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diff --git a/32299.txt b/32299.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..9113b89 --- /dev/null +++ b/32299.txt @@ -0,0 +1,12086 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Women of England, Volume 9 (of 10), by +Burleigh James Bartlett + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Women of England, Volume 9 (of 10) + +Author: Burleigh James Bartlett + +Release Date: May 8, 2010 [EBook #32299] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK WOMEN OF ENGLAND, VOLUME 9 (OF 10) *** + + + + +Produced by Thierry Alberto, William Flis, Renald Levesque +and the Online Distributed Proofreaders Europe at +http://dp.rastko.net. + + + + + + Transcriber's Note: The Table of Contents + was added by the Transcriber. + + + +WOMAN + +IN ALL AGES AND IN ALL COUNTRIES + + + + +WOMEN OF ENGLAND + +BY + +BARTLETT BURLEIGH JAMES, PH.D. + +OF WESTERN MARYLAND COLLEGE + + +THE RITTENHOUSE PRESS + +PHILADELPHIA + + +Copyrighted at Washington and entered at Stationers' Hall, London, + +1907--1908 + +and Printed by arrangement with George Barrie's Sons. + + +PRINTED IN U.S.A. + + + + +CONTENTS + + PREFACE + + Chapter I. The Women of Prehistoric Britain + + Chapter II. The Women of Ancient Britain + + Chapter III. The Women of the Anglo-Saxons + + Chapter IV. The Women of the Anglo-Normans + + Chapter V. The Women of the Middle Ages + + Chapter VI. The Women of the Manors + + Chapter VII. The Women of the Monasteries + + Chapter VIII. The Women of the Industrial Classes + + Chapter IX. The Women of the Transition Period + + Chapter X. The Women of the Tudor Period + + Chapter XI. Women of the Commonwealth Period + + Chapter XII. The Women of the Restoration Period + + Chapter XIII. The Women of the Eighteenth Century + + Chapter XIV. The Women of the Nineteenth Century + + Chapter XV. The Women of Scotland and Ireland + + + + +PREFACE + + +It is no slight task to follow out the windings of a single thread +in the infinite weave of society and by loosing it from the general +mesh to show how dependent is the pattern of life and custom upon its +presence. Such a task was presented in the endeavor to trace along +from remotest times to the present day the influence of woman upon +the life and character, the efforts and ideals, of that race which +has come to be known as English, although this name may not properly +be used until time has spun into the vista of the past peoples as +vigorous, if not influential, as the one that stands, the inheritor +of their virility, at the apex of modern civilization, whose women, +clasping hands throughout the British Empire, form a splendid chain +of hope for womankind in all the world. + +Whether or not continuity and sequence, relation and effect, have been +maintained in the retraversing of the footsteps of woman in all ages +of the history of those isles where femininity has flowered in the +most gracious blossoms, it remains for the reader to say. Certain +it is that unaffected pleasure has been afforded the writer in his +attempt to draw aside the curtain that the muse of history jealously +employs to shut from view the inner sanctuary in which she preserves +those vital relics, the destruction of which by some inconceivable +iconoclast would bring death to the world for lack of materials for +reflection and inspiration. In treating of the prehistoric periods, +although the brush necessarily has been laid broadly upon the canvas, +fancy has been kept in the leash of fact, and imagination given no +more play than its legitimate function. Still, the results of inquiry +into the status of woman at this far remote period furnish a fulcrum +upon which to rest the lever of investigation, in order to lift +into view the strata of undoubted history of the periods immediately +subsequent. + +As fast as the widening of social interest afforded the materials for +use, the writer sought to employ them, until, like a mountain rivulet, +ever widening until it reaches the plain, he found himself embarrassed +by the wealth of fact that told the marvellous story of the most +notable emancipation in the history of mankind,--the complete +separation of English woman from the trammels, inherent and +environmental, imposed upon the sex. If the successive chapters +disclose the philosophical relations of woman in society, it will be +because the reader has not failed to grasp the fact that in any such +theme as the one treated mere continuity of subject matter would +constitute a chronicle and not a history; and that the writer, while +seeking not to make obtrusive the connective tissue, has nevertheless +given ample scope for the reflective mind to see that which has ever +been present to his own. + +As to the actual materials employed in constructing the book, it is +sufficient to say that no important writer upon any period of the +history of the British Isles or their people has been overlooked, and +that the passing over of the political and constitutional phases in +order to select the purely social has been an endeavor much furthered +by the writers to whom reference is made in the body of the work, and +many others who could not be mentioned without burdening the text. +Each fibre of the thread of interest has been taken hold of at the +point of its appearance, and then not lost sight of until the end. +So that if one is interested in the subject of costume, he may find +a full and accurate description of dress from the time when tattooing +was deemed largely sufficient up to the period of the present, when +the variety of feminine attire baffles description. But more serious +subjects, such as woman's rights, from the recognition of primal +rights in her person to the setting forth of the modern programme +under that description, are consecutively treated through the +chapters. + +A debt of gratitude cannot be discharged, but some recognition may be +made of the author's sense of the service rendered him in the writing +of this work by Dr. John Martin Vincent, associate professor of +history in Johns Hopkins University, whose courses in the social +history of England furnished the first incentive to range in that +field and a guide through the labyrinth of manners and customs of +the English people. Thanks are due to Mr. J.A. Burgan, whose close +and careful reading of the proof is not the least factor in the +presentation of the book free, as the writer believes, of the errors +that only eternal vigilance may exclude. + +BARTLETT BURLEIGH JAMES. + + + + +CHAPTER I + +THE WOMEN OF PREHISTORIC BRITAIN + + +It is to the unpremeditated contributions of savage and barbarous +conditions of existence that we must look for those primal elements of +social order which became fundamental in English life and character. +Insomuch as those contributions are intimately connected with woman's +life and work, they must be sought out and set in order if we are to +trace the development of the status of the women of Britain. In doing +this, the confines of history proper must be disregarded and the +inquiry commenced at the earliest period at which the student of +the geology of Britain has been able to discover evidences of human +occupancy of the country. If a consecutive account of the history +of woman in Britain were intended, we should be content to begin the +story with the woman of the Neolithic or Polished Stone Age, for to +such remote times may be traced the stream of life and institutions +in England; but, as we shall aim not solely at consecutiveness, +but at completeness as well in our record of woman's life in the +British Isles, it will be necessary to go back even further into the +geologic ages, when Britain was still a part of the mainland and +its inhabitants the same roving savage tribes that wandered over all +central Europe. + +From those barren ages of the Pleistocene era, which were cut off +from the Neolithic by great stretches of time that cannot be certainly +calculated, and during which there was a lapse in the human occupancy +of the country, little of value can be derived. Their chief worth for +our purpose is the picture which they present of the initial stage of +human organization, the study they afford of woman in her relations +to a thoroughly savage stage of society, an era of hunting--that of +the Paleolithic or Rough Stone Age, when there was fixity neither of +residence nor of relations, and when man's contest with savage nature +about him was dependent in its issues upon the slight advantage +furnished him by the rude weapons that he fashioned from flint flakes. +During the Polished Stone era, when inhabitants are next met with in +Britain, the social organization presented is that of the pastoral +stage, which marks a great advance over the hunting. + +In all the progressions of uncivilized life, woman is but a part of +the phenomena of her times, but in the history of English civilization +she appears as one of its most active forces. These, then, are the two +correlated views of woman in the history of English life that will +be constantly held in mind during our whole study,--woman as a social +fact, and woman as a social factor; showing her as a product, as +affected by the customs, laws, or manners of a given time, and again +as an influencing factor in the institutions or the manners of those +times. Had her life been as circumscribed as that of the women of +a cultured people, English civilization would not owe to woman the +recognition which is her due as a creative force in the arts, in +science, in literature, in religion, and in all the ever-widening +circle of human interests. An understanding and estimate of her +influence in these more conspicuous relations will depend upon a +proper appreciation of the English home as the principal source of +the English woman's dignity and power. Much that has entered into +the ideals of the English race can be fully accounted for only in the +light of home ideals. By such considerations, then, as have been thus +far set forth, we shall be guided in our endeavor to tell the story of +woman's life in the ages of Britain's history. + +The people of the earliest part of the Pleistocene age had no real +home life, nor was there any social organization excepting that into +which men were forced by the necessity for mutual aid in the struggle +with the forces of savage nature. This element of self-protection was +the only factor that entered into the organized life of those earliest +inhabitants of Britain,--the people of the river-drift and the caves. +In this combat between savage man and savage beast were produced the +first instruments pointing to civilization,--weapons for defence and +offence. + +The life of woman among the men of the river-drift was of the most +debased order. The only employment of the men was hunting the gigantic +savage beasts that ranged through the forests. While the males were in +pursuit of the rhinoceros, the lion, the hippopotamus, and the great +antlered deer that were a part of the fauna of the whole of that +section of the continent of Europe of which Britain in those remote +times formed a part, the females roamed through the densely wooded +forests whose only clearings were those made by the ravages of fire. +Clad in the skins of beasts but little lower in the scale of being +than themselves, and with their naked offspring about them, they +wandered about in search of berries or, with no better aids than +sharpened sticks, dug up the roots which they dried and stored for +the days when the results of the chase fell short of the needs of the +people. On the home-coming of the hunters to the place where, in their +nomadic wanderings, they had erected temporary shelters, the women +prepared the miserable meal. By skilfully rubbing together pieces +of hard wood, a fire was soon obtained; if fortune had attended the +chase, the hastily skinned animals were cut up with flint flakes, +and the meat was thrown upon the stones placed in the fire for that +purpose. There were no niceties of taste to be considered, so the +half-cooked and badly smoked flesh was snatched from the fire and +eaten with no more decorum than might be found in the meals of the +cave-hyena that, under the shadows of night, skulked through the +underbrush and noisily devoured the remnants of the hunters' feast. + +On the day following the hunt, the women undertook the arduous work +of curing the skins of the slain animals. In the initial stage of the +process they used stone scrapers, sharp of edge and probably set in +bone handles. Hundreds of these implements have been found. The women +acquired great dexterity in this, one of their customary employments; +and while the men lounged about, resting from the fatigue of the +hunt, or occupied themselves with painting their bodies with ochre, or +tracing, with a splinter of stone, rude devices on pieces of polished +reindeer antler, the work of the women went industriously on. + +Men of such undisciplined natures as those of the people of the +river-drift could not exist together harmoniously; very little, +indeed, was necessary to embroil them in bitter strife. Their women +were a frequent cause of bloody encounters, a circumstance which was +due to the fact that there was no permanence in the relations of the +sexes; such rights--seldom individual--to the women as were vested +in the men were always those acquired by brute force, and held good +only so long as the fancy or strength of the men permitted. In such +a promiscuous society there was nothing to suggest the home of +civilization. To men, women simply represented their chief possession +and were held by them in common, like other forms of property. + +Such an age was almost as barren of material utilities as of moral +conceptions; so that one looks in vain for evidence of the knowledge +of such arts as are commonly associated with the life of women in +savage societies. Basket work, weaving, and spinning were occupations +of which, it is thought, the women of those times knew nothing. +Pottery was unknown; gourds served for drinking cups and for the +holding of liquids, and were used also for cooking. Among the +memorials of woman of these remote times appears no trace of the +charms and fetiches which usually accompany the performance of +domestic duties among primitive races. Nothing lower in the scale of +human existence could be imagined than the lives of these women of +the river-drift, to whom nature made no appeal save that of fear of +its furious moods, to whom sex meant not the possibilities of pure +wifehood and motherhood, but servitude to the demands of passion. +When children were not vigorous, or when for any reason their nurture +became irksome, they were ruthlessly slain, even by the mothers +themselves; and every woman knew that the lot of abandonment was +reserved for her when she could no longer fulfil the hard conditions +of her existence. + +In some respects, the life of the women of the cave-dwellers of the +later Pleistocene period was of a higher order than that which we have +just described--not that there was any essential difference in the +social grade of the two peoples, but that the cave-dwellers had +learned to make better implements of the chase and to fashion more +effectively all their weapons and tools. The greater security to +life afforded by these improvements and the greater assurance of +subsistence led to more settled living, and thereby afforded an +opportunity to develop a social organization that should have for its +basis something of greater permanence than a temporary need. While it +would be hazardous, then, to assume too much in the way of improvement +in the life of the women of the cave-dwellers over that of the women +of the river-drift, yet it should be borne in mind that in states +of society such as those represented by these remote inhabitants of +Britain, even a slight advance in the scale of living marks an epoch +of progress. + +The cave-dwellers succeeded the people of the river-drift as +inhabitants of Britain, and the combined occupancy of the country by +these peoples covered a vast stretch of time. It is very probable +that their periods overlapped, and that the later people were in part +contemporary with the former. Though the people of the river-drift +and the dwellers in caves may have avoided intermixture, as have the +Esquimaux and the American Indians, yet there is nothing absolutely +to preclude the idea that such race distinction was observed during +great periods of time. So that all we have to say of the women of the +cave-dwellers may be equally applied to the women of the later times +of the river-drift. + +The cave-dwellers, like their predecessors, were hunters. For their +dwellings they chose the caves from which they had driven out the bear +and the lion. These rude homes the women hung about with the skins of +the horse or the wolf, and spread on the floor for couches the hides +of these or of other beasts that had fallen by the arrows of the +hunters or had been ensnared in their pitfalls. Here the tribe +remained until the scarcity of game or the assault of enemies impelled +it to migrate. Where there were no caves, huts were constructed. These +were framed with the branches and trunks of trees and covered with +skins and hides. + +The woman of the cave-dwellers was a sturdy specimen of her sex, and +the long and arduous migrations in which the burden of the work fell +upon her shoulders were probably borne with little sense of hardship. +We can imagine a tribe, travelling afoot, for as yet neither the horse +nor any other animal had been domesticated: the men with their long +fish spears across their backs, their stone arrows hanging at their +sides, and their bows in hand, always alert for the wild beasts with +which they waged a relentless warfare; the women laden with all the +paraphernalia of their simple existence, many with a babe slung at the +back, and their naked, uncouth progeny following or gambolling about +them. The strange personal appearance of both men and women would +add to the oddity of the scene in modern eyes, for their bodies were +painted in grotesque patterns, and, if the rigors of the season made +any covering necessary, a simple skin, laced about them with reindeer +sinews, sufficed for clothing. On coming to a fresh hunting region, +near to some body of water or flowing stream, where the game would +naturally come to slake their thirst,--perhaps upon the grassy plains +that still extended over what is now the English Channel and formed a +part of the original land connection with the continent,--they paused +for another term of settled residence. Again the caves were resorted +to, or rudely thatched huts were erected. If the wild beasts pressed +the wanderers too hard, they sometimes had recourse to huts erected +upon rough stone heaps in the midst of an oozy swamp. + +While the men gave themselves wholly to hunting, the women went about +their domestic pursuits. To them was assigned the making of such +scanty clothing as was imperatively required in the cold season; for +though the crude carvings of the time invariably represent the hunters +as naked, it cannot be concluded from such evidence that clothing was +not worn at all. The extremely serviceable reindeer sinews served the +women for thread, and a thin reindeer prong, pierced through at the +thick end, made a satisfactory needle. The skins were simply sewed +together at the edges, without shaping, but with apertures through +which to pass the head and arms. The women devised many ornaments; +these consisted of amulets and necklaces made of bone, ivory, and +shells, which, shaped and polished, they painstakingly punctured and +fastened together in long strings for the decoration of their necks +and arms. Apparently, it was not customary to wear foot covering of +any kind, as the feet of such skeletons of this period as have been +found are so symmetrical as to preclude the probability of constraint +during growth. The men may have worn some form of foot covering +when engaged in such exposed work as spearing the seal in the winter +season; but the women, who remained in shelter during the severities +of the winter, did not avail themselves of any such protection. The +fact that gloves were worn by men seems to be established by some of +the rude etchings of the period, for in them such articles appear to +be discernible. + +The sanitary condition of the homes of these hunting tribes was of the +worst description; the offal and refuse were thrown at the very doors +of the cave, there to decay and poison the air. The caves themselves +were smoke-begrimed and foul, for house cleaning had not yet entered +into the economy of woman. While, by reason of their simple, open-air +life, they were a vigorous race, the ills to which the cave-dwellers +fell a prey, the injuries they suffered in warfare or from the attacks +of wild beasts, or the diseases contracted through unsanitary living, +must have been sources of great dread to them, as they were without +any medical knowledge of which we have trace. When the women, +particularly, became too sick to perform their allotted tasks, they +were carried out to die or to become the victims of savage beasts; but +this was only one of the inevitable phases of an existence that was +replete with tragedies. + +From the evidence afforded by the great abundance of arrow heads and +spear points surviving from this period, there is no doubt that the +cave men were much given to warfare. Aside from the natural pugnacity +and ferocity of savage races, which lead them to fight upon very +little provocation, there was with the cave-dwellers another source +of constant hostility. As has been stated with reference to the +river-drift people, the women were not permanently attached to the +men. It is just as true that they were not permanently attached to +their tribes, for when, through disease or the ravages of wild beasts, +the women of any horde became greatly diminished in number, their +ranks were recruited by forays upon other tribes. These attacks for +the purpose of stealing the women of their enemies were especially +provocative of fierce conflicts, as the depletion of its stock of +women often seriously crippled a tribe and sometimes even threatened +its extinction. Such forcible transfers of ownership must have added +greatly to the hardness of the woman's lot, for by such means many +mothers were permanently separated from their offspring. + +The weight of probability and of evidence seems to leave little room +for doubt that the early inhabitants of Britain were cannibals. While +there was no scarcity of game as a rule, it is quite likely that these +savage peoples, as those of the same grade of culture in all times, +when experiencing the delirium of a victory over their enemies, put +to death by cruel tortures the unhappy captives that fell into their +hands, and then, to complete their triumph, roasted and ate the flesh +of the slain. Aside from the deductive probability of the case, +human bones dating back to this period have been found along with the +remains of weapons and in association with the ashes of camp fires; +and in such cases the bones have invariably been broken, in order to +extract from them their marrow. The story of the battle, the tortures, +and the feast is eloquently suggested by the silent memorials that +have been preserved through the lapse of ages. As we picture the +far-off scene of human savagery, the figure of woman flits through the +lights and shadows of the horrid orgy: for she it was who prepared the +gruesome repast; it was in defence of her, perhaps, that the fierce +battle was fought; some of her own near of kin, it may be, she has +been forced to prepare for the unnatural appetites of her enemies. +Possibilities! but read in the light of the times, they become +probabilities, and probabilities furnish much of the data of history. + +The tragedy of woman's life is again brought before us with startling +vividness when we look upon the skull of a woman of this remote race, +as it lies in a cave, with a little stone hatchet beside it, where +it was ruthlessly cast after the commission of a bloody crime; for in +that skull is a jagged hole into which fits the blade of the hatchet. +The scene, sketched from a remote past, might have been an occurrence +of yesterday, so close to us is it brought by the silent witnesses; +these and similar relics disclose the sad lot of woman in that savage +society. + +There are fuller evidences of the state of domestic resources among +the women of the cave-dwellers than with those of the river-drift. The +remains show, too, a greater variety and adaptation; for while there +is no clear proof of the existence of pottery, yet the cave people +appear not to have lacked substitutes for it. Vessels for boiling +meats were probably fashioned of small stones cemented together, and +they had, also, vessels of hollowed wood. The skulls of animals served +well for drinking purposes, besides which receptacles for holding +liquids were made from the skins of beasts. Water was heated by +placing hot stones in a vessel containing it, by which means the fluid +could be raised to any desired temperature. Long flint flakes set +in handles answered for knives; when rounded at the edge, the same +material made serviceable scrapers. Spoons were constructed from +pieces of reindeer antlers, hollowed at the thick end, or if they were +intended to be used to scoop out the marrow from bones, the tapered +end was hollowed. For their food, the cave-dwellers, though they +possessed no domesticated animals, had a wide choice of large and +small game, birds, fish, reptiles, and grubs; to these they added +edible roots and berries. + +This almost indispensable domestic handicraft was not, however, the +limit of their achievement in designing. We have seen that woman's +thought and some of her activities were applied to the production of +merely decorative objects. She had already acquired an appreciative +taste for the auxiliary attractions of personal adornment. The art +of designing certainly found a place in the occupations of these +cave-dwellers, and the most familiar animated objects would be their +necessary choice. Hence, we may readily conceive that, in the moments +of respite from the chase, the rude artist of this age would make +of the cave passages a canvas for his work and thereon delineate +the animals whose importance to his existence rendered them the most +interesting objects. Nor, for this reason, would his subject fail of +appreciative criticism and of educational value. + +It is impossible to state the nature or the extent of the social +organization among these people, but that there must have been +something of the sort there can be no doubt. It seems equally +plausible that there could have been no recognition of law in the +lives of these passionate savages, excepting as the will of some more +than ordinarily forceful warrior was for the time so recognized. +An association of this kind admitted of the sloughing of the groups +whenever a difference of inclination or of interest suggested such a +course. Promiscuity undoubtedly remained the characteristic form of +the relation of the sexes, the conditions of life admitting of no more +enduring relations. + +The culture of the peoples of the river-drift and of the caves +signified little in British civilization, as these shadowy tribes +passed completely out of view. For a period of time that could be +expressed only in the term of vague geological computation, the +country remained devoid of inhabitants. Meantime, changes were wrought +in Britain's physical features. The land became insular, although the +subsidence that gave rise to the English Channel was not yet complete. +In an indirect way, the earliest peoples may be said to have passed +on the elements of their culture; for, while there was a lapse in the +continuity of social development, the Neolithic races that are next +met with in Britain became the inheritors of the culture of the ruder +hunter stages of society represented by the river-drift and cave +peoples. + +The social grade of the Neolithic races was a great advance over that +of the peoples last considered. Instead of bands of nomadic wanderers, +we find a pastoral people whose migrations were doubtless periodical +and made only in search of new pastures. Hunting did not form an +important part of their lives, for their food was supplied by the +flesh of domesticated animals and the cereals that they raised for +their own needs and, in the winter season, for those of their stock. + +Although caves continued to be used to some extent for dwellings, +they were not characteristic of the civilization of the times. Man had +become a home builder. The evolution from the cave dwellings is seen +in the style of houses that were first constructed. They consisted of +pits dug to a depth of seven to ten feet, and about seven feet wide at +the base. These pits were roofed over with a sort of thatch, filled in +with imperfectly burnt clay. They were built singly and in groups, and +were sometimes connected by a system of underground passages. Access +was had to these dwellings by a slanting, shaftlike entrance. A pit +village was usually stockaded to protect it against the assaults of +foes. Outside it were the arable lands and the common pasture lands +for the sheep and goats; enclosing these, the forest stretched out in +all directions. + +Looking down from one of the surrounding hilltops upon such a village, +it would have presented to the eye of the observer the appearance of +a number of round hillocks but little higher than the ground level. +Thin lines of smoke, slowly ascending, would mark the places where the +common meals were in course of preparation. As the traveller descended +the hillside, his approach would be challenged by gaunt, savage sheep +dogs, from whose attacks he would need to defend himself. As he passed +out into the clearing, he would be confronted by the men, some of them +tilling the soil, others acting as shepherds or swineherds. Perhaps a +field of golden wheat would lend its beauty to the scene, Approaching +the dwellings, the women would be seen at their several employments; +some busy cutting up the meat and swinging it over the fires to roast, +or boiling it in pots with herbs and roots to make a savory stew, +others mixing dough and spreading it upon flat stones over hot embers +to bake. Sitting about on the rocks or squatting upon skins spread +upon the ground, other women would be found busily making pottery, +modelling the clay with their hands, and scratching upon it lines, +circles, and pyramids in various combinations, or fashioning designs +by pressing reindeer sinews into the substance. Still others would be +discovered busily spinning and weaving flax and wool into fabrics for +the clothing that marked one of the advances of the Neolithic people. +In the distance would be heard the dull strokes of the stone axes with +which, in the depth of the wood, the men felled the tall timber. + +For the industries presented in this picture of a Neolithic village, +there were suitable implements. For all domestic purposes, the art of +pottery making had solved the question of satisfactory vessels. These +were generally in two colors, either brown or black. The potter's +wheel had not yet been invented, so that the vessels lacked the grace +and uniformity of later work of the sort. Wheat was ground by means of +a mortar and pestle. Knives for various uses, saws, and scrapers were +all made of highly polished and very keen-edged flint flakes. The +great superiority of their stone implements over those of earlier +races has given a name to the people, but the culture of the Polished +Stone Age reveals, as its most salient fact, not this, but rather +the domestication of animals and the tilling of the soil. It is +significant to note that these most characteristic features of the +Polished Stone Age denote the advance of society in the arts of +peaceful living. War was prevalent enough, but human development +had discovered another line of advancement, and, by reason of +the increased incentives to peaceful living, war was not usually +undertaken simply for the pleasure of fighting. Protection of flocks +and herds, of cleared fields and settled homes, became the chief +occasion of the wars waged by the Neolithic people. + +In such a society as we have described, there is a community of +interest that tends to give stability to the ties of relationship. The +fairly settled state of life was undoubtedly accompanied by a social +organization of some sort that could properly deal with the matters +of individual rights. The family had become evolved from the horde; +promiscuity had doubtless given place to polygamy, or, under the +exceptional conditions of a greater number of men than of women, to +polyandry. Neither of these forms of marriage carried with it the idea +of fixity and of family responsibility. + +A feature of the Neolithic age was its commerce. By a system of +intertribal traffic, the simple commodities of the widely dispersed +peoples of Europe became distributed among the various tribes. By this +means, many articles not of domestic manufacture were added to the +comfort of the people of Britain. Thus, the women were enabled to +adorn themselves with jade beads that must have come from the region +of the Mediterranean Sea, and even with gold ornaments from as distant +points. These instances, however, were exceptional, and are to be +accounted for in the same manner that we account for the most unlikely +things in the possession of the tribes of Central Africa--by gradual +hand-to-hand passage. + +There was probably an absence of religious ideas among the +predecessors of the Polished Stone races; but among the remains of the +latter are ample proofs of the prevalence among them of such notions. +Caves that once had served them as residences were later used for +places of burial, the bodies being piled up with earth until the +cavities were completely filled. Accompanying human remains have +been found urns, supposedly for burning incense, personal ornaments, +implements, and weapons, placed there for the use of the dead. If the +people possessed religious conceptions that led them to believe in an +after life, there is no room for doubt that religion had a place in +the economy of their living. The women of this time, then, could look +forward to something better than abandonment to starvation after they +became enfeebled by age or sickness, and they may not have lacked +religious associations in their everyday life to give to it deeper +meaning and interest. + +From the foregoing sketch of her life, it is very clear that the +condition of Neolithic woman, the range of her ideas, and the elements +of her comfort, were much in advance of those of the woman of the +Paleolithic period. The contributions to her existence were indeed +elements of civilization, and formed the basis for all that the life +of the sex has come to be. In the realm of institutions, the home was +beginning to have a place and a meaning in the life of the people. +Religion, also, had come to widen the horizon of life. Very crude, but +real, elements of social progress were all these. + +The succeeding age--the Bronze--has been credited with working as +great a revolution in life and giving it as great an impetus as did +the invention of gunpowder in the Middle Ages. It is certainly a fact +that the invention of this beautiful alloy was looked upon by the +ancients who lived close to its age as of incalculable importance +in its influence upon civilization--a judgment that is confirmed by +anyone who studies its abundant remains. Manufactures and commerce +were important interests of the times: smelting furnaces and +the smith's shop turned out beautiful specimens of wares of all +sort--shields, spears, arrow tips, cups of graceful pattern, vessels +for all purposes, ornaments, and the trimmings for the large boats +made necessary by a wide commerce, were all manufactured beyond the +needs of domestic consumption. The stimulated inventiveness of the +people added many new articles of comfort to their lives. + +The development of bronze was not original with the people of Britain, +but was introduced through an invasion of bronze-using people. For +this reason, the change made in the life of the people was radical, +instead of being, as on the continent, a gradual process. The struggle +that ensued between the bronze users and the stone users was a contest +between an advanced civilization and one of a lower order; and its +issue was predetermined. The newcomers became the controlling element +in the country. The tendency of the new order of things was toward +individualism. Personal ownership brought with it social grades, so +that it is impossible to make statements with regard to the bronze +people that apply equally to all the race. + +But we are concerned with the conditions of the times only as the +setting in which we are to study the life of woman. In the Bronze +Age, there was introduced into her life nothing to be compared to the +contributions made thereto in the preceding age. While her horizon +was greatly broadened, and while she benefited by the improvements +in living,--better facilities, comforts, and even luxuries,--yet the +advance was along established lines. We may surely believe that closer +intercourse with outside peoples brought a corresponding quickening +of thought and an appreciation of the merits of grades of life higher +than her own. There was no marked change in the style of dwellings +of the people of the Bronze Age from those of the Neolithic period; +but their furnishings were better, and, instead of the skins of wild +animals, those of domestic animals and, perhaps, woven and brightly +dyed fabrics now served for couches, and were hung about the walls as +a protection against dampness. The utensils of the home were varied +and ornamental, the conventional patterns having given place to other, +though still simple, designs. In the homes of the wealthy, knives and +spoons and the finer grades of vessels were of bronze. + +The dress of the women had now become something more than mere +protection for the body. The skins of animals might still suffice +for the clothing of the poor, but the rich man's attire consisted of +well-bleached linens, and, doubtless, woollen fabrics as well. The +garments made of these materials were probably dyed in rich colors, as +the principles of dyeing were well understood. We can picture, then, +a woman of the higher grade, dressed in a tunic, with a mantle of +contrasting color, her hair done up in an elaborate coiffure and set +off by a cap of goat or sheep skin. Projecting from under this would +appear bronze hairpins, perhaps twenty inches in length, of ornamental +design; indeed, her coiffure was such an elaborate affair that it is +quite likely that she slept with it in a head rest, similar to those +which we know were used by the lake-dwellers of Switzerland and are +still used in Japan. Pendent from her neck hung strings of beads and +ornaments made of bone, polished stone, bronze, and even glass and +gold. Her arms were weighted with bracelets, and her legs were adorned +with anklets. + +Spinning, weaving, the milking of the goats, the making of curd +and cheese, the modelling of pottery, the preparation of the meals, +assisting with the outdoor work, and the care of her children, made up +the round of woman's life in those days. But there was another element +that had come to be a serious one in her existence, and that was +religion. Although the form of the prevailing religious belief is +lost, yet we have evidence that it was elaborate enough to call for +special places for its observance. Indeed, none of the remains of the +Bronze Age are more instructive, or present food for more fruitful +speculation as to the manner of life or the scope of mentality during +that era, than the curious tumuli that show how closely associated +in the common consciousness were religion and death; for these mounds +were probably places both of worship and burial. These ideas still +remain in such close connection that the vicinity of a church, and +indeed the edifice itself, seems especially appropriate for the +interment of the dead or for the depositing of crematory urns. Such +religion as existed must have had its reflex influence upon woman's +life and have entered into its duties; it may be that, as with the +later Druids, she assisted in the public offices of worship. + + + + +CHAPTER II + +THE WOMEN OF ANCIENT BRITAIN + + +For our survey of the women of the different and, to a considerable +degree, distinct peoples of Britain, prior to their being brought +under the influence of Roman culture, it will be convenient to take +our stand at the beginning of the period of real history, which for +Britain may be conveniently placed at the first century before Christ. +A survey of woman at that time would, in the nature of the case, +partake somewhat of the character of a composite picture. Still, it +would include all important particulars, even though these might +not, in all cases, be accurately assigned in point of time, or even +precisely as to race. So gradual were the changes that were wrought in +woman's existence during the revolution that followed the introduction +of iron into the arts of Britain's life, that it will not be difficult +to speak with approximate accuracy. + +The data for our picture of the status and occupations of the women at +the time under consideration will need to be drawn from archaeological +remains of different dates and of widely different races, as well as +from the confused and often conflicting or even incredible accounts of +early voyagers, to which may be added the vague allusions of legendary +lore. + +In considering the details of the life of woman during the period +under consideration, the most salient fact is not the influx and +partial merging of different peoples resulting from the intercourse +that had been opened up between the Britons and the nations of the +continent; nor is it the impulse to civilization brought about by the +use of iron in the manufacture of a multitude of articles of general +convenience. Such influences and agencies were potent in society, +working the transformation that found its expression, among other +ways, in the lifting of woman to the plane of civilization that was +introduced by the Romans; but, undoubtedly, the greatest contributing +factor to the life of the age, and so the most important one in fixing +the status of woman, was the trade relations that were developed +with Britain by the peoples of the South and the remote East: the +Assyrians, the Egyptians, the Etruscans, the Greeks, and, later, the +Romans. To the Phoenicians, that nation of traders, must be given the +credit of the introduction into Britain of the higher products of many +of those peoples whose civilizations were of an advanced type. It +was the fleets of this enterprising people that brought into Britain +quantities of finely wrought implements of various sorts: useful +articles that greatly increased the comfort of life, as well as those +of ornament and of dress. Among such imports were the jade beads and +ornaments which the British women held in especial esteem; beads of +glass, delicately marked and colored; ornaments of gold, sometimes +inlaid with enamel in pleasing designs and colors; fine fabrics of +different sorts; rings, brooches, necklaces, armlets, leg bands, and +wares of many kinds. Such things not only added to the comfort and +the sense of luxury of the women, but, as object lessons of art and +elegance, they were in the highest degree educative. They stimulated +woman's imagination and piqued her interest in regard to the women of +those far distant lands, with whom such articles were in ordinary use. +We hear of travellers' tales, carried back by the early voyagers to +Britain, which, by their incredible coloring, awakened the wonder of +the Greeks; but probably as much amazement and interest were aroused +among the Britons by the marvellous tales, told by the Phoenicians and +other traders, concerning the nations among which were manufactured +the articles brought by them to barter for the metals, furs, woods, +and other products of Britain. In this way, a distorted knowledge +of the outside world and of the accomplishments of highly civilized +peoples came to be widely diffused among the more advanced of the rude +inhabitants of Britain. The arrival of a ship in port was an event of +absorbing interest; soon the women of the coast settlements would be +seen busily traversing the narrow, winding paths by which the houses +of a village were connected, to gossip with their neighbors about +the latest bit of wonderful narrative picked up from the oddly garbed +foreign sailors concerning the mighty nations of the remote parts of +the earth, or to display some purchase--a piece of cloth of fine web +or of bright colors, a chased fibula, a string of beads, or articles +of like nature. It would be difficult to exaggerate the effect upon +the mentality and the life interest of the simple-minded yet keenly +inquiring British women of the commerce which, at first occasional, +gradually became regular and expanding, and by which Britain was +brought out of its insular separateness into the broad current of the +world's progress. + +The population of Britain was large--as the Romans found when they +came into the country. The people were collected into villages and +towns which were ruled by chieftains who were frequently at war with +one another. During such strife their women were hidden in caves or +pits covered with brush; this was a necessary protective measure for +the loss of its women was the severest blow a people could suffer. +This division of the tribes into little warring factions was the cause +of the country falling readily a prey to the Romans. + +When we consider that the writers of the time had in view different +elements of the population, it is less difficult to harmonize their +conflicting statements. While there are contrary statements made as +to the agriculture of the Romans, it seems to be a satisfactory +reconciliation of these statements to regard the less progressive +northern tribes as purely pastoral and the inhabitants of the other +parts of the island as agriculturalists as well as herdsmen. After the +Romans became established, wheat came to be one of the chief articles +of export. The producers harvested this grain by cutting off the heads +and storing them in pits under the ground. These pits were protected +against frost. Each day the farmers took out the wheat longest stored, +and ground it into meal. The process of removing the grain from the +cob was, according to what we know of it, similar to the method still +in use down to the seventeenth century in some parts of Britain. This +consisted of twirling in the fire several heads of wheat, which the +woman performing the operation held in her left hand, while with a +stick held in her right hand she beat off the loosened grain at the +very instant that the chaff was consumed. The grain was then usually +ground in a hand mill, although there is reason to believe that water +mills also were used to some extent. The meal was then mixed, and +baked over the fire in little loaves, or flat cakes. The whole process +occupied but a couple of hours. + +The houses of the people, to which the women were confined the greater +part of the winter, were mean little structures. They were circular in +shape, and were made of wattles or wood, and sometimes of stone. These +wigwam-like structures were roofed with straw, and had as their sole +external decoration the trophies of the chase and the battlefield. A +chief's house was triumphantly adorned with the skulls of his enemies, +nailed up against the eaves of the porch, among the horns and bones +of beasts. Sometimes the heads of foes slain in battle were embalmed, +and furnished gruesome ornamentation for the interior of the house. +But notwithstanding these testimonials of a savage nature, there were +evidences of comfort that had in them the indication of an approach to +civilization. The houses were connected by narrow, tortuous paths, and +were usually surrounded by a stockade as a protection against assault. + +The dress of the women differed according to the wealth and the +civilization of the various sections of the population. The tribes +of the east and southeast, who were principally Celts, were the more +civilized, while the Caledonians of the north--the Picts, or painted +men, as they were commonly called--were far less advanced. The women +of the Celts were of great personal attractiveness. They possessed +a wealth of magnificent hair, were fair-complexioned and of splendid +physique. To these graces of person they added fierce tempers; we are +told that when the husband of one of them engaged in an altercation +with a stranger, his wife would join strenuously in the controversy, +and with her powerful "snow-white" arms, and her feet as well, deliver +blows "with the force of a catapult." These vigorous British women +were vain of their appearance and gay in their dress. Their costume +consisted of a sleeved blouse, which was ordinarily confined at the +waist; this garment partly covered trousers, worn long and clasped +at the ankles. A plaid of bright colors was fastened at the shoulders +with a brooch. They wore nothing on their heads, but displayed their +hair fastened in a graceful knot at the neck. + +They wove thin stuffs for summer wear, and felted heavy druggets for +winter; the latter were said to be prepared with vinegar, and "were +so tough that they would turn the stroke of a sword." Some of their +clothes are described as "woven of gaudy colors and making a show." +They were versed in the art of using alternate colors in the warp and +woof so as to bring out the pattern of stripes and squares. Diodorus +says of some of their patterns that the cloth was covered with an +infinite number of little squares and lines, "as if it had been +sprinkled with flowers," or was striped with cross bars, giving a +checkered effect. The colors most in vogue were red and crimson; "such +honest colors," says the Roman writer, "as a person had no cause to +blame, nor the world a reason to cry out upon." Such were the fabrics +with which the more civilized of the British women arrayed themselves, +and the workmanship of which speaks volumes for their makers' +industry and skill. The women were inordinately fond of ornaments, +and had a plentiful supply from which to select. Their attire was +not complete unless it included necklaces, bracelets, strings of +bright beads,--made of glass or a substance resembling Egyptian +porcelain,--and that which was regarded as the crowning ornament of +every woman of wealth--a torque of gold, or else a collar of the same +metal. A ring was at first worn on the middle finger, but later it +alone was left bare, all the other fingers being loaded with rings. + +Among the more primitive of the peoples of Britain, skins continued +to be worn, if, as among the Picts, clothing were not dispensed with +altogether. The women of these fierce tribes were too proud of the +intricate devices in brilliant colors with which their bodies were +tattooed to hide them in any way. These, so Professor Elton is +inclined to think, were the people who introduced bronze into Britain. +They made continual and fierce attacks on their Celtic neighbors and +carried off their women into captivity. And it was because of these +attacks that the Anglo-Saxons were invited into Britain to champion +the cause of the people, after the departure of the Romans had left +the Britons to their own resources. + +A period of peculiar interest and uncertainty was that of the Roman +occupancy of the country, with its veneer of civilization and the +introduction of Christianity, all of which was apparently swept aside +by the conquering hordes of Teutons who came into Briton and laid the +foundations for the English nation. It was a time of great changes +in the standards of life and tastes, as well as of the morals of +the British women. With the Romans came their inevitable arts of +conciliation after conquest. Then followed the period of generous +grants of public works--the baths, the theatres, the arena; then the +Roman villa superseded the huts of the inhabitants. All was created +under the aegis of the great mistress of the nations, and included +strong fortifications. Civilization was advanced, but manliness was +degraded. Effeminacy reduced the sturdy morals of the Briton to the +plane of those of their conquerors. The abominable usage of the women +finds expression in the bitter cry that the poet ascribes to the noble +British queen, Boadicea: "Me they seized and they tortured, me they +lashed and humiliated, me the sport of ribald veterans, mine of +ruffian violators." + +It is not a part of our work to even sketch the course of the Roman +invasion in its path of blood and fire across the face of Britain, or +the stubborn and sturdy opposition of the natives, the subjugation and +the revolt of tribes--notably the Icenii, who cost the Romans seventy +thousand slain and the destruction of three cities, but whose final +conquest broke the backbone of opposition to the Roman arms. All this +is political history, and cannot concern us excepting in the immense +effect it had upon the women of the land. It was they who bore the +brunt of suffering, degradation, and, too frequently, slavery and +deportation--customary incidents of the fierce spirit of the Roman +conquests. But in spite of the miseries their coming entailed upon +the people, the Roman rule had an admirable effect upon the country +in promoting peace, in establishing regard for law, and in stimulating +commerce. After they had become accustomed to the Roman method of +legal procedure in the settlement of differences, the Britons were no +longer ready to fly at one another's throat on the least provocation. +The breaking up of their tribal distinctions led to a greater +consolidation of the people and removed a cause of strife. But as the +descendants of the defenders of Britain's liberties grew up amid Roman +conditions of life that had permeated the whole population as far +as the northern highlands, where the people proved invincible to +the Roman arms, the habit of dependence upon the Roman legions +for protection enervated the people to such an extent that they +could interpose but faint resistance to the next invaders of the +country--the conquering Angles, Jutes, and Saxons. + +It is amid conditions of Roman conquest and control that we are now +to consider more in detail the status of the British woman. Scattered +along the borders of the woods, between the pasture lands and the +hunting lands, could be found the homesteads of the Britons, before +the rise of the Roman city. Each of these edifices was large enough to +hold the entire family in its single room. They were built, generally, +of hewn logs, set in a row on end and covered with rushes or turf. The +family fire burned in the middle of the room, and, circling it, sat +the members of the household at their meals. The same raised seat of +rushes served them at night for a couch. Under the prevailing tribal +custom, three families, or rather three generations of the same +family, from grandfather to grandson, occupied each dwelling. After +the third generation the family was broken up, though all the members +of it retained the memory of their common descent. It is not clear +whether or not a strictly monogamous household was the type of family +life. Certainly it is probable that such was not the case among the +backward races of the interior. As to the advanced sections of the +population, against the statement of contemporary observers that it +was the practice of the British women to have a plurality of husbands, +there is only the argument of improbability to be urged. The custom +of several families living under the one roof and in the same room may +have led the Romans into an erroneous conclusion. + +Little is known as to the laws of the Britons in regard to the +regulation of family. In the matter of divorce, if the couple had +several children, the husband took the eldest and the youngest, and +the wife the middle ones, although the merits of such a peculiar +division do not appear. It would seem as if in the case of the +youngest child, at least, the mother was the proper custodian, or at +any rate the natural one. The pigs went to the man, and the sheep +to the woman; the wife took the milk vessels, and the man the +mead-brewing machinery. This was at variance with the later custom +of England, for well on through the Middle Ages, both as a family +employment and a public industry, brewing was accounted woman's +occupation. To the husband went also the table and ware. He took +the larger sieve, she the smaller; he the upper, and she the lower +millstone of the corn mill. The under bedding was his, and the upper +hers. He received the unground corn, she the meal. The ducks, the +geese, and the cats were her portion, while to his share fell the hens +and one mouser. + +The slight estimation in which women were held as compared with the +value put upon men is indicated by the fact that a woman was legally +rated at half the worth of her brother and one-third that of her +husband. If a woman engaged in a quarrel, she was fined a specific +sum for each finger with which she fought and for each hair she pulled +from her adversary's head. + +Among the customs in which women were concerned, those relating +to marriage show that the assumption of family responsibility was +regarded as a permanent relation, and their nature does not agree with +Caesar's description of the loose ties of matrimony among the Britons. +It is entirely unlikely that the wives of the men were held by them +in common. As has been already stated, such group marriages, if they +existed, were localized among the rudest of the races of the country, +whose general civilization had not elevated them to the point of +appreciation of pure family life. Such, perhaps, were the small dark +races descended from the Neolithic tribes and held in little esteem by +the Celts. Among the Celts it was customary for the father of a bride +to make a present of his own arms to his son-in-law. As will be seen +later by a description of one of their dinners, the Celts preferred +feasting to all other occupations, and their festivities were +accompanied by the utmost conviviality. A wedding was an occasion for +the most extravagant feasting, all the relatives of the contracting +parties, to the third degree of kindred, assembling to eat and drink +to the happiness of the newly wedded pair. The ceremony took place at +the house of the bridegroom, and the bride was conducted thither by +her friends. If the parties were rich, the pair made presents to their +friends at the marriage festival; but if they were poor, the reverse +was the case, and presents were made to them by the guests. At the +conclusion of the feast, the bride and bridegroom were conducted to +their chamber by the whole company, with great merriment and amid +music and dancing. The next morning, before rising, it was the rule +for the husband to make his wife a present of considerable value, +according to his circumstances. This was regarded as the wife's +peculiar property. + +The wives of the ancient Britons had not only the usual domestic +duties to perform, but much of the outside work as well. Being of +robust constitution, leading lives of simplicity and naturalness, +maternity interfered but little with the round of their duties. The +period was not wholly without its anxieties, however, as is shown by +the custom among British women of wearing a girdle that was supposed +to be conducive to the birth of heroes. The assumption of these +girdles was a ceremony accompanied with mystical rites, and was a part +of the Druidical ritual. The newborn babe was plunged into some lake +or river in order to harden it, and as a test of its constitution; +this was done even in the winter season. The early British mother +always nursed her children herself, nor would she have thought of +delegating this duty to another. The first morsel of food put into +a male infant's mouth was on the tip of the father's sword, that +the child might grow up to be a great warrior. As is frequently the +case with primitive peoples, the Britons did not give names to their +children until the latter had performed some feat or displayed some +characteristic which might suggest for them a suitable name. It +follows from this that all the names of the ancient Britons that have +been preserved to us are significant. The youth were not delicately +nurtured, and after passing through the perils of childhood, when the +care of a mother was imperative, it is probable that the mother had +little to do with the training of her boy. Accustomed almost from +infancy to the use of arms, as he grew older the boy added to his +training athletic ordeals and feats of daring. Among the games to +which he was accustomed was jumping through swords so placed that it +was extremely difficult to leap quickly through them without being +impaled. Youth was democratic, and, without any distinction, the +children of the noble and the lowly, equally sordid and ill clad, +played about on the floor or in the open field. + +The Britons were noted for the warmth of their family affection. The +mother was sure of the dutiful regard of her children and did not lack +affectionate consideration from her husband. The aged were treated +with a reverence in striking contrast to the heartlessness with which +in earlier times the old were deserted to die or were put to death--a +custom not unusual among primitive peoples. It is pleasant to think of +the British matron inculcating into the minds of her children respect +for age and the claims of relationship. + +The law of hospitality was sacred to the ancient Briton. When a +stranger sought entertainment at the home of one of them, no questions +were asked as to his identity or his business, until after the meal. +Indeed, it was frequently the case that such arrivals were made the +excuse for a great feast, to which a number of friends were invited. +The women soon had the preparation under way, and in due time the +meat was roasting at the spit and the pot swinging on the crane over +a roaring fire. While the mothers were employed in these occupations +and in making bread, their daughters poured the fresh milk into +the pitchers and filled the metal beakers and earthen jugs with +home-brewed beer and mead. While the men exchanged stories of their +hunting exploits and deeds of valor in battle, the women carried on +a constant buzz of suppressed speculation and remark concerning the +guests. When the meal was ready, the women set it before the men upon +fresh grass or rushes. The bread was served in wicker baskets. The +guests and their hosts seated themselves upon a carpet of rushes, or +upon dog or wolf skins placed near the open fireplace. While the +men voraciously seized the steaming joints and carved from them long +slices of meat, which they ate "after the fashion of lions," the women +plied them with the beakers of foaming beverage, and the bards sang, +to the music of harps, the boastful exploits of some local chieftain. +It was a strange thing if the feast and conviviality did not end in +a fight over some question of precedence or disputed statement. When +such a combat did occur, it was usually a contest to the death. Nor +were the fierce-tempered women passive during such encounters, but, as +we have seen, were ready to aid the men of their family with frenzied +attack. Such a feast as we have described presented a weird and +picturesque sight under the flaming light of the torches made of +rushes soaked in tallow. + +One of the favorite domestic employments of the British women, though +one which we may imagine fell largely to the lot of the younger women +and the girls, was the making of the wickerware for which the ancient +Britons were famous. Baskets, platters, the bodies of chariots, the +frames of boats, and even the framework of the houses, were made of +this light and serviceable material. Withes peeled and woven by the +supple fingers of the young British women into fancy baskets found +a ready market at Rome, and commanded high prices, being generally +esteemed as a rare work of ingenious art. During the hours required to +weave an article of this sort, the women would fall into a responsive +song, picked up perhaps from some passing minstrel. + +Weaving, spinning, dyeing the fabrics thus made; the milking of the +cattle, the grinding of the meal; the making of the garments for the +family; the manufacture of pottery, to which may be added a share of +the outdoor work, were some of the matters which made the life of the +British woman far from an idle one. And yet, with it all, the young +women found leisure to tarry at the spring for the exchange of +laughing remarks, as they dropped something into its clear depth--as +an offering to the divinity who they fully believed resided therein +and who held in keeping their future and their fortunes--before they +drew from it the water for the bleaching of the linen that they had +already spread out in the sun. + +The religion of the Britons, before the introduction of Christianity, +was an elaborate system of superstitions and of nature worship. It +was in the hands of a priestly order--the Druids. A mother was glad +to resign her boy to the training of this mystical brotherhood, if +he showed sufficient talent to warrant his reception therein. It is +not necessary to describe particularly the system. It was made up of +three orders, the Druids proper, the Bards, and the Ovates. Over the +whole order was an Archdruid, who was elected for life. An order of +Druidesses, also, is supposed to have existed. When Suetonius Paulinus +landed at Anglesey in pursuit of the Druids (A.D. 56), women with hair +streaming down their backs, dressed in black robes and with flaring +torches in their hands, rushed up and down the heights, invoking +curses on the invaders of their sacred precincts, greatly to the +terror of the superstitious Roman soldiery. + +At some of their sacred rites the women appeared naked, with their +skin dyed a dark hue with vegetable stain. It was the custom of +the Druids, who had the oversight of public morals, to offer, as +sacrifices to the gods, thieves, murderers, and other criminals, whom +they condemned to be burned alive. Wickerwork receptacles, sometimes +made in the form of images, were filled with the miserable wretches, +and were then placed upon the pyre and consumed. The prophetic women, +standing by, made divinations from the sinews, the flowing blood, or +the quivering flesh of the victims. The defeat of the Druids and the +felling of their sacred groves by the Romans gave the death blow +to the system, which under the influence of Christianity completely +disappeared. + +The diffusion of Roman civilization colored the beliefs of the British +women. The destruction of the native shrines whither they used to +resort to make a propitiatory offering or to draw divinations for +direction in some matter of personal or domestic concern, and the +establishment of the fanes of Rome, which abounded throughout the +country to the limits of the Roman conquest, converted the local +deities into Roman divinities. Under new names, the old gods of the +woods and streams continued to receive the homage of the Romanized +British matrons and maidens. + +But with the introduction of Christianity and its extension even into +parts of the country where the sword of Rome had failed to penetrate, +there was a more radical change wrought in the life of women. They +have always instinctively recognized the fact that the Christian +religion is their champion, and in its consolation the women of the +Britons found much to alleviate their common distress and to elevate +their status. In the trying hours that came with the inroads of the +fierce and barbarous Teutons, when they were carried off by the savage +Picts to a base servitude, and when, after the reassertion of the +Christian religion among the English, the coming of the Danes next +brought a fresh abasement for their sex, the Christian faith was the +sustaining and the reconstructive force of the lives of the women of +the country. With the advance of Christianity passed the customs of +pagan burial. The dead were no longer cremated, nor were they buried +in the tumuli with the objects of their customary association interred +with them to be of service in the spirit world. + +One of the most apparent results of the Roman conquest, in its +relation to the domestic life of the people, was the supersedence +of the rude British dwellings by the Roman villa. This open style +of house, suited to the sunny skies of Italy, had to undergo +modifications to adapt it to the more rigorous clime of Britain. About +an open court, which was either paved or planted in flower beds, the +rooms were arranged, all of them opening inwardly, and some of them +having an entrance to the outside as well. These connected rooms were +usually one story high, with perhaps an additional story in the rear. +The windows were iron-barred. The front of the villa was adorned with +stucco and gaudily painted. In the homes of the wealthy, the inner +court became an elaborately pillared banquet hall, with tessellated +work in fine marble and with the pavement figured in symbolical +devices. In it were placed the family shrines and statuary. Or else +it was fitted up with the baths which were such a feature of Roman +life. In later times, the walls blossomed out into decorations of +mythological subjects: the foam-born Aphrodite, Bacchus and his +panther steeds, Orpheus holding his dumb audience enthralled by his +melody, Narcissus at the fountain, or the loves of Cupid and Psyche. + +The heating arrangements of these houses were ample and convenient, +and the edifices themselves were frequently added to by succeeding +generations. In the country districts, the houses were provided +with large storerooms, plentifully supplied with provisions, and +were garrisoned against the attack of enemies. The best of these +Roman-British houses were imposing structures of vast dimensions. The +women, when surrounded by the luxuries of Roman life, gave themselves +over to pleasure and frequented the theatres and the public baths, +and entertained in lavish style. They generally adopted the graceful +Roman dress, and thus cleared themselves of the charge of loudness, +extravagance, and meanness of attire that the earlier Roman writers +brought against them. After the introduction of Christianity, when +Roman civilization had become completely domesticated, it was no +unusual thing for a Roman to have a British wife, or for British +matrons to be found on the streets of Rome itself. The morals of the +people were not proof against the contamination of Roman standards. +The women, who were brought into closest touch with the Roman +populace, imbibed their views and followed their example. Yet among +the people who lived the simpler life of the country districts, and +to whom Christianity most forcibly appealed, the standards of their +race were largely maintained. The manner of life of the women of the +wild northern tribes was, as we have seen, unaffected by the Roman +occupancy of the country. Finding themselves unable to conquer these +fierce people, the Romans, for their own security, had stretched +across the country a great wall to facilitate defence; but they had +soon to protect their coasts from other warlike races, who, first +in piratical bands and then as migrating nations, brought terror and +annihilation to the native Britons. + + + + +CHAPTER III + +THE WOMEN OF THE ANGLO-SAXONS + + +To attempt a portrayal of the miseries entailed upon the women of the +Britons by the forays of the barbarians, which followed the withdrawal +of the Romans from the country, would be to rehearse the distresses +which were but usual to warfare at that period of the world's history. +We can pass over the savagery of human passions, inflamed by the +heat of strife, and come to the more congenial and, indeed, the +only important task of considering the life of woman, not under the +exceptional conditions of war, but in the normal state of existence. +Even during the Roman occupancy of the country, the British women had +experienced the terrors of the barbarians. In spite of the massive +wall, the lines of forts, and the system of trenches, by which +that military people had sought to arrest the inroads of the Picts +and Scots, those unconquered tribes of the north often swept with +resistless force far into the peaceful provinces, bringing desolation +into many homes and carrying off the women, to dispose of them in the +slave markets of the continent. + +More terrible still had been the descent upon the British coasts +of the piratical Saxon rovers, whose frequent incursions had given +to those tracts that were open to their attacks the significant +appellation of the "Saxon shore." In spite of the measures of the +Romans against these marauding bands from over the seas, they were +a source of continual terror, especially to the women of the coast +settlements, to whom their name was a synonym of all those distresses +which forcible capture and enslavement imply. + +When the Roman forces withdrew, a danger that had been occasional and +limited to localities now became a menace to the whole people. The +invasions of the Picts and Scots became so frequent, and their ravages +so dreadful, that the Britons, who for generations had been dependent +upon the arms of the Romans for protection, felt unable to cope alone +with the situation that faced them. In their extremity they hit upon +the expedient of pitting barbarian against barbarian, hoping thus +to gain peace from the northern terror, and at the same time to rid +themselves of the menace of the pirates. To this end the astute sea +rovers were engaged to discipline the northern hordes. But when these +"men without a country" had fulfilled their obligation, they preferred +to remain in the fertile and attractive island rather than return to +their own vast forest stretches and there seek to combat the pressure +that had set in motion the Germanic peoples. + +In this way began, in the fifth century, the conquest of Britain by +the Angles, the Jutes, and the Saxons: a conquest as inevitable as +it was beneficial; a conquest so stern as practically to sweep from +existence a whole people, excepting the women, who were spared to +become the slaves of the conquerors, and such of the men as were +needed to fill servile positions. The conquest of a Christian nation +by a pagan one must have resulting justification of the highest +order, if it is not to be stamped as one of the greatest calamities +of history, and such justification is amply afforded by the splendid +history of the English people. In the light of the achievements for +humanity that are presented by the record of the Anglo-Saxon peoples, +we need not take up the lament of a Gildas over the woes of the +Britons. + +The impact of the virile peoples of northern Europe against the +serried ranks of soldiery that circled the lines of the great world +empire was the irresistible impulse of civilization to preserve and to +further the march of the race toward the goal that mankind in all its +wholesome periods has felt to be its unalterable destiny. The conquest +of Britain was a part of this great world movement. Its striking +difference as compared with the method and the results of the +barbarian conquests on the continent lay in the fact that the new +nationalities that there arose in the path of the invaders were Latin, +while the England of Anglo-Saxon creation was essentially Teutonic. +Hardly a vestige of the Roman occupancy of the country remains in +language, in literature, in law, in custom, or in race. + +The independence of the English people of Roman influence, and British +as well, leads us to connect the customs, habits, and, in a word, the +status and the civilization of their women, not with the antecedent +line of British life, but with the tribes of the German forests. +Some influence was exerted by the British women upon the life of +the Anglo-Saxons, but it was not sufficient to become an influential +factor in the crystallization of the new nation. Some of the surviving +customs, manners, and superstitions of the English women are of +undoubted British origin, and remain as a part of the folklore of the +English race as we know it. There is no question that the life of the +common people was tinctured by superstitious beliefs and magic, which +even Christianity had failed completely to eradicate from the faith of +the British women. And this is true, too, with matters of custom and, +perhaps, of dress. + +The status of the female sex among the Anglo-Saxons is well set forth +by Sharon Turner in his _History of the Anglo-Saxons_. He says: "It is +a well-known fact that the female sex were much more highly valued and +more respectfully treated by the barbarous Gothic nations than by the +more polished states of the East. Among the Anglo-Saxons they occupied +the same important and independent rank in society which they now +enjoy." + +They were allowed to possess, to inherit, and to transmit landed +property; they shared in all social festivities; they were present at +the Witenagemot; they were permitted to sue and could be sued in the +courts of justice; and their persons, their safety, their liberty, and +their property were protected by express laws. + +The dignity and the chastity of the women of the Germanic tribes made +a profound impression on the minds of the Roman writers who had an +opportunity for observing them, and evoked from them the warmest +tributes. They remarked that the Germans were the only barbarians +content with one wife. Here, then, we find that of which we have +not been assured in our prior study of the women of Britain--genuine +monogamous marriages. + +Tacitus says: "A strict regard for the sanctity of the matrimonial +state characterizes the Germans and deserves our highest applause. +Among the females, virtue runs no hazard of being offended or +destroyed by the outward objects presented to the senses, or of being +corrupted by such social gayeties as might lead the mind astray. +Severe punishments were ordered in case of infringement of this great +bond of society. Vice is not made the subject of wit or mirth, nor can +the fashion of the age be pleaded in excuse for being corrupt or for +endeavoring to corrupt others. Good customs and manners avail more +among these barbarians than good laws among a more refined people." +Among the Teutons, whom Tacitus thus praises to the discredit of his +own people, there was no room for any question of the elemental +rights of woman, for among them woman was more than loved, she was +reverenced. + +As Sharon Turner observes, women were admitted into the councils of +the men; and the high position accorded them is further shown by their +prominence in the more intellectual priestly class. The proportion of +women to men must have been ten to one. Their preponderance in this +influential order assured them of the preservation of the regard in +which their sex was held. Its best security, however, lay in that +instinctive feeling of the equality of the sexes which is fundamental +in the character of the Anglo-Saxon and the Germanic family as a +whole. + +We must not suppose that because the women of the Anglo-Saxons had +certain rights and were accorded a certain superstitious reverence, +as specially gifted in divination, they were therefore the objects of +chivalrous devotion and were surrounded by aesthetic associations. The +age was a rude one, and the race was made up of uncouth barbarians. +The female grace of chastity was not the result of high ideals, or +of wise deductions from the sacredness of the family relation in its +bearing upon society; it did not even have its basis in conspicuous +moral motives; but it was a natural characteristic of a people who had +lived under severe conditions which necessitated a constant struggle +for supremacy and relegated all weaknesses of the flesh to a place +of secondary importance. Had this attribute sprung from any of those +considerations which at a later time gave rise to chivalry, there +would be found in the poetry of the time the evidences of a tender +regard for woman; her praise would have been sung in poems of love; +but there is a dearth of love songs in the verses of this period. Love +of a kind there was, but it was too matter-of-fact and practical in +its nature to effloresce into sentimentality. + +As marriage is the basal principle of the true family, it will be +proper to begin a consideration of the domestic relations of the +women of the Anglo-Saxons by glancing at the circumstances, the +significance, and the ceremonies of their marriages. When the +Anglo-Saxons had settled in England, the primitive and barbarous +custom of forcibly carrying off a bride had probably been superseded +by the later form of obtaining a bride by purchase. While the woman +seems to have had no choice in the selection of a husband, it is +unreasonable to suppose that she did not hold and express opinions; +nor would it be venturesome to assert that, despite her legal +limitations, her voice in the matter of her marriage was often a +decisive one. When the question was beset with especial difficulties, +to what better umpire could a considerate parent refer the matter than +to the bride herself? + +One of the laws regulating the disposition of marriageable maidens +was: "If one buys a maiden, let her be bought with the price, if it +is a fair bargain; but if there is deceit, let him take her home again +and get back the price he paid." This was a sort of marriage with +warranty. But the law of Cnut took a more liberal view of the rights +of the girl; it says: "Neither woman nor maid shall be forced to marry +one who is disliked by her, nor shall she be sold for money, unless +(the bridegroom) gives something of his own free will." By this law +the woman was given the decision of her destiny, and the purchase +price became a free gift. If a woman married below her rank, she was +confronted by the alternatives of losing her freedom or giving up +her husband. As the husband bought his wife, so he might sell her and +their children, though this was rarely done. We need not, however, +condemn too harshly this absolute right that was vested in the head of +a family in the disposition of its members, as it was but a relic of a +usage common to all patriarchal societies, and which passed away with +the clearer view of the sovereignty of self and the claims of society. + +Before the marriage proper took place, there were held the ceremonies +of espousal. These consisted of fixing the terms of the union, and +entering upon agreements to be carried into effect after the ceremony. +In later times, the first essential was the free consent of the +persons to be espoused. This was a step toward the right of the female +in the selection of a husband. Early espousals were customarily, but +not invariably, dependent upon the consent of both parties. In some +instances, the parents espoused their children when but seven years of +age. On arriving at ten years of age, either of the parties could in +theory terminate the engagement at will; but if they did so between +the ages of ten and twelve, the parents of the one breaking the +contract were liable to damages. Beyond twelve years, the child as +well as its parents suffered the penalty. + +After the parties to the espousal, in the presence of witnessing +members of their respective families, had declared their free consent +to the contract that was to bind them, the bridegroom promised to +treat his betrothed well, "according to God's law and the custom +of society." This declaration of a good purpose was ratified by his +giving a "wed," or security, that he would creditably fulfil his +intentions as expressed. The parents or guardians of the girl received +these assurances in her behalf. The foster-lien was the next important +matter. This was at first paid at the time of the espousal, until +some fathers with attractive daughters found it to be a profitable +investment to have them repeatedly espoused for the sake of the +foster-lien, but without any idea of consummating the espousal. This +practice made these precontracts decidedly unpopular and led to their +being modified by ecclesiastical law that provided for the payment of +the foster-lien after marriage, in case it had been properly secured +at the