Mediaeval Lore from Bartholomew Anglicus Part 4

Solinus speaketh of Ireland, and saith the inhabitants thereof be fierce, and lead an unhuman life. The people there use to harbour no guests, they be warriors, and drink men's blood that they slay, and wash first their faces therewith: right and unright they take for one.... Men of Ireland be singularly clothed and unseemly arrayed and scarcely fed, they be cruel of heart, fierce of cheer, angry of speech, and sharp. Nathless they be free hearted, and fair of speech and goodly to their own nation, and namely those men that dwell in woods, marshes, and mountains. These men be pleased with flesh, apples, and fruit for meat, and with milk for drink: and give them more to plays and to hunting, than to work and travail.

The land Scotia hath the name of Scots that dwell therein, and the same nation that was sometime first in Ireland, and all according thereto in tongue, in manners, and in kind. The men are light of heart, fierce, and courageous on their enemies. They love nigh as well death as thraldom, and they account it for sloth to die in bed, and a great wors.h.i.+p and virtue to die in a field fighting against enemies.

The men be of scarce living, and many suffer hunger long time, and eat selde tofore the sun going down, and use flesh, milk, meats, fish, and fruits more than Britons: and use to eat the less bread, and though the men be seemly enough of figure and of shape, and fair of face generally by kind, yet their own Scottish clothing disfigures them full much. And Scots be said in their own tongue of bodies painted, as it were cut and slit. For in old time they were marked with divers figures and shapes on their flesh and skin, made with iron p.r.i.c.ks. And by cause of medlying with Englishmen, many of them have changed the old manners of Scots into better manners for the more part, but the wild Scots and Irish account great wors.h.i.+p to follow their forefathers in clothing, in tongue, and in living, and in other manner doing. And despise somedeal the usages of other men in comparison to their own usage. And so each laboureth to be above, they detract and blame all other, and envy all other: they deride all other, and blame all other men's manners; they be not ashamed to lie, and they repute no man, of what nation, blood, or puissance so-ever he be, to be hardy and valiant, but themselves. They delight in their own; they love not peace. In that land is plenteous ground, merry woods, moist rivers and wells, many flocks of beasts. There be earth-tillers for quant.i.ty of the place enow.

Thanet is a little island of ocean, and is departed from Britain with a little arm of the sea, and hath wheat fields and n.o.ble grounds, and hath its name of death of serpents. For the earth of that land carried into any country of the world, slayeth serpents forthwith, as Isidore saith.

Finland is a country beside the mountains of Norway toward the east, and stretcheth upon the cliff of ocean: and is not full plenteous, but in wood, herbs, and gra.s.s. The men of that country be strange and somewhat wild and fierce: and they occupy themselves with witchcraft.

And so to men that sail by their coasts, and also to men that abide with them for default of wind, they proffer wind to sailing, and so they sell wind. They use to make a clue of thread, and they make divers knots to be knit therein. And then they command to draw out of the clue unto three knots, or mo or less, as they will have the wind more soft or strong. And for their misbelief fiends move the air, and arise strong tempests or soft, as he draweth of the clue more or less knots. And sometimes they move the wind so strongly, that the wretches that believe in such doings, are drowned by rightful doom of G.o.d.

Iceland is the last region in Europe in the north beyond Norway. In the uttermost parts thereof it is always ice and frozen, and stretcheth upon the cliff of ocean toward the north, where the sea is frozen for great and strong cold. And Iceland hath the over Scythia in the east side, and Norway in the south, and the Irish ocean in the west, and the sea that is far in the north, and is called Iceland, as it were the land of ice and of gla.s.s. For it is said that there be mountains of snow froze as hard as ice or gla.s.s; there crystal is found. Also in that region are white bears most great and right fierce; that break ice and gla.s.s with their claws, and make many holes therein, and dive there-through into the sea, and take fish under the ice and gla.s.s, and draw them out through the same holes, and bring them to the cliff and live thereby. The land is barren, out-take a few places in the valleys, in the which places unneth grow oats. In the places that men dwell in, only grow herbs, gra.s.s, and trees. And in those places breed beasts, tame and wild. And so for the more part men of the land live by fish and by hunting of flesh. Sheep may not live there for cold. And therefore men of the land wear, for cold, fells and skins of bears and of wild beasts that they take with hunting.

