Old Tavern Signs Part 2

It would be hard to say whether an unbroken tradition connects the signs of the Middle Ages with those of like name in cla.s.sical antiquity. Many a sign may have been invented anew. But that we have learned much directly from the old Romans in the field of hospitality is proved by a curious fact. The Bavarian Knodel, which every true Bajuware claims as an indigenous, national inst.i.tution, are prepared to-day exactly like the old Roman "globuli," after the recipes of Columella and Varro. Such, at least, is the a.s.surance of Herr von Liebenau in his interesting book on Swiss hospitality.

We remarked above that it was by their roads especially that the Romans extended their power over all the world. We must notice now briefly the Roman post-system, the "cursus publicus," whose coaches probably carried travelers from tavern to tavern like the modern mail-coaches. We must, however, curb the imagination of the reader with a reminder that practically only the state officials used this service. Not every country b.u.mpkin could mount with market-basket on his arm, to make a jolly journey over hill and dale to the sound of the echoing horn. Still the Emperor or his prefect could issue tickets to private persons; and furthermore, these persons could, under certain circ.u.mstances, get a sort of Cook's ticket, called "diploma tractoria," which included board and lodging as well as transportation. If the journey lay through a lonely region, where there were no private taverns to provide shelter for the night, the traveler might put up at the state inn ("mansio") which the province was obliged to maintain at public cost, with all the necessities and comforts to which respectable Roman travelers were accustomed. One can well understand how, as the empire disintegrated, the provincials were glad to throw off this hated compulsory tax for the support of the state inn. It was not till the time of Charlemagne that the inst.i.tution was revived as a military-feudal service along the routes of the imperial army. Whether these Roman state inns displayed signs or not, we do not know. It is, however, very likely that they were distinguished by the sign of the Roman eagle, and so became the type of the later private eagle inns.

Here let us remark that the post-coaches of our own day, which seem to us an inst.i.tution dating from the Deluge, are a comparatively late invention. The first so-called "land-coach" in Germany was established between Ulm and Heidelberg in the year 1683. Through all the Middle Ages and the Renaissance period, we depended on mounted messengers, traveling cloister brothers, university students, and rare travelers to carry messages. In Wurttemberg, where we find to-day the most abundant reminders of the good old post-coach days, and consequently the finest old signs, bands of "n.o.ble post-boys" are found, including the distinguished names of Trotha and Hutten.

That the common workman, even in the Roman days, had to use "shank's mare" when he went traveling goes without saying. But the well-to-do burgher or trader who had no license to ride in the state post-coach rode on his horse or his high mule. Horse and saddle remained for centuries the only method of travel after the Roman roads had fallen into that state of dilapidation from which they fully recovered only in the days of Napoleon. One needs only to look at the coaches of princes in past centuries to see for what bottomless mud-bogs these lumbering vehicles were built. Montaigne rode on horseback from his home in Bordeaux to the baths of southern France and Italy, although he seems, from the entries in his diary, to have been very much afflicted with "distempers."

A late Roman relief found in Isernia (in Samnium)--a kind of tavern sign--shows us a traveler holding his mule by the bridle as he takes leave of the hostess and pays his account. The traveler has on his cloak and hood. The hood, even up to Seume's time (i.e., up to the end of the eighteenth century), was generally worn by travelers in Italy, and especially in Sicily: "My mule-driver showed a tender solicitude for me," wrote Seume, "and gave me his hood. He could not understand how I dared to travel without one. This peculiar kind of dark-brown mantle with its pointed headgear is the standard dress in all Italy, and especially in Sicily. I took a great fancy to it, and if I may judge from this night's experience, I have a great inclination toward Capuchin vows, for I slept very well."

[Ill.u.s.tration: ROMANTAVERNSIGNFROMISERNIA]

We have had to confine ourselves in the treatment of ancient signs entirely to Roman examples, for we have very little knowledge of Greek signs. In fact, the tavern sign seems to have come late into Greece, through Roman influence. We hear of a tavern "The Camel" at the Piraeus, also of a sailors' inn having the sign in relief: a boiled calf's head and four calf's feet.