time of betrothal. When these preliminaries were arranged to +the satisfaction of all concerned, the ceremony itself took place. +This consisted of "handfasting" and the exchange of something, even +if only a kiss, to bind the bargain. Frequently this sentimental +interchange was accompanied on the part of the groom elect by the gift +of an ox, a saddled horse, or other object of value. + +This formal engagement was really a part of the marriage and was +regarded as beginning the wedded life. The Church, however, favored +an interval between the espousal and the marriage. The ceremony of +betrothment usually took place in a church. If the man refused or +neglected to complete the espousal within two years, he forfeited the +amount of the foster-lien; if the woman were derelict in this respect, +she was required to repay the foster-lien fourfold--later changed +to twofold. It will be seen by this that "engagements" among the +Anglo-Saxons presumed serious intentions, and that, in a breach of +faith, the woman was held more rigidly to account than the man, whose +fickleness was visited only by forfeiture of the security he had +advanced. The woman was further required to return all the presents +that she had received from her "intended." + +The marriage ceremony was much like that of the espousal. The man +and woman avowed publicly their acceptance of each other as wife and +husband. The bridegroom was required to confirm with his pledge +all that he had promised at the espousal, and his friends became +responsible for his due performance. Though by the customs of their +times the young people were deprived of experiencing the delights and +uncertainties of courtship, the girls were not to be denied the joys +of a wedding; and when the circumstances of the groom permitted, the +occasion was marked with gayety, music, feasting, and festivities of +all sorts. The morning after the wedding, the husband, before they +arose, presented to his wife the _morgen gift_. This was a valuable +consideration, and corresponded to the modern marriage settlement. +The terms of the settlement were arranged before the marriage, but +the gift was not actually presented until the marriage had been +consummated. + +The rude conduct which accompanies a wedding in rough communities +at the present day, as well as the more innocent but embarrassing +pranks to which any newly wedded couple may be subjected, find their +counterpart in the uncouth conduct and witticisms that were at one +time a part of the experiences of an Anglo-Saxon bride and groom. As +the bride, accompanied by her friends, was conducted to her future +home, where her husband, according to custom, awaited her, the +procession was sometimes saluted by facetious youths with volleys +of filth and refuse of any sort, the especial target of their +maliciousness being the frightened and insulted bride herself. If +the young rowdies could succeed in spoiling her costume, they were +especially satisfied with themselves. Aside from the indignity offered +her, the loss of her costume was always a serious matter to the bride, +as in that time of scanty wardrobes it represented a large part of her +_trousseau_. + +The bridegroom, if such indignities were offered to his spouse, +invariably sallied forth with his friends to administer condign +punishment to the "jokers"; and as all freemen in those days carried +arms, bloodshed, bruises, and broken bones resulted. Later, the law +took cognizance of the outrage and suppressed it. But such unpleasant +experiences were not permitted to spoil the marriage festivities; +the bride received the felicitations of her friends and displayed +her gifts--the latter being in evidence at all weddings, because the +making of gifts on the part of relatives was not a thing of choice, +but of compulsion. + +Among the convivial Anglo-Saxons the marriage would have been +considered a very tame affair without the accompanying excesses of +unrestrained feasting, drinking, and mirth. The clergyman who had +pronounced the benediction at the nuptials came to the feast with a +company of his clerical friends. The wedding feast lasted for at least +three days, and was a time of gluttony and rioting. On the first day, +the festivities were opened by the clergy rising and singing a psalm +or other religious song. The wandering gleemen, who were always +present at these feasts, then took up the singing; and as they +proceeded, to the clamorous approval of the drunken company, they +became less and less mindful of the proprieties of sentiment and of +action. The bride and groom were not obliged to remain to the end of +the revelry, but might avail themselves of an opportunity to slip out +from the hall. When the company was surfeited with festivities, the +more sober of them formed a procession, with the clergy in the lead, +and with musical attendance conducted the bride and groom to the +nuptial couch. The bed was formally blessed by the priest, the +marriage cup was drunk by the bride and the groom, and then the couple +were left by their friends, who returned to the hall and renewed their +feasting. Even Alfred the Great, good and wise as he was, could not +escape the customs of his times, and was compelled to indulge in such +excesses at his wedding that he never quite recovered from an attack +of illness he suffered in consequence. + +Having noticed the rudeness to which the bride was subjected, it is +gratifying to mention a more pleasant bit of waggery that was much +in vogue, and that corresponds more nearly to the wedding pranks of +to-day. One of the symbolic features of the wedding was the touching +by the bridegroom of the forehead of the bride with one of his shoes. +This signified that her father's right in her had passed to her +husband. But when the couple were conducted to their nuptial couch by +the bridal company, it was quite likely, if the bride had a reputation +for shrewishness, that the shoe, which after the ceremony had been +placed on the husband's side of the bed, would be found on the bride's +side--a hint that the general conviction was that the headship of the +family would be found to be vested in the wife. We can see from this +that the custom of throwing an old shoe after a bride to give her +"good luck" really signifies the wish that she may dominate the new +establishment. + +The marriage of a girl was signalized by her being thereafter allowed +to bind her hair in folds about her head. Up to that time she wore +her hair loose. This custom, which in earlier days signified a wife's +subjection, came now to denote the high dignity to which she had been +raised; her hair thus arranged was a crown of honor, and every girl +looked eagerly forward to the time when she might wear a _volute_, as +this style of hairdressing was called. + +The very practical Anglo-Saxon marriage bargains do not partake much +of the flavor of romance. We find other evidences of the mercenary +motives that pervaded the marriage customs of the time. The idea of +marriage as the purchase of a wife, who in that relation became +the property of her husband, is further indicated by the fact that +unfaithfulness might be condoned by a money payment, the _were_. An +old law says: "If a freeman cohabit with the wife of a freeman, he +must pay the _were_, and obtain another woman with his own money and +lead her to the other." Indeed, the chastity of women was regulated by +a set price, according to their station. If the woman in the case +were of the rank of an earl's wife, the culprit paid a fine of sixty +shillings, and paid to the husband five shillings; if the woman were +unfree or below age, he suffered imprisonment or mutilation. These +citations from the laws of the time are not made to show regulations +of morals, but to illustrate the fact that in the case of free women +offences could be satisfied by a money payment, just as the husband +in the first instance acquired his rights over his wife by such a +payment. + +Having considered with some detail the general regard in which women +were held and the customs of marriage, it is now in place to say +something about the methods of dissolving the matrimonial tie. It must +be borne in mind that the period we are describing was one of rapid +development. After the introduction of Christianity the uncouth +barbarians rapidly became civilized, and new laws were constantly +being made to define the rights of individuals in all relations. Thus, +as marriage customs and incidents underwent modification, so did the +circumstances of divorce. At first the husband could, at will, return +his wife to her parents; his power of repudiation was practically +unlimited. But such a condition could not long be brooked, as the +practice was a serious affront to the lady's family. We read in the +romance of Brut that Gwendoline and her friends not only levied war +on King Locrine for repudiating her under the bewitchments of the +beautiful Estrild, but put both the king and his new bride to death. +When Coenwalch grievously insulted Penda, the king of the Mercians, by +putting aside his wife, Penda's sister, that monarch at once declared +war on the West Saxon king. Such grave disorders were incited by this +unjust right of the husband that, largely through the influence of the +clergy, limitations were put upon the practice. Naturally, the first +step was to require cause for the repudiation of a wife. The causes +advanced were usually frivolous or insufficient; but when the bishops +taught that "if a man repudiated his wife, he was not to marry another +in her lifetime, if he wished to be a very good Christian," the custom +became less prevalent, especially as the second wife was punished by +excommunication. The right of repudiation for cause was exercised by +wives as well as husbands. The case of Etheldrythe, the daughter of +Anna, the famous King of East Anglia, as cited by Thrupp, will serve +to illustrate the prevailing conditions of the wedded state. "This +young lady had the misfortune to be very weak and very rich. She +was consequently sought for as a wife, by princes who cared nothing +for her person, and as a nun, by churchmen who cared as little for +her soul. She endeavored to please all parties. She took a vow of +virginity with permission to marry, and married with permission to +observe her vow. Her first husband, Tondebert, Earl of Girvii, who +probably obtained possession of her land, did not trouble himself +about her or her personal property; and on his death, she retired +to Ely. She subsequently married Egfried, a son of the King of +Northumbria, a boy of about thirteen, whose friends desired her +estate. He, also, for some time willingly respected her vow, but +afterward attempted to compel her to do her duty as a wife. She +refused compliance with his wishes, and, having succeeded in escaping +from his kingdom, again took up her residence in a monastery. There, +in defiance of her marriage vow, she emulated the strictest chastity +of the cloister while in the bonds of marriage. The clergy applauded +her conduct, and, no doubt, obtained possession of her estates. The +king took a second wife; and all parties appear to have been satisfied +with what was, in truth, a very discreditable transaction." + +After the decline of the right of repudiation, marriage could be +annulled by mutual consent, and the parties were probably permitted +to marry again. Legal divorces were granted for adultery, and what +the clergy called spiritual adultery, which consisted of marriage to +a godfather or a godmother or anyone who was of spiritual kindred, as +such imagined relatives were called. To these causes for divorce were +added idolatry, heresy, schism, heinous crimes, leprosy, and insanity. +If either husband or wife were carried off into slavery, or otherwise +became unfree, or were made a prisoner of war, the other had a right +to remarry after a certain time. + +To insure a decent interval between marriages, the law stipulated that +if a widow entered again into wedlock within a year after the death of +her former husband, she should sacrifice the _morgen gift_ and all the +property she had derived from him. + +At first, the childless wife had no interest in her husband's +property; at his death, the duty of caring for her reverted to her +own family. If she had children, she was entitled to one-half of his +estate, but this was in the nature of a provision for the children. +But as society improved, the rights of widows came to be recognized. +Women had from the earliest times been permitted to hold and bequeath +property in their own right; the failure to recognize the widow's +interest in her deceased husband's estate arose from her being +regarded as having left her own family circle and identified herself +with that of her husband for his life only; therefore, at his death +she renewed her connection with her own family, who assumed the care +of her. In the case of her children, they, being of his flesh and +blood, had a natural interest in their father's property, while the +wife's relations with her husband were simply contractual. A more just +view prevailed in the time of Cnut, as is shown by one of his laws, +which provided that the widow not only had a right to her settled +property, but, whether she had children or not, was entitled to +one-third of whatever had been acquired jointly by her and her husband +during their married life, "excepting his clothes and his bed." This +law did not abrogate the provision already stated, that the widow +forfeited everything in case she married within a year. + +About the time of Cnut's laws giving wider rights to wives in the +matter of property, there was passed a law that recognized the wife's +right to exclusive control of her personal effects. Wardrobes had +become much more extensive, and the law took the view that a woman had +a right to a chest or closet of her own, wherein to keep her clothing, +her jewelry and ornaments, and all the little articles dear to +feminine fancy and personal to their possessor. To this private +receptacle her husband could not have access without her leave. This +curious law, making a real advance in woman's legal status, arose out +of the predatory tendencies of the age. + +When a child was born in an Anglo-Saxon household in the earliest +days, the first thought was not, what shall it be named, but, shall it +be put to death? In those rude times, the custom of exposure applied +to the young and to the very old. Life was a continual hardship, and +food was often extremely difficult to procure. Care for the feeble +implies a solicitude for life that was foreign to the experiences +of the men of that day. The weak and the sickly were regarded as +superfluous members of society. If the infant were deformed, or not +wanted for any reason, it was either killed outright, exposed, or sold +into slavery. We like to believe that when the Anglo-Saxons settled +in Britain and found themselves under more comfortable conditions +of living than those to which they had been accustomed in the +inhospitable clime whence they came, with its constant threat of +famine, they discarded this dreadful practice; but customs die slowly, +and, as the parent had absolute rights in the person of his child, +sentiment against the practice required time to become general. The +rugged Teuton, teeming with an overflowing vitality, had not adopted +the modern method of birth restriction as a solution of the problem +of sustenance. There was no Malthus in the forests of Germany to +discourse on the economic effect of an overplus of population and to +awaken inquiry as to the best way to limit the human family within +the bounds of possible sustenance. It was a condition and not a theory +that faced the Teuton, and he met the situation in the only way known +to him. As the problem passed away, the practice went also, though +isolated cases of exposure of infants continued down to the tenth +century. + +In the form of exposing children of clouded birth, the practice of +infanticide grew with the lowering of morals; but in the case of +legitimate offspring the custom declined. The Church imposed heavy +penalties on those found guilty of the practice. Fortunately for the +infants so treated, there was a prevailing superstition that to adopt +one of these foundlings brought good luck. The great prevalence of the +crime at some periods is shown by the rewards offered by the different +monarchs to those who would adopt foundlings. All rights in the child +passed to the one who adopted it. The general willingness to adopt +such children led to many abuses. Mothers thus relieved themselves +of the duty of caring for their offspring, while those to whom the +children were committed often looked upon them as so many units of +labor, and made life very hard for them. Homicide was frequently one +of the effects of the baleful practice, and generally occurred under +conditions that made it difficult to fix the guilt. + +It is interesting to note, as Gummere points out, that the barbaric +custom of exposing infants "lies at the foundation of the most +exquisite myths--Lohengrin the swan-knight, Arthur the forest +foundling, and that mystic child who in the prelude of our national +epic, _Beowulf_, drifts in his boat, a child of destiny, to the shores +of a kingless land." + +Grimm quotes from a Danish ballad, where a mother puts her babe in +a chest, lays with it consecrated salt and candles, and goes to the +waterside: + + "Thither she goes along the strand + And pushes the chest so far from land, + Casts the chest so far from shore: + 'To Christ the Mighty I give thee o'er; + To the mighty Christ I surrender thee, + For thou hast no longer a mother in me.'" + +The custom of exposing illegitimate offspring shows a retrogression +from the standards of rugged chastity which were characteristic of +the earlier period of the Anglo-Saxon settlement in Britain. In those +times, as we have seen, the German women were models of virtue; the +slightest departure from morality was viewed with horror and visited +with severe punishment. If the one guilty of misconduct were married, +she was shorn of her hair, the greatest degradation to which she could +be subjected, and then driven naked from her husband's house, her +own relatives giving their countenance and aid to the husband in thus +banishing her. She was expelled from the village, and not allowed to +return. At a later date, such a woman, married or unmarried, was made +to strangle herself with her own hands; her refusal to do so availed +nothing, as the women of the neighborhood stripped off her garments +to the waist, and then with knives, whips, and stones hunted her from +village to village until death mercifully relieved her from further +torture. + +In spite of such harsh penalties, the moral standard could not be +maintained at a high level. It is more than likely that its decline +was due in part to the women whom the Northmen brought with them. +When they touched the shores of Britain, it was often after piratical +voyages that had taken them to the coasts of France, Spain, Italy, and +even Africa. When this was the case, they were always accompanied by +large numbers of female slaves from these countries. Then, too, the +greater part of the British women were reduced to slavery by the +new masters of the country, and none of these were treated with the +consideration for their sex that was accorded the German women. The +repute of the women of the Anglo-Saxons remained unimpaired, excepting +as to particular classes and particular times; the women not of +Anglo-Saxon origin were, perforce, the chief offenders against +morality. + +The era of the Danish invasion was a time of almost unbridled license. +Female character could not withstand the tide of immorality that came +in with the new wave of heathen invaders. The women whom the Vikings +brought with them were captives of the lowest grade, ravished from +their homes for the pleasure of their captors on their long sea +voyage. On their arrival they were made slaves of the camp, following +the army wearily in its marches from place to place. This miserable +degradation was forced upon many pure English women by the brutal +lords of the sea. When the invaders settled down to live at peace +with the English, and, by amalgamation, to be absorbed into the larger +race, it was centuries before the country recovered from the blight +of immorality that had fallen upon it; but, with its rare powers of +recuperation, Anglo-Saxon virtue reasserted its principles and caused +its conquerors to subscribe to them. + +Before considering the dress, the amusements, and the employments +of the women, a description of the Anglo-Saxon house will serve to +illustrate much of the common life of the women. This was not evolved +from that of the Briton; it marks a departure in the architecture of +the country. Neither the rude houses of the poorer of the Britons nor +the villa of the Roman provincial appealed to the forest nomads, who +were accustomed to light, tentlike structures that could be readily +taken down and erected elsewhere as their changing habitat directed. + +The Anglo-Saxon town of the earliest period was only a cluster of +wooden houses--a family centre constantly added to by the increase and +dividing of the household, until the settlement assumed something of +the proportions of a town. Stone was not in favor with the Teutons for +their dwellings. They saw in it the relic of the demigods of a remote +past; stone masonry seemed supernatural, and they called it "the +giants' ancient work." The house of the Teutons was probably a +development of the ancient burrow; as Heyn expresses the process +of its evolution: "Little by little rose the roof of turf, and the +cavern under the house served at last only for winter and the abode +of the women." The summer house of wattles, twigs and branches, bound +together by cords, and with a thatched roof, a rough door, and no +windows, seemed to serve these unsettled people, whose surroundings +abounded with the materials for substantial edifices. + +The architecture of the Germans developed rapidly. Soon there was a +substantial hall, or main house, which was the place of gathering and +feasting and the sleeping place of the men. The women slept, and we +may say dwelt, in the bower. Necessary outbuildings were supplied in +abundance. The floor of the hall was of hard earth or of clay, perhaps +particolored, and forming patterns of rude mosaic. It was no uncommon +thing for the rough warrior to ride into the hall, and to stable there +his beloved steed, as will be seen from the following extract from an +English ballad of a later date, which is given us by Professor Child: + + "Kyng Estmere he stabled his steede + Soe fayre att the hall-bord; + The froth that came from his brydle bitte + Light in Kyng Bremor's beard." + +Rows of benches were commonly placed outside of the hall; the exterior +walls and the roof were painted in striking colors. Huge antlers +fringed the gables; the windows, lacking glass, were placed high up in +the wall, and a hole in the roof sufficed for the escape of smoke. + +Such was the early English hall, as it appears to us in the ballads +and stories of the times. The magnificent lace and embroidered +hangings with which were draped the interior walls of the habitations +of the nobility served the double purpose of decoration and protection +from the cold draughts that came in through the numerous crevices. +Even the royal palace of Alfred was so draughty that the candles in +the rooms had to be protected by lanterns. Benches and seats with fine +coverings added comfort and elegance to the hall. In front of these +were placed stools, with richly embroidered coverings, for the feet +of the great ladies. The tables in these Anglo-Saxon homes were often +of great beauty and costliness. In the reign of King Edgar, Earl +Aethelwold possessed a table of silver that was worth three hundred +pounds sterling. Many sorts of candelabra, some of them of exquisite +pattern and workmanship, made of the precious metals and set with +jewels, were used to impart to these old halls the dim light that +in our fancy of the times becomes a feature of the romance of the +knightly homes of older England. + +Warm baths were essential to the comfort of the Anglo-Saxon; to be +deprived of them and of a soft bed was one of the severe penances +imposed by the Church. The ladies' bower was perfumed with the scents +and spices of India and the East. + +Though the houses still left much to be desired in the way of +architectural features as well as ordinary convenience, the +appointments and furnishings of a home of the later Anglo-Saxon period +showed a keen appreciation of creature comforts. + +The law of hospitality opened all doors to the wayfaring freeman. When +he wound his horn in the forest as he approached the hall to protect +himself from being set upon as a marauder, he was welcomed to the warm +fire, the loaded table, and the guest bed, without question. In later +times, the traveller was permitted to remain to the third night. The +guest who came hungry, weary, and dusty to one of these hospitable +homes and received admittance might esteem himself fortunate, for the +women of the time were well versed in the art of wholesome cookery, +and had at hand a plentiful variety of foods. For their meats they +might select from the choice cuts of venison, beef, and lamb, besides +pork, chicken, goat, and hare. Birds and fish afforded greater +variety. Of the latter there were salmon, herring, sturgeons, +flounders, and eels; and of shellfish, crabs, lobsters, and oysters. +Horse flesh was in early use as a comestible, but later became +repugnant to taste, and was discountenanced by the Church in the +latter part of the eighth century. + +To the meats was added a variety of warm breads, made of barley meal +and of flour. Eggs, butter, cheese, and curds, with many sorts of +vegetables, were to be found on the tables; while figs, nuts, almonds, +pears, and apples were probably served by the women to the company +as they sat in discourse about the fire, or, stretched at full length +upon the floor, became absorbed in games of chance. For the Germans +were such inveterate gamblers that money, goods, chattels, their +wives, and even their own liberty, were often risked by the casting of +dice. + +The women were admitted to seats at the tables with the men, the girls +being engaged in serving the drinks, which were as freely used then +as now. Even after the company were surfeited with food and the tables +were removed, drinking was kept up until the evening. + +The costumes of a people are of the greatest worth in revealing to the +student their grade of civilization and their ideals. There can be no +question but that taste in dress is one of the best gauges by which to +determine whether at a particular time the people were serious minded +or frivolous, moral or immoral, swayed by high aspirations or the prey +of indolence and sensuous gratifications. Just as truly can we arrive +at the characteristics of a race or a period by seeing the people +at their play. If we find them given to gladiatorial exhibitions, we +shall not err in concluding that they were a vigorous and war-like +people; if they are found at the bull fight, we may safely adjudge +them to be a brutalized and enervated race. The Anglo-Saxon can safely +be brought to this test. If the dress of the women is a criterion +of morals, then were these people of early England exemplary; if the +games in vogue denote the race characteristics, then were they rude, +but wholesome. + +After the conversion of the Anglo-Saxons to Christianity, there +were evidently some changes made in their garb, to indicate their +abjuration of heathenism; for in the Church council of 785 the +complaint was made that "you put on your garments in the manner of +the pagans, whom your fathers expelled from the world; an astonishing +thing, that you should imitate those whose life you always hated." +Change of style in dress was practically unknown among the ladies of +the Anglo-Saxon period of English history. The illuminations of the +old MSS., from which all that is definitely known on the subject is +derived, show that the dress of the women remained practically the +same during the entire period. + +The costume of the women can be described with many details. There was +an undergarment, probably made of linen, extending to the feet; it had +sleeves that reached to the wrists and were there gathered tightly +in little plaits. There was an absence of needlework of any sort, +excepting a simple bit of embroidery upon the shoulder. The customary +color of the garment was white. Over this was worn the gown, which +was slightly longer than the undergarment, and reached quite to the +ground. It was bound about the waist by a girdle, by which it was +sometimes caught up and shortened. The sleeves are most frequently +pictured as extending to the wrist, and were worn full. Sometimes, +however, they reached to only the elbow, and in some cases were +wanting altogether. This garment was prettily ornamented with +embroidery, in simple bands of sprigs, diverging from a centre. +Another form of dress that is represented seems to have been an +out-of-doors or travelling costume. It differed from the other in +being of heavier material, possibly of fine woollen goods, and had +sleeves that extended to the knees. It is possible that this was a +winter dress, and the other a summer one. + +A mantle was worn about the shoulders. This, likewise, was of a solid +color, usually contrasting with that of the gown. This garment appears +to have been round or oval in shape, with an aperture at one side, +so that when it was put on it hung much further down the back than +in front. The head was covered with a wimple, broad enough to reach +from the top of the forehead to the shoulders, where it was generally +wrapped about the neck in such a way that the ends fell on the bosom. +A less studied, but more tasteful, way to wear it was to have it hang +down on one side as far as the knee; the effect of the contrasting +colors of the wimple, the mantle, and the gown was gratifying to women +of taste. The shoes were black, and of simple style. They resembled +the house slippers worn by women to-day; but besides these low shoes, +which came only to the ankles, other shoes were worn, that reached +higher up the leg and appeared to have been laced much as shoes now +are. Stockings may or may not have been used. + +It will be seen from this description of the costume of the +Anglo-Saxon woman that it was modest, complete, and in good taste. +She was, however, proud of her attire, and of the many ornaments that +were worn with it. The ornament in most general use was the fibula, +or brooch. This was of many styles: radiated, bird-shaped, cruciform, +square-shaped, annular, and circular. It was of gold, bronze, or iron, +and showed the greatest delicacy of workmanship. It was worn on the +breast, a little to one side, so as to fasten the mantle. When we +are reminded that the Anglo-Saxons were highly skilled in the art of +dyeing, and that they had perfected the art of gilding leather, we can +readily see that a lady of quality, when dressed in her blue, purple, +or crimson costume of state, her girdle clasped by a finely chased +brooch of gold, whose fellow gleamed in the folds of her mantle, might +have invited comparison, to advantage, with the most stylishly attired +woman of to-day. But when we add to her dress a mantle, not only of +rich colors, but embroidered in ornate design, with heavy threads +of pure gold; massive arm rings of the same precious metal, of +wonderfully beautiful pattern, and fastened about her round white +arm by delicate little chains; and numerous strings of gold, amber, +and glass beads, rich in pattern and cunningly chased, the picture +presented of the Anglo-Saxon woman is altogether pleasing. The +ornaments of the women were not considered as mere matters of +adornment. To the pagan woman, her beads served as a protection +against supernatural foes. When Christianity came in, the beads were +blessed by a pious man and continued to serve the same useful end. + +The bronze combs found everywhere in the graves of the time show how +careful the women of the day were to keep in perfect order the long +locks of which they were so proud. From the graves have been recovered +chatelaines, of the fashion of those now in vogue, golden toothpicks, +ear spoons, and tweezers. These ornaments and toilet requisites were +in constant use in life; and in pagan times they were interred with +their owner, that they might still be hers in the other world. + +The Anglo-Saxons understood the art of inlaying enamel, and their +colors were remarkably bright and enduring. But the most striking +evidence of proficiency in the jeweller's art was their _cloisonne_ +ware. This art of the East was spread by the barbarian invasions +over the whole of Europe; De Baye, in his _Industrial Arts of the +Anglo-Saxons_, calls it "the first aesthetic expression of the Gothic +nations," and says that it was not borrowed, but was adapted from the +East. He describes it as follows: "This _cloisonne_ work, set with +precious stones in a kind of mosaic, and combined at times with +the most delicate filigree, is sufficiently characteristic to be +remarkable in every country where it has left traces." This beautiful +form of art penetrated Kent and the Isle of Wight, where for some +reason it became localized and assumed a particular character. Some of +the fibulae that have been preserved to us, and are to be found in the +art collections of England, are remarkable specimens of this beautiful +craft. + +The love of English women for outdoor sports can be traced to +Anglo-Saxon times, and much of the wholesome vigor of the race is +due to those early pastimes. However fond women may have been of fine +ornaments, then as now it was the privilege of the few to possess +them; but the national sports were enjoyed by all. Hunting, hawking, +boating, swimming, fishing, skating, were in great favor with the +people. + +In the winter there were many long hours to be whiled away indoors, +and although spinning and weaving the fabrics for the family wear, +as well as their embroidery and lace work, took up much of the time, +the women still had ample leisure to engage with the members of their +households and, perhaps, the passing guests in the many simple games +that delighted them. Chess was in marked favor, and was played in much +the same manner as now. The exchange of witticisms and the guessing of +conundrums added much to the innocent mirth of a household intent on +making the long evenings pass as pleasantly as possible. + +There were itinerant purveyors of amusement who were to be found at +every feast and at many family firesides. These were the wandering +minstrels, or gleemen. Although they were welcomed for the +entertainment they furnished, yet as a social class they were +certainly in slight repute. Their forms of entertainment were not +limited to music. They presented a programme that included the +performances of trained animals, tricks of jugglery, feats of magic, +and other exhibitions of skill and daring. Along with the gleemen went +the glee maidens, who were the dancing and acrobatic girls of the day. +Dancing itself was a very rudimentary performance, but the enthusiasm +of the audience was aroused by the acts of tumbling and contortion +that were introduced into it. Convinced that dancing alone could not +account for the bewitchment of Herod by the daughter of his brother +Philip's wife, the translators into the vernacular of that Biblical +circumstance say of Herodias that she "tumbled" before Herod; and the +illuminations in a prayerbook of the time show Herodias in the act of +tumbling, with the assistance of a female attendant. + +Slight protection, either from law or custom, was afforded women +of the lower classes from gross insults. Any female was likely to +be stopped on the road and partially or altogether denuded of her +clothing, and then sent on her way with taunts and jeers. But, despite +the coarseness of the Anglo-Saxon times, sentiment finally made Itself +felt for the correction of such manners. The women were responsible +for the diffusion of notions of greater refinement. + +While there was little deserving the name of education, and even +reading and writing were the accomplishments of but a small part of +the people, the monastic orders conserved some notion of scholarship. +Unfavorable as were the times to productive thought, scholars of no +mean ability nevertheless flourished, and among men and women alike +there was a desire for learning. To his female scholars the monk +Anghelm dedicated his works: _De Laude Virginitatis_. Certain Saxon +ladies of leisure occupied themselves with the study of Latin, which +they came to read and write with some ease. The literary antecedents +of the brilliant women of the sixteenth century are to be found in +that little group of studious women of the Anglo-Saxons, of whom +the Abbess Eadburga and her pupil Leobgitha, with both of whom Saint +Boniface corresponded in Latin, were the most notable. + +The nuns were a class apart. The separation of the monks and the nuns +in the monastic establishments was gradually brought about by Church +regulations and the rules of the orders. By the end of the seventh +century the separate monasteries had effected the separation of the +men and the women, and in the eighth century the erection of double +monasteries was forbidden. Long before this time, however, the +more earnest of the ladies in superintendence of the monasteries +had prohibited the admission of men to the female side of the +establishments, excepting such men as the sainted Cuthbert and the +venerable Bede. These regulations were very strict and almost put an +end to the scandalous allegations about the religious establishments. +The charge that the priests resorted to the monasteries for mistresses +probably had no better foundation than the fact that many of the +priests continued to marry, in spite of the rule of celibacy. Whatever +truth there is in the assertion that kings obtained their mistresses +from the ranks of the nuns must be laid to the civil interference +and claims of jurisdiction over religious institutions. But while the +headship of convents was frequently offered to women of high rank and +low morals, whom it was convenient thus to get rid of, and in this way +certain institutions became debauched, the monastic system itself did +not become corrupt, and there were monasteries of notable purity and +great worth. + +The story of Eadburga, the widow of Beorthric, King of Kent, +illustrates the hardships inflicted upon the monasteries, through the +assumption of royal personages to appoint their heads. Eadburga was +a notable beauty, and was renowned as well for her talents and her +ambition. She ruled her husband with a jealous tyranny, removing from +court by false accusation or by poisoning all who stood in her path. +The Earl Worr, a young man of great personal charm, was one of those +who exerted an influence over her husband. On some occasion of public +hospitality she proffered him a cup of poisoned liquor; the king, who +was present, claimed his right of precedence, and, after drinking from +the cup, passed it to the earl, who drained it. Both of them died, +leaving the guilty queen exposed to the wrath of the royal family. +Eadburga fled to the court of Charlemagne, where she was graciously +received, and after a time the king suggested to her that she lay +aside her widow's weeds and become his wife. She showed so little tact +as to say that she would prefer his son. Charlemagne, piqued by her +answer, said that had she expressed a preference for him, it had been +his purpose to give her in marriage to his son; as it was, she should +marry neither of them. She remained at the court until the king, +scandalized by her wicked life, placed her at the head of an excellent +monastery. In this responsible position, Eadburga behaved herself as +badly as ever; and as the result of an amour with a countryman of +low birth, she was expelled from the convent. This widow of a monarch +ended her career as a common beggar in the streets of Pavia. + +A very different class from the nuns, but, like them, a distinct class +in the social life of Anglo-Saxon times, were the slaves. The least +amiable trait of the women of the times was their treatment of +servants. Although there were striking instances of kindly and +considerate regard for this class on the part of their mistresses, yet +the slight legal protection afforded them, and the rough, impetuous +natures of the masters, made the existence of the servile class +miserable. It was not unusual for slaves to be scourged to death; +and for comparatively slight offences they were loaded with gyves and +fetters and subjected to all kinds of tortures. On one occasion, the +maidservant of a bellmaker of Winchester was, for a slight offence, +fettered and hung up by the hands and feet all night. The next +morning, after being frightfully beaten, she was again put in fetters. +The following night, she contrived to free herself, and fled for +sanctuary to the tomb of Saint Swithin. This was not an exceptional +instance; it illustrates the severity that was customarily meted out +to serfs. + +The queens and other ladies of rank among the Anglo-Saxons included +some who were ornaments to the sex in industry and intelligence as +well as charity. Their influence on politics for good or for evil +was often the result of their position as members of rival houses. +Christianity was often furthered by the alliance of a Christian +princess to a pagan king; Bertha, the daughter of a famous Frankish +king, was in this way instrumental in the introduction of Christianity +into England. Herself a Christian, she married Ethelbert, King of +Kent, on condition that she should be permitted to worship as a +Christian under the guidance of a Frankish bishop named Lindhard. The +condition was observed, and Bertha had her Frankish chaplain with +her at court. She seems not to have made any attempt to convert her +husband; and he never disturbed her in her religion. The pope was +probably informed of the auspiciousness of the outlook for the +introduction of Christianity into the Kentish kingdom, and, being +still under the influence of the impression made upon him by the +flaxen-haired Angles he had seen in the slave markets of Rome before +his elevation to the pontificate, he determined to make good the vow +he had then registered to send missionaries to the land of the boy +slaves. Augustine was selected for the mission, and on arriving, with +his companions, in England, after a great deal of trepidation for +their personal safety, they presented themselves at the court of the +King of Kent Ethelbert received them in the open air, with a great +show of pomp, and gave them his promise to interpose no hindrance +to their missionary endeavors among his people. To Bertha must be +ascribed the credit for the complaisance of her husband and the +opening that was made to restore the Christian faith, which had +perished with the Britons. + +Edith, the gentle queen of Edward the Confessor, was noted alike +for her skill with the needle and her conversance with literature. +Ingulf's _History_, though perhaps not authentic, gives us a +delightful picture of the simplicity of her Anglo-Saxon court. "I +often met her," says this writer,--meaning Edith,--"as I came from +school, and then she questioned me about my studies and my verses; +and willingly passing from grammar to logic, she would catch me in +the subtleties of argument. She always gave me two or three pieces of +money, which were counted to me by her hand-maiden, and then sent me +to the royal larder to refresh myself." + +Ethelwyn, another royal lady, and a friend of Archbishop Dunstan, +was accustomed to decorate the ecclesiastical vestments, and the art +needlework of herself and her companions became celebrated. On +account of his well-known skill in drawing and designing, Dunstan was +frequently called into the ladies' bower to give his views in such +matters. While they worked, he sometimes regaled them with music from +his harp. + +These pleasing views of the character and the employments of the +royal ladies in Anglo-Saxon times, seen in their simple pursuits, are +more agreeable than the stories of those who were engaged in court +intrigues, to relate which would necessitate a history of the +political movements of the day. We shall later have ample opportunity +to see woman as an influence in affairs of thrones and dynasties. For +the present, it will suffice to regard royal woman in the way in which +she is prominently presented to us in Anglo-Saxon annals--as the lady +of refined domesticity. + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +THE WOMEN OF THE ANGLO-NORMANS + + +A picture of the social life of England during the Norman period is +a picture of manners and customs in a state of flux. But amid all the +instability of the times, when political institutions, laws, customs, +and language were inchoate, the tendencies were so marked that it is +quite possible to watch the emergence of a solidified people. The two +great social factors to be considered are the baronial castles and the +women of those castles. The castle was the characteristic feature of +the Anglo-Norman period; its conspicuousness increased as time went +on, until, in the reign of Stephen, there were no less than eleven +hundred of these units of divided sovereignty scattered over the +country. + +During the period of national unsettlement which followed upon the +Conquest, these frowning castles arose; they owed their existence +to the lack of adequate laws for the safeguarding of life and of +property, and to the absence of the machinery of government for the +enforcement of law. But, principally, they represented the mutual +jealousies of the Norman barons, to whom had been apportioned the +lands of the Saxons--jealousies which found a common attraction in an +aversion to the centralizing of power in the hands of any monarch who +had ambitions to be more than a superior overlord. + +This social insecurity was intensified during the reign of William by +the danger of attack from the implacable Saxon bands of warriors who +had retired into the swamps and from those fastnesses conducted a +fierce guerrilla warfare upon the Normans. So full of danger was the +period, that the closing of the castle for the evening was always an +occasion for serious prayer and commitment of the inmates to Divine +protection, as there was no knowing but that before morning a +besieging force might appear before the gates and institute all the +horrors of attack and beleaguerment. + +The elevation of woman to the plane of companionship with her husband +was largely due to the peculiar conditions of the feudal state of +society, of which the frowning castle that crowned the many hilltops +was the sinister characteristic. Exposed as she was to the same +dangers, and sharing the responsibilities of her husband, there was no +room for a distinction of status to be drawn between them. By reason +of environment, wifely equality with her husband was not a matter of +theoretical but simply of practical settlement. It was needful that +the wife should be a woman of courage and of resources. But while the +matter of sex did not constitute a badge of inferiority in the +home relations, the peculiar perils to which the women were exposed +constituted an appeal to manhood that evoked a chivalrous response; +and when life became less hard and there was better opportunity for +the expression of the tenderer sentiments, this especial regard for +woman rose to the height of an exalted devotion. + +It would not be right to assume, however, that the greater prominence +and influence of woman outside of her home was a sudden emergence from +former conditions. In so unsettled an era it became, however, a more +general, more pronounced feature. We may find an earlier indication of +the interest of the great lady in the affairs of her lord and in the +welfare of his dependants, as well as of the advance of chivalrous +sentiments, in the story of Lady Godiva. It was in 1040 that Leofric, +Earl of Mercia, was besought by his wife, who was remarkable for her +beauty and piety, to relieve his tenantry of Coventry of a heavy toll. +Probably little inclined to grant her request, he imposed what he +may have thought impossible terms, when he consented to her plea +on condition that she would ride naked through the town. To his +amazement, doubtless, the Lady Godiva accepted the condition; and +Leofric faithfully carried out his agreement. The lady, veiled only +by her lovely hair, rode through the streets; and to the honor of the +good people of Coventry, it is said that they kept within doors and +would not look upon their benefactress to embarrass her. One person +only is said to have peeped from behind the curtain of his window, +and the story runs that he was struck blind, or, according to another +version, had his eyes put out by the wrathful people. This curious +person was the "Peeping Tom of Coventry," whose name has become +proverbial. + +Society develops in strata, so that the elevation of the women of the +castles did not enable the women of the hovels to profit by conditions +out of the range of their lives. The lower classes, or villains, which +included the grades of society styled, in the Anglo-Saxon period, the +freemen and the serfs, were the social antitheses of the society of +the castles. The women of the lower class benefited not at all by the +new dignity that was acquired by the women of the castles during the +feudal regime; in fact, they suffered the imposition of new burdens +and the exactions of a feudal practice which took the form of tribute, +based on the persistent idea of the vassalage of their sex. The great +middle class, which was to play such an important part in the social +and industrial history of England, had not emerged as a separate +section of the people of the country. But what the lady of the Norman +castle obtained for her class through one phase of feudalism, the +woman of the guild aided in securing by another in the centuries which +marked the rule of the Angevin kings; and in both Norman and Angevin +times the influence of the Church was constantly on the side of the +womanhood of the country, and was probably a more potent force than +any other, for the exaltation of woman was the one policy which +proceeded on fixed principles. + +The castles too often degenerated into centres of rapine and pillage; +perpetual feuds led to constant forays, and no traveller could be +assured that he would not be set upon by one of these robber barons +and his band of retainers--little better than remorseless banditti. +But there were castles of a better sort, nor were all knights recreant +to their vows. In assuming the obligations of his order, the newly +vested knight swore to defend the Church against attack by the +perfidious; venerate the priesthood; repel the injustices of the poor; +keep the country quiet; shed his blood, and if necessary lose his +life, for his brethren. Nothing was said in the oath about devotion +to women, nor was such a thing at first contemplated as a part of the +knight's office. His office was a military one, and sentiment did not +enter into it. The chivalrous feature grew out of the circumstances +of the times--the unprotected situation of woman, the fact that the +knight who enlisted in the service of a baron, and the baron as +well, often had to leave the women of their households dependent for +protection upon the opportune courtesy of other knights and lords. +When the country had become more orderly and manners had softened, +with the increased security given to life and property and the better +means of obtaining justice, this chivalrous feature continued and +became prominent in the knightly character and office. + +In the early times, when the life of the knight was of the roughest, +there were adventurous young women, caught by the excitement it +offered, who donned the habiliments of the knight and plunged into the +dangers of his career. The story is told of the quarrel of two Norman +ladies, Eliosa and Isabella, both of them high-strung, loquacious, and +beautiful, and both dominating their husbands by the forcefulness of +their natures. But while Eliosa was crafty and effected her ends by +scheming, Isabella was generous, courageous, sunny-tempered, merry, +and convivial. Each gathered about her a band of knights and made war +upon her adversary. Isabella led her knights in person, and, armed as +they were and as adept in the use of her weapons, she advanced in open +attack upon her foe. Such incidents, though not usual, were yet in +accord with the spirit of the time. + +Every lady was trained in the use of arms for the needs of her own +protection when the occasion should arise. Sometimes the practice of +sword drill was carried on in the privacy of the lady's apartment. +Thus, it is related of the Lady Beatrix--who, by reason of her +expertness and her intrepidity in the actual use of arms, gained for +herself the sobriquet _La belle Cavalier_--that the first knowledge +that her brother had of her martial proclivities was when, through a +crevice in the wall, he happened to observe her throw off her robe, +and, taking his sword out of its scabbard, toss it up into the air +and, catching it with dexterity, go through all the drill of a knight +with spirit and precision; wheeling from right to left, advancing, +retreating, feinting, and parrying, until she at last disarmed her +imaginary foe. We read of the Knight of Kenilworth that he made a +round table of one hundred knights and ladies, to which came, for +exercise in arms, persons from different parts of the land. + +In such setting is found the life of the woman of the day. But below +whatever of chivalry was to be found in this turbulent age, which +extended from the coming of William the Conqueror to the end of +the reign of Stephen, it was preeminently a rude, boisterous, and +uncultured era. The lack of uniformity of language was as much +opposed to the development of literature as was the general unsettled +condition of the times. Education, slight as it was, had suffered a +relapse, and it was not until the twelfth century that anything like +real literature was developed. + +As the castle was the characteristic feature of the time, and within +its walls will be found much of the matters of interest relating +to the women of the day, a description of one of these domestic +fortresses will make clearer the customs of the times in so far as +they relate to the women of the higher classes. + +The site selected for the ancient castle was always a hilltop or knoll +that lent itself to ready defence. The foot of the hill was enclosed +by a palisade and a moat; these circumvallations frequently rendered +successful assault impossible, and the only recourse open to the +attacking force was a protracted siege. As the stranger on peaceful +mission bent approached one of these massive structures, rearing its +frowning walls in silhouette against the blue of the sky, he could not +fail to be impressed with the majesty and grandeur of its walls and +turrets. He would notice the round-headed windows, with their lattice +of iron and the numerous slitlike openings which supplemented the +windows for the access of light and, as loopholes, played an important +part in the defence of the fortress. On coming to the gateway, flanked +on either side by bastions, pierced to admit of the flight of arrows, +the warden would open to him, and he would be conducted into a +courtyard, whose sides were made by the walls of the hall, the chapel, +the stable, and the offices. Within the courtyard, he would observe a +garden of herbs and edible roots, and also a fine display of flowers; +perhaps, too, a small enclosure in the nature of a cage, containing a +number of animals--the trained animal collection of the jongleurs, who +commonly attached themselves to the following of barons. + +On passing into the hall, he would be at once struck by its absolute +meagreness; a few stools, some seats in the alcoves of the wall, a +few forms, some cushions and a sideboard, making its complement of +furniture. The abundance and beauty of the plate on the sideboard +might partially redeem in his eyes the barrenness of the place. The +minstrel's gallery in the rear of the hall would be suggestive of the +convivial uses of that portion of the castle. No elaborate draperies +would be seen; some strips of dyed canvas upon the walls alone served +to make up for the lack of plaster, and to afford some protection from +damp and the spiders whose webs could be seen in the ceiling corners. +On passing out again into the courtyard, he would observe the tokens +of domestic pursuits in the kitchen utensils and the dairy vessels +upon benches, and cloths hung upon poles above. Passing by the +subsidiary buildings, and ascending to the ladies' bower by the +outside staircase, he would find a few more evidences of comfort than +greeted him in the hall below. Instead of common canvas, the walls +would be draped with some embroidered materials, cushions would be +more plentiful, the touches of femininity would be observed in various +little elements of comfort and adornment; but, with all this, he would +find it dreary enough. Should he return, however, to this boudoir when +the ladies were gathered for their afternoon's sewing, the scene would +make up in animation what it lacked in attractiveness of surroundings. +On going into the bedchamber, a glance would reveal its contents. +Seats in the wall, a stool, a curiously shaped bed, candelabra, and +two projecting poles, the one for falcons and the other for clothes, +would complete the sum of its furniture. The bed furnishings would +consist of a drapery, pendent from an odd roof, rather than a canopy, +over the bed. The bed would look to him comfortable enough, with its +quilted feathers and pillow attached, and, over these, sheets of +silk or of linen, and over all a coverlet of haircloth, or of woollen +fabric, lined with skins. One compartmented bed fixture, with its +curious divisions, was thought to afford sufficient privacy for +honored guests of different sexes, who were all cared for in the same +chamber; if the number of the guests and of the household was large, +several bed fixtures or bedsteads might be observed. The servants +slept indiscriminately in the hall below. + +Such was the simplicity of the interior arrangements and furnishings +of the castle. But within these rooms, devoid of many of the ordinary +comforts of modern life and altogether lacking in its luxuries, +assembled women who prided themselves on their noble estate and +extraction; here, too, were held many assemblies of state; kings in +their progresses through their kingdom tarried for entertainment, +bringing with them magnificent retinues. Feasts and social functions +called forth all the highbred graces of the fair hostess and made the +castle a scene of merriment and of joyous conviviality. Here, too, +were held orgies of drunkenness and of depravity; intrigues smouldered +within these walls, to break out into an open flame of rebellion; +while dramas of noble self-abnegation and plightings of faithful love +were enacted there as well. Amid all these scenes moved the lady of +the castle. + +A few of the typical views of castle life in which the women figured +conspicuously will serve to give a more particular setting to +the general idea of their status and employments. While men gave +themselves up to feats of arms, the women had the task of hospitably +entertaining the guests who frequented the castles; in the interim of +these festivities and the exacting care of a host of servants, they +applied themselves assiduously to needlework, and in no other way +does the woman of the times appear in so pleasant a light as when +thus engaged. Her facility in lace and embroidery work is not attested +alone by contemporary writers, but has come down to us in its finest +expression. The famous Bayeux tapestry, possibly the most ingenious +specimen of needlework that the world has known, calls up the most +interesting of the castle scenes as related to woman. It is the +expression of the artistic and historical sense of Matilda, the wife +of William I. In some such lady's bower as has been described, the +fair queen assembled the ladies of her court, and the Bayeux tapestry +was created amid the interchange of small talk, becoming more serious +as at times the figures of the pattern recalled some particular horror +of personal loss on the part of some of the ladies present, entailed +by the great battle whose glory was the central theme of their labors. +With womanly self-effacement, they had in mind only those whose deeds +were in this unique manner to be handed down to posterity, and had no +thought of the monument to womanly devotion that they were erecting +for the honor of the sex. Every scene involved the perpetuation +of the memories and the valor of those who were dear to them; and +as the record passed into the embroidered pattern, it was dwelt +upon with words of glowing pride. In some such way took shape the +picture-history of the event that found its consummation in the battle +of Senlac. By its wealth and accuracy of detail, this monument of +woman's skill became a historical document of the first order for +the period to which it relates. But to the student of the English +woman its chief value must lie in its revelation of the depth of +the pride and devotion to husbands, brothers, and lovers that it +reveals--devotion to the living and the dead alike, which is the +secret of its reverent accuracy, excluding as it does vainglorious +exaggeration. It thus becomes a memorial of deeds of valor and of +defeat, of triumph and of death; a monument to the Norman, but, +unwittingly, a monument to the defeated Saxon as well. + +We are reminded by this historic tapestry of the pathetic story +of Edith of the Swan's Neck. King Harold had been slain on the +battlefield by a Norman arrow which had pierced his brain. His mother +and the Abbot of Waltham had successfully pleaded with Harold's +victorious rival for permission to bury the king within the abbey. Two +Saxon monks, Osgod and Ailrick, were deputed by the Abbot of Waltham +to search for and bring to the abbey the body of their benefactor. +Failing to identify on the field of Senlac (Hastings) the bodies +denuded of armor and clothing, they applied to a woman whom Harold, +before he was king, had had for a companion, and begged her to assist +them in their search. She was called Edith, and surnamed la belle +an you de cygne. Edith consented to aid the two monks, and readily +discovered the body of him who had been her lover. + +The queen who conceived and furthered the execution of the Bayeux +tapestry was representative of the best type of Norman womanhood. Her +devotion to her husband was proverbial, and his faithfulness to her +has never been questioned. Intrigues among persons who could not brook +the moral atmosphere of a court such as Matilda maintained were common +enough, and the envious breath of scandal even sought to shake the +confidence of her royal husband in her; but all such attempts were +unavailing. Matilda became in every sense the consort of William, and +thus marked a forward step for the womanhood of the country. Without +such recognition of the wife of William I., England would never have +had the brilliant and versatile Elizabeth or the wise and womanly +Victoria to number among the great examples of high worth which +make the list of England's notable women one of the chief glories +of her history. As the manners of the court affect the standard of +the nation, that the tone of the times was not lower in an age of +turbulence, when moral standards were debased, must be to some extent +accredited to the example of the queen. + +When Matilda died, the country was still rent by fierce hatreds and +passionate outbursts; the unplacated Saxon had been little influenced +by her. It was reserved for another Matilda, the wife of Henry I., to +aid in healing the breach, and, by uniting the discordant elements, +put the country in a position for the development of those arts of +civilization which only can flourish in an atmosphere of peace. When +Matilda, then a _religieuse_, was adjudged by the Church authorities +not to have taken the veil, or to have assumed the vows that would +have severed her from the world and committed her to a life of +virginity, she reluctantly heeded the clamor of the Saxon element of +the people, and yielded to the importunities of Henry to become his +wife and the country's queen. So was secured to the land a queen +in whose veins ran Saxon blood and who had received an Anglo-Saxon +education. Through her influence, many salutary laws were enacted to +relieve the disabilities of the people. The wives and daughters of +the Saxons were secured from insult; the poor and honest trader was +assured equity in his business transactions, and other matters of +equal import owed their enactment to the kindly disposed queen. In +this manner were allayed animosities which had continued to smoulder +under a sense of repeated injustices, and with the growth of mutual +confidence there came about an identity of aspiration and effort +on the part of the two elements of the population. Intermarriage +facilitated this happy tendency, and the perseverance of the +Anglo-Saxon tongue, modified indeed by Norman admixture, did much +for its furtherance. Thus, the two peoples gradually fused into one +nation. That Matilda did much to secure this desirable end entitles +her to be regarded as the mother of reconciliation. + +The Norman ladies of rank came under the influence of the queen, and +it was not uncommon to find them, like the Anglo-Saxon ladies, engaged +in the profitable concerns of the poultry yard and the dairy, instead +of giving themselves up to court intrigues. The two Matildas represent +the best element of the noble womanhood of the day; neither of them +was faultless, and the first was charged with an act of vindictiveness +toward a Saxon who spurned her love that ill comports with the +accepted estimate of her amiability and worth; but while not +impeccable, yet both reflected in their lives the signal qualities +which, when illustrated in times adverse to them, ennoble the sex. + +Returning to the employments of the ladies of the castles, the most +typical of these as illustrating the manners of the times, next to the +industry of the bower, was the hospitality of the hall. The hostess +took her place beside her lord, by virtue of her recognized equality +of position, and directed the movements of the servants, who were kept +busily employed passing around the dishes--the meat being served upon +the spits, from which the guests might carve what they pleased. No +forks were used at the table, fingers answering every purpose. On very +great occasions the _piece de resistance_ was a boar's head, which was +brought into the hall with a fanfare of trumpets, the guests greeting +its appearance with noisy demonstrations. Another delicacy, which a +hostess was always pleased to serve to persons of consequence, was +peacock. The presence of this bird was the signal for the nobility +to pledge themselves afresh to deeds of knightly valor. Cranes formed +another of the unusual dishes generally found at these state banquets. +As the dinner proceeded, the thirst of the company was assuaged +by copious draughts of ale or mead and of spiced wines. That such +festivities invariably developed scenes of hilarity and disorder was +in the nature of the case, and it was not a strange thing to see +the valorous knights, under the mellowing influence of too frequent +potations, indulge in such disgraceful acts as throwing bones about +the room and at one another, until these bone battles passed into more +serious fracases. The woman of refinement had reason to dread these +carnivals of gluttony and debauch; and when they became too offensive, +she sought the seclusion of her private apartments. + +All the while the minstrels played their instruments and sang their +songs, often improvising from incidents in the careers of those +present, or taking for a theme some vaunting sentiment to which a +cup-valorous knight gave expression. No bounds of propriety were +observed in the theme or in its treatment by these paid entertainers. + +As the dishes were brought in, amid the rude songs and coarse jests +of these jongleurs, another company, even more reprobate than they, +gathered about the hall door and sought to snatch the dishes out of +the hands of the servants. These were the _ribalds_ or _letchers_--a +set of degraded hangers-on at the castle, lost to all self-respect and +ready for any base deed that might be required of them. To them was +allotted the refuse of the feast. + +A vivid picture of a wedding banquet of the times is afforded in +a scene from the earlier career of Hereward, the last of patriotic +leaders of the Saxons. The daughter of a Cornish chief had been +affianced to one of her countrymen, who was notoriously wicked and +tyrannical; but she herself had pledged her affections to an Irish +prince. Hereward, who was a guest in the country of Cornwall, became +an object of hatred to the Cornish bully, who picked a quarrel +with him and in the encounter was slain. This awakened a spirit of +vengeance among his fellows, and it was only through the assistance +of the young princess that Hereward was enabled to escape from the +prison where he had been confined and to flee the country. He carried +with him a tender message from the lady to her Irish suitor. In the +latter's absence she was again betrothed by her father, and sent a +messenger to notify her lover of the near approach of the wedding. He +sent forty messengers to her father to demand his daughter's hand by +virtue of a promise one time made to him. These were put in prison. +Hereward doubted the success of the lover's embassage; and having dyed +his skin and colored his hair, he made his way, with three companions, +to the young lady's home, arriving there the day of the nuptial feast. +The next day, when she was to be conducted to her husband's dwelling, +Hereward and his companions entered the hall, and, as strangers, came +under especial observation. He saw the eyes of the princess fixed +upon him as though she penetrated his disguise; and as if moved by the +recollections his presence awakened, she burst into tears. + +As was the custom of the times, the bride, in her wedding costume, +assisted by her maidens, served the cup to the guests before she left +her father's home; and the harper, following, played before each +guest as he was served. Hereward had registered an oath not to receive +anything at the hands of a lady until it was proffered by the princess +herself. So, when the cup was offered to him by a maiden, he refused +it with abruptness, and declined to listen to the harper. His rude +conduct raised a tumult of excitement and indignation, whereupon the +princess herself approached him and offered the cup, which he received +with courtesy. The princess, entirely confirmed in her suspicions +as to his identity, threw a ring into his bosom, and, turning to the +company, craved indulgence for the stranger, who was not acquainted +with their customs. The minstrel remained sullen, whereupon Hereward +seized his harp and played with such exquisite skill as to awaken the +astonishment of the company. As he played and sang, his companions, +"after the manner of the Saxons," joined in at intervals; whereupon +the princess, to help him in his assumed character, presented him the +rich cloak which was the reward of the minstrel. Suspicions as to his +real character were not, however, entirely allayed; and these were +increased by his request to the father of the bride for the release of +the Irish messengers. + +Finding that he had endangered his safety and the success of his plans +by his indiscretion, Hereward slipped away unobserved, and, with his +companions, lay in ambush the next day along the road by which he knew +the bride would be conducted by her father to her new home. As the +bridal procession passed, and with it the Irish prisoners, Hereward +rushed out upon the unsuspecting company; and while his companions +released the prisoners, he seized the lady and bore her away in true +knightly fashion. It may well be believed that the bride was soon +united in wedlock to the husband of her choice. + +One other circumstance in the history of this man, whose life was a +series of bold undertakings, serves to illustrate the superstitions +of the times. When King William had besieged the island of Ely, which +was the headquarters of Hereward and his large following of Saxon +warriors, and had failed to subdue them, he gave heed to the counsel +of one of his courtiers, to have recourse to a celebrated witch +for aid in the destruction of his foes. Hereward, to spy upon his +adversary and discover his plans, disguised himself as a potter, +and stopped at the house of the old woman whose magic was to be used +against him; that night he followed her and another crone out into +the fields, where they engaged in their curious rites. From their +conversation he learned of the scheme against him, which was to have a +platform erected in the marshes surrounding the island; the hag was to +repeat thrice her charm, when he and his followers would be destroyed. +Accordingly, when the platform was erected and the besiegers drew as +near as they could, expectantly awaiting Hereward's destruction, he +and his companions, under the cover of the brush, crept close to the +platform and, taking advantage of the favorable direction of the wind, +set fire to the reeds. The witch, who was about to repeat her charm +for the third time, leaped from the platform in terror, and was +killed, while in the panic many of the soldiers lost their lives +by fire or by water. The scene here depicted bears a remarkable +similarity to the weird rites of the ancient British Druidesses, and +doubtless represents a continuance of the mysteries of that order, +which came down in forms of magic and witchcraft through many +centuries. + +This glimpse of the witchcraft that was to become more prominent, or +at least with which we become more familiar at a later period, will +suffice to show that the plane of general intelligence was not yet +high. Education was limited to subjects that have no special interest +for us to-day. Such as it was, it was accessible to the lower classes +as well as to the upper. There were schools connected with the +churches and the monasteries. Apparently, there was no distinction +in the subjects pursued by the sexes, excepting in the case of the +nobility, whose sons were trained for the positions they were to +occupy. It would appear that some priests were so zealous for the +prosperity of their schools that they sought to entice scholars from +other schools to their own. A law to correct the practice provided +"that no priest receive another's scholar without leave of him whom he +had previously followed." Latin was in the list of the studies pursued +by the ladies, but few could read in the vernacular. + +At that day there was the same tendency that is familiar to-day,--to +cast alleged feminine inconsistencies into the form of adages. One +of these proverbs is found in the instructions of a baron who was +counselling his son on his going out from the paternal roof: "If +you should know anything that you would wish to conceal," says this +generalizer from a personal experience, "tell it by no means to your +wife, if you have one; for if you let her know it, you will repent of +it the first time you displease her." + +The amusements that were popular in the Anglo-Saxon days continued +during the Norman period, but hunting and hawking, by reason of the +stringent game laws, were sports practically limited to the upper +class. The lady kept her falcons and knew well how to set them on the +quarry, and with the men she could ride in the hunt to the baying of +the hounds. It is interesting to note that with women the usual method +of riding was on a side-saddle; seldom are they found seated otherwise +in the representations of riding scenes. Among all classes dancing +seems to have been in favor. The exercise was more graceful and +intricate than the dance of the Saxons. Among the young people of the +lower classes it was the chief amusement, and was attended by much +mirth and boisterousness. Games of chance were popular among both +sexes, and chess was a favorite pastime. + +The art of the Anglo-Saxon gleemen and maidens under the Normans was +represented by two classes of public entertainers, the minstrels and +the jongleurs. The minstrels confined themselves for the most part to +music and poetry; while the jongleurs were the jugglers, tricksters, +and exhibitors of trained animals. But the distinction was not sharply +drawn, although in general the minstrels were considered to afford a +higher form of entertainment than did the jongleurs. Both sexes were +represented in these bands of itinerant amusement purveyors. Companies +of them were more or less permanently attached to the retinues of +the great barons, for the whiling away of the long evenings and the +entertainment of the guests. The sentiments of the songs and stories +of these people were full of suggestiveness and coarseness. The merry +and licentious lives of the disreputable traffickers in amusement +brought them under moral reprobation, even in that rude age. They drew +into their ranks many persons of depraved life, who, when the times +improved, contributed, by their abandon, to create sentiment against +all profligate strollers. Yet these minstrels represented the +beginnings of music and of vernacular literature after the conquest of +England. + +In the matter of dress there was a marked departure from the +Anglo-Saxon costume, which varied little. Just as long as England +was not in touch with continental ideas and customs, the women of +the country wore the costumes of their ancestors. That dress is +cosmopolitan never entered into their conceptions, any more than it +does into those of any of the Eastern nations who in modern times have +been brought suddenly into the stream of European customs and manners. +But with the coming of the Normans, national conservatism yielded to +comparison with the fashions of other peoples, and fashion assumed +the sceptre that it has continued to wield over the English woman. The +changes in dress were at first slight, but by the end of the twelfth +century they had become sufficiently marked to be the target of +witticism and the subject of satire. The foibles of the women were +little regarded by the writers of the time. The dress of the men was +not passed over in like silence, however; it drew from the censors of +the day the severest strictures on account of its flaunting meagreness +and its improprieties in the eyes of its monkish critics. The same +condemnation was visited upon the practice of the men of dyeing their +hair or otherwise coloring it, wearing flowing locks, and painting +their faces. Such fashions were styled reprehensible and effeminate. +It would have been instructive to subsequent generations if these +censorious critics had not been so gallant toward women, and had +given to us the spicy descriptions of feminine attire that, in their +indignation, they have afforded us of that of the men. Had they but +realized that it was the sex whose sins of dress they passed over +so lightly, with charity or indifference, that was to follow the +inconsequential wake of fashion into the wildest vagaries of costume +and adornment, they would have let the men have their brief day, and +massed their strictures against those who were to elevate fashion +to an art and make of its following a devotion. As it is, for our +knowledge of the dress of the weaker sex we are dependent upon the +illuminations, whose brilliant coloring and faithfulness of detail +left little for the text to elucidate. That the new styles were not +received with approbation by the clerical artists is clear enough +from the caricatures and exaggerations of them that appear in their +drawings. The inordinate length of the sleeves, reaching as they did, +in a long, mandolin-shaped pocket, to the knees of the wearer, made +them surely hideous enough to draw out the indignation of those who +had artistic sensibilities to be shocked. + +That the notion of fashionable dress as Satanic is very old is shown +by one of the representations of his infernal majesty, where he +is portrayed dressed in the height of feminine fashion. One of the +sleeves of his gown is short and full, while the other, in caricature +of the style of the day, is so long that it has to be tied in a knot +to get it out of the way. The gown, also, being of impossible length +and fulness, is disposed of by the simple expedient of knotting. + +In the dress of Satan, as an exponent of the iniquity of feminine +attire, there also appears unmistakable evidence of a tight bodice +of stays, the lacing of which, after drawing his majesty's waist into +approved dimensions, hangs carelessly down to view and terminates in +a tag. As stays were not commonly worn, and as a writer at a little +later time is found vehemently inveighing against them, it is fair to +conclude that their presence on Satan is to indicate, in the eyes of +the better element of the day, the indelicacy and impropriety of +their use. Ridiculous and unsightly as were the long sleeves and other +novelties of dress, the particular displeasure with which they were +regarded by the element whose views the ecclesiastics reflected must +be attributed somewhat to their foreign origin. Although they were +introduced into the country by the Normans, the long sleeves, at +least, appear to have originated in Italy. Down to the twelfth +century, there was sufficient conservatism remaining to deprecate the +introduction of foreign novelties, just as in Elizabeth's days the +economists strongly protested against bringing into the country +"foreign gewgaws." + +The girdle remained a part of the dress of the women, although it was +not so much in evidence as in the Anglo-Saxon time. It was probably +worn under the gown, and in some cases may have been dispensed +with. That queens and princesses, however, wore very fine girdles, +ornamented with pearls and precious stones, is abundantly attested by +the contemporary writers. + +The mantle was the most changeful article of dress at this period. +Sometimes it was worn in the old way, being put on by passing the head +through an aperture made for that purpose; but more often it was worn +opening down the front and fastened at the throat by an embroidered +collar clasped by a brooch. Again, it was fastened in a similar +way at the throat, but covered only one side of the form, falling +coquettishly over the shoulder and hanging down the side. A +particularly pleasing effect was obtained by having it fasten at the +throat by a collar, whose rich, gold-embroidered border continued +down the front to the waist. Sometimes the garment was sleeveless, and +again it was worn with short sleeves, or sleeves long and full. For +winter wear, it covered the form entirely and terminated in a hood. +These mantles were often of the finest imported textiles, embroidered +in elegant figures and with richly wrought borders, and were lined +throughout with costly furs. + +The kerchief, like the mantle, quite lost its conventional style in +the period we are describing, and was often omitted altogether. It +was usually worn over the head, and hanging down to the right breast, +while the end on the left side was gathered about the neck and thrown +over the right shoulder. Sometimes it was gathered in fulness upon +the head and bound there by a diadem, though otherwise worn as just +described. Toward the end of the twelfth century it became much +smaller, and was tied under the chin, looking very much like an +infant's cap. The women's shoes were very much the same as those +worn by the Anglo-Saxons. It is quite likely that the stockings were +close-fitting and short, as was the style among the men. + +There were different ways of wearing the hair, but the most usual was +to have it parted in front and flowing loosely down the back, with a +lock on either side falling over the shoulders and upon the breast; +this was the style for young girls especially. Another fashion was +to have it fall down the back in two masses, where it was wrapped by +ribbons and so bound into