Western Civilization

IMAGES OF EVERYDAY LIFE

ENTERTAINMENT IN THEMIDDLEAGES

MEDIEVAL PEOPLE ENGAGEDin a variety of activities for

entertainment. City dwellers enjoyed feast days and

holidays, when minstrels and jugglers amused people

with their arts and tricks. Castle life had its courtly

feasts, featuring tournaments accompanied by

banquets, music, and dancing. Games were popular at

all levels of society; castle dwellers played

backgammon, checkers, and chess. The illustration at

the left, from a fifteenth-century fresco, shows a group

of ladies and gentlemen playing cards.

Like children in all ages, medieval children joined

with other children in playing a variety of games. A

number of writers on children saw play as a basic

symbol of childhood itself. In this series of

illustrations from medieval manuscripts, we see

children engaged in riding

hobbyhorses (undoubtedly

popular in a society dependent

on horses), catching butterflies

and playing with a spinning top,

and playing a game of blind

man’s bluff.

Bodleian Library (Douce 276folio 124v), Oxford//The ArtArchive at Art Resource, NY

Palazzo Borromeo, Milan//Scala/Art Resource, NY

Bibliothe

`que Universitaire de Me

`decine, Montpellier/Gianni Dagli

Orti//The Art Archive at Art Resource, NY

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British Library Board. All Rights Reserved//The Bridgeman Art Library

Culture and Society in an Age of Adversity 269

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