We shall later see what an important part signs played in directing travelers in a city through the Middle Ages and even in modern times.

They took the place of house numbers and street names. In ancient Rome a whole quarter was often named after an inn, like the "Bear in the Cap" ("vicus ursi pileati"). This is the longest-lived bear in history: he lives even to-day. An excellent German tavern guide, Hans Barth, writes in his delightful little book "Osteria": "On the quay of the Tiber was the famous old inn of the Bear, where Charlemagne lodged, because the Cafarelli Palace was not yet built; where Father Dante frolicked with the p.u.s.s.y-cats; where Master Rabelais raised his famous b.u.mpers of wine." In Montaigne's time the Bear was so frightfully stylish an inn, with its rooms hung with gilded leather, that the essayist stayed there only two days and then forthwith sought a private lodging.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Campana and Canone d'Oro Borgo San Dalmazzo, Italy]

In modern Italy there are only a few interesting signs. The most delightful ones (the Golden Cannon, and the Bell) we found in the main street of the North Italian mountain town of Borgo San Dalmazzo. The "White Horse" ("cavallo bianco") was a little off the main street. The form of these was probably influenced by the proximity of Switzerland--a country very rich in beautiful signs.

Seume, who had the finest opportunity for studying taverns and signs in his walking tour from Leipzig to Syracuse, often mentions the name of his inn; as, for instance, "h.e.l.l" in Imola, or the "Elephant" in Catania. But there was only one Italian town in which the signs impressed him: that was Lodi. "The people of Lodi," he writes, "must be very imaginative if one can judge them from their signs. One of them, over a shoemaker's shop, represents a Genius taking a man's measure--a motif which reminds one of Pompeii."

Our excellent guide, who has an eye for everything picturesque, does not seem to have met much of interest from Verona to Capri. An exception was the "Osteria del Penello," in Florence, on the Piazza San Martino, a tavern established about the year 1500 by Albertinelli, the friend of Raphael. On the sign over the door was the jolly curly head of the founder, who, when the envy of his colleagues poisoned the work of his brush, here established a tavern. An inscription read: "Once I painted flesh and blood, and earned only contempt; now I give flesh and blood, and all men praise my good wine."

Barth also mentions, by the way, the characteristic wall-paintings of Italy that rest on the old Roman tradition and yet serve as tavern signs, like the "Three Madonnas" of the Porta Pincia in Rome: "A portal decorated with three pictures of the Mother of G.o.d leads into the green garden court."

Lest the thought of a religious painting serving as a tavern sign should shock any of our readers, we hasten to turn to the study of religious hospitality and its emblems.

CHAPTER III

ECCLESIASTICAL HOSPITALITY AND ITS SIGNS

[Ill.u.s.tration: Lamm Erlenbach, Wurttemberg]

CHAPTER III

ECCLESIASTICAL HOSPITALITY AND ITS SIGNS

"Use hospitality one to another without grudging."

I Peter IV, 9.

Rome was to conquer the northern Germanic world once more, not with the sword as had been the case in the olden days of a pagan Rome, but with the cross and its exponent, the monk. The northward surging wave of Roman Caesarism had been followed by the tidal wave, southward-roaring, of Germanic barbarians. The orderly life of one vast empire gave way to the restlessness and insecurity of the period of migration and a shattered empire. Not individuals but whole peoples go a-traveling with household goods and wife and children, whole towns and countries become their inns, the standard of the conquerors are their tavern signs. Then again flowing northward, progressing by insensible stages, comes the silent throng of monastic brotherhoods, the Benedictines in the van, who bring forth various orders from their midst, the Cistercians among others, who dig and reclaim the soil with their spades and later, as builders, dedicate it to their G.o.d, unknown and now revealed, with high-soaring monuments of wors.h.i.+p.

