Whenever you travel at sea, keep on board two or three hundred ells of wadmal of a sort suitable for mending sails, if that should be necessary, a large number of needles, and a supply of thread and cord. It may seem trivial to mention these things, but it is often necessary to have them on hand. You will always need to carry a supply of nails, both spikes and rivets, of such sizes as your ship demands: also good boat hooks and broad-axes, gouges and augers, and all such other tools as ship carpenters make use of. All these things that I have now named you must remember to carry with you on shipboard, whenever you sail on a trading voyage and the ship is your own. When you come to a market town where you expect to tarry, seek lodgings from the inn-keeper who is reputed the most discreet and the most popular among both kingsmen and boroughmen. Always buy good clothes and eat good fare if your means permit; and never keep unruly or quarrelsome men as attendants or messmates....
If your wealth takes on rapid growth, divide it and invest it in a partnership trade in fields where you do not yourself travel; but be cautious in selecting partners. Always let Almighty God, the holy Virgin Mary, and the saint whom you have most frequently called upon to intercede for you be counted among your partners. Watch with care over the property which the saints are to share with you and always bring it faithfully to the place to which it was originally promised.
If you have much capital invested in trade, divide it into three parts: put one-third into partnerships with men who are permanently located in market boroughs, are trustworthy, and are experienced in business. Place the other two parts in various business ventures; for if your capital is invested in different places, it is not likely that you will suffer losses in all your wealth at one time; more likely it will be secure in some localities, though frequent losses be suffered. But if you find that the profits of trade bring a decided increase to your funds, draw out the two-thirds and invest them in good farm land, for such property is generally thought the most secure, whether the enjoyment of it falls to one’s self or to one’s kinsmen. With the remaining third you may do as seems best—continue to keep it in business or place it all in land. However, though you decide to keep your funds invested in trade, discontinue your own journeys at sea or as a trader in foreign fields, as soon as your means have attained sufficient growth and you have studied foreign customs as much as you like. Keep all that you see in careful memory, the evil with the good; remember evil practices as a warning, and the good customs as useful to yourself and to others who may wish to learn from you.
From The King’s Mirror, trans. L. M. Larson (New York: The American-Scandinavian Foundation, 1917).
The Successful urgeon
JOHN ARDERNE
Fourteenth century
FIRST it behooves him that will profit in this craft that he always honour God in all his works, and always call on His help meekly with heart and tongue; and sometimes share his earnings with poor men as he is able, that they by their prayers may get him grace of the Holy Ghost. And let him not be found bold or boastful in his sayings or in his deeds; and let him abstain from much speech, and most among great men; and answer warily to things asked, that he be not tripped up by his own words. Forsooth if his works are often known to be in discord with his words and his behests, he shall be held more unworthy, and he shall blemish his own good fame....
Also a leech should not be given much to laughing or playing. And as much as he can without harm, let him flee the fellowship of knaves and dishonest persons. And let him be always occupied in things that belong to his craft; either reading or studying or writing or praying; for the use of books does honour to a leech, because he shall both be kept busy and become more wise.
And above all this, it profits him to be found always sober; for drunkenness destroys all virtue and brings it to nought.... Let him be content in strange places with the meats and drinks found there, using measure in all things....
Let him scorn no man.... If any other leech is talked about, let him neither set him at nought nor praise him too much nor commend him but answer thus courteously: “I have no true knowledge of him but I have not learned nor heard of him anything but what is good and honest.” And from this shall the honour and thanks of each party increase and multiply to him; after this, honour is in the honourer and not in the honoured.
Let him not observe too openly the lady or the daughters or other fair women in great men’s houses nor seek to touch, either privately or openly, their breasts, their hands, or their private parts, that he may not encounter the indignation of the lord or any of his.
Inasmuch as he may, let him do no injury to servants but get their love and their good will.
Let him abstain from harlotry as well in words as in deeds in every place, for if he takes to harlotry in private places, some time in public he may be dishonoured for his evil practices....
When sick men, forsooth, or any others come to the leech to ask help or counsel of him, let him be not too fierce nor too familiar but moderate in bearing according to the requests of the persons, to some reverent, to some familiar.... Also it is useful that he have suitable excuses, that he may not incline to their asking without harm or without the indignation of some great man or friend, or out of necessary occupation. Or let him feign to be hurt or sick or some other convenient cause by which he may likely be excused.
Therefore, if he will agree to any man’s asking, let him make a covenant for his work and take it beforehand. But let him be careful that he give no certain answer in any case without first seeing the sickness and the manner of it; and when he has seen and assayed it, although it seem to him that the sick may be healed, nevertheless he shall make prognostication to the patient of the perils to come if the cure be differed. And if he sees that the patient eagerly pursues the cure, then according to the status of the patient let him ask boldly more or less; but always let him be wary of asking too little, for asking too little sets at nought both the market and the thing. Therefore, for the cure of fistula in ano, when it is curable, let him ask sufficiently of a worthy man and a great one hundred marks, or forty pounds with robes and fees of one hundred shillings for term of life by year. Of lesser men let him ask forty pounds, or forty marks without fees. But let him take not less than one hundred shillings. For never in my life did I take less than one hundred shillings for cure of that sickness. Nevertheless, let another man do as he thinks best and most helpful.
