in
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perhaps, in this cafe, the archer, as his profeliion is indicated by his bow
and arrows, has made a gallant affault, which, although {he does not look
much difpleafed at it, the offended dame certainly refiiis with fpirit.
One idea connected with this pititure of domeflzic antagonifm appears
to have been very popular from a rather early period. There is a
proverbial phrafe to Ggnify that the wife is matter in the houfehold, by
which it is intimated that "fhe wears the breeches." The phrafe is, it
Inuit be confeffed, an odd one, and is only half underftood by modern
explanations; but in mediaeval Ilory we learn how "the" firft put in
her claim to wear this particular article of drefs, how it was firft difputed
and contefted, how the was at times defeated, but how, as a general rule,
the claim was enforced. There was a French poet of the thirteenth
century, Hugues Piaucelles, two of whofe faZ'liaua:, or metrical tales,
entitled the "Fabliau d'EItourmi," and the " Fabliau de Sire Hains et de
Dame Anieufe," are preferved in manufcript, and have been printed
in the colleetion of Barbazan. The fecond of thefe relates forne of the
adventures of a mediaeval couple, whofe houfehold was not the belt
regulated in the world. The name of the heroine of this Rory, Anieufe,
is limply an old form of the French word ennuyezgfe, and certainly dame
Anieufe was fufl-iciently "ennuyeufe " to her lord and hufband. " Sire
Hains," her hufband, was, it appears, a maker of " cottes " and mantles,
and we Ihould judge alfo, by the point on which the quarrel turned, that
he was partial to a good dinner. Dame Anieufe was of that difagreeable
temper, that whenever Sire Hains told her of fome particularly nice
thing which he wilhed her to buy for his meal, {he bought initead [ome-
thing which {he knew was difagreeable to him. If he ordered boiled
meat, {he invariably roafied it, and further contrived that it ihould be fo
covered with ciuders and afhes that he could not eat it. This would
{how that people in the middle ages (except, perhaps, profefiional cooks)
were very unapt at roafting meat. This {late of things had gone on for
fome time, when one day Sire Hains gave orders to his wife to buy him
Hlh for his dinner. The difobedient wife, inftead of buying nth, provided
nothing for his meal but a difh of fpinage, telling him falfely that all the
fifh frank. This leads to a violent quarrel, in which, after fome fierce
wrangling,