tails. Young girls never wore a headdress of +any sort. On reaching maturity, it was usual for the women to enclose +their hair in a net, with a kerchief cap drawn tightly over it. + +The ornaments in use need no particular description, because of +their similarity to those worn during the Anglo-Saxon period. Crowns +were, of course, the chief adornments of queens on state occasions; +circlets of gold, elegantly patterned, formed the diadems of the noble +ladies; and half-circlets of gold, connected behind, constituted +the distinctive headdress of women of wealth. Rings, armlets, and +necklaces, as well as the generally serviceable brooch, were in use. + +Turning from the fashions of the wealthy to the condition of the poor, +what a difference appears! The age was one of sharp contrasts; +for while gayety reigned in the high circles of court and castle, +wretchedness was more usual in the hovels with their mud walls and +thatched roofs, to which nature may have added the gracious garniture +of herbs, mosses, and lichens. But it would be too much to assume that +the persons of humble estate were not happy in their own way. Lacking +the luxuries of the table and the fine attire of the ladies of the +castles, life still had for them many elements of pure joy. But while +the women of the lower ranks would have contrasted well in the matter +of morals with the women of the nobility, yet no more then than now +was virtue the exclusive possession of any class. + +The monasteries were not only centres of culture, but were also the +great distributing centres of charity, the nuns being looked upon as +the especial friends of the poor. We hear little of complaint against +the character of these houses at this time, and it is clear that the +rules for their direction had become efficacious for the establishing +of a discipline sufficiently rigid, on the whole, to ensure exemplary +character. Many penances and mortifications were imposed on the nuns, +besides others which were voluntarily assumed. In a book of rules +published at this time appears the following, which seems to indicate +that even sunshine savored too much of worldliness for the occupants +of the religious houses: "My dear sisters, love your windows as little +as you may, and let them be small, and the parlor's the narrowest; let +the cloth in them be twofold, black cloth, the cross white within and +without." It may be, however, that it was not too much sunlight that +was to be avoided, but men, who sought to converse with the nuns +at their windows. This indeed appears to be the true meaning of the +recommendation, as is indicated by another enjoinment: "If any man +become so mad and unreasonable that he put forth his hand toward the +window cloth, shut the window quickly and leave him." + +Besides the nuns, whose office dedicated them to acts of charity, many +of the noble ladies found pleasure in alleviating the afflictions of +the poor. In their care of the distressed they were incited to acts +of humility by the very high value that the Church placed upon the +performance of such deeds. Matilda, the good wife of Henry I., had the +training of the monastery in developing her benevolent instincts, and +set an example to the ladies of her court by establishing the leper +hospital of Saint Giles; there she herself washed the feet of lepers, +esteeming such lowly service as done unto Christ. In a hard and cruel +age, the gentler sentiments common to womanly nature, especially when +under the influence of Christian feeling, poured themselves out in a +wealth of affection upon those who were stricken and left helpless by +the hardness of the times. + + + + +CHAPTER V + +THE WOMEN OF THE MIDDLE AGES + + +There was an almost total lack of central authority or of legal +restraint throughout the land during the long conflict between Stephen +and Matilda, wife of the Count of Anjou, whom the feudal party, in +violation of their vows to Henry I., refused to accept as queen; and +to the other terrors of war were added the depredations of a host +of mercenary soldiers brought over from the continent. To quote the +chronicler William of Newburgh: "In the olden days there was no king +in Israel, and everyone did that which was right in his own eyes; +but in England now it was worse; for there was a king, but impotent, +and every man did what was wrong in his own eyes." The Petersborough +continuation of the _English Chronicle_ gives as dark a picture of the +state of affairs: "They filled the land full of castles and filled the +castles full of devils. They took all those they deemed had any goods, +men and women, and tortured them with tortures unspeakable; many +thousands they slew with hunger--they robbed and burned all the +villages, so that thou mightest fare a day's journey nor ever find +a man dwelling in a village nor land tilled. Corn, flesh, and cheese +there was none in the land. The bishops were ever cursing them, but +they cared naught therefor, for they were all forcursed and forsworn +and forlorn.... Men said openly that Christ slept and His saints. +Such and more than we can say we suffered for our sins," Such grim +experiences of unlicensed feudalism did much for the social education +of the English people, and similar lawlessness was never repeated in +the history of the country. Out of the furnace through which England +passed, the English character emerged, purified of some of its +dross of Anglo-Saxon sluggishness and Norman arrogance, and finely +representative of the tempered elements of both peoples. A sense of +solidarity was awakened. + +The feudal system found its expression in various forms of homage and +of fealty, upon which it was founded. It embraced, among many services +and liabilities, some that related to women. On the death of a tenant +leaving an heiress under fourteen years of age, the lord upon whose +lands the tenant had dwelt, and to whom he owed the military and other +services of his lower position, became the guardian in chivalry to +the maiden, and had charge of her person and her lands until she +was twenty-one--unless, on reaching the age of sixteen, she availed +herself of her right to "sue out her livery" by the payment of a +half-year's income of her estate. Moreover, he was entitled to dispose +of her in marriage to any person of rank equal to her own. In case the +young lady did not approve of the selection made for her, and rejected +her guardian's choice or married without his consent, she had to +forfeit to him a sum of money equal to what was called the value of +her marriage--a sum equal to what the lord might have expected to +receive if the marriage as planned by him had taken place. During her +wardship the lord had the right to her land, and might assign or sell +his guardianship over her. These rights which the lord held over +the person and possessions of his ward applied, in the later feudal +period, equally to male and female. + +Such was the relationship of the ward to her lord, and the same system +of knight service which gave him these rights in orphaned minors gave +him, as well, the right to collect a fee upon the marriage of the +daughters of any of his tenants. Such a system, while it deprived the +young woman of absolute freedom in her selection of a husband, did +not of necessity work great hardship, as each fair young woman had her +knight dedicated to her by the solemn vows of chivalry, from whom her +troth, once given, was not apt to be easily wrested. Upon the merits +of the system itself we are not called upon to pass judgment; but +certainly chivalry, which was its finest product, was responsible +for the introduction into the English character of splendid ideals of +womanhood, which found expression in a deference amounting almost to +worship. + +Yet the picture has a reverse side as well, and it is only by +considering both aspects of the age that its real meaning as regards +its effect upon the womanhood of the time becomes clear. This other +side of chivalry is well expressed by Freeman, than whom no one is +better qualified to speak. He says: "The chivalrous spirit is, above +all things, a class spirit. The good knight is bound to endless +fantastic courtesies towards men and still more towards women of a +certain rank; he may treat all below that rank with any degree of +scorn or cruelty.... Chivalry is short in its morals very much what +feudalism is in law: each substitutes purely personal obligations, +obligations devised in the interest of an exclusive class, for the +more homely duties of an honest man and a good citizen." + +The extravagant reverence and regard paid to women of the higher +ranks of society did not have a firm basis in inherent moral principle +either in them or in their worshippers, so that it was an easy passage +from idealized woman to materialized woman. Life cannot long subsist +on the perfervid products of a social imagination. As a revulsion of +noble minds from coarseness and as a protest against tyranny and vice, +chivalry fulfilled a high mission; but, unfortunately, its exalted +admiration of woman fell to a physical appreciation of its subject. +Not her womanhood, but her graces of person came to evoke the +passionate devotion of the knight. An admiration fantastic and +romantic, expressing itself in all sorts of extravagance, a worship +of mere physical beauty--such was the nature of chivalry in its later +expression. Instead of an idol, woman became but a toy. + +In no respect was this sentimentality better illustrated than in the +nature of the knightly devotion of the time. When not in the camp, the +life of the knight was an idle one, and was spent for the most part +in sentimental attendance upon ladies at court or castle. It was there +that his deeds of prowess won rewards rather more generously than +discreetly given by the lady to whom he had pledged his devotion; +so that, with all the circumstances of outward respect for women, +surpassing in ostentatious display that shown by any other age, it +is a painful fact that in no other age was there such license in the +association of the sexes. It is a striking comment upon the manners +of the times that "gallantry" should have come to signify both bravery +and illicit love. Chastity was not one of the ornaments of the age of +chivalry. + +In curious contrast to the attitude of chivalry--a product of the +Church--toward women was that of the Church in its official character +and expression. The knight elevated woman to the plane of angels, +while the priest went to the other extreme. Saint Chrysostom's +definition of woman as "a necessary evil, a natural temptation, a +desirable calamity, a domestic peril, a deadly fascination, and a +painted ill," continued to be the orthodox view of the Church, Woman +was to be avoided as a temptation by all those who valued the security +of their souls; and yet it was the Church, more than any other social +force, which gave to woman the dignity and worth that she achieved. + +The Church stood for order and even for progress; it summed up in +itself all the knowledge and the culture of the times. In the midst +of the turmoil and dangers of war and strife, it afforded to women the +one haven to which they might flee for security. But its protection +was bought at the price of authority over the lives and consciences +of its adherents. The lives of women were spent in a round of narrow +experience and of duty, and the feasts of the Church, with their +processions and ceremonials, furnished to them merely an agreeable +break in the monotony of their existence. This was especially true of +the lower classes. In an age when belief in supernatural appearances +and interferences formed part of the common credence of the masses, +the emotional sensibilities of the women were easily appealed to by +the priests. By taking advantage of this ignorance, the Church was +enabled to hold in absolute control the lives of the simple and +credulous women. Women did not hesitate to yield to the Church their +freedom of thought and of action, their minds and consciences alike +being at the disposal of their ecclesiastical directors; but when +the Church taught men to respect their wives, and raised its voice +and exerted its influence against the tyranny which placed women in +subjection to their male relatives, it was indeed befriending them in +a way that hastened the acquirement by them of the real equality which +they now enjoy with the other sex. + +The relation of women and the Church was not without its anomalies. +This is shown curiously in the contrast between the Mariolatry of +the age and the attitude of the Church toward the sex of which Mary +was the exalted type The women were not esteemed fit to receive the +Eucharist with uncovered hands; they were forbidden to approach the +altar; their married state was yet, in theory at least considered a +condition of sin, for, even among the women of the laity, virginity +and celibacy were regarded as almost a state of especial sanctity. +But the Church was entirely consistent in its attitude toward women in +that it made no distinctions as to class or condition. Queen Philippa, +wife of Edward III., while on a visit to Durham Cathedral, after +having supped with the king, retired to rest in the priory. The +scandalized monks sought an interview with the king and made vigorous +protests, so that the queen was obliged to rise, and, clad only in her +night apparel, sought accommodations in the castle, beseeching Saint +Cuthbert's pardon for having polluted the holy confines with her +presence. + +Ecclesiastical law operated disastrously against women in declaring +for a celibate priesthood. In Anglo-Saxon times the priests married; +but the Council of Winchester, in 1076, took a stand against the +marriage of the clergy, and forbade priests to take to themselves +wives, although it permitted the parish clergy who were already +married to continue in the marital state. In 1102, however, it was +declared that no married priest should celebrate mass, and in 1215 +the Lateran Council definitely pronounced against marriage of priests. +Many of the clergy had by no means shown a docile spirit in relation +to this invasion of what they considered the domain of their personal +rights; when forced into submission, they evaded the ordinances by +taking concubines. Even in the fifteenth century, it was not uncommon +to find married priests. In the document entitled _Instructions for +Parish Priests_, those who were too weak to live uprightly in the +celibate state were counselled to take wives. Concubinage, as a +substitute for the interdicted marriage, continued to be practised +down to the sixteenth century, nor was this form of illicit living the +worst vice of the clergy. Debauchery spread throughout the country, +until in the sixteenth century it is said that as many as one hundred +thousand women fell under the seductions of the priests, for whose +particular pleasures houses of ill fame were kept. From the laity, +complaints became general that their wives and daughters were not safe +from the advances of the priests. In 1536 the clergy of the diocese of +Bangor sent to Cromwell the following remarkable plea against taking +away their women from them: "We ourselves shall be driven to seek our +living at all houses and taverns, for mansions upon the benefices and +vicarages we have none. And as for gentlemen and substantial honest +men, for fear of inconvenience, and knowing our frailty and accustomed +liberty, they will in no wise board us in their houses." All the +literature of the Middle Ages leads to but one conclusion--that the +clergy were the great corrupters of domestic virtue among the burgher +and agricultural classes. The morals of the lords and ladies of the +upper strata of the aristocratic class were of no higher grade; the +offenders, however, were seldom the priests, but the gallants of that +privileged circle. The lower rank of the aristocracy,--the knights and +lesser landholders,--which, with the decline of feudalism, came to be +more strongly defined as a separate class, appears to have preserved +the best moral tone of any of the classes of mediaeval society. + +A great deal of light is thrown upon the manners and thought of the +twelfth and thirteenth centuries by a body of literature which arose +during those centuries. The estimation in which the classes of society +were held is indicated by one of these _fabliaux_. A party of knights +passed through a pleasant and shady meadow, in the midst of exquisite +scenery; they were enchanted by the spot, and wished for meat and wine +that they might tarry there and dine on the grass. There followed them +a party of clerks, whose feelings were also aroused by the beauty +of the place; and, in accord with the frivolous character given them +throughout the _fabliaux_, they exclaimed: "Had we fair maidens here, +how pleasant a spot for play!" After they had passed on, there came a +party of villains, who, with their grosser ideas, thought not of the +beauty of the place at all, but proceeded to indulge themselves in +carnal pleasures and to use it for mean purposes. + +These _fabliaux_ show us that Cupid disdained conventional restraint +then as now; for in them the marriage of persons in different classes +often furnishes a theme for the story--this, too, notwithstanding +the sharp caste distinctions which existed. Usually, the maiden is +possessed of more beauty than wealth and belongs to the poor-knight +class; she is wedded to a peasant or villain who has become wealthy. +The husband turns out to be a brute; the lady is crafty and cunning. +He beats and abuses her, according to the instincts of his boorish +nature; she, on the other hand, proves faithless as often as +opportunity presents. The writers never visit condemnation upon her, +for her husband is considered as undeserving of the possession of +such a prize. It is a curious commentary on the manner of the times +that upon the same manuscript, written by the same person, appear +_fabliaux_ of this sort and stories of holy women dying in defence of +their chastity. This contradiction runs throughout the literature of +the period--the praise of virtue and the narration of gross immorality +without an effort to condemn it. One of the most peculiar facts of the +age is the extreme to which was carried the adoration of the Virgin +and the strange things she is made to do and to countenance, in +the mythology of the Middle Ages--for so we must class most of the +mediaeval stories of the saints and of the Virgin--to ardent and +imaginative temperaments the Virgin took the character of Venus, +and is frequently represented as the patroness of love. One of the +religious stories tells us that some young men, while playing ball in +front of a church, approached the porch of the edifice, upon which was +a beautiful statue of Our Lady. One of them laid down his ring, which +he had received from his lady-love. Then, to his amazement, he saw +the image, which was "fresh and new," fix its eyes upon the ring. He +became enamored of it, and, after due obeisance, he addressed Our Lady +thus: + + "I promise duly, + That all my life I'll serve thee truly; + For never saw I maiden fair + Whose beauty could with thine compare, + So courtly and so debonaire: + And she who gave this ring to me, + Though fair and sweet herself, than thee + A hundred times less fair, I trow, + Shall yield to thee her empire now. + 'Tis true I've loved her long and well, + As many a fond caress can tell; + But now, forgotten and neglected, + Her meaner charms for thine rejected, + I give her ring--a lasting token + Of faith which never shall be broken, + Nor shared with maid or wife shall be + The love I proffer unto thee.'" + +With this address, he placed the ring upon the finger of the image. +Our Lady appeared flattered by the conquest she had made, and bent the +finger on which the ring had been placed in order that it might not +be withdrawn. The lover was astounded by the miracle, and was advised +by his friends to retire from the world and to devote himself to the +adoration and service of the Blessed Virgin. Neglecting this advice, +he allowed love to resume its place and led to the altar the maiden +who had given him the ring. But Our Lady was not to be deprived of +her adorer, and when he laid himself upon the nuptial couch she +immediately threw him into a profound slumber, and when he awoke he +found her lying between him and his bride: + + "She showed him straight her finger, where + Was still the ring he'd given her; + And well became her hand that ring + Upon her soft skin glittering. + 'Instead of love, thou'st shown,' said she, + 'But falseness and disloyalty. + And ill hast kept thy faith to me. + Behold the ring thou gavest, for token + And pledge of love fore'er unbroken, + And call'd me a hundred times more fair + Than ever earthly maidens were. + I have been ever true, but thou + Hast taken a meaner leman now; + Hast left for stinking nettle the rose, + Sweet eglantine for flower more gross.'" + +In the end, Our Lady forces him to leave his wife that he may dedicate +himself entirely to her service. In other _fabliaux_ and in the +chronicles, Mary is represented under the guise of the Lady Venus, who +often appears in these romances. In this adoration of the Virgin as a +maiden impelled by the same loves and hates as any mortal woman, it is +not difficult to see the spirit of chivalry in its sensual expression. +Surely, if every lady had her knight, the Blessed Virgin, also, must +have her devoted admirers; and by the height of her position and +greater worthiness as the Queen of Heaven, by so much should she rise +above any other woman in her right to command such adorers. + +When we pass from the status of woman in the Middle Ages to her +occupations, the subject becomes narrowed, not only by the lesser +importance of the facts which merely illustrate rather than +demonstrate her position, but also because we shall exclude from our +general consideration the women of the manors, the nuns, and, in +their industrial capacities, the women of the guilds. These important +classes demand separate treatment. + +After the middle of the twelfth century, it is easier to study the +domestic manners of the people. We can, for instance, obtain very +precise information as to the style of the dwellings in which they +lived. There was a general uniformity in the houses, however they +might vary in particulars. In the twelfth century, the hall continued +to be the main part of the dwelling. Adjoining it at one end was the +chamber, while at the other end might be found the stable. The whole +building stood in an enclosure consisting of a yard in front and a +garden in the rear, surrounded by a hedge and ditch. The house had +a door in the front, and within, one door led to the chamber, and +another to the stable. The chamber, also, frequently had a door +leading out to the garden. There were usually windows in the hall, +the stable and the chamber being lighted by openings in the partitions +between them and the hall, as well as by slits in the outer walls. +The windows themselves were commonly merely openings, which might be +closed by wooden shutters. There was usually one such window in the +chamber, besides those in the hall, so that it was better lighted than +the stable. + +From the _fabliaux_ we can obtain very precise ideas of the +distribution of the rooms in the houses of the twelfth and thirteenth +centuries. Thus, in one of the _fabliaux_, an old woman of mean +condition of life is represented as visiting a burgher's wife, who, +from a feeling of vanity, takes her into the chamber to show her +the new bed, a very handsome affair. Afterward, when this lady takes +refuge with the old dame, the latter conducts her from the hall to +the chamber adjoining. The outer door of the chamber, by which egress +could be had from the house without going through the hall, often +figures in the stories as aiding the escape of the lovers of guilty +wives, on the unexpected entrance of the husbands into the hall. It +was in the chamber that fireplaces and chimneys were first introduced +into mediaeval houses. + +As the grouping of the rooms upon the ground floor made the house less +compact and more susceptible to successful attack, the custom arose of +having upper chambers. The upper room was called the solar, because it +received much light from the sun. At first it was but a small chamber, +approached from the outside. These outer stairs are often referred to +in the _fabliaux_, as in the _fabliau_ of D'Estourmi, where a burgher +and his wife deceive three monks of a neighboring abbey, who make love +to the lady; she conceals her husband in the upper chamber, to which +he goes by an outer staircase. The monks enter the hall, and the +husband sees from the upper room, through a lattice, all that happens. +In another _fabliau_, a lady uses the solar as a hiding place for her +husband, who has disguised himself as a gallant in order to test his +wife's faithfulness. She penetrates his disguise, and, after closing +the door of the solar upon him, sends a servant to give him a good +beating, as an importunate suitor whom she desires to cure of his +annoying passion. The husband, too mortified to reveal his identity +and disclose his doubts as to his wife, has no redress but to sustain +his assumed character and to escape down the outer stairs, pursued by +the servants. The chamber soon came to be the most important part of +the house, and frequently its name was given to the whole dwelling, +a house with a solar being called an upper-storied chamber. The more +considerable manors and castles differed from the ordinary houses only +in having a greater assemblage of rooms and more details than were +found in the smaller dwellings. + +Toward the fourteenth century, the rooms of houses generally began +to be numerous, and the houses were often built around a court, the +additions being chiefly to the number of offices and chambers. Wood +continued to be the usual material for their construction. A new +apartment was added to the house--the parlor, so called because it was +the talking room. It was derived from the religious houses, in which +the parlor was the reception room. As furniture was scanty, the rooms +of the mediaeval house were almost bare. Chairs were very few, and +seats in the masonry of the wall continued for centuries to be the +principal accommodation of the kind; benches for seats and places of +deposit of personal or household articles were usually made of a few +boards laid across trestles. In the thirteenth century, the beds in +the chamber came to be partitioned off by curtains, which showed an +advance in modesty, as it was customary to sleep wholly undressed. +Throughout the Middle Ages, the comforts of the houses were quite +primitive; even the houses themselves were generally without +architectural grace and frequently very unsubstantial. When watchmen +were appointed in the towns, they were provided with a "hook" with +which to pull down a house when on fire, if its proximity to others +threatened their destruction. As there was an absence of luxury in the +houses and their furnishings, much value was placed on plate, which +came to be a sign of wealth and social distinction. Dress, also, +aided in marking distinctions between the wealthy and those in less +fortunate circumstances, as did the luxuries found upon the tables of +the former. + +This fact of the general character of the discomforts of living, +without regard to rank or condition, gave occasion for sumptuary +laws--"the toe of the peasant pressed closely on the heel of the lord, +and the gulf that parted them was the number of dishes upon their +table, the quality of the cloth they put on, and the kind of fur they +might wear to keep off the cold." + +Glass began to be introduced into dwelling houses in the time of +Henry III., but was regarded as a great luxury. Pipes for carrying the +refuse water and slops from the houses to sewers or cesspools were one +of the great sanitary reforms of the reign of Edward I. The same able +monarch made the use of baths popular among his people. The floors of +the houses continued to be covered with an armful of hay, or a bundle +of birch boughs or of rushes, although during the fourteenth century +some of the wealthier farmers and persons of the trading classes and +the nobility had begun to use imported carpets and hangings. Table +linen and napkins were also coming into service. The use of forks was +confined to royalty. + +When the fine ladies went abroad in their vehicles or were carried +in their chairs, they had to plow through streets deep with mire and +filth; so much so, that it was not unusual for coaches to stick fast +and depend upon the aid of some friendly teamster to extricate them. +The sanitation of the dwellings was little better than that of the +streets. The stench of the houses of the poor was so great that the +priests made it an excuse for failure to pay parochial visits to them. +The better class of houses were, of course, kept much cleaner. + +The impression that food in the Middle Ages was coarse and not +elaborate is not borne out, as we have seen, by the facts; for, from +Anglo-Saxon times down, the people were very fond of the table, and in +the higher circles elaborate banquets stood as one of the most usual +resources of a hospitality which had to make up for its barrenness in +other ways by the bounties of elaborate feasts, so that we are quite +prepared for Alexander Neckam's list of kitchen requisites. This +ecclesiastic of the latter half of the twelfth century has left us a +list of the things to be found in a well-ordered kitchen. Besides +his list, we have the testimony of cookbooks of the time, which give +directions for making dishes that are both complicated and toothsome. +Indeed, the position of cook was one of importance, and upon him often +rested, in great houses, the honor of the establishment. + +In this connection may be given some of the curious injunctions of the +Anglo-Saxon penitentials, which continued to be quoted throughout the +Middle Ages, becoming superstitious beliefs after they had lost their +ecclesiastical character and undergone the changes which, with the +lapse of time, develop folklore. One of the oddest prescribed that in +case a "mouse fall into liquor, let it be taken out, and sprinkle the +liquor with holy-water, and if it be alive, the liquor may be used, +but if it be dead, throw the liquor out and cleanse the vessel." +Another said: "He who uses anything a dog or mouse has eaten of, or a +weasel polluted, if he do it knowingly, let him sing a hundred psalms; +and if he knew it not, let him sing fifty psalms." These are but +samples of many superstitions with which the thought of the Middle +Ages was tinctured. + +A considerable treatise might be written upon the superstitions of +the English women; it would contain astonishing disclosures as to +the effect of the unreal world of fairies, goblins, and the like +upon woman's development and status during the Middle Ages. She was +undoubtedly influenced in her daily life, in almost all her duties and +undertakings, by the terrors with which her superstitions filled her. +The legacy of a pagan system was slowly thrown off, and, with all +the credulity of the religion of the times, it is to the credit of +the Church that, by its proscriptions as well as by its healthier +teaching, superstition in many of its forms lessened its hold upon +the minds of the people. And yet it was needful, if historical fact +denotes a social necessity, that these superstitions should culminate +in a belief in witchcraft, and woman, because of her credulity, become +the scapegoat of the gnomes and witches which existed in her simple +faith. Even so cultured a person as Augustine, one of the most +prominent of the Church Fathers of his time, declared it to be +insolent to doubt the existence of fauns, satyrs, and suchlike +demoniac beings, which lie in wait for women and have intercourse with +them and children by them. It was this belief which extended into a +labyrinth of darkness and superstition throughout the Middle Ages. +The reasoning of the Church was perfectly simple: if the miracles of +the Apostles and of Christ were of divine agency, then the marvels +performed by magicians before the astonished eyes of the heathen were +to be accredited to Satan. The Church never doubted the existence of +malignant spirits, but bent its endeavors toward persuading the people +to give up converse with them. If a woman gave herself over to Satan +or any of his minions, the only resource was to put her to death. +Horrible as were the witch burnings of the Middle Ages, the Church +sincerely believed that it was exorcising the Devil from the lives +of the people; and by the terrible examples it made of those who were +accounted as having sold themselves to the Evil One, it believed +it was placing a deterrent upon others who might be minded to yield +themselves to diabolical possession. The Church was but sharing the +universal belief of the times, and, as the guardian of the spiritual +interests of mankind, it sought the purification of society by severe +measures which, it felt, were alone suited to the gravity of the +subject. From this belief in devil possession arose a veritable system +of Christian magic; charms, amulets, exorcisms, abounded; thus, white +magic was opposed to black magic. + +But when the belief in witchcraft led to papal promulgations against +it and against all who dared entertain doubts upon the subject, and +when it led also to the appointment of tribunals for the trying of +"witches," there was placed in the hands of malice and ignorance +a power from which no woman, however exalted in rank or pure in +character, was secure, provided only she incurred the enmity of +someone bent upon effecting her ruin. + +The genesis of the belief lies even back of the prevailing +superstitions of the times, and is to be found in the lower regard in +which the female sex was held. As we have said, chivalry did not cover +with its aegis all women, but only those of a certain class; in the +Middle Ages, the opinion held of women in general was not flattering +to the sex. The descriptions of witch trials and the processes for +the extortion of confessions; the indignities of many sorts to which +women were subjected; the horrors of a system which virtually made +one become an informer upon her neighbor, lest she be anticipated +by charges preferred against herself; the whole dreary round of the +subject and its literature: all these are too uninviting to permit +of detail. It is sufficient for our purpose to say that throughout +Europe--for the delusion was so widespread--certainly not less than +a million persons were burned, or otherwise put to death, as witches +during the Middle Ages. So great a holocaust had to be offered up by +women as a sin offering for their sex! + +The state of education had much to do with the manners and opinions +of the Middle Ages. In the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries there +was a feeling of the necessity for extending and improving education. +There was spread abroad a degree of popular instruction. It was not +an uncommon thing for ladies to be able to read and write. Among the +amusements of their leisure hours, reading began to have a very +much larger place than formerly. Yet, popular literature--the tales, +ballads, and songs--was still communicated orally rather than in +writing, though books were more extensively circulated. Often persons +of wealth and culture had extensive libraries. Excepting in the case +of those who followed or desired to follow the career of scholars, the +women were less illiterate than the men. + +In considering the dress of the women of England during the Middle +Ages, the sumptuary laws passed for its regulation are of interest in +themselves as affording a view of the dress of the several classes of +society, and they also serve to illustrate upon what simple lines the +distinctions of society were drawn. + +In the thirty-seventh year of the reign of Edward III., a curious +complaint was submitted to Parliament by the Commons against general +extravagance in the use of apparel; whereupon an act was passed in +regulation of the matter. One of the provisions of this act, as it +related to women, prescribed that the wives and children of the grooms +and servants of the lords and of tradesmen and artificers should not +wear veils costing more than twelvepence each. The wives and children +of the tradesmen and artificers themselves should wear no veils +excepting those made with thread and manufactured in the kingdom; nor +any kind of furs excepting those of lambs, rabbits, cats, and foxes. +The cloth for their dresses was also to be of a prescribed kind. +The wives and children of esquires--gentlemen under the estate of +knighthood--might not wear cloth of gold, of silk, or of silver; +nor any ornaments of precious stones, nor furs of any kind; nor any +purfling or facings upon their garments; neither should they use +_esclaires_, _crinales_, or _trosles_--certain forms of hairpins, and +suchlike ornaments. + +In the case of knights of a certain income, their wives and children +were prohibited from wearing miniver or ermine as linings for their +garments or trimming for their sleeves. The lower classes were +restricted to blankets and russets for their attire, and these were +not to cost more than twelvepence per yard, unless the income of +the man was above forty shillings. It is not probable that these +enactments were rigidly enforced, and when Henry IV. came to the +throne he found it necessary to revive the prohibiting statutes of +his predecessor. A number of such sumptuary laws were passed during +succeeding reigns, but it is not probable that they were ever really +effective. Nor were the satires and witticisms of the poets and other +writers of the day more effectual than legislation in correcting the +extravagances and vices of dress. Whether the poet or the moralist +pointed their shafts against them, the dames and the dandies of the +time continued to dress as pleased them. + +Some of these criticisms so sum up the dress of the day, that to quote +them is to see the fine lady attired in all her bewildering array +of beautiful stuffs. William de Lorris, in his celebrated poem, +the _Romance of the Rose_, has drawn the character of Jealousy, and +represents him as reproaching his wife for her insatiable love of +finery, which, he tells her, is solely to make her attractive in +the eyes of her gallants. He then enumerates the parts of her dress, +consisting of mantles lined with sable, surcoats, neck linens, +wimples, petticoats, shifts, pelices, jewels, chaplets of fresh +flowers, buckles of gold, rings, robes, and rich furs. Then he adds: +"You carry the worth of one hundred pounds in gold and silver upon +your head--such garlands, such coiffures with gilt ribbons, such +mirrors framed in gold, so fair, so beautifully polished; such tissues +and girdles, with expensive fastenings of gold, set with precious +stones of smaller size; and your feet shod so primly, that the robe +must be often lifted up to show them." And in a subsequent part of +the poem the ladies are advised, satirically, if their ankles be not +handsome and their feet small and delicate, to hide them by wearing +long robes, trailing upon the pavement. Those, on the contrary, who +were more favored in this respect were advised to elevate their robes, +as if it were to give access to air, that the passer-by might see and +admire their trim feet and ankles. + +Such were some of the adornments of the fine ladies of the thirteenth +century. It is instructive to turn to Chaucer's Canterbury Tales and +study the costumes of some of the characters as they are interpreted +by Strutt. This will afford a view of the dress of typical persons in +the ordinary ranks of life. The Wife of Bath is drawn by Chaucer at +full length as a shameless woman, pert, loquacious, and bold, whose +favorite occupation is gossiping and rambling abroad in search of +fashionable diversions, in the absence of her husband. She had the art +of making fine cloth. Her dress materials were expensive, for she had +kerchiefs, or head linen, which she wore on Sunday, so fine that they +were equal in value to ten pounds; and her stockings were made of fine +red scarlet cloth, and "straightway gartered upon her legs"; her shoes +were also new, and to them she had a pair of spurs attached, because +she was to ride upon horseback; she wore a hat as broad as a buckler +or a target; and she herself informs us that upon holidays she was +accustomed to wear gay scarlet gowns. + +The Carpenter's Wife, the heroine of the Miller's Tale, has her dress +partly described: the collar of her shift was embroidered both before +and behind with black silk; her girdle was barred or striped with +silk; her apron, bound about her hips, was clean and white, and full +of plaits. The tapes of her white headdress were embroidered in the +same manner as the collar of her shift; her fillet, or headband, was +broad and was made of silk, and "set full high"; probably meaning with +a bow or topknot on the upper part of her head. Attached to her girdle +was a purse of leather, tasselled or fringed with silk, and ornamented +with _latoun_--a kind of copper alloy of which ornaments were made--in +the shape of pearls. She wore a brooch or fibula upon "her low +collar," as broad, says the poet, as the boss of a buckler; her shoes +"were laced high upon her legs." + +In addition to these characters of Chaucer, it may be added that the +country Ale-Wife is thus described by a contemporary writer: "She put +on her fairest smocke; her petticoat of a good broad red; her gowne of +grey, faced with buckram; her square-thrumed hat; and before her she +hung a clean white apron." + +The subject of public entertainment in the Middle Ages brings to +light curious practices. In the towns, the burghers were not willing +to entertain strangers gratuitously, notwithstanding the Scriptural +injunction to do so, reinforced by the reminder that thereby some have +entertained angels unawares. The custom of offering entertainment to +travellers was, however, still practised in the country districts, +but the Anglo-Saxon notion of three days as a reasonable limit for +the tarrying of wayfarers seems still to have obtained. Aside from +the public inns, rich burghers opened their homes, with their superior +comforts, to royal personages and to rich barons, for an honorarium. +They frequently practised extortion upon their accidental guests, and +had arts to allure such to their homes. While having the appearance of +great exclusiveness, they nevertheless employed persons to be on the +watch for travellers. These would approach such strangers, engage them +in conversation, and, on pretence of being from the same part of the +country, offer guidance and advice to the stranger, who was usually +glad to be directed to an "exclusive" place for entertainment. In some +of these places, as well as in the public inns, the guest would be +beguiled into contracting gambling or other debts beyond his ability +to pay in money, whereupon his belongings were seized, although their +value might be greatly in excess of his obligation. The manners and +morals of the women in these private places of entertainment were not +always commendable. + +The tavern was the place of resort for a large part of the middle +class and practically all the lower class of mediaeval society. +Even the women spent much of their time gossiping and drinking in +such places, where they found great latitude for carrying out low +intrigues. The tavern was, in short, the great rendezvous for those +who sought amusement of any sort. It was the ordinary haunt of +gamblers. In one of the _fabliaux_, a young profligate is represented +as turning into a tavern before which the tavern boy is calling out +the price of the beverages on tap there. After inquiring the price +of the wines, and receiving the information from the host, the latter +goes on to enumerate the attractions of his house: "Within are all +sorts of comforts; painted chambers, and soft beds, raised high with +white straw, and made soft with feathers; here within is hostel for +love affairs, and when bedtime comes you will have pillows of violets +to hold your head more softly; and, finally, you will have electuaries +and rose-water, to wash your mouth and face." He orders a gallon +of wine, and immediately afterward a _belle demoiselle_ makes +her appearance, for such in those times were reckoned among the +attractions of the tavern. It is soon arranged that she shall share +his apartment with him, and then a general carousal ensues in which +he loses all his money and has to leave even his clothes in payment of +his bill. These alewives were looked upon as past masters in deceit, +and were heartily despised by those who did not fall into their +clutches. In a carved _miserere_ in Ludlow Church, representing +Doomsday, one of these characters is depicted as about to be cast +into the jaws of hell, carrying with her nothing but the finery of +her enticement and her short ale measure. The amusements of the times, +excepting those of a grosser order, or such as have already been +mentioned in the previous chapter, centred around the nobility and +persons of position; so that their consideration can be deferred +for the time being and be taken up in connection with the sports and +pastimes of the ladies of rank, as treated in the chapter following. + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +THE WOMEN OF THE MANORS + + +The limited means of travel and communication caused the lives of +the women of the early English manors to be secluded and, in a sense, +protected the wives and daughters of the titled nobility. The manor +house was a world to itself, a centre of law, of society, of industry, +and, ofttimes, of culture. + +On account of the bad state of the roads and the lack of the modern +convenience of quick transmittal of information, the turmoils and +upheavals of the cities left the manors unaffected by more than +a ripple of their excitement. The manor had its own social and +administrative system, which provided for the performance of duties by +the various elements of the manorial establishment. In times of wide +social disorder, the manor, by reason of its isolation, was often +subject to attack; then the courage and fortitude of its female +occupants were called forth to the uttermost. Women whose names +might otherwise have passed into obscurity have been enrolled among +England's heroines by reason of just such circumstances; one such, +whose fame carries us back to the Wars of the Roses, was Lady Joan +Pelham, wife of Sir John Pelham, Constable of Pevensey Castle. While +Sir John was in Yorkshire with the Lancastrian Duke Henry, fighting +against Richard II., Pevensey Castle was fiercely attacked by +Yorkist forces. The continuance of the siege brought on a scarcity +of provisions; in this strait, Lady Joan addressed a letter to her +husband, which, besides displaying the courage of a noble English +lady, has the additional interest of being the earliest letter extant +written by an English woman of quality. It reads as follows: + +"MY DERE LORDE: + +"I recommande me to yowr his Lordeshippe wyth heart and body and all +my pore myght, and wyth all this I think zou, as my dere Lorde, derest +and best yloved of all earth lyche Lordes; I say for me and thanke +yhow me der Lorde, with all thys that I say before, off your +comfortable lettre, that ze send me from Pownefraite that com to me on +Mary Magdaleyn day; ffor by my trowth I was never so gladd as when I +herd by your lettre that ye was stronge ynogh wyth the grace off God +for to kepe you fro the malyce of your ennemys. And dere Lorde iff it +lyk to your hyee Lordeshippe that als ye myght, that smythe her off +your gracious spede whych God Allmyghty contynue and encresse. And my +dere Lorde, if is lyk zow for to know of my ffare, I am here by layd +in a manner off a sege, wyth the counte of Sussex, Sudray, and a green +parsyll off Kentte; so that I ne may nogth out, nor none vitayles +gette me, hot wyth my die hard. Wharfore my dere if it lyk zow, by the +awyse off zowr wyse counsel for to sett remadye off the salvation off +yhower castells wt. stand the malyce off ther sehures foresayde. And +also that ye be fullyehe enformede off there grett malyce wyker's in +these schyres whyche yt haffes so dispytfful wrogth to zow, and to +zowl contell, to zhowr men, and zuor tenaunts ffore this cuntree, have +yai wastede for grett whyle. Farewell my dere Lorde, the Holy Tryn zow +kepe fro zour ennemys and son send me gud tythyng off yhow. Ywryten at +Pevensey in the castell, on Saynt Jacobe day last past. + +"By yhowr awnn pore, + +"J. PELHAM. + +"To my trew Lorde." + +While her position gave her equal rank with her husband, it also laid +upon the lady of the manor the cares natural to her station. A great +lady had always her bodyguard of maidens, and the lord his following +of pages, these young people being thus provided for that they +might receive the training of gentility and courtesy which were the +essentials in the character of the noble persons of the times. These +maidens, who were intrusted to the care of the lady of the manor, had +to be trained in all domestic accomplishments as well as in polite +attainments. It is singular that this custom of sending children from +home was often interpreted by foreigners as an evidence of a lack of +parental affection; and, indeed, it did at times furnish a means of +easy riddance of daughters whose tempers were incompatible with those +of their parents, or whose self-will--or the selfish policy of the +household--made it desirable for the parents to sever the tie which +lacked the strength of affection. Thus, in 1469, Dame Margaret Paston +writes to her son, Sir John Paston, regarding his sister Margery: "I +wuld ye shuld purvey for yur suster to be with my Lady of Oxford, or +with my Lady of Bedford, or in sume other wurshepfull place, wher as +ye thynk best, and I wull help to her fyndyng, for we be eyther of us +werye of other." + +It will be seen from this fashion of the times--more particularly of +the latter part of the Middle Ages--that a knight's lady performed +many of the functions of a mistress of a boarding school. Those +intrusted to her care, regardless of their rank or station, were +subjected to rigid discipline and were required to perform the arduous +duties of the household. These tasks embraced the varied forms +of plain and fancy needlework, for every lady was expected to be +proficient in such matters; all wearing apparel and fabrics of all +sorts required for household use, and the banners and altar cloths of +the churches as well, were made in the household. When the household +was a large one, the lady and her maidens were kept busily employed +in attending to its needs. It is, however, entirely probable that +the manufacture of the coarser materials and their making into +clothing were delegated to the servants, of whom every manor had +a large retinue. The designing and making of the costumes of the +wealthy--especially those that were to be worn on court and other high +occasions--were given over to professional tailors, who were called +"scissors." + +The round of domestic duty made daily drafts upon the time of the +wives. In every family of the higher class, the lady of the household +had to see to the provisioning as well as to the clothing of its +members and servitors. This was not a simple matter, as the provisions +had to be supplied at the cost of great inconvenience, excepting in +the case of the products of the manor farms belonging to the estate. +The stewards' accounts are often a valuable source of information as +to the grade of living of the times. + +In view of the industry of the women in the manufacture of textile +fabrics, the poet's eulogy is deserved: + + "Of gold tissues, and cloth of silk; + Therefore say I, whate'er their ilk, + To all who shall this story find + They owe them all to womankind." + +The limits of the manor formed the horizon of its women; the men +frequently had to make long journeys in the pursuit of their larger +concerns, and were often in foreign lands serving as soldiers or +crusaders. But the lack of variety in the lives of the women was more +than compensated for by the opportunities which were furnished them +by quiet and seclusion for the improvement of their minds and the +cultivation of those finer qualities of character which are the basis +of the refinement and good manners of the cultivated English women +of the present day. It is not too much to say of the Middle Ages that +without the peculiar circumstances of manorial living, the culture, +confidence, self-containment, and initiative of the English woman +would not have become as they are--her predominant characteristics. +So effectual, indeed, were the conditions of the times for seclusion, +and so greatly were its privileges appreciated, that it could be said +of many a fine lady, as was asserted of Lady Joan Berkeley, that she +never "humored herselfe with the vaine delightes of London and other +cities," and never travelled ten miles from her husband's houses in +Somerset and Gloucester. + +The life of the manors was not, however, a round of tireless industry. +The ruddy-cheeked, simple-minded English women of the better class +were possessed of a redundant vitality and a fund of joyousness and +humor which sought and found expression in a variety of healthful +outdoor recreations, as well as indoor amusements. The pleasing art +of letter writing had come to hold a position of interest in polite +circles; for although the women may not have been skilled with the +quill, their letters were nevertheless natural, simple, and sincere, +and they were fairly proficient in the art of reading. Their religious +duties occupied a part of each day, as did their visitation of the +homes of the dependants on the estate; for it was the lady of the +manor who was looked to by the poor for herbal medicines and such +delicacies as were supplied to the sick. Great ladies sometimes +recognized their duties to the poor not only by giving individual +doles, but by founding almshouses. Nearly every lady of distinction +felt it incumbent upon her to do something for the relief of suffering +and distress. It is especially pleasing to know that it was the women +whose sensibilities were thus touched, and who were first influenced +by the idea of social responsibility for the less fortunate classes of +society. The records of the times abound with instances of benevolence +in institutional forms. When it was impracticable for her to be her +own almoner, the lady employed for the office a monk or a priest, and +so associated her charities with the Church, by the teachings of which +her impulses were trained. The saints' days were customarily observed +by especial and important contributions for the poor. + +Were it not for the manors, the Middle Ages would lack almost +altogether poetry and literature other than that of the monkish +chroniclers. Literature and poetry in this period were chiefly centred +around the women of the nobility. It was probably due to the fondness +of Henry I. for letters that a literary taste was excited among his +queens. The earliest specimens existing of vernacular poetry are some +verses addressed to Henry's second spouse, Adeliza. Feminine taste +and royal patronage combined to free poetry from the pollution of +the minstrel and his circle of vulgar auditors, to cause it to be +cultivated by studious men and women, whose tastes had become refined +by the study of the Latin classics, and who were themselves emulous of +gaining a literary reputation by the cultivation of the art of serious +composition. + +Vernacular poetry, having the sanction and esteem of the higher +circles of life, came to be generally appreciated; and the mind, which +is naturally responsive to matters of good taste, was willing to throw +aside the incubus of low stories, dependent for their interest upon +prurient situations, and to rise to the acceptance of literature whose +interest centred around persons and situations that made their appeal +by reason of worthiness or dignity. The patronage of letters by the +nobility led many, especially ecclesiastics, to develop their talents +in that direction. Wace, a canon of Bayeux and a prolific rhymester, +expressly states that his works were composed for the "rich gentry who +had rents and money." Even the stormy reign of Stephen seems to have +been no impediment to the cultivation of the literary taste which had +its beginning in the court of Henry I. and in the patronage of his +queens. The vernacular histories were either written or rendered into +the popular tongue, and in this way became the intellectual property +of the female world; they were not infrequently inspired by the wish +of some lady--a wish which became the law of the lay or clerical +writer. + +The story of Eleanor of Aquitaine, the unhappy queen of Henry II., +who in her later life frequently signed herself "queen by the wrath of +God," illustrates a phase of domestic infelicity which was not without +many parallels. It also serves to show that, with the perfervid +sentiment of chivalrous devotion to women, it was easy enough to +forget the higher demands of faithfulness in the real relations of +life. This queen herself was not blameless, and to an extent must +be regarded as suffering the penalties of her own indiscretions. The +story is almost too familiar to need reciting. She discovered that, +although ostensibly Henry's wife, the position was really filled by +one with whom the king had previously contracted marriage. The +family of Rosamond Clifford was as respectable as and scarcely less +illustrious than her own. During a sojourn at Woodstock, the jealous +eye of the queen had observed the king following a silk thread through +the labyrinth of trees, by which means she came to knew of her rival. +The meeting of the two women can better be imagined than described: +the queen poured out a torrent of reproaches and invectives, ending by +offering to Rosamond the cup of poison or a dagger, and did not leave +the place until the victim of her jealousy was no more. + +But the tragic death of Rosamond did not serve to enlist for the queen +the affections of her consort, nor did it tend to promote her domestic +peace. Never was a family so torn by dissension and sin; her children +were arrayed against their father and one another, and all were +opposed to herself. Her husband added to her many troubles the further +shame of installing in her place the wife of his son. Seeking release +from a situation past all endurance, she eloped from a castle in +Aquitaine, intending to find an asylum in the dominions of King Louis +of France, her former husband. She was captured by Henry's myrmidons +and thrown into prison, there to remain sixteen years until liberated +by her renowned son, Richard Coeur de Lion. The sufferings of her life +tempered her spirit and brought her into reliance upon religion for +her comfort and strength. + +Another example of the high courage and decision of purpose which the +life of Eleanor of Aquitaine furnished in its later history is found +at a subsequent period in another Eleanor, the daughter of Edward +II. This patient, suffering wife, roused to indignant resistance +of an unpardonable indignity, exhibited the spirit of an undaunted +character. She had been married, at the tender age of fifteen, to the +stern Reynald II., Earl of Gueldres and Zutphen. When the large dower +she brought her husband had been spent by him, he sought pretext for +a divorce from one with whom he could feel no sympathy; but for this +her blameless life furnished no excuse. Although the countess was +constantly surrounded by spies and her every act and word reported to +her lord, she moved with stately dignity in the atmosphere of intrigue +and deceit. In default of any other plea, her husband represented +to the pope that she was afflicted with leprosy. Arrayed solely in +a tunic, and enveloping herself in a capacious mantle, she made her +way with majestic mien into the council room of the palace, where the +perfidious lord was in consultation with his assembled nobles about +the details of the sinister purpose which he was seeking to effect. +With the words, "I am come, my beloved lord, to seek a diligent +examination respecting the corporeal taint imputed to me," she threw +aside the mantle, disclosing the healthy texture of her skin, while +a wave of emotion passed over her, and her eyes suffused with tears. +"These," she continued, "are my children and yours; do they too share +in the blemish of their mother? But it may come to pass that the +people of Gueldres may yet mourn our separation, when they behold +the failure of our line." Husband and nobles alike were profoundly +affected by so sublime an appeal, and the royal pair were reconciled; +but the male line of Reynald failed in his son, and the crown passed +to the female branch, as though the almost predictive words of the +noble English woman were destined to be fulfilled. + +Yet another daughter of fair France became the queen of a Plantagenet. +Richard II., the last Plantagenet, from the date of his accession, was +involved in constant struggles, first with his Parliament, and then +with Henry of Lancaster. His first queen, Anne of Bohemia, died in +1394. Richard's thoughts were thereupon directed to the necessity of +choosing a second consort. He would consider only Isabelle of Valois, +daughter of Charles VI., who was less than nine years old. The +marriage was solemnized by proxy, and arrangements were made for the +king to repair to Calais and receive his child-bride at the hand of +Charles VI. The preliminaries having been completed, the ceremony is +thus recorded by Froissart: + +"On the morrow, the King of England visited the King of France in his +tent, where the kings sat apart at one table. During the serving of +dinner, the Duke de Bourbon said many things to enliven the kings, and +addressed the King of England: 'Monseigneur, you ought to make good +cheer; you have all you desire and demand. You have, or will have, +your wife, she is about to be given to you.' The French king then +said: 'Bourbonnais, we could wish that our daughter were of the age of +our cousin of Saint-Pol, although it should have cost us dearly, for +our son of England would have taken her more willingly.' + +"The King of England heard this and responded to the French king: +'Father-in-law, our wife's age pleases us well; we think less of that +than we do of the affection between us and our kingdoms, for with +mutual friendship and alliance, there is no king, Christian or other, +who could give umbrage to us.' The dinner was soon over, and then the +young Queen of England was brought into the king's tent, accompanied +by a great number of dames and demoiselles, and given to the King of +England, her hand being held by her father, the King of France." + +This marriage brought nearly twenty years of peace between France +and England. The young queen was carefully nurtured and educated by +King Richard, whose attachment to her soon grew very deep. Turbulent +factions disturbed Richard's rule, and Isabelle had always before her +the menace of a prison rather than the prospect of a throne. Before +leaving to quell a rebellion in Ireland, Richard visited his "little +queen," for thus she was popularly styled, at Windsor Castle, to take +farewell. This interview, at which it is said the young queen first +realized how deeply she loved the king, was to be their last. Henry +of Lancaster, taking advantage of Richard's absence to gather a force +to wrest the sceptre from him, met Richard on his return, made him +captive, and finally secured his resignation of the crown in 1399. +Simultaneously, the young queen fell into Henry's power, and was moved +from castle to castle at the will of Henry. All this time she was kept +in ignorance of the fate of her husband, and tortured by suspense and +anxiety. Richard alive was too serious a danger to Henry's supremacy, +and, a plot to restore him to his throne having failed, he was killed +at Pontefract Castle soon after, in a heroic struggle against the +myrmidons of Henry. + +Meantime, the "little queen" had joined in the movement against Henry, +in the hope that her husband would recover his crown and be restored +to her, but she was soon again a captive at Havering Bower. For some +time the child-widow--she was not yet thirteen--was kept in ignorance +of the death of Richard. Soon, however, she was importuned by Henry +IV. on behalf of Monmouth, his son, but, faithful to the memory of +Richard, she rejected with horror the proposed union. Finally, all +hope of the alliance being destroyed, Henry consented to Isabella's +return to her parents. She had endeared herself to the hearts of the +English by her graces, and especially by her steadfast devotion to +Richard. + +After Isabelle's return to France, Henry still persisted in suing for +her hand, but it was impossible to move her determination. In 1406, +it seemed that joy might yet brighten the life of this unfortunate +princess, for in that year she was betrothed to her cousin, the young +Charles of Orleans, whom she married in 1409. The affection of husband +and wife appeared to offer every prospect of happiness, but she was +permitted to enjoy her newly found state for only a brief period, as +she died during the following year, a few hours after the birth of an +infant daughter. The memory of this sweet but unfortunate princess is +enshrined in the poetic tributes of the Duke of Orleans, nor did the +English fail to sing in ballads her praise. + +The origin of the Order of the Garter is traceable to the spirit of +chivalry; it was instituted by Coeur de Lion, and in 1344 was revived +by Edward III. Froissart appears to credit the story which connects +the revival of the order to Edward's passion for the Countess of +Salisbury, whose garter he is said to have picked up and presented to +her in the presence of the court, with this exclamation: _Honi soit +qui mal y pense!_ The chronicler gives us a full account of the +attachment of Edward for the countess, and places in excellent light +the integrity of her character. When she was besieged in her husband's +castle at Wark, Edward advanced to her relief, compelling the Scots +to retreat. At the interview which followed, the king looked upon +her with such an air of profound thoughtfulness that she was led to +inquire: "Dear sire, what are you musing on? Such meditation is not +proper for you, saving your grace." "Oh, dear lady!" replied the +monarch; "you must know that since I have been in this castle, some +thoughts have oppressed my mind that I was not before aware of." "Dear +sire, you ought to be of good cheer, and leave off such pondering; for +God has been very bountiful to you in your undertakings." Whereupon +the king replied with more directness: "There be other things, O sweet +lady, which touch my heart, and lie heavy there, beside what you talk +of. In good truth, your beauteous mien and the perfection of your face +and behavior have wholly overcome me; and my peace depends on your +accepting my love, which your refusal cannot abate." "My gracious +liege," the countess exclaimed, "God of his infinite goodness preserve +you, and drive from your noble heart all evil thoughts; for I am, and +ever shall be, ready to serve you; but only in what is consistent with +my honor and your own." + +The first chapter of the Garter was graced by another queen who +adorns the history of England's women of rank--Queen Philippa. She was +attended by the principal ladies of the court, who, with herself, were +admitted dame-companions of the order, and the wives of the knights +continued to enjoy this dignity during several succeeding reigns. + +In even the best homes of the Middle Ages we must not expect to find +the refinements which are regarded as the commonplaces of modern +life. The essence of refinement is the same in all ages, and, while it +involves manners, these change with the standards and conventions of +different times. Much that is amusing, absurd, or even disgusting, as +we regard manners to-day, was entirely in good form during the Middle +Ages. It will be of interest to notice some of the things which were +regarded as commendable in the deportment of the young ladies of the +aristocratic class of mediaeval society, and what they were cautioned +to avoid. A _trouvere_ of the thirteenth century, named Robert de +Blois, compiled a code of etiquette which he put in French verse under +the title, _Chastisement des Dames_. The young ladies who would deport +themselves in an irreproachable manner must avoid talking too much, +and especially refrain from boasting of the attentions paid to them +by the other sex. They were recommended to be discreet, and, in +the freedom of games and amusements, to leave no room for adverse +criticism of their actions. In going to church, they were not to trot +or run, but to walk with due seriousness, with eyes straight before +them, and to salute _debonairely_ all persons they met. They were +enjoined not to let men kiss them on the mouth, as it might lead to +too great familiarity; they were not to look at a man too much unless +he were an acknowledged lover; and when a young woman had a lover, +she was not to talk too much of him. They were not to manifest too +much vanity in dress, and to be entirely delicate in the matter of +costume; nor were they to be too ready in accepting presents from the +other sex. The ladies are particularly warned against scolding and +disputing, against swearing, against eating and drinking too freely at +the table. They were exhorted not to get drunk, a practice from which, +they were advised, much mischief might arise. That the restrictions +were, on the whole, sensible is apparent from our statement of them, +and the good sense of the times receives special point from the rule +of society which recommended the ladies not to cover their faces when +in public, as a handsome face was made to be seen. An exception is +made in the case of ugly or deformed features, which might be covered. +Another rule was as follows: "A lady who is pale-faced or who has not +a good smell ought to breakfast early in the morning, for good wine +gives them a very good color; and she who eats and drinks well must +heighten her color." Anise seed, fennel, and cumin were recommended +to be taken at breakfast to correct an unsavory breath, and persons so +affected were told not to breathe in other persons' faces. + +A special set of rules was given for the lady's behavior while in +church, and if she could sing she was to do so when asked and not +require too much pressing. Ladies were further recommended to keep +their hands clean, to cut their nails often, and not to suffer them to +grow beyond the finger or to harbor dirt. When passing the houses of +other people, ladies were not to look into them: "for a person often +does things privately in his house, which he would not wish to be +seen, if anyone should come before his door." For the same reason +a lady was not to go into another person's house, or into another's +room, without coughing or speaking to give notice to the inmates. The +directions for a lady's behavior at the table were also very precise. +"In eating, you must avoid much laughing or talking. If you eat with +another (i.e., in the same plate, or of the same mess), turn the +nicest bits to him and do not go picking out the finest and largest +for yourself, which is not courteous. Moreover, no one should eat +greedily a choice bit which is too large or too hot, for fear of +choking or burning herself.... Each time you drink, wipe your mouth +well, that no grease go into the wine, which is very unpleasant for +the person who drinks after you. But when you wipe your mouth for +drinking, do not wipe your eyes or nose with the tablecloth, and avoid +spilling from your mouth or greasing your hands too much." Added to +these directions for deportment, particular emphasis was laid on the +avoidance of falsehoods, which suggests the prevalence of the vice. + +The modern "servant question" was not without its counterpart in the +Middle Ages. We find instances of advice tendered upon the subject to +the ladies of those times. An early writer on domestic economy divided +the servants who might be found in a manorial establishment into three +classes: those who were employed on a sudden and only for a certain +work, and for these a previous bargain should be made regarding their +payment; those who were employed for a certain time in a particular +description of work, as tailors, shoemakers, butchers, and others, who +always came to work in the house upon materials provided there, or the +harvest men for the gathering of the crops; and domestic servants who +were hired by the year, these latter being expected to pay an absolute +and passive obedience to the lord and lady of the household and any +others who were set in authority over them. + +Naturally, it was the female servants who came under the supervision +of the lady of the house, and minute directions are given for their +ordering. She was to require her maids to repair early in the morning +to their work; the entrance to the hall and all other places by which +people enter, or places in the hall where they tarry to converse, were +to be swept and made clean, "and that the footstools and covers of the +benches and forms be dusted and shaken, and after this that the other +chambers be in like manner cleaned and arranged for the day." After +this, the pet animals were to be attended to and fed. At midday the +servants were to have their first meal, which was to be bountiful, but +"only of one meat and not of several, or of any delicacies; and give +them only one kind of drink, nourishing but not heady, whether wine +or other; and admonish them to eat heartily, and to drink well and +plentifully, for it is right that they should eat all at once, without +sitting too long, and at one breath, without reposing on their meal +or halting, or leaning with their elbows on the table; and as soon +as they begin to talk or to rest on their elbows, make them rise +and remove the table." After their "second labor" and on feast days +also--when seemingly the workday was not so long as usual--they were +to have another lighter repast, and in the late evening, after all +their duties were performed, another abundant meal was served. It +then devolved upon the lady of the house or her deputy to see that the +manor was closed, and to take charge of the keys, preventing anyone +from going in or out; and then, having had all the fires carefully +"covered," she sent the servants to bed and saw that their candles +were extinguished to prevent the risk of fire. The lady was always +careful as to whom she received into her house as servitors; female +servants who came to her as strangers were not well regarded, and were +not given trusts of importance, and their characters, so far as was +possible, were looked into, as well as the circumstances of their +leaving their former place of employment. + +The term "spinster," which is now confined to unmarried women, was a +term of consideration applied to all women of the better class during +the Middle Ages. It was indicative of her superior rank, and was +especially adhered to by gentlewomen who married out of their station, +as a sign of their good birth and gentle breeding. + +The term "gentle blood," as now understood, means only that some +persons have the fortunate circumstance of refined parentage or +ancestry; but in the Middle Ages, when the pride of gentle blood +was one of the most distinguishing characteristics of the prevailing +feudal society, it was seriously believed that through the +whole extent of the aristocratic classes there ran one blood, +distinguishable from the blood of all other persons. So strongly was +this view entertained, that it was commonly thought that if a child of +gentle blood should be stolen or abandoned in infancy, and then bred +up as a peasant or a burgher, without knowledge of its origin, it +would display, as it grew toward manhood, unmistakable proofs of its +gentle origin, in spite of education and example. Whatever the fallacy +of this belief, its effect upon the ladies of superior birth was to +make them prize their station highly; but it also created a spirit of +haughtiness toward those who were below their station, and a harshness +in their relation to their domestics which was not always conformable +to the graciousness and consideration which these very ladies often +displayed where there was no question involving their caste. + +In considering the dress of the women of the Middle Ages, we remarked +upon the censure and sarcasm which were passed upon the vanities into +which women were led by their devotion to the changing fashions of +the day. Every class of society was pervaded by a love of dress, which +expressed itself in the greatest extravagances and absurdities. A +knight of the fourteenth century compiled for three young ladies, the +daughters of a knight of Normandy, a manuscript which contains advice +and directions for the regulation of their conduct through life. +It contains several very curious passages relative to dress: "Fair +daughters," says their mentor, "I pray you that ye be not the first to +take new shapes and guises of array of women of strange countries." He +then inveighs against the wearing of superfluous quantities of furs +as edging for their gowns, their hoods, and their sleeves. After +commenting upon the sinfulness of useless fashions and their effect +upon the lower classes, he proceeds to portray the absurdities into +which the latter were led by aping their betters, and suggests that +the furs which they wore in profusion had better at least be dispensed +with in summer, as they served only "for a hiding place for the +fleas." The knight whose daughters are thus counselled is unable +to deter them from falling into extravagances of attire, and has +recourse to the legend of a chevalier whose wife was dead and who made +application to a hermit to know if her soul had gone to Paradise or +to punishment. The holy man, after long praying, fell asleep, and saw +the soul of the fair lady weighed in the balance; with Saint Michael +standing on one side and the Devil on the other. The latter addressed +Saint Michael and claimed the woman as his own on the score that she +had ten diverse gowns, and a less number than that would have sufficed +to lose her soul; besides which, with what she had wasted she might +have clothed two or three persons who for the lack of her charity +died of want. So saying, the fiend gathered up all her gay attire, +ornaments, and jewels, and cast them in the balance with her evil +deeds, which determined the balance against her, and he bore her away +to the lake of fire. The same night, in order to deter his daughters +from painting their faces, the knight recounts a horrible legend of a +fine lady who was punished in hell because she had "popped and painted +her visage to please the sight of the world." + +It is not by such incidentals as dress, but by the enduring qualities +of character, that the women of the higher circles of the English +Middle Ages were able to make an indelible impress upon the life and +character of the nation. And more especially may this be said of the +women whose lives were largely spent in the sheltered circle of a pure +domesticity,--the women of the manors. + + + + +CHAPTER VII + +THE WOMEN OF THE MONASTERIES + + +In general, the routine of the nunnery was the same as that of a +monastery. There was the same rotation, hour by hour, of sacred +services, with monotonous regularity and repetition; the only variety +offered was that of labor of one sort or another, with brief intervals +for rest and refreshment. The industry of the nuns usually took +the form of working in wool, for it devolved upon them to make the +clothing of the monks, who were associated with the convents to +perform the outdoor labor and to serve as confessors for the female +inmates. Great care was necessary to prevent too close proximity of +the nunneries and monasteries and to limit the intercourse of the +inmates of the respective institutions to the bare necessities of +their mutual dependence. + +The rules by which women were governed in the life of the convent did +not differ much from those for the men. Some of these regulations were +very rigorous: the inmates were to have nothing of their own, nor +were they allowed to go out of the convent, and they were permitted +the luxury of a bath only in time of sickness. Continual silence, +frequent confessions, a spare diet, and hard labor were to be endured +uncomplainingly, on penalty of excommunication. + +In the fifth century, prohibitions were issued proscribing the +founding of any more monasteries for monks and nuns together and +ordering the partitioning of those which already existed. No man +excepting the officiating clergy, the bishop, and the steward of the +convent was allowed to enter within its walls; and, indeed, one of +the rules enjoined that the nuns were to make confession to the bishop +through the abbess. Under no pretext whatever were the nuns to lodge +under the roof of a monastery, nor was any person who was not a monk +or a cleric of high repute to be allowed within the precincts of the +convent on temporal business; but in spite of the many rules by which +they were hedged about, in the eighth century nuns are found admitted +into the monasteries on the ground of the necessity for their presence +in sickness and similar emergencies. + +Besides the nuns, strictly so called, in the eighth and subsequent +centuries there were canonesses, who differed from the nuns in +retaining more of their secular character. Their vows were not +perpetual, and they confined their labors chiefly to the instruction +of the children of the nobles. + +Having cited some of the rules for the government of those who +committed themselves to the life of the nun, it now remains to perform +the delicate task of showing the degree of success which attended +the attempt to isolate a class of unmarried women, that, by religious +offices and meditations, they might wholly dedicate their time and +their faculties to the cultivation of the Christian graces, and serve +as the benefactresses of the poor in giving alms at the convent +gate. The century that witnessed the outbreak of the Reformation is +commonly regarded as exceptional for laxity of religious principle and +perversion of the institutional ideals of the Church; but, from the +eighth century, the ecclesiastical morality was of such a low order as +seriously to affect the moral tone of the people and to invalidate the +efficacy of the Church as a teacher of religion. The celibacy which +was enjoined upon the clergy was largely responsible for this state +of affairs. It is unfortunately not true that the ages of faith, so +called, were ages of great moral purity. In spite of the interdict of +councils, priestly marriages were looked upon as common events. The +marriage of priests being under the ban of the Church, concubinage +was regarded as almost a legitimate relationship, and carried less +of stigma than the proscribed marriages. It is not singular that such +impairment of moral ideas was not confined to the priests, and that +the same low moral tone invaded the convents, many of whose inmates +became the partners of the priests in their derelictions. + +"The known luxury and believed immoralities of the wealthy +monasteries" in England, says Sharon Turner, "made a great impression +on the public mind. Even some of the clergy became ashamed of it, and +contributed to expose it, both in England and elsewhere." Nor was the +tone of morals outside the cloister of higher grade than that of the +monks. In 1212 a council commanded the clergy not to have women +in their houses, nor to suffer in their cloisters assemblies for +debauchery, nor to entertain women there. Nuns were ordered to lie +single. In England, these and many other moral prohibitions were +repeated at various intervals, showing that, in spite of the +prevailing corruption, there was an appreciation of pure ideals; and +in its councils the Church took cognizance of and endeavored to stem +the rising tide of unchastity. Thus, inquiries were made in 1252 as to +whether the clergy frequented the nunneries without reasonable cause, +and a year or two afterward an inquisition was made all over England +into the character and actions of the various religious personages. +The conduct of the nuns is frequently