Women of England Part 8

In this connection, it is interesting to refer to the development of the silk industry as a typical occupation of woman. It is impossible to determine the time when "the arts of spinning, throwing, and weaving of silk" were first brought into England. We do know, however, that, when first established, they were pursued by a company of women called "silk women." The fabrics of their skill were in the many forms of laces, ribbons, girdles, and other narrow goods. Toward the middle of the fifteenth century, these women were greatly distressed by the Lombards and other Italians, who imported into the country the same sort of goods, and in such quant.i.ties that their sale was hindered and the workers placed in danger of starvation. This led to a reference of their complaint to Parliament, with a statement of the grievances for which they desired redress. This doc.u.ment bore the t.i.tle: _The pet.i.tion of the silk women and throwesters of the craftes and occupation of silk-work within the city of London, which be, and have been, craftes of women within the same city of time that no man remembereth the contrary_. The pet.i.tion then goes on to set forth "that by this business many reputable families have been well supported; and young women kept from idleness by learning the same business, and put into a way of living with credit, and many have thereby grown to great worship; and never any thing of silk brought into this land, concerning the same craftes and occupations in any wise wrought but in the raw silk alone, unwrought, until now of late that divers Lombards and others, aliens and strangers, with a view of destroying the silk-working in this kingdom, and transferring the manufactories to foreign countries, do daily bring into this land,"

etc. Then follows a statement of the inferior grades of fabrics thus introduced, which the complaint said was "to the great detriment and utter destruction of the said craftes; which is like to cause great idleness among the young gentlewomen and other apprentices to the same craftes." The pet.i.tion that the importation of these goods should be prohibited was granted, and we hear no more of these estimable ladies and little of their infant industry. It was then thought no disgrace for a lady of quality to conduct such household manufactories.

The town-dwelling woman looked down upon her rural sister, a fact that is not at all surprising when the difference in the condition of the two cla.s.ses of women is considered. The town-dwelling woman had the privileges of guild a.s.sociation and the liberties which it gave her, while the woman in the agricultural districts was but a drudge.

The former were identified with manufactures and commerce, while the latter were tied to the soil. Even after the rise of copyhold tenure of land, the grievances of the agricultural population were considerable, and of many sorts. While the villains flocked to London to demand legal exemption from the old labor obligations which went along with such servile condition, the cottars claimed freedom from labor rents for their homes, and the copyholders of all kinds demanded that they should not be compelled to grind at the lord's mill the corn which they raised for their household needs. The rising tide of industrial revolution represented a climax of centuries of grievance; and when the revolt did come, it was as a demand for the manumission of property held in villanage. There was at the time hardly any personal servitude demanding such strenuous measures for betterment.

The popular agitation seemed to be enlisted against cla.s.s impositions, and so the following lines:

"When Adam delved and Eve span, Who was then the gentleman?"

became the slogan of the insurgents.

It is not possible to ascertain how particular grievances in Kent and Ess.e.x became identified with the general movements of the peasantry south of the Thames and in many parts of the midland. The vast movement, however, extended throughout the agricultural districts, and included burgesses of towns, rural priests, yeomen and farm laborers.

It is unlikely that a personal grievance should have caused it, but it was precipitated by such. The immediate occasion was the indignation which was aroused at an outrage committed by one of the tax collectors on the daughter of Wat the Tyler. As the indignation which centred in the sentiment against this act served to cement the feeling of injustice which was prevalent among the peasantry, so it is probable that the act itself was not a solitary instance, but only one of many indignities which were suffered by the peasantry at the hands of the representatives of those above them. Although the insurrection soon came to an end, and those who were responsible for it suffered the severest penalties, nevertheless the various "statutes of laborers"

which from this date appear on the statute book show that the day had gone by when the lords of manors could require the personal services of tenants in return for the lands they held; so that the one thousand five hundred persons who were executed for this social uprising died as a protest against grievances of the poor tenantry, which were corrected by legislation.

By the close of the fourteenth century the manorial courts had lost much of their former vigor; and there were frequent instances of villain tenants sending their daughters to service beyond the bounds of the manors, in spite of the requirement of a license so to do. Daughters were also married without reference to the lord, or obtaining his permission, or paying the fee. As a result of their extended liberties, women as well as men deserted the country in large numbers and resorted to the towns. The population thus became much more mobile, and among the people there was a wider degree of intelligence because of this fact and of their more varied experience.

