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doorkeepers, handymen or other strong folk to perform the heavy
work that from hour to hour must be done, and likewise laborers
etc. A n d also tailors, shoemakers, bakers, pastry-makers, etc. And in
particular how to set the household menservants and chambermaids
to work, to sift and winnow grain, clean dresses, air and dry, and
how to order your folk to take thought for the sheep and horses and
keep and amend wines. The fourth article is that you, as sovereign
mistress of your house, know how to order dinners, suppers, dishes
and courses, and be wise in that which concerns the butcher and the
poulterer, and have knowledge of spices. The fifth article is that you
know how to order, ordain, devise and have made all manner of
pottages,1 6 9
civeys, sauces and all other meats, and the same for sick
folk.
The third section tells of games and amusements that are pleasant
enough to keep you in countenance and give you something to talk
about in company, and contains three articles. The first article is
concerned with amusing questions, which are set out and answered
in strange fashion by the chance of dice and by rooks and kings. The
second article is how to feed and fly the falcon. The third article tells
of certain other riddles concerning counting and numbering, which
are subtle to find out and guess.
Section I, Article 7
The seventh article of the first section shows how you should be
careful and thoughtful of your husband's person. So, fair sister, if you
have another husband after me, know that you should think much of
his person, for after a woman has lost her first husband and marriage,
she commonly finds it hard to find a second to her liking, according
to her rank, and she remains lonely and disconsolate for a long time,
and the more so if she loses the second. So love your husband's person
carefully, and I pray you keep him in clean linen, for that is your
business, and because the trouble and care of outside affairs lies with
men, so must husbands take heed, and go and come, and journey
hither and thither, in rain and wind, in snow and hail, now drenched,
now dry, now sweating, now shivering, ill-fed, ill-lodged, ill-warmed
and ill-bedded. A n d nothing harms him, because he is upheld by the
hope which he has of the care which his wife will take of him on his
return, and of the ease, the joys and the pleasures which she will do
169. Pottage = soup or stew.
Manual for a Wife 321
to him, or cause to be done to him in her presence; to be unshod
before a good fire, to have his feet washed and fresh shoes and hose,
to be given good food and drink, to be well served and well looked
after, well bedded in white sheets and nightcaps, well covered with
good furs, and assuaged with other joys and amusements, intimacies,
loves and secrets whereof I am silent. A n d the next day fresh shirts
and garments.
Certainly, fair sister, such services make a man love and desire to
return to his home and to see his good wife, and to be distant with
others. So I advise you to make such cheer to your husband at all his
comings and stayings, and to persevere in this; and also be peaceable
with him, and remember the rustic proverb, which says there are
three things which drive the goodman from home: a leaking roof, a
smoky chimney and a scolding woman. A n d therefore, dear sister, I
beseech you that, to keep yourself in the love and good favor of your
husband, you be unto him gentle, and amiable, and good-tempered
. . . and beware of roofless house and of smoky fire, and scold him
not, but be unto him gentle and amiable and peaceable. Have a care
that in winter he has a good fire and smokeless and let him rest well
and be well covered between your breasts, and thus bewitch him.
And in summer take heed that there be no fleas in your chamber, nor
in your bed, the which you may do in six ways, I have heard. For I
have heard from several that if the room is strewn with alder leaves,
the fleas will be caught on them. A n d I have heard that if you have at
night one or two bread trenchers slimed with glue or turpentine and
set about the room, with a lighted candle in the midst of each trencher,
they will come and be stuck to them. Another way, which I have tried
and which works, is to take a rough cloth and spread it about your
room and over your bed, and all the fleas that hop onto it will be
caught, so that you may carry them away with the cloth wherever you
want. And also sheepskins. And I have seen blankets set on the straw
[on the floor] and on the bed, and when the black fleas hopped onto
them, they were more easily found on the white, and killed. But the
best way is to guard oneself against those inside the coverlets and the
furs, and the material of the dresses with which one is covered. For
that I have tried this: when the coverlets, furs or dresses, in which
there are fleas, are folded and shut tightly up, for instance in a chest
tightly bound with straps, or in a bag well tied up and pressed, or
otherwise put and pressed so the the aforesaid fleas are without light
and air and are kept imprisoned, then they will perish forthwith and
die. A n d I have sometimes seen in diverse chambers, that when one
had gone to bed they were so full of mosquitoes, which at the smoke
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of the breath came to sit on the faces of those that slept, and stung
them so hard, that they had to get up and light a fire of hay, in order
to make a smoke so that they had to fly away or die. A n d this may be
done by day if they are suspected. And likewise he who has a mosquito
net may protect himself with that.
