INTRODUCTION 



fly away, so he can come, as if at unconscious 

 bidding, and make for himself a dwelling-place. 



To get any true insight into the life of the 

 woman of the Middle Ages, we must study the 

 small everyday affairs, and to this end go, in 

 imagination, to some castle, and see how the 

 day is passed there by its lady. Perhaps it is a 

 day in late spring. The watchman on the tower, 

 heralding the day, has sounded his horn, and 

 soon all the castle is astir. Leaving her cur- 

 tained bed, she first offers a shprt prayer at the 

 small shrine hanging close by with its flickering 

 light. Then the bath, the water scented with 

 aromatic roots and covered with rose-petals, is 

 taken. Mass and the morning broth follow, and 

 the day is considered fitly begun. The poor, or 

 any sick and sorry folk, are the first to be con- 

 sidered, or perhaps there is some wounded 

 knight, who has sought shelter within the 

 protecting walls of the castle, for whom sooth- 

 ing potions or healing salves have to be com- 

 pounded. This latter service was generally the 

 work of the lady of the castle, who as a rule 

 possessed sufficient surgical knowledge to bind a 

 broken limb. To beguile the weary hours of 

 convalescence, she sings to the lute, tells stories, 

 recounts legends, or reads aloud a romance lately 

 bought from some wayfaring packman. Little 

 is it to be wondered at that the convalescence is 



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