Note 366 — Chapter III · OUTLAWS, WANDERING WORKMEN, AND PEASANTS OUT OF BOND

“Rolls of Parliament,” vol. ii. p. 233. Compare the French ordinances; that of John the Good, January 30, 1350 (Isambert, “Recueil général des anciennes lois françaises,” iv. p. 576), orders the idle people of Paris, picturesquely described as “gens oiseux ou joueurs de dez ou enchanteurs (singers) es rues ou truandans ou mandians, de quelque estat ou condition qu’ils soient, ayans mestier ou non, soient hommes ou femmes,” to either work or go away, which was less radical and still less to the point than the English rules. Another order of the same king (Nov. 1354, ibid. p. 700) was directed against the workmen who since the plague were exacting exorbitant wages, and, in addition to that, “wine, meat and other unwonted things.” If denied, they preferred to do nothing but would go to taverns and there had been heard to say that, “owing to the great price they are accustomed to take, they will work only two days a week,” a kind of difficulty which, dating back six centuries, is not entirely of the past.