More Be There Not Of Solemn
Feasts, But If He Marry Any Of His Children.
Now understand, that at every of these feasts he hath great
multitude of people, well ordained and well arrayed, by thousands,
by hundreds, and by tens.
And every man knoweth well what service
he shall do, and every man giveth so good heed and so good
attendance to his service that no man findeth no default. And
there be first ordained 4000 barons, mighty and rich, for to govern
and to make ordinance for the feast, and for to serve the emperor.
And these solemn feasts be made without in halls and tents made of
cloths of gold and of tartaries, full nobly. And all those barons
have crowns of gold upon their heads, full noble and rich, full of
precious stones and great pearls orient. And they be all clothed
in cloths of gold or of tartaries or of camakas, so richly and so
perfectly, that no man in the world can amend it, ne better devise
it. And all those robes be orfrayed all about, and dubbed full of
precious stones and of great orient pearls, full richly. And they
may well do so, for cloths of gold and of silk be greater cheap
there a great deal than be cloths of wool. And these 4000 barons
be devised in four companies, and every thousand is clothed in
cloths all of one colour, and that so well arrayed and so richly,
that it is marvel to behold.
The first thousand, that is of dukes, of earls, of marquises and of
admirals, all clothed in cloths of gold, with tissues of green
silk, and bordered with gold full of precious stones in manner as I
have said before. The second thousand is all clothed in cloths
diapered of red silk, all wrought with gold, and the orfrays set
full of great pearl and precious stones, full nobly wrought. The
third thousand is clothed in cloths of silk, of purple or of Ind.
And the fourth thousand is in cloths of yellow. And all their
clothes be so nobly and so richly wrought with gold and precious
stones and rich pearls, that if a man of this country had but only
one of their robes, he might well say that he should never be poor;
for the gold and the precious stones and the great orient pearls be
of greater value on this half the sea than they be beyond the sea
in those countries.
And when they be thus apparelled, they go two and two together,
full ordinately, before the emperor, without speech of any word,
save only inclining to him. And every one of them beareth a tablet
of jasper or of ivory or of crystal, and the minstrels going before
them, sounding their instruments of diverse melody. And when the
first thousand is thus passed and hath made his muster, he
withdraweth him on that one side; and then entereth that other
second thousand, and doth right so, in the same manner of array and
countenance, is did the first; and after, the third; and then, the
fourth; and none of them saith not one word.
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