"_Lov._ A fine child! You will not part with him, mine host? "_Host._ Who told you I would not. "_Lov._ I but ask you. "_Host._ And I answer, To whom? for what? "_Lov._ To me, to be my page. "_Host._ I know no mischief yet the child hath done, To deserve such a destiny. "_Lov._ Why? "_Host._ * * * * * * Trust me I had rather Take a fair halter, wash my hands, and hang him Myself, make a clean riddance of him, than---- "_Lov._ What? "_Host._ Than damn him to that desperate course of life. "_Lov._ Call you that desperate, which by a line Of institution, from our ancestors, Hath been derived down to us, and received In a succession, for the noblest way Of breeding up our youth, in letters, arms, Fair mien, discourses, civil exercise, And all the blazon of a gentleman? Where can he learn to vault, to ride, to fence, To move his body gracefuller, to speak His language purer, or to tune his mind Or manners, more to the harmony of nature, Than in these nurseries of nobility? "_Host._ Ay that was when the nursery's self was noble. And only virtue made it, not the market, That titles were not vented at the drum, Or common outcry, goodness gave the greatness, And greatness worship: every house became An academy of honour, and those parts We see departed, in the practice now, Quite from the institution."[132] Something must be abated from this censure, for the speaker was a disappointed man, and therefore querulous. But whatever might have been the education of the page, the character itself was lost in the political convulsions in the time of Charles I. So many of the old institutions of England were then destroyed, that we need not be surprised that the one should not escape, which had long survived its purpose and occasion. At the restoration of the monarchy the ancient court-ceremonial was revived, and therefore the page was a royal officer: but he is scarcely ever mentioned in the subsequent private history of the country; and his duties at the court were altogether personal though gentilitial, and had no reference at all to military affairs. The military features of chivalry had been rudely marred in the wars between the houses of York and Lancaster, and by the days of James I. not a lineament remained. The graceful sports of chivalry had been sustained by the bold and vigorous Henry VIII., and romance could not but be pleasing to a maiden queen. With Prince Henry the tournament died. Mightier questions than those which knighthood could resolve were before the world; and there was nothing in the bearing of the friends of Charles I., misnamed Cavaliers, to which the character of chivalric can be applied. [Sidenote: Important change in knighthood by parliament of Charles I.]