I suspect he knew
his business, and no heriot came to that grasping steward. Who pities
him?
Ladies and gentlemen of the romantic order of mind will be shocked at
the indelicacy of Mistress Matilda--she of the many names. I suspect
that they would be shocked by a great many things in the domestic
life of England five centuries ago. Marrying for love has a sweet
sound about it, but the thing did not exist in the old days. When did
it exist? History is very hard upon romance; History, disdaining
courtesy, lifts one veil after another, opens closed doors, reveals
long-buried secrets, turns her bull's-eye upon the dark corners, and
breaks the old seals. She is very cynical, and will by no means side
with this appellant or with that. Beautiful theories crumble into
dust when they stand before her judgment-seat, and old dreams,
offspring of brains that were wrestling with slumber in the darkness,
pass away as the dawn comes, bringing with it, too often, such
revelations as are not altogether lovely to dwell on. In the
fourteenth century an unmarried woman was a chattel, and belonged to
somebody who had the right to sell her or to give her away. That is
the naked truth. You may make a man an offender for a word if you
will, and object that "sell" is an incorrect term; but the fact
remains, however much some may--
leave the sense their learning to display,
And some explain the meaning quite away.
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