"THE DEVIL'S CHAPEL" 367
could be held. We have only to turn the pages of the preachers
and didactic writers to see what an evil reputation they had.
"The devil's chapel" was well known to the medieval moralist,
and Dr Owst in his learned Literature and Pulpit in Medieval
England devotes several pages1 to the outbursts of Bromyard,
Rypon and other English preachers, who season their discourses
with "details of the scene, such as the rude pot-house songs,
snatches of lewd conversation from the bench of cronies, the
low tricks played amongst this fellowship of Satan5'.2 Apart
from this (and indeed before Dr Owst's untiring researches
brought such a wealth of confirmatory material together) such
writers as Langland and Skelton had given us vivid pictures of
the medieval tavern and its intimates. There are few passages in
all medieval literature which present a more graphic re-creation
of the medieval scene than that recounting Glutton's adventures
in the tavern which welcomes him on his way to church:
But Breton the brewster bad him good morrow,
And asked him with that whither he was going:
"To holy church", said he, "to hear the service,
And so I will be shriven and sin no longer."
"I have good ale, gossip: Glutton, will you try it?"
"What have you?" he asked—"any hot spices?"
"I have pepper and peonies", she said, "and a pound of garlic,
And a farthing worth of fennel seed for fasting seasons."
Then Gluttony goes in with a great crowd after,
and so the debauch begins, and continues with wagers and good
cheer.
Then there was laughing and lowering and "let the cup go it",
And sitting till evensong and singing catches,
Till Glutton had gulped a gallon and a gill.
He could neither step nor stand till a staff held him,
And then began to go like a gleeman's bitch,
Sometimes aside and sometimes backwards,
Like one who lays lures to lime wild-fowl.
And he drew to the door all dimmed before him,
He stumbled on the threshold and was thrown forwards.3
1 Op. cit. 425 ff. and see Index, Taverns.
* Ibid. 438.
8 Piers Plowman, v, 422 ff., as modernised in the excellent version of
H. W. Wells, 1935.