CENTRAL COURTS 183 



artisans, 30; ^ victuallers, 17; ^ servants, with no account of 

 duties, 36; unclassified, 4;^^ above the class of manual la- 

 bourers, 19;* occupation illegible or not recorded in my 

 notes, 47. In the 83 doubtful instances it is safe to infer that 

 a third are concerned v^ith agriculture; therefore nearly 

 a half of the total number of " servants " are agricultural 

 labourers, half again of these being ploughmen.^ Of the 

 servants not coming under the head of agricultural la- 

 bourers, fully a third came from London alone; as far as 

 the country at large is concerned therefore, the popular be- 

 lief that this legislation affected chiefly the tillers of the 



'Building trade: carpentarius, faber, plumbarius, seruiens tegularii. 

 Clothing trade: alutarius, breoderer, cissor, cordewaner, fullator, ser- 

 uiens in officio apprenticii pannarii, sutrex, taillor et clothier, textor, 

 zonarius. Various: aurifaber, armirarius, cardemaker, Sagittarius, ser- 

 uiens of a sporiere. 



'Ancilla pro taberna bocher, braciator, braciatrix, garcon ad custodi- 

 endum shopam et ad vendendum carnes, molendinarius, pandoxatrix, 

 pistor, pistor et braciator, pistrix et braciatrix, pulter, tabernarius vin- 

 orum, tapester, vinetarius. 



^Malieman, marinarius, hobelarius ad arma, seruiens in officio mares- 

 calcie. 



''For the occupations represented, see pp. 186-187. 

 ^ Eulogmm Historiariini, iii, 214: " Cessante pestilentia nutu Divino 

 tanta facta est paucitas servientium quod non sunt invent! ad agricul- 

 turam faciendam, pro quorum defectu mulieres et parvuli invise missi 

 sunt ad carucas et ad plaustra fuganda." Was Chaucer's description of a 

 ploughman a satire? 



" With him ther was a Plowman, was his brother, 

 That hadde y-lad of dong ful many a fother, 

 A trewe swinker and a good was he, 

 Livinge in pees and parfit charitee. 

 God loved he best with al his hole herte 

 At alle tymes, thogh him gamed or smerte, 

 And thanne his neighebore right as hym-selve. 

 He wolde thresshe, and ther — to dyke and delve, 

 For Christes sake, for every povre wight, 

 Withouten hyre, if it lay in his might." 



— Prologue to the Cafiterbury Tales, verses 529-538. 



