GROWTH OF POPULATION 339
A poure wydwe, somdeel stape in age,
Was whilom dwellyng in a narwe cotage,
Biside a grove, stondynge in a dale.
This wydwe, of which I telle vow my tale,
Syn thilke day that she was last a wyf,
In pacience ladde a fui symple lyf,
For litel was hir catel and hir rente.
By housbondrie of swich as God hire sente
She foond hirself and eek hir doghtren two.
Thre large sowes hadde she, and namo,
Three keen, and eek a sheep that highte Malle.
Ful sooty was hire hour and eek hir halle,
In which she eet ful many a sklendre meel.
Of poynaunt sauce her neded niver a deel.
No deyntee morsel passed thurgh hir throte....
No wyn ne drank she, neither whit ne reed;
Hir bord was served moost with whit and blak,
Milk and broun breed, in which she foond no lak,
Seynd bacoun, and sometyme an ey or tweye;
For she was, as it were, a maner deye.
A yeerde she hadde, enclosed al aboute
With stikkes, and a drye dych withoute.1
Amidst such material conditions the peasant lived, and did his
best to rear his family. The frightful wastage of medieval life,
even omitting the toll taken by war, is not easily comprehended
in these softer days. Many of the things we think most necessary
to health were lacking. The normal modern safeguards against
infection were unknown; the proper care of the sick was in a
rudimentary state; the dangers of childbirth were immense,
and the years of infancy a constant battle against plague and
fevers which were endemic in medieval England. To all these
must be added the limited variety of foodstuffs, as well as the
desperately scanty rations which at times were all that were
available.
As a result of these conditions the increase in population from
the Conquest to the time of the Great Plague of 1349 was very
slow. If we take the figure commonly accepted, the population
in 1066 was some zj millions, and the most optimistic estimate
of that of 1349 does not exceed 5 millions. This means that the
growth of population per annum over this period was only
1 Nun's Priest's Tale, B. 11. 4011-^28.