And if the patients or their friends or servants ask in how much time he hopes to heal it, let the leech always say the double that he intends to accomplish in half; that is, if the doctor hopes to heal the patient in twenty weeks—that is the common course of curing—let him add so many over. For it is better that the term be lengthened than the cure, for prolongation of the cure gives cause of despairing to the patients when faith in the leech is the greatest hope of health.
And if the patient considers or wonders or asks why the leech set so long a time for curing, seeing that he healed him in half, let him answer that it was because the patient was strong-hearted, and suffered well sharp things, and that he was of good temperament and had sound flesh to heal; and let him feign other causes pleasing to the patient, for patients are proud and delighted with such words.
Also let a leech see to it that in clothes and other apparel he is decent, not likening himself in apparel or bearing to minstrels but in clothing and bearing let him show the manner of clerks. Because it is seemly for any discreet man clad in clerk’s clothing to sit at gentlemen’s tables.
Let the leech also have clean hands and well-shapen nails and cleansed of all blackness and filth. And let him be courteous at the tables of lords and not displease in words or deeds the guests sitting by; let him hear many things but speak few....
And when he shall speak, let the words be short and, so far as possible, fair and reasonable and without swearing. Beware lest there ever be found a double word in his mouth for if he be found true in his words few or none shall doubt his deeds. Let a young leech also learn g
ood proverbs pertaining to his craft for the comforting of patients.
Or if patients complain that their medicines are bitter or sharp or such, then shall the leech say to the patient thus: “It is read in the last lesson of matins of the Nativity of our Lord that our Lord Jesus Christ came into this world for the health of mankind in the manner of a good leech and wise.” And when he comes to the sick man, let him show him medicines, some light and some hard, and say to the sick man, “If you will be made whole this and this shall you take.” ...
Besides that, he ought to comfort the patient in admonishing him that in anguish he should be of great heart. For great heart makes a man hardy and strong to suffer sharp things and grievous. And it is a great virtue and a happy, for Boethius says, in De disciplina scholarium, “He is not worthy of the height of sweetness that can not endure the grieving of bitterness, because a strong medicine answers to a strong sickness.” ...
It is fitting for a great-hearted man to suffer sharp things; he, forsooth, that is weak of heart is not in the way of being cured. Forsooth in all my life I have seen but few labouring in this vice healed in any sickness; therefore wise men should beware of getting mixed up with such. The wise man says, “All things are hard to a weak-hearted man, for they think always that evils are near them; they are always in dread, they endure nothing, they are always unstable and unwise.” ...
Also it is helpful for a leech to have a stock of good tales and honest that may make the patients laugh, as well from the Bible as from other tragedies; and any other things which are not objectionable as long as they make or induce a light heart in the patient or sick man.
Let the leech never disclose carelessly the counsels of his patients, neither of men nor of women, nor belittle one to another although he have cause, that he be not guilty of breaking confidence. For if a man sees that you hold well another man’s counsel, he will trust you better. Many things, forsooth, are to be observed by a leech, besides these that are said before, that may not be noted here for over much occupying. But it is not to be doubted that if the foresaid be well kept that they shall give a gracious going to the user to the height of honour and of success....
From Treatises of Fistula in Ano, D’Arcy Power, ed. (London: Early English Texts Society, Orig. Ser., no. 139, 1910); trans. J.B.R.
The Good Wife
Late fourteenth century
Dear Sister,
You being the age of fifteen years and, in the week that you and I were wed, did pray me to be indulgent to your youth and to your small and ignorant serv ice, until you had seen and learned more; to this end you promised me to give all heed and to set all care and diligence to keep my peace and my love, as you spoke full wisely, and, as I well believe, with other wisdom than your own, beseeching me humbly in our bed, as I remember, for the love of God not to correct you harshly before strangers nor before our own folk, but rather each night, or from day to day, in our chamber, to remind you of the unseemly or foolish things done in the day or days past, and chastise you, if it pleased me, and then you would strive to amend yourself according to my teaching and correction, and to serve my will in all things, as you said. And your words were pleasing to me, and won my praise and thanks, and I have often remembered them since. And know, dear sister, that all that I know you have done since we were wed until now, and all that you shall do hereafter with good intent, was and is to my liking, pleaseth me, and has well pleased me, and will please me. For your youth excuses your unwisdom and will still excuse you in all things as long as all you do is with good intent and not displeasing to me. And know that I am pleased rather than displeased that you tend rose-trees, and care for violets, and make chaplets, and dance, and sing: nor would I have you cease to do so among our friends and equals, and it is but good and seemly so to pass the time of your youth, so long as you neither seek nor try to go to the feasts and dances of lords of too high rank, for that does not become you, nor does it sort with your estate, nor mine. And as for the greater service that you say you would willingly do for me, if you were able and I taught it you, know, dear sister, that I am well content that you should do me such service as your good neighbours of like estate do for their husbands, and as your kinswomen do unto their husbands.... And lastly, meseems that if your love is as it has appeared in your good words, it can be accomplished in this way, namely in a general instruction that I will write for you and present to you, in three sections containing nineteen principal articles....
