THE CHRONICLE OF CLEMENDY
Roman de la Mouche; to my lady and her cousins he read what he had written the night before, with the knights and esquires he was mirthful, and all the maidens loved him, and he them; though none could wag his head in time with Father Raymond's better than this witty and excellent man. And it was the same with the rest, for they all tried to make the time pass pleasantly, as it should in a castle; and if men did not try to be companionable, what would the poor girls do; for they cannot play their little games all by themselves, or if they try they soon begin to yawn and get dull; and this shows that we men are intended to be always with them, to help them laugh and cry, eat and drink, dance and sing, keep still and make a noise. Why even Master Nick Bubbewyth, who was a plain outspoken kind of man, did his best and made the ladies little mechanical toys, most ingeniously and artificially invented and cut out; and as for Master Geoffrey Tudor when he began to tell a chivalrous adventure full of dwarfs, spired towers, magick swords, and enchanted forests, the whole hall grew as still as death; and when he had done all the maids wanted to kiss him, to which I am sure he would have had no objection. But this alchemical personage was entirely disagreeable both to mind and body, and even my lord, though he was proud to have a man at Caldicot that could make gold and knew all about the fiends, yet confessed that Dom Benedict was an unwholesome fellow and smelt very strong. But still the adept abode in the keep and pursued his investigations;
[ 112 ]
