THE CHASE 269
tions, as was natural from their importance, gave rise to a variety
of similar festivals (Plough Monday, Hock Day, Midsummer
Eve, Martinmas), culminating in the elaborate celebrations at the
end of the corn harvest—virtually the end of the agricultural year.
The ale-house, again, was frequently attacked because it was
there that folk indulged in dancing, and although we do not hear
much in England concerning that most common of medieval
amusements, yet from the frequency and violence with which it
was attacked by the medieval moralists we may realise something
of its prevalence.1 It kept men and women from church and was
said to be provocative of sin. Bromyard, the great Dominican
preacher of Chaucer's day, constantly rebukes those who go to
dances, especially women, decked in their bewitching finery, who
entice men from their prayers.2 His is but one voice among
many of those who decry the dance. Yet "dance, and Proven9al
song, and sun-burnt mirth" had a way of breaking in, and who
will wish to deny the medieval peasant those hours of pleasure on
village green or even at the tavern, despite the undoubted fact
that "unclene kyssynges, clippynges and other unhonest
handelynges" were often part of the proceedings?
Not unnaturally, however, the open countryside all about him
provided the peasant with some of his happiest hours, when,
despite all rules and penalties, he hunted and snared in his lord's
woods and preserves. Poaching, we have seen, was one of the
most common of medieval offences, and was indulged in by all
the villagers from the parson downwards. Laws were enacted
against the keeping of hunting dogs or implements; and, in the
areas of the royal forests, savage penalties were inflicted on those
found within the precincts. But all in vain: the temptation was too
great, and whether it was a royal stag, or only a miserable coney,
the excitement of the chase, and at times it must be admitted
sheer poverty, drove men to break the law, and to run the risks
consequent upon being caught red-handed.
1 The whole subject of the medieval dance has been treated at great length
by Dr Coulton in his Med. Village, 255, 275, 425, 558, and Five Centuries of
Religion, I, Appendix, 23, and references are given there to other writings.
See also G. R. Owst, Holborn Review (1926), 32, and Literature and Pulpit,
passim.
2 S.v. Bettum. See Literature and Pulpit, 393-5, to which I owe the
reference.