[251] Brilliantly illuminated manuscripts of romances continued, however, to multiply; they were very well paid for. Edward III bought, in 1331, of Isabella of Lancaster, nun of Aumbresbury, a book of romance for which he paid her £66 13s. 4d., which was an enormous sum. When the king had this book he kept it in his own room (Devon’s “Issues of the Exchequer,” 1837, p. 144). Richard II (ibid. 213) bought a bible in French, a “Roman de la Rose,” and a “Roman de Perceval” for £28. To give an idea of these prices we must recall, for example, that a few years before Edward bought his book of romance, the inhabitants of London entered in the City accounts £7 10s. for ten oxen, £4 for twenty pigs, and £6 for twenty-four swans, which they had given to the king. Year 1328, Riley’s “Memorials of London,” 1868, p. 170. [252] The “Thornton Romances,” edited by J. O. Halliwell for the Camden Society, pp. 88, 121, 177. The romances in this volume are, “Perceval,” “Isumbras,” “Eglamour,” and “Degrevant”; the longest scarcely reaches 3,000 lines, “Isumbras” not 1,000. The manuscript, which is in Lincoln Cathedral, is a collection containing many other romances, especially a “Life of Alexander,” a “Mort d’Arthur,” an “Octavian,” and a “Diocletian,” besides numerous prayers in verse, recipes for curing toothache, prophecies of the weather, etc. [253] From Golias, the type of the debauched and gluttonous prelate, made famous by Latin poems attributed to Walter Map, twelfth century, ed. Th. Wright, Camden Society, 1841; cf. “The Cambridge Songs, a Goliard’s song book of the eleventh century,” ed. Karl Breul, Cambridge, 1916. [254] Help me God, my wit es then, he says himself. “Poems,” ed. T. Hall, Oxford, 1887, p. 21. [255] “Issues of the Exchequer,” p. 244. [256] “Extracts from the Municipal Records of the City of York,” by Rob. Davies, London, 1843, p. 230. [257] Wardrobe Accounts; “Archæologia,” vol. xxvi. p. 342. [258] Thomas Wright, “Domestic Manners and Sentiments,” 1862, p. 181. [259] 40 Ed. III, Devon’s “Issue Rolls of the Exchequer,” p. 188. [260] See two examples of like cases in the introduction to the “Issue Roll of Thomas de Brantingham,” p. xxxix. [261] “Roll of Household Expenses of Richard de Swinfield, Bishop of Hereford,” ed. J. Webb, Camden Society, 1854–55, vol. i. pp. 152, 155. On the condition of minstrels, jugglers, bear-wards, etc., in France, see e.g. “Histoire économique de la Propriété, des Salaires . . . et de tous les Prix,” by Vicomte d’Avenel, Paris, 1914, vol. v. p. 264, and Bédier, “Les Fabliaux,” 1895, p. 389. [262] Ed. P. Meyer, in “Revue Critique,” vol. x. (1870), p. 373. [263] “Piers Plowman,” Text C, pass. xii. ll. 35–39. [264] “Sir Gawayne and the Green Knight,” ed. R. Morris, Early English Text Society, 1864, ll. 484, 1652–1656, and 1952. In the same manner Arthur, after an exploit by Gawain, sits down to table, “Wythe alle maner of mete and mynstralcie bothe.”