Early English Meals and Manners Part 16

"[a] Beside these things I could in like sort set downe the waies and meanes, wherby our ancient ladies of the court doo shun and auoid idlenesse, some of them exercising their fingers with the needle, other in caul-worke, diuerse in spinning of silke, some in continuall reading either of the holie scriptures, or histories of our owne or forren nations about vs, and diuerse in writing volumes of their owne, or translating of other mens into our English and Latine toong, [b] whilest the yoongest sort in the meane time applie their lutes, citharnes, p.r.i.c.kesong, and all kind of musike, which they vse onelie for recreation sake, when they haue leisure, and are free from attendance vpon the queenes maiestie, or such as they belong vnto. [c] How manie of the eldest sort also are skilfull in surgerie and distillation of waters, beside sundrie other artificiall practises perteining to the ornature and commendations of their bodies, I might (if I listed to deale further in this behalfe) easilie declare, but I pa.s.se ouer such maner of dealing, least I should seeme to glauer, and currie fauour with some of them. Neuerthelesse this I will generallie saie of them all, that as [d] ech of them are cuning in somthing wherby they keepe themselues occupied in the court, so there is in maner none of them, but when they be at home, can helpe to supplie the ordinarie want of the kitchen with a number of delicat dishes of their owne deuising, [e] wherein the Portingall is their cheefe counsellor, as some of them are most commonlie with the clearke of the kitchen, who vseth (by a tricke taken vp of late) [f] to giue in a breefe rehearsall of such and so manie dishes as are to come in at euerie course throughout the whole seruice in the dinner or supper while: which bill some doo call a [g] memoriall, other a billet, but some a fillet, bicause such are commonlie hanged on the file, and kept by the ladie or gentlewoman vnto some other purpose. But whither am I digressed?"

--1577, W. HARRISON, in _Holinshed's Chronicles_, vol. I. p. 196, ed. 1586.

[Sidenotes (all bracketed in original): [[a] Ancient ladies' employments.]

[[b] Young ladies' recreations.]

[[c] Old ladies' skill in surgery, &c.]

[[d] All are cunning [e] in cookery, helped by the Portuguese.]

[[f] Introduction of the _Carte_, [g] Memorial, Billet or Fillet.]]

[Footnote 1: This MS. contains a copy of "The Rewle of the Moone,"

fol. 49-67, which I hope to edit for the Society.]

[Footnote 2: The next treatise to Russell in this MS. is "The booke off the gou{er}naunce off Kyngis and Pryncis," or _Liber Aristotiles ad Alexandrum Magnum_, a book of Lydgate's that we ought to print from the best MS. of it. At fol. 74 b. is a heading,--

Here dyed this translatour and n.o.ble poette Lidgate and the yong follower gan his prolog on this wys.]

[Footnote 3: One can fancy that a cook like Wolsey's (described by Cavendish, vol. i. p. 34), "a Master Cook who went daily in damask satin, or velvet, with a chain of gold about his neck" (a mark of n.o.bility in earlier days), would be not _leef_ but _loth_ to obey an usher and marshal.]

[Footnote 4: Warton, ii. 264-8, ed. 1840. For further details about the Duke see the Appendix to this Preface.]

[Footnote 5: See one MS., "How to serve a Lord," ab. 1500 A.D., quoted in the notes to the Camden Society's Italian Relation of England, p. 97.]

[Footnote 6: For the Early English Text Society.]

[Footnote 7: I have put figures before the motions in the dress and undress drills, for they reminded me so of "Manual and Platoon: by numbers."]

[Footnote 8: Mr Way says that the _planere_, l. 58, is an article new to antiquarians.]

[Footnote 9: Randle Holme's tortoise and snails, in No. 12 of his Second Course, Bk. III., p. 60, col. 1, are stranger still.

"Tortoise need not seem strange to an alderman who eats turtle, nor to a West Indian who eats terrapin. Nor should snails, at least to the city of Paris, which devours myriads, nor of Ulm, which breeds millions for the table. Tortoises are good; snails excellent." Henry H. Gibbs.]

