(Fig. 49), having no other mission than to amuse and instruct their feudal hosts.  After singing a few fragments of epics, or after the lively recital of some ancient fable, the jugglers would display their art or skill in gymnastic feats or conjuring, which were the more appreciated by the spectators, in that the latter were more or less able to compete with them.  These wandering troops acted small comedies, taken from incidents of the times.  Sometimes, too, the instrumentalists formed an orchestra, and dancing commenced.  It may be here remarked that dancing at this epoch consisted of a number of persons forming large circles, and turning to the time of the music or the rhythm of the song.  At least the dances of the nobles are thus represented in the MSS. of the Middle Ages.  To these amusements were added games of calculation and chance, the fashion for which had much increased, and particularly such games as backgammon, draughts, and chess, to which certain knights devoted all their leisure.

From the reign of Philip Augustus, a remarkable change seems to have taken place in the private life of kings, princes, and nobles.  Although his domains and revenues had always been on the increase, this monarch never displayed, in ordinary circumstances at least, much magnificence.  The accounts of his private expenses for the years 1202 and 1203 have been preserved, which enable us to discover some curious details bearing witness to the extreme simplicity of the court at that period.  The household of the King or royal family was still very small:  one chancellor, one chaplain, a squire, a butler, a few Knights of the Temple, and some sergeants-at-arms were the only officers of the palace.  The king and princes of his household only changed apparel three times during the year.

[Illustration:  Fig. 49.—­King David playing on the Lyre, surrounded by four Musicians.—­Costumes of the Thirteenth Century (from a Miniature in a Manuscript Psalter in the Imperial Library, Paris).]

The children of the King slept in sheets of serge, and their nurses were dressed in gowns of dark-coloured woollen stuff, called brunette.  The royal cloak, which was of scarlet, was jewelled, but the King only wore it on great ceremonies.  At the same time enormous expenses were incurred for implements of war, arrows, helmets with visors, chariots, and for the men-at-arms whom the King kept in his pay.

Louis IX. personally kept up almost similar habits.  The Sire de Joinville tells us in his “Chronicles,” that the holy King on his return from his first crusade, in order to repair the damage done to his treasury by the failure of this expedition, would no longer wear costly furs nor robes of scarlet, and contented himself with common stuffs trimmed with hare-skin.  He nevertheless did not diminish the officers of his household, which had already become numerous; and being no doubt convinced that royalty required magnificence, he surrounded himself with as much pomp as the times permitted.