Other clothing may they not have, but it come of other lands. The men are full gross of body and strong and full white, and give them to fis.h.i.+ng and hunting.

V

MEDIAEVAL NATURAL HISTORY--TREES

The seventeenth book of the "De Proprietatibus" deals with the properties of plants. The sources from which Bartholomew derives his information are Aristotle and Albertus Magnus' Gloss on the "De Vegetalibus," Alb.u.mazar, Pliny, Isaac on Foods, Hugo, and the Platearius. The text professes to deal with those trees and plants alone which are mentioned in the Gloss, but many others are incidentally mentioned, and we are thus enabled to learn the chief food-stuffs of our ancestors. The cereals of the time are wheat, barley, oats, and rye, just as at present; but the dinner-table of the day had neither turnip, cabbage, nor potato, and supplied their place with the parsnip, cole, and rape. Garlic, radishes, and lettuce were widely used, the former being valued in proportion to its power of overcoming any other odour. Flax seems to have been widely grown, and rushlights were then a luxury.

The subject of trees and plants does not so readily lend itself to fables as some other parts of natural history, but we refer the reader to the accounts of aloes, pepper, and mandragora as a specimen of the tales told, as our author says, "to make things dear, and of great price."

Aloes is a tree with good savour, and breedeth in India, and sometime a part thereof is set afire upon the altar in the stead of incense. It is found in the great river of Babylon, that joineth with a river of Paradise. Therefore many men trow that the aforesaid tree groweth among the trees of Paradise, and cometh out of Paradise by some hap or drift into [the] river of Ind. Men that dwell by that river take this tree out of the water by nets, and keep it to the use of medicine, for it is a good medicinal tree.

Of Cannel and of Ca.s.sia men told fables in old time, that it is found in birds' nests, and specially in the Phoenix' nest. And may not be found, but what falleth by its own weight, or is smitten down with lead arrows. But these men do feign, to make things dear and of great price; but as the sooth meaneth, cannel groweth among the TroG.o.dites in the little Ethiopia, and cometh by long s.p.a.ce of the sea in s.h.i.+ps to the haven of Gelenites. No man hath leave to gather thereof tofore the sun-rising, nor after the sun going down. And when it is gathered, the priest by measure dealeth the branches and taketh thereof a part; and so by s.p.a.ce of time, merchants buy that other deal.

Of this tree [Bays] speaketh the Master in History, and saith that Rebecca (Gen. xvii.) for trembling of nations she had seen in them that perished, laid a manner laurel tree that she called Tripodem under her head, and sat her upon boughs of an herb that hight Agnus Castus, for to use very revelations and sights and not fantasies.

The Emperor Tiberius Caesar in thundering and lightning used a garland of Laurel Tree on his head against dread of lightning, as it is said.

Also Plinius telleth a wonder thing, that the emperor sat by Drusilla the empress in a certain garden, and an eagle threw from a right high place a wonder white hen into the empress' lap whole and sound, and the hen held in her bill a bough of laurel tree full of bays, and Diviners took heed to the hen, and sowed the bays, and kept them wisely, and of them came a wood, that was called Silva Triumphans, as it were the wood of wors.h.i.+p for victory and mastery.

The green leaves thereof, that smell full well if they be stamped, heal stinging of bees and of wasps, and do away all swellings, and keep books and clothes there it is among from moths and other worms, and save them fro fretting and gnawing. The fruit of laurel trees are called bays, and are brown or red without, and white within and unctuous.

It is said that a hind taught first the virtue of diptannus, for she eateth this herb that she may calve easilier and sooner; and if she be hurt with an arrow, she seeketh this herb and eateth it, which putteth the iron out of the wound.

And ash hath so great virtue that serpents come not in shadow thereof in the morning nor at even. And if a serpent be set within a fire and ash leaves, he will flee into the fire sooner than into the leaves.