alluded to in terms of the +severest censure, while the ecclesiastics were enjoined not to +frequent taverns or public spectacles, or to resort to the houses of +loose characters, or to visit the nuns; they were not to play at dice +or improper games, nor to leave their property to their children. +The vices of the clergy were the unavoidable consequence of the +independence of their hierarchy from civil control. The release of +the clergy from secular jurisdiction was productive of much personal +depravity. They had to fear their abbot only, and he was frequently +a mild censor of their morals. At a time when any profligate woman of +position might retire to a convent and, by elevation or appointment, +become abbess, it is not strange that the moral tone of the convent +was not determined by the rules of the order, but by the standards +which were actually established. + +Yet, in spite of many instances of reprehensible conduct, the nuns as +a class did not break the vows that bound them to chastity, and within +the convent walls were found many examples of women of illustrious +character. In the Anglo-Saxon times, women of the most admirable +traits are found in charge of convents; the names of some of the +abbesses of the seventh century, and earlier, are notable as those +of women of high rank as well as of high character. Saint Werburga +of Ely, the daughter of Wulfere, King of Mercia, was made ruler over +all the female religious houses, and became the founder of several +convents of note. Her qualities and character were set forth in the +following lines: + + "In beaute amyable she was equall to Rachell, + Comparable to Sara in fyrme fidelyte, + In sadness and wysedom lyke to Abygaell: + Replete as Deibora with grace of prophecy, + AEqyvalent to Ruth she was in humylyte, + In purchrytude Rebecca, lyke Hester in Colynesse, + Lyke Judyth in vertue and proued holynesse." + +But such examples of high worth among the abbesses, while not +exceptional in the early Middle Ages, are not frequently met with in +the closing centuries of the period. + +The position of the abbess was not one of honor only, but of +privilege; the cloister rule was relaxed for her--she might go and +come as she pleased, and see anyone whom she wished to see. In the +early times, she is even found taking part in synods. Thus, in 649, +the abbesses were summoned to the council at Becanceld, in Kent, and +the names of five of them were subscribed to the constitutions which +were there made, while the name of not a single abbot appears on the +document. Coming down to much later times, abbesses were summoned +to attend or to send proxies to the king's council which was held +to grant "an aid on the knighting the Prince of Wales." Also, they +were required to furnish military service by proxy. While they were +more amenable to the clergy than were the monks, the abbesses were +nevertheless tenacious of their privileges. They were never ordained, +nor did they ever have the right to ordain others, although they +claimed the latter as one of their privileges. + +They were subject to deposition if they abused their office. Not +infrequently the nuns would carry their complaints to the bishop, +and seek from him redress for their grievances. If the circumstances +warranted his so doing, the bishop would occasionally take the +direction of the nunnery into his own hands instead of appointing an +abbess, or else he might place it temporarily in the charge of one or +more of the nuns. All the affairs of the convent were directed by the +abbess--the tillage of the grounds and4the repairs to the buildings, +as well as the internal ordering of the establishment and the +discipline of its inmates. Also, she was directed to assist, by her +own labor as far as she was able, in clothing herself. When a nun +became refractory, she might be consigned to punishment outside of +the convent. Thus, by the decree of a council near Paris in the eighth +century, it was ordered that the bishop as well as the abbess might +send a nun to a penitentiary. The same council prescribed that an +abbess should not superintend more than one monastery or quit its +precincts more than once a year. One of the rules which was at one +time in force prohibited abbesses from walking alone, thus placing +them under the surveillance of the sisterhood. But their powers varied +according to the period and the order with which they were connected. + +Through the necessities of their office, the abbesses were brought +into closer relationship with the outside world than were the other +nuns. Sometimes they were made respondents in a suit at law with +regard to the estates of the convent, or to retain the property +brought to them by some one of the sisters, who, renouncing her vows, +sought to recover her possessions. In 1292 the prioress of an abbey in +Somersetshire had to answer in a suit brought against her by a widow +and two men in regard to the right of common pasturage upon lands held +by the convent, and the case was decided against the religious house; +but both the prioress and the widow escaped paying their respective +costs in the case, on the plea of poverty. + +Not only were the abbesses sued, but they themselves did not hesitate +to institute legal proceedings in defence of what they believed were +their rights. In the reign of Edward III., a prioress sued a sheriff +for the recovery of a pension granted during the reign of Henry III., +which had been allowed to lapse. The case was carried to the king's +court and won for the convent. Legal difficulties frequently occurred +over grants made to convents without the observance of the set +formalities. An abbess had a great many secular duties, for all the +money that came into the establishment, or was paid out, had to be +accounted for by her. The entertainment which the convent dispensed +to those who, on one pretext or another, claimed it, furnished another +occasion for the intercourse of the abbess with the outer world. +Sometimes ladies who were temporarily in want of a home repaired to a +convent and were there received. The bishops frequently sent friends +to the priory for entertainment; though such persons were charges upon +the hospitality of the institution, they, as a rule, either paid for +their entertainment themselves or were provided for by their friends. +It was not unusual for visitors who came under the authority of the +bishop's order to bring with them a retinue of servants and to remain +a considerable time. + +During the time of Henry VIII., rigid inquiries were made with +regard to the regulations and the character of the inmates of the +monasteries, especially the abbots and abbesses. The investigations +with regard to the character of the abbots and abbesses need not +concern us, as we have sufficiently noticed the looseness of conduct +which prevailed in many of the religious houses. Among the questions +asked were inquiries as to whether hospitality was maintained, +and especially toward the poor, whether Church anniversaries were +observed, whether proper records were kept, whether any of the +conventual property had been alienated, whether the head of the house +was given to sober and modest conversation both toward the inmates +and lay persons, whether any of the inmates had been punished, whether +there had been any overlooking of the faults of a brother or sister +through favoritism, whether any novices were received before reaching +sufficient age because of friendship and affection or the inducement +of money or any other ulterior reason. Besides these inquiries, which +were common to the abbots and abbesses, particular questions were +asked the latter, looking to the abandonment of all ornaments and +superfluities of dress and the keeping in good repair of all the +accessories of divine service. They were asked whether the sisters +attended divine worship at the proper seasons, whether they taught the +novices the rule, whether they maintained proper oversight of them, +and whether they saw that they were engaged at proper work. Also, the +abbess was to report on the character of the nuns as to whether she +suspected any of incontinence, whether any of them slept without the +convent walls or walked abroad, and, if so, in whose company. She was +asked whether the confessor or chaplain did his duty, and whether she +had found any "ancient, sad, and virtuous" woman as mistress of the +novices. + +Among the Gilbertine nuns, whom we may mention as a typical order, +there were three prioresses, one of whom presided, the other two +acting as coadjutors. It was the duty of the presiding prioress to +enjoin penance, grant all the licenses or allowances, visit the sick, +or see that they were visited by one of her companions. The prioresses +cut, fitted, and superintended the manufacture of the vestments of +the sisters. It was the duty of the presiding prioress to visit +the sisters in the infirmary whenever they asked for her presence, +unless she were detained by urgent duties. Other rules regulated her +conduct on festival days, when she was especially to use diligence in +inquiring after the order and religion of the house. + +The sub-prioress was under more rigid rules than those which governed +her superior; if, in the absence of the prioress, she spoke of +anything excepting labor, she confessed having done so, in the +chapter. If, in the absence of the prioress, some other of the sisters +failed to observe silence, it was not she but the sub-prioress who was +held responsible and took the blame. She could not go to the window of +the gate without a "sage companion." + +When the cellaress assumed office, her duties were to see what was +owing to the different farmers and tax gatherers, to receive the sums +due from the collectors on the nunnery estates, and to take account of +all the sales of the products of the lands of the convent. Also, she +was to see to the provisioning of the house, to pay the wages, and to +attend to the mowing of the hay and to the repairs to the buildings. +She might have associated with her a lay sister, with whom she was at +liberty to talk concerning the business affairs of their office. + +Of the other convent officials, the precentrix had charge of the +library; the sacrist rose at night to ring the bell, attended to the +adornment of the church in the vigil of Easter, lighted the lamp in +the interval at lessons, had the preparation of the coals for the +censer, and performed other duties of a like nature; and the duty +of the mistress of the novices was to see that those in her charge +behaved in an orderly manner. She was the disciplinarian of those who +had not taken the full vows of the order. If the infirmaress desired +anything, she had to indicate it by a sign; when the want was of +such a nature that it could not be so indicated, the cellaress +was summoned, for this was the only official in whose presence the +infirmaress could speak. She never served in the kitchen when there +were any serious cases of sickness to need her attention. There were +other officials who performed special or occasional duties, who +need not be mentioned. All the servants in a convent took an oath of +fidelity not to reveal the secrets of the house. They were brewers, +bakers, kitcheners, gardeners, shoemakers, and the like. + +The confessor made periodical visits to the convent; and if the +prioress found it necessary that anyone should confess, the latter +was told to go to the place appointed, and two "discreet sisters" sat +apart from the window of the confessional, where they could hold the +nun under observation and see how she behaved. The confessor also was +under supervision as to his conduct, for he was to "shun talking vain +and unnecessary things; nor ask who she was, whence she came, and such +things." + +The ceremony with regard to the taking of vows by the nuns was +threefold. The first was called the consecration of the nun, and was +made on solemn days, preferably Epiphany or on the festivals of +the Virgin. After the Epistle was read, the virgin who was to be +consecrated came before the altar, dressed in white, carrying in her +right hand the religious habit and in her left an extinguished taper. +After the bishop had consecrated the habit, he gave it to her, saying: +"Take, girl, the robe which you shall wear in innocence." After +assuming this, the taper in her hand was lighted, and she intoned the +words: "I love Christ, into whose bed I have entered." Then, after +the Epistle, Gospel, and Creed, the bishop said: "Come, come, come, +daughter, I will teach you the fear of the Lord." The nun then +prostrated herself before the altar, and after the _Veni Creator_ +began, she arose. The bishop then invested her with the veil and +pronounced a curse against all those who would disturb her holy +purpose. The second ceremony related to a nun who was to make +profession, but who had before been blessed, and the third ceremony +related to the consecration of a nun who was not a virgin. Such, in +brief, is a sketch of the convent routine and exercises. It will now +be in place to take a more general view of the nun's environment. + +As the hospitality of the convent was often extended to strangers, +it will not be without interest to give a list of the contents of a +chamber which was allotted to a "Dame Agnes Browne" in the Priory of +Minster, in Sheppey: "Stuff given her by her friends:--A fetherbed, a +bolster, 2 pyllows, a payre of blankatts, 2 corse coverleds, 4 pare of +shets good and badde, an olde tester and selar of paynted clothes +and 2 peces of hangyng to the same; a square cofer carvyd, with 2 bed +clothes upon the cofer, and in the wyndow a lytill cobard of waynscott +carvyd and 2 lytill chestes; a small goblet with a cover of sylver +parcell gylt, a lytill maser with a brynne of sylver and gylt, +a lytill pese of sylver and a spore of sylver, 2 lytyll latyn +candellstyks, a fire panne and a pare of tonges, 2 small aundyrons, 4 +pewter dysshes, a porrenger, a pewter bason, 2 skyllotts (a small pot +with a long handle), a lytill brasse pot, a cawdyron and a drynkyng +pot of pewter." + +That, in the mind of the religious recluse, cleanliness was not +associated with godliness was due to the idea of penance. Washing was +regarded as a luxury not to be indulged in excepting at infrequent +intervals or by special permission. This idea of ablutions was +probably derived at first in reaction from the public baths which +were so much in vogue among the Romans, and which were associated in +the public mind with luxury, and were often the scenes of conduct +quite at variance with the principles for which the nuns stood. The +licentiousness which centred around these places brought them into +such ill repute that to the ascetic mind washing did not so much +signify cleanliness as sin. The virtue of dirt did not extend to the +abbesses, who were allowed to wash whenever it was necessary and as +frequently as they pleased. By a similar process of deduction, the +nuns remained untonsured. In the early times, a woman whose hair was +cut short was looked upon as a disreputable character, so that it +was repellent to conventional ideas of propriety to conform to the +practice of the monks in having the head shaved. + +The nuns were not always of the most serious disposition and +deportment, as is shown by the peculiar enjoinment that they were not +to look fixedly on any man, or to romp or frolic with him; neither +were they to allow any man to see them unveiled, nor to embrace any +man, either an acquaintance or a stranger. The convivial nature of +some of the nuns is revealed by an order commanding them not to "use +the alehouse or the watercourses where strangers daily resort, or +bring in, receive, or take any layman, religious or secular, into +the chamber, or any secret place, day or night, or with them in such +private places to commune, eat, or drink, without license of your +prioress." The monastery which is described by Wriothesley as the most +virtuous religious house in England, Sion Monastery, was under an even +stricter rule. Conversation with secular persons was permitted only +by the license of the abbess from noon to vespers, and only then on +Sundays and the great feast days of the saints. Sion Monastery was +subjected to the further restriction that the nuns might not receive +their friends, but could converse with them by sitting at appointed +windows, in the presence of the abbess. If any sister desired to be +seen by "her parents or honest friends," she might, by the special +permission of the abbess, open the window occasionally during the +year; but if she had the self-denial to forego this privilege, a +greater reward was assured her in the hereafter. + +Despite the criticism to which the monastic system of the Middle +Ages may justly be subjected, it would be great remissness to fail +in appreciation of the tremendous work of civilization which was +performed by its expositors. They were the centres of culture, as well +as of benevolence; in the convents, and also in the monasteries, there +could always be found a select library, which included works of the +classic authors, as well as books of religion. The nuns, as a class, +were well educated for their time. They could read Latin, and were +qualified to direct the education of the novices who came under their +training. Even in the ninth century, some of the continental convents +had such high repute as educational centres that children were sent +long distances to get the benefit of the opportunities they offered; +and in this respect England was no whit behind, for children were +sent from the continent to be educated in the schools established +by Theodorus and Hadrian. This fact is the more to the credit of the +English schools, as the tide had been setting strongly in the other +direction. + +The addition of literary and pedagogic duties to the religious routine +and manual labor of the convents made the lives of the nuns extremely +busy, for, in addition to their reading theological and classical +literature, they had the duty of copying and embellishing manuscripts. +It was not unusual for a nun to become proficient in Latin +versification and to correspond in that language with others of a +similar literary taste and training. These women were thus often +highly qualified to teach the subjects which were then included in +polite education. For many centuries theirs were the only schools for +girls. The suppression of the convents was, educationally, a disaster +to England. They were not merely schools for book learning, but such +little knowledge as was current in regard to the treatment of various +disorders and the care of the sick was obtained in the convent +schools. The general custom of bleeding people for every form of +illness, as well as to prevent possible sickness, made necessary some +kind of bandage ready prepared to apply to the wound, and it was a +common practice for nuns to make such bandages and to present them as +gifts to friends. The convent pupils were also taught the finer sorts +of cooking, such as the preparation of special dishes and the making +of sweetmeats and pastry. Needlework, as the most characteristic +employment of women of refinement, music, both vocal and instrumental, +and writing and drawing, entered into the curricula of the convents. + +The educational record of the various convents at the time of their +suppression shows that this act of Henry VIII., whatever other +justification it may have had, cannot be supported on the ground that +the convents were not performing a useful service to society in the +education of the youth of the country. Gasquet, in his _Suppression +of the Monasteries_, says: "In the convents, the female portion of the +population found their only teachers, the rich as well as the poor, +and the destruction of the religious houses by Henry was the absolute +extinction of any systematic education for women during a long +period." Thus, at Winchester Convent the list of ladies being educated +within the walls at the time of the suppression shows that these +Benedictine nuns were training the children of the first families in +the country. Carrow, in Norfolk, for centuries gave instruction to +the daughters of the neighboring gentry; and as early as A.D. 1273 +a papal prohibition was obtained from Pope Gregory X., restraining +the nobility from crowding this monastery with more sisters than its +income would support. Again, we read of Mynchin Buckland that it was +a noted seminary for the daughters of the families in its vicinity. +Many families whose names were the highest in the list of the English +gentry of the day owed to the convent systems all the accomplishments +which enabled them to shine brilliantly in their after life. + +"Reading, writing, some knowledge of arithmetic, the art of +embroidery, music and French, 'after the scole of Stratford atte +Bowe,' were the recognized course of study, while the preparation +of perfumes, balsams, simples, and confectionery was among the more +ordinary departments of the education afforded." There was as great +protest aroused among the laity against the suppression of the +convents as has been latterly witnessed in France against the rigid +enforcement of the law as to unregistered schools, resulting in +the closing of many schools which were established on a religious +foundation and taught by the nuns. + +Many pathetic pleas were addressed to Thomas Cromwell in behalf of +the convents at the time of the Reformation. The abbess of the famous +convent of Godstow, in Oxfordshire, wrote to Cromwell as follows: +"Pleaseth hit your Honour with my moste humble dowyte, to be +advertised, that where it hath pleasyd your Lordship to be the verie +meanes to the King's Majestie for my preferment, most unworthie to +be Abbes of this the King's Monasterie of Godstowe.... I trust to God +that I have never offendyd God's laws, neither the King's, wherebie +this poore monasterie ought to be suppressed." She then continues +in an earnest strain to set forth that the recommendation for the +suppression of her convent arose from private malice on the part of +her enemies, and closes with a denial of the charges preferred, as +follows: "And notwithstanding that Dr. London, like an untrew man, +hath informed your Lordship that I am a spoiler and a waster, your +good Lordship shall know that the contrary is trew; for I have 'not +alienated one halporthe' of goods of this monastery, movable or +unmovable, but have rather incres'd the same, nor never made lease of +any farme or peece of grounde belonging to this House, or thet hath +been in times paste, alwaies set under Convent Seal for the wealthe of +the House." + +The convents were charitable as well as educational centres, although +their benevolent methods would not meet the approval of modern ideas +as to wise almsgiving. At the set time for the disbursement of alms, +the mendicants thronged the institution, and, by the liberality of +the donors, were encouraged to continue in a life of shiftlessness +and beggary. The disbursement of alms was really regarded by the +recipients not so much as an act of charity as something which they +had a right to expect. + +One of the best phases of conventual charity was its influence in +developing the benevolent tendencies of women of position and means. +The feudal system, as we have seen, was largely a system of dependent +relations, so that those who were in the lowest social scale felt +that they had a right to the gifts of those who were above them. By +the inevitable working of the system, the lives of the poor were +interwoven into the lives of their betters. It was a gracious work +of the Church to teach those who were in the fortunate places of +life their responsibility toward their less happily situated fellow +creatures, and the monastic almsgiving was a practical exemplification +of the spirit of the Gospel in so far as the customs and practices +of the times made possible a clear interpretation of its benevolent +teachings. Although charity was not organized, and was dealt directly +to the needy without investigation of their claims on any other ground +than actual and manifest want, and thus was in violation of modern +social tenets and methods, it yet furnishes one of the most engaging +chapters of mediaeval life. Modern benevolences, however different +from those of earlier times, nevertheless derive their spirit and +inspiration from the gracious charities of the mediaeval nuns. + +Under the incentive of the example of the monasteries, the great +ladies recognized and frequently performed their full duty toward +their dependants. The Countess of Richmond maintained a number of poor +people within her own walls. In the sixteenth century, Lady Gresham +left, by her will, tenements in the city, the rents of which were to +be used for the poor. The Countess of Pembroke built an almshouse and +procured for it a patent of corporation. These are but a few of many +illustrious examples of large charities which serve to brighten the +pages of mediaeval history. + +In the Middle Ages, charity was a personal obligation. With the +elimination of personal service, charity came increasingly to be +dispensed by voluntary associations. Of such organizations may be +instanced the Sisters of Charity and, in recent years, the various +orders of deaconesses. For although charity has gone outside the +bounds of the Church, its ministrations are directly traceable to the +convents, and it yet finds its most appropriate relations and allies +to be religion and the Church. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +THE WOMEN OF THE INDUSTRIAL CLASSES + + +The most remarkable fact of the twelfth century in England was the +growth of the towns. As has been already observed in a previous +chapter, the conquest of Britain by the Normans modified the +insularity of the people and brought them into closer communication +with the people of the continent. One of the most marked effects of +this change was the introduction into the country of skilled Norman +craftsmen. The stimulating effect of the influx of these specialized +workmen was in result not unlike the general awakening of trade and +commerce throughout Europe, at a later time, as the result of the +Crusades. + +The expansion of England's industry was also favored by the vigorous +administrations of Henry I. and Henry II. Another contributive factor +was the decline in power of the barons. Henry I. pitted the town +against the castle in order to counterbalance the vast influence which +was exerted by each. Henry's policy of limiting the independence of +the barons was furthered by the introduction of scutage, by which +the king was enabled to call to his aid mercenary troops and did not +have to rely wholly upon the feudal forces. Then, too, the Assize of +Arms restored the national militia to its former importance. Such, +in brief, were the constitutional measures by which the towns were +advantaged and their position as related to the castles in a sense +reversed. The liberty of the latter became increasingly curtailed, +while that of the former was correspondingly augmented. + +The town and the castle, however, were not antagonistic, the interests +of the former being furthered by the protection of the latter. The +monastery, also, aided the town by attracting trade. There was little +difference in conditions of life between the town and the country; +both engaged in agriculture as well as in trade, and both were +governed by a royal officer, or, it might be, by some lord's steward, +while, of course, the houses were somewhat more clustered in the town +than in the country, and the town possessed the merchant guild. It is +impossible to trace guilds to their origin, although Brentano seeks +to fix England as their birthplace. This is possible, however, only by +narrowing the definition of a guild to fit the English type. + +The earliest unmistakable mention of the merchant guild is at the end +of the eleventh or the beginning of the twelfth century. Under Henry +I., grants of merchant guilds appear in royal town charters, and are +frequently met with during succeeding reigns. By such charters the +original voluntary associations became exclusive bodies, to which +trade was confined. The retail trade of the town was restricted to +members of the guild individually, while the trade coming to the town +was shared by them all collectively. The burgesses generally found it +to their interest to become members of the guild, and all townsmen +of importance were traders. Ecclesiastics and women might also be +members of the guild, but they were, of course, debarred from becoming +burgesses. + +The exclusive tendencies which the merchant guild developed made +it really an oligarchy, and so there grew up in the towns an ever +increasing population that did not share the guild privileges. As the +town and its trade developed, the complexity of trade regulations made +it a convenience to have guilds with specialized functions, to which +the merchant guild might deputize its powers. It was quite natural, +too, that men working at the same trade, and having social and +neighborhood association, should desire to have a guild which would +represent their distinctive interests. Thus the craft guild arose, not +in antagonism to the merchant guild, but as a special agent of it. +So, in the reign of Henry I., there came about the associations of +the weavers, cordwainers, and fullers. By the end of the fourteenth +century craft guilds were numerous, and in some places the merchant +guild was superseded by them. In their composition the guilds were +made up of masters, journeymen, and apprentices, from whom were +elected the officers and assistances. Women were members of these +craft guilds, although they do not appear to have taken part in +the business administration. "The charter of the Drapers speaks of +both brethren and sistren, and the list of members, as given on +the occasions of 'cessments' shows women-members, both wives of +corn-brethren, independent tradeswomen, and widows of deceased +brothers." + +The relation of the women to some of the guilds seems to have been +largely a social one. Thus, we read in the rules of the Calendar +Guild, a religious fraternity, that the wives of guild members had +gone to such extremes in their entertainment of the guild as to cause +it to be stipulated that no woman should spend in excess of a certain +specified sum for hospitality toward the guilds; for these guilds were +formed for various purposes besides trade, and were in the nature of +friendly societies. In addition to their commercial side, they were +"associations for mutual help and social and religious intercourse +amongst the people." The proportion of women in the membership was +always large. In her introduction to _English Guilds_, Miss Toulmin +Smith says that "scarcely five out of five hundred were not formed +equally of men and women.... Even where the affairs were managed by a +company of priests, women were admitted as lay members, and they had +many of the same duties and claims upon the guilds as the men." + +Women's association with the guild was not a merely nominal one, for +they shared in all of its privileges and contributed to all of its +funds, although the payments asked of them were sometimes smaller. The +female as well as the male members had a right to wear the livery of +the guild. Women were engaged in trade and even in manufacture, and +so had direct interest in the craft guilds, aside from that which they +would naturally feel through the relations thereto of their husbands +and brothers. In the work of his trade a member was always allowed to +employ his wife, his children, and his maid, for the whole household +of the guild brother belonged to the guild. In later times this led to +the degeneration of the guilds into mere family monopolies. + +The fraternal feature of the craft guild reminds one of the same +features of the benevolent orders of the present time. If a member of +the guild, male or female, became impoverished through mishap, they +were cared for, and, if need arose, were buried; dowerless daughters +were provided with marriage portions, or, in case they wished to enter +the religious life, they were provided with the means to do so. Nor +must we overlook the large influence which the guilds exerted on the +side of morality, attaching, as they did, the greatest importance to +the moral character of their members. + +The great Drapers Company embraced in its membership many women who +trained apprentices and carried on business, as did the male members. +The rules of the company provided that "every brother or sister of the +fellowship taking an apprentice shall present him to the wardens, and +shall pay 13/4." The craft guilds exerted an admirable influence in +the raising of woman to the same plane of respect as that held by men. +The equality which was accorded them in these associations amounted to +a recognition of their intellectual and business capabilities as being +of the same order as those of the men. The respect which was shown +them is illustrated by a provision of the same company to which we +have just referred. It was ordered that when a "sister" died she +should be interred with fullest honors; the best pall was to be thrown +over her coffin, and the fraternity were to follow her to the grave +"with every respectful ceremony equally as the men." On the death of a +male member of a guild, his widow was privileged to carry on his trade +as one of the guild; and if a woman married a man of the same trade +who did not have the freedom of the guild, he acquired it by virtue of +the marriage; but should a woman marry a man of another trade, she was +thereby excluded from her guild connection. Such were the relations +of woman to the guilds. But Brentano notes an exception to the rule +that a widow who married again a man of the same trade conferred the +freedom of the guild upon him: "The wife of a poulterer may carry on +the said mystery after the death of her husband, quite as freely as if +her sire were alive; and if she marries a man not of the mystery, and +wishes to carry it on, she must buy the (right of carrying on the) +mystery in the above described manner; as she would be obliged to buy +the mystery, if her husband was of the mystery and had not yet bought +it; for the husband is not in the dominion of the wife, but the wife +is in the dominion of the husband." + +The democratic nature of the guilds tended to lessen class +distinctions and to bring about a true fellowship on the plane of +equality. The associations, as has been said, provided for their +members with loving care, and followed them with love to the grave: +"the ordinances as to this last act breathed the same spirit of +equality among her sons on which all her regulations were founded, and +which constituted her strength." In cases of insolvency at death, the +funerals of poor members were to be respected equally with those of +the rich. "The honor paid to the dead was also associated with the +duty of benevolence;" thus, for instance, in the statutes of the +fullers of Lincoln, it is said: "When any of the brethren and sistren +die, the rest shall give a halfpenny each to buy bread to be given +to the poor, for the soul's sake of the dead." The Grocers Company +admitted women after marriage to membership in their fraternity, and +they "enter and are looked upon as of the fraternity for ever, and are +assisted and made as one of us; and after the death of the husband, +the widow shall come to the dinner and pay 40d. if she is able." + +In the fourteenth century it was by no means unusual for women, even +though they were married, to carry on successfully large commercial +enterprises in their own name and by their individual effort. In the +_Liber Albus of London_, which was compiled in the fourteenth century, +there occurs an ordinance relating to this subject: "and where a +woman _coverte de baron_ follows craft within the said city by herself +apart, with which the husband in no way intermeddles, such woman shall +be bound as a single woman as to all that concerns her said craft. +And if the husband and wife are impleaded in such case, the wife shall +plead as a single woman in the Court of Record, and shall have her law +and other advantages by way of plea just as a single woman. And if she +is condemned, she shall be committed to prison until she shall have +made satisfaction; and neither the husband nor his goods shall in such +case be charged or interfered with." It will be seen from this that +women were accorded wide liberty in the conduct of business and, +whether married or single, preserved their independence of action and +control of property. The right that woman enjoyed before the courts of +being sued and of suing was, however, a negative one. + +The distresses to which women were subjected by the peculiar form of +liberty which they enjoyed is illustrated by the following quotation +from an enactment in the Statute of Laborers in the reign of Edward +III: "Every man and woman of our realm of England, of what condition +he be, free or bond, able of body and within the age of threescore +years, not living in merchandise, not exercising any craft nor having +of his own whereof he may live, nor proper land about whose tillage +he may himself occupy, and serving any other, if he be in convenient +service (his estate considered), be required to serve, he shall be +bounden to serve him which so shall him require.... And if any such +man or woman being so required to serve will not the same do,... he +shall be committed to the next gaol, there to remain under strait +keeping, till he find surety to serve in the form aforesaid." + +All of the oppressive enactments regulating the wages of laborers +and fixing the maximum of the sum that they were at liberty to accept +affected women equally with men. An enactment of Richard II. provided +"that no artificer, labourer, servant, nor victualler, man or woman, +should travel out of the hundred, rape, or wapentake where he is +dwelling, without a letter-patent under the King's seal, stating why +he is wandering, and that the term for which he or she had been hired +has been completed." Otherwise the offender might be put in a pair of +stocks, which was to be provided in every town. + +The guild system, despite its attitude toward women, was the beginning +of the narrowing of her industrial sphere. Prior to the importation +of skilled laborers in textile and other branches of industry, such +activities were identified with the homes of the people, not merely in +that the industry itself was conducted in them, but that the product +was limited to the needs of the household, the demands of charity, and +such surplus as was used in trade. The guild broadened the meaning of +industry to meet the demands of a rising commercial system whose trade +routes became clearly established and extended throughout Europe and +into the East. So that, while the industry of the women artificers +became limited in that many things which had largely occupied their +hands became the settled occupations of men, the products which still +depended mainly upon their industrial activity became much more widely +dispersed, and made them factors in the developing industries to +which England is so deeply indebted for her trade supremacy. With the +decline of guilds, there was a return on a very large scale to the +system of home industry, when every farmstead and rural cottage became +a manufacturing centre. The development of the factory system of the +eighteenth century, upon the introduction of improved machinery for +manufacture, completely removed industry from the home and created the +modern factory town. + +It is not our purpose to do more than suggest the influence which the +guilds exerted in bringing woman into the larger stream of English +life by the definition of her legal status which her industrial +consequence and activities made necessary. It has been already +remarked that the statutes of the times made her personally +responsible before the law as an industrial factor. In this way, woman +became increasingly regarded as a social integer rather than as simply +a domestic incident. This was a distinct gain in the end, however +crude the conception at first. The complex questions of woman's social +status are still largely centred about the question of her industrial +place. The insistent claim of the sex that they shall be regarded as +worthy of a part in the world's work projects into the discussion +of the place that she shall occupy many other questions concerning +matters which are immediately involved. It is not too much to say that +all of the issues which arose during the modern period, and together +form the specifications of the platform of "woman's rights," find +their beginning in this first responsible relation of woman to the +industry of the nation. Society is established upon an economic basis, +and so the problem of the duties and responsibilities of woman in a +public way must be centred about industry. It will not do to criticise +the crudeness of the early legislation regarding woman when she first +stepped into the arena of associated industry, and to remain oblivious +to the fact that the question of her industrial status is no more +satisfactorily determined after the lapse of centuries. It is true +that the question during these centuries became greatly involved +at times, as, for instance, at the period of the great industrial +revolution; but, with all the aspects which the question assumes +to-day and the problems which are related to it, the crux of the +matter is the same as it was at the time of the rise of the guilds. + +The guild ordinances took the view of woman as an industrial unit, +without regard to her personal relations. If she became a merchant +and associated herself with the guild, she was under the same laws +regarding financial responsibility as was any other member. The fact +that she was a woman, or that she was married and had children, did +not constitute a plea in her behalf for different treatment from that +accorded a guild brother. If a woman-merchant became a debtor, she had +to answer in court as any other merchant, and "an accyon of dette be +mayntend agenst her, to be conceyved aft' the custom of the seid lite, +w[^t] out nemyng her husband in the seid accyon." + +The legislation of the period generally recognized the equality of the +sexes in the matter of labor. An ordinance of Edward IV., made in the +borough of Wells, provided that both male and female apprentices to +burgesses should themselves become burgesses at the expiration of +their term of service. Similar statutes relating to apprentices +in London likewise made no distinction between boys and girls. The +problems centring about woman's relation to industry not having +arisen, the fact of her employment presented no serious difficulties. +When the proclamation of 1271, relating to the woollen industry, was +issued, it permitted "all workers of woolen cloths, male and female, +as well of Flanders as of other lands, to come to England to follow +their craft." Indeed, the women were less fettered than the men in +their industrial avocations, for, while by the statute of 1363 the men +were limited to the pursuit of one craft, women were left free in the +matter. + +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 quantities 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 document bore the title: +_The petition 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 petition 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 petition 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 classes of women is considered. The town-dwelling woman had the +privileges of guild association 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 class 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 +Essex 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 classes 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, +superstition 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 participant 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 assist 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 class 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 butter 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 Saturday, 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 assisting 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 classes to pass 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 coarse 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 class 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 destitute. 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 destitution 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 classes 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 constitute +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 classes, 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 class 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 classes--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 class 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 nobility, +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 class. 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 quantities 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 class 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. Passing into the hall, the visitor would +find himself in the most spacious 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 +superstition, 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 glass 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 illustrating 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 noble 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 assisted 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 assisted 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 massiveness 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 passed 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 attitudes. In a poem, written about +1430, entitled _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 God 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 +sex, 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 classes 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 sex, or with male company, +they wandered over the fields, gathering wild flowers and picnicking +in the woods, spreading upon the grass 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 illustrations; 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 passed from the stage of fad and become a +passion. 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 sex. Dinner was served at noon, +and the games, along with dancing, usually occupied the time of the +leisure classes until supper, which seems to have been served at six +o'clock. There was, of course, no other form of amusement that was so +well adapted to polite circles, or that could be participated 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 amusements 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 amusements, 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 illustrations, 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 glass 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 classes 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. +Among the Saxons and Normans it seems to have been confined to the +men, for during those periods the women kept their heads so completely +covered that there was no inducement for them to resort to such +practices; but at the time of which we are now treating the custom +had some vogue among the ladies, although it does not appear to have +become general until the reign of Elizabeth, when the ladies had +reduced the art to such a nicety that they were able to produce +various colors and, indeed, almost to change the substance of the hair +itself: + + "Lees she can make, that turn a hair that's old, + Or colour'd, into a hue of gold." + +A religious writer of the fifteenth century, declaiming against the +various adornments of the hair and the arts which were employed to +stimulate its growth as well as alter its color, and against the +practice of wearing false hair, says: "to all these absurdities, they +add that of supplying the defects of their own hair, by partially or +totally adopting the harvest of other heads." To point a moral, he +then gravely relates an anecdote to the effect that during the time +of a public procession at Paris, which had drawn a great multitude of +people together, an ape leaped upon the head of a certain fine lady, +and seizing her veil, tore it from her head; with it came her peruke +of false hair, so that it was discovered by the crowd that her +beautiful tresses were not her own; thus, by the very means to which +she had resorted to attract the admiration of the beholders, she +received their contempt and ridicule. + +A preposterous form of headdress arose in the time of Henry IV. and +became more exaggerated throughout the fifteenth century; this was +styled the horned headdress. It began with a heart-shaped headdress, +which rose higher on either side until, in the reign of Henry V., +the points of the heart had become veritable horns. This ungraceful +coiffure assumed all sorts of extravagant and absurd varieties. It +became a favorite mark for the shafts of the satirists and the jests +of the wits, to say nothing of themes for sermons; but the fair +ladies, invulnerable to all such criticisms, were not to be deterred +from indulging their pet follies. One of the first references to the +prevailing style was that made by John de Meun in his poem called +the _Codical_: "If I dare say it without making them [that is, the +ladies] angry, I should _dispraise_ their hosing, their vesture, +their girding, their head-dresses, their hoods thrown back with their +_horns_ elevated and brought forward, as if it were to wound us. +I know not whether they call them _gallowses_ or _brackets_, that +prop up the horns which they think are so handsome; but of this I am +certain, that Saint Elizabeth obtained not Paradise by the wearing of +such trumpery." But this style of hair dress was not made by the hair +after all, but by the wimple, which was raised on either side of the +head and supported by a frame or by pins. John de Meun flourished +at the beginning of the fourteenth century, and had he lived in the +fifteenth, when the horned headdress _par excellence_, made up of +prongs of hair protruding forward from the forehead, was in vogue, +he would have been still more aghast. These horns were carefully +constructed with the aid of rolls of linen. Sometimes they had two +long wings on either side, and received the name of "butterflies." +The high, pointed cap which was worn was covered with a piece of fine +lawn, which hung to the ground, and the greater part of which was +tucked under the wearer's arm. By a writer of the day we are told that +the ladies of the middle rank wore caps of cloth which consisted of +several breadths or bands twisted round the head, with two wings on +each side "like asses' ears." As one wanders through the mazes of +description of the hair dress of the period, he is prepared to agree +with the author to whom we have just referred, that "it is no easy +matter to give a proper description in writing of the different +fashions in the dresses of the ladies"; and so we shall submit the +case in terms of still another writer's description; Philip Stubbs +says: "Then followeth the trimming and tricking of their heads, in +laying out their hair to the show; which, of force, must be curled, +frizzled, and crisped, laid out in wreaths and borders, and from one +ear to another; and, lest it should fall down, it is underpropped with +forkes, wires, and I cannot tell what; then, on the edges of their +bolstered hair, for it standeth crested round about their frontiers, +and hanging over their faces, like pendices or vailes, with glass +windows on every side, there is laide great wreathes of gold and +silver, curiously wrought, and cunningly applied toe the temples of +their heads; and, for feare of lacking anything to set forth their +pride withal, at their hair thus wreathed and crested, are hanged +bugles, I dare not say bables, ouches, ringes of gold, silver, +glasses, and such other gew-gawes, which I, being unskillful in +woman's tearmes, cannot easily recompt." He then discusses the +"capital ornaments" upon the "toppes of these stately turrets," which +he informs us consisted of a French hood, hat, cap, kerchief, and such +like. He laments the fact that to such excesses did the fashions +go, and so widely were the women influenced by them, "that every +artificer's wife almost will not stike to goe in her hat of velvet +every day; every merchant's wife, and meane gentlewoman, in their +French hoods; and every poor cottager's daughter's daughter in her +taffeta hat, or else wool at least, well lined with silk, velvet, or +taffeta." He adds that they had other ornaments for the head, "made +net-wise," and which he says he believes were termed "cawles," the +object of this tinsel being to have the head with its ornaments +glisten and shine like a mass of gold. He then dismisses with a word +the "forked cappes" and "such like apish toyes of infinite variety." + +Face painting, which came in direct derivation from the tattooing of +the ancient Britons, is a practice that at the time of which we are +writing was very prevalent in England. It came under as vigorous +arraignment by the writers of the fifteenth century as did the +ridiculous forms of hair dress. The cosmetics in use were of many +sorts, and were usually injurious to the skin of the user. + +The dress of the women also fell under censure and satire, although +that of the men was even more strongly reprobated by contemporary +writers. It does not do to accept too readily the strictures passed +upon the dress of any age without considering the source of the +criticism. Throughout the Middle Ages, the clergy found dress a +convenient topic for their moralizing, and there is no doubt that the +strictures were often excessive, although the activity with which the +matter was discussed indicates the importance in which it then was +held and also makes it an important subject for our investigation as +a determining element in the study of the manners and customs of the +period as they relate to woman and reveal her to us. + +The great variety of fabrics, many of them imported, which were in use +enabled women to make a wide choice in the selection of material for +their clothing, while it also afforded the women of the lower orders +an opportunity for almost as varied a display as was made by those +in higher ranks. In the reign of Henry IV., who revived the sumptuary +legislation of the kingdom with regard to dress, Thomas Occliff, the +poet, in rebuking the extravagances of the times, speaks of those +who walked about in gowns of scarlet twelve yards wide, with sleeves +reaching to the ground and lined with fur, of value beyond twenty +pounds, and who, if they had been required to pay for what they wore, +would not have been able to buy enough fur to line a hood; and he adds +that the tailors must soon shape their garments in the open field +for lack of room to cut them in their houses. He mourns chiefly the +extravagance of dress on the part of the wealthy, because "a nobleman +cannot adopt a new guise, or _fashion_, but that a knave will follow +his example." + +After the middle of the fifteenth century, the ladies ceased to wear +the long trains which they had formerly affected, and substituted +excessively wide borders of fur or velvet. By the end of the century, +the dress of the two sexes was so nearly alike that it was difficult +to distinguish between them. The men wore skirts over their lower +clothing, their doublets were laced in front like a woman's stays, and +their gowns were open in the front to the girdle and again from the +girdle to the ground, where they trailed slightly. At first, the +ladies imitated the men, who wore greatly padded trunks, by extending +their garments from the hips with foxes' tails and "bum rolls," as +they were called; but as they could not hope to keep pace with +the vast protuberance of the men's trunks, they introduced the +farthingales, which enabled them to appear as large as they pleased. + +Such were the manners and styles of the period with which the Middle +Ages closed and the modern era began. They were not markedly different +from those of the later Middle Ages generally, but that was because +fundamental changes in society do not find their first expression in +matters which are superficial. The great revolution which had been +going on in the basic forms of society, through peaceful processes as +well as social upheavals and the prowess of arms, had its reflux more +in the morals than in the manners of the age. Nevertheless, one cannot +pursue the theme of custom and manners throughout the mediaeval period +without being conscious of a progress or development significant of +more than mere caprice. This, in fact, was the case. Any philosophic +treatment of English society during the Middle Ages would have to +take cognizance of manners and customs as indices of the growth of +political, constitutional, and religious principles; and in this +growth would appear the consistently developing status of woman. + +While it is difficult to fix upon any one fact as comprehending the +condition of women in English society at the close of the Middle +Ages and the beginning of the new era, there is one which challenges +attention. In reaping the harvest of the narrow and bigoted times +through which she passed, woman found herself possessed of one sort of +fruitage, namely, public rights. The essential equality of the woman +and the man, which first appeared in the castle, had become a general +fact of English society. Feudalism and its vassalage of the female +sex had disappeared, and the women of the industrial classes, whatever +their economic condition, became sovereigns of themselves. The women +of the towns, largely through the instrumentality of the guilds, had +established precedents which marked the path of their progress as +"persons" before the law. Associated industry drew them out of their +homes, or at least out of the limited sphere of home life, and placed +in their hands the loom and the spindle of the world's industry. "The +candle" of the goodwife "that went not out by night" no longer burned +for the provident industry of household needs, but became a veritable +torch to illumine the paths of England's commerce and to add to that +glory of civilization which constitutes her commercial greatness. + +Out of the whole body of womankind, the Church had chosen to select +a class of women who were dedicated to its service and who taught by +their acts the responsibility of the prosperous toward their needy +brethren; while this does not appear to have been a benefit to women +generally, but simply a training in charity for the classes who were +consecrated to that object, nevertheless the influence of these chosen +women upon their sex, in awakening their keener sensibilities toward +poverty and distress, aided in placing upon the brow of woman +the queenly crown of compassion which has made her so largely a +ministering force in modern society. + +The elegance and refinement of the women of the manors, as well as the +stability and resourcefulness of the wives of the wealthy burghers, +already gave indication of the development of the splendid type of +modern English society known as the country gentry and the no less +admirable class of the English tradespeople. Indeed, the evolution +of the middle class as a conservative force is one of the greatest +factors to be considered in mediaeval study. "Blue blood," once +regarded as a peculiar strain of vital fluid by which, through some +mysterious means, the upper stratum of society was marked off from the +lower, came to be detected in the veins of those whose only pedigree +was poverty and whose only claim upon the consideration and respect of +their fellows was real worth of character. An aristocracy which could +be repleted from the plebeian ranks of the middle classes of society, +upon whose members titles were bestowed, not because of their +readiness to respond to the needs of the privy purse of a monarch, but +because they had assumed leading and important positions in relation +to England's honor and power, was an aristocracy that did not become +archaic or degenerate. The equality of opportunity, which is the pride +and promise of modern society, had its beginnings in those early days +when the gate of emergence from lower class conditions was so seldom +opened far anyone to pass out to where the ascent of Parnassus might +quicken his ambition. + +Long after feudalism had ceased, however, it was difficult to disabuse +the minds of people of the idea that the blood which flowed in +the veins of a gentleman was different from that of a peasant or a +burgher. It is curious to note one of the legendary explanations of +the division of blood as given by Alexander Barclay, a poet of the +reign of Henry VII. According to his story, while Adam was occupied +with his agricultural labors, Eve sat at home with her children about +her, when she suddenly became aware of the approach of the Creator, +and ashamed of the number of her children, she hurriedly concealed +those which were less favored in appearance. Some she placed under +hay, some under straw and chaff, some in the chimney, and some in a +tub of draff; but such as were fair and comely she kept with her. +The Lord told her that He had come to see her children, that He might +promote them in their different degrees. When she presented them, +according to age, one was ordained to be a king, another a duke, and +so on through the list of high dignities. The maternal solicitude of +Eve made her unwilling that the concealed children should miss all +the honors, and she brought them forth from their hiding places. Their +rough and unkempt appearance, which was due to the nature of their +places of concealment, added to their unprepossessing personalities, +disgusted the Lord with them. "None," He said, "can make a vessel +of silver out of an earthen pitcher, or goodly silk out of a goat's +fleece, or a bright sword out of a cow's tail; neither will I, though +I can, make a noble gentleman out of a vile villain. You shall all be +ploughmen and tillers of the ground, to keep oxen and hogs, to dig and +delve, and hedge and dike, and in this wise shall ye live in endless +servitude. Even the townsmen shall laugh you to scorn; yet some of +you shall be allowed to dwell in cities, and shall be admitted to +such occupations as those of makers of puddings, butchers, cobblers, +tinkers, costard-mongers, hostlers, or daubers." This, so the story +informs us, was the beginning of servile labor; and such a view of +caste was no more displeasing to the peasantry, who knew nothing +better, than it was to the baron, whose pride it pampered. + +A poem of the latter part of the fifteenth century gives the wishes +appropriate to the men and women of the different ranks of French +society. Those of the women are most characteristic. Thus, the queen +wishes to love God and the king, and to live in peace; the duchess, to +have all the enjoyments and pleasures of wealth; the countess, to have +a husband who is loyal and brave; the knight's lady, to hunt the stag +in the green woods; the lady of gentle blood also loves hunting, and +wishes for a husband valiant in war; the chamber maiden takes pleasure +in walking in the fair fields by the riversides; while the burgher's +wife loves, above all things, a soft bed at night, with a good pillow +and clean white sheets. This statement of the characteristic desires +of the various classes of French women holds good as well for the +English women of that period. + +The court of Burgundy, which, during the fifteenth century, was +notable for its pomp and magnificence and its ostentatious display +of wealth, was regarded as furnishing the models of high courtesy +and gentle breeding; and it was the centre of literature and +art. Circumstances had brought the court of England into intimate +connection with it, so that England was more affected by Burgundy +than by any other part of Europe. The social character in England +and France, which, to some extent, had followed parallel lines since +the Norman conquest, now began to diverge widely. The breakdown of +feudalism in England, where it had never been so fully developed as +in France, was not contemporaneous with French conditions in this +respect. Consequently, in the latter country, the chasm between the +lower and the upper strata of society grew ever wider, the lower +classes becoming more and more miserable, and the upper more immoral. +In England, as we have seen, serfdom disappeared, or existed in name +only, and the relation between the country gentry and the peasants +became increasingly intimate and kindly. The growth of commerce had +spread wealth among the middle classes and had added much to their +social comfort. Although social manners were still very coarse, the +influence of religious reformers, such as the Lollards, was being felt +in an improvement in the moral tone of the middle and lower classes +of society. Moreover, the discussion of great social questions had +become general among the people. Even in the middle of the fourteenth +century, the celebrated poem of _Piers Plowman_ took up such +discussions, and one of the tenets of the Lollards was the natural +equality of man. In England, conditions were ripe for the advent of a +new era, and in the fulness of time there came forth the spirit of new +learning, of new industry, of exploration, of investigation, and of +religious freedom, to lead the English people into the inheritance for +which they had been prepared by those centuries over a part of which +hung such a pall as to secure for them the title of the Dark Ages. + + + + +CHAPTER X + +THE WOMEN OF THE TUDOR PERIOD + + +As the year has its seasons, marked by alternations of active growth +and recuperation for new development, so likewise has history. If the +Middle Ages were a time of comparative dearth as viewed in the light +of the modern era, certainly there was ample vitality hidden in the +quiet forms and the mechanical fixity of the period. The season of +vernal glory for England, which opened with the reign of Henry VIII. +and found its climax in that of Elizabeth, was glorious because the +beauty and brilliancy which characterized it were due to the splendid +utilities which were passed on to it from the Middle Ages. Art, +literature, and the pleasant pastimes of leisure--the affluence of +prosperity--are the efflorescence of a people's history, though the +absence of these graces and privileges of life may not mean a dearth +in any profound sense, for it may be that their absence but indicates +a lack of favoring conditions for the root stock to put forth foliage +and flower. The simple form of social life which obtained during the +Middle Ages, as contrasted with the brilliancy of intellect and the +breadth of view of the modern era, does not denote any important +difference in the character of the great mass of the English people, +any more than it can be said of the fallow land not under cultivation +that it has less productivity than the fields which by the waving +grain give evidence of their fertile worth. + +The easy acceptance in modern times of the benefits of inventions +which greatly broaden the scope of living and add immeasurably to its +comfort shows how readily people adjust themselves to advances in the +conditions of life. So that which we look upon as an era was not so +considered by the people who witnessed the stimulus which we regard +as the beginning of all modern intellectual and social life. For +this reason, we need not expect to discover in the women of the early +modern period any radical difference from their sisters of preceding +generations; but we shall find that, with the change of environment +and the coming of a better state of life in general, womankind was +gradually and insensibly affected in ways of permanent improvement. +The opening up of new avenues of human interest and the enlargement of +old ones increased the sphere of woman's life and influence; yet had +it not been for the status she had achieved already, she would no more +have entered prominently into the blessings and privileges of the new +era than did the women of Greece generally benefit by the Golden Age +of Pericles. + +It is interesting to note that at the beginning of the modern era +population was increasing so slowly as to be practically stationary, +and, indeed, for generations past there had been no appreciable +increase. Even after the favorable conditions of the reign of Henry +VIII. became general, population made comparatively slow progress. +Families were not so numerous, or the number of their members so +great, as compared with to-day. It was an exception for a laborer to +maintain his family in a cottage to themselves. Farm work was commonly +done under the superintendence of country esquires, and the laborers +lived in the paternal cottage and remained single, marrying only when +by their providence they had managed to save enough to enable them +to enter upon some other career. The competition of other countries, +notably France, with the industries of England proved disastrous to +many forms of England's industrial activities; and to the introduction +into the kingdom of a number of wares and merchandise of foreign +make was attributed the great number of idle people throughout the +realm. To counteract this condition, Henry issued statutes for the +encouragement of manufacturing. One of these aimed to stimulate the +linen industry. In order that the men and women living in idleness, +which was styled "that most abominable sin," might have profitable +employment, it was ordained and enacted that every person should sow +one-quarter of an acre in flax or hemp for every sixty acres he might +have under cultivation. The immediate purpose of the act was to keep +the wives and children of the poor at work in their own houses, but it +also indicated that the condition of manufactures in England was not +such as to encourage an enlarging population. + +The condition of the laboring classes during the reign of Henry VIII. +was not such as to excite general dissatisfaction; indeed, there are +evidences of a general state of contentment among the people. The laws +for the encouragement of trade and the sumptuary legislation for the +regulation of wages and prices were economic measures which may not +stand the test of examination according to modern ideas, but which +nevertheless tended, on the whole, to benefit those in whose behalf +they were made. Industry was the spirit of the times, and idleness was +the most abhorrent of vices. Men, women, and children, alike, were to +be trained in some craft or other, to prevent their becoming public +charges. The children of parents who could afford the fees which were +exacted for apprenticeship were set to learn trades, and the rest were +bound out to agriculture; and if the parents failed to see to it that +their children were started out in a career of labor, the mayors or +magistrates had authority to apprentice such children, so that when +they grew up they might not be driven to dishonest courses by want or +incapacity. + +Throughout the sixteenth century, all classes of society appear to +have had a reasonable degree of prosperity, according to their several +needs and stations. The country gentlemen lived upon their landed +estates, surrounded by those evidences of solid comfort which give +attractiveness to such life. The income of the squire was sufficient +to afford a moderate abundance for himself and his family, and between +him and the commons there was not a wide difference in this respect. +Among all classes of the people there was a spirit of liberality, +open and free; the practicality of the age was not inaccordant with +generous hospitality. To every man who asked it, there were free +fare and free lodging, and he might be sure of a bountiful board of +wholesome food. Bread, beef, and beer for dinner, and a mat of rushes +in an unoccupied corner of the hall, with a billet of wood for +a headrest, did not constitute luxurious entertainment, but were +regarded as elements of real comfort. Nor was the generous hospitality +proffered to strangers often abused; the statutes of the times kept +suspicious characters under such close notice, and were so repressive +of predatory and vicious instincts, that there was little occasion +for alarm such as is felt by the modern housewife in country districts +along much-travelled roads. The hour of rising, both summer and +winter, was four o'clock; breakfast was served at five, after which +the laborers went to their work and the gentlemen to their business. +Life lacked much of modern refinement, although it made up for this +lack in wholesomeness and heartiness. The large number of beggars in +the reign of Henry VIII. was due in part to the suppression of the +monasteries and the drying up of those springs of charity, and the +open-handed hospitality which had encouraged begging while relieving +distress. Upon the assumption that there was no excuse for an +able-bodied vagrant, the penalties imposed upon "sturdy beggars" +were severe. Such, in brief, was the state of English society at the +beginning of the modern era. + +The influence of the Church was on the wane before the rupture with +the papacy was brought about by Henry VIII., and the laity were +beginning to assume the positions, liberties, and privileges which had +appertained to the clergy as the one scholarly and dominant class +of the kingdom. Under the new conditions of liberty in which we find +woman, there was no room for the continuance of even the forms of +chivalry. Idealized woman no longer existed; she had become practical. +Having sought a position of public activity, she had been recognized +as possessing the private rights of an individual of the same nature +and of similar status as man. It was no longer needful to go to the +convent to find the religious or intellectual types of womankind, for +religion, benevolence, and literature were no longer identified only +with the cloister. However disastrous was the suppression of the +monasteries to the little bands of women who wore the habit of the +_religieuse_, women in general did not feel the upheaval nearly so +much as they did the other social changes, which were not so radical, +but were very much more influential in their relation to the destiny +of the sex as a whole. + +Although manners were very free, and nowhere more so than among +persons of the higher orders of society, such coarseness is not the +true criterion by which to gauge the women of the day. Even if they +did not hesitate to use profanity, were adepts at coquetry of an +undisguised type, and were guilty of conduct which merited more +than the term "indiscreet," it must be borne in mind that they were +creatures of their times. While English society was noted for its +rudeness and coarseness, it was saved from much of the effeminacy +which poisoned the life of its neighbors on the continent. The +sixteenth century took a more generous, complimentary, and true view +of womankind. In the Middle Ages, she suffered from the exaggerated +praise of the knight and the troubadour on the one hand, and on the +other from the contempt and contumely of the ecclesiastic. From this +equivocal position of being at the same time an angel and a devil she +was rescued by the sanity and sincerity of the sixteenth century, and +was placed in her true position as a woman, possessed of essentially +the same characteristics as men, worthy of like honor, and making +appeal for no special consideration excepting that which her sex +evoked instinctively from men. The modern idea had begun to prevail, +and woman was no longer either worshipped or shunned, but was welcomed +as a sharer of the common burdens and joys of life. To continental +observers it was marvellous that the English woman should have +the large amount of liberty that she enjoyed; and Europeans not +understanding the English point of view were apt to construe such +liberty as boldness. Thus, one writer from abroad is found commenting +upon the sixteenth-century English woman as follows: "The women have +much more liberty than perhaps in any other place; they also know well +how to make use of it; for they go dressed out in exceedingly fine +clothes, and give all their attention to their ruffs and stuffs to +such a degree indeed that, as I am informed, many a one does not +hesitate to wear velvet in the streets, which is common with them, +whilst at home perhaps they have not a piece of dry bread." + +Elizabeth Lamond's _Discourse of the Commonweal_ recites that there +was more employment for the men and women of the towns and cities +when the wants of people were more modest. The population of London, +despite the attempts made by Queen Elizabeth to prevent the influx +of foreigners and persons from the rural districts, increased rapidly +during her reign. On coming into the city, the rustics soon wasted +their small savings in the rioting and revels which characterized the +rough life of the metropolis. Drinking, gambling, and all forms of +license enticed the husband from his home and destroyed the domestic +felicity which had been the characteristic of country living. Country +and town life were still widely separated by bad roads and poor means +of conveyance. The wives even of the gentry knew, as a rule, nothing +of city life, excepting from the accounts which their husbands might +bring back to them from occasional jaunts to the metropolis; to all +such accounts they listened with wide-eyed wonder. + +The amusements of the women of the better sort, who did not find +their entertainment in the vices of the times, took chiefly the form +of spectacles, to which they readily flocked. It mattered little +whether it was a mask, a miracle play, a church procession or a +royal progress, a cock fight or a bear baiting. The brutality of +their sports no more affected their feelings than do the revolting +circumstances of a bull fight shock the sensibilities of the women of +Spain's cultured circles. When any morning they might see the heads +of some unfortunates stuck on pikes and gracing with their gruesome +presence the city gate, it is not surprising that the people were not +repelled by brutal exhibitions of a lesser sort. Nor did the forms +of punishment in use for malefactors of one kind or another tend to +soften the feelings of the women of the time. It was no unusual thing +for a woman convicted of being a common scold to be seen going about +the streets with her face behind an iron muzzle clamped over her +mouth, a subject for the jeers and ribald mirth of coarse-minded women +no better than herself. Such characters were also taken to the ducking +stool and thoroughly doused in the water. The punishment of thieves +by branding and by mutilation, and the punishment meted out to women +whose characters, even in that gross age, affronted public morals, +were of a public nature and matters of daily observation. Nor was any +woman quite sure that the gibbet, from which she could at almost any +time see the swaying form of some unfortunate, might not next serve +for the execution of her own husband; for the number of capital +offences was large, and the inquiries of justice by no means lenient +on the side of the accused. + +The destruction of the monasteries brought about, in a large measure, +the dissolution of the educational system of the realm. The sons of +the poor husbandman, who had been taught at the convent schools, and +then passed on through the universities, and thence had gradually +worked their way into the professions of religion or the law, had +the door of opportunity to a higher station closed to them. The +deprivation was more severe in the case of girls, although it did not +signify so much for them in relation to their future--unless, indeed, +it did so by debarring from the profession of religion some who might +have entered it. The clergy tried to meet the educational demands +which were so suddenly thrown upon them, but it was impossible for +them to afford educational facilities for the youth of either sex at +schools without endowment or adequate support. Elizabeth, with the +wide view and the sagacity which she showed with regard to all aspects +of her kingdom, evinced her recognition of the importance of education +by establishing one hundred free grammar schools, whose number rapidly +increased during her reign. In the course of time, these schools fell +under the control of the middle class and afforded education for their +sons and daughters. But in England there were certainly very few, if +any, women of the middle class who entered largely into the benefits +of the new learning which came in with the Renaissance. The study +of Latin and Greek and the discussion of philosophy and science were +confined to the women of the leisure classes. The English universities +in the sixteenth century were closed to women; but such lack was +made up by private tutors, women of rank and position thus having the +benefit of the brightest minds of the age. + +The great awakening of intellectual life in England, in common +with the continental countries, showed itself in activity in all +departments of thought: poetry flourished, theology caught the +infection of the new spirit of liberty, and the classics were studied +with avidity as the springs of the world's literature and learning. +The invention of the printing press let loose the floods of knowledge, +and the women of the higher classes were caught in the flow of +books and pamphlets, and their intellects were quickened and their +characters formed by these new sources of inspiration and wisdom. +Woman was no longer designated as the daughter of the Church, which +was formerly the highest encomium that the condescension of the Church +could afford her. She now stood on her own independence of character, +possessed of an intellect and accorded the freedom of its use. + +The example of the Virgin Queen was held up to the youth of England +for their imitation. Elizabeth's education had been most zealously +cared for. To her remarkable aptitude for learning she added a +studious disposition. At an early age she was an accomplished +linguist; the sciences were familiar to her, she "understood +the principles of geography, architecture, the mathematics, and +astronomy." Her studies, save one, however, she regarded rather in the +light of pastime; to the exception--history--she "devoted three hours +a day, and read works in all languages that afforded information on +the subject." Thus was her mind stored with the philosophy of history; +men and events in their ever changing relations were an open book to +her. Hence, when the responsibilities of sovereignty devolved upon +her she was resourceful and prompt. Whether dealing with her ambitious +subjects, or receiving the wily ambassador of a foreign power, her +poise could not be disturbed. + +With the example and influence of the Tudor princesses before them, +the women least needed the exhortation to intellectual attainments. +It was said by a foreign scholar who visited England in the middle of +the sixteenth century that "the rich cause their sons and daughters +to learn Latin, Greek, and Hebrew, for, since this storm of heresy +has invaded the land, they hold it useful to read the Scriptures in +the original tongue." With all the profession of knowledge which +was assumed by the people of this age, there went a great deal of +pedantry. It became very tiresome to listen to the conversations of +select bodies of the devotees of the new wisdom, who had touched +but the skirts of the garments of the Muses. The great number of +literary coxcombs and dilettanti who were scribbling Latin verse and +propounding philosophical theses, or pronouncing upon new theological +views, serves to impress one with the superficiality of the learning +of the day, so far as is concerned the great body of its professed +disciples, while in contrast to these we are led to respect more +profoundly the genuine attainments of the brilliant group of men and +women who made the reign of Elizabeth illustrious for its varied and +almost matchless learning. In spite of all the pretence to learning on +the part of the great mass of women who had neither the taste nor the +capacity to drink deep at the Pyrenean spring, it must be said that +in no other period of English history has there been shown such marked +and general eagerness for