As women are the progenitors of the race, it is always important for the intelligence of a people that the mothers shall not be stupid and inane creatures such as were for the most part the women of the agricultural cla.s.ses in England during the greater part of the Middle Ages. They were limited to the narrow confines of homes, humble indeed, and yet homes which they could not feel were their own, and they could not leave these habitations excepting under conditions which were practically prohibitive. Their days were spent in an unvarying monotony of domestic duties and farm labor, which afforded no stimulus to the mind or food for the soul. It is not strange that morals were as depraved as manners were uncouth. In the imagination, superst.i.tion took the place that was unoccupied by intelligence; and the world of the peasant woman, who went about her round of daily hardship, was peopled by a throng of supernatural creatures, and her life spent in fear of violation of some of those strange rules of conduct which now form interesting matter for the student of folklore.

It is difficult to exaggerate the hardship of the agriculturist of the Middle Ages; and as she was an active partic.i.p.ant in such labors, besides having upon her the burdens which commonly belong to the mother of a household, the woman of the times had to bear duties much beyond those of a woman in a similar grade of life in England to-day.

The great pestilences of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries swept away so many lives that, for two centuries and a half before the accession of Henry VII., the growth of population was so slight as to be scarcely calculable. The unsanitary condition of the homes in general was greatly injurious to health; but this was especially so of the homes of the humble, the women of which had no ideas of cleanliness, either in person or surroundings. The weekly shilling or ninepence of the agricultural laborer must have been distressingly inadequate for the needs of the household. These included wheat or rye, which formed the staple of living, the rent of the cottage, the usual manor dues, the national tax, something for clothing, medicine for the children, and occasional items which would enter into a complete enumeration. Even if the wife, as was frequently the case, had to bear the burden of her own support by engaging in some form of industrial activity in connection with her other duties, the wage of the husband was barely enough to meet the needs of the remainder of the family, and he had not a farthing left for "rainy days," which were of frequent occurrence, or for those common and extraordinary exactions which could not be evaded. So rigidly were the taxes levied, even upon the poorest, that every form of possession came under tribute; thus, the pet lamb of a poor man, which may have been the one source of joy to his children and pleasure to his wife, appears in an inventory of Colchester as amerced for sixpence. In the fifteenth century, to which this entry refers, the master of a tenant was forbidden by the Statutes of Laborers to a.s.sist him by relieving his poverty; and even in case of illness of his wife or children, the master could not legally furnish him aid. So onerous was the income tax, levied to meet the expenses of foreign wars, that it was not uncommon for bequests of money to be made for the relief of the poor in paying it. The laborer had attached to his cottage a small piece of ground, which his wife and himself tilled; he might also feed his goose or his sheep upon the manor waste, but only on the sufferance of his master.

By the end of the fifteenth century the lot of this cla.s.s of England's population became almost unendurable. The women, who bore more than their share of the burden of work in an attempt to provide the bare necessities of existence, were bowed under a weight of misery which made that existence endurable only because they knew of none better, or none which could possibly come within the range of their narrow hopes. The wretched condition of life among those whose possessions were so limited is well summed up in the following quotation from an article by Dr. Augustus Jessup in the _Nineteenth Century_, February, 1884; he says: such people "were more wretched in their poverty, incomparably less prosperous in their prosperity, worse clad, worse fed, worse housed, worse taught, worse tended, worse governed," than the peasants of the present day; "they were sufferers from loathsome diseases their descendants know nothing of; the very beasts of the field were dwarfed and stunted in their growth; the death rate among children was tremendous; the disregard of human life was so callous that we can hardly conceive it; there was everything to harden, nothing to soften; everywhere oppression, greed, and fierceness."

Although wages were higher by the end of the century, reaching fourpence a day, meat, cheese, and b.u.t.ter were much dearer than at its beginning, so that it is doubtful if the last of the century found the condition of the laborer at all improved in this respect. As labor was suspended on the holidays of the Church and for a half-day on the eves of those holidays, and as the laborer was forbidden to receive more than a half-day's wage every Sat.u.r.day, the men and women most anxious to work, even if they could obtain constant employment, could not average more than four and one-half profitable days per week. It is not surprising that, for want of nutrition, there was throughout the Middle Ages a wide prevalence of fever, the large death rate of women and children from this cause affording evidence of their physical weakness.

