Many thanks to Maddy Gray and Ronald Ross for reassuring us about the good
domestic hygiene of medieval people. There is, however, the following
passage from a letter of the Cistercian abbot Adam of Perseigne to the
countess of Perche, ca.1191/1202: [my rather rough translation; I don't have
the original to hand]
`Divine purity has no truck with the passion for long dresses, which only
gather dust and slow down the steps of busy people. Do not suppose that the
expense devoted to the ornamentation of the body is worthwhile if a long
skirt trails behind you picking up dirt. This beautification offends the eye
and the nose, for we have now become accustomed to closing our eyes, holding
our noses and turning our heads away from the filth picked up in this way.'
Dirst is of course a metaphor for sin - the sin of vanity - but the metaphor
presumably takes its force from having some literal truth too.
Andrew Jotischky
Dept of History
University of Lancaster
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