Undaunted by solitude, fearless of the wildness of desolate regions, they enter the forest primeval to clear it and establish quiet homesteads for themselves and their wors.h.i.+p; their doors are open to all those who pa.s.s their way. For had not St. Benedict, mindful of repeated apostolic admonitions to the bishops, included hospitality in the rules of his order? Therefore ere long there lacked not in any convent certain rooms given over to the comfort of the wayfarer, be it a "hospitium," a "hospitale," or a "receptaculum." Witness the Hospice of the Great St. Bernard in the Alps of the Vallais, named after the pious founder of that earliest of Occidental orders, part of the convent erected in the ninth century by the bishops of Lausanne, while the shelter on Mont Cenis is said to date back to a past equally remote. Beginning with the year 1000, convents likewise erect inns in the villages, outside of their immediate domains, leasing these against rental, while in the towns pilgrim inns, poor men's taverns, and "Seelhauser" are endowed for the free housing of pilgrims and wayfarers, evolving later into town inns.

To the pilgrim, then, who wended his way to the tombs of saints, and, in the crusade times, to the holiest of graves in Jerusalem, mediaeval hospitality is mainly devoted. The crusaders were agents of especial power in the development of hospitality, since on his lengthy journey the pilgrim stood in need, not only of food and shelter, but also of convoy along roads perilous everywhere. The Knights of St. John set themselves these two tasks, to care for the pilgrims and escort them in safety, which is implied by their name "fratres hospitales S.

Johannis." In the rule of their order (ca. 1118) the foremost duty of lay as well as clerical brothers was to serve the poor, "our lords."

With like intent of safeguarding pilgrims the Order of Knights Templars was inst.i.tuted in 1119, especially for the care of German pilgrims. We may venture to a.s.sume from their name, "Order of the German House of our dear Lady in Jerusalem," that a homelike Madonna picture adorned their hospitable house as a pious welcome. Shakespeare has inimitably described the warlike duties of these orders, duties which went hand in hand with kindly care and hospitality, in the first part of "Henry IV":--

"To chase these pagans, in those holy fields Over whose acres walk'd those blessed feet Which, fourteen hundred years ago, were nailed For our advantage, on the bitter cross."

These knightly orders, whose hospitable roofs originally sheltered the pious pilgrims bound for Jerusalem, also opened in welcome the gates of their proud houses at home, which still adorn more than one old German town. When Luther was summoned to Worms by the Emperor, in 1521, he stayed with the Knights of St. John. Here in this n.o.ble inn he exclaimed to his friends, after the ordeal, with upraised arms, and face s.h.i.+ning with joy: "I am through, I am through." Like an enduring rock he had stood his ground and had expressed his unalterable will to be a free Christian in those famous words: "Hier stehe ich, ich kann nicht anders, Gott helfe mir! Amen."

In like manner Luther had accepted ecclesiastical hospitality on his journey Romeward, as a young monk, notably on the part of the Order of St. Augustine. From the pages of that Baedeker of the fifteenth century, the "Mirabilia Romae," we can realize how thoroughly a pilgrimage to Rome was viewed in those days as a pious journey to hallowed places, relics and tombs of the saints. The work referred to appeared first as a block-book, with pictures and text both printed from the same wood block. The youthful monk may well have carried such an early copy of the "Mirabilia" in his cowl when he entered the holy precincts of the Eternal City, which revealed itself to his great disillusionment as an unG.o.dly spot and the seat of Anti-Christ.

Occasionally we also see the great reformer descending at a lay tavern, such as the famous inn of the High Lily in Erfurt, which subsequently saw within its walls great warriors like Maurice of Saxony and Gustavus Adolphus.