The wage of women employed in agricultural labor in the first half of the fourteenth century was at the rate of a penny a day, although this was not uniform; and in some parts of the kingdom they received considerably more. Their duties on the farm consisted, in part, in "dibbling beans, in weeding corn, in making hay, in a.s.sisting the sheep shearers and washing the sheep, in filling the muck carts with manure and in spreading it upon the lands, in shearing corn, but especially in reaping stubble after the ears of corn had been cut off by the shearers, in binding and stacking sheaves, in thatching ricks and houses, in watching in the fields to prevent cattle straying into the corn, or, armed with a sling, in scaring birds from the seed or ripening corn, and similar occupations. That they might not fail of employment to fill up the measure of the hours, there was the winding and spinning of wool to stop a gap." But these were not the sole employments of the wives and daughters of the mediaeval farmer, for they took their part in all farmwork together with their husbands and fathers. After the "black death" had made such terrible inroads upon the rural population of England, a woman received a wage that seldom went below twopence for a day's work; but this amount was diminished by the effect of one of the Statutes of Laborers, which required that every woman not having a craft--that is, not a town dweller, nor possessed of property of her own--should work on a farm equally with a man, and, like the man, she should not leave the manor or the district in which she customarily lived, to seek work elsewhere. It was difficult for a woman of the agricultural cla.s.ses to pa.s.s out of the dreary sphere in which she lived, for it was enjoined that if a girl before the age of twelve years--significant of the time when she was supposed to be a woman--put her hands to works of industry, she must remain for the rest of her life an agricultural laborer, and was not permitted to be apprenticed to learn a trade. These regulations were, of course, very often honored in the breach, but nevertheless they were frequently enforced.

The poverty of the peasantry made it necessary for them to make for themselves almost everything that entered into the needs of their life,--their houses, their clothing, their agricultural implements, and most of their household articles. Flax was raised, and from it the women manufactured the linen for the ladies of the hall; from hemp they made the coa.r.s.e sackcloth for their underclothing, and they spun and wove the wool shorn from the backs of their few sheep for their outer clothing. The women of this cla.s.s frequently could not afford an oven of their own, and so the flour which was made from the grain that was required to be ground at the lord's mill was also baked in his oven. The simple medicines were brewed by the housewife from the herbs which grew by the copse side or on the commons or in the ditches. When the manufacture of wool and flax was withdrawn to the towns, the labor of the women was to that extent lightened, although their income was correspondingly lessened.

The condition of the very poor was pitiful in the extreme; as there had been no opportunity for the laying up of provision for old age, the only recourse for the women and men alike, when indigency and age overtook them, was to seek shelter in the almshouses which had been founded for the decrepit and the dest.i.tute. Many yielded to their "miserable cares and troubles," and died from starvation. By the fifteenth century the monasteries had ceased to be important centres for the dispensing of charity, so that relief from dest.i.tution could not be looked for from that source. The conventual orders, in common with the rest of the nation, had become burdened with debt through the wars at home and abroad. The numerous regulations for the control of beggars, and the licenses which were issued to regulate the practice, show the great prevalence of real poverty and want during the whole of the fifteenth century, although throughout the Middle Ages mendicancy was familiar enough.

