Problem - our imagination is based on how we live today so that the reality of Medieval life long since gone by the boards is forgotten - I have yet been to a Medieval town except those in the Alps of Switzerland where the streets are constructed, usually of brick or some stone and in the middle there is a slant that slides to a dip with stones and bricks running the other way - this was an open sewer - all streets had in the center this open sewer that was also used as a public bathroom - go to the streets in a Mexican barrio like the huge one in Juarez and you can see the same thing - theirs are probably even more accurate with few bricks or stones but simply hard-packed dirt and a canal only inches deep that in bad weather over flows.
Each day chamber pots were dumped out the windows and doorways along with pans of dishwater all aiming for the open sewer - the smell, need I say more - than add to that how little bathing was done and how most folks were involved in physical labor.
I may be part of the dwindling middle class but if I lived during Medieval Europe the best I could imagine for myself is to be the daughter, wife and mother on the land rather than in town - and then new challenges - Winter would be an annual challenge along with the burden of caring for babies in winter -
So there is enough wood to build a fire up every night before bedtime - the best banked fire in a fireplace - not a furnace - a fireplace will not last till sunup - In the pitch dark - candles were only used for special occasions - in the freezing cold you would have to attend an infant - than you wonder why so many were brought to bed to sleep with the parents and how the parents in their sleep would roll over onto the baby - If the child was sick you had no way to see to even clean up the babe till light of day.
Sorry but to me I can admire the architecture and gardens but oh dear not Medieval life with so many unpleasant rudimentary facilities the norm - not like now were you have to visit a barrio in some far off city to experience what some in this world still contend with.
What confuses and amazes is how these cities using these sewer systems grew all over Europe and yet, the Romans had worked out underground water and sewer systems hundreds of years before - Most cities grew from encampments along the age old start location - next to a river - That was what I remember about hiking in Mexico - if you are lost or in doubt or need any help find the river because in rural Mexico folks live where the streams and creeks are not only their source of water but their sewer and laundry and home to the ducks that provide a meal now and then as well as the trough for animals. And so I can see how these European cities probably started the same way - but why did open sewers then become the norm - were they following the concept of re-creating the river...
I wonder maybe because the Romans were so hated that nothing of their advances was adopted - but then Rome governed and populated England for 400 years - you would think - and even in France right next to - for that matter even in Northern Italy you see these Medieval towns with the streets constructed that you know they modernized what was the old open sewer. I wonder what and when the practice changed because the communities built here in North America even as early as the 1600s did not use the open sewer system where as Mexico with the Spanish influence uses the system.
Just thought - I wonder if this system, not only the source of wretched smells but of disease was not given its due because of beliefs that sickness was the result of sin, therefore, the many prayers, indulgences and pilgrimages and something about balancing the fluids in your body so that the cause of disease from outside the body was not even imagined.
For me, I enjoy walking a Medieval town to see how the people today have enhanced the town and how the buildings so close together reflect living close together with families enjoying dinner on balconies and reaching over to hand the other family a glass of wine or part of the meal or the daily newspaper and how the clothing is dried on poles and lines strung across these ancient streets that are too narrow for many modern vehicles. And shops are mingled so that there is no need for a kitchen with lots of food storage space. No more laundry at the wells, now fountains that dot the cross streets but the secluded area around a fountain is often crowded with flowerpots where as the structures with courtyards that opened to a street with a shared well are now out door bistros.
It all sounds so romantic and in our imagination we can construct the best parts that are the parts most of the historical novels and mysteries build their stories around - but to really contemplate life in a Medieval town - and then the attitude about woman... oh dear...
Here is a mild example of that attitude about woman.
BEWARE (THE BLYNDE ETETH MANY A FLYE)
~ By John Ludgate
Loke wel aboute, ye that lovers bee,
Let not youre lustes lede you to dotage.
Be not anamoured on al thing that ye see:
Sampson the fort and Salomon the sage,
Deceyved were for al thaire grete courage.
Men deeme it right that they see at eye,
But ever beware: the blynde eteth many a flie!
I meen in women, for all thaire cheres queynt,
Trust not to moche; thaire trouthe is but geson.
The fairest outward wel can they peynt;
Thayre stedfastnesse endureth but a seson.
They fayne frendlynes and worchen treson,
And sith thay be chaungeable naturally,
Beware, therfore: the blynde eteth many a flye.
Thogh all this world doo his besy cure
To make women stande in stablenesse,
It may not be, it is ageyne nature:
The world is doo whan thay lak doublenesse.
They lagh and love not, this know men expresse;
In theyme to trust, it is but fantasie.
Therfore, beware: the blynde eteth many a flie.
What wight on lyve that trusteth on thaire cheres,
Shal have at last his guerdon and his mede.
They shave nerer than doth rasour or sheres;
Al is not gold that shineth, men take hede!
Thaire galle is hid under a sugred wede;
It is ful queynte thaire fantasies to aspie.
Beware, therfore: the blynde eteth many a flye.
Women of kynde have condicions thre:
The first is thay be full of deceite;
To spynne also is thaire propreté;
And women have a wonderful conceite:
They wepen oft, and all is but a sleight;
And whan hem lust, the teere is in the eye.
Therfore, beware: the blynde eteth many a flye.
In sothe to sey, thogh al the erthe so wan
Were parchemyn smothe, white, and scribable,
And the grete see, called occian,
Were turned ink, blacker than is sable,
Eche stikk a penne, ech man a scrivener able,
Nought coude thay write womens trecherie.
Beware, therfore: the blynde eteth many a flye!