Beans be d.a.m.ned by Pythagoras' sentence, for it is said, that by oft use thereof the wits are dulled and cause many dreams. Or else as other men mean, for dead men's souls be therein. Therefore Varro saith that the bishop should not eat beans. And many medley beans with bread corn, to make the bread more heavy.

The stalk [of wheat] is called Stipula as ustipula, and hath that name of usta, burnt. For when it is gathered some of the straw is burnt to help and amend the land. And some is kept to fodder of beasts, and is called Palea: for it is first meat that is laid tofore beasts, namely in some countries as in Tuscany. As Pliny saith, if the seed be touched with tallow or grease it is spoilt and lost. Among the best wheat sometimes grow ill weeds and venomous, as c.o.c.kle and other such, also there it is said, of corrupt dew that cleaveth to the leaves cometh corruption in corn, and maketh it as it were red or rusty.

Among all manner corn, wheat beareth the prize, and to mankind nothing is more friendly, nothing more nouris.h.i.+ng.

Flax groweth in even stalks, and bears yellow flowers or blue, and after cometh hops, and therein is the seed, and when the hop beginneth to wax, then the flax is drawn up and gathered all whole, and is then lined, and afterward made to knots and little bundles, and so laid in water, and lieth there long time. And then it is taken out of the water, and laid abroad till it be dried, and twined and wend in the sun, and then bound in pretty niches and bundles. And afterward knocked, beaten, and brayed, and carfled, rodded and gnodded, ribbed and heckled, and at the last spun. Then the thread is sod and bleached, and bucked, and oft laid to drying, wetted and washed, and sprinkled with water until that it be white, after divers working and travail.

Flax is needful to divers uses. For thereof is made clothing to wear, and sails to sail, and nets to fish and to hunt, and thread to sew, ropes to bind, and strings to shoot, bonds to bind, lines to mete and to measure, and sheets to rest in, and sacks, bags, and purses, to put and to keep things in. And so none herb is so needful, to so many divers uses to mankind, as is the flax.

Ryndes thereof [_i.e._ of Mandragora] sodden in wine cause sleep, and abate all manner of soreness, and so that time a man feeleth unneth though he be cut, but yet Mandragora must be warily used: for it slayeth if men take much thereof.... They that dig Mandragora be busy to beware of contrary winds while they dig, and make three circles about with a sword, and abide with the digging unto the sun going down, and trow so to have the herb with the chief virtues.

Papyrus is a manner rush, that is dried to kindle fire and lanterns, and hight the feeding of fire. And this herb is put to burn in p.r.i.c.kets and in tapers. The rind is stripped off unto the pith, and is so dried, and a little is left of the rind on the one side, to sustain the tender pith; and the less is left of the rind, the more clear the pith burneth in a lamp, and is the sooner kindled. And about Memphis and in Ind be such great rushes, that they make boats thereof, as the Gloss saith. And Alexander's Story saith the same.

And of rushes are charters made, in the which were epistles written, and sent by messengers. Also of rushes be made paniers, boxes, and cases, and baskets to keep letters and other things in. And also they make thereof paper to write with.

Pepper is the seed or the fruit of a tree that groweth in the south side of the hill Caucasus, in the strong heat of the sun. And serpents keep the woods that pepper groweth in. And when the woods of pepper are ripe, men of that country set them on fire, and chase away the serpents by violence of fire. And by such burning the grain of pepper that was white by kind, is made black and rively.

Woods be wild places, waste and desolate, that many trees grow in without fruit, and also few having fruit. In these woods be oft wild beasts and fowls, therein grow herbs, gra.s.s leas, and pasture, and namely medicinal herbs in woods be found. In summer woods are beautied with boughs and branches, with herbs and gra.s.s. In woods is place of deceit and hunting. For therein wild beasts are hunted, and watches and deceits are ordained and set of hounds and of hunters. There is place of hiding and of lurking, for oft in woods thieves are hid, and oft in their awaits and deceits pa.s.sing men come, and are spoiled and robbed, and oft slain. And so for many and divers ways and uncertain, strange men oft err and go out of the way, and take uncertain ways, and the way that is unknown tofore the way that is known, and come oft to the place there thieves lie in await, and not without peril.