Such was the condition of the women of the industrial cla.s.ses during the Middle Ages. The period that witnessed the transition from the Middle Ages into modern times, the breakup of feudalism, and the construction of society upon a different basis, was, as transitional periods are apt to be, one of peculiar stress. And as this period in England was marked by severe wars, with all the blight and desolation which they bring to a land, it was one of especial severity upon those who had to bear the burden of such undertakings. Not only was the standard of living brought low, and the comforts of life reduced to the bare necessities, but manners were as disastrously affected as was the economy of the realm. Crime and violence stalked through the country, seemingly under no restraint; and from the prevalence of deeds of violence, it is very clear that law was not only ineffectual, but that public sentiment was not strong enough to create a better state of affairs. The condition was not unlike that which prevailed in Ireland at the beginning of the nineteenth century. Women were the chief sufferers from the prevalent lawlessness. They were seized at night, and, after being dishonored, were compelled to go to the church, where the priest, under threats and despite the protests of the victims, performed the ceremony which linked them to their captors. It mattered little if the woman happened to be already married, as such proceedings were supposed by many to const.i.tute a sufficient divorce. Rent riots were of everyday occurrence, and murders were not unusual. It was not altogether the poor who were involved in such deeds of violence, as there were among them agitators from the upper cla.s.ses, who not only urged them on, but themselves took part in all such outrages. Often murders and other forms of violence grew out of the practice of men of quality having about them bands of retainers who were frequently the roughest of characters, including men under indictment for capital offences. No cla.s.s was quite secure from the disorderly elements of the population, but the women of the country districts were more frequently the sufferers than were their sisters of the towns.

The great increase of sensuality, the low esteem in which women were held, and the little regard they manifested for their own characters, showed the decadence into which the spirit of chivalry had fallen.

Being a child of feudalism, with the decay of that system it went into eclipse. Nevertheless, chivalry contributed to English life real benefits, apart from the elevation of women, and these remained permanent factors in the character of the nation.

CHAPTER IX

THE WOMEN OF THE TRANSITION PERIOD

The authorities upon whom we depend for information as to the condition of the industrial cla.s.ses--particularly the agricultural--during the fifteenth century are in such hopeless conflict that it is impossible to do more than follow the views of some one of them, with such modifications and checks as may be reasonably introduced from the others. The picture already drawn of the utterly miserable condition of the peasantry during that century is not ratified by all the writers, and yet the interpretation of the data, conflicting as it is, must lead to the conclusion that the condition of that cla.s.s of English society was far from being roseate, and that, in the main, it would be difficult to overdraw the misery which existed; but this condition was ameliorated to some extent by the introduction into rural districts of domestic manufactures, after the decay of agriculture. The compensation that accrued to the peasantry by a growth in the clothing trade counterbalanced, in a measure, their other losses, while it also brought the rural districts into industrial relation with the towns and aided in bridging the chasm between the two. The industry was of a nature to enlist the activities of the women of the households and to bring them into contact with the commercial life of the nation, in a lesser degree than their sisters of the craft guilds, it is true, but still in a way that had an important bearing upon the industrial history of the country.

The Wars of the Roses, which had been so destructive to the n.o.bility, and the tendency of the crown to depend upon the gentry as a balance to the power of the feudal barons, aided in making more certain and rapid the advance of the middle cla.s.s. The style of living is a sure index of the degree of prosperity; there was a great increase in the number as well as in the size of the houses which ranked in importance between the castle of the baron and the cottage of the peasant. Also, we meet with a change for the better in the equipment of such houses.

Instead of a few pieces of furniture, rude and primitive, it is not unusual in the inventories of this time to find complete suits of furniture for the various rooms of the house. All of the country gentlemen and more prosperous burghers possessed quant.i.ties of plate.

The custom of having but one bedroom, or two at most, and obliging guests and servants to sleep in the great hall or in rude shacks temporarily erected for their accommodation, was no longer common in this cla.s.s of society. With the increase of the number of rooms in the houses, the importance of the hall diminished. Town and country houses alike were now generally built around an interior court, into which the rooms looked, and the windows opening upon the street and country were small and unimportant. This was not simply an architectural change, but was due to the necessity of studying security on account of the disturbed state of society. Men were beginning to appreciate good houses, and the women had greater resources in the way of household utensils and furnishings, particularly in those pertaining to the kitchen. The glittering rows of pewter and plate were a source of great satisfaction to housewives, and were largely depended upon to establish their claim to social distinction. The art of making bricks, which had been lost since the departure of the Romans from Britain, was revived, and the establishment of brickkilns stimulated building.

By the end of the fifteenth century, the domestic house was entirely differentiated from the castle. The materials for dwellings were of the sort readiest to hand. In the eastern counties, where clay was more abundant than stone, bricks were commonly used, while elsewhere the houses were built of stone or wood.

The dwellings of the fifteenth century were commodious and convenient.