[Footnote 10: "It is nought all good to the goost that the gut asketh" we may well say with William who wrote _Piers Ploughmon_, v. 1, p. 17, l. 533-4, after reading the lists of things eatable, and dishes, in Russell's pages. The later feeds that Phylotheus Physiologus exclaims against[*] are nothing to them: "What an _Hodg-potch_ do most that have Abilities make in their Stomachs, which must wonderfully oppress and distract Nature: For if you should take _Flesh_ of various sorts, _Fish_ of as many, _Cabbages_, _Parsnops_, _Potatoes_, _Mustard_, _b.u.t.ter_, _Cheese_, a _Pudden_ that contains more then ten several Ingredents, _Tarts_, _Sweet-meats_, _Custards_, and add to these _Churries_, _Plums_, _Currans_, _Apples_, _Capers_, _Olives_, _Anchovies_, _Mangoes_, _Caveare_, _&c._, and jumble them altogether into one _Ma.s.s_, what Eye would not loath, what Stomach not abhor such a _Gallemaufrey?_ yet this is done every Day, and counted _Gallent Entertainment_."]

[Footnote 10*: Monthly Observations for the preserving of Health, 1686, p. 20-1.]

[Footnote 11: See descriptions of a dinner in Parker's Domestic Architecture of the Middle Ages, iii. 74-87 (with a good cut of the Cupboard, Dais, &c.), and in Wright's _Domestic Manners and Customs_. Russell's description of the Franklin's dinner, l.

795-818, should be noted for the sake of Chaucer's Franklin, and we may also notice that Russell orders b.u.t.ter and fruits to be served on an empty stomach before dinner, l. 77, as a whet to the appet.i.te. _Modus Cenandi_ serves potage first, and keeps the fruits, with the spices and biscuits, for dessert.]

[Footnote 12: The extracts from Bulleyn, Borde, Vaughan, and Harington are in the nature of notes, but their length gave one the excuse of printing them in bigger type as parts of a Text. In the same way I should have treated the many extracts from Laurens Andrewe, had I not wanted them intermixed with the other notes, and been also afraid of swelling this book to an unwieldy size.]

[Footnote 13: The Termes of a Kerver so common in MSS. are added, p. 151, and the subsequent arrangement of the modes of carving the birds under these Termes, p. 161-3. The Easter-Day feast (p. 162) is also new, the bit why the heads of pheasants, partridges, &c., are unwholesome--'for they ete in theyr degrees foule thynges, as wormes, todes, and other suche,' p. 165-6--and several other pieces.]

[Footnote 14: _do the_, l. 115, is _clothe_ in the MS.; _grayne_, l. 576 (see too ll. 589, 597,) is _grayue_, Scotch _greive_, A.S.

_gerefa_, a kind of bailiff; _resceyne_, ll. 547, 575, is _resceyue_, receive; &c.]

[Footnote 15: This is doubtless a different book from Hugh Rhodes's _Booke of Nurture & Schoole of Good Manners_, p. 71, below.]

[Footnote 16: What this _Edyllys Be_ means, I have no idea, and five or six other men I have asked are in the same condition. A.S.

_aeel_ is n.o.ble, _aeeling_, a prince, a n.o.ble; that may do for _edyllys_. _Be_ may be for A B C, alphabet, elementary grammar of behaviour.]

[Footnote 17: P.S. Mr Hazlitt, iv. 366, notices two others in MS.

Ashmole 59, art. 57, and in Cotton MS. Calig. A II. fol. 13, the latter of which and Ashmole 61, are, he says, of a different translation.]

[Footnote 18: See Hazlitt, iv. 366.]

[Footnote 19: The MS. has no t.i.tle. The one printed I have made up from bits of the text.]

[Footnote 20: Still one is truly thankful for the material in these unindexed books.]

[Footnote 21: Sharon Turner's _History of England_, vol. v. pp.

496-8.]

[Footnote 22: This is the stanza quoted by Dr Reinhold Pauli in his _Bilder aus Alt-England_, c. xi. p. 349:

"Herzog von Glocester nennen sie den Fursten, Der trotz des hohen Rangs und hoher Ehren Im Herzen nahrt ein dauerndes Gel.u.s.ten Nach Allem, was die alten Bucher lehren; So glucklich gross ist hierin sein Begehren, Da.s.s tugendsam er seine Zeit verbringt Und trunkne Tragheit manniglich bezwingt."