Therefore be oft knots made on trees and in bushes, in boughs and in branches of trees, in token and mark of the highway, to show the certain and sure way to wayfaring men; but oft the thieves in turning and meeting of ways, change such knots and signs, and beguile many men, and bring them out of the right way by false tokens and signs.

It hath many hard twigs and branches with knots, and therewith often children are chastised and beaten on the bare b.u.t.tocks and loins. And of the boughs and branches thereof are besoms made to sweep and to clean houses of dust and of other uncleanness. Wild men of woods and forests use that seed in stead of bread. And this tree hath much sour juice, and somewhat biting. And men use therefore in springing time and in harvest to slit the rinds, and to gather the humour that cometh out thereof, and drink it in stead of wine.

Hards is the cleansing of hemp or of flax. For with much breaking, heckling, and rubbing, hards are departed fro the substance of hemp and of flax, and is great when it is departed, and more knotty, short, and rough. And is therefore not full able to be spun for thread thereof to be made, nathless thereof is thread spun that is full great, uneven, and full of k.n.o.bs, and thereof are made bonds and bindings, and matches or candles; for it is full dry and taketh soon fire and burneth.

A board hight table, and is areared and set upon feet, and compa.s.sed with a list about. And, in another manner, table is a playing board, that men play on at the dice and other games; and this manner of table is double, and arrayed with divers colours. In the third manner it is a thin plank and plane, and therein are letters writ with colours, and sometimes small s.h.i.+ngles are planed and made somedeal hollow in either side, and filled full of wax, black, green, or red, to write therein.

Boards and tables garnish houses, nathless when they be set in solar floors, they serve all men and beasts that are therein. Then they be dressed, hewed, and planed, and made convenable to use of s.h.i.+ps, of bridges, of hulks, and coffers, and many other needful things of building. Also in s.h.i.+pbreach men flee to a board, and are oft saved in peril.

Roofs are trees areared and stretched fro the walls up to the top of the house, and bear up the covering thereof. And stand wide beneath, and come together upwards, and so they nigh nearer and nearer, and are joined either to other in the top of the house. It holdeth up heling, slates, s.h.i.+ngle, and laths. The lath is long and somewhat broad, and plain and thin, and is nailed thwart over to the rafters, and thereon hang slates, tiles, and s.h.i.+ngles. The rafters are strong and square, and hewn plain And are made fair within with fair joists and boards.

A vineyard is busily tilthed and kept, and purged and cleaned of superfluities, and oft visited and overseen of the earth tilthers and keepers of vines, that it be not apaired neither destroyed with beasts, and is closed about with walls and with hedges, and a wait is there set in a high place to keep the vineyard that the fruit be not destroyed. And is left in winter without keeper or waiter, but in harvest time many come and haunt the vineyard. In winter the vineyard is full pale, and waxeth green and bloometh in springing time and in summer, and smelleth full sweet, and is pleasant with fruit in harvest time. The smell of the vineyard that bloometh is contrary to all venomous things, and therefore when the vineyard bloometh, adders and serpents flee, and toads also, and may not sustain and suffer the n.o.ble savour thereof.

Foxes lurk and hide themselves under vine leaves, and gnaw covetously and fret the grapes of the vineyard, and namely when the keepers and wards be negligent and reckless, and it profiteth not that some unwise men do, that close within the vineyard hounds, that are adversaries to foxes. For few hounds, so closed, waste and destroy more grapes than many foxes should destroy that come and eat thereof thievishly.

Therefore wise wardens of vineyards be full busy to keep, that no swine nor tame hounds nor foxes come in to the vineyard. From fretting and gnawing of flies and of other worms, a vineyard may not be kept nor saved, but by His succour and help that all thing hath and pursueth in His power and might, and keepeth and saveth all lordly and mighty.

