek and muscadell, Both clare piment and roch.e.l.l,[213]

The red your stomach to defy, And pots of osey set you by.

You shall have venison ybake,[214]

The best wild fowl that may be take.

A lese of greyhounds with you to strike, And hart and hind and other lyke, Ye shall be set at such a tryst[215]

That hart and hind shall come to your fist.

Your disease to drive you fro, To hear the bugles there yblowe.

Homeward thus shall ye ride, On hawking by the river's side, With goss hawk and with gentle falcon, With egle-horn, and merlyon.[216]

When you come home your men among, Ye shall have revel dance and song, Little children great and small Shall sing as doth the nightingale.

Then shall ye go to your even song, With tenors and trebles among, Threescore of ropes of damask bright Full of pearls they shall be pight,[217]

Your censers shall be of gold Indent with azure many a fold: Your choir nor organ song shall want With counter note and discant.

The other half on organs playing, With young children full fair singing.

Then shall ye go to your supper, And sit in tents in green arbour, With cloth of arras pight to the ground, With saphires set and diamond.

The nightingale sitting on a thorn Shall sing you notes both even and morn.

An hundred knights truly told, Shall play with bowls in alleys cold, Your disease to drive away, To see the fishes in pools play.

And then walk in arbour up and down, To see the flowers of great renown.

To a draw-bridge then shall ye, The one half of stone, the other of tree; A barge shall meet you, full right, With twenty-four oars full bright, With trumpets and with clarion, The fresh water to row up and down.

Into your chamber they shall you bring With much mirth and more liking.

Your blankets shall be of fustain, Your sheets shall be of cloths of Rayne;[218]

Your head sheet shall be of pery pyght,[219]

With diamonds set and ruby bright.

When you are laid in bed so soft, A cage of gold shall hang aloft, With long pepper fair burning, And cloves that be sweet smelling, Frankinsence and olibanum,[220]

That when you sleep the taste may come, And if ye no rest can make, All night minstrels for you shall wake."

[Sidenote: Chivalric love.]

In that singular system of manners which we call chivalric, religion was a chief influential principle of action; but scarcely less consequence ought in truth to be given to another feeling apparently incompatible with it; and if Venus, in the Greek mythology, was called the universal cause, her empire seems not to have been less extensive in days of knighthood. A Latin poet, of no mean authority in such subjects, has described love as the sole employment of woman's life, and of man's only a part[221]; and Boccacio says, that he composed his tales for the solace of fair and n.o.ble ladies in love, who, confined within their melancholy chambers, had no other occupation, but perpetually to revolve in their minds the same consuming thoughts, rendered intolerable by shame and concealment: while man might hunt, hawk, fish, and had a thousand channels for his thoughts.

But the state of society at Rome was not similar to that in days of knighthood, and though Boccacio lived in those days, he describes the manners of commercial cities rather than of chivalric courts, of fair Florence and not of a frowning baronial castle. The ideas of G.o.d and of love were always blended in the heart of the true knight, and to be loving was as necessary as to be devout. Cervantes expresses the feelings of chivalry in the declaration of Don Quixote, that "a knight without a mistress was like a tree without either fruit or leaves, or a body without a soul." A ship without a rudder, a horse without a bridle, were other ill.u.s.trations of the prevailing sentiment, and more expressive of the characteristic of chivalric love, which a.s.signed superiority to woman, which made her the directress of the thoughts, and inspirer of the courage of her chosen cavalier. "A knight may never be of prowess, but if he be a lover," was the sentiment of Sir Tristram, a valiant peer of Arthur, and it was echoed by every gentle son of chivalry.[222] Not, indeed, that every knight felt this strength and purity of pa.s.sion. Spenser has described four cavaliers, and each represents a large cla.s.s.

"Druon's delight was all for single life, And unto ladie's love would lend no leasure; The more was Claribell engaged rife With fervent flames, and loved out of measure: So eke lov'd Blandamour, but yet at pleasure Would change his liking, and new lemans prove: But Paridell of love did make no threasure, But l.u.s.ted after all that did him move: So diversely these four disposed were to love."[223]

[Sidenote: The idolatry of the knight's pa.s.sion.]