Искусства и ремесла Средневековья

26 Arts and Crafts in the Middle Ages

also а goldsmith and а banker. There is an entertainiпg piece of cynical satirc on the Goldsmiths in Stнbbes' Anatomy of Abuses, written in the time of Queen Eliza­ beth, showiпg that the tricks of the t1·ade had come to fнll development Ьу that timc, and that the puЬlic ,vas being aroнsed on the subject. Stubbes explains how tl1e goldsmith's slюps are decked with chains and 1·ings, " wondeгful richly." Then he goes on to say: " Thcy will make you any monster or aгticle wl1atsoever of gold, silvc1·, or what you will. Is thcre no deceit in these goodlye slюws? Уes, too шаnу; if уон will buy а cЬain of gold, а ring, or any kind of plate, besides tl1at уон shall рау almost l1alf mшс than it is ,vorth ... you shall also perhaps have that gold ,vhich is naught, or else at least mixed with drossie rubbage... . But this happcneth very seldom Ьу 1·eason of good orders, and constitutions made fш the punishment of them that offcnd in th.is kind of dcceit, and therefOI"e they seldom offeшl therein, though now and then they chance to stumЫe iп the daгk ! " Fynes Moryson, а traveller who died in 1614, says tl1at " the goldsmiths' shops in London ... are exceed­ ingly richly furnished continнally with gold, with silver plate, and \Vith jewels... . I ncveг see апу such daily slюw, anything so sumptuous, in any place in the world, as in London." Не admits that in Florence and Paris the similar shops are very rich upon special occasions; Ьнt it is the steady state of the шal'ket in London. to whicl1 he has reference.

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