were exchanging wounds and bruises for their diversion, the less valorous courtiers were employed in devising those astonishing varieties of dress and changes of fashion, which distinguished the fourteenth century, to the great scandal of our simple historians, who deplored the waste of time and money, and the distortion of the human shape, produced by modes so "destitute and desert from "all old honest and good usage." The pointed shoes, the trailing sleeves, the parti-coloured doublets and mantles, and indecorous hose of the men, and the horned caps, and strait-laced bodices, or stays, of the women, are mentioned by many historians, with pious horror.* " They weared (says "the monk of Glastonbury) such straight clothes,

*The most pernicious fashion in use amongst the women of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, was that of painting. But it may be hoped that it was confined (as it is in Russia) to the lower ranks of the community. In a Sirvente, written in ridicule of old ladies, by Augier, a Troubadour of the twelfth century, he says, "Je ne peux souffrir le "teint blanc et rouge que les vielles se font avec l'onguent "d'un œuf battu, qu'elles s'appliquent sur le visage, et du "blanc pardessus." Hist. Litt. des Troubadours, Tom I. P. 845. It appears, from another piece cited in the same work (Tom III. p. 167 ), that the ladies used a mixture of quicksilver and various drugs for painting, as well as the common red and white.

"that they had long fox tailes sewed under their 66 garments, to hold them forth;" and in his indignation against such an insidious species of lining, he exclaims-" the which disguisinges, and pride, "afterward brought forth and causedde many "mischiefs and myshappes that hapned in the "reme (realm) of England."

One of our old minstrels, author of a Romance, called the "Squire of Low Degree," having contrived to enumerate, within a tolerably moderate compass, all the amusements known to the fair sex, during the middle ages, it may not be amiss to transcribe the whole passage (as Mr. Warton has already done), because the book, though printed, is extremely scarce. The heroine of the piece, a daughter of the king of Hungary, being plunged (in consequence of her love for the squire) in a deep melancholy, the king, her father, endeavours to enliven her imagination, by presenting to her the following picture of the amusements that he intends to procure for her :

To-morrow ye shall in hunting fare,
And yede, my daughter, in a char;
It shall be cover'd with velvet red,

And cloths of fine gold all about your head,

1

With damask white, and azure blue,
Well diaper'd' with lilies new.

2

Your pomelles shall be ended with gold,
Your chains enamel'd, many a fold.

Your mantle of rich degree,

Purple pall, and ermine free.3

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

Ye shall have harp, psaltry, and song,
And other mirthis you among.

Ye shall have Romney, and Malmesine,
Both Hypocras, and vernage 5 wine,
Montresse, and wine of Greek,

8

Both Algarde, and de-spice eke,

Variegated.

* Pomel is interpreted by La Combe, " sorte d'ornement "aux habits d'église."

3 Noble.

• Wine of Romanée, in Burgundy.

• Wine of Vernou, in Touraine.

6 Wine of Montrachet, near Beaune ; still in estimation.

? Does this mean Spanish wine, from Algarva?

• Vin d'espices.

Antioch, and bastard,1

Pyment also, and garnard,
Wine of Greek and Muscadell,
Both claré, pyment, and rochelle:
The red, your stomach to defy,3
And pots of osey set you by.

You shall have venison y-bake;
The best wild-fowl that may be take,

A leash of grey-hounds for you to streke
And hart, and hind, and other like.
(Ye shall be set at such a trist,5)

That hart and hind shall come to your fist;

Your disease to drive ye fro,

To hear the bugles there y-blowe

Homeward thus shall ye ride

On hawking by the rivers side,

With gos-hawk, and with gentil falcon,

With bugle horn, and merlyon.

'Junius calls vinum passum (i. e. raisin wine), vin bastard. Harrison mentions it as a strong wine, and good for digestion.

• Does this mean choice wine? wine kept in the garner, or warehouse?

3 Defend? Defaix, in old Fr. is defence. (La Combe.) 4 Query, sorel; oseille?

• A post, or station, in hunting. Tyrwhitt's Gloss.

When you come home your meinie 4 among,
Ye shall have revel, dances, and song;
Little children great and small

Shall sing as doth the nightingale.

Then shall ye go to your even-song,
With tenours and trebles among,
Three score of copes of damask bright,
Full of pearls they shall be pight ; 5—
Your censers shall be of gold,
Endent with azure, many a fold,
Your choir nor organ-song shall want
With counter-note and descant,
The other half on organs playing,
With young children full fair singing.

Then shall ye go to your suppere,
And sit in tents of green arbere,
With cloth of Arras pight to the ground,
With sapphires set, and diamond-

A hundred knightes, truly told,
Shall play with bowls in alleys cold,
Your diseases to drive away.

1 Maisnie, Old Fr.; household, attendants,