knowledge as in the sixteenth century, nor +has any other period exhibited such a galaxy of great women. The +wide diffusion of a love of literature is in striking contrast to the +literary dearth of the preceding centuries. + +It was not, however, a period of brilliant authorship among women. +The new learning had first to be imbibed and become a part of the +national thought before it could express itself in literary products. +Translations of the classics and the works of the Church Fathers, with +literary correspondence and discussions in choice Latin prose, as well +as the composition of distiches in the same tongue, with occasional +instances of adventure into Greek and Hebrew composition, summed up +the literary labors of the women of the times. As such matters possess +little interest to posterity, not many of these literary essays and +letters have been preserved; but such as have come down to us mirror +the intellect of the women of the age so creditably as to invite +comparison with the results of modern education for the sex. + +Lady Jane Grey may be cited as one of the women of the day who became +notable for learning and scholarship. Of her, Fox writes: "If her +fortune had been as good as her bringing up, joined with fineness +of wit, undoubtedly she might have seemed comparable not only to the +house of the Vespasians, Sempronians, and the mother of the Gracchi, +yea, to any other women besides that deserve of high praise for their +singular learning, but also to the University men, who have taken +many degrees of the Schools." The facility of this noble lady in Greek +composition was strongly commended by Roger Ascham. Her remarkable +knowledge of the cognate tongues of the East and of modern languages +made her almost deserving of the encomium which was passed upon Anna +Maria van Schurman, a Dutch contemporary, of whom it was said: "If all +the languages of the earth should cease to exist, she herself would +give them birth anew." The conversance of the literary ladies of the +sixteenth century with the languages of the East, as well as with +philosophy and theology, and the really marvellous attainments of some +of them in these subjects, indicate a sound education, even though an +unserviceable one. + +Erasmus warmly commended the Princess Mary for her proficiency in +Latin, and in later years she translated Erasmus's _Paraphrase of the +Gospel of Saint John_. Udall, Master of Eton, who wrote the preface to +this work, complimented her for her "over-painful study and labour of +writing," by which she had "cast her weak body in a grievous and long +sickness." The literary attainments and linguistic versatility of +Elizabeth herself, which made her a criterion for her times, are well +enough known to need no especial notice here. She had the benefit of +instruction from Roger Ascham, with whom she read the classics, and +from Grindal, under whom she studied theology, which was a favorite +subject with her. In Italian, Castiglione was her master, and Lady +Champernon was her first tutor in modern languages. She became +familiar with the works of the Greek and Latin authors by hearing them +read to her by Sir Henry Savil and Sir John Fortescue. In this way she +became intimately acquainted with Plato, Aristotle, and Xenophon, +and herself translated one of the dialogues of the latter, besides +rendering two orations of Isocrates from Greek into Latin. + +Among other studious and accomplished women of the times, Sir Thomas +More's daughters held a high place. All of them were clever and +applied themselves to abstruse subjects; but Margaret, wife of William +Roper, the daughter who clung passionately to her father's neck when +he was being led off to execution, was the most brilliant of this +family of accomplished women. Sir Anthony Coke, whose scholarship gave +him the position of preceptor to Edward VI., had the gratification of +seeing his daughters attract the attention of the most celebrated men +of the nation. One of them married Lord Burleigh, the treasurer of +the realm; another wedded Sir Nicholas Bacon, lord keeper of the Great +Seal, becoming in time the mother of the famous Francis Bacon, the +celebrated philosopher; and as her second husband, the third had Lord +Russell. + +Nothing delighted the brilliant women of the Elizabethan era so much +as to have themselves surrounded by great writers, statesmen, and +other celebrities. Stately magnificence was maintained at many of the +great houses, and the presence of noted artists and celebrated authors +gave to such homes an intellectual atmosphere. One of the centres of +intellectual thought and literary life of her time was the home of +Mary Sidney, after she had become the wife of Henry, Earl of Pembroke, +and mistress of his establishment at Wilton. Around her hospitable +board gathered poets, statesmen, and artists, drawn there not by the +rank of the hostess or to satisfy her pride by their presence and +fame, but because her cultivated intellect made her a fit companion +for the greatest intellectual personages of the day. To have had the +honor of entertaining, as guests, Shakespeare and Ben Jonson, besides +the lesser poets of the time, and to have been recognized by such +literati as worthy of their serious consideration because of her +undoubted gifts, not only reflected high compliment upon the lady, +but lasting credit upon her sex, and was one of the many significant +things of the Elizabethan era which indicated how wide open stood +the door of intellectual progress and equality of opportunity for the +women of modern times. Spenser celebrated the Countess of Pembroke as: + + "The gentlest shepherdess that liv'd that day, + And most resembling in shape and spirit + Her brother dear." + +Udall, the Master of Eton, speaks enthusiastically of the great number +of women in the noble ranks of society, "not only given to the study +of human sciences and strange tongues, but also so thoroughly expert +in the Holy Scriptures that they were able to compare with the +best writers as well in enditeing and penning of Godly and fruitful +treatises to the instruction and edifying of realmes in the knowledge +of God, as also in translating good books out of Latin or Greek into +English for the use and commodity of such as are rude and ignorant of +the said tongues. It was now no news in England to see young damsels +in noble houses and in the courts of princes, instead of cards and +other instruments of idle trifling, to have continually in their hands +either Psalms, homilies, and other devout meditations, or else Paul's +Epistles, or some book of Holy Scripture matters, and as familiarly +both to read and reason thereof in Greek, Latin, French, or Italian as +in English. It was now a common thing to see young virgins so trained +in the study of good letters that they willingly set all other vain +pastimes at nought for learning's sake. It was now no news at all +to see Queens and ladies of most high estate and progeny, instead +of courtly dalliance, to embrace virtuous exercises of reading and +writing, and with most earnest study both early and late to apply +themselves to the acquiring of knowledge, as well in all other liberal +artes and disciplines, as also most especially of God and His holy +word." + +The doubts as to the utility of higher education for women in general +which trouble some minds at the present day were not altogether +unknown in the age of Elizabeth. Ecclesiastics especially, even +the more liberal, were most prone to entertain doubts as to the +advisability of permitting women to have a free range through the +avenues of knowledge. It is probable that the middle classes, to whom +the opportunities of education were not so general, felt the value of +schools too highly to speculate upon the utility of that which was not +readily within their grasp. Richard Mulcaster, who was the master of +a school founded by the Merchant Taylors Company in the parish of St. +Lawrence, Pultney, says: "We see young maidens be taught to read and +write, and can do both with praise; we have them sing and playe: and +both passing well, we know that they learne the best and finest of our +learned languages, to the admiration of all men. For the daiely spoken +tongues and of best reputation in our time who so shall deny that they +may not compare even with our kinde even in the best degree ... Nay, +do we not see in our country some of that sex so excellently well +trained and so rarely qualified either for the tongues themselves +or for the matter in the tongues: as they may be opposed by way of +comparison, if not preferred as beyond comparison, even to the best +Romaine or Greekish paragones, be they never so much praised to the +Germaine or French gentle-wymen by late writers so well liked: to +the Italian ladies who dare write themselves and deserve fame for +so doing?... I dare be bould, therefore, to admit young maidens to +learne, seeing my countrie gives me leave and her costume standes for +me.... Some Rimon will say, what should wymend with learning? Such a +churlish carper will never picke out the best, but be alway ready to +blame the worst. If all men used all pointes of learning well, we had +some reason to alledge against wymend, but seeing misuse is commonly +both the kinds, why blame we their infirmitie whence we free not +ourselves." He then contends that a young gentlewoman who can write +well and swiftly, sing clearly and sweetly, play well and finely, and +employ readily the learned languages with some "logicall helpe to chop +and some rhetoricke to brave," is well furnished, and that such a one +is not likely to bring up her children a whit the worse, even if she +becomes a Loelia, a Hortensia, or a Cornelia. In discussing whether or +not girls should be taught by their own sex, he inclines to the belief +that this practice were advisable, but that discreet men might teach +girls to advantage. To use his own words: "In teachers, their owne +sex were fittest in some respects, but ours frame them best, and, +with good regard to some circumstances, will bring them up excellently +well." In the higher circles, where cynicism frequently assumes the +forms of wisdom, it was not universally agreed that women should +have the widest opportunities of education. In one of his discourses, +Erasmus, possibly the most accomplished of the schoolmen of the time, +opens to our view the opinion of the Church as to female scholarship +when he represents an abbot as contending that if women were learned +they could not be kept under subjection, "therefore it is a wicked, +mischievous thing to revive the ancient custom of educating them." A +remark in one of Erasmus's letters lays him open to the suspicion of +sharing somewhat in this view, for, in his description of Sir Thomas +More, he speaks of him as wise with the wise, and jesting with +fools--"with women especially, and his own wife among them." + +Besides the graver matters of study which claimed their attention, the +women of England were devoted to music, needlework, and dancing, which +were the favorite fashionable pastimes. Erasmus speaks of them as +the most accomplished in musical skill of any people. Early as the +reign of Henry VIII., to read music at sight was not an uncommon +accomplishment, while those who aspired to the technique of the +subject were students of counterpoint. Musical literature was scanty; +the principal instruments were the lute, the mandolin, the clavichord, +and the virginals. + +Notwithstanding its literary flavor and its identity with the great +themes of modern knowledge, the age of Elizabeth can hardly be called +a serious one from the point of view of the spirit and manners of the +people. Amusement was sought for its own sake, without regard to +its character or quality. The spirit of enjoyment was hearty and +unrestrained, and lacked discrimination and refinement. The society +of the age, like its culture, was a reflex of the personality of the +powerful queen, who stamped her character and her tastes upon her +people. The queen, as well as her courtiers, could restrain herself +upon occasion; but neither she nor her subjects felt that there was +any moral or conventional need to place a check upon the expression +of their emotions, and in consequence their manners were often +unbecoming. It did not offend the sense of personal dignity of +Elizabeth to spit at a courtier, the cut or color of whose coat +displeased her, just as she might box his ears or rap out at him +a flood of profanity. When Leicester was kneeling to receive his +earldom, the dignity of the occasion was entirely destroyed by the +volatile queen bending over to tickle his neck. As it was a case of +like queen, like people, a man who could not or who would not swear +was accounted "a peasant, a clown, a patch, an effeminate person." +The _sine qua non_ for obtaining the queen's favor was to be amusing. +It mattered nothing at all at whose expense, or how personal +the witticism, or how sensitive the one who was made the butt of +amusement; if the queen enjoyed it, and the boisterous laughter of the +court sycophants was evoked, the sufferer had to appear gratified at +the honor of his selection for his sovereign's entertainment. Coarse +manners were but the expression of coarser morals; even men of the +cleanest characters and highest intelligence did not shrink from any +allusion, however gross, and felt no impulse to check their words +either in speech or in writing. Nor were women a whit more regardful +of the proprieties of expression. Ascham blamed the degradation of +English morals in part on the custom of sending abroad young men to +Italy to finish their education, and alleged that the corruption which +they underwent at the "court of Circe" was responsible for the spread +of vicious manners in English society. He writes: "I know divers that +went out of England, men of innocent life, men of excellent learning, +who returned out of Italy, not only with worse manners, but also with +less learning." He complains of the introduction of Italian books +translated into English, which were sold in every shop of London, by +which the morals of the youth were corrupted, and whose venom was +the more insidious because they appeared under honest titles and were +dedicated to virtuous and honorable personages. As there was no public +opinion to censure the reading of the women, or standards to control +their conversation, they did not feel the impropriety of acquainting +themselves with such works and of openly discussing them. Indeed, the +women of the nobility felt themselves freed from all the restraints +which the modest of the sex normally cherish for their protection. + +An illustration of the freedom of the manners of the women is found +in the correspondence of Erasmus, who, on coming to England as a young +man, was impressed by the prevalence of the custom of kissing. In a +letter to a friend in Holland, he says, in effect, that the women kiss +you on meeting you, kiss you on taking their leave; when you enter +their homes, you are greeted with kisses, and are sped on your way by +the same osculatory exercises; and he adds, after you have once tasted +the freshness of the lips of the rosy English maidens, you will not +want to leave this delightful country. A further illustration of the +same thing is found in a manual of so-called English conversation, +published in 1589: a traveller on arriving at an inn is instructed +to discourse as follows with the chambermaid, and her conventional +replies are given: "My shee frinde, is my bed made--is it good?" "Yea, +sir, it is a good feder-bed; the scheetes be very cleane." "Pull off +my hosen and warme my bed; drawe the curtines, and pin them with a +pin. My shee frinde, kisse me once, and I shall sleape the better. I +thank you, fayre mayden." This suggestion of the manners obtaining in +the English inns is but an indication of a similar state of freedom +throughout the lower classes of society. For while the glory of the +Elizabethan age was found mostly at the top of society, its coarseness +pervaded all ranks. + +The rough manners of the age extended to the countenancing of all +sorts of brawls. There was nothing that would collect a crowd sooner +than two boys whose pugnacity had led them from words to blows; the +passers-by considered such a scene fine sport, and gathered about the +young combatants to encourage them in their fighting. Even the mothers +themselves, far from punishing their children for such conduct, +encouraged it in them. Cock fighting, bear baiting, wrestling, and +sword play were favorite pastimes. The girls delighted to play in the +open air, with little regard to grace or decorum; a game called tennis +ball was popular. The milkwomen had their dances, into which they +entered with zest. Pets were in favor with the ladies almost as much +as in the former century, and exploration into new countries had +increased the variety of them. In the prints of the times, ladies are +often represented with monkeys in attendance on them. + +With the great multiplicity of new fashions, in novelties in customs +and in costumes, in manners and even in morals, there came into vogue, +from the East, hot, or, as they were called, "sweating baths." They +became very common throughout England, and the places where they +were to be gotten were commonly called "hothouses," although their +Persian name of _hummums_ was also preserved. Ben Jonson represents +a character in the old play _The Puritan_ as saying in regard to a +laborious undertaking: "Marry, it will take me much sweat; I were +better to go to sixteen _hothouses_." They became the rendezvous of +women, who resorted to them for gossip and company. The rude manners +of the age were not conducive to the preservation of these places from +the illicit intrigues which made them notorious, and caused the name +"hothouse" to become a synonym for "brothel." It was their acquired +character that probably led eventually to their disuse. They were not +necessarily vicious, and they furnished a convenience for the sex, who +did not have the shops and clubs of to-day as places for meeting and +the interchange of small talk. It must be remembered that the taverns +supplied this need for the men, but, excepting in the case of the +lower orders of society, the women had no similar place for such +social intercourse as was secured to the men by their tavern clubs. +The hothouses were not simply bath houses of the modern Turkish type, +but were restaurants as well. While seated in the steaming bath, +refreshments and lunch were served on tables conveniently arranged for +the purpose, and, after ablutions, the women remained as long as they +cared to, in conversation. The picnics which had formerly taken place +at the tavern were transferred to the hot bath, each of the women +carrying to the feast contributions which were shared in common. +This practice, which began with the servant maids, passed to their +mistresses and on up the scale of society, and became fashionable +for the ladies of the higher circles. In the absence of the modern +newspaper, these places became the distributing centres for the +news of the day and the talk of the town. The tavern served the same +purpose for the men. + +Dancing was indulged in by all classes of society, and the variety +and curious names of the new styles which were introduced during the +Elizabethan era are well set forth in the following quotation from a +festal scene in Haywood's _Woman Kilde with Kindnesse_: + + "J. SLIME.--I come to dance, not to quarrel. Come, what shall + it be? _Rogero_? + + JEM.--_Rogero_! no! we will dance the _Beginning of the + World_. + + SISLY.--I love no dance so well as _John, Come Kiss Me Now_. + + NICH.--I that have ere now defer'd a cushion, call for the + _Cushion-dance_. + + R. BRICK.--For my part, I like nothing so well as _Tom Tyler_. + + JEM.--No; we'll have the _Hunting of the Fox_. + + J. SLIME.--_The Hay_; _The Hay_! there's nothing like _The + Hay_! + + NICH.--I have said, do say, and will say again-- + + JEM.--Every man agree to have it as Nick says. + + ALL.--Content. + + NICH.--It hath been, it is now, and it shall be-- + + SISLY.--What, Master Nicholas? What? + + NICH.--_Put on your Smock o' Monday._ + + JEM.--So the dance will come cleanly off. Come, for God's + sake agree on something; if you like not that, put it to the + musicians; or let me speak for all, and we'll have _Sellengers + Round_." + +The nuptial usages of the age included some curious customs. Thus, +we are told by Howe in his _Additions to Stowe's Chronicle_ that, +in the reign of Queen Elizabeth, "It was the custome for maydes and +gentlewomen to give their favourites, as tokens of their love, little +Handkerchiefs, of about three or four inches square, wrought round +about, and with a button or a tassel at each corner, and a little one +in the middle, with silke and thread; the best edged with a small gold +lace, or twist, which being foulded up in foure crosse foldes, so as +the middle might be seene, gentlemen and other did usually weare them +in their hattes, as favours of their loves and mistresses. Some cost +six pence a piece, some twelve pence, and the richest sixteen pence." +Handkerchiefs were the customary messengers of Cupid; the present of +a handkerchief with love devices worked in the corners was a delicate +expression of the tender sentiment. Thus, in Haywood's _Fayre Mayde +of the Exchange_, Phyllis brings a handkerchief to the Cripple of +Fanchurch to be embroidered, and says: + + "Only this hankercher; a young gentlewoman + Wish'd me to acquaint you with her mind herein: + In one corner of the same, place wanton Love, + Drawing his bow, shooting an amorous dart-- + Opposit against him an arrow in an heart; + In a third corner picture forth Disdain, + A cruel fate unto a loving vein; + In the fourth, draw a springing laurel-tree, + Circled about with a ring of poesy." + +Wedding contracts in the times of the Tudors were peculiar, not being +regarded as binding unless there had been an exchange of gold or the +drinking of wine. In the old play of _The Widow_, Ricardo artfully +entices the widow into a verbal contract, whereupon one of her suitors +draws hope for himself through the possibility of the engagement being +invalid because it lacked the observance of this custom. He says: +"Stay, stay--you broke no Gold between you?" To which she answers: "We +broke nothing, Sir;" and on his adding: "Nor drank to each other?" she +replies: "Not a drop, Sir." Whence he draws this conclusion: "That the +contract cannot stand good in Law." The custom of throwing rice after +a wedded couple is a continuance of the practice in the sixteenth +century of throwing wheat upon the head of the bride as she came from +the church. Marriage was not considered irrevocable, because, aside +from the regular forms of divorce, it was not unusual for a husband +to sell his wife for a satisfactory consideration. Even down to recent +times, the people in some of the rural districts of England could not +understand why a husband had not a right so to dispose of his wife, +provided he delivered her over with a halter around her neck. Henry +Machyn notes in his _Diary_, in 1553, the following: "Dyd ryd in a +cart Checken, parson of Sant Necolas Coldabbay, round abowt London, +_for he sold ys wyff_ to a bowcher." When the contracting parties +were too poor to pay for the ceremony and the wedding feast, and the +expenses of the occasion were met by the guests clubbing together, the +occasion was termed a "penny wedding." + +One of the popular customs of the day was to observe Mayday in the +country districts by erecting a brightly decorated Maypole, about +which the young people danced the simple rustic dances. It is not +unusual to find people to-day sighing for a return of the good old +customs of yore, and a favorite lament is the lapse of the observance +of Mayday in the old English manner. There was, doubtless, some +innocent amusement associated with this popular holiday, and only the +most captious Puritan could object to it because of its derivation +from the old Roman festival of Flora; but, unfortunately, the manners +of the sixteenth century did not leave room for much of innocent +observance of sports and pastimes in the open air, so that, in fact, +the dances about the Maypole were too frequently gross and unseemly. +Charles Francis Adams, in his editing of Morton's _Narrative_, in +the Prince Society Publications, in commenting upon the Merrie Mount +incident in the early settlement of New England, calls attention +in a footnote to the judgment of a contemporary writer as to the +iniquities which were practised in connection with what in the +popular imagination of the day was a wholesome and happy pastime. +The statement in the passage quoted by him of the startling depravity +which signalized the day throughout rural England awakens the +pertinent question as to what was the moral state of the women of +the rural population of the country. The testimony of the manners and +customs of the day, and the effect upon England of the indescribable +profligacy of the peoples of France and Italy, force the unpleasant +conclusion, after making all extenuation for the standards which +then obtained, that the vice which in the higher circles was as "the +creeping thing that flieth" appeared in the lower circles of society +in all of its foulness. + +Life in the country was very delightful; buildings of fanciful +architecture were erected, the majority of them still being of wood, +the better sort plastered inside and the walls hung with tapestry +or wainscoted with oak, against which stood out in bold relief the +glittering gold and silver plate, which not alone the nobles and +gentry, but the merchants and even the farmers and artisans, loved +to possess. But in spite of their love of plate, Venetian glassware, +because of its rarity, was preferred for drinking vessels. The +housewife of quality no longer had to strew rushes upon the floor, +for Turkish rugs were imported and used by the wealthy. Beds were hung +with the finest silk or tapestry, and the tables were covered with +linen. The homes of all classes showed the increase in the comfort +of living. Even the poorest women could boast of chimneys to their +houses, and were no longer suffocated by the smoke which for egress +depended upon a hole in the roof. In 1589 a wise law was passed that +no cottage should be built on a tract of less than four acres of land, +and that only one family was to live in each cottage. Feather pillows +and beds took the place of straw pallets with a log of wood for a +headrest. The poorer homes, which could not afford expensive rugs, +were still strewn with sweet herbs, which, however, were renewed and +kept fresh, and the bedchambers were made fragrant with flowers. The +economy of the kitchen was not the hard problem it had formerly been, +for in the time of Elizabeth, the period of which we are speaking, +the laboring classes could obtain meat in abundance. The "gentry ate +wheaten, and the poor barley bread; beer was mostly brewed at home; +wine was drunk in the richer houses. Trade brought many luxuries to +the English table; spices, sugar, currants, almonds, dates, etc., +came from the East." Indeed, so many currants were imported into the +country that it is said that the people of the places from whence they +were shipped supposed that they were used for the extraction of dye +or else were fed to the hogs; but the real explanation was the great +fondness of the English people for currants and raisins in their +pastry. While they were not gluttonous, the English then, as now, were +fond of the table, and gave much attention to eating and drinking. + +The old people of the age regretfully looked back over their lives +to former days, when, as they said, although the houses were but of +willow, Englishmen were oaken, but now the houses were oaken and the +Englishmen of straw. The appearance of chimneys was not greeted as +an improvement, for the poor had never fared so well as in the smoky +halls of other days; they could not bear the thought that their +windows, which were formerly of wickerwork, were now of glass, or that +now, instead of sweet rushes, foreign carpets were upon the floors +of many houses; or that so many houses were being built of brick and +stone, plastered inside. It was regarded as a sure indication of +a decline in virility that the sons of the sturdy yeomen of a past +generation should crave comfortable beds hung with tapestry, and use +pillows--luxuries which once were thought suited only for women in +childbed. In the midst of an influx of new comforts, there was a +barrenness of things considered to-day to be essential, and the +absence of which was made the more glaring by reason of the many +comforts and luxuries with which life was surrounded. "Good soap was +an almost impossible luxury, and the clothes had to be washed with +cow-dung, hemlock, nettles, and refuse soap, than which, in Harrison's +opinion, 'there is none more unkindly savor.'" + +A Dutch traveller, who in 1560 visited England and recorded his +impressions of the English home, introduces us to a pleasant picture +of the home life of the times, in the following words: "The neat +cleanliness, the exquisite fineness, the pleasant and delightful +furniture in every point for household, wonderfully rejoiced me; their +chambers and parlors strawed over with sweet herbs, refreshed me; +their nosegays, finely intermingled with sundry sorts of fragrant +flowers in their bedchambers and privy rooms, with comfortable smell +cheered me up." The parlors were freshened with green boughs and fresh +herbs throughout the summer, and with evergreens during the winter. + +During the reign of Elizabeth, the hours for meals were the same as in +the fifteenth century, although between the first meal and dinner it +was customary to have a small luncheon, mostly composed of beverages, +and called a _bever_. A character in one of Middleton's plays +says: "We drink, that's mouth-hour; at eleven, lay about us +for victuals--that's hand-hour; at twelve, go to dinner--that's +eating-hour." Dinner was the most substantial meal of the day, and its +hearty character was commented upon by foreign travellers in England. +It was preceded by the same ceremony of washing the hands as in +former times, and the ewers and basins used for the purpose were often +elaborate and showy. It must be remembered that at table persons of +all ranks used their fingers instead of forks, and the laving of the +hands during the meals was important for comfort and cleanliness. +After the introduction of forks, the washing of hands during the meal, +though no longer so necessary as before, was continued as a polite +form for a while, although the after-meal washing appears to have +been discontinued. The pageantry and splendor which attended feasting +reached their greatest height in the first half of the sixteenth +century. The tables were arranged around the side of the hall, some +for the guests, and others to hold the tankards, the ewers, and the +dishes of food; for it had not yet become the practice to put anything +on the table in setting it other than the plates, the drinking +vessels, the saltcellars, and the napkins. The dresser, or the +cupboard, was the greatest display article of furniture in the hall of +the houses of the higher orders of society, who invested large amounts +of money in vessels of the precious metals and of crystal, which +were sometimes set with precious stones and were always of the most +beautiful patterns and of odd and elaborate forms. To such lengths +went personal pride in the appearance of the dresser, that points of +etiquette were raised by careful housewives as to how many steps, or +gradations on which the rows of plate were placed above each other, +members of the different ranks of society might have on their +cupboards. Five for a princess of royal blood, four for noble ladies +of the highest rank, three for nobility under the rank of duke, two +for knights-bannerets, and one for persons who were merely of gentle +blood, was fixed as proper form. Dinner was still served in three +courses, without any great distinction in the character of the dishes +served at each course. One of the writers of the times says: "In +number of dishes and changes of meat the nobility of England do most +exceed." "No day passes but they have not only beef, mutton, veal, +lamb, kid, pork, coney, capon, pig, or so many of them as the season +yields, but also fish in variety, venison, wildfowl, and sweets." As +there were but two full meals in the day, and as the households of the +nobility, including the many servants and retainers, were large, and +as it was the practice for the chief servants to dine with the family +and the guests, it will be seen that a large and varied supply of food +was needed. The upper table having been served, the lower servants +were supplied, and what remained was bestowed upon the poor, who +gathered in great numbers at the gates of the nobility to receive +the leavings from their meals. It can be seen that the labors of the +women in supervising the affairs of the household were onerous. Among +gentlemen and merchants, four, five, or six dishes sufficed, and if +there were no guests, two or three. Fish was the article of greatest +consumption among the poor, and could be obtained at all seasons. +Fowls, pigeons, and all kinds of game were abundant and cheap. Butter, +milk, cheese, and curds were "reputed as food appurtenant to the +inferior sort." The very poor usually had enough ground in which to +raise cabbages, parsnips, carrots, pumpkins, and such like vegetables, +which constituted their principal food, and of which both the raising +and the preparation for the table were largely the work of the women. +Among the lower classes, the various feasts of the year and the bridal +occasions were celebrated with great festivity, and it was the custom +for each guest to contribute one or more dishes. + +"Sham" is the keynote to an understanding of Elizabethan society; the +Virgin Queen herself, with all her undoubted worth and abilities, was +the embodiment of the vanity and pretence of her age. Young unmarried +women loved "to show coyness in gestures, mince in words and speeches, +gingerliness in tripping on toes like young goats, demure nicety and +babyishness," and when they went out, they had silk scarfs "cast about +their faces, fluttering in the wind, or riding in their velvet visors, +with two holes cut for the eyes." The visors here mentioned bring +to mind Hamlet's "God hath given you one face, and you make yourself +another; you jig, you amble, you lisp, you nickname God's creatures, +and make your wantonness your ignorance." The general use of masks in +public places toward the close of Elizabeth's reign did not improve +the moral status of the higher classes. The pretentiousness and the +superficiality of the times are laid bare by Harrington, the favorite +godson of the queen, whose arraignment is in unsparing terms: "We go +brave in apparel that we may be taken for better men than we be; +we use much bombastings and quiltings to seem better framed, better +shouldered, smaller waisted, and fuller thighed than we are; we barb +and shave oft to seem younger than we are; we use perfumes, both +inward and outward, to seem sweeter, wear corked shoes to seem taller, +use courteous salutations to seem kinder, lowly obeisance to seem +humbler, and grave and godly communication to seem wiser and devouter +than we be." + +The dress of the women of the Elizabethan era shows the same +extravagance that is apparent in all the exaggerated social phases +of the time. Philip Stubbs, who wrote at the close of the sixteenth +century a book entitled _The Anatomy of Abuses_, appears to have +been a choleric and gloomy observer of current manners, but, with due +allowance for the spirit in which he writes, a very clear picture can +be gotten of the style and excesses of dress of the several classes of +society. He affirms that no people in the world were so hungry after +new-fangled styles as were those of his country. After having dilated +on the large amounts spent for dress, he digresses in order to +moralize, and adds that the fashionable attire of the day is unsuited +to the actual needs of the wearers' bodies and "maketh them weak, +tender, and infirm, not able to abide such blustering storms and sharp +showers as many other people abroad do daily bear." It is curious to +find him harking back to the old days of which he had heard his father +and other sages speak, when all the clothes for the household were +made by the busy housewife, and coats were of the same color as +the wool when it was on the sheep's back. In the abandonment of the +household woollen industry and the excessive use of imported fabrics, +he sees the reason for the many thousands in England who were reduced +to the necessity of begging bread. Starch, which is now such a homely +and universally helpful laundry assistant, and to the expert use of +which so much of the freshness and smartness of women's attire is due, +was then first introduced. "There is a certain liquid matter which +they call starch," says this censorious critic of current customs, +"wherein the devil hath learned them to wash and dive their ruffs; +which, being dry, will then stand stiff and inflexible about their +necks." The ladies of his day must have been more expert in the use +of starch than are their sisters to-day, as they introduced into it +coloring matter, so that it temporarily dyed the fabrics red, blue, +purple, and other colors, of which yellow seems to have been the most +esteemed. + +The yellow starch which was so much in use originated in France, and +was introduced into England by a Mrs. Turner, a physician's widow, +a vain and infamous woman, who ended her career on the gallows in +expiation of the murder of Sir Thomas Overbury. Bulwer says that it is +hard "to derive the pedigree of the cobweb-lawn-yellow-starched ruffs, +which so disfigured our nation, and rendered them so ridiculous and +fantastical." It appears that when the introducer of the custom was +led to the gallows she was conspicuous in a yellow ruff worn about +her neck, and after her execution the wearing of such ruffs rapidly +declined. Having said this much about the ruffs which were a +characteristic feature of the dress of the day of both men and women, +it may be well to add that starch was not wholly depended upon for the +support of these preposterous neck dresses. Wire frames covered with +silver or silk thread were employed for the purpose. These ruffs are +often referred to in the literature of the period. Allusion is made to +them in the play of _Nice Valour_, by Beaumont and Fletcher, where the +madman says: + + "Or take a fellow pinn'd up like a mistress, + About his neck a ruff like a pinch'd lanthorn, + Which school-boys make in winter." + +Stubbs also pays his respects to the gowns of the women, which he says +were no less "famous" than the rest of their attire. A quotation will +serve to give an idea of the materials which were in use for dress +goods and the embellishments of women's gowns; "Some are of silk, some +of velvet, some of grograin, some of taffeta, some of scarlet, and +some of fine cloth of ten, twenty, or forty shillings the yard; but, +if the whole garment be not of silk or velvet, then the same must be +laid with lace two or three fingers broad all over the gown, or else +the most part; or, if it be not so, as lace is not fine enough, now +and then it must be garded with gards of velvet, every gard four or +five fingers broad at the least, and edged with costly lace; and, as +these gownes be of divers colours, so are they of divers fashions, +changing with the moon; for, some be of the new fashion, some of +the old; some with sleeves, hanging down to their skirts, trailing +on the ground, and cast over their shoulders like cow-tails; some +have sleeves much shorter and cut up the arm, drawn out with sundry +colours, and pointed with silk ribbands, and very gallantly tied with +love-knots, for so they call them." To these striking costumes were +added capes which reached down to the middle of the back, and which, +our author informs us, were "plaited and crested with more knacks than +he could express." + +It is impossible to do more than mention the absurdities in general +of women's attire and toilette during the eccentric Elizabethan era. +Ladies painted their faces and wore false hair, as they had done in +other ages, only with greater refinements of hideousness; they stuffed +their petticoats with tow, and drew in their waists to incredible +smallness as compared with the vast expansiveness of their form from +the waist down, which was secured by the use of farthingales. The way +they tilted up their feet with long cork soles made them amble much +after the fashion of the women of China with their bandaged feet. They +wore jewels and ornaments in great profusion, fine colored silk hose, +which had lately been introduced among the other foreign "gewgaws" +of the times, and exchanged with their friends as valued presents +embroidered and perfumed gloves. In the light of the varied styles +of the day, the criticism, "Like a crow, the Englishman borrows his +feathers from all nations," was a true one. + +In the midst of the gayety and frivolity of the Elizabethan age, the +forces of reaction were hidden, but already active; and the mutterings +of discontent which were heard presaged the social outbreak which was +to lead a king to the block. + + + + +CHAPTER XI + +WOMEN OF THE COMMONWEALTH PERIOD + + +The great evil of Puritanism was the tendency to hypocrisy which it +produced among the people, by forcing upon them the simulation of a +virtue greater than they in reality possessed. An affectation of piety +which was carried to fanatical extremes, and which affected men and +women alike and made them fall into stereotyped expressions and cant +utterances having a savor of religiosity, while barren of the spirit +of true devotion, was, to say the least, unwholesome for the nation. +But the very fact that the pendulum had swung so far in the direction +of primitive austerity in life and in worship showed that behind +the hollow and insincere forms and words of Puritanism there was +a magnificent earnestness of purpose, such as had been foreign to +English life as a whole, although to be found among the followers of +Wyckliffe and the Lollards. + +As the spirit of Puritanism spread, its opponents, who were styled the +Libertines, became more defiant in their attitude and less regardful +of the strictures which the narrow-minded bigots, as they styled the +Puritans, cast upon them. Thus, the women were divided by the extremes +of position occupied by the men. Drunkenness among women of rank +became very common. Intellectual fervor declined and learning became +superficial, while the pet vices, inanities, and vain pomp of the +reign of Elizabeth lost much of their glitter and became mere prosaic +and gross immorality. While the women of the court indulged in +revelry, to the scandal of their sisters of the middle classes, the +latter, by their piety as well as by their pious affectations, brought +upon themselves coarse witticisms, ribald mirth, and allegations of +misconduct under the guise of sanctity. So it happened that just when +the women of the middle classes were approaching in position their +sisters of the higher circles, by the ascent of the class to which +they belonged and by the recognition on the part of the superior ranks +of their worth as individuals and their importance as a sound element +of the nation, the tendency toward a uniform equality, however remote +its realization, was rudely checked by an issue which sundered the +respective classes to the nethermost poles. It then became but a +question of which section of the nation should administer its affairs +and direct its destiny. When the two opposing camps of aristocracy +and democracy met in conflict, King Charles was led to the gibbet, not +because the feeling of the people was so especially bitter against him +personally, as that he was the impersonation of an aristocracy which +had become so intrenched in power, that, regardless of its acts, it +claimed divine right to rule. + +The female sex, as a whole, was not held in high esteem by the +Puritans, however dear to them may have been the women of their own +households. By the gayety and licentiousness of the brilliant era of +Elizabeth, women had forfeited the esteem of these stern censors of +public virtue, and were held up as snares in the way of the righteous +and as emissaries of Satan. It would be unjust to the sound judgment +of those earnest men of powerful thought and tested standards even +to suggest that they did not make a distinction between woman in +disgrace--as they regarded the women in representative life about +them--and woman in her normal and helpful relationship to society, +as illustrated in the Biblical types of exalted womanhood. It was but +natural that, at a time when the social sin was the canker of society, +woman should have been looked upon in the light of the temptress in +Eden. It is only with such qualification that the characterization +of a writer on the period of the Commonwealth, whose description is +generally accurate, can be accepted: "Under the Commonwealth, society +assumed a new and stern aspect. Women were in disgrace; it was +everywhere declared from the pulpit that woman caused man's expulsion +from Paradise, and ought to be shunned by Christians as one of the +greatest temptations of Satan. 'Man,' said they, 'is conceived in sin +and brought forth in iniquity; it was his complacency to woman that +caused his first debasement; let man not therefore glory in his shame; +let him not worship the fountain of his corruption.' Learning and +accomplishments were alike discouraged, and women confined to a +knowledge of cooking, family medicines, and the unintelligible +theological discussions of the day." + +The high tension which had been maintained during the preceding reign +was followed during those of James I. and Charles I. by a mental +inertia; and the intellectual life of the people, which had resulted +from the revival of learning in the sixteenth century, languished and +almost died of inanition. Even among those men--the courtiers--who +amused themselves chiefly by the foibles of the other sex, there was +a morbid reaction against their associates in frivolity. It was no +longer customary to praise women for their wit and repartee and +to look upon them as brilliant, or to regard their coarse jests as +delicate humor; instead of this, these men affected toward them great +contempt, and scoffed at all other men who manifested respect for +the sex. Whether among the nobility or among the Puritans, woman was +wounded in the house of her friends. + +Amid the premonitory rumblings of civil strife and the actual horrors +of war, when the nation was rent asunder, the matters of belief and of +conduct were the burning themes for thought and discussion; it was not +possible to maintain interest in intellectual concerns, even if there +had not been a reaction from the highly wrought state of mind of the +preceding era. That behind the Puritans' apparent hatred of beauty and +of the grace of intellect and of life there was no real abandonment of +the true principles which underlie all permanent beauty and grace is +sufficiently shown by the production of that poet who sounded deepest +the reaches of philosophy and scaled highest the ascents of poetic +thought--the great Milton. He it was who caught the deep significance +of the movements of the age, and brought them into harmony with the +parable of human history--a feat so mighty that it called forth the +highest flights of poetic fancy and sought the embodiment of the best +graces of language. It is not without interest to note the absence of +woman in the lofty theme of Milton, saving only as she appears in the +Puritanic conception of the temptress. + +Another of the Puritans, who in his way was as great as Milton, +Bunyan, the Bedford tinker, caught and set forth in magnificent +allegory the meaning of the Puritan movement for the individual; +but there is an absence of woman in the story of the pilgrimage of +Christian to the Celestial City, excepting as she appears in the +character of the temptress, as at Vanity Fair. The Christian Graces, +who are represented as women, are not types of the sex of the day, but +are used to point the contrast the more sharply between woman in ideal +and woman as the product of the times of the Puritans. It remained, +however, for the Puritans to refine the sex by the fires of relentless +criticism and to produce the severer, but much nobler, Christian +woman, who became the normal type, not only for the middle classes, +but, to an extent, for the women of the higher circles as well. + +The state of society was not favorable for intellectual expression +on the part of woman, although it can hardly be said that it retarded +intellectual progress. The character of the English woman was being +affected in a way to save it from becoming merely superficial and +volatile, like that of her French sister, and her intellect was being +sobered for literary production that should have worthier qualities +than mere brilliancy to recommend it. When the women of the middle +classes stepped out into the arena of authorship, the value of the +Puritan period as a corrective of the frivolity and false standards +for women which had previously obtained becomes manifest in their +writings. + +The loss of opportunities of education for the women of the middle +classes, which was a result of the dissolution of the religious +houses, had never quite been made good, and even down to the second +half of the seventeenth century there was no adequate system of +popular education. In the case of the children of the nobility, +suitable education and training for their station in life could be +obtained only by sending them abroad to Italy, France, or Germany, +or by bringing foreign teachers into the country. Girls were never +sent abroad for their education; and in the case of the daughters of +middle-class society, all that was regarded as needful was training +in the practical affairs of housewifery--to which, in the case of the +Puritans, was added inculcation of the Scriptures and the reading +of other devout books. The current opinion is well expressed in the +following citation from _The Art of Thriving_: "Let them learne plaine +workes of all kind, so they take heed of too open seeming. Instead of +song and musick, let them learne cookery and laundry, and instead of +reading Sir Philip Sydney's _Arcadia_, let them read the grounds +of huswifery. I like not a female poetesse at any hand: let greater +personages glory their skill in musicke, the posture of their bodies, +the greatnesse and freedome of their spirits, and their arts in +arraigning of men's affections at their flattering faces: this is not +the way to breed a private gentleman's daughter." + +Even if higher education for women were not recognized as important in +the seventeenth century--and the facilities were not at hand, even if +the sentiment had existed--it would be captious criticism to construe +this into a grievance against the sex. In all that pertained to +dignity and real worth, the women of the Commonwealth, with all the +narrowness of their training, were much in advance of womankind at +the beginning of the modern era, and their moral differentiation from +the women of the same class before the spread of Puritanism was most +marked. Puritanism was a distinct gain for woman, for through that +movement the process of raising women in the social scale received +great impetus. A comparison with the girls of France of about the +same period certainly shows that the low state of education among the +sex in England was not in any wise peculiar to English conditions. +Fenelon, in referring to the neglect of the education of the girls +of his country, says: "It is shameful, but ordinary, to see women who +have acuteness and politeness, not able to pronounce what they read; +either they hesitate or they intone in reading, when, instead, they +should pronounce with a simple and natural tone, but rounded and +uniform. They are still more deficient in orthography, whether in the +manner of composing their letters or in reading them when written." + +The Civil War itself had a wide effect upon the state of education +among the people. Families in which education had been fostered, +with the turn of their fortunes found it impossible to continue it; +families whose fortunes had risen by political changes felt their +deficiency in this respect, and affected to despise accomplishments of +which they themselves were destitute. Certain of the more enlightened +Puritan women pretended to apply themselves to the study of Hebrew, on +the ground that they looked upon it as necessary to eternal salvation. +Such pedantry brought no credit to those who affected it, but only +served to heap odium upon the higher studies, which were now rejected +with contempt on all sides. How effectually interest in education was +suppressed by the civil disorders is shown by a remark of a traveller +who visited the country after the Revolution. He says: "Here in +England the women are kept from all learning, as the profane vulgar +were of old from the mysteries of the ancient religions." It is +amusing to note the theories which had arisen with regard to female +education and which were used to extenuate its lack. Some apologists +for feminine ignorance gravely asserted and led others to believe +that the women of England "were too delicate to bear the fatigues of +acquiring knowledge," besides being by nature incapable of doing so, +for, said they, "the moisture of their brain rendered it impossible +for them to possess a solid judgment, that faculty of the mind +depending upon a dry temperature." But the unanswerable argument of +all was that death and sin had fallen upon the race of Adam solely +in consequence of the thirst which Eve had manifested for knowledge. +In the face of such contentions, it was not difficult to lead people +generally to accept the further conclusion as to the disastrous +consequences which would certainly come upon society when woman became +puffed up with her mental acquirements; the favorable opinion which +she would then have of herself would not harmonize with that obedience +to men for which she was created. Worthy of note is the fact that +these views extended in some circles to the arresting of the progress +of religious instruction, especially that of a public nature. Evelyn, +in his _Diary_, says that while the saints inherited the earth under +the Protectorate, it was his invariable custom to devote his Sunday +afternoons to the catechising and instruction of his family; but, he +remarks, these wholesome exercises "universally ceased in the parish +churches, so as people had no principles, and grew very ignorant of +even the common points of Christianity, all devotions being now placed +in hearing sermons and discourses of speculative and national things." + +There was a sterner side to the religious movement in England than its +relation to matters intellectual or even moral. The Reformation under +Henry VIII. had added the names of certain women to those of the noble +army of martyrs of all the ages. To be false to conscience was to be +false to the very principles of their being, and both Catholic and +Protestant women became intensely strong in their convictions and +intolerant of those of others. The Roman Church offered up its +holocaust to the passions and prejudices of the leaders of the +Protestant movement, just as the Roman Church in turn exacted the +tribute of their lives from many adherents of Protestantism. Woman was +looked upon as inferior to man and less capable of responsible action, +but in meting out persecutions there was no distinction as to sex, the +weaker suffering equally with the stronger. The history of religious +persecutions in England is one of its least engaging chapters, and +extends over a long period. Puritan, Prelatist, and Catholic alike +darkened the annals of the times by deeds of violence. To recite the +sufferings of women under the crossfires of persecution would be at +best an ungracious task; and as such experiences form but a part of +the history of the sex during the period which we have broadly styled +the period of the Commonwealth, an instance or two of the sufferings +of notable women, irrespective of their party affiliations, will +suffice for citation. + +One of the most sorrowful of the judicial murders of which a woman was +the victim, which occurred during the whole of this extended period, +was that of Lady Lisle, who, because of her sympathies with Monmouth's +rebellion against the king, was brutally executed, the specific charge +being the harboring of fugitives. The king's project to hand over +the nation to papacy nowhere aroused such outbursts of indignation as +among the Covenanters of Scotland, who saw in it the destruction of +all their hard-wrought-out religious liberties, and the endangering of +their lives, besides the return of the nation to the chaos from which +it was emerging. The address of Lady Lisle before her execution is +an example of the sublimity to which woman's character may rise under +persecution, when the spirit is buoyed by faith: "Gentlemen, Friends, +and Neighbors, it may be expected that I should say something at my +death, and in order thereunto I shall acquaint you that my birth and +education were both near this place, and that my parents instructed me +in the fear of God, and I now die of the Reformed Protestant Religion; +believing that if ever popery should return into this nation, it would +be a very great and severe judgment.... The crime that was laid to my +charge was for entertaining a Non-conformist Minister and others in my +house; the said minister being sworn to have been in the late Duke of +Monmouth's army." Continuing, she said: "I have no excuse but surprise +and fear, which I believe my Jury must make use of to excuse their +verdict to the world. I have been also told that the Court did use to +be of counsel for the prisoner; but instead of advice, I had evidence +against me from thence; which, though it were only by hearing, might +possibly affect my Jury; my defence being such as might be expected +from a weak woman; but such as it was, I did not hear it repeated +to the Jury, which, as I have been informed, is usual in such cases. +However, I forgive all the world, and therein all those that have done +me wrong." Another victim of the same "Bloody Assize" of Jeffreys, +Mrs. Gaunt, of Wapping, pathetically says: "I did but relieve an +unworthy, poor, distressed family, and lo, I must die!" + +The age was the legatee of a spirit of venom and bigotry which +expressed itself in deeds of violence more distressing than those +incident to the religious wars. Deeds of blood, when connected with +the defence of convictions, have about them something of the heroic, +but there is absolutely no ray of glory to fall upon and lighten the +dreary records of the war upon defenceless women charged with being +witches, which broke out with fresh virulence with the increase of +religious fervor under the Commonwealth. The charges were many and +specious, but a very common form centred about the compassionate +functions of women as the ameliorators of human distress. + +The history of witchcraft is so intimately associated with that of +medicine, that to write an account of the one involves a recital of +the other. The utter lack of knowledge of the anatomy of the human +body and its functions, which continued down to quite recent times, +accounts for the mystery and magic which surrounded the whole subject +of medicine, not only earlier than and during the period of which +we are speaking, but long subsequent to it. The one who could +successfully treat disease was regarded as in league with the powers +of darkness. Until the practice of medicine came to be established +upon scientific principles, the care of the sick largely devolved upon +women. Had it been men instead of women who performed the crude but +often sincere service of nurse and physician, they would have come +under the same ban with the effects of which the practitioners of the +other sex were visited. It is not probable, however, that the public +odium would have gone to such lengths of violence in its expression. + +Among savage peoples, as the primitive tribes of Africa and the +American aborigines, the man who can dispel disease by a fetich--the +great medicine-man of a tribe--has always been regarded with a feeling +of combined jealousy, suspicion, and fear; but, because of the occult +powers he is supposed to control, fear predominates and passes into a +form of reverence. Not so, however, in the case of woman, of whom +we write; she was looked upon as having forfeited, to an extent, her +claims upon humanity by her original alliance with Satan, and, being +outside of the pale of God's grace, or sustaining only a permissive +relationship to it, it was deemed a pious, a safe, and a creditable +thing to mete out to her the divine dispensation of wrath. Thus again, +amid numerous instances of woman's suffering as a penalty for her sex, +we have the occurrence of woman being persecuted unto death because of +her compassion. It was not regarded as despicable for the very person +who had been succored by her in the hour of sickness to turn informant +and declare that he or she had been healed by diabolical agency, and, +whether under the influence of an honest hallucination, or simply +actuated by a malicious propensity, to declare that evil spirits had +actually been conjured up in human form and been seen by the eyes of +the sufferer. + +Women were not blameless in the matter of their reputation for +possessing occult knowledge and having diabolical relations; for there +were many women who, being morally not beyond reproach, separated +themselves from society as they grew older, and resorted to medicinal +knowledge and magic for a living and to maintain in the public eye +the position of unenviable notoriety of which they had become +morbidly fond. It gratified such natures to be reputed to possess +the power--which even philosophers ascribed to them--of, at certain +seasons, turning milk sour, making dogs rabid, and producing other +such freakish manifestations. They were considered to be able not only +to heal sickness, but to cause it; and the presence in one's clothing +of a pin whose irritant end was pointed in the wrong direction was +sufficient to make the person believe that he was under a spell of +witchcraft. If a cow or a horse fell lame, it was the village witch +who did it; if a child developed as an imbecile, or anyone became +bereft of reason, it was laid at the door of the witch; the failure +of crops, a drought,--anything that interfered with the comfort +or convenience of a person or a community,--was due to some such +representative of Satan. + +As the number of happenings of this sort increased, or there occurred +an epidemic of disease, or a flood or famine of especial virulence, +the number of alleged witches correspondingly increased; and so the +persecution swelled in volume, each wave of malevolence receding only +to rise in larger aspect on the next occasion of its arousing. Not +until the reign of Henry VIII. were there any enactments against +witchcraft in England; prior to the passage of these acts, the +persecution of a sorceress followed only upon an accusation of +poisoning. During some parts of the Middle Ages the crime of poisoning +was extensive, and certain women were adepts in making the deadly +potions. To such abandoned characters resorted persons of state who +desired to make away with hated rivals, or the men and women of the +nobility who sought to hide or to further their intrigues by the death +of someone who stood in their way. As the women who practised the +arts of the poisoner were also devotees of sorcery, the crime and +the superstition came to be thought of together. One reason for the +detestation of witches was the subtlety they displayed in concocting +poisons which slowly sapped the vitality of a person, as if by a +wasting illness. In 1541, conjuring, sorcery, and witchcraft were +placed in the list of capital offences. Similar statutes were enacted +during the succeeding reigns of Elizabeth and James I. + +The curious matter of demoniacal possession called forth a great +many books and pamphlets treating of its nature, history, methods of +repression, and the dispossession of those under witches' spells. John +Wier, a physician, wrote a treatise, in the last half of the sixteenth +century, in which he described witches as but exaggerated types of the +perversity which is found in women generally. In the easy subjection +of the sex to malign influences he saw a proof of its greater moral +weakness. + +The seventeenth century was as prolific of cases of persecution of +women for demon possession as any of those of the less enlightened +period of mediaevalism. In 1568, in a sermon before Queen Elizabeth, +Bishop Jewell said: "It may please your Grace to understand that +witches and sorcerers within these few last years are marvellously +increased within your Grace's realm. Your Grace's subjects pine away +even unto the death, their colour fadeth, their flesh rotteth, their +speech is benumbed, their knees are bereft. I pray God they never +practise _further than upon the subjects_." The Bull of Innocent +VIII., in 1484, did not do more for the furtherance of persecution of +the unfortunates who came under suspicion of using magic than did the +declaration of Luther: "I should have no compassion on these witches; +I would burn all of them." As upon the continent, so in England +reformers took up the persecution of witches with keen zest, as a +contest with the powers of darkness working for the destruction of the +peace and health of humanity in an open and flagrant manner. The +same spirit of espionage which was one of the baleful effects of +the outbreaks of persecution during the Middle Ages attended the +persecution of witchcraft in England during the seventeenth century. +To save themselves from suspicion, persons informed against others, +and even members of a household would give evidence leading to the +trial of those of their own kin. When an unfortunate fell under +suspicion,--which too frequently meant the animosity of an +evil-disposed person,--the minister would denounce her by name from +the pulpit, prohibit his parishioners from harboring her or in any way +giving her succor, and exhort them to give evidence against her. The +Puritans had conned well the story of the Witch of Endor, and, with +their tendency to reproduce the Old Testament spirit, felt that the +existence of witches was an abomination in the sight of the Lord, +which would bring divine wrath upon the community that sheltered them +unless the sin were purged from it by their death. In this they were +but the inheritors of the faith of the Church from the early ages, and +are liable to no more serious censure for their persecution of witches +than that which they merit for the vindictive and splenetic spirit +and the satisfaction in barbarities and cruelty which too often they +evinced. + +The persecutions attendant upon witchcraft are chargeable to no one +division of the Church more than to another, for Protestant as well as +Catholic, Puritan as well as Prelatist, felt that in this work he was +fulfilling the will of God and safeguarding society. King James I., in +his _Demonology_, asks: "What can be the cause that there are twentie +women given to that craft where there is only one man?" He gives as +his reason for the disparity in numbers the greater frailty of women, +which he easily and satisfactorily proves by reference to the fall of +Eve, as marking the beginning of Satan's dominance of the sex. + +In entering upon a crusade of persecution of witches, the Puritans +were in harmony with the enactments of the sovereigns before the +Commonwealth, and were in conformity with the temper of the times and +the universally prevailing belief of the country. The austerity they +assumed toward the sex in general made it easy for them to believe +that particular characters, given over to vagabondage, were by reason +of their moral turpitude especial subjects of Satan for the temptation +of men. With them, the persecution of witches was not solely a +matter of superstition, but of public morals as well. They were often +actuated by a sincere desire to raise the standard of morality, and to +preserve order and decency. That the women rather than the men should +have suffered for evil courses was due, of course, to the conception +that moral reprobation is to be visited upon the weaker sex. + +In the second half of the seventeenth century the witchcraft +superstition became a veritable epidemic, and persecution broke out +in different sections of the country. Hardly had the stories of the +execution of witches in one place ceased to be a nine days' wonder, +when the tongues of the people were busy with stories of similar +occurrences somewhere else. An angry sailor threw a stone at a boy; +and the boy's mother roundly cursed the assailant of her offspring, +and added the hope that his fingers would rot off. When, two years +later, something of the sort actually did happen, her imprecation was +remembered against her, and there was also brought to light the fact +that a neighbor with whom she was at odds had been seized with +severe pains and felt her bed rocking up and down. The evidence was +conclusive, the woman must be a witch; such was the verdict, and death +was her sentence. Two women who lived alone, and, probably partly +because of their solitary existence, had developed irascible tempers +and demeanors which enlisted the hearty dislike of the inhabitants of +the fishing hamlet near by, were subjected to the petty persecutions +in which children instigated by their parents are such adepts; finding +existence too miserable to care very much for their reputations, they +endangered their security by their attitude toward their tormentors. +At last, nobody would even sell them fish, and their cursing and +prophecies of evil for their enemies became increasingly violent. In +the order of nature, some children were seized with fits, and, under +the inspiration of their elders, declared that they saw the two women +coming to torment them. After being eight years under accusation, +the women were brought to trial, and Sir Matthew Hale, the presiding +judge, after expressing his belief that the Scriptures proved the +reality of witchcraft, decided against the unhappy women and condemned +them to be hanged. This occurred in 1664, and constituted the +celebrated witch trial of Bury St. Edmunds. + +These instances serve to illustrate the fate of a vast number of +hapless women during the seventeenth century; it is said that during +the sittings of the Long Parliament alone, as many as three thousand +persons were executed on charges of witchcraft. Besides these +unhappy wretches, a great many more suffered the terrible fate of +mob violence. The frenzied populace were often too impatient to await +legal procedure, and stoned the miserable women to death. In the minds +of the great majority of the people, such women were not human beings +at all, and so there was no cruelty in treating them with the greatest +violence possible. Indeed, such earnestness of purpose against the +adversaries of God could but redound, they thought, to their eternal +advantage. After all, was it not a devil, who for the time being +assumed human form, that they were treating with such violence? +to-morrow, the same demon might be found in a dog or in some other +animal, or perhaps afflicting with cholera the swine of some peasant, +to his severe loss. A description of a witch in the first half of the +seventeenth century says: "The devil's otter-hound, living both on +land and sea, and doing mischief in either; she kills more beasts than +a licensed butcher in Lent, yet is ne'er the fatter; she's but a dry +nurse in the flesh, yet gives such to the spirit. A witch rides many +times post on hellish business, yet if a ladder do but stop her, she +will be hanged ere she goes any further." The penal statutes against +witchcraft were not formally repealed until 1751, when there was +closed for England one of the saddest chapters in the history of human +mistakes. The last judicial executions for witchcraft in England were +in 1716. + +In pleasing contrast to the unhappy creatures who were the victims +of fanatical persecutions during the Commonwealth period--the women +executed for witchcraft--stand the noble women who were developed by +the stern conditions of the Civil War--the heroines of internecine +strife. The domestic incidents of the Civil War form an interesting +commentary upon the character of the English woman, as they reveal +her in brave defence of castle or homestead, patient in hardship, +courageous in danger, and fertile in resources to avert misfortune. +Every important family was ranged on one side or the other, and the +line of division often passed through households. To all other issues +which aroused human passion, or touched the springs of human character +and brought forth the reserve heroism of human life, was added that +issue which stirs deepest the human heart,--the issue of religion. The +contest was not merely between king and people: it was a contest as +well between the people themselves as to the form of religion they +desired as the expression of their faith. + +Under such conditions women could not be kept out of the turmoil and +the strife; perhaps one of the important ends which this distressful +period brought about was the crystallizing of the convictions of many +women, who otherwise would not have thought or felt deeply upon +that subject which is fundamental to the welfare of a nation and +the character of its people,--the subject of religion. Royalists +and Puritans, the women were arrayed on each side. They followed the +issues with an earnest alertness born of an intelligent understanding +of the causes involved and their own vital relation to the contest in +its results. + +One of the Puritan women who literally entered into the fray was Mrs. +Hutchinson. Her father, Sir Allen Apsley, was governor of the Tower +during Sir Walter Raleigh's incarceration. It is probable that Mrs. +Hutchinson had some knowledge of medicine, because during the siege of +Nottingham she was actively engaged in dressing the soldiers' wounds +and furnishing them with drugs and lotions suitable to their cases, +and met with great success in her role of physician even in the cases +of those of some who were dangerously wounded. But it was not solely +in the character of nurse and physician that she was so active, for, +in conjunction with the other women of the town, after the departure +of the Royalist forces, she aided in districting the city for patrols +of fifty, the courageous women thus taking an active share in the +arduous duties of the town's defence. This intrepid woman later +appeared in the character of peacemaker. The elections of 1660 were +of a violent character, on account of the ill feeling between the +Royalists of the town and the soldiers of the Commonwealth. At the +critical moment, Mrs. Hutchinson arrived, and, being acquainted with +the captains, persuaded them to countenance no tumultuous methods, +whatever might be the provocation, but to make complaint in regular +form to the general and let him assume the work of preserving the +peace. This they consented to do; and the townsmen were equally +amenable to her wise counsel, and contracted to restrain their +children and servants from endangering the peace of the people. + +Courage and initiative were not limited to the women on one side of +the contest, as is well illustrated by the conduct of the Countess of +Derby, who, in 1643, made a remarkable defence of Latham House; the +countess was of French birth and had in her veins the indomitable +spirit of the Dutch, for she was a descendant of Count William +of Nassau. She was called upon either to yield up her home or to +subscribe to the propositions of Parliament, and, upon her refusal to +do either, was besieged in her castle and kept in confinement within +its walls, with no larger range of liberty than the castle yard. Her +estate was sequestered, and she was daily affronted with mocking and +contemptuous language. When she was requested by Sir Thomas Fairfax to +yield up the castle, she replied with quiet dignity that she wondered +how he could exact such a thing of her, when she had done nothing +in the way of offence to Parliament, and she requested that, as the +matter affected both her religion and her life, besides her loyalty to +her sovereign and to her lord, she might have a week's consideration +of the demand. She declined the proposition of Sir Thomas Fairfax +to meet him at a certain house a quarter of a mile distant from the +castle for purposes of conference, saying that it was more knightly +that he should wait upon her than she upon him. After further +parleyings failed of conclusion, she finally sent a message that +brought on a renewal of the siege. She said that she refused all the +propositions of the Parliamentarians, and was happy that they had +refused hers, and that she would hazard her life before again making +any overtures: "That though a woman and a stranger, divorced from +her friends and robbed of her estate, she was ready to receive their +utmost violence, trusting in God for deliverance and protection." + +The siege dragged on wearily for six or seven weeks, at the end of +which time Sir Thomas Fairfax resigned his post to Colonel Rigby. The +castle forces amounted to three hundred soldiers, while the besieging +force numbered between two and three thousand men. In the contest five +hundred of these were killed, while the countess lost but six of her +soldiers, who were killed through their own negligence. The colonel +manufactured a number of grenadoes, and then sent an ultimatum to the +countess, who tore up the paper and returned answer by the messenger +to "that insolent" [Rigby] that he should have neither her person, +goods, nor house; and as to his grenadoes, she would find a more +merciful fire, and, if the providence of God did not order otherwise, +that her house, her goods, her children, and her soldiers would +perish in flames of their own lighting, and so she and her family and +defenders would seal their religion and loyalty. The next morning the +countess caused a sally of her forces to be made, in which they got +possession of the ditch and rampart and a very destructive mortar +which had been used to bombard the besieged. Rigby wrote to his +superiors, begging assistance and saying that the length of the siege +and the hard duties it entailed had wearied all his soldiers, and +that he himself was completely worn out. In the meanwhile, the Earl +of Derby and Prince Rupert made their appearance, and Rigby made a +hurried retreat; in his endeavor to escape the Royalist forces, he +fell into an ambush and received a severe punishment before he reached +the town of Bolton. Such were the deeds of women of spirit upon each +side of the civil conflict; and because of their elements of character +and loyalty to conviction, the women of the better classes of England, +irrespective of their affiliations, mark a high point of progress in +the sex toward the goal of independence and individuality which the +civil strife aided them to secure. + +The Society of Friends, or Quakers, was one of the religious +communities of the Commonwealth, whose members suffered grievously on +account of their religion. To the lot of their women fell an abundant +share of persecutions and martyrdoms; they were scourged, and ill +treated in every conceivable way. Their lives, inoffensive and pure, +were a constant rebuke to those of the loose livers about them. +Although Charles II. had promised, on coming to the throne, that +he would befriend them, their miseries were not greatly abated. The +persecution of Quaker women had continued from the middle of the +sixteenth century, when, in the west of England, Barbara Blangdon was +imprisoned for preaching, and other Quakeresses were placed in +the stocks by the Mayor of Evansham, and also treated with other +indignities. Throughout the seventeenth century, cruel persecutions of +women of the Quaker persuasion were often repeated. + +With the Friends, the idea of the ministry of the Gospel was broadened +so as to include in its preachers and teachers those who possessed +the necessary gift, without regard to sex. Whatever may be individual +opinion as to woman's prerogative in this respect, there can be no +manner of doubt but that the advance in the status of woman which was +marked by the Society of Friends was a real contribution to the times +and a gift of permanent value to the English women in general. Those +women who claimed the right to preach were as ready to suffer on +behalf of their ministry. They were scourged, and ill treated in +every possible way; Bridewell Prison opened to receive many within its +gloomy interior; but they remained steadfast to the cardinal articles +of their belief, declaring: "As we dare not encourage any ministry but +that which we believe to spring from the influence of the Holy Spirit, +so neither dare we to attempt to restrain this ministry to persons +of any condition in life, or to the male sex alone; but as male and +female are one in Christ, we hold it proper that such of the female +sex as we believe to be imbued with a right qualification of the +ministry should exercise their gifts for the general edification of +the Church." + +Having considered the conditions which existed during the period of +the Commonwealth in England, and particularly the rise of the Puritan +spirit and its dominance, as related to the women of the times, it +now remains to bring this period into connection with that of the +Restoration, which offers to it such a strong contrast. It is not +conceivable that, if the Puritan leaven had so thoroughly permeated +the mass of the English people as appeared to be the case upon the +surface of English society, there would have been so sudden and +radical a reaction upon the return of Charles II. from his long +sojourn abroad. That so many who cried "crucify him" should now be +found with "all hail" upon their lips, that women who had assumed +the Puritan twang and pious demeanor should throw off their assumed +character and stand out in their true light under the glare of a +court that was brilliant with revelry, is evidence of the futility of +attempting to force ideals and standards upon a people who have not +been gradually developed to the attainment of the qualities which they +are commanded to assume. + +Even those women who could not abide the insufferable weight of +piety which spread over the period frequently found it politic not to +antagonize that which formed the very atmosphere they had to breathe; +but these women were not shameless profligates because they could not +enter into the intense introspection and the outward circumspection of +the Puritan dame. When the return of Charles II. brought to the front +a code of manners which revealed the real morals of the people, many +women who had walked "circumspectly," and were not under suspicion of +playing a part, did not any longer conceal their real proclivities, +but stood forth as women of pleasure. The Countess of Pembroke, Lady +Crawshaw, and Mrs. Hutchinson, all ornaments of their sex during the +Puritan regime, were yet alive at the Restoration, and beheld with +dismay the shameless performances of their countrywomen. + +As marking an epoch, Puritanism is to be regarded as having destroyed +the last relics of medievalism. "Under the Stuarts," says Creighton, +"society became essentially modern, and many of the institutions upon +which the comfort of modern life depends had their origin." + + + + +CHAPTER XII + +THE WOMEN OF THE RESTORATION PERIOD + + +"I stood in the Strand and beheld it and blessed God," wrote John +Evelyn in his _Diary_, referring to the magnificent pageantry with +which Charles II., on returning from his exile in France, was received +by the London populace. With this pious ejaculation, the courtly +Royalist welcomed the presence in England of that scion of the house +of Stuart whose reign of profligacy was to mark his period as one of +the most reprehensible in the history of the country. It is little +wonder that Charles was so affected by the great