A typical country house may be described as follows: a door on the ground floor led into the hall, while a staircase on the outside led to the first floor proper. Inside the door at the head of the stairs was to be found a shorter staircase, which led to the floor on which were situated the chambers. Pa.s.sing into the hall, the visitor would find himself in the most s.p.a.cious apartment of the house. It remained as it had been throughout the Middle Ages, the public room, open to all who were admitted within the precincts of the establishment. The permanent furniture consisted chiefly of benches, and a seat with a back to it, which was used by the superior members of the family. In the hall there was usually at least one table which was a fixture, but the other tables continued to be made up from planks and trestles when needed. Cushions and ornamental cloths to place over the seats and backs of benches were in general use, and on special occasions the tapestries, some of which had been in the families for generations, were brought out, though apparently they were not used on ordinary occasions. The sideboard was one of the most familiar articles of furniture, and upon it was arranged the plate, which was in charge of the butler, and was intended as much for display as for use. In the large mansions, as in the castles, the hall was not complete without the minstrels' gallery and a dais; though inconveniently large, it was well warmed and lighted, and the walls were often decorated with stags' antlers on which to hang the men's hats and caps, hunting horns and such accessories of the chase, beside which were suspended arms and armor and fishing nets; while on the sideboard might be found writing materials and a book or two. The fresh rushes with which the floor was strewn gave forth, when first placed, a refreshing smell when crushed by the foot.

The setting of the table was much the same as it had been. Knives were not ordinarily placed upon it, because of the custom of the times for each person to carry his own knife. Salt was regarded with superst.i.tion, and it was thought desirable that it should be placed upon the table before other comestibles. There was little attempt to keep the tiled floor clean except by strewing it with rushes, and for guests or members of the household to throw bones or other debris of the table upon the floor was not looked upon as an offence against manners; indeed, dogs were almost invariably present, and awaited, as customary, their meals at the hands of the guests. However, the directions for behavior at table instructed the person not to spit upon the table, by which intimation it was delicately hinted that the proper place upon which to expectorate was the floor. Again, the guest is told that when he makes sops in the wine, he must either drink all the wine in the gla.s.s or else throw it on the floor. The uncleanliness of the seats is also suggested by the instruction given the learner in etiquette that he should always first look at the seat before occupying it, to be sure there was nothing dirty upon it. Table manners had lost some of their ceremony, but had retained all of their rudeness. Forks were not used to convey food to the mouth, fingers answering every purpose, but it was considered bad manners to eat with a knife. Other rules for the table are curious enough, but are also important as ill.u.s.trating the manners of the century. Some of them are too disgusting to mention; others, not open to this objection, may be instanced. The guest was directed not to dip his meat in the saltcellar to salt it, but to take a little salt with his knife and put it on his meat, not to drink with a dirty mouth, not to offer another person the remains of his pottage, not to eat too much cheese, and to take only two or three nuts when they were placed before him.

Still other rules are not without point, such as not to roll one's napkin into a cord or tie it into knots, and not to get intoxicated during dinner time!

Let us now take a glance at the table service of a n.o.ble dame of the period, where the extreme of etiquette may be expected to prevail. The hunting horn having announced that the meal awaits the guests, squires or pages bear to them scented water for the customary ablutions. This is served in delicately wrought ewers, placed in silver basins. A further touch of delicacy to the repast is often provided by perfumed herbs scattered over the rich damask tablecloth. The guests are not inconvenienced by the crowding of decorative vessels on the board. The numerous courses are well served, for a superior domestic is charged with this duty, and he is a.s.sisted by two varlets. At the sideboard is a squire or page whose sole duty is to serve the wines and drinking vessels; he too is a.s.sisted by a varlet, who places them before the several guests. None of these attendants are required to leave the hall, to which the officers of the kitchen and the cellar bring the dishes and the wines. During the meal the gallery is occupied by the musicians, who, it is to be presumed, will serve to enliven the formalities attendant on the scene. The parlor was a more pretentious room than the hall, and was ornamented with more care. While it was a usual feature of town houses of the period, it had been introduced so comparatively late that its final position in the plan of the house had not become fixed; sometimes it was upon the ground floor, and sometimes upon the floor above, while the larger houses had several such apartments. It had open recesses with fixed seats on each side of the window, and the fireplace was smaller and more comforting than those of the hall. When carpets came into use, the parlor was the first room to be treated to the luxury, and it had the additional distinction of being the only room that contained a cupboard. An inventory of the furniture of the parlor of a fifteenth-century house includes the following: a hanging of worsted, red and green; a cupboard of ash boards; a table and a pair of trestles; a branch of latten, with four lights; a pair of andirons; a pair of tongs; a form to sit upon, and a chair. It will be seen from this list that the furnishings for a parlor were not numerous, but they are suggestive of a degree of comfort greatly in advance of that of prior centuries.

