The Bayeux Tapestry ElucidatedBruce, J. Collingwood (John Collingwood)
History
The Bayeux Tapestry Elucidated
Bruce, J. Collingwood (John Collingwood)
Bayeux tapestry
The next compartment exhibits to us Harold and a companion (one no doubt
being used to represent all) entering the sacred structure, with the
view of seeking the divine blessing upon their enterprise. As the
humility of their posture, when inside, could not be represented, the
artist has exhibited them as entering it in a state of semi-genuflexion.
In this he follows a classical model. Among the Greeks and Romans the
act of adoration was expressed by the artists representing the body
inclined slightly forwards, the knees gently bent, and the right hand
touching the object of reverence.[33] Over the building which Harold and
his companion enter is written the word ECCLESIA.--the church.
It is not a little curious to observe, that in immediate contiguity with
the church in which our voyagers offer their devotions, is the festal
board at which they comfort their own bowels, and pledge each other in
goblets large as their own hearts. The scene is one of a truly Saxon
character. Our blue-eyed forefathers never did things by halves, and
whenever they sat down at the social table--and they did so as often as
convenient--they exhibited a refreshing earnestness.
The scene represents the end of the feast, and hence the drinking horns
rather than the platters are brought into requisition. Two of these are
magnificent specimens, and remind us of the horn of Ulphe preserved in
York Minster, and the Pusey horn. The individuals in the building are
evidently pledging each other, and the challenged and the challenger are
drinking in turn out of the same cup. Robert de Brunne refers to this
practice in the following lines:--
“This is their custom and their gest
When thei are at the ale or fest;
Ilk man that loves, where him think
Sall say wassail, and to him drink.
He that bids, sall say wassail;
The tother sall say again drinkhail.
That said wassail drinkes of the cup,
Kissand his felow he gives it up;
Drinkhail, he says, and drinkes thereof,
Kissand him in bord and skoff.”[34]
Besides horns, semicircular vessels, or mazer cups, appear among the
furnishings of the board. These vessels were generally of wood, but
occasionally of gold or silver. Our ancestors, who somewhat strangely
blended religion with their festivities, not unfrequently had mottos,
such as the following, inscribed upon their mazer bowls:--
In the name of the trinitie
Fille the kup and drink to me.
But the best of friends must part. A messenger, who has blown the horn,
to inform our voyagers that the boats are ready, till he is tired, comes
personally, horn in hand, to urge their departure.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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