rease
may go into the wine, which is very unpleasant to the person who drinks
after you. But when you wipe your mouth for drinking, do not wipe your
eyes or nose with the table-cloth, and avoid spilling from your mouth
or greasing your hands too much."[12] The same authority on manners and
etiquette warns ladies against scolding and disputing, against swearing
and getting drunk, and against some other objectionable actions which
betray a great lack of feminine modesty. The "Moral Instructions" of
the Chevalier de la Tour Landry present a picture of coarseness and
immorality among both men and women, which shows how incompatible was
the barrack-like existence of feudal times with the practice of any
sort of self-restraint or purity of life.

Of such a character, then, was the audience which the mediaeval
romancers had to please. A class essentially military, ferocious, and
accustomed to shedding blood, yet preserving in their violence a
certain observance of laws of honor and courtesy; setting before
themselves more often an ideal of glory and nobility, than an object of
plunder or conquest; cultivating a consideration and gallantry toward
women, remarkable in view of the necessarily rough and unrefined
circumstances of their life; highly imaginative and adventurous;
rejoicing in brilliancy of dress and show; filling the monotony of
peace by tournaments, martial games, and the entertainments of the
minstrels.

[Footnote 1: Taine: History of Eng. Lit., Van Laun's trans. chap. 3,
pt. ii.]

[Footnote 2: "Hist. of Crusades," p. 11; Sir E. Strachey, Introd. to
"Morte d'Arthur."]

[Footnote 3: Mill's "Chivalry."]

[Footnote 4: Quoted in Green's "Short History of the English People."
p. 224.]

[Footnote 5: Warton's "Hist. of English Poetry," Dissert. i.]

[Footnote 6: Quoted by Warton, "Hist. of Poetry," Dis. i.]

[Footnote 7: Froissart's "Chronicles," v. ii, p. 248, Johnes' Trans.]

[Footnote 8: Lecky's "History of Morals," chap. 5, vol. 2.]

[Footnote 9: Scott's "Essay on Chivalry."]

[Footnote 10: "Amadis of Gaul," Southey's ed. vol. 1, p. 40. This
romance belongs to a late period of romantic fiction, but the passage
cited is a good illustration of mediaeval sentiment.]

[Footnote 11: Sir J. Barnes' "History of Edward III."]

[Footnote 12: Wright's "Manners and Sentiments in the Middle Ages,"
p. 276.]

II.

The romances of chivalry sprang to life a logical production of the
times. Their authors sei