Great Britain -- History -- Anglo-Saxon period, 449-1066 -- Sources
_Shoemaker._—I buy hides and fells, and by my craft I prepare them, and
from them I make shoes of several kinds, slippers, and shoes, leather
hose, and bottles, bridle-thongs, and trappings, and flasks, flagons,
and purses, spur-leathers, and halters, bags, and sacks; and not one of
you wishes to pass a winter without my craft.
THE REST.
_Master._—Whom have we here?
_Pupil._—I have smiths, iron-smiths, a goldsmith, a silversmith, a
coppersmith, a carpenter, and many other craftsmen.
_Master._—Have you a learned counsellor?
_Pupil._—Truly I have. How can our fellowship be ruled without a man of
wisdom?
THE PUPIL.
_Master._—Well, boy, what have you done to-day?
_Pupil._—I have done many things. Last night, when I heard the tolling,
I arose from my bed, and went to the church, and sang nocturns with the
brethren, and morning lauds ... after that prime, and the seven psalms,
with litanies, and chapter-mass, then terce and the mass of the day;
after this we sang sext, and ate, and drank, and slept, and again we
arose, and sang nones, and now here we are before you, ready to hear
what you say to us.
_Master._—When will you sing vespers or compline?
_Pupil._—When it is time.
_Master._—Were you threshed to-day?
_Pupil._—Not I, for I behaved myself warily.
_Master._—And how about your school-fellows?
_Pupil._—Why do you ask me about that? I daren’t tell you our secrets.
Each one knows whether he was threshed or not.
_Master._—What do you eat every day?
_Pupil._—I still eat flesh-meat, because I am a child living under the
rod.
_Master._—What more do you eat?
_Pupil._—Vegetables, and eggs, fish, and cheese, butter, and beans, and
all clean things I eat, with great thankfulness.
_Master._—Surely you are gluttonous, since you eat everything that is
put before you.
_Pupil._—I am not so greedy as to be able to eat all kinds of food at
one meal.
_Master._—How then?
_Pupil._—Sometimes I eat some kinds of food, sometimes others, in
moderation, as a monk should do, without greediness, because I am not a
glutton.
_Master._—And what do you drink?
_Pupil._—Ale, if I have it, or water, if I have no ale.
_Master._—Don’t you drink wine?
_Pupil._—I am not rich enough to be able to buy wine for myself: and
wine is no drink for children or the foolish, but for those who are
older and wiser.
_Master._—Where do you sleep?
_Pupil._—In the dormitory with the brethren.
_Master._—Who wakes you for nocturns?
_Pupil._—Sometimes I hear the tolling and arise, sometimes my master
awakes me sternly with the rod.
_Master._—My good children and agreeable pupils, your master bids you
obey the divine teaching and that you behave yourselves well in every
place. Go obediently when you hear the church bells into the church, and
humbly bow before the holy altars, and stand reverently, and sing in
time and tune, and pray for your sins, and go out thoughtfully to the
cloister or the school.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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