Opening of the book
ENGLISH WAYFARING LIFE in the MIDDLE AGES
(XIVth Century)
by J. J. JUSSERAND
1. ENGLISH KNIGHTS TRAVELLING, AUGUST, 1399.
(From the MS. Harleian, 1319, painted circa A.D. 1400.)
ENGLISH
WAYFARING LIFE
IN THE MIDDLE AGES
(XIVth CENTURY)
BY
J. J. JUSSERAND
FROM THE BY
TRANSLATED
FRENCH
LUCY TOULMIN SMITH
A new Edition revised and enlarged by the Author
T. FISHER UNWIN LTD
LONDON: ADELPHI TERRACE
First Edition 1889
Second Impression 1889
Third Impression 1889
Fourth Impression 1891
Fifth Impression 1896
Sixth Impression 1899
Seventh Impression 1901
Eighth Impression 1902
Ninth Impression 1909
Second Edition (Tenth Impression) 1920
Eleventh Impression 1921
We know Egypt, thanks to her tombs, and we know Rome, thanks to Pompeii, in these modern days, better than we know the Middle Ages of Europe and the life of an ordinary man during that period. We cannot hope to find in any corner of
France or England a Pompeii, catacombs, or pyramids. In our countries the human torrent has never ceased flowing; rapid and tumultuous in its course, it has at no time ensured the preservation of the past by deposits of quiet ooze.
Yet, this common life of our ancestors, is it indiscernible, impossible to reconstruct? is that of kings and princes alone accessible to our view through the remoteness of ages, like those huge monuments which men see from afar when they cannot distinguish the houses in a distant city? Surely not. But to reach the heart of the nation, to get into touch with the greater number, a patient and extended inquiry is necessary.
To make this usefully, one must break more or less completely with the old habit of taking the ideas of every-day life in the
Middle Ages only from the descriptions, the satires, or the eulogies of poets. Literature is no doubt of valuable help in these restorations, but it is not the only, nor even the principal source of information. Poets embellish, imagine, colour, or transform; we must not accept their statements without
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