reference to the celebration of festivals. For the peasant and artisan they provided relief from physical exertion, Festivals and for all classes of society the pageants, pro

cessions, sports, feasts, and merry-makings which accompanied them furnished welcome diversion. Medieval festivals included not only those

of the Christian Year, but also

others which had

come down from pre-Christian

times.

Many festivals

not of Christian origin were derived

from the ceremo

BEAR BAITING

From the Luttrell Psalter.

nies with which the heathen peoples of Europe had been accustomed to mark the changes of the seasons. Seasonal Thus, April Fool's Day formed a relic of festivities festivals held at the vernal equinox. May Day, another festival of spring, honored the spirits of trees and of all budding vegetation. The persons who acted as May kings and May queens represented these spirits. According to the original custom a new May tree was cut down in the forest every year, but later a permanent May pole was set up on the village common. On Midsummer Eve (June 23), which marked the summer solstice, came the fire festival, when people built bonfires and leaped over them, walked in procession with torches round the fields, and rolled burning wheels down the hillsides. These curious rites may have been once connected with sun worship. Hallow Eve, so called from being the eve of All Saints' Day (November I), also seems to have been a survival of a heathen celebration. On this night witches and fairies were supposed to assemble. Hallow Eve does not appear to have been a season for pranks and jokes, as is its present degenerate form. Even the festival of Christmas, coming at the winter solstice, kept some heathen

1 See page 346.

features, such as the use of mistletoe with which Celtic priests once decked the altars of their gods. The Christmas tree, however, is not a relic of heathenism. It seems to have come into use as late as the seventeenth century.

The Morris dance

Young and old took part in the dances which accompanied village festivals. Very popular in medieval England was the Morris dance. The name, a corruption of Moorish, refers to its origin in Spain. The Morris dance was especially associated with May Day and was danced round a May pole to a lively and capering step. The performers represented Robin Hood, Maid Marian, his wife, Tom the

themselves in

masks and skins of animals and then serenaded people outside their houses. Oftentimes the mummers acted out little plays in which Father Christmas, Old King Cole, and St. George were familiar figures.

Besides these village amusements, many plays of a religious character came into vogue during the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. The earliest were the miracle plays. They presented in dramatic form scenes from the Bible and stories of the saints or martyrs. The actors at first

Miracle plays

were priests, and the stage was the church itself or the churchyard. This religious setting did not prevent the introduction of clowns and buffoons. After a time the miracle play passed from the clergy to the guilds. All the guilds of a town usually

A MIRACLE PLAY AT COVENTRY, ENGLAND

The rude platform on wheels, which served as a stage, was drawn by apprentices to the market place. Each guild had its own stage.

gave an exhibition once a year. scene in the story. An exhibition might last for several days and have as many as fifty scenes, beginning at Creation and ending with Doomsday.1

The miracle plays were followed by the "moralities." They dealt with the struggle between good and evil, rather than with

The great Passion Play at Ober-Ammergau in Germany is the modern survival and representative of this medieval religious drama.

Morality

plays

theology. Characters such as Charity, Faith, Prudence, Riches, Confession, and Death appeared and enacted a story intended to teach moral lessons.1 Out of the rude "morality" and its predecessor, the miracle play, has grown the drama of modern times.

208. Manners and Customs

2

A previous chapter described some features of domestic life in castle and village during the age of feudalism. In Eng

the cessation of feudal warfare. A manor house, however, was only less bare and inconvenient than a castle. It was still poorly lighted, ill-ventilated, and in winter scarcely warmed by the open wood fires. Among the improvements of. the fourteenth century were the building of a fireplace at one or both ends of the manor hall, instead of in the center, and the substitution of glass windows for wooden shutters or oiled paper. People in the Middle Ages, even the well-to-do, got along with little furniture. The great hall of a manor house contained a long dining table, with benches used at meals, and a few stools. The family beds often occupied

Furniture

1 Everyman, one of the best of the morality plays, has recently been revived

before large audiences.

2 Chapter xviii.

curtained recesses in the walls, but guests might have to sleep on the floor of the manor hall. Servants often slept in the stables. Few persons could afford rugs to cover the floor; the poor had to put up with rushes. Utensils were not numerous,

Shows the great hall of a manor house at Penshurst, Kent. The screen with the minstrels' gallery over it is seen at the end of the hall, and in the center, the brazier for fire. Built about 1340 A.D.

and articles of glass and silver were practically unknown, except in the houses of the rich. Entries in wills show the high value set upon a single spoon.

Costume

The pictures in old manuscripts give us a good idea of medieval dress. Naturally it varied with time and place, and according to the social position of the wearer. Sometimes laws were passed, without much result, to regulate the quality, shape, and cost of the costumes to be worn by different orders of society. The moralists of the age were shocked, then as now, when tightly fitting garments, which showed the outlines of the body, became fashionable. The inconvenience of putting them on led to the use of buttons and buttonholes. Women's headdresses were often of extraordinary height and