The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1885-10-19
THE GOOD OLD TINES.
THE MEDIEVAL HOUSEWIFE AS SHE
LIVED AND LABoRED.
Literally the Head of the Household
The ''spinster" of the Middle Ages
Table Furniture and Good Cheer
The Kitchen.
If. NJ. Colby in PhiladelphIa Pre-. !

IF. NJ Colby in Philadelphia Pres.l
The housewife of the middle ages Is
seen stepping out of Chaucer's "Cauter-
bury Tales" as natural as life, in that
May morning of long ago, when the
merry company filed out of the Tabard
inn to pursue its pilgrimage. She Is
dressed in cape and kiFtle of blue stuff,
the collar of her cotehardie and the tapes
of her white yolupere are embroidered in
silk, as, likewise, her girdle, and her
apron or BARN cloth is as white as morn
Ing milk She wears broad silken fllet
around her head,a leather purse attached
to her girdle, ~tasseled with silk and
pearled with latoun that is, studded or
impearled with little metal buttons; on
her low collar she wears a brooch as big
as the boss of buckler, and her "shoone"
(shoes) are laced high upon her ankles.
The medival housewife was very in.
dustrious woman. She was literally the
head of the household Everything in
the house was under her Charge she
clothed the whole house with the work of
her own hands Spinning was one Of the
most important labors taught young
women, The word "spinster P" now the
legal designation of an unmarried woman,
had its origin in the fact that in the early
ages spinning was her special employ
ment In the ballad of the patient Girls
elda, the maiden was engaged in spinning
when the Marquis first saw her. All the
Illuminated manuscripts which have come
down to rs illustrating the domestic life
of the middle ages show us "the lady
spinning :" the lady carding wool tho
lady at the loom, etc Every household
had its looms and spinning wheels. The
women of the medieval home often
shearcd the sheep with their own hands,
and carded and combed the wool AMI
beat the fax.
The old time house keeper was also
physician and surgeon to the household
and all around Medical receipts in all
periods of the middle ages, written by the
fingers Of women, are still preserved in
European libraries 1t was the women
who set the knights broken bones by
skillful manipulations and healed gTievous
wounds by cunning plasters spread by
their own fair hands. In that idyllie
novel of the thirteenth century, "Aucassin
and Nicolette, F" we see the heroine acting
the part of a surgeon when her lover had
disl0cated his shoulder; and in the ro-
nance of " Ellie de St. Giles" Ellie, who
has been wounded, Is carried by the fair
ResamOnde into her chamber, where she
takes precious herbs from her Golfer and
applies them to his wounds.
Neither the good wife of Bath nor
Griselda knew what it was to take up
and put down carpets; they spread rushes
and sweet herbs on the floor instead when
they expected company. They covered
the walls of their homes with tapestry
and sat at their meals on heavy wooden
benches and stools The table was lit
orally board of boards, set on trestles
and covered with cloth The "good cheer"
Of that old time would seem strange
enough to us. Barley and oaten bread,
bacon, boiled fish, capons, eggs, man
chefs, with vast quantities Of home
brewed ale or mead and sometimes
gmong the mobiles, wines from the Levant
covered the medieval table Food waG
not always plentiful in the homestead
The choicest articles of furniture in
the kitchen of the middle ages was the
sideboard or court cupboard 1t was
usually richly carved and made with
little Compartments, In which small art
acies Of plate could be placed On the
top the good mothers arranged for display
the beakers tapkerds, fagons, drinking
horns, basins aud porringers. On the
shelves glistened the family plate, often
Of pewter which was of values at that
tiMa Beside them were the lesser uten-
sis, the forks for the green ginger, the
the powder box for sprinkling green
spices over the meats, the curious carving
knives. the clasp-knives, the spoons, and
that singular vessel called the "maseF
cup, manufactured from the knottiest
wood and handsomely ornamented with
silver, which was used on great occasions
like Christmas to pass around warm
spiced drink, of which all the company
74u1s FaASAnOs
There was no stove in the medieval
kitchen, and even chimneys were rare
The fire was usually kindled on a stone
hearth in the middle of the room, the
smoke passing out from a hole in the
roof. Even in castles only two or three
Of the largest rooms had %cover" or fire
hearth; around these the servants and
Eocsecarles sat shivering in the cold win
Ter months. Later, some of the queens
had braziers or small iron furnaces in
their rooms.
The days work done, the spinning
wheel sat away, the children tucked in
their racks the bolts of the door drawn,
the fire smouldering on the stone hearth
end tho feeble rushlight burning low in
its socket, the good wife and her husband
sought the chamber where stood the great
~posted sett-work bedstead, covered with
It's harden sheets made of coarse fax.
s'tear sheets (of fine fax, clock beds"
(wOol coverletsl, pillow beers" and
6counter- points (quilts made in squares
Of contrasting colors.)
Thus lived and dined and slept the
housewife of the middle ages Doubtless
she thought herself a favored creature,
but who of her nineteenth century sisters
would care to go back and live in those
sRoOd old times?"