Part 13 (1/2)

THE MeNAGIER'S WIFE

_A. Raw Material_

I. _Le Menagier de Paris, Traite de Morale et d'Economie Domestique, compose vers_ 1393 _par un Bourgeois Parisien ... publie pour la premiere fois par la Societe des Bibliophiles Francois_. (Paris, 1846).

2 vols., edited with an introduction by Jerome Pichon. There is a notice of it by Dr F.J. Furnivall, at the end of his edition of _A Booke of Precedence_ (Early English Text Soc., 1869 and 1898), pp. 149-54. It was a book after his own heart, and he observes that it well deserves translation into English.

2. On the subject of medieval books of deportment for women see A.A.

Hentsch, _De la litterature didactique du moyen age s'addressant specialement aux femmes_ (Cahors, 1903), an admirably complete collection of a.n.a.lyses of all the chief works of this sort produced in western Europe from the time of St Jerome to the eve of the Renaissance. It is full of plums for adventurous Jack Horners.

3. With the Menagier's cookery book there may profitably be compared _Two Fifteenth Century Cookery Books_, ed. by Thomas Austin (E.E.T.S., 1888).

_B. Notes to the Text_

1. Pp. 1-2.

2. These long moral treatises on the seven deadly sins and the even deadlier virtues were very popular in the Middle Ages. The best known to English readers occurs in the _Parson's Tale_ in Chaucer's _Canterbury Tales,_ and is taken from the _Somme de Vices et de Vertus_ of Frere Lorens, a thirteenth-century author. The sections on the deadly sins are usually, however, well worth reading, because of the vivid ill.u.s.trative details which they often give about daily life. The Menagier's sections are full of vigour and colour, as one would expect. Here, for instance, is his description of the female glutton: 'G.o.d commands fasting and the glutton says: ”I will eat”. G.o.d commands us to get up early and go to church and the glutton says: ”I must sleep. I was drunk yesterday. The church is not a hare; it will wait for me.” When she has with some difficulty risen, do you know what her hours are? Her matins are: ”Ha!

what shall we have to drink? is there nothing left over from last night?” Afterwards she says her lauds thus: ”Ha! we drank good wine yesterday.” Afterwards she says thus her orisons: ”My head aches, I shan't be comfortable until I have had a drink.” Certes, such gluttony putteth a woman to shame, for from it she becomes a ribald, a disreputable person and a thief. The tavern is the Devil's church, where his disciples go to do him service and where he works his miracles. For when folk go there they go upright and well spoken, wise and sensible and well advised, and when they return they cannot hold themselves upright nor speak; they are all foolish and all mad, and they return swearing, beating and giving the lie to each other.'--_Op. cit_., I, pp.

47-8. The section on Avarice is particularly valuable for its picture of the sins of executors of wills, rack-renting lords, extortionate shopkeepers, false lawyers, usurers, and gamblers.--See _ibid_., I, pp. 44-5.

3. _Prudence and Melibeus_ is worth reading once, either in Chaucer's or in Renault de Louens' version, because of its great popularity in the Middle Ages, and because of occasional vivid pa.s.sages. Here, for instance, is the episode in Chaucer's version, in which Melibeus, the sages, and the young men discuss going to war, and the sages advise against it: 'Up stirten thanne the yonge folk at ones, and the mooste partie of that compaignye scorned the wise olde men, and bigonnen to make noyse, and seyden that ”Right so as, whil that iren is hoot, men sholden smyte, right so men sholde wreken hir wronges while that they been fresshe and newe”; and with loud voys they criden, ”Werre! werre!”

Up roos tho oon of thise olde wise, and with his hand made contenaunce that men sholde holden hem stille, and yeven hym audience. ”Lordynges,”

quod he, ”ther is ful many a man that crieth 'Werre! werre!' that woot ful litel what werre amounteth. Werre at his bigynnyng hath so greet an entryng and so large, that every wight may entre whan hym liketh and lightly fynde werre; but certes, what ende that shal ther-of bifalle it is nat light to knowe; for soothly, whan that werre is ones bigonne ther is ful many a child unborn of his mooder that shal sterve yong by cause of that ilke werre, or elles lyve in sarwe, and dye in wrecchednesse; and therefore, er that any werre bigynne, men moste have greet conseil and greet deliberacioun.”--Chaucer, _Tale of Melibeus_,-- 12; and see the French version, _op. cit_., I, p. 191.

4. II, p. 72-9.

5. I, pp. 71-2. These medieval games are very difficult to identify. The learned editor remarks that _bric_, which is mentioned in the thirteenth century by Rutebeuf was played, seated, with a little stick; _qui fery_ is probably the modern game called by the French _main chaude; pince merille,_ which is mentioned among the games of Gargantua, was a game in which you pinched one of the players' arms, crying 'Merille' or 'Morille'. Though the details of these games are vague, there are many a.n.a.lagous games played by children today, and it is easy to guess the kind of thing which is meant.

6. I, pp. 13-15.

7. I, 92, 96.

8. The story of Jeanne la Quentine is reproduced in the _Heptameron_ of Margaret of Navarre (the 38th tale, or the 8th of the 4th day), where it is attributed to a _bourgeoise_ of Tours, but it is probable that the Menagier's is the original version, since he says that he had it from his father; although, knowing the ways of the professional raconteur, I should be the first to admit that this is not proof positive.

9. I, pp. 125-6.

10. I, p. 139.

11. This was a favourite saying. It occurs in the story of Melibeus, 'Trois choses sont qui gettent homme hors de sa maison, c'est a.s.savoir la fumee, la goutiere et la femme mauvaise.'--_Ibid_., I, p. 195.

Compare Chaucer's use of it: 'Men seyn that thre thynges dryven a man out of his hous,--that is to seyn, smoke, droppyng of reyn and wikked wyves.'--_Tale of Melibeus_, --15; and

'Thou seyst that droppying houses, and eek smoke, And chidyng wyves, maken men to flee Out of hir owene hous.'

--_Wife of Bath's Prologue_, LL, 278-80.

12. I, pp. 168-71, 174-6.

13. II, p. 54. The Menagier also warns against running up long bills on credit. 'Tell your folk to deal with peaceable people and to bargain always beforehand and to account and pay often, without running up long bills on credit by tally or on paper, although tally or paper are better than doing everything by memory, for the creditors always think it more and the debtors less, and thus are born arguments, hatreds, and reproaches; and cause your good creditors to be paid willingly and frequently what is owed to them, and keep them in friends.h.i.+p so that they depart not from you, for one cannot always get peaceable folk again.'

14. II, pp. 56-9.