Artisans: Skilled workers who produce items according to their specialty.
Painstaking: Careful.
Now it is time for us to speak of the station in life of women married to artisans who live in cities and fine towns, like Paris, and elsewhere.... All wives of artisans should be very painstaking and diligent if they wish to have the necessities of life. They should encourage their husbands or their workmen to get to work early in the morning and work until late, for mark our words, there is no trade so good that if you neglect your work you will not have difficulty putting bread on the table. And besides encouraging the others, the wife herself should be involved in the work to the extent that she knows all about it, so that she may know how to oversee his work-
Ers if her husband is absent, and to reprove them if they do not do well. She ought to oversee them to keep them from idleness, for through careless workers the master is sometimes ruined. And when customers come to her husband and try to drive a hard bargain, she ought to warn him solicitously to take care that he does not make a bad deal. She should advise him to be chary of giving too much credit if he does not know precisely where and to whom it is going, for in this way many come to poverty, although sometimes the greed to earn more or to accept a tempting proposition makes them do it.
Reprove: Rebuke or correct.
Solicitously: With great concern.
Chary: Cautious.
Giving too much credit: In
Other words, allowing too many customers to buy items on credit (i. e., with promises to pay later).
To this end: With this purpose in mind.
Taverns: Bars.
Traipsing: Walking.
Hither and yon: Here and
There.
Slovenly: Careless, untidy.
Pilgrimage: A journey to a sacred place or shrine; this was a popular practice in the Middle Ages.
Frugally: Inexpensively.
Indulgent: Forgiving, patient.
Small and ignorant service:
Limited experience.
With other wisdom than your own: In other words, on the basis of wisdom she had been taught, not simply things she already knew.
Beseeching: Begging.
Unseemly: Inappropriate or improper.
Chastise: Rebuke or correct. Strive: Make an effort. Amend: Change.
Unwisdom: Lack of wisdom.
In addition, she ought to keep her husband's love as much as she can, to this end: that he will stay at home more willingly and that he may not have any reason to join the foolish crowds of other young men in taverns and indulge in unnecessary and extravagant expense, as many tradesmen do, especially in Paris. By treating him kindly she should protect him as well as she can from this. It is said that three things drive a man from his home: a quarrelsome wife, a smoking fireplace and a leaking roof. She too ought to stay at home gladly and not go every day traipsing hither and yon gossiping with the neighbours and visiting her chums to find out what everyone is doing. This is done by slovenly housewives roaming about the town in groups. Nor should she go off on these pilgrimages got up for no good reason and involving a lot of needless expense. Furthermore, she ought to remind her husband that they should live so frugally that their expenditure does not exceed their income, so that at the end of the year they do not find themselves in debt.
World History