demonstration in his +honor that he marvelled that he should have remained away from the +country so long when the people were languishing for his return. The +manner with which London threw off its garb of Puritanical gray and +manners grave, and donned bright attire and assumed the airs of gayety +and frivolity, showed how insincere and superficial was the religious +seriousness which had been worn as suited to the temper and times of +the austere Protector. + +The change was not so sudden but that it had begun to appear during +the weak rule of the second Cromwell--Richard. But the spontaneousness +with which the people welcomed Charles in all the towns through which +he passed on his way, and the abandonment and joyousness which spread +over the land, signalized one of the most important reactions which +have occurred in public sentiment and public morals of any age. Music, +dancing, revelry, and license suddenly wrenched the times from all +their wonted decorum, and in the flood tide of pleasure and frivolity +were borne away many who had long subsisted upon their reputations for +peculiar piety. Not only did the leopard who had changed his spots, +and the Ethiopian his skin, for political purposes when the Civil War +bore the Puritans into power, return to their real markings, but great +numbers of those who had sustained their Puritanical professions with +greater or lesser degrees of sincerity and earnestness caught the +maddening thrill of levity with which the very atmosphere seemed +surcharged, and rapidly passed down the gradations of character into +recklessness and vice. + +The Royalists were well prepared for the change from piety to +profligacy, and hailed the advent of the light-hearted monarch as a +veritable release of souls in prison. During the Commonwealth, the +wretchedness of their condition had wrought the widespread depravity +which existed among them. The uncertainty of their fortunes and +the necessity of often meeting together made them _habitues_ of the +taverns, which were the centres for social intercourse; and it may +have been thus that the habit of excessive drinking, so prevalent +in this period, was contracted. Upon the principle that no one gives +serious heed to the doings of a drunkard, abandoned and dissolute +habits were looked upon by the Royalist plotters as a safeguard for +themselves and a security to their plans: + + "Come, fill my cup, until it swim + With foam that overlooks the brim. + Who drinks the deepest? Here's to him. + Sobriety and study breeds + Suspicion in our acts and deeds; + The downright drunkard no man heeds." + +The very vices, however, which the Royalists acknowledged having been +led to cultivate by their "pride, poverty, and passion" were imitated +by the baser element among the Puritans when the Cavaliers became +triumphant. Those who formerly had boasted that they "would as soon +cut a Cavalier's throat as swear an oath, and esteem it a less sin," +now assumed the role of sinners as complacently as they had previously +played the part of saints. + +A period of industrial depression subtracts, in the estimation of +the people, from the merits of a government, however noble may be its +policy; and for twenty years previous to the Restoration the condition +of the masses of the people had steadily been growing worse, so that +there was a widespread longing for more provisions and less piety. +Before the Civil War, the state of the people had reached high-water +mark; so vast had been the increase of England's commerce, owing to +the strife among the neighboring powers, that the revenue from customs +had almost doubled, and the blessings of prosperity were felt among +all classes. Sir Philip Warwick even asks us to believe that there +was scarcely any cobbler in London whose wife did not include a silver +beaker among the furnishings of her modest sideboard. During the +Commonwealth, pauperism increased to an alarming extent, so that at +the time of the coming of Charles ten thousand men and women were +languishing in the debtors' prisons, and thousands of others were +living in continual dread of the sheriff's executions. + +The condition of English society at the coming of Charles II. explains +somewhat the tremendous outburst of popular enthusiasm with which that +event was greeted. The people on the village green received him with +morris dances to the music of pipe and tabor, and with other rustic +festivities which for so long a time had been banished as sinful +engagements. At some of the towns through which the triumphal +procession passed, young damsels to the number of hundreds lined +the way and strewed flowers in the path of the king. The women were +especially noticeable for their active participation in all the +popular demonstrations. It was as if they had felt so heavily the +repression of the rigorous theocracy of Cromwell that they were ready +to accept to the fullest the pledge of better times which the return +of Charles gave them, and to pass from fuller liberty into the +wildest license. The king himself, by his own example, lost no time in +establishing the new standards of conduct. Even the reckless spirit of +the Londoners was somewhat surprised when it was bruited abroad that +the king, who was received as a Divine dispensation to a waiting +people, had slunk out of the palace the first night after his return, +under cover of darkness, in the furtherance of one of the unsavory +intrigues which made his life and his court notorious in the annals +of English history. The sensibilities of the English people were not +seriously shocked, however,--we are speaking of the Royalist following +and not of the Puritans,--and in the rebound from the first amazement +at the revelation they received of the kingly character, they were +ready to follow his lead; and so English social life during the reign +of Charles was greatly corrupted. As the key to the times is to be +sought in the tone of the court, the unwelcome task must be fulfilled +in the interests of history, as it relates to woman, of setting forth +the actual conditions which were instituted and prevailed at the court +of Charles II. + +The king came to England fresh from the court of Louis XIV., and +tainted by all the vices which made that court infamous. For the first +time, England became widely affected by the gross iniquities which had +for a long while been a familiar fact of the noble circles of French +society. So long as England imported from France only its dress +goods, jewelry, and novelties, the influence exerted upon it by its +continental neighbor touched society in only a superficial way; but +when England's "Merrie Monarch" brought over with him the low standard +of French morals, England paid tribute to France in a more serious way +and modelled its conduct after that of the more frivolous people. The +reign of Charles brings to view as the principal fact of the times the +personality of the monarch himself, not because he was a strong man, +but because he was so thoroughly weak in his character and abandoned +in his conduct. We have nothing to do with political or constitutional +measures, but, in passing judgment upon the state of society, we are +constrained to say that the reign of King Charles marked a distinct +retrogression, and, in its effect upon the status of woman, is notable +for the distinction it bestowed upon the courtesan class. The honoring +of such characters discounted greatly the gain for the higher ideals +of womanhood which had been secured by the Puritans. + +The woman whom Charles had signalized by his favor immediately upon +his entrance into London was known simply as Barbara Palmer until, +by the ratio of her decline in morals, she was elevated in honors +and received the titles of Countess of Castlemaine and Duchess of +Cleveland. It needs not the saying that beauty and graces of manner +and of form were her chief recommendations to the royal notice. This +woman, who became notorious throughout England,--and who, upon the +retirement of Clarendon, whose dismissal she had secured, stood upon +the balcony of the palace in her night attire to rain down upon +his head curses and vile epithets,--was the woman who, through her +influence over Charles, occupied a commanding position in England. +Her amours before coming under the royal notice absolve the king from +responsibility for her moral ruin, but the offence of thrusting her +before the English people and the contamination exerted upon society +by her presence and conduct at court are what make up the indictment +of womanhood against him. Although many glimpses are afforded in +the gossipy news of the corrupt court of this courtesan's imperious +domination of Charles, nowhere is the story told more simply than +by Pepys in his _Diary_. He says: "Mr. Pierce, the surgeon, tells me +that, though the king and my Lady Castlemaine are friends again, she +is not at White Hall, but at Sir D. Harvey's, whither the king goes to +her; but she says she made him ask her forgiveness upon his knees, +and promise to offend her no more so, and that indeed she hath nearly +hectored him out of his wits." + +Such incidents were not confined to the knowledge of the court +circles, but percolated all classes of society, and not only furnished +the newsmongers with racy scandal, but set in a whirl the light heads +of many foolish women who without such incitement from court example +might have remained models of virtue. + +Another of the king's favorites--and indeed one who was, unlike the +disagreeable countess, a favorite as well with the English people, and +whose name has not yet lost its popularity--was Nell Gwynn. Pretty, +witty, and open-hearted, her face an index of the simplicity and +purity of character which the unfortunate circumstances of her birth +and bringing-up denied her, a veritable gem of womankind lost amid the +flotsam and jetsam of a coarse age, she is to be regarded less as +a sinner than as one sinned against, although she herself, perhaps, +seldom paused to reflect upon the moral value of her actions. + + "How sweet and lovely dost thou make the shame + Which, like the canker in a fragrant rose, + Doth spot the beauty of thy budding name." + +It will not do to judge too harshly the character of one whose whole +conduct showed how essentially guileless and gentle, as well as +generous, were her instincts by the rigorous standards which, however +severe, are none too exacting to be held up for women as representing +the only possible assurance of security for the status which they have +attained; but it is in no spirit of apology for her wrong courses that +all who undertake to discuss the life of Nell Gwynn are irresistibly +drawn to a recital of her virtues rather than to a reprobation of her +faults. + +The poor orange girl, who, according to some authorities, first saw +the light of day in a miserable coalyard garret in Drury Lane, and +whose tutelage was the vulgarity of the London streets, and her +training a barroom where she entertained the patrons by the sweetness +of her voice, courtesan though she became in the court of Charles II., +yet numbered among her descendants Lord James Beauclerk, Bishop of +Hereford, who died in 1782. Nor was she associated with religion +merely in this remote way, for she herself, as patroness of Chelsea +Hospital, and promoter of many charities and the dispenser of private +benefactions, may reasonably claim consideration. In her own behalf +as a woman instinct with all the virtues saving one only,--the one she +had never had an opportunity to possess. The effect of Nell Gwynn's +presence at court upon the minds of the populace was in some respects +more insidious than that of the professional courtesan Castlemaine, +for, by the pleasing philosophy of her winsome nature, the vices of +the court became transmuted into pure gold in the estimation of the +young women who were affected by her as their ideal. + +When the irascible temper of the Duchess of Cleveland became too +intolerable to be borne, the king's excitable fancy was adroitly +directed by the Duke of Buckingham, English envoy to the court of +France, to Mademoiselle de Queroualle, whom he planned to set up as +a rival to her in the king's affections, and thus to further his own +ambitious ends, which were antagonized by the duchess. Thus to place +in control of the king's volatile sentiments the seductive French +woman, who would represent the duke's interests, seemed a veritable +stroke of masterful politics of a character not unworthy of +Machiavel himself. It was not difficult to persuade Louis that such a +sentimental alliance would cement Charles to the French interests; and +as the project would save her from a French convent, mademoiselle was +not found intractable. A decorous invitation, so worded as to spare +the blush of the lady's modesty, was sent from the English court, and +she was forthwith despatched to the court of Charles to fulfil the +double roles of courtesan and diplomat, which were so often combined +in the person of astute females. Her appearance at court was hailed by +Dryden, the court poet, in some complimentary stanzas of indifferent +worth. Evelyn recorded in his _Diary_ that he had seen "that famous +beauty, the new French Maid of Honor"; but adds: "In my opinion, she +is of a childish, simple, and baby face." After the birth of a son +to the king, who was created Duke of Richmond and Earl of Marsh in +England, Mademoiselle de Queroualle was made Duchess of Portsmouth. +At the same time, she was drawing a considerable pension from Louis +in recognition of her services to France. The noble-minded English +gentleman Evelyn records the extravagant tastes of the duchess, whose +control over the king had become unbounded, in these words: "Following +his Majesty this morning through the gallery, I went with the few who +attended him into the Duchess of Portsmouth's dressing-room, within +her bed-chamber, where she was in her loose morning garment, her +maids combing her, newly out of her bed, his Majesty and the gallants +standing about her; but that which engaged my curiosity was the rich +and splendid furniture of this woman's apartment, now twice or thrice +pulled down and rebuilt to satisfy her prodigality and expensive +pleasures, while her Majesty's does not exceed some gentlemen's wives' +in furniture and accommodations. Here I saw the new fabric of French +tapestry, for design, tenderness of work, and incomparable imitation +of the best paintings, beyond anything I had ever beheld. Some pieces +had Versailles, St. Germaines, and other places of the French king, +with huntings, figures, and landscapes, exotic fowls, and all to the +life rarely done. Then the Japan cabinets, screens, pendule clocks, +great vases of wrought plate, tables, stands, chimney furniture, +sconces, branches, brasures, and all of massive silver, and out of +number; besides of his Majesty's best paintings. Surfeiting of this, +I dined at Sir Stephen Fox's, and went contented home to my poor but +quiet villa. What contentment can there be in the riches and splendour +of this world, purchased with vice and dishonour!" + +"There was, in truth, little of contentment within those sumptuous +walls;" a weak queen helpless under the indignities imposed upon her, +a duchess burning with passionate resentment, and light-hearted Nell +Gwynn laughing with amusement; a group of courtiers and courtesans +with little sense of honor, tossed about by conflicting emotions of +fear and jealousy, perplexity and heartaches; involved in disgraceful +intrigues and malicious conspiracies; attended by all the demons which +wait upon the mind that has sold itself to sordidness and sin; +mocked at by a troupe of perfidious spirits of pride, avarice, and +ambition--such was the company within the palace walls that opened to +receive the woman who was to be, if possible, the most despicable of +them all, and certainly the most detested. + +In pleasing contrast to the fashionable and often brilliant debauchees +of the court of Charles II. may be placed the Countess de Grammont, to +whom the description of the poet Fletcher applies: + + "A woman of that rare behaviour, + So qualified, that admiration + Dwells round about her; of that perfect spirit, + That admirable carriage, + That sweetness in discourse--young as the morning, + Her blushes staining his." + +She moved in the profligate sphere of the English court, and later +in that of France, without for a moment having the brilliancy of her +intellect, the acuteness of her wit, or the whiteness of her character +tarnished by vulgarity of action or of word. Importuned by lovers of +high degree for alliances that were not regarded as compromising in +that gay atmosphere, and, when it was found futile to seek to entice +her into an equivocal position, as ardently sought by the beaux for +the honorable relation of wife, she held them all at arm's length. +Strong and resolute, she, like a brilliant moth, circled about the +passionate flame of the English court without singeing her wings, +neither did she seek, by an adventitious flame of responsive passion, +to draw on to haplessness any of the courtiers who sought her with +ardent protestations of affection. Though light-hearted and vivacious, +she had none of the arts of a coquette; but when the persistence of +the Comte de Grammont convinced her, in spite of the scepticism which +her surroundings created, and of his known character of frivolity, +that in him she might find a faithful and devoted husband, she allowed +her heart to hold sway of her destiny and yielded herself in marriage +to him. It had been better for her, however, if she had remained a +maid of honor than to have become, by marriage to an unprincipled man, +a wife of dishonor. The exceptional worth of character, the brilliancy +of intellect, and the steadiness of purpose which La Belle Hamilton +exhibited, did not, in the eyes of the voluptuous count, constitute +a charm sufficient to wean him from his evil courses to a life of +consistency and of uprightness. Her husband lived to an advanced age, +yet she survived him a brief while. Her brother has left us a word +picture of her at about the time of her introduction to the court of +Charles II., which, in connection with her portrait by Sir Peter Lely, +leaves no doubt of her matchless charms. He says: "Her forehead was +open, white, and smooth; her hair was well set, and fell with ease +into that natural order which it is so difficult to imitate. Her +complexion was possessed of a certain freshness not to be equalled by +borrowed colours; her eyes were not large, but they were lovely, and +capable of expressing whatever she pleased; her mouth was full of +graces, and her contour uncommonly perfect; nor was her nose, which +was small, delicate, and turned-up, the least ornament of so lovely a +face. She had the finest shape, the loveliest neck, and most beautiful +arms in the world; she was majestic and graceful in all her movements; +and she was the original after which all the ladies copied in their +tastes and air of dress." + +In reading the memoirs of the court of Charles II., one is apt to +overlook the fact that at the period there was a queen in England. +There was a time when the consort of the king was not so styled; her +position was a personal one, as related to her husband, but she did +not share the honors of the throne. How strangely reversed since the +later Anglo-Saxon period, as contrasted with the reign of Charles II., +had become the relation of the wife of the monarch! for in these last +times the full recognition was tendered Catherine of Braganza to +which her position as consort of Charles gave her title--there was no +question as to there being a queen in England in the full meaning of +the term. But her personal relation to the king as her husband was +an equivocal one; perhaps once in a month he might honor her with +his presence at supper, and occasionally absent himself from the +enticements of his mistresses. It was so from the very first; for, +before Catherine had landed in England, the intrigue of Charles II. +with the notorious Castlemaine was a matter of common knowledge. The +graceless king had the effrontery to include Lady Castlemaine in the +list of appointees for the queen's following. The indignant bride +had not yet learned the futility of seeking to assert her rightful +position, and, haughtily declaring that she would return to her own +country rather than submit to such an indignity, drew her pen across +the name and swept Lady Castlemaine from proximity to her person. In +so doing she incurred the deeper enmity of the female fury who ruled +Charles with an iron will and was for long years to be the queen's +evil genius. The queen was not brilliant, but she was in every sense +a woman; and when on a particular occasion, similar to a present-day +drawing room, Lady Castlemaine was introduced by the king, the queen, +who did not know her and imperfectly caught the name, received her +with grace and benignity; but realizing in a moment who it was, she +became transformed, her urbanity disappeared, and, fully alive to the +insult which had been publicly offered her, she was swept with a wave +of passion: "She started from her chair, turned as pale as ashes, +then red with shame and anger, the blood gushed from her nose, and she +swooned in the arms of her women." Lord Clarendon, who was a witness +of the contest between the wife and mistress and sought to prevent the +king from becoming controlled by the latter, finally absented himself +from court; thereupon the king wrote him a letter in which, after +declaring his purpose of making Lady Castlemaine a lady of his +wife's bedchamber, he added: "And whosoever I find to be my Lady +Castlemaine's enemy, I do promise upon my word to be his enemy as +long as I live." The king's missive had its effect; and Lord Clarendon +undertook to persuade the queen to bear the indignity, although he +had replied to the king that it was "more than flesh and blood could +comply with," and reminded him of the difference between the French +and English courts: "That in the former, such connections were not +new and scandalous, whereas in England they were so unheard of, and +so odious, that the mistress of the king was infamous to all women of +honour." + +The king himself succeeded better in reconciling the queen to the +shameful situation than did his minister, for, after several scenes +between them, he treated her with studied coldness and indifference, +and in her presence assumed an air of exceptional gayety toward all +other women. The unhappy queen finally acquiesced in a situation which +she could not improve, and suffered much greater indignities than +those which she had futilely resented. There is little more of +interest to add with regard to this woman, whose position placed +her first at court, but who really was regarded by the king and his +courtiers as the most insignificant of its personages. She never quite +gave up the hope that she might win at least a share of the affection +which her husband bestowed upon others, and to that end she eventually +laid aside her retiring ways, dressed decollete, and gave magnificent +balls, to which she invited the fairest women of the nobility, thus +seeking, by humoring the fancy of her husband, to gain his love. + +The maids of honor at the court of Charles, who were for the most part +mistresses of the king and of the courtiers, and the male sycophants, +whose only pursuit in life was intrigue, made a choice group of +profligate spirits, who, without any restraint, but with every +encouragement from their royal master, assiduously furthered the chief +interest of their existence. + +There are not wanting those who utterly disparage the morals of +the Commonwealth, and affirm that both Cromwell and his followers +generally were guilty of as base conduct as King Charles and his +courtiers, and that the only difference was that which exists between +covert and open practices of an evil nature. The fact remains, +however, that even down to the present day the English people, and the +American as well, are inheritors of the spirit of the Puritans, to the +great good of society. It was the Puritans who taught reverence for +the Sabbath and made the Bible a common textbook of life; and although +they were strict and narrow in their views, earnestness always is +straitened in its bounds until it bursts them and floods society with +the power of the principles it advocates. + +The apologists for King Charles, who hold to the ancient formula of +the faith of the Fathers and of the Puritans,--that woman from the +days of Eden unto the present time has stood for the downfall of +man,--seek to enlist sympathy for him by saying that in his various +peccadilloes the women seemed to be the aggressors. This plea, which +was advanced by his friendly contemporaries, who sought to whitewash +the outside of the sepulchre of the king's character while leaving +undisturbed the inward corruption, is still gravely repeated by +partisan historians to-day. Sir John Reresby said: "I have since heard +the King say they would sometimes offer themselves to his embrace." It +is unfortunate that the integrity of the chivalrous king should have +suffered such assaults; but as no other English monarch seems to have +been so desperately set upon to his destruction by the women of his +times, it may not be too great a piece of temerity to put in a plea +for the women of the reign of the glorious Charles II. by suggesting +the bare possibility that all the moral probity was not possessed +alone by him who reigned King of England! + +We can much better accept the description of society given by +Clarendon. It is not, however, to be taken as an index to the innate +perversity of woman in wicked ways, but as indicating the natural +effect of the lowering of the esteem in which the sex was held by the +evil living of men in the higher circles of society. Yet not all the +indictments which are brought forward by Clarendon would be considered +to-day as of a serious nature. He comments: "The young women conversed +without any circumspection of modesty, and frequently met at taverns +and common eating-houses; they who were stricter and more severe in +their comportment became the wives of the seditious preachers or of +officers of the army. The daughters of noble and illustrious families +bestowed themselves upon the divines of the time, or other low +and unequal matches. Parents had no manner of authority over their +children, nor children any obedience or submission to their parents, +but every one did that which was good in his own eyes." + +That the change in the feminine character was not simply due to the +unsettled state of society from the Civil War, which undoubtedly did +affect the standard of the times, but was attributable more largely +to the imported French manners with which Charles made the nation +familiar, is beyond doubt. Peter Heylin, who had travelled in France +and published an account of his observations, and who was led to pass +severe strictures upon the conduct of the French women, modified his +gratulatory expressions with regard to English women as follows: "Our +English women, at that time, were of a more retired behaviour than +they have been since, which made the confident carriage of the French +damsels seem more strange to me; whereas of late the garb of our women +is so altered, and they have in them so much of the mode of France, +as easily might take off those misapprehensions with which I was +possessed at my first coming thither." + +It was not until after the death of the king, which occurred on +February 6, 1685, that the nation recovered from the spell of +debauchery through which it had passed, and assumed its wonted +sobriety. Seven days prior, Evelyn wrote in his _Diary_: "I saw this +evening such a scene of profuse gaming, and the king in the midst of +his three concubines, as I had never before seen, luxurious dallying +and profaneness." After the death of Charles and the proclamation +of James II., he reverted again to that scene and said: "I can never +forget the inexpressible luxury and profaneness, gaming and all +dissoluteness, and, as it were, total forgetfulness of God (it being +Sunday evening) which this day se'nnight I was witness to, the +king sitting and toying with his concubines--Portsmouth, Cleveland, +Mazarine, etc.--a French boy singing love songs in that glorious +gallery, whilst about twenty of the great courtiers and other +dissolute persons were at basset round a large table, a bank of at +least 2000 pounds in gold before them, upon which two gentlemen who +were with me made reflexions with astonishment. Six days after was all +in the dust!" + +Although the monarch who made England merry with all sorts of +frivolities had passed away, the influences of his life did not +quickly cease. One of the social changes which came about in his reign +was destined to become very widely extended and to have an important +bearing upon the structure of English society. This was the +introduction of women upon the stage. In discussing the amusements of +the English people in the several periods, we have as yet said nothing +with regard to the theatre, because it did not relate to woman in +an especial manner. The old mediaeval mystery and morality plays were +given under the auspices of the Church, and formed a part of the +religious instruction of a people who neither knew how nor had the +facilities to read. With the rise of the modern drama and of such +masterly interpreters of human passion as the dramatists of the +Elizabethan era, the stage was secularized and the range of subjects +and appeal was very much widened. + +In 1660, for the first time, women were engaged to perform female +characters. Before that time, they had been prohibited from appearing +on the stage; largely because the female parts were usually--and +especially in the beginning of the popularity of the theatre--so +vulgar and obscene that it not only would have been highly disgraceful +for a woman to appear in such characters, but the vulgarity was too +great even for the countenance of females in the audience without +resorting to the expedient of wearing masks. This practice led to +shameful intrigues and discreditable escapades which added to +living the zest which was craved by the women of the court who, thus +disguised, were _habituees_ of the theatre. If it was thought that +by allowing women to take female parts in the plays the tone of such +characters might be improved, the ordinances which permitted the +practice certainly failed of effect. D'Israeli, taking the aesthetic +view of this innovation of the time of Charles II., says: "To us +there appears something so repulsive in the exhibition of boys or men +personating female characters, that one cannot conceive how they could +ever have been tolerated as a substitute for the spontaneous grace, +the melting voice, and the soothing looks of a female." + +The absurdity which he suggests was aptly expressed by a poet of +the reign of Charles II., in a prologue which was written as an +introduction to the play in which appeared the first actress: + + "Our women are defective, and so sized, + You'd think they were some of the guard disguised + For to speak truth, men act, that are between + Forty and fifty, wenches of fifteen; + With brows so large and nerve so uncompliant, + When you call Desdemona--enter giant." + +Nell Gwynn is said first to have attracted the attention of King +Charles when she appeared in a humorous part at the theatre; she +was one of the earliest actresses to appear _in propria persona_. As +ungraceful as were the female parts when taken by men, the innovation +of women was not received kindly by many critics of the stage. +Thus Pepys, in his _Diary_, is found lamenting the new custom: "The +introduction of females on the stage was the beginning of a change +ever to be regretted. Pride of birth, but not insolence, is, to a +certain extent, highly commendable, and which had hitherto been the +chief characteristic of the old English aristocracy, who had kept +themselves till now almost universally free from stained alliances; +but from this time they became the patrons, and even the husbands, of +any lewd, babbling, painted, pawed-over thing that the purlieus of the +theatre could produce." + +Evelyn comments upon the theatre to the same effect, and remarks that +he very seldom attended it, because of its godless liberty: "Foul and +indecent women now (and never till now) permitted to appear and act, +who, inflaming several young noblemen and gallants, become their +misses, and to some their wives." He then instances several of the +nobility whom he says fell into such snares, to the reproach of their +families and the ruin of themselves in both body and soul. He laments +the fact that the splendid products of Shakespeare and Ben Jonson were +crowded off the stage to make room for the pasteboard and tinsel of +John Dryden and Thomas Shadwell. At the time that Evelyn and Pepys +were recording their comments upon the tone of the stage, thousands +were living who well remembered the vehement denunciation of plays by +the sturdy old Puritan William Prynne, who was rewarded for his ardent +crusades against the iniquities of the theatre by the snipping off +of his ears. The condemnation of the theatre was not confined to any +party or church, for Bishop Burnet is found vigorously denouncing +theatres, under the new conditions inaugurated by Charles II., as +"nests of prostitution." + +The depravity of the taste of the patrons of the theatres had its +influence upon the writers of the plays. Men whose personal lives +were unexceptionable did not scruple, when writing pieces intended for +representation upon the stage, to introduce as much indecency as they +possibly could, knowing full well that unless their works were highly +seasoned they would never get a hearing. The manners and tastes of the +court of Charles II. established the standard of the theatres +during his reign; the depravity of public sentiment and the general +corruption of the times were greatly increased by these mirrors of the +manners and life of the court. So utterly foul became the repute of +the stage, that, to quote from Sydney's _Social Life in England_, +"Every person who had the slightest regard for sobriety and morality +avoided a playhouse as he would have avoided a house on the door of +which the red cross bore witness to the awful fact that the inmates +had been smitten by the pestilence which walketh in darkness and by +the sickness that destroyeth in noon-day. The indecorous character of +the stage inflicted much less injury than it would have done had +it been covered with a thin veil of sentiment. Those dramatic +representations, at which women desirous of maintaining some +reputation for modesty deemed it incumbent upon them to wear masks, +were, as may be supposed, studiously avoided by those who really were +virtuous." The influence of the metropolis did not extend over the +kingdom as it does to-day, so that outside of the tainted circles +there were to be found social spheres where the old gentility of the +Elizabethan age was maintained, although subjected to such sneers +as were directed against them by Dryden, who looked upon them as +unfortunate enough to have been bred in an unpolished age, and still +more unlucky to live in a refined one. "They have lasted beyond their +own, and are cast behind ours." + +Artificiality without any pretence to sincerity was the spirit of the +times of Charles II.; the maundering sentiments and flagitious bearing +of the actors upon the stage were not different from the conduct of +the buffoons who masqueraded in titles and elegant attire at the +court of the king of revels. Foppery in speech and in dress and the +interlarding of conversation with French phrases found favor among +the court followers. It was regarded "as ill breeding to speak good +English, as to write good English, good sense, or a good hand." + +Women as artists appeared earlier than women as players. For several +centuries they had been accustomed, as a polite accomplishment, to +illuminate manuscripts, and indeed this for a long time was the +only form of art worthy of the name in England. There had developed, +however, considerable taste and skill in wood carving, as well as +further advancement of the ancient art of the goldsmith, which, as we +have seen, was developed enough in Anglo-Saxon times to constitute an +English school. But art in its more particular meaning was not found +domestic to England until the reign of Charles I. It was the influence +of the great school of Dutch artists that awakened in England art +instinct and created artistic talent. England's art history may be +dated from the time of Van Dyke's residence in the country, at least +in so far as it embraces women. When Van Dyke was at the English +court, Anne Carlisle shared with him the royal patronage. The king's +fine taste in art matters had unerringly led him to fix his favor upon +this woman, and her works show the undoubted genius she possessed. + +The Puritan embroilment, which was destructive to all forms of +intellectual advancement as long as it kept the nation in an unsettled +state, had a repressive effect upon art; but from the time of the +Restoration the stream flowed on with increasing depth and volume, and +the list of England's woman painters not only became creditable to the +country, but afforded another criterion by which to prove the +lofty possibilities of the sex. Mary Beale, a painter in oil and in +water-colors, who received high commendation from the famous portrait +painter Sir Peter Lely, was a painstaking and industrious artist. Anne +Killigrew, who was maid of honor to the Duchess of York, in the brief +span of her life acquired a permanent reputation, not only by her +portraits, which included those of the Duke and Duchess of York, +but by her verses as well. These and other women of talent were the +precursors of the women who did so much for the art history of the +eighteenth century. + +In considering the place of woman in literature during the period of +which we are writing, it is well to keep in mind the words of Lady +Mary Wortley Montague: "We are permitted no books but such as tend to +the weakening and effeminating of our minds. We are taught to place +all our art in adorning our persons, while our minds are entirely +neglected." This opinion of woman has not yet become obsolete, so that +it is too much to expect to find, in the seventeenth century, women of +the highest literary attainments, and certainly one need not look for +women among the creators of literary style and founders of English +literature. A literary woman is to some masculine minds a matter of +everlasting scorn. Such minds will not be offended in the perusal of +the literature of the seventeenth century by finding women wielding +the pen for the instruction or the edification of elect circles +of superior intellects or to please the vulgar taste of the common +people. Excepting as writers of occasional verse or of memoirs, the +names of few female authors appear in the literary annals of the +period. + +Amusement and not intellect was the contribution which women were +supposed to make to the times of Charles II., and, excepting in +matters reprehensible, there was often a degree of simplicity about +the amusements indulged in that makes one wonder if such ingenuous +entertainment does not bespeak less design and craftiness in the +natures of those women than is usual to associate with plotters and +intriguers. Lady Steuart, one of the most noted court beauties, +found her chief diversion in sitting upon the floor, with subservient +courtiers about her, building card houses. Lord Sunderland treated his +visitors to an exhibition of fire eating by the renowned Richardson, +who awakened the wonder of his beholders by his feats of devouring +brimstone on glowing coals, eating melted beer glasses, and roasting a +raw oyster upon a live coal held upon his tongue. Such mountebanks +and jugglers were the successors of similar characters who wandered +through the country from castle to castle during the Middle Ages, or +became attached to some great lord's following. Other forms of indoor +amusements, which would hardly comport with the gravity of the same +high circles of society in the nation in these latter times, may be +stated. Pepys speaks of one day going to the court, where he found the +Duke and Duchess of York, with all the great ladies, sitting upon a +carpet on the ground, playing: "I love my love with an A, because he +is so-and-so; and I hate him with an A, because of this and that;" and +he observed that some of the ladies were mighty witty, and all of +them very merry. Blindman's-buff was a favorite game among even older +people; and Burnett says that at one time the king, queen, and whole +court "went about masked, and came into houses unknown, and danced +there with a great deal of wild frolic. In all this they were so +disguised that, without being in the secret, none could distinguish +them. They were carried about in sedan chairs, and once the queen's +chairman, not knowing who she was, went from her; so she was alone and +much disturbed, and came to Whitehall in a hackney coach (some say it +was in a cart)." + +Scarcely a week passed by but that Whitehall was brilliantly +illuminated for a ball, at which the king, queen, and courtiers danced +the "bransle," which was a sort of country dance, the "corant," swift +and lively as a jig, and in which only two persons took part, and +other French figures. Billiards and chess were played a great deal, +and gambling was a ruling passion of the day. All the great women at +court had their card tables, around which thronged the courtiers, +who won and lost enormous sums. The passions which were aroused by +gambling often led to violent quarrels, and frequently these were +settled by duels, although duelling had been prohibited by the king at +the time of the Restoration. + +Many fantastic changes had taken place in women's attire during the +reign of Charles. During the Commonwealth, Puritan sentiment, and +proscription as well, had reduced the dress of all classes to a +remarkable uniformity. The costume most common to women consisted of a +gown with a lace stomacher and starched kerchief, a sad-colored cloak +with a French hood, and a high-crowned hat. The Geneva cloak was no +fit covering for the courtesan, and was instantly thrown aside that +the butterfly which had hidden in this demure chrysalis might emerge +fluttering in all its gay and brilliant colors. Loose and flowing +draperies of silk and satin took the place of woollen and cotton +gowns; the stiff ruff which in the reign of Elizabeth had been +facetiously styled "three steps to the gallows," because the +fashionables of her day would go to any length to possess it in the +most extravagant size and value, had, under the Commonwealth, become +much more circumspect as to its appearance and circumference, and was +esteemed entirely too respectable to comport well with the freedom of +the reign of Charles. Then, too, the artistic taste of the day, which +ran to portrait painting, had enhanced the estimate of ladies with +regard to the matter of their personal charms. So it was regarded not +only as artistic, but aesthetic, in a wider sense, to run to realism. +The word "run" is used advisedly, for there was a veritable scramble +to get rid of the formal and, it must be conceded, ridiculous ruff. +But when the latter disappeared from the neck and shoulders, there was +nothing adapted to fulfil its functions, so that, through a lamentable +omission on the part of the English women or their too hasty adoption +of French fashions, the shoulders and bosoms of the ladies were given +little consideration by the designers or the makers of their gowns. + +But the head was not treated so indifferently as the shoulders, for, +when the plain top hat of the Puritan was abandoned, the milliner +already had something at hand to compensate the ladies for their loss. +Feathers of rare plumage and rich color were employed in the widest +profusion. The hoods, too, underwent the general metamorphosis, and +emerged from their penitential gray into "yellow bird's eye," and +other tints as indescribable. The new styles exposed their votaries to +wide criticism. Many pamphlets appeared whose straightforward titles +showed in what an undisguised manner the subject was to be found +treated within them. The general complaint was that immodest dress +was not confined to balls and chambers of entertainment, but that +women brazenly appeared in similar costume at church, braving all +criticism to satisfy their morbid desire for observation. The mode of +hair-dressing of the period ran largely to ringlets, which, as they +appear in the portraits of the great ladies of the day, seem at the +present time stiff and unartistic. The art of using cosmetics, which +had lapsed during the Puritan period, was actively revived, and it +was not only the stage beauties, but the court women as well, who used +paint in such profusion as almost to disguise their identity. + +It can easily be seen that a woman of the period must have been a +gorgeous spectacle in full dress, with painted face adorned with +black patches cut in designs of hearts, Cupids, and occasionally even +coaches and four, and with her hair dressed in the prevailing mode, +which was to have "false locks set on wyres to make them stand at a +distance from the head, as fardingales made the clothes stand out in +Queen Elizabeth's reign." A woman thus attired, leaning upon the arm +of a gallant with head adorned by the periwig worn by the men of the +day, was ready for any fashionable function. As hospitality on a large +and generous scale was a circumstance of the times, it might be that +she would pass into the hall, with its massive, carved furniture, +magnificent tapestries, sumptuous furnishings, glittering crystal, +elegant plate, and beautiful wall paintings, to assume her position of +mistress of a household and do the honors at a table generous with +its viands and ample in all the varied range of English and French +cookery. In doing so, she would be governed by the etiquette in +whose precepts she had been schooled, and of which the following is a +sample: "_Instruction to British Ladies When at Table_--A gentlewoman, +being at table, abroad or at home, must observe to keep her body +straight, and lean not by any means on her elbows, nor by ravenous +gesture disclose a voracious appetite. Talke not when you have meate +in your mouthe, and do not smacke like a pig, nor eat spoone-meate so +hot that the tears stand in your eyes. It is very uncourtly to drink +so large a draughte that your breath is almost gone, and you are +forced to blow strongly to recover yourself; throwing down your +liquor as into a funnel, is an action fitter for a juggler than a +gentlewoman. In carving at your table, distribute the best pieces +first; it will appear very decent and comely to use a forke; so touch +no piece of meate without it." + +The table furnished an opportunity for many pleasant passages of +repartee, which, however, were apt to be broader in their point and +more undisguised in their language than would be tolerated in any +society of to-day pretending to the least gentility. Here, too, was +engendered frequently the tender sentiment which gave rise to proper +attentions to ladies or to gallantry, according to the character +of the courtier and his lady-love. When gallantry palled upon +the satiated spirits of the courtiers, to preserve their unsavory +reputations they had nothing more difficult to do than to stuff their +pockets with billets-doux, which they paraded in view of their fellows +as evidence of their successful intrigues. When love took a more +creditable form, and the lover in formal and open fashion went to +pay his addresses to his lady-love, he sallied forth in the evening, +accompanied by a band of fiddlers, and serenaded her with some choice +verses. After the suitor was accepted and the marriage arranged for, +little of sentiment entered into it. There was no attempt to hide +the mercenary motives, which were frankly displayed. Indeed, women's +marriage portions were regarded by the seventeenth-century writers as +the cause of much wedded misery and sin. It was argued that if these +marriage portions were dispensed with, marriage would be more likely +to be contracted upon the enduring basis of compatibility and love; +but among the nobility, monetary considerations and questions of +rank were usually regarded as sufficient motives for marriage, unless +passion swept aside caution and led to a _mesalliance_. Gallants who +serenaded with dishonorable motives were generally treated roughly. A +life spent between a town residence and a country house, with frequent +attendance at court, comprised the ambitions of the young nobility. +Marriage was frequently regarded simply as an incident which did not +materially alter the attitude of either of the contracting parties to +the rest of the court personnel. + +The manners of the times of Charles II. were not the manners of +England sober, but of England intoxicated with the new wine of French +frivolity; and with the passing away of the king who had led them to +worship false gods, the English people gradually returned to their +habitual steadiness. Yet, the dalliance with frivolity had effects to +be seen throughout the greater part of the eighteenth century, in the +superficiality of the era in regard to woman, and, finally, in a stiff +and artificial scheme of convention. + + + + +CHAPTER XIII + +THE WOMEN OF THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY + + +The artificiality of eighteenth-century society was a precursor of the +practicality of that of the nineteenth. The influences which had given +shape to the society of the time of the Stuarts had passed away, and +the new influences and forces were in operation. The result of the +contest between the Puritan and the sensualist had been a broadened +social apprehension; and into this new concept entered harmoniously +the catholicity of the worldly spirit and the conservatism of the +religious spirit. This was the society which was productive of +women of eminence in the arts and literature, as well as of women +untalented, but blessed with a broader scope of life, more varied +experience and controlled natures, than those who had gone before +them. + +Society as a whole indirectly profited by the English dalliance +with French manners. Corruption was but a circumstance of the closer +relationship, in social ways, of England with the continent. Political +animosities and ambitions had more largely than anything else brought +England and the rest of Europe into contact, nor was the contact by +clashing at an end. A nation generally is not greatly concerned in +the projects of princes, so that, while territorial aggrandizement or +curtailment or similar benefits or injuries resulted from the wars +of England, the salient fact as a social consideration is that the +English people were still further broadened from the provincialism +which the insularity of their country induced. At the beginning of +the eighteenth century, the women of England had escaped the local and +narrow spirit and separateness of customs which threatened them from +England's beginning, and from which they were saved by recurrent and +ever more frequent contact with continental nations. + +English society, however, had not become so imbued with the +cosmopolitan spirit as to feel at ease in it as in a loose garment; +the people were straitened and formal. They were lacking the +versatility and adaptability which developed in the nineteenth +century, when, amongst women, convention became settled custom, and +custom the careful promulgator of social laws. There were present all +the evidences of the finer sensibilities which give clear notions in +matters intellectual, and society in the last half of the eighteenth +century became thoroughly aroused to a social consciousness with +regard to the middle and lower classes. The industrial revolution and +the rise of the school of classic economists brought forward great +discussions which had for their purpose the determination of the +fundamental basis of a nation's prosperity. Into this discussion women +entered as participants, but very much more largely as interested +subjects of the matters involved. + +The growth of England's industries, more than any other single thing, +contributed to the well-being of the masses of English society, while +at the same time it tended to make sharper distinctions among them. +The increase of ease and comfort in living affected largely the +character of domestic life; and the wider scope of industry and +sterner demands for labor, which were the outcome of a desire to +participate largely in the benefits of the new industries, gave +opportunity to individual talent and application; while the unfrugal +and shiftless, or the unfortunate, experienced in proportionately +greater degree the severity of living. To mining, fishing, farming, +sheep rearing, fruit cultivation, weaving, seafaring,--the industries +of England other than manufactures,--were added during the seventeenth +century glass manufacture, cotton manufacture, and other industries +which were the foundation of England's material greatness. This +list was greatly augmented during the eighteenth century, and the +development of manufactures of all sorts created the factory towns, +which drew to them, as into a vortex, the populations of the rural +districts, and created many problems of modern society in which female +and child labor are involved. + +Among the women in everyday life, social habits were easy and +existence had many elements of contentment. Gossip--which had become +differentiated from scandal, because of a wider variety of subjects to +chatter about than flagitious conduct, occupied a large proportion of +the time of the women. The public gardens and the promenades of the +cities, notably the capital, were as much resorted to as during the +reign of Charles, and there was as keen an interest in the display +of styles and the parade of wealth by the women who rode in their +carriages or were carried in their sedan chairs as formerly there had +been in the conduct of the gilded set of the Restoration. + +Society as such had not as yet reached the coherence which it knows +to-day. It was much a matter of classes or sections. The "democracy of +aristocracy," which makes a cross-section of all the social grades and +includes the wealthy, the noble born, the intellectual and the gifted +of all ranks of society, was a later development. It is true that +women of gifts did not have to rely upon patrons for their reputation, +but had direct access to the public and were sustained by their own +worth; nevertheless, the pride of birth was still strong enough to +make those who possessed it hold themselves far above even the most +gifted and talented of the sex who were not born within the narrow +circle of noble society. Yet it was no longer simply the person +garnished with titles of nobility who attracted the popular eye and +was singled out in the crowd; for when women whose only claim to +notice was their saintliness of character and Christian service, or +their philanthropy, or their literary gifts, or their art attainments, +were seen in the places of general resort, they attracted as much +attention as did women of rank. + +The prosperous and well-domiciled woman of the middle classes could +rest in the comfortable feeling that the demarcations of society no +longer absolutely precluded the possibility of her daughters' entering +the ranks of those famous for their signal worth of one sort or +another; but as yet the great movements of modern society had not come +into close touch with the lives of ordinary women. Newspapers were +published, but women seldom read them. Philanthropy was making +headway, but women had little part in its movement, nor had they fully +entered as yet into their birthright in the realm of literature. +In the rural districts, their life was so contracted that a weekly +newsletter, passed from hand to hand, was the chief medium of +information as to the outside world; but even this was not usually +read by the womenfolk, who were content to receive their news by +hearsay. Unlike the women of the aristocracy, the women of the middle +classes did not become beneficiaries to any large degree in the wider +connections of their husbands, because such connections were for the +most part of a business nature and not social. They were women +of mediocrity, and their role was domestic. It was still thought +unimportant to widen woman's horizon beyond the elements of an +education. To these, in the case of the more prosperous, were added +those accomplishments which are still looked upon by ignorant persons +with disdain, but which serve to bridge the chasms of society by +establishing tests of good breeding irrespective of social birth; +so that to reading, writing, geography, and history there were added +music, French, and Italian. Such a curriculum, faithfully followed, +prepared young women to move in polite circles. + +The old cry of women's incapacity for intellectual attainments of +the same order as those of men is audible throughout the eighteenth +century. One writer, after speaking of the regard in which the sex +were held in England, discusses the matter of their education and +concludes that it is not easy to comprehend the possibility of raising +them to a higher plane than that to which they had been lifted, +because of their natural incapacity for other than the domestic and +social functions which they so gracefully fulfilled. To English people +generally, it was a matter of pride that their women received greater +respect and were held in greater affection than those of continental +countries. This was often remarked upon by foreign visitors, one of +whom observes that "among the common people the husbands seldom make +their wives work. As to the women of quality, they don't trouble +themselves about it." The position of the wife in middle-class society +has been set before us by Fielding in a satire that has in it much +of truth: "The Squire, to whom that poor woman had been a faithful +upper-servant all the time of their marriage, had returned that +behavior by making what the world calls a good husband. He very seldom +swore at her, perhaps not above once a week, and never beat her. She +had not the least occasion for jealousy, and was perfect mistress +of her time, for she was never interrupted by her husband, who was +engaged all the morning in his field exercises, and all the evening +with his bottle companions." Certainly home had come to have attached +to it a notion of greater sanctity than ever before, and women were +accorded their natural rights and position, with the respect and +deference in the tenderer relations of life, which signified much more +than the profuse chivalry of the Middle Ages or the mock courtesy of +the time of Charles II. + +The English people were above all domestic; and the period, in its +emphasis upon this phase of social life,--the English home,--marks in +a way the beginning of that conception which is now regarded as being +at the very foundation of a secure society. While France was going on +in its iconoclastic way, destroying all things sacred in a mad desire +to seize for the Third Estate the rights which they realized belonged +to them, and the grasping of which was to cause French history to be +written in the blood and fire of the great Revolution, the English, +having passed out of the social depravity of the reign of Charles II., +became eminently steady and conservative of those elements of social +progress which, in their case, unlike that of their French neighbors, +had already been secured for them by progressive and largely peaceful +measures. + +It is interesting to note that the term "old maid" had now entered +into the popular vernacular, although "spinster," with its transferred +meaning, was the more respectful way of speaking of unmarried women. +"An old maid is now thought such a curse," says the author of the +_Ladies' Calling_, "as no Poetick Fury can exceed; looked on as the +most calamitous creature in nature. And I so far yield to the opinion +as to confess it to those who are kept in that state against their +wills; but sure the original of that misery is from the desire, not +the restraint, of marriage; let them but suppress that once, and the +other will never be their infelicity. But I must not be so unkind +to the sex as to think 'tis always such desire that gives them an +aversion to celibacy; I doubt not many are frightened only with the +vulgar contempt under which that state lyes: for which if there be no +cure, yet there is the same armous against this which is against all +other causeless reproaches, viz., to contemn it." + +The esteem in which matrimony was held as the manifest destiny of the +fair sex is illustrated by all the social manners of the day. Women +had, however, the good taste to conduct themselves without reproach, +and not to invite attention even while they most appreciated it. In +a word, the young women of the eighteenth century were not coquettes, +and with them modesty was not a lost art. They were not masculine, +and indeed might have been regarded from the standards of to-day as +prudes. But the prudery of the British women excited the admiration of +foreigners, thoroughly satiated with the arts, the flaunting manners, +and the gilded charms of the young women of the European capitals. + +One foreigner is found recording his astonishment at the diversity in +the manner of walking of the ladies, and sees in it an index of their +characters; for, says he, when they are desirous only of being seen, +they walk together, for the most part without speaking. He suggests +that the stiffness and formality of their demeanor when not thus on +dress parade are laid aside for greater naturalness. But he says that, +with all their care to be seen, they have no ridiculous affectations. +In former times, it was not customary for young women to go about +without the attendance of some older person, and a girl so doing was +brought under suspicion as to her character; but in the eighteenth +century, young girls went about freely with their fellows and without +any other company, and a writer of the period assures us that if a +young girl went out with a parent, unless such parent were as wild as +herself, she felt as though she was going abroad with a jailer. It was +not usual, however, for girls to go about unchaperoned. + +It would be an unwarranted assumption to suppose that demureness was +any deeper than demeanor in the maidens of the eighteenth century, +for the feminine character--and not times and customs--determines +the effectiveness of the sex. Matters of custom and of dress signify +little, and yet the Solons who passed the act of 1770 to lessen the +potency of woman's charms appear to have been utterly oblivious of +the important consideration that these do not rest in outward +circumstance, but in inward grace. This curious act prescribed: "That +all women, of whatever age, rank, profession, or degree, whether +virgins, maids, or widows, that shall, from and after such Act, impose +upon, seduce, or betray into matrimony, any of his Majesty's male +subjects by the scents, paints, cosmetic washes, artificial teeth, +false hair, Spanish wool, iron stays, hoops, high-heeled shoes, etc., +shall incur the penalty of the law now enforced against witchcraft and +like misdemeanours, and that the marriage upon conviction shall stand +null and void." And this, too, just six years before the American +Declaration of Independence! + +Allusion to this act proscribing aids to beauty leads to the +consideration of the matter of costume and adornment. This can be +summarized in the censure which was called forth from an Italian +visitor: "The ladies of England do not understand the art of +decorating their persons so well as those of Italy; they generally +increase the volume of the head by a cap that makes it much bigger +than nature, a fault which should be always avoided in adorning that +part." After this observation, the writer passes on to criticise +the length of the ladies' skirts, affirming that they wore their +petticoats too short behind, unlike the ladies of Italy and France, +for--and we are indebted to him for his explication of trains--these +ladies "pattern after the most graceful birds." By their failure to +emulate the peacock or the bird-of-paradise in the matter of their +splendid appendages, the English women are said to lose "the greatest +grace which dress can impart to a female." He continues, saying: "In +truth, not beauty, but novelty governs in London, not taste, but copy. +A celebrated woman of five foot six inches gives law to the dress of +those who are but four feet two.... This is not the case in Italy +and France; the ladies know that the grace which attends plumpness is +unbecoming the slender; and the tall lady never affects to look like a +fairy; nor the dwarf like the giantess, but each, studying the air and +mien which become her figure, appears in the most engaging dress that +can be made, to set off her person to the greatest advantage." + +Passing from the generalities of female dress and coming to particular +descriptions thereof, here is an account of the costuming of the +ladies who assembled at court to congratulate his majesty George II. +and his queen, Caroline, on their nuptials: "The ladies were variously +dressed, though with all the richness and grandeur imaginable; many +of them had their heads dressed English, of fine Brussels lace of +exceeding rich patterns, made up on narrow wire and small round rolls, +and the hair pinned to large puff-caps, and but a few without powder; +some few had their hair curled down on the sides; pink and silver, +white and gold, were the general knots worn. There was a vast number +of Dutch heads, their hair curled down in short curls on the sides and +behind, all very much powdered, with ribbands frilled on their heads, +variously disposed; and some had diamonds set on ribbands on their +heads; laced tippets were pretty general, and some had ribbands +between the frills; treble-lace ruffles were universally worn, though +abundance had them not tacked up. Their gowns were either gold stuffs +or rich silks, with either gold or silver flowers, or pink or white +silks, with either gold or silver nets or trimmings; the sleeves to +the gowns were middling (not so short as formerly), and wide, and +their facings and robings broad; several had flounced sleeves and +petticoats and gold or silver fringe set on the flounces; some had +stomachers of the same sort as the gown, others had large bunches of +made flowers at their breasts; the gowns were variously pinned, but +in general flat, the hoops French, and the petticoats of a moderate +length, and a little slope behind. The ladies were exceedingly +brilliant likewise in jewels; some had them in their necklaces and +ear-rings, others with diamond solitaires to pearl necklaces of three +or four rows; some had necklaces of diamonds and pearls intermixed, +but made up very broad; several had their gown-sleeves buttoned with +diamonds, others had diamond sprigs in their hair, etc. The ladies' +shoes were exceeding rich, being either pink, white, or green silk, +with gold or silver lace braid all over, with low heels and low +hind-quarters and low flaps, and abundance had large diamond +shoe-buckles." + +The preposterous hooped petticoats which ladies wore out of doors +subjected them to the good-natured banter of the wits of the time. One +of these sallies, which appeared about 1720, runs as follows: + + "An elderly lady, whose bulky squat figure + By hoop and white damask was rendered much bigger, + Without hood and bare-neck'd to the Park did repair + To show her new clothes and to take the fresh air; + Her shape, her attire, raised a shout in loud laughter: + Away waddles Madam, the mob hurries after. + Quoth a wag, then observing the noisy crowd follow, + 'As she came with a hoop, she is gone with a hollow.'" + +The hoopskirt was the characteristic feature of eighteenth-century +styles, and it grew to such enormous proportions as seriously to +inconvenience the wearer and to interfere with the cubic feet of space +which a pedestrian might reasonably claim as his right on a crowded +thoroughfare. But there were eighteenth-century styles which were more +reprehensible than the oft-caricatured hoop. + +There was a class of votaries of fashion, in contrast to the mass of +society, whose only notion of dress was display, and toward the middle +of the eighteenth century these imported the most extravagant and +immodest of French styles. As they paraded the public gardens, to +which all classes resorted, the staid people were scandalized by their +appearance. T. Wright, in his _Caricature History of the Georges_, +says that "what was looked upon as the _beau-monde_ then lived much +more in public than now, and men and women of fashion displayed their +weaknesses to the world in public places of amusement and resort, +with little shame or delicacy. The women often rivalled the men +in libertinism, and even emulated them sometimes in their riotous +manners." Women of the town were greatly in evidence, and a +trustworthy traveller of the times affirms that they were bolder and +more numerous in London than in either Paris or Rome. Not only at +night, but in broad daylight, they traversed the footpaths, +selecting out of the passers-by the susceptible for their enticement, +particularly directing themselves to foreigners. Archenholz says: _On +compte cinquante mille prostituees a Londres, dans les maitresses +en titre. Leurs usages et leur conduite determinent les differentes +classes ou il faut les ranger. La plus vile de toutes habite dans +les lieux publics sous la direction d'une matrone qui les loge et +les habille. Ces habits mee pour les filles communes, sont de soie, +suivant l'usage que le luxe a generalement introduit en Angleterre.... +Dans_ _la seule paroisse de Marybonne, qui est la plus grande et la +plus peuplee de l'Angleterre, on en comptoit, il y a quelques annees, +treize mille, dont dix-sept cents occupoient des maisons entieres a +elles seules_. + +Such a picture of social vice in the metropolis is a sad commentary +upon the tendency of the young women of the country districts to drift +to the city. The "lights o' London" had already begun to possess that +fascination for the weak in morals, the light-headed and frivolous, +which has made them a wrecker's beacon on a rockbound shore, luring to +destruction untold hosts of inexperienced country youth. Nor was the +drift Londonward due altogether to the fascination which the gay and +pleasure-pandering city possessed, for there were not wanting methods +of enticement such as are still employed, in spite of legal penalties. +The example of city dwellers of outward respectability did not tend to +elevate the moral tone of those who came fresh from the country, +with its purer home life; for while the sanctity of the home was an +appreciable fact of the seventeenth century, it was much less so in +the metropolis and in the cities generally than it was in the country. + +A notorious fact that attracted the notice of continental visitors +to England was that lax morality prevailed in many English families. +Muralt, a Frenchman, even asserts that he found it customary for +husbands generally to maintain mistresses and also to bring them to +their homes and place them on a footing with their wives. This is +doubtless an exaggerated statement of the case; but when the king was +not faultless, the people were apt to pursue folly. Although no king +after Charles II., except George II., disgraced the nation by the +profligacy which he exhibited, yet Charles's successor, James II., +kept a mistress, as did most of the kings following him. + +Referring again to Fielding, we get what is probably a truer picture +of the times in this respect than could be penned from the hasty +observations of a traveller. A young fellow who has led astray his +landlady's daughter is addressed by his uncle in the following manner: +"Honour is a creature of the world's making, and the world has the +power of a creator over it, and may govern and direct it as they +please. Now, you well know how trivial these breaches of contract are +thought; even the grossest make but the wonder and conversation of the +day. Is there a man who afterwards will be more backward in giving you +his sister or daughter, or is there any sister or daughter who would +be more backward to receive you? Honour is not concerned in these +engagements." It need not be supposed that such sentiments were +general; but that they were all too prevalent is manifested by the +literature that mirrors the times. + +Drinking and swearing, the coarse associations of the alehouse, the +obscene jokes and sallies which were indulged in freely in such places +and made up a great part of the conversation, were conducive to a very +low moral standard for men, and there was nothing in the times to lead +women to uphold higher ideals of conduct than those which were imposed +upon them by the male sex. Consequently, they were accustomed to a +lower standard than would be tolerated to-day; but as libertinism was +largely concerned with the outcast element of society, the women of +the homes were not called upon to sacrifice integrity of character for +its satisfaction. So that the lower moral standard was set up for men, +and a woman who would attempt at once to maintain her respectability +and follow such courses would very soon have found that difference in +standards for the sexes visited a stricter condemnation upon her than +upon the male delinquent. + +The testimony of foreigners to the chastity of the English matron +quite coincides with that which comes from English sources. Le Blanc +remarks: "Most of those who among us pass for men of good fortune in +amours would with difficulty succeed in addressing an English fair. +She would not sooner be subdued by the insinuating softness of their +jargon than by the amber with which they are perfumed." Another +observer, of the same nationality, speaking of the unassailability of +the English woman, attributes it to the insurmountable rampart which +she had in the love for her family, the care of her household, and her +natural gravity, and says that he does not know any city in the world +where the honor of husbands is in less danger of deflection than in +London. + +The social hypocrisy of the eighteenth century, as it relates to +woman, was due to the failure as yet to place the sex in correct +adjustment with the times. Instead of considering her as having +serious qualities and value other than the realization of matrimony, +everything that entered into woman's life pointed in that one +direction. The art of pleasing was not cultivated as an opportunity +of the sex due to their special graces of spirit and of person, which +might legitimately be employed for their own sake to make the world +happier and brighter. There was not afforded to men the restfulness +and pleasure in the company of women which would serve as a delightful +foil to the practical and anxious cares of their daily lives; nor +were women taught to believe in themselves as capable persons in the +spheres of life in which feminine personality, taste, and touch +best affect and mould civilization. Except in a few notable cases, +literature and art, to say nothing of science, were outside of woman's +sphere, because she neither believed in herself nor was seriously +regarded by men as a factor in any of the wide relations of life other +than those which were involved in her sex. The arts of the toilette, +conversation, and deportment were all in which she was considered to +need to be adept. Where naturalness was suppressed, it is not strange +that the young women should have been influenced by false standards; +false modesty, false sensitiveness, false ignorance, were depended +upon to give them the artlessness and innocence of deportment which +should recommend them to the blase men of the times. + +The estimate in which the sex was held was not quietly accepted by all +women; although the new woman had not appeared upon the horizon, +there were not wanting women who realized that their position was +a humiliating one, and who sought to create a sentiment for its +betterment. Mary Astell was one such, and the case as presented by +her shows the superficiality of the conventional routine of a woman's +life. She says: "When a young lady is taught to value herself on +nothing but her cloaths, and to think she's very fine when well +accoutred; when she hears say, that 'tis wisdom enough for her to know +how to dress herself, that she may become amiable in his eyes to whom +it appertains to be knowing and learned; who can blame her if she lays +out her industry and money for such accomplishments, and sometimes +extends it farther than her misinformer desires she should?... If from +our infancy we are nurs'd upon ignorance and vanity; are taught to be +proud and petulant, delicate and fantastick, humourous and inconstant, +'tis not strange that the ill effects of this conduct appear in +all the future actions of our lives.... That, therefore, women are +unprofitable to most, and a plague and dishonor to some men, is not +much to be regretted on account of the men, because 'tis the product +of their folly in denying them the benefits of an ingenuous and +liberal education, the most effectual means to direct them into, and +secure their progress in, the ways of virtue." + +A French writer criticised the Englishmen of the day for their failure +to avail themselves of the refining influence of women, in whose +graces, he affirmed, there could be found constant charm and a certain +sweetness peculiar to the sex. He said that the conversation of the +women would polish and soften the manners of the men and enable them +to contract a manner and tone which would be agreeable to both sexes; +and he ascribed the bluntness of the English character to this lack of +the refining influence of female society. + +As women were left so largely to their own devices, falling the +comradeship of men, they gave themselves over to the needle as the +chief resource for idle hours. The _Female Spectator_ protested +against this excessive needlework on the part of women: "Nor can I by +any means approve of your compelling young ladies of fortune to make +so much use of the needle, as they did in former days, and some few +continue to do.... It always makes me smile when I hear the mother +of fine daughters say: 'I always keep my girls at their needle;' one, +perhaps, is working her a gown, another a quilt for a bed, and a third +engaged to make a whole dozen shirts for her father. And then, when +she had carried you into the nursery and shown you them all, add: 'It +is good to keep them out of idleness; when young people have nothing +to do, they naturally wish to do something they ought not,'" With such +a narrow circle of interest, it was not strange that women who had +leisure should have wasted it in frivolity. + +Gambling among women of fashion was more a result of too much leisure +and too little intellectual stimulus than an indication of vicious +propensities. _The Female Spectator_, from which we have quoted, in an +article in 1745, relating an account of the visit of a country lady to +a London friend, furnishes an illustration of the extent and effects +of the vice. The article recites that after knocking a considerable +time at the door of her friend's house,--the hour was between eleven +and twelve o'clock in the day,--a footman, with his nightcap on and +a general appearance of having risen from the dead, responded to her +inquiry for her friend, in the interim of his yawns: "We had a racquet +here last night, and my lady cannot possibly be stirring these three +hours." The surprised visitor refrained from asking any questions +concerning this unintelligible answer, and, after leaving her name, +returned again at three o'clock. She had the good fortune to be +admitted, and found her friend at her chocolate. She had a dish of +this in one hand, and with the other she seemed to have been busy in +sorting a large pile of guineas, which she had divided in two heaps +on the table before her. Rising, she greeted her visitor with great +civility, and expressed regret at the latter's disappointment on first +calling, saying, with a smile, that when her friend had been a little +longer in town, she would lie longer in bed in the morning. She then +enlightened her as to the term "racquet," telling her that when the +number assembled for cards exceeded ten tables the game was so styled; +if fewer, it was called a "rout"; and if there were but two tables, it +was a "drum." + +It must always appear a curious and an unfortunate circumstance that +at the time of the great industrial awakening in England in the last +half of the eighteenth century, when men, women, and children were +losing their individuality and becoming mere industrial units, +representing so many pounds of human energy to be added to a machine, +the women and children of the factories and of the hovels of the +factory towns cried piteously to the Church for bread and received but +a stone. And this was at a time when the social needs were so great +and the sympathies of all other classes seemed to be alienated by +diversity of interest from those who were called upon to toil for the +making of England's wealth. Professor Thorold Rogers, the painstaking +and acute investigator of England's industry, says with regard to +the lethargy which constituted a veritable Dark Age for the English +Church: "It is hard indeed to see what there is to relieve the +darkness of the picture which the Anglican Church presents from the +death of Queen Anne to the time of the Evangelical Revival. Over +against the Anglican Church, formal, jealous of laymen, fearful of +schism or irregularity, should be set the nonconformist churches." +Although there was a great deal of religious enthusiasm in the +religious communities of the Commonwealth, the principal branches of +the Protestant nonconformists soon became wedded to their own systems, +and, in a way, as narrow in their application of the principles of the +New Testament as the church from which they had separated. It was +not until the last quarter of the seventeenth century that a movement +began which opened the way to lines of development which have +been going on ever since. The vast number of present-day religious +societies, whether in direct connection with the Church or outside +of its pale, may be traced in some ways to the period just before and +during the reign of William III. + +Then arose societies for the reformation of manners in all parts of +the kingdom. These societies represented the early stirring of the +spirit of reform which found its expression in so many forms of +activity in later times. They resembled somewhat the modern societies +for the correction of social evils, such as societies for the +prevention of vice, or societies for preventing the corrupting of +the youth. It was all done under the impulse of religion, but was +not initiated by the Church; it was a lay movement. The first +distinctively women's movements in religious matters were outside of +the Church. The great preacher Whitfield attracted the attention of +the Countess of Huntingdon, whose drawing rooms were thrown open for +his preaching and were filled by fashionable auditors. Other titled +women joined the countess, and among them was the famous Duchess of +Marlborough. The interest of noblewomen in a movement essentially +plebeian has its parallel in the nineteenth century, when the +Salvation Army enlisted the interest and support of women of rank and +title. + +The attitude of the countess in her loyal support of the new +evangelical movement brought her under the criticism that is always +encountered by a zeal which is not understood by people generally. +The Duchess of Buckingham wrote to her: "I thank your Ladyship for the +information concerning the Methodist preachers; their doctrines +are most repulsive, and strongly tinctured with impertinence and +disrespect towards their superiors, in perpetually endeavouring to +level all ranks and do away with all distinctions. It is monstrous to +be told that you have a heart as sinful as the common wretches that +crawl on the earth. This is highly offensive and insulting, and I +cannot but wonder that your Ladyship should relish any sentiments so +at variance with