INTRODUCTION 



to picture to itself anything but itself, or to 

 reconstitute in any way, as we do to-day, times 

 and scenes not its own. This was owing partly 

 to its vitality and its youthfulness, which grasped 

 at anything and everything without discernment, 

 and partly to its lack of reliable material. The 

 whole aspect of life, too, was changed and 

 enlarged, and for the moment over-charged, for 

 the flood - gates of the East, hitherto only 

 partially opened, had been rent asunder by the 

 traveller and the crusader. 



Before we attempt to arrive at some idea of 

 the manner of life of the women of the Middle 

 Ages, it will be well, if possible, to modify what 

 seems to be a general and perhaps a distorted 

 impression of these women of bygone days, as 

 regards their want of loyalty in their domestic 

 relations, and all the deceit and cunning such 

 a want led to. Without attempting to justify 

 what is fundamentally wrong, let us go if we 

 can into the region of fact, and in that region 

 there is quite enough romance without intro- 

 ducing it from outside. 



In the first place, so much more, as a rule, is 

 heard of vice than of virtue. " La voix de la 

 beaute parle bas : elle ne s'insinue que dans les 

 ames les plus eveillees." Then the standard of\/ 

 life in those days was very different from what 

 it is to-day. Manners and customs which were 



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