To this day there is in England a hospital founded by the Knights of St. John, in which every wayfarer can obtain bread and ale upon request. This is the "Hospital of St. Cross without the walls of Winchester," as it is called in a doc.u.ment in the British Museum; ceded by the Knights Hospitallers of St. John of Jerusalem to Richard Toclive, Bishop of Winchester, in 1185, the bishop raising the number of poor there entertained from 113 to 213, of whom 200 were to be fed and 13 fed and clothed. Emerson once made a pilgrimage to the hospital, claimed and received the victuals, and triumphantly quoted the incident as a proof of the majestic stabilities of English inst.i.tutions. In his wake numberless Americans yearly wend their way to the Hospital of the Holy Cross, and to the beautiful Minster of Winchester embedded in verdure. There they lodge either at the "George," or, more cozily yet, in the ancient "G.o.d begot House" of a type found, perhaps, in England only.

Another American no less renowned, Mark Twain, the "New Pilgrim," as he styled himself, has felt on his own physical self the blessings of clerical hospitality in Palestine, the land of ecclesiastic foundations, which he celebrates as follows in his "Innocents Abroad": "I have been educated to enmity toward all that is Catholic, and sometimes, in consequence of this, I find it much easier to discover Catholic faults than Catholic merits. But there is one thing I feel no disposition to overlook, and no disposition to forget: and that is, the honest grat.i.tude I and all pilgrims owe to the Convent Fathers in Palestine. Their doors are always open, and there is always a welcome for any worthy man who comes, whether he comes in rags or clad in purple.... A pilgrim without money, whether he be a Protestant or a Catholic, can travel the length and breadth of Palestine, and in the midst of her desert wastes find wholesome food and a clean bed every night, in these buildings.... Our party, pilgrims and all, will always be ready and always willing to touch gla.s.ses and drink health, prosperity, and long life to the Convent Fathers in Palestine."

We may well believe that private individuals then as now bid for the patronage of pilgrims. Shakespeare tells us of a case in point, in his "All's Well that Ends Well" (Act III, Sc. V). Helena appears in Florence in search of her husband gone to the wars, "clad in the dress of a pilgrim," and inquires where the palmers lodge. A kindly widow tells her "at the Franciscans here near the port"; but knows how to win the fair pilgrim by her words:--

"I will conduct you where you shall be lodged The rather, for, I think, I know your hostess As ample as myself."

If, on the other hand, we consider how pilgrims made their long journey more toilsome yet, as related by Helena herself,--

"Barefoot plod I the cold ground upon With sainted vow my faults to have amended,"--

we shall appreciate how gratefully the proffer of the good widow must have been accepted. The hospitality of the monks was not always lavish; on the contrary, it proved scant and poor, as Germany's greatest troubadour, Walter von der Vogelweide, to his sorrow experienced. Once he turned aside more than four miles from his road in order to visit the far-famed convent of Tegernsee. The learned monks, whose library forms to-day one of the treasures of the State Library in Munich, may have been too deeply engrossed in the transcription of a cla.s.sic author, or in elaborate miniature paintings; at any rate, they did not realize what n.o.ble guest sat at their board and brought him--not the choice vintage which the thirsty poet expected but simply water:--

"Ich schalt sie nicht, doch genade Gott uns beiden, Ich nahm das Wa.s.ser, also na.s.ser Musst ich von des Monches Tische scheiden."

If guests were thus given cause for complaints of their treatment by the convents, the monks on their side had no less ground for occasional displeasure at the abuse of their hospitality. Carlyle cites an instance of this kind in "Past and Present"; the excellent abbot, Simon of Edmundsbury, had forbidden tournaments within his domain. In spite of this prohibition twenty-four young n.o.bles arranged a knightly joust under his very nose, so to speak. Not content with that, they rode gayly to the convent at its conclusion and demanded supper and a night's lodging. "Here is modesty," says Carlyle. "Our Lord Abbot, being instructed of it, orders the Gates to be closed; the whole party shut in. The morrow was the vigil of the Apostles Peter and Paul; no out-gate on the morrow. Giving their promise not to depart without permission, those four-and-twenty young bloods dieted all that day with the Lord Abbot waiting for trial on the morrow."

