For if heuene be on this erthe . and ese to anysoule,
It is in cloistere or in scole . by many skilles Ifynde;
For in cloistre cometh no man . to chide ne tofizte,
But alle is buxomnesse there and bokes . to rede andto lerne,
In scole there is scorne . but if a clerke willerne,
And grete loue and lykynge . for eche of hem louethother.
--LANGLAND, Piers Plowman
Social history sometimes suffers from the reproach that it isvague and general, unable to compete with the attractions ofpolitical history either for the student or for the general reader,because of its lack of outstanding personalities. In point of factthere is often as much material for reconstructing the life of somequite ordinary person as there is for writing a history of Robertof Normandy or of Philippa of Hainault; and the lives of ordinarypeople so reconstructed are, if less spectacular, certainly notless interesting. I believe that social history lends itselfparticularly to what may be called a personal treatment, and thatthe past may be made to live again for the general reader moreeffectively by personifying it than by presenting it in the form oflearned treatises on the development of the manor or on medievaltrade, essential as these are to the specialist. For history, afterall, is valuable only in so far as it lives, and Maeterlinck's cry,'There are no dead', should always be the historian's motto. It isthe idea that history is about dead people, or, worse still, aboutmovements and conditions which seem but vaguely related to thelabours and passions of flesh and blood, which has driven historyfrom bookshelves where the historical novel still finds a welcomeplace.
In the following series of sketches I have tried to illustrateat the same time various aspects of social life in the Middle Agesand various classes of historical material. Thus Bodo illustratespeasant life, and an early phase of a typical medieval estate;Marco Polo, Venetian trade with the East; Madame Eglentyne,monastic life; the Ménagier's wife, domestic life in amiddle-class home, and medieval ideas about women; Thomas Betson,the wool trade, and the activities of the great English tradingcompany of Merchants of the Staple; and Thomas Paycocke, the clothindustry in East Anglia. They are all quite ordinary people andunknown to fame, with the exception [pg viii] of Marco Polo. The types ofhistorical evidence illustrated are the estate book of a manoriallord, the chronicle and traveller's tale, the bishop's register,the didactic treatise in household management, the collection offamily letters, and houses, brasses, and wills. At the end of thebook I have added a bibliography of the sources which form the rawmaterial for my reconstructions, and a few additional notes andreferences. I hope that t