This paucity of household furniture did not arise so much from the inability to procure it as from the insecurity of the times. Margaret Paston, in a letter to her husband, written in the reign of Edward IV., says: "Also, if ye be at home this Christmas, it were well done ye should do purvey a garnish or twain or pewter vessel, two basins and two ewers, and twelve candlesticks, for ye have too few of any of these to serve this place; I am afraid to purvey much stuff in this place, till we be sure thereof."

Wall paintings had come into use in the houses of the better sort, and the hardwood finishings of the parlor and other important rooms displayed elaborate carvings and a ma.s.siveness and dignity of scheme.

Among the newer styles of chairs was one of the folding sort, which exactly resembled our camp stools. Griffins, centaurs, and the like were patterns for candle and torch holders, which were often of wrought iron of an elaborate design. The branch of latten with four lights, mentioned in the inventory quoted, referred to a sort of chandelier, holding four candles, which was suspended from the centre of the ceiling and was raised and lowered by means of a cord and pulley.

As the people began to lose taste for the hall, on account of its publicity, they gradually withdrew from it to the parlors for many of the purposes to which the hall had been originally devoted. The recess seat at the windows was the favorite place for the female members of the household when employed in needlework and other sedentary occupations, and the apartment was commonly used for the family meals.

In a little treatise dating at the close of the fifteenth century, one of the speakers is made to say: "So down we came again into the parlor, and there found divers gentlemen, all strangers to me; and what should I say more, but to dinner we went." The table, we are told, "was fair spread with diaper cloths, the cupboard garnished with goodly plate." Also, the parlors relieved the bedchambers of many of the uses to which they had been put, and secured to them greater privacy. Largely because of the lack of any other place, ladies had been accustomed to receive their friends in their bedchambers, but now the parlor was used for a reception room, and there was spent much of the time which the female part of the family had previously pa.s.sed in the bower or the chamber.

Young ladies of even the great families were brought up very strictly by their mothers, who kept them constantly at work and exacted from them an almost slavish respect. It appears from the correspondence of the Paston family, to which reference has been made, that the wife of Sir William Paston, the judge, was a very harsh mother. Jane Claire, a kinswoman, sent to John Paston, the lady's eldest son, an account of the severe treatment of his sister Elizabeth at Mrs. Paston's hands. The young lady was of marriageable age, and a man by the name of Scroope had been suggested as her husband. Jane Claire writes: "Meseemeth he were good for my cousin, your sister, without that ye might get her a better; and if ye can get a better, I would advise you to labour it in as short time as ye may goodly, for she was never in so great a sorrow as she is now-a-days, for she may not speak with no man, whosoever come, nor even may see nor speak with my man, nor with servants of her mother's, but that she beareth her on hand otherwise than she meaneth; and she hath since Easter the most part been beaten once in a week, or twice, and sometimes twice in a day, and her head broken in two or three places. Wherefore, cousin, she hath sent to me by friar Newton in great council, and prayeth me that I would send to you a letter of her heaviness, and pray you to be her good brother, as her trust is in you." Elizabeth Paston's matrimonial desires were not realized at this time, as she was transferred from the household of her parents to that of the Lady Pole; this was in accordance with the custom which we have already noticed of sending away young ladies to great houses, where they received their education and served to fill up the measure of pride of the great lady to whose train they were attached. The larger the number of such maidens a lady could boast of, the greater was her importance; nor did she hesitate to accept payment for the board of those of whom she thus took charge, and from whom she derived further profit by employing them at lace making or other suitable work.