And now Carlyle cites his own source the "Jocelini Chronica": But "after dinner"--mark it, posterity!--"the Lord Abbot retiring into his Talamus, they all started up, and began carolling and singing; sending into the Town for wine; drinking and afterwards howling (ululantes);--totally depriving the Abbot and Convent of their afternoon's nap; doing all this in derision of the Lord Abbot, and spending in such fas.h.i.+on the whole day till evening, nor would they desist at the Lord Abbot's order! Night coming on, they broke the bolts of the Town-Gates, and went off by violence!"

Not only had convents to suffer from such exuberant guests; oftener far they were burdened by those who forgot to depart and continue their journey. The abbot, Herboldus Gutegotus of Murrhardt, the convent whose romantic church still ranks among the finest ecclesiastical monuments in Germany, used to tell such forgetful guests the following little story: "Do you know why our Lord remained but three days in his tomb?--Because during that time he was making a friendly visit to the patriarchs and prophets in Paradise. So in order not to cause them inconvenience he took timely leave and resurrected upon the third day." Evidently the refined abbot knew how to veil politely the old Germanic directness which finds such clear expression in the "Edda":

"Go on betimes, loiter not as a guest ever in our abode; He, though loved, becomes burdensome, who warms himself too long at hospitable fires."

In wild and inhospitable countries, the convents long remained, even till recent times, the only shelters for travelers. Hence, when Henry VIII of England began to confiscate monastic property on a grand scale, a significant revolt for their reinstallment flamed up in the north of England,--the so-called "Pilgrimage of Grace" of the year 1536, which was suppressed with deplorable sternness. The convents were very popular in those parts because the monks had been the only physicians and their doors were always open to all wayfarers.

Chaucer shows us in his "Canterbury Tales" that monks could be pleasant guests as well as good hosts, for there we read in regard to the friar: "He knew well the tavernes in every town"; and "What should he studie and make himself wood?"

Having thus pictured to ourselves the clerical hospitality of the Middle Ages, we shall not wonder that, in outward signs for the designation of the houses as inns, religious subjects and their pictorial presentation were adopted.

Among the saints particularly revered by the pious pilgrims St.

Christopher stands foremost, since he had himself experienced so perilous a journey. In many mediaeval pictures we see him leaning on his ma.s.sive staff, carrying the Christ child across a river. The "Golden Legend" tells us that he was nearly drowned, so heavy was the burden of this child. "Had I carried the whole world," he says, when finally reaching the sh.o.r.e, "my burden could have been no heavier"; whereupon the child of whose ident.i.ty he was not yet aware: "for a sign that you have carried on your shoulders not only the world but the Creator, thrust this staff into the ground near your hut, and behold, it will blossom and bear fruit." Hence the partiality for huge pictures of St. Christopher, visible afar, such as we find occasionally to this day in and upon certain churches; for instance, the s.p.a.cious mural paintings in the church of St. Alexander at Marbach, the birthplace of Schiller, close to the tracks on which the modern traveler thunders past; or the gigantic sculpture on the south side of the cathedral in Amiens, or the large fresco in the minster at Erfurt. They give us a conception of similar presentations on Poor Men's Inns and ecclesiastical hospices. The belief in the efficacious protection by the saint, especially from sudden death, is expressed in the French mediaeval saying: "Qui verra Saint Christophe le matin, rira le soir." The tenacity of this belief among the people is well instanced by the fact that the jewelers of so worldly a city as Nice sell to owners of automobiles little silver plaques, with the picture of the saint and the inscription, "Regarde St. Christophe et puis va-t-en ra.s.sure." Let us hope, in the interest of the rest of mankind, that these motorists do not feel too rea.s.sured in consequence.

American readers might be interested to hear that in their own country a guest-house of St. Christopher gives refuge to the modern fraternity of tramps, charitably called the "Brother Christophers" by the Friars of the Atonement, who founded this house at Gray Moor, near the beautiful residential district of Garrison, in the State of New York.