The worthiness and praising of wine might not Bacchus himself describe at the full, though he were alive. For among all liquors and juice of trees, wine beareth the prize, for pa.s.sing all liquors, wine moderately drunk most comforteth the body, and gladdeth the heart, and saveth wounds and evils. Wine strengtheneth all the members of the body, and giveth to each might and strength, and deed and working of the soul showeth and declareth the goodness of wine. And wine breedeth in the soul forgetting of anguish, of sorrow, and of woe, and suffereth not the soul to feel anguish and woe. Wine sharpeth the wit and maketh it cunning to enquire things that are hard and subtle, and maketh the soul bold and hardy, and so the pa.s.sing n.o.bility of wine is known. And use of wine accordeth to all men's ages and times and countries, if it be taken in due manner, and as his disposition asketh that drinketh it.

Red wine that is temperate in its qualities, and is drunk temperately and in due manner, helpeth kind and gendreth good blood, and maketh savour in meat and in drink, and exciteth desire and appet.i.te, and comforteth the virtue of life and of kind, and helpeth the stomach to have appet.i.te, and to have and to make good digestion. And quencheth thirst, and changeth the pa.s.sions of the soul and thoughts out of evil into good. For it turneth the soul out of cruelness into mildness, out of covetousness into largeness, out of pride into meekness, and out of dread into boldness. And shortly to speak, wine drunk measurably is health of body and of soul.

And nothing is worse pa.s.sing out of measure. And so Andronides, a clear man of wit and of wisdom, wrote to the great Alexander, to restrain wine kind in drinking, and said in this manner:--"King, have mind that thou drinkest blood of the earth, for wine drinking untemperately is to mankind heavy and venomous." And if Alexander had done by his counsel, truly he had not slain his own friend in drunkenness. If wine be often taken, anon by drunkenness it quencheth the sight of reason, and comforteth beastly madness, and so the body abideth as it were a s.h.i.+p in the sea without stern and without lodesman, and as chivalry without prince or duke.

VI

MEDIAEVAL NATURAL HISTORY--BIRDS AND FISHES

In following out his plan of describing the productions of each element before considering the next in order, Bartholomew was led to consider air and its products early in his scheme. Accordingly his twelfth book is devoted to birds, and his thirteenth to the inhabitants of the waters. There is hardly any reason in these books for omitting any part more than another except s.p.a.ce, but the editor hopes that those chosen will put the reader in possession of a key to the more common allusions in pre-Restoration literature.

When the editor spoke of the wholesale way in which our author is conveyed by Elizabethan poets, he had in mind this and the following chapters. A single example will show this. Let the reader compare the account of the peac.o.c.k with the following stanza from Chester's "Love's Martyr":

"The proud sun-braving peac.o.c.ke with his feathers, Walkes all along, thinking himself a king, And with his voice prognosticates all weathers, Although, G.o.d knows, but badly he doth sing; But when he looks downe to his base blacke feete, He droopes and is asham'd of things unmeet."

Our author's knowledge of birds is largely derived--the authentic from Aristotle; the legendary from the Fathers, Ambrose, Austin, Basil, and Gregory,--the Gloss,--and from Pliny. Some of these legends seem to be pointed at in the Hebrew Scriptures. Thus Ps. ciii. 5, "Thy youth is renewed like the eagle's," either gave rise to, or refers to, the tradition quoted in our account of the eagle: and likewise Job x.x.xviii. 41, and Ps. cxlvii. 9, seem to be responsible for the tradition in the account of the raven. It would be interesting to learn whether any independent traditions of this nature exist.

It is worth pointing out that our author has contributed to the "Gesta Romanorum" several stories. The "wild tale," as Warton calls it, of the elephant and the maidens, as well as the story of "the storke wreker of avouterie" mentioned by Chaucer in the "a.s.semblie of Foules," and derived from Neckham, and the similar tale of the lioness, obtained their wide circulation through the popularity of Bartholomew's book. It would be an interesting task to trace these tales to their origin, but this is neither the place nor the time to do so; and the editor similarly leaves to lovers of Shakespeare the pleasure of proving to themselves his intimate acquaintance with the book.