Young ladies were taught to be very demure and formal in their behavior in company, where they sat bolt upright, with their hands crossed, or in other constrained att.i.tudes. In a poem, written about 1430, ent.i.tled _How the Good Wife Taughte Hir Dougtir_, we have the rules which were enforced upon girls for their conduct in society, and particularly the advice which was tendered the girl with regard to her marriage and her subsequent conduct. The love of G.o.d and attendance upon church were enjoined, and in the performance of the latter duty she was not to be deterred by bad weather. She was to give liberally to alms, and while in attendance upon divine service was to pray and not to chatter. Courtesy was recommended in all of the relations of life; and when the time came that she was sought in marriage, she was told not to look upon her suitor with scorn, whoever he might be, nor to keep the matter a secret from her friends. She was not to sit close to him, because "synne mygte be wrought," and a slander be thereby raised, which, she is informed, is difficult to still. She was counselled, when married, to love her husband and answer him meekly; she was to be well mannered, not to be rude, nor to laugh boisterously--or, to give it as it is expressed in the poem, "but lauge thou softe and myslde." Her outdoor conduct also was regulated for her. She was not to walk fast, nor to toss her head, nor to wriggle her shoulders; she was not to use many words, nor to swear, for all such manners come to evil. She was to drink only in moderation, "For if thou be ofte drunke, it falle thee to schame." She was to exercise due discretion in all of her relations with the other s.e.x, and to accept from them no presents. She was herself to work and to see that those under her were kept employed; to have faults set right at once, keep her own keys, and to be careful whom she trusted.

If her children gave her trouble and were not submissive, she must not curse or scold them, but "take a smert rodde, and bete them on a rowe til thei crie mercy." Besides all these enjoinments, she was impressed with the duty of benevolence, and was to act as physician to all those about her.

The position of woman at this time was clearly defined. Certainly the woman of the middle cla.s.ses had taken her proper place in society. She did not disdain to look after the affairs of her establishment, nor was this regarded as in any way derogatory to her dignity; and this was also true of women in the highest rank. It is said that, as a rule, the husband and wife were in full accord, and confided in one another upon terms of equality. The wife was careful of her charge at home, and heedful of her husband's purse; she generally made her own as well as her children's clothing, if the material were to be had.

No wife of to-day could show greater solicitude for the comfort and well-being of her husband than did Dame Paston, the wife of John Paston, who in 1449 wrote to her husband a letter from which we may extract the following: "And I pray you also, that ye be wel dyetyd of mete and drynke, for that is the grettest helpe that ye may have now to your helthe ward."

The wife was the companion of her husband when he was at home, and in his absence entertained his guests with all the graces of hospitality.

The duties of the day did not leave her a great deal of time for leisure, for, besides directing the conduct of the establishment and looking after her maidens, teaching them the arts of housewifery, spinning, weaving, carding wool and hackled flax, embroidery, and garment making, there were the pet birds and squirrels in cages to be looked after and fed. But life was not all labor, nor were the maidens of the household surfeited with instruction. In their periods of relaxation, they danced, played chess and draughts, and read the latest thing in romances with as keen interest as the modern society girl evinces in the most recent novel. To be informed in all such matters was essential to the standards of culture of the day.

One of the pleasantest features of the country life of the period was the garden. The English women of to-day are no fonder of outdoor recreation and exercise than were their predecessors of the fifteenth century. Alone, or in parties of their own s.e.x, or with male company, they wandered over the fields, gathering wild flowers and picnicking in the woods, spreading upon the gra.s.s their lunch of bread, wine, fish, and pigeon pies. They rode on horseback, and went hunting, hawking, and rabbit chasing. Their presence at the tournament gave it its greatest interest, and the successful contestants considered the awards that were made them by their ladies doubly valuable, as indicating at once their prowess upon the field and their conquests in that no less interesting sphere of sentiment where Cupid bestows the favors.

Perhaps at no other time in English history have ladies shown such fondness for pets as in the fifteenth century. There are frequent references to them in the literature of the day, and they appear in many of the ill.u.s.trations; parrots, magpies, jays, and various singing birds are often mentioned among domestic pets. Various kinds of small animals were also tamed and kept in the house, either loose or in cages, squirrels being especially in favor because of their liveliness and activity. Gambling was one of the most popular vices of the day.

