[Illustration: _No. 174. Interior of a Chamber._]
[Illustration: _No. 175. The Lady and herCats._]
The chamber was, as might be expected, more comfortably furnished than the hall. The walls were covered with curtains, or tapestry, whence this apartment is frequently termed in the fabliaux and romances the _chambre encortinée_. The story of a fabliau printed in my “Anecdota Literaria” turns upon the facility with which a person might be concealed behind the “curtains” of the chamber. Besides a bench or stool to sit upon, there was usually a chair in the chamber. In the fabliau of the Bouchier d’Abbeville, the priest’s lady, when she rises out of bed to dress, is represented as placing herself in a chair--
In the early English romance of “Horn,” the lady, receiving a gentleman into her chamber, gives him a rich chair which would hold seven people, and which is covered, in true regal style, with a baldekin:--
_The miri maiden, also sone_ _As Hatherof into chamber come,_ _Sche wend_ (thought) _that it were Horn;_ _A riche cheir was undon,_ _That seiven might sit theron,_ _In swiche craft y-corn_ (chosen). * * * * * _A baudekin theron was spred,_ _Thider the maiden hadde him led_ _To siten hir beforn,_ _Frout_ (fruit) _and spices sche him bede,_ _Wine to drink, wite and rede,_ _Bothe of coppe and horn_.
The chamber was especially distinguished by its fireplace and chimney. The form of the mediæval fireplace is well-known from the numerous examples still remaining in the chambers of our old castles and mansion houses. The fire was made on the hearth, upon iron dogs, which had often very ornamental forms. The old romances frequently represent people sitting round the chamber fireplace to hold private conversation. It was here also that the heads of the family, or individual members of it in their own chambers, assembled in the evening when no ceremonious feasting was going on. In a story in the text of the “Seven Sages,” printed by Weber, a young married woman is represented sitting in the evening with her lord by the chamber fireside, attended by their squire, and playing with a dog--
_The yonge levedi and hire lord_ _Sete an even by the fer_ (fire); _Biforen hem stod here squier_. * * * * * _The bichche lai in hire barm (bosom). --Weber, iii. 71.