high rank and good breeding." The Countess of Suffolk +on one occasion was so incensed at a sermon of Whitfield in the +Countess of Huntingdon's drawing room, that she rushed out of the +house in a passion, under the impression that the discourse was a +personal attack. The attitude of the clergy generally to the Methodist +movement within the Church was one of indifference. + +The suffering among the wives of the inferior clergy, who were +impoverished and suffered under the defeat of the endeavor to make +their scanty resources meet the demands of household expenses, the +lack of opportunity for educating their children, and their own loss +of self-respect, must have made their lives more miserable in some +ways than those of the wives of the potters, whose sphere of existence +and needs were much more limited. One of the clergymen of this order +plaintively sets forth his pecuniary distress as follows: "Oh, +my Lord, how prettily and temperately may a wife and half a dozen +children be maintained with almost L30 per annum! What an handsome +shift will an ingenious and frugal divine make, to take by turns and +wear a cassock and a pair of breeches another! What a primitive sight +it will be to see a man of God with his shoes out at the toes, and +his stockings out at heels, wandering about in an old russet coat and +tatter'd gown for apprentices to point at and wags to break jest on! +And what a notable figure will he make in the pulpit on Sundays +who has sent his _Hooker_ and _Stillingfleet_, his _Pearson_ and +_Saunderson_, his _Barrow_ and _Tillotson_, with many more fathers of +the English Church, into limbo long since to keep his wife's pensive +petticoat company, and her much lamented wedding ring!" Such a picture +belongs rather to the latter part of the eighteenth century than to +its beginning, for in its earlier days the Church was prolific of +quiet scholars and antiquaries, in both parsonage and manse, living +peaceful, comfortable, and cultured existences. + +The attitude of the Church of the eighteenth century toward women is +hardly one of record, as there was not enough animation or interest +displayed in social conditions--or, indeed, during a part of the +century, enough of intellectual comprehension--to serve the Church for +any discrimination as to women's status. When the change of attitude +of the Church in respect to its indifference toward that element of +its body which before the Reformation, and continuously since then, +has been so serviceably employed by the Roman Catholic Church did +occur, it was the High Church party which brought it about, and so +preserved for English Protestantism the work of women. + +Although the Church was indifferent to the great mission that lay +before it in the eighteenth century,--a mission that had to be met by +the raising up from the laity of men and women who should stand for +the spiritual rights of the lower orders of society especially,--there +was a notable band of Christian philanthropic women who brightened the +close of the century. + +By harnessing human compassion to social needs, the distressed classes +of society came to be lifted to that position of betterment which is +theirs to-day, largely through agencies that owe their beginnings to +the More sisters, Elizabeth Fry, and Harriet Martineau. It is always a +pleasing task to turn to such women as these, exemplifying as they do +the attainments of the sex in those peculiar and special ways which so +well represent the adaptations of women. The greatest woman who graced +the annals of helpfulness of the last half of the eighteenth century +in England was Hannah More. The beautiful devotion of her long and +honorable life to the cause of teaching, and the widespread interest +which, by her writings, she attracted to the subject both in Europe +and America, place her at the source of one of the mighty streams of +pervasive influence that have ever permeated human society. So great +was her appreciation of the character and the position of woman, that +she was able to forecast well-nigh everything that has been enunciated +in modern times with regard to the place of the sex in education and +in society. + +Hannah More was born in 1745, in a little village near Bristol. Her +father, who was the village schoolmaster, gave his five daughters +educations adapted as near as might be to the peculiar talents of +each. Three of the girls opened a boarding school in Bristol, when +the oldest was only twenty years of age. This school soon became +fashionable and ultimately famous. It was to this institution that +the early labors of Hannah More were given, and it was here that she +attracted the attention of such men as Ferguson the astronomer, the +elder Sheridan, Garrick the tragedian, Goldsmith, Reynolds, Burke, and +indeed nearly all men of eminence in intellectual and state life. But +her associations were not solely with the fashionable world, by which +she was petted and flattered, for she turned her attention to labors +for the poor and the ignorant. She sought to do for the children who +lived amid the savage profligacy of the peasant class what Madame +de Maintenon sought to do for girls of the aristocratic class in her +country. Both alike aimed to offset the perversion of character which +threatened the girls of their respective schools, from different +sources, but to the same end,--their destruction. Madame de Maintenon +worked to counteract the insidious infidelity that permeated the upper +walks of life--Hannah More, to counteract the practical atheism of +the lowest plane of life. The fundamental principle of her educational +system was the necessity of Christian instruction. She recognized +the close relationship of education and religion, and gauged well the +significance of the historical fact of woman's debt to Christianity +for her elevation. The question which she asked was not that of social +utility, but that of personal character. She saw too much of the +utilitarian principle in its actual workings, the reducing of human +life to the plane of mechanism, to permit her to base her educational +efforts upon a utilitarian foundation. She sought to cultivate that +"sensibility which has its seat in the heart rather than in the +nerves." Anything which detracted from modesty or delicacy, or tended +to make a girl bold or forward, she severely rebuked. She taught the +wastefulness of expending time upon the cultivation of a talent which +one does not possess, and held that excessive cultivation of the +aesthetic range of subjects contributes to a decline in those more +stable factors upon which is based the security of states. Neither +indelicate exposure of the person in style of dress nor extravagance +in dancing found favor at her hands. Such were some of the views which +were entertained and promulgated by the woman who created an epoch +in the attitude of society toward her sex. She taught the dignity of +womanhood, from which the duties of domesticity cannot detract, the +performance of them as a function of womankind being of all things +honorable. The pure common sense of Hannah More did for the women of +her time the service which had failed of performance by the Church. + +Passing from the theoretical to the practical part of Hannah +More's work, it is interesting to see her putting into effect her +philanthropic labors. The people among whom she labored were destitute +of almost everything that makes life comfortable. Among the Mendip +Hills, out from Bristol, lived a wild, barbarous, lawless population, +compared with which the millers and the colliers of the mines were +mild and tractable. Among these people Hannah More established her +schools. Some of the children had already had the schooling of the +prison, and all of them had been tutored in vice beyond comprehension +for persons so young. Hannah More's schemes were regarded by many +as visionary and impracticable, and received opposition from sources +where sympathy and helpfulness were to be expected. Gradually, +however, her school work was extended until it covered an area of +twenty-eight miles. + +In the Sunday schools the children received religious instruction, +and in the day schools they were taught to spin flax and wool. No +missionary bishop travelled more constantly, no Methodist itinerant +cultivated his circuit district more assiduously, than did Hannah and +her sister Patty More their lay diocese. The many difficulties which +had to be overcome by them cannot be appreciated by workers among the +destitute to-day, with all the appliances and books and methods which +represent a century's experience in such lines. Nothing of the sort +was to hand for these sisters; but Hannah More was an author as well +as a philanthropist, and the tales for the interest and instruction of +the children she wrote herself. + +While Hannah More lived and worked in the eighteenth century, her +life's service extended over into the nineteenth century also. She was +a contemporary of Miss Mitford, Mary Carpenter, Mrs. Summerville, and +Maria Edgeworth. The eighteenth century brought forth the women who +were to carry into the nineteenth century the elements of service for +society, which were to be like the seed sown in good ground and to +bring forth the maximum fold of fruitage. + +The national system of education had not been developed in the +eighteenth century, making the acquirement of an education somewhat +dependent upon individual circumstances as affected by personal +ambitions. There was nothing in the way of general education for +women. But the dawn of better things intellectually was shown by +the development of a group of women of literary comprehension and +productivity, who formed a set apart and yet were in a real sense +prophets in a wilderness, proclaiming the democracy of letters. Lady +Mary Wortley Montagu writes very bitterly of the low esteem in which +was held the intellectuality of the sex, and in speaking of the study +of classics, says: "My sex is usually forbid studies of this nature, +and folly reckoned so much our proper sphere we are sooner pardoned +any excesses of that, than the least pretensions to reading or +good sense.... Our minds are entirely neglected, and, by disuse of +reflections, filled with nothing but the trifling objects our eyes +are daily entertained with. This custom so long established and +industriously upheld makes it even ridiculous to go out of the common +road, and forces one to find as many excuses as if it was a thing +altogether criminal not to play the fool in concert with other women +of quality, whose birth and leisure only serve to render them the most +useless and most worthless part of the creation. There is hardly a +creature in the world more despicable or more liable to universal +ridicule than a learned woman! These words imply, according to +the received sense, a tattling, impertinent, vain, and conceited +creature.... The Abbe Bellegarde gives a reason for women's talking +over much: they know nothing, and every outward object strikes their +imagination and produces a multitude of thoughts, which, if they knew +more, they would know not worth thinking of. I am not now arguing +for an equality of the two sexes. I do not doubt God and nature have +thrown us into an inferior rank; we are a lower part of the creation, +we owe obedience and submission to the superior sex, and any woman who +suffers her folly and vanity to deny this rebels against the laws of +the Creator, and indisputable order of nature; but there is a worse +effect than this, which follows the careless education given to women +of quality--it's being so easy for any man of sense, that finds it +either his interest or his pleasure to corrupt them. The common +method is to begin by attacking their religion: they bring a thousand +fallacious arguments their excessive ignorance hinders them from +refuting; and, I speak now from my own knowledge and conversation +among them, there are more atheists among the fine ladies than among +the lowest sort of rakes." This bitter plaint of a lady of quality, +with its humiliating acknowledgment of the inferiority of her sex +and the hopelessness of that inferiority, sounds very pathetic in +the light of the present-day estimate of woman and her acknowledged +equality with man in all matters, saving only in the exercise of the +public functions for which the advocates of the full programme of +woman's rights contend. + +It is not surprising that women of intellectual gifts grew morbid +under a sense of social inferiority; it is not strange that they hid +their light under a bushel, and were afraid of acknowledging their +talents or their aspirations, when men regarded learning for their +daughters "as great a profanation as the clergy would do if the laity +should undertake to exercise the functions of the priesthood." In +matters intellectual, woman was negative. She must not embarrass her +superiors by displaying in their presence indications of talent or +evidences of learning; her theories and opinions were not worthy +of statement or consideration in the presence of the male sex. Her +gentility was one of breeding, but it did not involve the brain. +Of necessity the intellectual development of woman in such a mental +atmosphere was slow. Her elevation was dependent upon an awakening of +thought in all departments of life. There was lacking an incentive +to intellectual industry when the fruits of such toil might not be +enjoyed. + +Under such adverse conditions, the names of the women of exceptional +intellectual gifts in the eighteenth century constitute a roll of +honor worthy to be inscribed in every hall of learning devoted to the +education of women. This literary coterie included, besides Lady Mary +Wortley Montagu, Mrs. Elizabeth Montagu, Elizabeth Parker, Mrs. Vesey, +Hannah More, Mrs. Chapone, Elizabeth Carter, and Miss Talbot. + +Lady Montagu was of an aggressive nature, and well fitted to conquer +difficulties rather than to despair in their presence. She was a good +classical scholar, a student under Bishop Burnet, and was abreast of +all the thought of her time. She is credited, among other things, +with the courage to introduce the system of inoculation for smallpox, +having had her son so treated. + +Mrs. Elizabeth Montagu was an insatiable devotee of society, and +abounded with a fund of mirth for the enlivenment of the dullest +company. In her correspondence, amid a lively flow of chatter, she +introduces discussions of Dr. Middleton's _Life of Cicero_ and other +critical and historical allusions relating to the classic authors, +and evinces familiarity with such literature. Again, she is found +descanting in a critical vein on the qualities of Warburton's +_Notes on Shakespeare_. Her observations upon English history are +appreciative of its distinguishing features. In these remarks she +says: "In some reigns, the kingdom is in the most terrible confusion, +in others it appears mean and corrupt; in Charles II.'s time, what a +figure we make with French measures and French mistresses! But when +our times are written, England will recover its glory; such conquests +abroad, such prosperity at home, such prudence in council, such vigor +in execution, so many men clothed in scarlet, so many fine tents, +so many cannon that do not so much as roar, such easy taxes, such +flourishing trade! Can posterity believe it? I wish our history, from +its incredibility, may not get bound up with fairy tales and serve to +amuse children, and make nursery maids moralize." The same light touch +and whimsical insight displayed in this quotation are evidenced in all +her writings. It matters not the subject--balls or books, flirtations +or syllogisms, the same delicate vein of humor runs throughout them. + +Miss Carter, the particular friend of Mrs. Montagu, frail in health +and devoted, a beauty, a wit, a brilliant conversationalist, was yet +of a much more retiring disposition than was her friend. She created +no Hillstreet and Portman Square assemblies, although she was by +no means a recluse; and even if she did not have so strong a social +following as Mrs. Montagu, her presence possessed charm for those who +assembled about her. She had a wide acquaintance with literature, and +patronized the libraries extensively; her linguistic accomplishments +included French, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, and, most rare +acquirement in those days, German. She was discriminating in her +literary tastes, and is found commenting upon German books of fiction. +She says that they are dangerous for young people, for the reason +that they possess the singular art of sanctifying the passions. Mere +sentimentality was repugnant to her feelings, and she dismissed from +her attention a German book, with the expression: "A detestable book, +but I know of no other in German that is exceptionable in the same +horrid way." + +Mrs. Vesey was another literary character whose salon, made thoroughly +delightful, was frequented only by persons of the greatest culture. +Just how the name _bas-bleu_ came to be identified with the assembly +which Mrs. Vesey gathered about her is not known. One explanation +which was current at the time attributes the term to a foreign +gentleman who was invited to go to either Mrs. Montagu's or Mrs. +Vesey's, and was assured as to the informality of the occasion by an +acquaintance, who told him that full dress was quite optional, and, +in fact, he might go in blue stockings if he was so minded. Other +accounts do not agree with this; one lays the phrase at the door +of Mr. Benjamin Stillingfleet, the naturalist, who always wore +blue stockings; but it is asserted by Miss Carter's biographer that +Stillingfleet died before the name came into vogue. Hannah More, in +some whimsical lines, describes a _bas-bleu_ assembly: + + "Here sober Duchesses are seen, + Chaste wits and critics void of spleen: + Physicians fraught with real science, + And Whigs and Tories in alliance; + Poets fulfilling Christian duties, + Just Lawyers, reasonable Beauties, + Bishops who preach and Peers who pray, + And Countesses who seldom play, + Learn'd Antiquaries who from college + Reject the rust and bring the knowledge; + And hear it, _age_, believe it, _youth_,-- + Polemics really seeking truth; + And Travellers of that rare tribe + Who've seen the countries they describe." + +The brilliant woman who gathered about her such a representative +gathering of celebrities as is suggested by these lines--an assemblage +in which Dr. Johnson could discourse in one corner on moral duties, +and Horace Walpole amuse another group with his lively wit, while the +younger portion discussed the opera or the fashions--was the daughter +of Sir Thomas Vesey, Archbishop of Tuam. By her second marriage--with +a relative, Mr. A. Vesey--she resumed her maiden name. Prominent +persons, other than those mentioned, who were attracted to her salon +were Burke, Pulteney, Garrick, Lord Lyttleton, Dr. Burney, and Lord +Monboddo. + +Women were not only given to shining in exclusive social circles, but +brilliant representatives of the sex were keenly interested in the +political trend of the times. The Duchess of Marlborough was one of +the most notable and politically active women of the age of Anne. +This was a time of ascendency in politics of the Dissenters, who are +described by Burton in his history of that age as a clog upon the free +movements of the complicated machinery of British social and political +life. Another of the famous women at court was the Countess of +Suffolk, who appears in Swift's correspondence as Mrs. Howard. These +women were thoroughly informed as to the political movements of their +time, as is revealed by their correspondence; and they, with others +as noteworthy, often shaped state policy. Among names which appear +prominently in the political movements of the century are those of +the Countess of Bristol, Mrs. Selwyn, who was one of the ladies of the +bedchamber to the queen of George II., Lady Hervey, and the Duchess +of Queensborough. The latter declared herself so wearied of elections +that, in all good conscience, they ought to occur only once in an age. +The Countess of Huntingdon, the supporter of Whitfield, the Duchess of +Devonshire, and other women of position, had vital interest in public +questions. + +The interest which English ladies took in politics was a matter +of constant surprise to foreigners, but it was significant of the +awakening to a sense of privilege which led in the next century to the +various female declarations of rights, of which the most extreme was +the claim to suffrage. + + + + +CHAPTER XIV + +THE WOMEN OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY + + +At the opening of the nineteenth century, practically unfettered +opportunity extended in all directions before women; but it was +necessary for the century to spend its force before they had fully +availed themselves of the privileges which were objected to only by +those who still descanted on woman's sphere as a purely domestic one. +The "woman question" is very modern, because woman has so lately come +to be seriously regarded as a factor in the work of life. The changed +conditions of the nineteenth century resulted from those forces which +were operating for the larger liberty of the sex. Contributions to the +widening of the scope of their lives came from many sources. Religion +has been the evangel of woman; but even it cannot claim that the +modern woman, with her versatility of touch and her multiform +influence, is its product. Law reluctantly acknowledged the rights +of the sex where it was futile to deny them; but it has sinned too +grievously in the years that are past to receive recognition as a +promoter of the new Renaissance, although it cherishes the rights +which woman has achieved, and is to-day one of her most chivalrous +defenders. Convention is too unadaptive to do more than recognize +adjustments which have been otherwise brought about, but, as +representing the rules of society, it is promotive of the dignity and +the rights of the sex to the extent that these dignities and rights +have been otherwise afforded. + +Acknowledgment for the position which woman attained during the last +century is due not to any one of these forces, but to all working +together, although Nature must be chiefly credited with having brought +it about. The great increase in population in England, and the excess +of the female portion, led women to ponder the question of other +spheres for their lives than solely the domestic. At the same time, +the complex nature of modern business offered, to some extent, a +practical solution of the problem. While the question of woman's +sphere was greatly agitated, and was academically and forensically +debated pro and con, women themselves were practically settling the +matter at issue by accepting positions in commercial life, with +little regard to the censure of critics or the praise of friends. The +independence shown by women, their self-assertiveness, indicated that +their failure previously to break into the outer world of affairs was +not due to the force of convention, but to the lack of opportunity. +Their excess in the population of the country afforded them strong +ground for the claim, which they practically made in accepting the +opportunities of business life,--that the sphere of domesticity was +not open to them all. It is not a question as to whether woman is +or is not in her sphere outside of the home or the limited circle of +aesthetic following; for the time of theorizing is already past, and +women have become so identified with industry as to preclude the +possibility of a return to the narrower life. _Vestigia nulla +refrorsum_ is the motto of woman to-day, and has been from the early +part of the nineteenth century. She is in the line of progress, and +following her manifest destiny. The fears of the faint-hearted and the +regrets of the conservative cannot alter the established fact that +the practical status which women achieved in the nineteenth century is +theirs, to be recognized and furthered. + +The views prevailing in the nineteenth century with regard to +matrimony were not greatly different from those of the eighteenth: it +was considered just as discreditable to be an old maid, and marriage +was the goal of existence for young women; but there was a portion of +the sex who were willing to brave the aspersions cast upon them and +to remain single--when the opportunity to do otherwise was not +wanting--in order that they might follow careers which offered to them +greater interest or profit. It was inevitable that such choice should +lay them open to the charge of unsexing themselves and of being +recreant to that _esprit de corps_ of womankind which finds its common +interest in the achieving of matrimony. Women would never have +wrought out their independence of action if there had not been a great +widening of life's opportunities. The ease of locomotion, abundant +opportunities for education, and the lightening of domestic labor +by inventions, were the important factors which made it possible +for women to step out into the avenues of active business. The +middle-class women, who were thrust out into the arena of life, were +still the women who best preserved the pure idea of marriage. They +were not subjected to the temptations which assailed those in the +higher and the lower ranks of society, and, being less affected by +tradition, they wrought out for themselves independent ideals. The +marriage of convenience of the higher ranks and the marriage of +necessity of the lower were not the forms which were common to the +middle-class women. Unaffected by either of these influences, they +regarded well the character of the men to whom they were to plight +their troth, and were not disposed to pass over the weaknesses of +suitors. Marriages were no longer contracted at the early ages +of fifteen and sixteen years, which had been commonly the case +heretofore. A bride under twenty-one was thought very youthful. + +The entrance of woman into the ranks of labor has not been +uncontested, for she has been charged with taking the bread out of +the mouths of husbands and fathers; and, by working for much less wage +than is given the men, she has been thought dangerously to affect the +standard of payment for men's work. Just what will be the effect of +the innovation of woman in industry cannot at present be stated, as +she has not as yet gotten into normal and recognized relationship to +men as a sharer of their work. One effect, however, of woman's contact +with the other sex in the brusque business world has been to reduce +her claim to special consideration in the way of the amenities which +were accorded her at a time when she was not nearly so sincerely +respected as she has become in recent years. A modern writer has +summed up the matter in the following words: "Not the least among +the changes is that effected by the fuller and freer life led by all +women. A greater companionship and friendship is permitted them with +the other sex; there is a larger sharing of interest, and women are +expected to have a higher standard of education and to conceal their +knowledge and culture with tasteful skill. Their interest in the +political life of the country, and their acknowledged usefulness in +their place in the working out of the political machine, the works, +philanthropical and social, which are admitted by all to be within +their sphere, have broadened and deepened the stream of life which is +common to both sexes, and brought the social life on to a different +level." + +This broadening influence brought greater recognition of woman's +activities in social and philanthropic measures and a corresponding +increase of responsibility on her part. There are many women of this +century whose noble deeds will never be forgotten, but one may be +singled out as a splendid example of self-sacrifice and devotion to +others, Mrs. Elizabeth Fry was a Quakeress of gentle birth, though +the mother of a large family, she made the condition of the social +outcasts her constant care. She was, in truth, a worthy successor to +John Howard. The moral and physical degradation and suffering of the +inmates of prisons particularly appealed to her compassionate nature, +and she set herself the task of alleviating their condition. Her +first visit to Newgate Prison was in 1813; alone and unprotected, she +entered the pandemonium where nearly two hundred women were confined, +among them some of the most degraded and desperate of their sex. +Mrs. Fry's sincere compassion, gentleness, and purity conquered +these women. Four years later she organized an association for the +reformation of female prisoners. Though her name is chiefly associated +with the reform of prisons and prisoners, her philanthropy embraced +the promotion of education of the needy, religious movements, the +cause of freedom, and private charity. The influence of this good +woman was widespread, and her labors were not confined to her own +country, but extended to the continent of Europe. + +One of the most striking of the phenomena of modern life which came +about in the nineteenth century is the fusion of classes, making it +increasingly difficult to use class definitions. The passage from +one to another has become so easy as to make mobility the principal +characteristic of modern society. Travel, education, art appreciation, +and home decoration are not confined to any section or class. The +degree of luxury of living, and not the distinction between luxury and +lack, is the only way to set aside one circle of society from another. +A result of this wider diffusion of the comforts of life has been the +awakening of the altruistic spirit, which finds expression in many and +varied benevolences--so many, in fact, that the danger of the times +is over-organization. This tendency, if pursued, will react to +the disadvantage of women by depriving them of a sense of personal +responsibility and individual initiative. + +The assumption by society, as a whole, of the responsibility of its +members of necessity gives an organized form to all efforts for +its improvement. The nature of problems of this sort requires wide +organization in order to bring into touch with the social need, for +its satisfying, as many persons as possible of means and talent. If +the philanthropist is rich, she employs her money as the expression +of her interest in and recognition of her duty toward society. If not +wealthy, but possessed of time and talent, the woman herself becomes +the instrument of social amelioration, and the money from the coffers +of others is placed in her hands for judicious expenditure. The great +interest in philanthropy which in modern times is evinced by all +classes of society tends to unite the women of to-day in a bond of +common sympathy and purpose. It is not solely because they have more +abundant leisure than men that the burden of philanthropy rests upon +their shoulders, for their wider sympathy and clearer insight lead +them to perceive more readily and to meet more effectively the needs +of mankind. + +One of the prominent women of England who gave herself largely to +benevolent labors was the Baroness Burdett-Coutts. The generous and +wise use of her immense fortune has secured her an enduring name; she +built churches, she founded charities; and although London was the +chief field for her philanthropy, her native country of Ireland was +remembered in a way to shrine her name there in grateful memory. She +possessed the spirit of the great ladies of old England, who felt +a responsibility toward the dependent and necessitous classes about +them, and to this spirit she gave the wide expression her fortune and +her exceptional environment made possible. The great variety of her +benevolent sympathies and the personal part she took in the various +charities which enlisted them cause her life to mark an era in the +history of philanthropy. There was nothing beyond the catholicity of +her spirit. + +The modern temperance movement, which enlisted largely the interest +of the women of England and America, and which led, in the latter +country, to the organization of the Women's Christian Temperance +Union, found its best representative in England in the person of Lady +Henry Somerset. Lady Somerset's efforts in behalf of temperance +and social reforms in England are too much matters of present-day +knowledge to need more than a notice of them in these pages; they have +enrolled her name in the list of great women of the century, where it +had already been long placed by the affections of a nation. Another +expression of the interest of women in society is found in the +Young Women's Christian Association, Girls' Friendly Society, the +Metropolitan Association for Befriending Young Servants, and other +organizations which care for the interests of young women exposed to +imposition or temptation. It is impossible to enumerate even the more +important of the organizations which owe their institution to women +and are conducted by the sex for the benefit of society. Wide as has +been the field in the past, new phases of modern life are constantly +coming under the purview of women's societies, which, although to a +large extent voluntary, are none the less splendidly organized and +disciplined forces, occupying, for the most part, independent fields. + +Woman as a nurse is not a new aspect of her nature, but not until the +last quarter of the century was nursing elevated to the dignity of +a profession. There were not wanting women who bore the title of +professional nurse, but these did not have the training to justify the +name. Before the Crimean War there were upward of two thousand five +hundred such nurses in England. Florence Nightingale, whose name will +ever be identified with the founding of schools for nurses, said: +"Sickness is everywhere. Death is everywhere. But hardly anywhere +is the training necessary to relieve sickness, to delay death. We +consider a long education and discipline necessary to train our +medical man; we consider hardly any training at all necessary for our +nurse, although how often does our medical man himself tell us, 'I can +do nothing for you unless your nurse will carry out what I say.'" The +revelation of suffering on the part of uncared-for soldiers which +Miss Nightingale brought back from the Crimea profoundly moved English +society; and a large sum of money was presented to her, with which she +founded the Nurses' Training Institution at St. Thomas's Hospital. At +about the same time, the Anglican sisterhood founded training schools +of a similar kind. From these sources arose the sentiment for trained +service for the sick which has led to the wide respect with which +modern society regards the nurse who has been thoroughly trained for +her profession. This feeling toward nurses is in striking contrast +to the one which prevailed before the days of special training: +that which was once considered a degrading occupation has come to be +thought of as an ennobling ministry. In 1870, the date of the founding +of the Metropolitan and National Nursing Association by the Duke of +Westminster, James Hinton, in a paper in the _Cornhill Magazine_ on +"Nursing as a Profession," called attention to this new activity as a +trained service for women: "It is considered, though an excellent and +most respectable vocation, not one for a lady to follow as a means +of livelihood, unless she is content to sink a little in the social +scale.... Can any one think it is, in its own nature, more menial than +surgery? Could any occupation whatever call more emphatically for the +qualities characteristically termed professional, or better known as +those of the gentleman and the lady?... Here is a profession, truly +a profession, equal to the highest in dignity, open to woman in which +she does not compete with man." + +Nursing no longer has to be defended as a suitable occupation for the +sex, for in its ranks can be found women of all grades of society; it +is one of the levelling influences of modern times, as well as one of +the most elevating of callings. No other sphere of public activity +has opened up to woman in which she has not met the opposition of +men. Nursing is a striking instance of the modern trend toward +specialization, which is but another term for professionalism. +Consonant with the whole spirit of the times, the amateur nurse was +relegated to the background by the modern trained nurse. + +Society, however, has not taken so kindly to women's departure in +another direction: women as physicians are still regarded as a +novelty and a doubtful expedient. Nursing created a profession, and so +conservative sentiment did not have to be met; but the old faculties +of law, medicine, and theology had been so long intrenched in their +privileged places in relation to society that any attempt to widen +their confines or to enlist their hospitality toward innovations is +met with the resistance which custom and precedent always present to +novelty. Although their progress into the medical profession has been +slow, yet the nineteenth century records the opening of this calling +to women. During the last quarter of the century women were admitted +to the ranks of accredited practitioners. Yet, the vocation is not a +novel one for the sex, for in the remote past they have been looked +upon as possessing knowledge and skill in the treatment of diseases; +but, as we have seen, the woman who followed the art of healing as a +profession was often regarded as in league with the powers of evil. +Down to the nineteenth century, women never held any recognized place +as practitioners, excepting in the capacity of midwives. + +In the eighteenth century there were, outside of the recognized +profession, a number of women who practised medicine with considerable +success; but, although skilful, they would be regarded to-day as mere +quacks. Mrs. Joanna Stephens, who proclaimed that she had found +a remarkable cure for a painful disease, appears to have been so +successful in her treatment of cases as to enlist genuine respect for +her attainments. Parliament voted her a grant of five thousand pounds +sterling. Mrs. Mapp, commonly termed "Crazy Sally," who had repute as +a bonesetter, received from the town of Epsom the offer of an +annuity of one hundred pounds sterling if she would remain in that +neighborhood. She was such a popular character that the managers of +Lincoln's Inn Fields Theatre sent her a special request to attend +a performance at which they desired to have a large audience. She +complied, and the attendance was satisfactory. + +Early in the century there was a renewal of attempts which had +formerly been made to require women who practised obstetrics to come +under some form of registration; but when the matter came before +Parliament, in the form of an enactment prepared by the Society of +Apothecaries, a committee of the House of Commons reported that "It +would not allow any mention of female midwives." Although women were +not received into the regular profession as qualified practitioners +until after the middle of the century, they were under no legal +prohibition to practise medicine; but in 1858 the passage of the +Medical Act, which required a doctor to qualify by passing the +examination of one of the existing medical boards, set up a barrier +to women, as it placed them subject to the discretion of the boards, +which unanimously refused to admit them. The only exceptions to this +rule were made in favor of those persons who had received a medical +degree abroad and had been practising before the passage of the act. +It was in this way that Dr. Elizabeth Blackwell became registered. +Miss Elizabeth Garret, whose studies did not begin till two years +after the compulsory registration law, was also enrolled under +exceptional conditions. + +At last matters came to an issue, and a notable struggle occurred +which marked an era in the medical profession of England in its +attitude toward female practitioners. The case of Miss Sophia +Jex-Blake brought on the contest. She applied to the London University +for admission, and was informed that the charter of that institution +had been purposely framed to exclude women who sought medical degrees. +Returning to Edinburgh, she exhausted every legal resource in a combat +with the authorities, and was signally worsted. The plucky fight she +made won the admiration of Sir James Simpson, the dean of the medical +faculty, and others, but Professor Laycock observed to her that he +"could not imagine any decent woman wishing to study medicine; as +for any lady, that was out of the question." Success finally crowned +persistent endeavor, and, the University Court having passed a +resolution that "Women shall be admitted to the study of medicine +in the university," Miss Jex-Blake and four other ladies passed the +preliminary examinations for entrance. Other women soon entered the +open door; but the contest was not yet ended, for, after these ladies +had pursued their studies for three years and paid the fees, they were +informed by the University Court that no arrangement could be effected +by which they could continue their studies with a view to a degree, +instead of which they were offered certificates of proficiency; the +latter, however, would not be recognized by the Medical Act. They then +took legal measures to secure redress, and followed the matter up by +a bill in Parliament, which was lost. In 1876 another bill was +introduced to enable all British examining bodies to extend their +examinations and qualifications to women, and this became a law. A +number of colleges availed themselves of the privilege and opened +their doors to women, until at the present time there are medical +schools for women in a number of the principal cities in England, +Scotland, and Ireland. + +The advance of women in the professions was in line with the general +widening of the educational horizon of the sex. Partly as the result +of her broader education, and partly as a cause of it, there was a +juster appreciation of the relative position of the sexes, and into +this there entered as well the new economic measure of value. Society +was no longer regarded as a congeries of individuals, but as an +organism, and an organism whose function was chiefly the creation +of wealth. This broader economic estimate of society could but be +favorable to women, whose valuation as a part of the commonwealth was +largely regulated by their utility. The ideal of political economy is +that everyone shall be employed, and employed at that for which he is +best adapted, under the condition of freedom of self-development. The +prevalence of such truer theories of society aided in dispelling the +mists of error which had surrounded the popular notions as to women. +Buckle observes, in his _Influence of Women on the Progress of +Knowledge_, that women are quicker in thought than men, and he says: +"Nothing could prevent its being universally admitted except the fact +that the remarkable rapidity with which women think is obscured by +that miserable, that contemptible, that preposterous system called +their education, in which valuable things are carefully kept from +them, and trifling things carefully taught to them, until their fine +and nimble minds are too often irretrievably injured." + +The close of the nineteenth century witnessed a complete revolution +in the constituents of girls' education. French, dancing, +flower painting, and music no longer comprised a young lady's +accomplishments. The fear of singularity, which was a social bugbear +to the young women of other generations, no longer served to prevent +them from studying classics and mathematics and science. To-day, they +are expected to add their quota to the contribution of the times, +in thought as well as in the graces of deportment. The latter can no +longer atone for the absence of the former. It is no more the case +among the middle classes that only the girl who intends fitting +herself to take the position of governess needs an education above the +rudiments and the embellishments. Not the least of the departures in +the educational scheme for women is the notable change of attitude +which has taken place with regard to the development of their bodies. +It is but recently that physical training has entered into the +curriculum of colleges, but it is even more recently that an opinion +has prevailed favorable to the physical culture of women. + +Before the educational revolution occurred, women were making their +mark in intellectual spheres. In 1835 the names of two women, Mary +Somerville and Caroline Herschell, were enrolled as members of the +Astronomical Society. In its report containing the recommendation of +the election of these ladies, the council of the society observed: +"Your Council has no small pleasure in recommending that the names +of two ladies distinguished in astronomy be placed on the list of +honorary members. On the propriety of such a step from an astronomical +point of view, there can be but one voice: and your Council is of +opinion that the time is gone by when either feeling or prejudice, +by whichever name it may be proper to call it, should be allowed to +interfere with the payment of a well-earned tribute of respect. Your +Council has hitherto felt that, whatever might be its own sentiment on +the subject, or however able and willing it might be to defend such a +measure, it had no right to place the name of a lady in a position +the propriety of which might be contested, though upon what it might +consider narrow grounds and false principles. But your Council has no +fear that such a difference could now take place between any men whose +opinion would avail to guide that of society at large, and, abandoning +compliments on the one hand, and false delicacy on the other, submits +that while the tests of astronomical merit should in no case be +applied to the works of a woman less severely than to those of man, +the sex of the former should no longer be an obstacle to her receiving +any acknowledgment which might be held due the latter. And your +Council, therefore, recommends this meeting to add to the list +of honorary members the names of Miss Caroline Herschell and Mrs. +Somerville, of whose astronomical knowledge, and of the utility of the +ends to which it has been applied, it is not necessary to recount the +proofs." + +Mrs. Somerville suffered from the educational limitations of her day, +and when she desired to learn Latin, in order that she might study +the _Principia_, she referred to Professor Playfair with regard to the +propriety of her doing so, and was assured by him that there was no +impropriety involved for the purpose she had in mind. At that time +there were many women with the best of education, acquired outside +of university halls, but such were usually brought up by scholarly +parents possessed of well-stocked libraries. To-day, the position of +Ruskin is a commonplace of experience. In his lecture on the _Queen's +Gardens_, he advised that women have free access to books, and +asserted that they would find out for themselves the wholesome and +avoid the pernicious with an instinct as unerring as that which +directs the browsing of sheep in pasture lands. It has been +sufficiently demonstrated that wholesome-minded girls are ever less in +danger of contamination from literature than are their brothers. + +The opening of Queen's College in 1848 marked the beginning of an +attempt to give a wider education to women. This college grew out of +the Governesses' Benevolent Institution. It was a training school for +teachers, a normal institute; but, besides this, it was open to all +who cared to enter. The name of that leader in modern educational +movements, Frederick Denison Maurice, was identified with this +departure. In the face of hostile comment, he defended the system +which was adopted by himself and his brother professors, all of whom +had come from King's College. The educational opportunities offered +by this college were exceptional; the fees were low, and many students +hastened to avail themselves of the new privilege. + +It was twenty years later, however, before there was fought out the +issue through which women came to be admitted to the universities. In +1856, Miss Jessie Merriton White was applying vainly for admittance +to the matriculation examination of the University of London. In 1869, +Girton College, the building of which cost fourteen thousand seven +hundred pounds sterling, was established largely through the +efforts of women. It was intended to afford training for women along +university lines, and the plan of study was modelled on that of +Cambridge University; the idea in the adoption of this parallel course +was to establish beyond doubt women's fitness for pursuing the same +studies as men. Other colleges of the same nature were founded soon +after. + +In the last century, the old theory that women were not capable of +higher education on account of the "moisture of their brains" was not +one of the pleas upon which was based the opposition to the higher +education of women. The more plausible ground was taken that women +ought to avoid certain lines of study which are a part of a university +course. But it is coming to be realized that the proprieties +of knowledge do not reside in the subject or in the sex of the +student--that whatever is important for higher investigation is worthy +of the pursuit of women as well as men, and can be pursued by them +at the point of ripened discretion to which they have arrived when +capable of meeting the requirements for entrance into a university. + +The high-school system that has developed in England during the last +quarter of a century has done much for the education of the middle +classes, affording sound instruction and mental discipline for all. +At the present day, poor girls, who, if they were dependent upon +their personal resources, would never acquire an education, have wider +facilities than were enjoyed by the women of the aristocracy a century +earlier. + +Of those who promoted the secondary education for girls, perhaps no +name among female educators in England stands higher than that +of Frances Mary Buss. Her splendid powers of organization and +administration raised to such a degree of efficiency the private +school which she had established in the north of London, that, when +the Brewers Company desired to invest a sum of money for the education +of girls, it entered into negotiations with Miss Buss and acquired her +establishment, retaining her as head mistress. + +Voluminous as are the works of women in the realm of fiction, it is +nevertheless a field little exploited by them until recent years. In +the eighteenth century the sex had produced few historians, poets, +or essayists who could be compared with the group of romance writers +which included such names as Catherine Macauley, Eliza Haywood, +Elizabeth Carter, Fanny Burney, Mrs. Inchbald, and Mrs. Radcliffe; but +when we pass to the nineteenth century, while women as romanticists +are more prominent than women as authors in any other field, there is +no limit upon the versatility which they exhibit, and all branches +of literature have felt their moulding impress. To take the names of +women out of the list of authors of the nineteenth century would be to +diminish the glory of the literary skies by blotting out the lustre of +some of its brightest constellations. + +Beginning with Jane Austin and continuing to Mrs. Humphry Ward, the +line of literary descent in the realm of fiction is a roll of honor +for womankind; but it is a far cry from these to that earliest of +women novelists, Mrs. Aphra Behn, who, at the direction of Charles +II., wrote her novel _Oronooko_, the purpose of which was not +dissimilar to the social end which Mrs. Harriet Beecher Stowe had +in mind in her _Uncle Tom's Cabin_. Thus, the sixteenth century is +brought into touch with the nineteenth, although the connecting links +were few and slight until the middle of the latter. The number of +women novelists indicates that women have found in fiction the line of +literary pursuit which is most agreeable to their tastes and adapted +to their natures. There seems to be absolutely no limit to the range +of subjects which women are capable of working up in romance; whether +in novels of incident or novels of character, treating historical or +social subjects, didactic or imaginative themes, with the plot in any +period of time, among any people or set of conditions, women writers +appear to be equally at home. + +While the vast majority of literary women have been writers of +fiction, every branch of literature numbers in its promoters the names +of eminent females. In poetry and in dramatic literature women have +not achieved the fame of men. Lord Byron gave as the reason for +women's apparent lack of imaginative and creative power that they had +not seen and felt enough of life. As translators, editors, compilers, +as writers on social topics and current questions, as well as on +educational subjects, memoirs, travels, literary studies, they have +been prolific and excellent workers. Besides which, they have given to +journalistic and magazine work their special capabilities. + +Women no longer fear to write under their own names, and do not resort +to pseudonyms as did Charlotte Bronte, and Mary Ann Evans--George +Eliot. It was at one time thought that the demands of research and +study outside of the range of ordinary feminine acquaintance precluded +the sex from doing many forms of intellectual work which were open to +men. Fiction did not present special difficulties; and as the line of +least resistance, as well as that of especial adaptation, women took +to this form of writing. + +At the present day, however, there is no question as to woman's +faithfulness, accuracy, and ability to attend to detail; and so there +are no lines of research or of authorship in which women are not +engaged. This is in part due to the similar lines upon which women and +men are now educated. Their broad acquaintance with the whole range of +intellectual subjects eminently fits the sex for special work in any +department. To distinguish by their method of treatment the writings +of women is no longer possible. Their pens have the same grace +and vigor of style as those of men, while there is no fineness or +daintiness of touch in their writings which does not find counterpart +in those of men. + +The fiction of the century reveals woman intrepidly discussing +political, economic, and labor questions with a large degree of +assurance, and others with a great deal of acuteness and insight. +Although there is intense competition in the realm of literature, yet +the complexity of modern society, the universality of education, +the opportunities of leisure for reading, the social demands for +acquaintance with standard and recent works, and the incitement to +reading given through the newspapers, magazines, book reviews, and +lectures of the times, furnish unlimited opportunities for gifted +women to exercise their talents in writing. + +It was not until 1861 that women were admitted to all the privileges +and opportunities of art education which centred in the Royal Academy +schools. In that year these were opened to women students. It +is interesting to notice how in almost an accidental manner the +limitations placed upon women were removed. At the annual dinner of +the Academy in 1859, Lord Lyndhurst felicitated those present on the +benefits which were conferred upon all her majesty's subjects by +the Academy schools. Miss Laura Herford, an artist, wrote to Lord +Lyndhurst and pointed out the fact that half of her majesty's subjects +were excluded. This made the discussion of the propriety of admitting +women a kindly one, and a memorial was prepared and signed by +thirty-eight women artists, copies of which were sent to every member +of the Academy, praying the admission of women and pointing out the +benefit it would be to them to study, under qualified teachers, from +the antique and from life. It was regarded as impracticable that +women and men should study life subjects together, and the request was +refused. There was nothing in the constitution of the Academy either +for or against the admission of women. A drawing with the signature +"L. Herford" was then sent in by Miss Herford, and it was admitted +by a letter addressed to "L. Herford, Esq." The question then arose +whether a woman who had been accepted as a man should be allowed to +enter. Miss Herford had her way. + +No women had been admitted into the Academy since the days of Angelica +Kaufmann and Mary Moser. The reason for their non-reception, as +assigned by Sanby in his _History of the Royal Academy of Arts_, +and quoted by Georgiana Hill in her _Women in English Life_, is as +follows: "One or two ladies, if elected members, could scarcely be +expected to take part in the government or in the work of the society; +and as the practice even of giving votes by proxy has long since been +abolished, the effect of their election as Royal Academicians would +be, virtually, to reduce the number of those who manage the affairs of +the institution and the schools in proportion as ladies were admitted +to that rank: and as long as the number of Associates is limited, +a difficulty would arise in the fact that the higher rank has to be +recruited from that body." Miss Hill regards this as a grievance, +because it virtually makes the matter of sex a disqualification, and +quotes with endorsement Miss Ellen Clayton, as follows: "The Academy +has studiously ignored the existence of women artists, leaving them to +work in the cold shade of utter neglect. Not even once has a helping +hand been extended, not once has the most trifling reward been +given for highest merit and industry. Accidents made two women +Academicians--the accident of circumstances and the accident of birth. +Accident opened the door to girl students--accident, aided by courage +and talent. In other countries, they have the prize fairly earned +quietly placed in their hands, and can receive it with dignity. In +free, unprejudiced, chivalric England, where the race is given to the +swift, the battle to the strong, without fear or favour, it is only by +slow, laborious degrees that women are winning the right to enter the +list at all, and are then received with half-contemptuous indulgence." + +Whether or not women artists have a real grievance against the Royal +Academy, certain it is that the last half of the nineteenth century +has been notable for the progress of women in art. It was in the +galleries of the Society of Lady Artists, which came into existence +in 1859, that Lady Butler first exhibited and pictures by Rosa +Bonheur were displayed. With the multiplicity of art schools and +every facility for obtaining instructions under the most favorable +conditions, women have been brought into prominence as artists. +Landscape, portrait painting, oil, water-colors, pastel--the whole +range of subjects and styles of painting includes pictures of merit by +women. + +In many of the lesser branches of art, hundreds of women have found +congenial vocations. They have shown excellent taste and aptitude +in china painting and other forms of decorative work--in book +illustration, as designers of carpet and wall-paper patterns, as +preparers of advertisements, designers of calendars, and a host of +other minor art industries. + +Women as musical composers had appeared in the last half of the +eighteenth century. Mrs. Beardman, who made her debut as a singer +at the Gloucester festival in 1790, was equally gifted as composer, +singer, and pianist. Ann Mounsey displayed early talent, and her +precocity brought her into notice when she was but nine years of age. +In her maturity, her compositions gave her high rank among female +composers, and in 1855 her oratorio _The Nativity_ was produced in +London. She was a member of the Philharmonic Society and also of +the Royal Society of Musicians. Another gifted woman, whose talents +brought her early into notice and who was a member of the Royal +Academy of Music, was Kate Fanny Loder. She had been instructed in +piano-forte by Mrs. Lucy Anderson, teacher to Queen Victoria when she +was princess and afterward to the children of her majesty. Miss Loder +was a king's scholar at the Royal Academy, and when but eighteen years +of age was appointed professor of harmony at her _alma mater_. Eliza +Flower--whose sister, Mrs. Adams, wrote the words of the hymn _Nearer, +my God, to Thee_--was another of the gifted composers of the century, +and her name appears as the author of many hymn tunes. + +To give the names of all the women composers of hymn tunes would be +to give a history of hymnology in modern times, for there is no sacred +song collection but embraces the compositions of many women gifted +in music. To give the names of those who have figured in opera would +involve a history which includes a great many more foreign artists +than English; but without seeking to do more than mention a few of +those whose names have figured in popular favor as operatic _prima +donnas_, and omitting particular mention of their individual +capabilities, there are some names which suggest themselves to +the patrons of the opera as worthy of first mention in the list of +England's great singers. Catherine Tofts, Anastasia Robinson, Lavinia +Fenton,--afterward Duchess of Bolton,--achieved celebrity in the opera +during the first thirty years of the century. Lavinia Fenton was the +heroine of _The Beggars' Opera_, which took London by storm. The names +of Catherine Hayes and Louisa Pyne are still treasured by those whose +recollections go back to the forties. + +The general ill repute under which the stage rested in the seventeenth +century continued to hang about it throughout the eighteenth. There +was still a great deal of license allowed spectators, and it was not +unusual for them to pass on the stage and behind the scenes. The rude +and boisterous conduct of the patrons of the theatre made it extremely +unpleasant for persons of refinement to attend it. The city streets +had not yet become well protected, and the degree of security which is +now afforded to pedestrians was lacking in the eighteenth century. +It was out of the question for any gentlewoman to attend the theatre +unaccompanied by male escort. There were always loiterers about the +streets, and any man of rank whose character was bad enough to permit +him to do so felt at liberty to salute a woman with insults--which, +when they came from such a source, were then styled as gallantries; +and women who adopted the stage as a profession, being looked upon as +having forfeited their claims to gentility, were regarded as fair game +by the rakes of the day. Notwithstanding the attempts of Queen Anne to +reform the manners of theatre-goers by the passage of edicts looking +to that end, the evils which made it so unpleasant to a respectable +person to attend the theatre and which brought the playhouse under +odium continued to be flagrant. + +In the nineteenth century came a great uplift of the status of the +stage and workers upon it, and, in contrast to the opinions +which prevailed in the eighteenth century, an actress suffered +no disparagement and had the same opportunity for cherishing her +reputation as any others of the sex. The stage no longer brought its +followers into disrepute, for it rested with the actress herself to +preserve or to tarnish her character. She was no longer, by virtue of +being an actress, regarded as a Bohemian, and it was not considered a +regrettable thing for a girl of character to enter upon a histrionic +career. It was her course and conduct after she had entered the +profession, and the nature of the plays in which she appeared and the +parts which she allowed herself to present, that determined the public +verdict with regard to her. As a result of the changed character of +the theatre,--although it was by no means cleared of all the odium +that had so long attached to it,--a larger number of men and women +attended dramatic performances than ever before. + +The introduction of women into commercial life was followed by the +opening up of civil service appointments and a change of sentiment +with regard to women engaging in trade. In 1870, when the government +bought the interests of the telegraph company, the officials were +brought under the existing civil service rules. Some of them happened +to be women, and thus, inadvertently, women were admitted to +civil service appointments under the government. In 1871 the +postmaster-general bore striking testimony to the efficiency of the +women employed in his department. When commenting upon the transfer of +the telegraphs from private control to post office direction, he said: +"There had been no reason to regret the experiment. On the contrary, +it has afforded much ground for believing that, where large numbers +of persons are employed with full work and fair supervision, the +admixture of the sexes involves no risk, but is highly beneficial." +Then, remarking upon the better tone of the male staff by reason of +their association with women as fellow employes, he added: "Further, +it is a matter of experience that the male clerks are more willing to +help the female clerks with their work than to help one another; and +on many occasions pressure of business is met and difficulties are +overcome through this willingness and cordial cooeperation." + +The experience of employing women in the post office was duplicated +in other departments of the public service, until it has become a +recognized fact that women can be employed in connection with men +without any of the results which it was apprehended would follow +the departure. In the country districts, postmistresses and female +carriers are not a novelty. It was the post office which first +Opened up to women employment under the government, and its various +departments now utilize them extensively. Although other of the public +services have received women as clerks, their position is still in a +measure tentative, but it can hardly be said that the employment of +them by the government is any longer an experiment. In addition to +the large numbers of young women who have found employment in the +government service, there is no railroad company, insurance company, +or any other large semi-public or private business firm or company, +which has not found women to be of peculiar serviceability. The great +number of women who, during the latter part of the nineteenth century, +fitted themselves for business careers indicates not only a change of +ideal, with a realization of their self-sufficiency, but the increased +adaptability of women to the peculiar conditions of modern society. + +It is no longer a curious phenomenon to see the name of a woman upon +a business letterhead, or on the sign over some large commercial +establishment, for frequently, when their husbands die, women +themselves now take in hand the business interests of the deceased +and conduct them with marked success, and with no question from their +business competitors as to the propriety of their so doing. Nor do +such women forfeit the esteem of society. Society as such is no longer +concerned chiefly with matters of pedigree, but more largely with the +question of prosperity. While it would be asserting too much to say +that the nineteenth century witnessed the iconoclastic shattering of +the old aristocratic ideals, nevertheless, while the woman of blood +maintains her rightful place in the select circles of society, the +door stands ajar for women who have no other claim for recognition +than that they have amassed fortunes, or inherited them, or are the +wives of wealthy men. However, they must not have clinging to them +the odor of their humble beginnings, if they rose from lowly walks of +life. The real test applied to them is not the test of breeding, which +relates to the past, but of gentility, which is the measure of the +present life. + +Besides the women who managed large business interests in their own +names, the nineteenth century witnessed the advent of the business +woman in numerous lines of small trade. To name the various kinds of +business in which women are found making for themselves a sustenance +would be to give a list of the many lines of retail trade; but the +shopwoman of the earlier part of the nineteenth century is quite a +different person from the tradeswoman of the latter half. Instead of +a small, obscure shop, conducted in a hesitating, apologetic manner, +to-day women are as aggressive advertisers, make as fine displays +in their shops, and sustain the same business relations with the +wholesale dealers, as do the retail dealers of the other sex. Beyond +any peradventure, women have become a part of the business organism +of England, and are competing upon terms of equality with men for the +patronage of the public; and they have before them just as hopeful +prospects of amassing a competence for an easy and independent old +age. + +Great as is the army of women who enrolled themselves in the ranks of +commerce and clerkship during the nineteenth century, they are in a +minority as compared with the greater host of industry,--the women who +are found in the factories, working upon the raw materials of human +comforts and luxuries, toiling unremittingly and often under hard +conditions for a mere pittance as compared with the value of their +products. In 1895 there were one hundred thousand women in England +holding membership in the various trade unions, and, besides these, a +far larger number who were without such enrolment, such as fifty-two +thousand shirtmakers and seamstresses and four hundred thousand +dressmakers and milliners; and these were but a mere fraction of +the immense host of women who, outside of the home, found themselves +earning their own bread by their personal labor. With the growth of +manufactures, women were drawn from the rural districts. It became an +uncommon thing, where formerly it was the usual practice, for women to +perform the work of field laborers, or to depend chiefly for support +upon butter and cheese making, or service at the inns or in the shops +of the neighboring towns. It is now only the women of the lowest rank +who devote themselves for a livelihood to berry picking, hop picking, +garden weeding, and like menial outdoor services. + +The competition of women with men in manufactures was greeted at first +with the sullen resentment and open opposition with which machinery +was viewed when first introduced; but as women have been drawn into +manufactures, men have absorbed many of the outdoor duties +which formerly fell to woman's lot in the country districts. The +"bakeresses," "brewsters," and the "regrateresses"--retailers of +bread--are now known simply in the history of industry; their names +have become archaic and their offices obsolete. As machinery took the +place of the individual intelligence of the handworker of other days, +leaving only a monotonous series of mechanical manipulations for the +men, aside from the superior skill called into play by the complexity +of the machinery, which demanded expert and intelligent direction, +women found relegated to them the simplest parts of factory work +and those which did not require any large degree of mentality. As a +result, the women of the factories have not developed cooerdinately in +intelligence with their sisters in other lines of active work. This +has unfortunately led them to be looked down upon as inferior to +girls who work in stores or in offices. As the factory laws came to +be framed with regard to greater investigation and regulation of the +conditions of women's work in factories, many of the abuses were to +a degree corrected. It is not now commonly the case that a +self-respecting operative is without redress if subjected to the +coarse insults of brutalized foremen, nor are women now permitted +to work as formerly under conditions so harmful to their peculiar +constitutions. Better sanitation, fewer hours of employment, and +greater regard for their comfort, have done much to brighten what +was in the early part of the nineteenth century the dreariest life to +which any woman could be chained. + +Along with the improvements in the condition of women's labor have +gone improvements in the housing of factory people. The industrial +evils that brought out such chivalrous champions of the poor as +the younger Lord Shaftesbury and his associates no longer generally +prevail in factory life. There yet remains much to be done for the +congregated women and girls of the factories. It was inevitable that +by the bringing of them together in great numbers, many from homes +of abject poverty where they had none of the benefits of careful +training, and by the herding of them together in factories where the +nature of their work did not furnish employment for their minds, the +moral tone of the young women of daily toil should have been lower +than that of their sister workers in other lines. But the dictum of +Lord Shaftesbury has been sinking into the social consciousness, +and has borne splendid fruit in the improvement of the conditions of +factory work for women. "In the male," says he, "the moral effects of +the system are very bad; but in the female they are infinitely worse, +not alone upon themselves, but upon their families, upon society, and, +I may add, upon the country itself. It is bad enough if you corrupt +the man; but if you corrupt the woman, you poison the waters of life +at the very fountain." In the first half of the nineteenth century, +the actual number of women employed in factories appears to have been +larger than that of men. + +The existence of the factory, drawing out from the homes so many +women and making their home life only a secondary consideration and +an additional burden, presents one of the gravest problems of +modern times--a problem that must be approached harmoniously by the +philanthropists and the legislators if it is to be satisfactorily +solved. Habit begets contentment, so that it is not the employes of +the factory who feel most keenly the unfortunate circumstances of +their existence. It is the social reformer, whose one aim is not +the uplifting of the individual as such, but the betterment of the +individual as the unit of the social fabric, who is most concerned +for the betterment of the town life of England. As to the women +themselves, when they are compensated by extra wage they have no +complaint to make about the long hours; indeed, they sometimes even +prefer the factory and the excitement of their surroundings to the +dreary and forbidding prospect of their desolate tenements. One +unnatural result of women's work in factories is the reversal of the +positions respectively of husband and wife in the home. It is not an +extraordinary occurrence for women to go out to the factories and +earn the bread of the family, while the men remain at home to mind the +babies and care for the house. This begetting of shiftlessness in men, +who are buoyed up to the point of self-supporting labor only by +the dependence of their families upon them, is an incidental but a +significant result of factory life upon women. It is seriously to be +doubted that, in the aggregate earnings of the family, there is any +real compensation for the binding of wives and children to the wheel +of toil. It has been observed by careful students of industrial +conditions that, for one reason or another, the maximum wage of a +family and the degree of comfort in their living are not, ordinarily, +greater than that of the family whose sole wage earner is the husband. + +There is not a concurrence of views as to the wisdom of special +legislation with regard to the industrial place of women. Some see +in the various acts passed to regulate the circumstances of their +employment a distinct gain, while others view all such enactments as +a regrettable interference of the state in a matter where it is not +capable of taking cognizance of all the circumstances involved and of +displaying the broadest wisdom in dealing with the subject. Then, too, +it is objected on the part of some that sex legislation is unwise of +itself. The women themselves have not always looked with favor upon +the passage of acts for the regulation of their labor, and often +complain of such as an infringement of their personal privileges as +adults. They complain that the competition of labor is already severe, +and that by imposing upon them the limitations of certain acts the +difficulty of making a subsistence is increased. They complain against +the association of female with child labor, and assert that the +conditions are dissimilar and the abuses to be corrected cannot be +classed under the same legislative conditions. Industrial legislation +was first directed to the correction of offences against women +on account of their sex, but the later enactments, and those most +complained of, were resented because of their making the securing of a +livelihood more precarious. The _Times_ in 1895 pointed out that there +were eight hundred and eighty thousand women affected by the Factories +and Workshops Bill, introduced into Parliament in that year. The +lack of flexibility of the measure, failing to take account of the +different natures and conditions of the various employments affected, +made it obviously unjust to the women employed in certain trades. Some +industries have their seasons of activity and of dulness, while others +fluctuate without regard to periods; and to class all such under +legislation regulating the hours of labor at the same number for them +all could but work injury to the women employed in such trades and +disproportionate advantage to other women employed in industries +pursued evenly throughout the year. + +The crux of such contentions lies in the paternal attitude of the +state to the female sex. The expediency of depriving women of the same +amount of liberty to regulate their own affairs as is accorded to men +is a matter of doubt. Women feel that they can decide better for +their own needs than can the legislators who have as their guide only +industrial statistics, the petitions of well-meaning social reformers, +and the views of those who claim expert knowledge from the outside. +Just what will be the outcome of the attempt to resolve woman into a +normal relationship to modern industry without violation of the rights +of self-direction and protection, which she claims as her prerogative, +and at the same time to preserve society from the social blight of the +reduction of considerable numbers of workingwomen to prostitution +and abandoned living, remains to be determined by the wisdom and +experience of the twentieth century. + +One of the most curious of the industrial problems at the front in the +nineteenth century was the servant question. While the wheels of work +were set to moving with more or less smoothness in all other ways, +this important wheel in the domestic machinery has never run without +friction, jarring to the nerves of housewives. Such women find a +common bond of sympathy in the incompetence and dereliction of their +domestics; domestics find a common subject of interest in their +grievances against their mistresses. The whole matter is almost +ludicrous, because it is one simply of adjustment. After the sex +has asserted for itself a position in the realm of industry not +inconsistent with the self-respect which it has sought to maintain, +the women who work in the kitchens and the chambers of other women +sullenly resent the imputation of their menial status in so doing. +Just why the modern servants should be looked upon as inferior to +other women workers is a difficult question, for their close relation +to their mistresses would appear to give them an individuality which +the "hands" in a factory do not possess. The line of demarcation +between the domestic employers and employes is not always a clearly +pronounced one, for it not uncommonly occurs that those who themselves +employ a maid send out their own daughters to similar service. The low +regard in which servants are held, and the application to them of +this very term, which carries with it an implication of ignominy, +is responsible for the poor grade of efficiency, intelligence, and +character found among domestics as a class. There is no reason, in +the nature of the case, why a young girl with intelligence and fair +education should not self-respectingly take domestic service, and +rank above factory hands and many of her sister workers in inferior +clerical positions. + +In earlier times domestic work fell largely to men. The kitchen work +which now is performed by scullery maids was done by boys and youths; +and before the office of housemaid had been established, that of +chamberlain signified the service of men for the work which maids are +now employed to do. The very titles of those who are connected with +the person of majesty signify the lowly household functions which were +ordinarily performed by those to whom now fall the honors, but none of +the duties, of those offices. In ecclesiastical households there were +no women employed at all in former times, excepting "brewsters." The +personal relationship which used to endear the tie between servant and +mistress no more exists than it does between other working people +and their employers. Instead of the idea of personal attachment, +the monetary consideration is the only one that enters into the +relationship. The maid is but a part of the machinery of the +household, and must deport herself in a deferential and often an +abject manner, assuming a mask of propriety which is thrown off as +soon as she is among her companions, when the pent-up animosity and +resentment find expression. How different the modern condition from +that which obtained in other times, when a lady considered no one +fitting to attend upon her excepting those who were of gentle blood +and between whom and herself were ties of endearment and a measure of +equality! Gentle maidens performed many household duties which to-day +are disdained by young ladies of lesser position. The real "servants" +did only the coarse and rough work of the household. They had no +particular place to sleep, and, even down to the time of Elizabeth, it +was not thought important to provide regular beds for "menials" in the +great houses--"As for servants, if they had any shete above them it +was well, for seldom had they any under their bodies to keep them from +the pricking strawes that ranne off thorow the canvas and raxed their +hardened hides." The servants who were thus treated were, of +course, the antecedents of the present-day servants. It is from the +traditional attitude toward them that much of the present-day spirit +of superiority toward domestics is derived. During the eighteenth +century the condition of domestics improved, and, during the last +quarter, the description of them, their tastes and their manners, is +such as would be quite applicable to-day. Already the scarcity of good +servants had come to be a matter of domestic concern. The lament of +the lady of to-day, that her maid dresses as well as she herself, is +not a new one, for it is met as far back as the seventeenth century, +and in the eighteenth century Defoe remarks upon the same fact. He +says, writing in 1724: "It would be a satire upon the ladies such as +perhaps they would not bear the reading of, should we go about to tell +how hard it is sometimes to know the chamber-maid from her mistress; +or my lady's chief woman from one of my lady's daughters." He adds +that: "From this gaiety of dress must necessarily follow encrease of +wages, for where there is such an expence in habit there must be a +proportion'd supply of money, or it will not do." The same subject +furnished concern for people generally, and a correspondent to the +_Times_ wrote, in 1794: "I think it is the duty of every good master +and mistress to stop as much as possible the present ridiculous and +extravagant mode of dress in their domestics.... Formerly a plaited +cap and a white handkerchief served a young woman three or four +Sundays. Now a mistress is required to give up, by agreement, the +latter end of the week for her maids to prepare their caps, tuckers, +gowns, etc., for Sunday, and I am told there are houses open on +purpose where those servants who do not choose their mistresses shall +see them, carry their dresses in a bundle and put them on, meet again +in the evening for the purpose of disrobing, and where I doubt not +many a poor, deluded creature had been disrobed of her virtue. They +certainly call aloud for some restraint, both as to their dress as +well as insolent manner." + +The