It was not until after the middle of the fifteenth century that cards came into very general use, but by the beginning of the following century card playing had pa.s.sed from the stage of fad and become a pa.s.sion. After the table was removed, one of the servants would bring in a silver bowl full of dice and cards, and the company would be invited to play. So general and widespread was the practice that early in the reign of Henry VIII. an attempt was made to restrict the use of cards to the Christmas holidays. Women were hardly less inveterate devotees of this and other games of chance than the men, although it is not to be concluded that they took such games as seriously or risked as large sums as did the other s.e.x. Dinner was served at noon, and the games, along with dancing, usually occupied the time of the leisure cla.s.ses until supper, which seems to have been served at six o'clock. There was, of course, no other form of amus.e.m.e.nt that was so well adapted to polite circles, or that could be partic.i.p.ated in with as much pleasure by the ladies, as dancing. Many new dances had been introduced and become fashionable, and these were much more lively than those of the earlier period, some so spirited, indeed, as to scandalize the moralists of the time. After supper the amus.e.m.e.nts were resumed, and continued until a late hour, when a second, or, as it was called, a "rere-supper," was served.

After the members of the household and the guests were surfeited with amus.e.m.e.nts, or the lateness of the hour made sleep welcome, they retired to rest in the upper chambers. These bedrooms were much more private than they had formerly been. In the poem _Lady Bessy_, when the Earl of Derby is represented as plotting with Lady Bessy in aid of the Earl of Richmond, he tells her that he will repair secretly to her chamber:

"'We must depart (separate), lady,' the earl said then; Wherefore, keep this matter secretly, And this same night, betwixt nine and ten, In your chamber I think to be.

Look that you make all things ready, Your maids shall not our councell hear, For I will bring no man with me But Humphrey Brereton, my true esquire.'

He took his leave of that lady fair, And to her chamber she went full light, And for all things she did prepare, Both pen and ink, and paper white."

The bedstead now came to be much more ornamental than in previous times. The canopy which had formerly adorned the head of this article of furniture was now usually enlarged so as to cover it entirely.

It was often decorated with the arms of the owner, with religious emblems, flowers, or some other form of ornamentation. The bed itself consisted of a hard mattress, and was often made only of straw, although feather beds were used to some extent throughout the century.

Chaucer describes a couch of unusual luxury as follows:

"Of downe of pure dovis white I wol yeve him a fethir bed, Rayid with gold, and right well cled In fine blacke sattin d'outremere, And many a pilowe, and every bere (pillow cover) Of clothe of Raines to slepe on softe; Him thare (need) not to turnen ofte."

This description of a bed in the latter part of the fourteenth century holds good for the succeeding century, although the bed increased in luxuriousness of hangings. Feather beds and bed covers are frequently mentioned in the bequests of the times; by their description, they show the increase in the comfort and richness of beds, and, by their mention in wills, the value that was placed upon them. With the increase of privacy which the bedchambers afforded at this time, the practice of several people sleeping in the same room was less general.

The women of the manor house, who may be regarded as succeeding the women of the castles, were notable for their intelligence, purity, and good sense, as revealed to us by the letters and literature of the times. Their features, as depicted in ill.u.s.trations, give evidence of refinement and culture as well as beauty; to these attractions was added that of graceful carriage. Although their dresses fitted closely to the figure, tight lacing had not yet become the custom. Paris was then, as now, the gla.s.s of fashion for the women of Europe, and the English woman considered her form to approach perfection the more nearly as it conformed to the model established in France. At this period, the ladies were given to similar extremes of dress and adornment to those which have furnished an indictment against them since fashion first held sway over the feminine mind. All cla.s.ses of society were influenced by the all-important matter of style, and the women of each grade of the social scale found their chief contentment in copying the manners and dress of those above them. Earlier we found occasion to notice, in brief, the sumptuary legislation by which it was sought to limit extravagances in fashion; but the laws have yet to be framed which can serve permanently to control woman's desires.

So that we shall, perforce, have to continue our discussion of the evolution--or as the moralists of the Middle Ages would have expressed it, if they had possessed the facility of verbal coinage which is common enough with us, the "devilution"--of woman's attire, just as though law had never attempted its regulation.

The intricacies of the women's coiffure were many. The practice of dyeing the hair or otherwise altering its color is of ancient date.