"Singing he was or floyting all the day, He was as fresh as is the month of May.[65] He could songs make, and well endite, Just and eke dance, and well pourtraie and write; So hote he loved, that by nighterdale (night time) He slept no more than doth the nightingale."
Military exercises were mingled with the anxieties of love. He practised every mode by which strength and activity could be given to the body. He learnt to endure hunger and thirst; to disregard the seasons' changes, and like the Roman youths in the Campus Martius, when covered with dust, he plunged into the stream that watered the domains of his lord. He accustomed himself to wield the sword, to thrust the lance, to strike with the axe, and to wear armour. The most favourite exercise was that which was called the Quintain: for it was particularly calculated to practise the eye and hand in giving a right direction to the lance. A half figure of a man, armed with sword and buckler, was placed on a post, and turned on a pivot, so that if the assailant with his lance hit him not on the middle of the breast but on the extremities, he made the figure turn round, and strike him an ill-aimed blow, much to the merriment of the spectators. The game of the Quintain was sometimes played by hanging a shield upon a staff fixed in the ground, and the skilful squire riding apace struck the shield in such a manner as to detach it from its ligatures.[66]
But of all the exercises of chivalry, none was thought so important as horsemanship.
"Wel could he sit on horse and fair ride,"
is Chaucer's praise of his young squire. Horsemanship was considered the peculiar science of men of gentle blood. That Braggadochio had not been trained in chivalry was apparent from his bad riding. Even his valiant courser chafed and foamed, for he disdained to bear any base burthen.[67]
Notions of religion were blended with those of arms in the mind of the squire, for his sword was blessed by the priest, and delivered to him at the altar. As he advanced to manhood he left to younger squires most of the domestic duties of his station. Without losing his title of squire he became also called a bachelor, a word also used to designate a young unmarried knight. He went on military expeditions. The squire in Chaucer, though but twenty years old, had