great majority of domestic servants come from the rural districts, +and upon entering into town life have no one to exercise any personal +concern in their welfare, and, where they do not fall into worse +courses, they acquire an extravagant and reckless habit of life that +uses up their earnings simply in the furthering of their vanity or +pleasure. The servant question, as that of women's position in the +factory system of the country, presents problems which have proved as +yet stubborn to all attempts at their solution. + +One of the most curious facts of the last quarter of the nineteenth +century was the evolution of the "new woman." Women, representing all +manner of social pleas, running the gamut of the extremes, sought a +hearing upon the platform, in the pulpit, through the press, and in +literature. It looked as if the Anglo-Saxon race were on the verge +of a great revolution in which the men would, either passively or in +strenuous opposition, be ignominiously relegated to the rear in the +lines of new progress. The new movement grew out of a sense of social +inequality on the part of some women, and this grievance was exploited +in all ways and illustrated from all viewpoints. Some of these +strenuous advocates for the "rights" of the sex gave themselves over +to the question of dress reform, and their diverse views represented +the whole range of the question, from the sensible and sane +declaration for the abolishment of the tyranny of style to the +adoption of male attire. Others discussed the injustice to women from +the physiological viewpoint, and affirmed that motherhood was not an +honorable office, but a type of feudalism to men and a subservience +to their wills that was highly dishonoring to womankind. It looked as +though the household gods were to be tumbled out of the home without +much ado; but while some of the advocates of reform went to absurd +lengths and presented extreme views and sought by all the ingenuity +of sophistry to present the status of woman as a most deplorable one, +there were others, more moderate in their views and expressions, who +felt that there might be a clear gain for women in the affirming +of her rights in the matter of conventions which held over from the +eighteenth century. Whether in deportment or in dress, in intellectual +pursuits or in the province of amusement, women were to exercise their +judgment and common sense and live in the light of their own reason +and not with reference to the mandates of men. + +When the "new woman" craze passed away, it left, as its effect, young +women more self-reliant, more independent, a little more pert and +self-assured, with less reverence and greater capability, than before. +On the whole, the English girl of to-day has wrought out of the +complex conditions of modern society the naturalness which was +asserting itself throughout the eighteenth century, but was hampered +by new conventions, rigid customs, and stately formalisms. It is +true that the English girl of to-day would be to her grandmother a +revelation, and perhaps not an agreeable one; but the standards +by which estimates are made are safest and most satisfactory when +contemporary. It would be venturesome to forecast the view of the _fin +de siecle_ girl which may be taken at the close of the new century by +those who shall cast back over the years a historical glance. Certain +it is that, on the whole, she comes approximately up to the best +standards of to-day, although a certain air of flippancy and the +flavor of the independence of judgment, not always balanced by reason, +suggest the possibility of an intellectual and spiritual trend not +consistent with her most fortunate lines of development. + +It will be seen that the twentieth century takes woman as a practical +matter of fact, and proposes to bestow upon her no fulsome eulogies, +chivalrous dalliance, to place her in no position of inferiority, or +to exalt her to the transcendent estate of the celestial beings. She +has demanded recognition in the practical affairs of life; she has +claimed the right to determine her own destiny; she has achieved +the freedom of the outer world. Lofty as are the summits of human +ambition, she has climbed up to the very highest peaks and written her +name in letters of immortality on the scroll of the great ones of +the earth, in the arts, in literature, in philanthropy. Does she ever +pause to take a backward look over the steps by which she has come to +her present eminence? Does she ever consider the "pit from which she +was digged"? It is a far cry from the twentieth century to the early +dawn of history, and none but the Eye which runs to and fro throughout +the whole earth can trace the entire course of woman's ascendency from +degradation to exaltation. But it is always well to pause and to +ask of the past years what report they have borne to Heaven; and the +history of woman, studied in the light of fact and with such proper +reflections as historical circumstance suggests, must not only be a +profitable one for the correction of any ill-balanced tendencies which +may appear to close observation of woman in her present position and +spirit, but it must as well be an important section of, and, in a +sense, interpretation of, the social development of England. + + + + +CHAPTER XV + +THE WOMEN OF SCOTLAND AND IRELAND + + +The women of Scotland are remarkable for the strength of their +domestic sentiments and for their loyalty to the land of the heather. +The stream of national life, by its merging and mingling with that of +England, has never lost the individuality which has been the pride +of the Scotch people in all their periods. Like two rivers meeting +in confluence,--the one slow and clear, but steady and strong in its +flow, the other, dashing and foaming its turbulent flood over the +breakers in its rough channel,--refusing for a long time to do other +than divide their common course until after long periods of associated +flow they finally merge, still showing in their different shadings the +mark of their diverse origin, so was it with England and Scotland. The +union is complete, but national characteristics remain. + +Not so, however, with unhappy Ireland. Fundamental differences +in life, in temperament, in religion, in ideals, have served to +perpetuate the alienation of a people whose connection with England +might seem to depend on the power of but one principle--that of force. +Not strange is it that among a people which considers itself deprived +of a future the influence of the past should be predominant, and that +in the recital of the mighty deeds of the Irish chieftains of yore +should be found the chief delight of those who mingle their tears at +the shrine of such a representative of their national defeat as the +patriot O'Connell. + +With the curious contradiction of nature which infusion of Celtic +blood effects, no livelier or more light-hearted race of women exists +upon the earth than that of Erin, yet, at the same time, none which +can be plunged so deeply into melancholy and feel so profoundly +the pangs of sorrow. Not to original contributions of race +characteristics, however, is this contradictory temperament solely to +be attributed, but to the long years of denationalization which have +made Ireland the wailing place of women whose traditions are glorious +with the deeds of mighty queens and amazons like Macha, Meave, +Dearbhguill and Eva; the dawn of whose cycles of religious glory is +marked by the life and deeds of a Bridget. + +To write a history of the women of Great Britain and not speak of the +differences which the names Scot and Irish connote would be as grave +an error as to describe the flora of the islands and omit mention of +the shamrock and the thistle. Not that the flora of the island group +is essentially distinctive any more than that the differences in +society, in manners and customs of the separate peoples, are radical. +It is not that there is much of diverse interest in the broad aspects +of the life of the women that the recital of the history of the women +of Scotland and Ireland is to have separate treatment, but to throw +in strong light upon the pages of history the figures of women who +belonged not to Great Britain, as such, but to Scotland or to Ireland, +and who, if they date after the cementing of the union of the peoples, +still perpetuate that which is distinctive in quality of life and of +character. + +To figure forth the famous women of these peoples will serve as +sufficient commentary upon the effect of difference of life and of +customs. All else has entered into the story of the women of Great +Britain as it has been told, for, after all, there is a real oneness +between them. + +The tribal influence in both Ireland and Scotland continued to be the +predominant force of patriotic purpose long after the welding of its +various elements had eliminated this influence in English life. In the +earlier history of both the Scotch and Irish peoples, we have to +do with the force in society of this family idea, centred in +great chieftains and kings, but none the less a fact of prevailing +influence, an idea incarnate that served to quell the strife of +warring factions in the face of a common enemy. The patriotism of both +peoples has been the patriotism of the family and the fireside. The +love of the tartan among the Scotch and the perpetuation of the Irish +clans attest this fact to-day. + +Many are the pages of British history rendered glorious by the deeds +of the women of Scotland. In those early days, when the light of +history is too faint to show clearly their characters or their deeds, +the women of Caledonia went forth to battle with men at the sound +of the pibroch. Some of the noblest of them reigned as queens, were +hailed as deliverers, or gave their blood in martyrdom to warm the +soil of their country. The Scotch-Irish tribes accorded their women +place in the deliberative bodies, and listened to their counsel. The +magnificent virility which they displayed was not different from that +of British women generally. The noble Boadicea was no more valorous +than the Irish Meave. From the dim shadow land of the past must some +of the characters of this recital be called up, but the Middle Ages +and modern periods will be most largely drawn upon to tell the story +of the Celtic woman, as a part of the chronicle of a country where, as +we have fully seen, women have always counted as factors. Macha of the +Red Tresses is the first of the Irish queens whose figure stands out +with sufficient boldness to fix it upon the pages of history. Would +one marvel at her beauty or her prowess, let him have recourse to the +praises of the early bards and the laudations of the chroniclers. +We can well believe that, to her countrymen, she appeared as the +incarnation of some divinity as she rode at the head of her body of +stalwart warriors; her auburn tresses floating loose in the wind, +her mantle flung carelessly over her shoulder, her neck and arms +and ankles girdled with massive gold ornaments, her eyes flashing +determination as she pointed the advance to the foray with her lance +directed toward the foe drawn up in battle line to receive the charge. + +A quarrel as to the succession to the throne or to the headship of +the tribe, which was precipitated by the death of her father without +posterity excepting this intrepid daughter, was the occasion of her +appearance upon the page of national affairs, or rather of tribal +history. She gained the victory over her adversaries, and ruled her +people for seven years. The romantic annals of this valorous lady +relate how she pursued the sons of her adversary to effect their +destruction; and the more certainly to accomplish her purpose, she +disguised herself as a leper, by rubbing her face with rye dough. Away +in the depths of a dense forest she finds them cooking the wild boar +they had just slain. Having successfully used her disguise to achieve +her end, she rid herself of the leprous-looking splotches. With +honeyed words and the judicious flashing of love-light from a pair +of wondrous eyes, the supposed leper charms her enemies. One brother +follows her into a remote part of the forest, where by guile she +effects the binding of him hand and foot. Returning to the camp, she +successively lures the remaining brothers into the woods in the same +manner and with the same result. She brought them "tied together" to +Emhain. There, in a council of the tribe, womanly sentiment prevailed +over sanguinary counsels, and, instead of being condemned to death, +the prisoners were given over to slavery in the queen's following; and +with the romantic ideas common to her sex, she had them build her a +fortress "which shall be forever henceforth the capital city of this +province." With her golden brooch she measured the bounds of the +future castle, and it received the name "the Palace of Macha's +Brooch." So runs the legend, and so is fixed by the brooch of Macha +the first date in Irish history, at a period, however, when dates have +little significance, for time meant but duration, and not economy or +expenditure of force. + +The romance of another of Ireland's early queens centres about the +possession of a bull whose marvellously good points had awakened the +queen's envy; the pastoral relates the contest which arose therefrom. +This queen was the daughter of the King of Connaught, Ecohaidh by +name, and her mother was the handmaid of his wife, the Lady Edain, who +herself was a leader of great beauty and courage. The contest for the +throne resulted in the elevation of Meave to the royal dignity. Before +this, she had contracted marriage with a prince, with whom she +lived unhappily. She returned to her father's court, and, after +her coronation, married the powerful chief Ailill. The death of her +husband and that of her father, which occurred at about the same time, +left her solitary. The queen's misfortune in marriage did not deter +her from seeking a further union. One day, the court of Ross-Ruadh, +King of Leinster, was thrown into a great stir by the arrival of +the heralds of Meave dressed in "yellow silk shirts and grass-green +mantles," who announced that the famous queen was on a royal progress +throughout the land in quest of a husband suited to one of her state +and character. She was feted and catered to in every way, and finally +fixed her choice upon the seventeen-year-old son of Ross-Ruadh, whose +character promised enough meekness to insure the dominance over him of +his much older spouse. + +The event which the chroniclers make the prominent one of her reign +had its origin in a heated dispute between the queen and her spouse as +to their respective possessions. The result of the controversy was an +actual inventory of their belongings. "There were compared before them +all their wooden and their metal vessels of value; and they were found +to be equal. There were brought to them their finger-rings, their +clasps, their bracelets, their thumb-rings, their diadems, and their +gorgets of gold; and they were found to be equal. There were brought +to them their garments of crimson and blue, and black and green, and +yellow and mottled, and white and streaked; and they were found to +be equal. There were brought before them their great flocks of sheep, +from greens and lawns and plains; and they were found to be equal. +There were brought before them their steeds and their studs, from +pastures and from fields; and they were found to be equal. There were +brought before them their great herds of swine, from forest and from +deep glens and from solitudes; their herds and their droves of cows +were brought before them, from the forests and most remote solitudes +of the province; and, on counting and comparing them, they were +found to be equal in number and excellence. But there was found among +Ailill's herds a young bull, which had been calved by one of Meave's +cows, and which, not deeming it honourable to be under a woman's +control, went over and attached himself to Ailill's herds." + +Deeply chagrined that she had not in all her herds a bull to match +this one, which seems to have been a remarkable animal, she asked her +chief courier where in all the five provinces of Erin its counterpart +might be found. He replied that not only could he direct her to its +equal, but to its superior. The possessor of this animal was Dare, son +of Fachtna of the Cantred of Cualigne, in the province of Ulster. +Its name was the Brown Bull of Cualigne. Straightway was the courier, +MacRoth, sent to Dare with an offer of fifty heifers for the animal, +and the further assurance that, if he so desired, he and his people +might have the best lands of what are now the plains of Roscommon, +besides other valuable considerations, which included the permanent +friendship of the queen herself. + +Swiftly upon his errand sped the courier, accompanied by an impressive +train of attendants. A friendly and hospitable reception and +entertainment awaited them, and Dare accepted the terms they offered. +One of the courtiers expressed admiration for the amiability of the +king who thus consented to part from that which, on account of his +power, the four other provinces of Erin could not have wrested +from him. From this praise a cup-valorous associate dissented, and +maintained that it was no credit to him, since, had he refused, Meave +of herself could have compelled him to surrender it. The steward of +Dare, coming in at this inopportune moment, heard the insulting vaunt, +and went out in a rage and bore to his master the remark he had heard. +Dare, in a passion of resentment, withdrew his offer, swearing by all +the gods that Meave should not have the Brown Bull by either consent +or force. Meave, on hearing of his determination, was correspondingly +incensed, and without delay gathered together her forces and declared +war upon Dare. + +In a hotly contested battle, the army of Meave defeated that of her +adversary, and the Brown Bull was carried back to her own country. +According to the grave narrative of the chronicler, the issue of +the bulls had yet to be fought out by the animals themselves, for no +sooner did the captive bull come into the province of Connaught than +there was precipitated a tremendous conflict with his rival, the +bull of Ailill. The tale describes vividly and with much of fabulous +admixture the contest, which resulted in the rout of the White-horned. +Thus was the honor of Meave doubly sustained by the wage of battle. + +This and many other strange narratives with regard to the undoubtedly +historical Meave have vested her with a halo of romance, and so +veiled her real personality that it is rather in her mythical than her +historical character that she has come down to us; for there is little +doubt of her being the original of Queen Mab of fairy fame. Spenser +gathered much of his fairy lore in Ireland, and in the section where +this famous queen lived and where grew up the mass of tradition and +fable which must have appealed strongly to the imagination of the +author of the _Faerie Queen_. + +The intense religious character of the Irish people is not to be +accredited to the persistence of superstitious influences and beliefs +in the new garb of Christian enlightenment; for although their +exuberant fancy has always peopled their land with races of malign as +well as of amiable spirits, the real impress of religion is that which +they received from early Christian sources. Bridget, the saint who +heads the calendar of Irish women of sanctity, was born in the first +half of the fifth century A.D., and survived until the end of the +first quarter of the sixth. She it was who, despite the disadvantages +of her sex, performed a work paralleled by but few persons in the +religious history of the country. It was inevitable that there should +have grown up about her a fund of story and fable from which it is +now difficult to distinguish in order to give her real work its full +appreciation without sanctioning stories that have their roots in the +soil of the fond fancy of a grateful people. + +As one divests a rare parchment of its later writing in order that the +original manuscript may be studied, so, when the after-traditions and +the excrescences of the supernatural are removed from the character +of Bridget, her real worth is seen and the value of the record of +her life, which is thereby disclosed, is greatly enhanced. As to her +learning, her blameless character, her wisdom, her charity, and her +honesty, there is no manner of doubt. To swear by her name was to give +to the asseveration the sanctity of inviolable truth. + +It must be remembered that in the middle of the fourth century female +monasteries upon the continent had aroused among women a great deal of +religious enthusiasm. Already had the seeds of religion been sown +in Ireland by Patrick, when Bridget came, imbued with the ardor of +religious training and stimulation received upon the continent. +The religious order for women which she instituted spread in its +ramifications to all parts of the country. Many were the widows and +young maidens who thronged to her religious houses; indeed, so great +was the throng, that it became necessary to form one great central +establishment, superior to and controlling the activities of numerous +other establishments which were scattered throughout the land. She +herself made her abode among the people of Leinster, who became +endeared to her as her own people. The monastery she reared amid the +green stretches of pasture received the name of Cill Dara, or the Cell +of the Oak, from a giant oak which grew near by, and which continued +down to the twelfth century, "no one daring to touch it with a knife." +On account of the monastery and its sacred surroundings, the section +became the place of residence of an increasing number of families, and +from the settlement thus begun arose the modern town of Kildare. + +Such sanctity and devotion to good works as that of Bridget attracted +to her monastery many visitors of note. Among those who esteemed it +an honor to have her friendship was the chronicler Gildas. The +Ey-Bridges, i.e., the Isles of Bridget, or the Hebrides, according to +the modern form of their name, claim the honor of holding in loving +embrace her mortal remains. In this claim, however, they have a +vigorous disputant in the town of Kildare, which claims the renown of +her burial. + +Passing from the vague borderland between legend and history, we come +down to the twelfth century, when mediaeval conditions were in full +force and the manners and customs already described in connection +with the women of the times had full hold upon their lives. As +representative of the spirit of the period, the life of the renowned +Eva, Princess of Leinster and Countess of Pembroke, may be briefly +considered. + +The history of the sad princess centres about the struggles of Dermot +to regain the throne of Leinster, from which he had been deposed by +the federated kings. First he equipped a body of mercenaries from +Wales, only to be met with defeat in his endeavor to take Dublin from +the enemy. He appealed for aid to the English king, Henry II., who was +then engaged in a campaign in France. He did not receive direct help +from that monarch, who himself was looking with covetous eyes upon +Ireland, but he did receive permission to make recruits from among his +Anglo-Norman subjects. His real aid came from the Earl of Pembroke, +called Richard Strongbow. With a large fleet, Dermot now set sail +for Ireland, bent not only upon the recovery of his possession of +Leinster, but the conquest of the whole island. + +The consideration offered by Dermot to Pembroke for his services +was the hand of his daughter Eva, with the kingdom of Leinster for +a dowry. Waterford, a town then of equal importance with Dublin, was +successively besieged and sacked; the Danes, who held it, were driven +out with great slaughter. Amid all the horror of the sacked city +was consummated the union of Eva and Richard, Earl Strongbow. Dublin +became the place of their residence. A few years thereafter, the +husband's checkered career was closed by a wound in the foot. In +Christ Church, Dublin, lies the body of the warrior, and the monument +displays the figure of a recumbent knight in armor, with that of his +bride at his side. + +The national struggles of Scotland are as replete with examples of +illustrious women as those of Ireland; the tragedy of the lives of +some of Scotia's daughters not only serves to mark the brutal spirit +of times which, with all their superficial glorifying of the sex, yet +could with good conscience make war upon women, but also serves to +illustrate the height of feminine devotion when called forth by some +great occasion with its demand for self-abnegation. Among such heroic +characters must ever be honorably numbered the fair Isobel, Countess +of Buchan, of whom the poet Pratt says: + + "Mothers henceforth shall proudly tell + How cag'd and prison'd Isobel + Did serve her country's weal." + +The nine years which saw the struggles of a Wallace and a Bruce, from +the appearance of the former as the champion of Scottish rights to +the crowning of the latter at Scone, were years big with the fate of +a people full of heroic purpose and undaunted fortitude. The story +of the national conquest must be sought elsewhere. In 1305, upon the +death of Wallace, the younger Bruce was impelled to abandon the +cause of the King of England, who had been pleased to name him in a +commission for the direction of the affairs of Scotland. He made his +peace with Red Comyn, the leader of the rival Scottish faction, and +closed with him a pact on the terms proposed by Bruce: "Support my +title to the crown, and I will give you my lands." The story of the +perfidy of the treacherous Comyn and of the revolt of Bruce against +Edward of England is well-known history. The actual crowning of the +Scottish chieftain occurred on March 27, 1306. At that time appeared +Isobel, wife of John, Earl of Buchan, who asserted the claim to +install the king, which had come down of ancient right in her family. + +With great pomp, this illustrious scion of the house of the Earls of +Macduff led Bruce to the regal chair. The English chronicler crustily +remarks: "She was mad for the beauty of the fool who was crowned." The +English king was enraged at the presumption of his vassal, and sent +out his soldiers against the Scottish sovereign. In the notable battle +which followed, the forces of Bruce were routed and he himself made +a fugitive. Other reverses befell the arms of the Scotch, and among +those who were carried away captive to gratify the lust for vengeance +of the English was the noble lady who had proudly inducted Bruce +into the royal power. Isobel of Buchan was carried to Berwick, and +condemned to a fate which can best be described in the words of an +early chronicler: "Because she has not struck with the sword, she +shall not die by the sword, but on account of the unlawful coronation +which she performed, let her be closely confined in an abode of stone +and iron, made in the shape of a cross, and let her be hung up out of +doors in the open air of Berwick, that both in her life and after her +death she may be a spectacle and an eternal reproach to travellers." +For four years she suffered the imposition of this heinous punishment, +which was then mitigated to imprisonment in the monastery of Mount +Carmel at Berwick. After three years she was removed to the custody +of Henry de Beaumont. Her final fate is unknown, but it is presumable +that, if she lived, her release from durance was secured by the +victory of Bannockburn. + +Amid the misfortunes which pressed thickly upon the house of those +whose name, more than that of any other, is linked with Scotland's +history--the mighty Douglases--must ever appear the sad-visaged Janet, +Lady Glamis. When under the royal ban, remorseless as the will of +fate, the house of Douglas was expelled from its native heath, a woman +of unusual nobility suffered death in the general disaster to her kin. +Gratitude is not a virtue of kings, or else there would have been +some remembrance of that earlier lady of the Douglas line, Catherine +Douglas, who, when the assassins upon midnight murder bent appeared +at the chamber of the queen of James I., opposed to their +entrance--fruitlessly, indeed, but none the less nobly--her slender +arm, which she thrust into the staple to replace the bar that had been +treacherously removed. The ambition of the Douglases, however, knew +no bounds, and in actual fact their power often not only rivalled +but overtopped that of the crown. The feud, with varying degrees of +irritation and occasions of outbreak, had gone on until the time of +James V., when the reverses suffered by the Douglases effectually +destroyed their power and made them fugitives during the reign of that +monarch. That king had an undying resentment to the Earl of Angus, who +had obtained possession of his person as a child and had continued +to be his keeper until he finally slipped the leash to take up the +sovereignty unhampered. One of the sisters of the mighty earl, in the +flower of her youth, became the wife of Lord Glamis. While her kinsmen +were in exile, she secretly did what she could to further their +designs against the Scottish throne. Charges were formulated against +her, but do not appear to have been pressed. Other actions against +her for treason were instituted by her enemies, and she lived under +continual harassment and apprehension of danger. All her property was +confiscated as that of a fugitive from the law and one tainted with +treason. Her enemies were not satisfied with the measure of revenge +they had wrought upon her, and were content with nothing short of her +life. + +The venom of the persecution is shown by the nature of the charge +which was trumped up against her to ensure her death. Four years after +the death of her husband, she was indicted on the charge of killing +him by poison. Three times the majority of those summoned to serve +on the jury to hear the charges against her refused to attend, thus +showing how little faith the popular mind had in the sincerity of the +indictment against her. As it seemed impossible to secure a jury to +hear the odious charge against an innocent and high-minded lady, the +case was allowed to lapse. Soon after this she again married. + +A description of her which was penned by a writer in the early part of +the seventeenth century represents her as having been reputed in +her prime the greatest beauty in Britain. "She was," he says, "of an +ordinary stature, not too fat, her mien was majestic, her eyes full, +her face was oval, and her complection was delicate and extremely +fair. Besides all these perfections, she was a lady of singular +chastity; as her body was a finished piece, without the least blemish, +so Heaven designed that her mind should want none of those perfections +a mortal creature can be capable of; her modesty was admirable, her +courage was above what could be expected from her sex, her judgment +solid, her carriage was gaining and affable to her inferiors, as she +knew well how to behave herself to her equals; she was descended from +one of the most honorable and wealthy families of Scotland, and of +great interest in the kingdom, but at that time eclipsed." This is +the testimony of hearsay, but, allowing for exaggeration, the great +impression which she made upon her contemporaries is amply shown. + +The very nemesis of misfortune seemed to pursue this innocent +lady. The next turn of envious fate brought to light a plot for her +destruction which was hatched in the dark recesses of a heart burning +with passionate resentment over its inability to invade her wifely +integrity. William Lyon had been one of the suitors who were +disappointed at her acceptance of the son of the Earl of Argyll. +After several years had elapsed, this man sought to pass the limits +of friendship, and had the baseness to seek to draw her away from the +path of honor. Her contemptuous and indignant rebuff rankled in his +mind, and led him to lay a deep plot tending to bring Lady Glamis +under suspicion of attempting to poison the king. Her former +indictment as a poisoner was counted upon to give probability to the +charge. She, with all other persons under suspicion as parties to the +plot, was arrested and immured in Edinburgh Castle. + +So much of political matter entered into the testimony, and so +skilfully was it wrought, that the jury found her guilty of the crimes +charged, namely, treasonable communication with her relatives, the +enemies of the king, and of conspiring to poison her monarch. The +sentence was that she should be burned at the stake, and the same +day of its delivery it was executed. "She seemed to be the only +unconcerned person there, and her beauty and charms never appeared +with greater advantage than when she was led to the flames; and her +soul being fortified with support from Heaven, and the sense of her +own innocence, she outbraved death, and her courage was equal in the +fire to what it was before her judges. She suffered those torments +without the least noise: only she prayed devoutly for Divine +assistance to support her under her sufferings." She died as a burnt +offering to the hate which was engendered against her line, but which +could be visited only upon her, as all others of her house were out of +reach of the royal anger. + +Returning to Ireland and leaving behind the atmosphere of political +machinations and persecutions, it is pleasant to take up the +characters of some women of the fifteenth and the sixteenth centuries +who for different reasons have written their names lastingly in the +memories of their race. To be hailed as the best woman of her times +was the happy privilege of Margaret O'Carroll, who died in 1461. +McFirbis, the antiquary of Lecan, her contemporary, says of her: "She +was the one woman that made most of preparing highways, and erecting +bridges, churches and mass-books, and of all manner of things +profitable to serve God and her soul." Her life was most celebrated +for her pilgrimage to the shrine of Saint James of Compostella in +Spain, and her unbounded charity. The pilgrimage followed upon a great +revival of religion which seems to have swept over Ireland in 1445. +The occasion of the awakening is not known, other than that following +upon the signs of religious discontent upon the continent the monks of +Ireland roused themselves to earnest and arduous religious labors. The +chronicler gives illustration of her practical charity in the account +of her two "invitations": twice in the one year did she call upon +all persons "Irish and Scottish" to bestow largely of their money +and goods as a feast for the poor. Thousands resorted to the place of +distribution, and, as each was aided in an orderly manner, they had +their names and the amount and nature of their relief entered in +a book kept for the purpose. In summing up her life's work, the +chronicler says: "While the world lasts, her very many gifts to the +Irish and Scottish nations cannot be numbered. God's blessing, the +blessing of all saints, and every our blessing from Jerusalem to Innis +Glauir be on her going to Heaven, and blessed be he that will reade +and will heare this, for the blessing of her soule. Cursed be the sore +in her breast that killed Margrett." Such a picture as this serves to +offset the more usual idea of the women of Ireland during the Middle +Ages as coarse, half-civilized beings. Such a character would lend +dignity and worth to any people during any age. + +The many benefactions and the public spirit of this great lady +make her deserving of mention in any account of the development of +charities. The poet D'Arcy McGee has immortalized her in a poem in +which, referring to the occasion of her "great Invitation," he says: + + In cloth of gold, like a queen new-come out of the royal wood + On the round, proud, white-walled rath Margeret O'Carroll stood; + That day came guests to Rath Imayn from afar from beyond the sea + Bards and Bretons of Albyn and Erin--to feast in Offaly!" + +To be celebrated for beauty alone is the prerogative of a few of +the women of the ages. What nation is there that does not hold in as +cherished regard the women who have represented its noblest physical +possibilities as their women of unusual sanctity or those who have +glorified their literature or ennobled their arts? A beautiful +woman--a woman whose beauty is not alone flawless in feature and +full of the instinctive intellectuality of a soul mirrored in +a countenance, but also typical of the expression of racial +characteristics, is as much a product of ages, as much a climax of +evolution at the point of perfection, as the saint, the artist, the +dramatist who marks a period and exalts a people. To pass down in +history as an exceptional beauty is to inspire art ideals and to +furnish a theme for the lyricist. Frailty is often found united with +such exceptional beauty, so is it with exceptional genius; alas! that +predominating gifts should be so often inimical to balance. To find +such beauty in the way of virtue is as grateful as to find an orchid +exhaling perfume. + +In the tales of fair women, the Fair Geraldine, who was born in the +first half of the sixteenth century, must always be celebrated, not +only as a typical Irish beauty, but as a woman whose virtues were of +a similar order to her physical charms. She was the second daughter +of the Earl of Kildare by his second wife, Lady Elizabeth Grey, and +inherited from both sides of this union, which was most auspicious, +the high breeding and gentle graces which fitted well her gracious +carriage and great beauty and served, by enhancing her physical +charms, to attract to her a wide circle of friends and to secure for +her the knightly attendance of a band of distinguished suitors. She +was taken to England to be educated, and at court received the polish +which perfected the jewel of her beauty. She made her home with a +second cousin of her mother, Lady Mary, who was afterward England's +queen. While quite young she was appointed maid of honor to her +kinswoman. Already her charms had ripened to the point of eliciting +from the poet, soldier, and politician, Henry, Earl of Surrey, the +high praise of the following sonnet: + + "From Tuscane came my lady's worthy race, + Fair Florence was sometime her ancient seat. + The western isle, whose pleasant shore doth face + Wild Cambor's cliffs, did give her lively heat. + Fostered she was with milk of Irish breast; + Her sire an Earl, her dame of Princes' blood, + From tender years in Britain doth she rest, + With King's child; where she tasteth costly food. + Hunsdon did first present her to mine eyes; + Bright is her hue, and Geraldine she hight. + Hampton me taught to wish her first as mine, + And Windsor, alas! doth chase her from my sight. + Her beauty of kind; her virtues from above, + Happy is he that can attain her love." + +The noble earl who lamented that Windsor chased her from his sight +was suffering incarceration in Windsor Castle for eating meat in Lent. +That the Fair Geraldine had made full conquest of his heart is shown +by his conduct at a tournament at Florence, where he defied the world +to produce her equal. He was victorious, and the palm was awarded the +Irish beauty. Again, he is found resorting to a famous alchemist of +the day to enable him to peer into the future, that he might know what +disposition of her heart would be made by the lady of his affections. +The only satisfaction he obtained was the seeing of Geraldine +recumbent upon a couch reading one of his sonnets. This must have +stirred his blood and have strengthened his faith in the ultimate +success of his wooing. Had he obtained the revelation he sought, he +would have seen the adored beauty, with that curious inconsistency of +her sex, bestowing herself upon Sir Anthony Brown, a man sixty years +of age, and who was forty-four years her senior. After his death +she married the Earl of Lincoln, whom she also survived. There is +no further record of the beauty whose fame extended over England and +Ireland. The circumstance of Surrey's visit to the alchemist has been +preserved in Scott's _Lay of the Last Minstrel_: + + "Fair all the pageant--but how passing fair + The slender form that lay on couch of Ind! + O'er her white bosom strayed her hazel hair, + Pale her dear cheek, as if for love she pined; + All in her night-robe loose she lay reclined + And, pensive, read from tablet eburine + Some strain that seemed her inmost soul to find; + That favored strain was Surrey's raptured line, + That fair and lovely form, the Ladye Geraldine." + +In the picturesque annals of the piracy of the sixteenth century, +when England was getting that sea training which was to make her the +undisputed naval power of the world, when the Turkish corsair spread +the terror of his savage brutality through the hearts of the brave +seamen who manned the craft of legitimate commerce, at a time when the +trade routes of the sea were the paths of piracy, and the sabre, +the cutlass, and the newly invented gunpowder were depended upon to +establish the right of way for the ships of the nations, there appears +no more daring character than Grainne O'Malley. Many stories of her +prowess are still current in the west of Ireland, and the political +ballads of her time make frequent allusion to the sea queen. For the +greater part of the sixteenth century she lived, an example of that +splendid virility which is yet characteristic of the hardy Irish +peasantry, when not under the shadow of famine. + +She came of right by her seafaring proclivities, for from the earliest +period the O'Malleys have been celebrated as rivalling the Vikings +in their love of the sea. In the fourteenth century a bard is found +singing: + + "A good man never was there + Of the O'Mailly's but a mariner; + The prophets of the weather are ye, + A tribe of affection and brotherly love." + +Grainne O'Malley, with all her depredations upon the sea, was no +common pirate; through her veins ran the royal blood of the line +of Connaught, and, despite her serviceability to the English as +a freebooting ally upon the western coasts of the island, she +acknowledged no higher power than her own. Her title of dignity was +regarded as inviolable. Quite worthy of the brush of an artist was +the scene presented by the reception at court of the wild Irish +chieftainess. Disdaining land travel, she performed the whole trip to +London by water, sailing up the Thames to the Tower Gate. The little +son who was born upon this voyage was fittingly called Theobald of the +Ship. There has come down to us no account of the meeting of the two +queens, but one may readily imagine the scene--the blonde Elizabeth, +thin, unbeautiful, her scant features lined by petulance, but with +indomitable will shown in the turn of her mouth and the strength of +her chin, and the large-limbed, full-bodied Irish woman, dressed in +the semi-wild attire of her race and of her calling, her arms, her +wrists, her ankles, gleaming with circlets of gold, a fillet of +massive metal binding her hair, her mantle caught up at the shoulder +by an immense, ornately wrought brooch. Courteously, but with no sign +of inferiority in her demeanor, her swarthy skin showing the dash of +Spanish blood in her veins, and her eyes flashing with the light of +an unconquered spirit, stood the female buccaneer before the woman +who had rule of England. The best tradition of the results of the +interview tell us that a treaty was effected between the two, but that +the Irish chieftainess did not yield an iota of her royal claims. + +Thus was cemented a union between the English throne and the piratical +leader. It must be borne in mind, however, that piracy was not +then the despicable vice that it afterward came to be regarded. The +commerce of the enemy was always lawful spoil, and, even when there +was not actually a state of hostilities existing between countries, +preying upon one another's commerce was often regarded as a +semi-legitimate industry; and if the freebooter kept out of reach of +the enemy, he was not likely to be seriously sought out for punishment +by the authorities of his own country. The exploiters of the New +World, under the title of merchant-adventurers, were for the most part +pirates; the Spanish galleons were always lawful spoil for the English +merchantman, who knew the trick of painting out the name of his craft, +giving it a garb of piratical black, using a false flag, spoiling the +enemy after some swift, hard fighting, and then resuming again his +real or assumed pacific character. In the light of her times must +Grainne O'Malley be regarded. + +As a sea queen she is without parallel in any time; and if the stain +of their piracy does not attach to her English contemporaries, Drake, +Raleigh, and Gilbert, no more should it to her. By force of a powerful +individuality, she ruled a race of men who were noted as the most +lawless of all Ireland, men among whom women as a class were so +little esteemed that they were not allowed to hold property. An early +traditional account of this woman of the waves, which is preserved +in manuscript at the Royal Irish Academy, Dublin, describes her as +follows: + +"She was a great pirate and plunderer from her youth. It is +Transcended to us by Tradition that the very Day she was brought to +bed of her first Child that a Turkish Corsair attacked her ships, +and that they were Getting the Better of her Men, she got up, put her +Quilt about her and a string about her neck, took two Blunder Bushes +in her hands, came on deck, began damming and Capering about, her +monstrous size and odd figure surprised the Turks, their officers +gathered themselves talking of her; this was what she wanted, +stretched both her hands, fired the two Blunder Bushes at them and +Destroyed the officers." Many are the deeds of prowess ascribed to +her, and so widespread was her fame that desperate characters +came from all parts to enroll themselves under her standard. Her +serviceability to the English, to whose extending power she had the +good sense not to put herself in opposition, secured to her the right +to continue her depredations. + +With all her daring and the romance with which tradition has +surrounded her, she was not, nor does the report of her times +represent her as having been, handsome. In fact, notwithstanding that +the Anglicized form of her given name is Grace, its real meaning is +"the ugly." Her first husband was an O'Flaherty, the terror of which +name is preserved in the litany of the Anglo-Norman, recalling the +capture of the city of Galway and the surrounding country: "From the +ferocious O'Flaherties,--Good Lord, deliver us." The same words, as a +talisman, were inscribed over the gate of the city. We know little of +the representative of this family who became the husband of Grainne +O'Malley. Her second husband was Sir Richard Bourke, of the Mayo +division of a great Norman-Irish clan. It was after contracting this +alliance that Grainne O'Malley put herself under the protection of the +English rule in Connaught. Sidney, the lord-deputy, referring to his +visit to Galway in 1576, says: "There came to me a most famous female +sea-captain, called Granny-I-Mallye, and offered her services to me, +wheresoever I would command her, with three galleys and two hundred +fighting men, either in Ireland or Scotland. She brought with her her +husband, for she was, as well by sea as by land, more than master's +mate with him. He was of the nether Bourkes, and now, as I hear, +MacWilliam Euter, and called by the nickname 'Richard in Iron.' This +was a notorious woman in all the coasts of Ireland. This woman did Sir +Philip see and speak with: he can more at large inform you of her." + +The personal character of this female buccaneer was never called into +question; saving only her piratical proclivities, she seems to have +been exemplary. The circumstances of her life at the death of her +first husband forced her, a daughter of a pirate, to the seas as +a "thrade of maintenance," as she apologetically put it to Queen +Elizabeth. She founded and endowed religious houses, and the +attitude she maintained toward the powers higher than she was in the +furtherance of the peace of her country. Yet her good deeds have not +been borne in the same remembrance as her piratical performances. With +this account of the adventurous Irish woman, we may turn to a very +different picture, taken from Scotland. + +The annals of the Scottish border are replete with stories of cruel +warfare and of savage vengeance. The wars of England with the valorous +Scots present hardly more instances of heroism and of brutality than +do the accounts of the feuds which arose between the clans themselves. +Of the first sort was the expedition which Bluff King Hal sent out to +punish the Scots for becoming incensed at the insolent tone and the +humiliating conditions he imposed on the negotiations looking to the +marriage of his young son, afterward Edward VI., and the infant Mary, +Queen of Scots. + +The English conducted a series of savage forays across the Scottish +border. Their success led the leaders of the invading army to +represent to Henry that, owing to the distracted condition of +Scotland on account of the internal disorders, the time was peculiarly +auspicious for a permanent conquest of a large part of the border. +Under commission of the English king to effect such a conquest, they +returned and renewed their attack. The tower of Broomhouse, held by +an aged woman and her family, was consigned to the flames, and she and +her children perished in the conflagration. Melrose Abbey was wantonly +plundered and ruined, and the bones of the Douglases were taken from +their tombs and scattered about. Next, the little village of Maxton +was burned. All its inhabitants had made good their escape excepting +a maiden of high courage and deep devotion, who remained with her +bed-ridden parents. The approach of the enemy meant their destruction. +The village maid had a lover, who, on finding that she was not with +the refugees, returned to the town and forcibly carried her off, +although he was grievously wounded in the act of doing so. After he +had effected her rescue, the brave savior, breathing with his expiring +breath a prayer of thankfulness that he had been permitted to yield up +his life for her who was more than life to him, died of exhaustion +and of his wounds. The measure of iniquity was complete, and, +although many other bloody deeds were perpetrated in this warfare, the +instrument of vengeance was at hand; when the hour came that marked a +turn in the tide: + + "Ancrum Moor + Ran red with English blood; + Where the Douglas true and the bold Buccleuch + 'Gainst keen Lord Evers stood." + +When the battle was over and the English had been driven with great +slaughter from the field, the body of the English general was found +near that of a young Scottish soldier with flowing yellow tresses, who +was mangled by many wounds. The delicacy of feature soon led to the +discovery that the slayer of the English leader was a woman, and her +identification as the maiden Liliard of the hamlet of Maxton followed. +So had she avenged the cruel slaughter of her aged and helpless +parents and that of the devoted lover who had laid down his life in +her behalf. In a borrowed suit of armor and weapons she had arrayed +herself under the Red Douglas, that she might seek out him who was +the author of her calamities, to visit upon him the vengeance of her +desolation, and yield up the life she no longer valued. + +Upon the bloody field her compatriots interred her who was thereafter +to be held in dear regard as one of Scotland's noblest daughters. +Above the head of "Liliard of Ancrum" was erected a gravestone with +the following inscription to commemorate her valor: + + "Fair maiden Liliard lies under this stane, + Little was her stature, but great was her fame; + Upon the English loons she laid mony thumps, + And when her legs were cutted off, she fought upon her stumps." + +Ancrum Moor was fought in 1544. James V. had died two years earlier, +and the crown of Scotland had devolved upon his infant daughter, Mary. +Henry VIII. was bent on securing the Scotch kingdom, and to that end +persisted in urging the betrothal of Prince Edward to the infant Mary, +Queen of Scots; but the Scots were equally averse to the alliance, +hence Henry continued to harass the kingdom by armed forces. After +Edward VI. succeeded his father, he continued to sue for Mary's +hand, and made use of military force in the hope of accomplishing his +object. The child-queen's safety being in constant jeopardy, she was +betrothed to the Dauphin of France, and in 1548 left for the court of +France. In her sixteenth year she married Francis, making at the same +time a secret treaty bestowing the kingdom of Scotland on France, in +case she died without an heir. Francis II., however, died in 1560, and +Mary returned to Scotland the following year. Here, her Roman Catholic +practices soon brought her into conflict with Knox, but for a time she +managed to rule without serious troubles. Romantic adventure, however, +best describes the life of this lovely queen. She was beset with +suitors and pestered with intrigue for her favor. The most popularly +known story in connection with her life is that of her relation to +Rizzio, her Italian confidant. He it was who arranged Mary's marriage +to Darnley, and it was his influence over her that finally led to his +own assassination by Darnley and his companions in Holyrood Palace +in 1566. Shortly thereafter the queen gave birth to Prince James; +and from this time troubles and conspiracies constantly involved the +unhappy queen, until her execution in 1586 for her association in the +Babington conspiracy against the life of Queen Elizabeth. + +It was while the partisans of Queen Mary and those of her young son +James were imbruing the soil of Scotland with one another's blood, and +when all the horrors of internecine warfare were being perpetrated, +there was lighted a flame that added a heroine to the country's list +of women who have honorably earned that title. There appeared one day +before Corgaff Castle, in Strathdon, Captain Kerr and a party of +men, sent by the deputy lieutenant of the queen, Sir Adam Gordon of +Auchindown, to capture and to hold it. Between the houses of Gordon +and Forbes existed a deadly feud, although they were united by +marriage. The Forbeses had espoused the cause of the king, while +the Gordons were arrayed on the side of the queen. This added to the +bitterness of their feeling, and accounts for the stubbornness which +Lady Towie displayed when called upon to surrender. Her husband, John +Forbes, the Laird of Towie, was in the field with his three sons; +the defence of the castle accordingly fell upon her. When the Gordons +appeared before the castle and demanded its subjection, its noble +defender replied in such scornful terms to Captain Kerr, the leader of +the besieging force, that he swore that he would wipe out the stigma +of her insult with her blood. As it was impossible to carry the castle +by assault without the aid of artillery, he resorted to fire--not, +however, before the brave lady had shot her pistol at him pointblank, +missing her aim, but yet grazing the captain's knee with the bullet. + +In spite of the plea of her sick stepson, she resolutely determined to +perish in the flames which were spreading through the castle from the +fire started by the enemy in a breach of the castle wall. + +This incident of the siege is described in an old ballad: + + "Oh, then out spake her youngest son, + Sat on the nurse's knee: + Says--'Mither, dear, gie o'er this house, + For the reek it smithers me.' + + "'I would gie all my gold, my bairn, + Sae would I all my fee, + For ae blast o' the Westlin' wind + To blaw the reek frae thee.'" + +Next, her daughter appealed to her that she might be sewed up in a +sheet and let down the tower wall. To this the mother assented. The +maiden was thus lowered to the ground, only to be received upon the +spear of the brutal captain: + + "O then out spake her daughter dear. + She was baith jimp and small: + 'Oh, row me in a pair of sheets, + And tow me o'er the wall.' + + * * * * * + + "Oh, bonnie, bonnie was her mouth, + And cherry was her cheeks; + And clear, clear was her yellow hair, + Whereon the red bluid dreeps. + + * * * * * + + "Then with his spear he turned her o'er; + Oh, gin her face was wan! + He said--'You are the first that e'er + I wish'd alive again.'" + +Of the thirty-seven persons in the castle, Lady Towie, her stepson, +her three young children, and her retainers, none escaped the +holocaust; the roof of the keep fell in and carried them down into the +flames. So perished one of the bravest and most spirited women of her +times. The retribution which, in the later circumstances of the feud, +was wrought upon those responsible for this massacre does not concern +us here. The heroism of Lady Towie's defence of Corgaff Castle has +furnished a theme for other poets than the obscure bard whom we have +quoted; the bravery to the point of rashness which she displayed +endears her to the heart of the Scotchman who glories in the deeds of +courage of his race. + +One of the sweetest stories of devotion to be found in the history +of Scotland's women is that which centres about the knightly house of +Cromlix and Ardoch. Sir James Chisholm was born in the early part of +the sixteenth century, and, as a youth, was sent to France for the +completion of his education. Before his departure he had exchanged +with fair Helen Stirling, of the house of Ardoch, vows of undying +affection. This young lady, because of her beauty, had achieved wide +local celebrity, and throughout the countryside she was called "Fair +Helen of Ardoch." The two young people had been brought up in each +other's society, and, as they grew in years, began to feel for each +other that tenderness of sentiment which, while they were yet in their +teens, led to mutual avowals of love. Their parents were not averse +to the match, after the young people should have arrived at a more +suitable age for marriage. The course of their love ran smoothly, +until the separation came by Sir James going abroad. As their +relatives were not favorable to a correspondence between the young +people, the good offices of a friend were invoked. He received +the letters of both parties, and saw that they were sent to their +respective destinations. The correspondence went happily on; his +letters were full of pleasing gossip about the belles and beauties of +France, of society and manners, everything, indeed, that a young lover +of reflective and poetic temperament would be likely to pen to the +lady of his heart from whom he was separated by a distance which could +be made communicable only by correspondence. + +Almost a year had sped away when the letters received by Helen became +less frequent and then stopped. She wrote again and again, but in +vain; she received no replies. The agent of the young people then +professed to write himself to her recreant lover, and informed her +that he had discovered that the attachment of the young man for her +had waned and that he was to marry a French beauty. His condolence was +apparently so sincere and delicately phrased that when he proffered +her his love there was in her breast some degree of kindly sentiment +toward him, which, while of a very different nature from her feeling +for the one who had discarded her, was yet such as to lead her to +assent finally to his suit; not, however, before many considerations +had been skilfully brought to bear upon her, not the least of which +were the desires of her kindred. + +The wedding day was set, and before the assembled guests, forming a +brilliant gathering, the bride appeared in rich adornings, but +pale, her bosom, heaving with sobs. The ceremony was performed. Then +occurred a dramatic scene; some whisper seemed to reach the bride's +ear; to the amazement of the guests, she turned upon her husband and +denounced him as the blackest of traitors. She declared that her own +letters and those of her lover had been kept back, and that she knew +that her lover had landed in Scotland and would vindicate his honor. +She vowed in the presence of Heaven that she would never acknowledge +as her husband the man she had just wedded, nor would she ever +leave for him her father's roof. Amid shouts of derision, the false +bridegroom hastily left the house. The young lover had indeed landed +in the country, and was hastening to his beloved that he might prove +to her that he had been grossly slandered and she grievously deceived. +The knowledge of the situation did not reach him in time to forestall +the plans of his rival, and not until his arrival home did he find out +the full facts of the case and have his mind entirely relieved of the +thought of his love's perfidy. Legal measures were speedily taken for +the dissolution of the hateful bonds, and the young lady was united +to the one to whom, notwithstanding her acquiescence in the wishes of +others, her heart had been true. + +The maid of Ardoch's story has been variously told. The most familiar +form of it is that found in Robert Burns's _Observations on Scottish +Songs_. The romance has taken strong hold upon the hearts of the +Scotch race, through a simple melody which has held the interest of +the people for nearly three centuries. This ballad was written by the +young lover himself on board the ship that was bearing him back to +Scotland. The first verse is as follows: + + "Since all thy vows, false maid, + Are blown to air, + And my poor heart betrayed + To sad despair, + Into some wilderness, + My grief I will express, + And thy hard-heartedness, + O cruel fair!" + +As fearless as the Scotch heroine Lady Towie in the defence of her +castle was the Irish heroine Lettice, Baroness of Ophaly, in the +famous defence of the castle of Geashill in Queen's County. The one +lived in the sixteenth, the other belonged to the seventeenth century. +The Baroness Ophaly was of the famous house of Geraldine, heir in +general to the house of Kildare, and inherited the barony of Geashill. +She married Sir Robert Digby, and after his death returned to Ireland. +She was a model mistress to her household and her tenantry. Although a +woman of brilliant attainments, she was yet content to live in a quiet +way, performing the congenial duties of administrator of the affairs +of her household, and being held in affectionate regard by all those +dependent upon her. In 1641, however, the quiet current of her daily +life was broken in its flow; civil war devastated the land. The rebels +thought to find in the defenceless situation of the widowed lady, with +her brood of young children, an opportunity for plunder and ravage +with little prospect of serious resistance. A motley throng appeared +before the castle and demanded possession. They then presented to her +a written order as follows: "We, his Majesty's loyal subjects, at the +present employed in his Highnesses service, for the sacking of your +castle; you are therefore to deliver unto us the free possession of +your said castle, promising faithfully that your ladyship, together +with the rest within your said castle _resiant_, shall have reasonable +composition; otherwise, upon the non-yielding of the castle, we +do assure you that we shall burn the whole town, kill all the +Protestants, and spare neither woman nor child, upon taking the castle +by compulsion. Consider, madam, of this our offer; impute not the +blame of your folly unto us. Think not that here we brag. Your +ladyship, upon submission, shall have safe convoy to secure you from +the hands of your enemies, and to lead you whither you please. A +speedy reply is desired with all expedition, and then we surcease." + +To this demand she sent a reply temperate and dignified, but +unyielding. It was as follows: + +"I received your letter wherein you threaten to sack this my castle by +his Majesty's authority. I have ever been a loyal subject and a +good neighbor among you, and therefore cannot but wonder at such an +assault. I thank you for your offer of a convoy, wherein I hold little +safety; and therefore my resolution is that, being free from offending +his Majesty, or doing wrong to any of you, I will live and die +innocently. I will do the best to defend my own, leaving the issue +to God; and though I have been, I am still desirous to avoid shedding +blood, yet, being provoked, your threats shall no way dismay me." + +The rebels took no notice of her answer, but kept up the siege. After +two months, Lord Viscount Clanmalier brought to bear against the +castle a piece of ordnance. Before using this formidable instrument, +which was cast by a local ironworker out of pots and pans contributed +for the purpose, Clanmalier, who was her kinsman, sent her a letter +repeating the demand for the surrender of the castle. She replied to +this missive, which was signed "your loving cousin," by saying +that she had not expected such treatment at the hands of a kinsman, +repeating her innocence of wrong-doing, and expressing her adherence +to her position as stated in her former reply to similar demands. + +After this answer had been delivered to his lordship he discharged the +home-made cannon at the castle, and it promptly exploded at the first +shot; to which fact was due the ability of Baroness Ophaly to hold the +castle against all attack through the long months until the rebellion +had waned and the besiegers withdrew. What she must have suffered +during all the dangers of the siege, in which ingenuity was taxed to +the utmost to effect an entrance within the strong walls, can never be +stated; on the one hand was the terror of famine, on the other, +death. When she was rescued from her perilous situation by Sir Richard +Greville, she went to her husband's late property of Colehill and +there spent the remainder of her life, dying in 1648. + +Among the Scotch Covenanters, the names of Isobel Alison of Perth and +Marion Harvie of Bo'ness take high rank because of their undaunted +courage and the strength of conviction displayed by them. It was in +1679 that a band of horsemen slew Archbishop Sharp upon Magnus Moor +and then dispersed. Four of them, among whom was John Balfour of +Kinloch,--the redoubtable Burley of _Old Mortality_,--took refuge +in the house of a widow of the vicinity of Perth. Here they remained +hidden, to watch as to what steps would be taken in regard to their +apprehension. Afterward they retired to Dupplin, thereby escaping +seizure. On June 22d the battle of Bothwell Brig was fought and lost +to the Covenanters. At about this time the first subject of this +sketch, Isobel Alison, an obscure maiden, comes into the stream of +historical occurrence. She was about twenty-five years of age, resided +at Perth, and was of excellent repute. She had been trained in the +strictest Presbyterian faith, and was well versed in the Scriptures. +She had occasionally had the privilege of hearing field preaching, +although field conventicles were not common in the country. Her +sympathies with the persecuted ministers of her faith and her personal +acquaintance with several of them enlisted her aid for the fugitives +in hiding them from the authorities, whose search for them was +relentlessly pursued. The work of bloody persecution continued for +eighteen months, during which many of the Covenanters died in the +maintenance of their convictions. But it was not until the end of 1680 +that Isobel attracted attention by reason of her outspoken utterances +against the tyranny under which the country suffered. It was not +long, then, before she was arraigned for her sentiments, and, in the +simplicity of her nature, volunteered the confession that she was in +communication with some of those who had been declared rebels. The +magistrates, however, charitably sought to shield her from the effects +of actions the serious purport of which they did not believe that +she fully realized, and so dismissed her with a caution to be more +circumspect in her speech. But she was not to escape thus easily; some +busybodies speedily reported what she had said to the Privy Council, +which issued a warrant for her arrest. Under a charge of treason, +she was carried from the peaceful seclusion of her humble home, and +immured in the prison at Edinburgh. At her hearing before the Privy +Council, she acknowledged to acquaintance with all those for whom the +authorities were seeking as assassins of Archbishop Sharp. When asked +if she did not know that she was aiding those whose hands were dyed +with the blood of murder, she replied that she had never regarded the +death of the "Mr. James Sharp" as being murder. Her testimony was +so self-condemnatory that, according to the law of the day, there +appeared to be no recourse but to sentence her to hanging. She says: +"The Lords pitied me, for [said they] we find reason and a quick wit +in you; and they desired me to take it to advisement. I told them I +had been advising on it these seven years, and I hoped not to change +now. They asked if I was distempered? I told them that I was always +solid in the wit that God had given me." She was then remanded for +trial before the Judiciary Court. Leaving the thread of her story for +a while, we will take up that of another young woman, who at +about this time had come under a like accusation and was suffering +imprisonment. She was but a poor serving woman, who had been a +domestic at the house of a woman who had sheltered one of the same +fugitives whose cause had gotten Isobel Alison into her straits. The +story of her relations with the Covenanters, as told by her to the +authorities, was a simple one. From the age of fourteen she had heard +the field preaching of the Covenanters, and finally she had been +informed against and arrested. Her demeanor during the ordeal of +examination was firm and composed. The questions put to her she +answered without hesitancy or reservation. The result of the +examination showed her full sympathies with those who were under the +taint of rebellion and treason. She justified their acts by affirming +that the king had broken his covenant oath, and it was lawful to +disown him. + +She and her older sister in misfortune were brought together +before the Judiciary Court, and both of the young women declined to +acknowledge the authority of the king and lords. There was nothing +remaining to do but to put them on trial, which was accordingly +done. They both stood indicted for treason. The only evidence adduced +against them was their own confessions, and because of the nature of +these a verdict of guilty was rendered. The court postponed sentence +until the following Friday, when they were condemned to be hanged. +Not a particle of proof had been produced of their having joined in +concocting any schemes against either Church or State; they had simply +let their tongues wag too freely upon the impersonal question, so +far as it concerned them, as to whether a certain assassination was +justified. The prosecution had been conducted by the king's advocate, +Sir George Mackenzie, that "noble wit of Scotland," as he was styled +by Dryden, but whom the Scotch people have branded as the "bluidy +Mackenzie" of the popular rhyme. This same advocate who secured the +sentencing of the two young girls for expressions of opinion upon +a question which was purely one of casuistry wrote in one of his +_Essays_: "Human nature inclines us wisely to that pity which we may +one day need; and few pardon the severity of a magistrate, because +they know not where it may stop." + +During the period intervening between their condemnation and their +execution, they were visited by kindly disposed ministers of the +Established Church and others, who sought to persuade them out of +their beliefs. But to no purpose; even the promise of a full pardon +failed to move either of them from the steadfastness of their +expressed convictions. In order to surround their execution with +as much of ignominy as possible, it was ordered that five women, +convicted of the murder of their illegitimate children, should be +hanged along with them. In their last hour upon earth, the young women +were sustained by the fortitude of their faith. The attempt to make +them hear the ministrations of a curate was frustrated by the two +young women singing together the Twenty-third Psalm. Upon the scaffold +they continued their religious devotions; and in the midst of their +calm, confident declarations of faith in Christ and of their innocence +of any real wrong, they perished. + +The transit from religion to pleasure is, after all, but a short +passage from one department of life to another, and the story of the +women of Scotland and of Ireland would not be complete without notice +of some of that group of famous Irish women who were conspicuous upon +the stage of Great Britain in the eighteenth century--women whose +excellence served to raise the dramatic art to the point of prominence +and dignity which it attained during that period. One of the earliest +of that group who gave lustre to the stage was Margaret Woffington. +The story of her life is a record of high achievement in the +histrionic profession, although it is as well a record of frailty--a +fact unfortunately too often true of actresses in the eighteenth +century, when the standards of their art were supposed to absolve them +to an extent from the ordinary demands of circumspection in conduct. +She had all the susceptibility of the Celtic temperament, and her warm +Irish blood was easily made to surge through her veins in waves of +passion, although, when not indulging in a fit of temper, she was +bright, vivacious, witty, and entertaining to a degree. Arthur Murphy, +in his _Life of Garrick_, says: "Forgive her one female error, and it +might fairly be said of her that she was adorned with every virtue; +honour, truth, benevolence, and charity were her distinguishing +qualities." This much said for the weakness of her character, we can +concern ourselves altogether with the strength of her genius. The +circumstances of her birth were not fortunate, nor was there anything +in them to predicate the distinguished place she was to fill in the +public eye. The year of her birth is variously given. It was probably +in 1714 that she first saw the light, in a miserable slum of the city +of Dublin. Her father was a bricklayer, and died when she was but +five years old. At that early age she had to take her part of the home +responsibilities and earn money to aid in the support of her family; +this she did by serving as a water carrier. The advent of a French +dancer into Dublin at about this time marked an epoch in the life of +Peggy. She brought with her a troupe of acrobats and rope dancers, +and the exhibition she offered attracted large audiences. In order +to afford a novel feature, which should at the same time affect local +interest, Madame Violante, the head of the amusement company, arranged +for an operatic presentation which should be participated in by some +of the bright Irish children to whom she had been drawn. The _Beggars' +Opera_ was then in the height of its popularity, and this was the play +she fixed upon. Little Peggy Woffington, not quite ten years old, +had the chief female part. From this simple introduction to the +amusement-loving public started the train of development in the +life of this young Irish girl, which was to make her the captivating +actress, the beautiful and witty woman, who bewitched Garrick and +Sheridan. + +The novelty of the conception attracted much notice, and the opera was +given before large houses. Other plays and farces were staged in the +same way. While Peggy played principal parts on the stage, her mother +sold oranges to the patrons at the entrance to the theatre. Matters +continued this way until Peggy Woffington was sixteen years of age, +by which time she had become noted for ease and grace as a dancer, +although her coarseness of voice and pronounced brogue debarred her +from any important playing part. Her opportunity came, however, when +a favorite actress who was to take the part of Ophelia was, at the +eleventh hour, incapacitated from so doing. There was no recourse +but to permit Peggy Woffington to take it. Notwithstanding the +difficulties under which she labored, her interpretation of the +character was quite favorably received. She had been developing in +grace of figure and of feature, and had ripened into a young woman of +dazzling fairness, perfect form, with eyes luminous and black, shaded +by long lashes and arched by exquisitely pencilled eyebrows. + +She was just twenty years of age when she completely turned the heads +of the Dublin theatre-goers by the magnificence of her impersonation +of Sir Harry Wildare in _The Constant Couple_. Her first appearance +in London was not at the behest of her art, but, unfortunately, as a +result of the arts of an admirer to whose addresses she had given some +favor, and who led her to go to the English metropolis with him under +promise of marriage. This regrettable circumstance was soon followed +by her repudiation of the man on finding out his real character. She +was not long off the stage, and in 1740 the playbills announced the +first appearance of Miss Woffington in England. She drew large houses, +and greatly widened her reputation as a leading actress of her time. +To give the plays in which she took principal parts during her first +London season would be to enumerate the best productions of the +English stage at that time. It is said of her that before the season +was half over, Miss Woffington had become the fashion. Among the many +swains who followed in her wake and indited to her amorous +missives and verses was Garrick. He pursued his lovemaking with all +seriousness, and made his assault not solely upon the heart of the +butterfly beauty, but upon her mind as well. He saw that beneath all +the audacities of her mind and irregularities of life there was a +noble nature, which the circumstances of her birth and training +had never permitted true expression. His intentions were entirely +honorable, but whenever the subject of marriage was broached by him +she managed to switch off the conversation to a lighter subject. Her +coquettishness would not permit her to take seriously the addresses +of the man whom she doubtless greatly admired and loved. When she +was regarded by everyone else as without a moral equivalent for her +artistic temperament, Garrick steadfastly refused to regard her simply +as a vain, flighty, and vacillating person. He was rewarded by being +the only man whom she ever seriously thought of marrying. + +Her mode of life was not conducive to the furtherance of her health, +and at the comparatively early age of thirty-seven years her friends +saw a change both in the demeanor and the appearance of the witty +woman. The seeds of an internal disorder had been sown, but, with +her usual recklessness, she failed to heed the premonitions of nature +until the malady was too far advanced for cure. At about this time +the famous John Wesley was stirring London with his preaching. She +attended his chapel through curiosity, and afterward from conviction. +She was clearheaded and honest enough to see the force of the +religious truth which he presented, and was brought quite under the +influence of the great preacher. As a result of the awakening of her +religious nature, she determined on the reformation of her private +life, although she does not appear to have linked with that the +purpose of quitting her profession. She resolved, however, not to +remain before the public until they tired of her. As she herself +expressed it: "I will never destroy my reputation by clinging to the +shadow after the substance is gone. When I can no longer bound on the +boards with elastic step, and when the enthusiasm of the public begins +to show symptoms of decay, that night will be the last appearance of +Margaret Woffington." + +She was not destined to remain before the public until they wearied of +her; on May 3, 1757, she appeared as Rosalind in _As You Like It_. The +circumstances of the tragic close of her dramatic career, as quoted +from a contemporary writer in Blackburn's _Illustrious Irish Women_, +were as follows: "She went through Rosalind for four acts without +my perceiving she was in the least disordered; but in the fifth she +complained of great indisposition. I offered her my arm, the which she +graciously accepted; I thought she looked softened in her behaviour, +and had less of the hauteur. When she came off at the quick change +of dress, she again complained of being ill, but got accoutred, +and returned to finish the part, and pronounced in the epilogue +speech,--'If it be true that good wine needs no bush, it is as true +that a good play needs no epilogue,' &c., &c. But when she arrived at +'If I were among you, I would kiss as many of you as had beards that +pleased me,' her voice broke, she faltered, endeavoured to go on, but +could not proceed; then, in a voice of tremor, screamed, 'O God! O +God!' and tottered to the stage door speechless, where she was caught. +The audience, of course, applauded until she was out of sight, and +then sunk into awful looks of astonishment--both young and old, before +and behind the curtain--to see one of the most handsome women of the +age, a favourite principal actress, and who had for several seasons +given high entertainment, struck so suddenly by the hand of death in +such a situation of time and place, and in her prime of life, being +about forty-four." + +Such were the circumstances attending the last appearance of Margaret +Woffington, who, notwithstanding she died in the prime of life at the +age of forty-seven, had been for twenty-seven years the delight of the +play-going public. The three years she lingered as a mere skeleton of +her former self were spent in trying to awaken the consciences of her +late theatrical associates. Some of these scouted her new spirit as +hypocrisy, and insinuated that religion was her recourse only when +beauty and spirits had been lost. But the One who judgeth the +secrets of men's hearts is not so uncharitable in His judgment of His +creatures. It may be believed that the influence which she received +from the chapel meetings of John Wesley was the beginning of a genuine +religious life and character, and that it brought from her Maker that +commendation which was ungenerously denied her by her associates. + +These brief sketches of the lives of some of the daughters of Scotland +and of Ireland illustrate the principal characteristics of the women +of the Scotch-Irish race. Among all the nations of the world no +women hold as high a place for pure morals and high courage. The +spiritualizing effect of the profound religious feeling of these +people--although in the form of their religious faith the Scotch and +the Irish are for the most part so diametrically different--accounts +in a large measure for their conservation of the facts and forces of +the religious life. The soil of both Ireland and Scotland was bedewed +for centuries with the tears of affliction and of persecution; the +blood of martyrs who cheerfully laid down their lives at the dictates +of religion and that highest social expression of the religious +instinct, the noblest piety of the human race--patriotism. Out of +all the oppression, rapacity, confiscation, which the two peoples +experienced in different forms and different degrees, arose an +unworldly ideal, a sense of the invisible realm. The sturdy Calvinist +matron of the Scottish Highlands is no more religious, no more the +product of the travails of her country, no more under the inspiration +and exaltation of high principle, than her less fortunately placed +sister of the Green Isle, whose religion is at the opposite extreme of +the forms of Christian faith. The women of both peoples can point +with tearful joy to the history of their sex as a scroll of fame and a +record of noble achievement. + + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Women of England, Volume 9 (of 10), by +Burleigh James Bartlett + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK WOMEN OF ENGLAND, VOLUME 9 (OF 10) *** + +***** This file should be named 32299.txt or 32299.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/3/2/2/9/32299/ + +Produced by Thierry Alberto, William Flis, Renald Levesque +and the Online Distributed Proofreaders Europe at +http://dp.rastko.net. + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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