CARE OF A HUSBAND
The seventh article of the first section showeth how you should be careful and thoughtful of your husband’s person. Wherefore, fair sister, if you have another husband after me, know that you should think much of his person, for after that a woman has lost her first husband and marriage, she commonly findeth it hard to find a second to her liking, according to her estate, and she remaineth long while all lonely and disconsolate and the more so still if she lose the second. Wherefore love your husband’s person carefully, and I pray you keep him in clean linen, for that is your business, and because the trouble and care of outside affairs lieth with men, so must husbands take heed, and go and come, and journey hither and thither, in rain and wind, in snow and hail, now drenched, now dry, now sweating, now shivering, ill-fed, ill-lodged, ill-warmed, and ill-bedded. And naught harmeth him, because he is upheld by the hope that he hath of the care which his wife will take of him on his return, and of the ease, the joys, and the pleasures which she will do him, or cause to be done to him in her presence; to be unshod before a good fire, to have his feet washed and fresh shoes and hose, to be given good food and drink, to be well served and well looked after, well bedded in white sheets and nightcaps, well covered with good furs, and assuaged with other joys and desports, privities, loves, and secrets whereof I am silent. And the next day fresh shirts and garments.
Certes, fair sister, such services make a man love and desire to return to his home and to see his goodwife, and to be distant with others. Wherefore I counsel you to make such cheer to your husband at all his comings and stayings, and to persevere therein; and also be peaceable with him, and remember the rustic proverb, which saith that there be three things which drive the goodman from home, to wit, a leaking roof, a smoky chimney, and a scolding woman. And therefore, fair sister, I beseech you that you keep yourself in the love and good favour of your husband, you be unto him gentle, and amiable, and debonair. Do unto him what the good simple women of our country say hath been done to their sons, when these have set their love elsewhere and their mothers cannot wean them therefrom.
Wherefore, dear sister, I beseech you thus to bewitch and bewitch again your husband that shall be, and beware of roofless house and of smoky fire, and scold him not, but be unto him gentle and amiable and peaceable. Have a care that in winter he have a good fire and smokeless and let him rest well and be well covered between your breasts, and thus bewitch him. And in summer take heed that there be no fleas in your chamber, nor in your bed, the which you may do in six ways, as I have heard tell. For I have heard from several that if the room be strewn with alder leaves, the fleas will be caught thereon. Item, I have heard tell that if you have at night one or two trenchers [of bread] slimed with glue or turpentine and set about the room, with a lighted candle in the midst of each trencher, they will come and be stuck thereto. The other way that I have tried and ‘tis true: take a rough cloth and spread it about your room and over your bed, and all the fleas that shall hop thereon will be caught, so that you may carry them away with the cloth wheresoe’er you will. Item, sheepskins. Item, I have seen blanchets [of white wool] set on the straw and on the bed, and when the black fleas hopped thereon, they were the sooner found upon the white, and killed. But the best way is to guard oneself against those that be within the coverlets and the furs, and the stuff of the dresses wherewith one is covered. For know that I have tried this, and when the coverlets, furs, or dresses, wherein there be fleas, be folded and shut tightly up, as in the chest tightly corded with straps, or in
a bag well tied up and pressed, or otherwise put and pressed so that the aforesaid fleas be without light and air and kept imprisoned, then will they perish forthwith and die. Item, I have sometimes seen in divers chambers, that when one had gone to bed they were full of mosquitoes, which at the smoke of the breath came to sit on the faces of those that slept, and stung them so hard, that they were fain to get up and light a fire of hay, in order to make a smoke so that they had to fly away or die, and this may be done by day if they be suspected, and likewise he that hath a mosquito net may protect himself therewith.
And if you have a chamber or a passage where there is great resort of flies, take little sprigs of fern and tie them to threads like to tassels, and hang them up and all the flies will settle on them at eventide; then take down the tassels and throw them out. Item, shut up your chamber closely in the evening, but let there be a little opening in the wall towards the east, and as soon as the dawn breaketh, all the flies will go forth through this opening, and then let it be stopped up....
Item, have whisks wherewith to slay them by hand. Item, have little twigs covered with glue on a basin of water. Item, have your windows shut full tight with oiled or other cloth, or with parchment or something else, so tightly that no fly may enter, and let the flies that be within be slain with the whisk or otherwise as above, and no others will come in. Item, have a string hanging soaked in honey, and the flies will come and settle thereon and at eventide let them be taken in a bag. Finally meseemeth that flies will not stop in a room wherein there be no standing tables, forms, dressers or other things whereon they can settle and rest, for if they have naught but straight walls whereon to settle and cling, they will not settle, nor will they in a shady or damp place. Wherefore meseemeth that if the room be well watered and well closed and shut up, and if naught be left lying on the floor, no fly will settle there.
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