And if you have a chamber or a passage where there are a great
many flies, take little sprigs of fern and tie them to threads like tassels,
and hang them up, and all the flies will settle on them at eventide;
then take the tassels down and throw them out. . . . [Several more
remedies for flies follow.]
And thus shall you preserve and keep your husband from all discomforts
and give him all the comforts you can bethink of, and serve
him and have him served in your house, and you shall rely on him
for outside things, for if he is good he will take even more pains and
labor in them than you would wish, and by doing what I have said
you will cause him to miss you all the time and have his heart with
you and your loving service, and he will shun all other houses, all
other women, all other services and households. . . .
But there are certain old hags, who are sly and play the wise woman
and pretend great love by way of showing their heart's great service,
and nothing else; and be sure, fair sister, that the husbands are fools
if they do not notice it. And when they do notice it, and the husband
and wife grow silent, and pretend with each other, it is an ill beginning
and will lead to a worse end. And there are some women who serve
their husbands very well in the beginning, and then they find that
their husbands are then so loving to them and so good-tempered, that
they think those husbands will scarcely dare to be angry with them,
if they do less, so they slacken and little by little they try to show less
respect and service and obedience, but—what is more—they take
upon themselves authority, command and lordship, first in a small
thing, then in a larger, and a little more every day. Thus they attempt
and advance and rise, they think, and they think that their husbands,
who say nothing about this because they are so good-tempered or
perhaps because they are setting a trap, do not notice it, because they
permit it thus. A n d certainly, it is an ill thought and deed, for when
the husbands see that they cease their service, and climb to domination,
and that they do it too much, and that by enduring ill, good may
come, then those women are all at once, by their husband's rightful
will, cast down even as Lucifer was. . . . Wherefore you should be
obedient in the beginning and ever persevere therein, according to
this example.
Section 2, Article 3
Which tells how to choose serving men, servants and chambermaids,
etc.
Concerning which matter, dear sister, if perchance you should desire
to become a good housewife, or to help thereto some lady among
your friends, know that serving folk be of three kinds. There are some
who are hired as workmen for a fixed time, to perform some short
piece of work, as porters who carry burdens on their backs, wheelbarrow
men, packers and the like; or for one day or two, a week or a
short season, to perform some necessary, or difficult, or laborious
work, as reapers, mowers, threshers, vintagers, basket bearers, wine
pressers, coopers and the like. Others are hired for a time and for a
special craft, as dressmakers, furriers, bakers, butchers, shoemakers
and the like, who work by the piece upon a particular task. And others
are taken to be domestic servants, serving by the year and dwelling
in the house. A n d of all these there is none who does not full readily
seek work and a master.
As for the first, they are necessary for the unloading and carrying
of burdens and the doing of heavy work; and these are commonly
tiresome, rough and prone to answer back, arrogant, haughty (except
on pay day), and ready to break into insults and reproaches if you do
not pay them what they ask when the work is done. So I pray you,
dear sister, that when you need such things done, you bid master
Jehan the Dispenser1 7 0
or other of your folk to seek out, choose and
take, or cause to be sought out, chosen and taken, the peaceable ones;
and always bargain with them before they set hand to the work, that
there may be no dispute afterwards. Still, most often they wish not to
bargain, but desire to fall upon the task without bargain made, and
they say nicely: "Milord, it is nothing—there is no need; you will pay
me well, and I shall be content with what you think fit." And if Master
Jehan takes them thus, when the work is finished they will say, "Sir,
there was more to do than I thought; there was this and that to do,
and here and there to go," and they will not take what is given and
will break out into shouting and foul words. So bid Master Jehan not
to set them to work, not allow them to be set to work, without first
making terms with them, for those that desire to earn are your subjects
before the work is begun, and for the need that they have to earn they
170. Dispenser = household official similar to a butler.