What Life Was Like in the Age of Chivalry - Medieval Europe, AD 800-1500

"From dawn to dusk, the streets hummed with activity, while in the numerous taverns with their huge wine casks, long benches, and reed-strewn floors, drinkers with nothing better to do spent their time gambling on dice games. There was open-air entertainment, too, for those who had time to watch it.

Clowns bumped and tumbled, jugglers showed off their skills, and minstrels crooned the latest ballads to the accompaniment of a fiddle-like instrument called a vielle.

Roving troupes of actors performed morality tales for the crowds, often enlivening popular Bible stories with slapstick comedy and satirical asides to the audience. And behind this incessant hustle and bustle, church bells tolled away the hours, dictating the rhythm of people's lives across the city; for in the perpetual half-light of the narrow streets, the passage of time was heard rather than seen."