The reader should by all means consult this chapter, which is headed "Herzog Humfrid von Glocester. Bruchstuck eines Furstenlebens im funfzehnten Jahrhunderte" (Humphrey Duke of Gloucester. Sketch of the life of a prince in the fifteenth century). There is an excellent English translation of this book, published by Macmillan, and ent.i.tled "Pictures of Old England."

--W. W. Skeat.]

COLLATIONS.

These are given as a warning to other editors either to collate in foot-notes or not at all. The present plan takes up as much room as printing a fresh text would, and gives needless trouble to every one concerned.

[Transcriber's Note:

Each of these Collations will be repeated in or after the appropriate selection.]

p. 260. _The A B C of Aristotle_, Harl. MS. 1706, fol. 94, collated by Mr Brock, omits the prologue, and begins after l. 14 with, "Here be-gynneth{e} Arystoles A B C. made be mayster Benett."

A, _for_ argue not _read_ Angre the B, _omit_ ne; _for_ not to large _read_ thou nat to brode D, ; _for_ not _read_ thow nat E, ; _for_ to eernesful _read_ ne curyons F, _for_ fers, famuler, freendli, _read_ Ferde, familier, frenfull{e} G, _omit_ to; _for_ & gelosie ou hate, _read_ Ne to galaunt never H, _for_ in ine _read_ off I, _for_ iettynge _read_ Iocunde; _for_ iape not to _read_ Ioye thow nat K, _omit_ to _and_ &; _for_ knaue _read_ knaves L, _for_ for to leene _read_ ne to lovyng; _for_ goodis _read_ woordys M, _for_ medelus _read_ Mellous; _for_ but as mesure wole it meeue _read_ ne to besynesse vnleffull{e} N, _for_ ne use no new iettis _read_ ne nought{e} to neffangle O, _for_ ouerwart _read_ ouertwarth{e}; _for_ & oois ou hate _read_ Ne othez to haunte Q, _for_ quarelose _read_ querelous; _for_ weel ?oure souereyns _read_ men all{e} abowte R, _omit the second_ to; _for_ not to rudeli _read_ thou nat but lyte S, _for_ ne straungeli to stare _read_ Ne starte nat abowte T, _for_ for temperaunce is best _read_ But temp{er}ate euer{e} V, _for_ ne &c. _read_ ne violent Ne waste nat to moche W, _for_ neier &c. _read_ Ne to wyse deme the

-- _for_ is euere e beste of _read_ ys best for vs

_Add_ =X Y Z= x y wych{e} esed & p{er} se.

Tytell{e} Tytell{e} Tytell{e} than Esta Amen.

p. 265, _The Lytylle Childrenes Lytil Boke_, with part of the Advocates Library MS., fol. 84, back (collated by Mr David Laing).

l. 1, _for_ children _read_ childur l. 2, _dele_ at l. 3 _dele_ For l. 6, _for_ with mary, _read_ oure Lady l. 7, _for_ arn _read_ byn l. 9, _prefix_ Forst _to_ Loke and _for_ wa.s.she _read_ wa.s.shyd l. 12, _for_ tylle _read_ to l. 13, _prefix_ And _to_ Loke l. 14, _is_, To he y^t reweleth y^e howse y^e bytt l. 16, _put the_ that _between_ loke _and_ on l. 17, _for_ without any faylys _read_ withowtte fayle l. 18, _for_ hungery aylys _read_ empty ayle l. 20, _for_ ete esely _read_ etett eysely p. 267, l. 25, _for_ mosselle _read_ morsselle l. 26, _for_ in _read_ owt of l. 30, _for_ Into thy _read_ nor in the _for_ thy salte _read_ hit l. 31, _for_ fayre on i _read_ on a l. 32, _for_ The byfore _read_ Byfore the _and dele_ yne ll. 33-4, _are_ Pyke not y^i tethe wyth y^i knyfe Whyles y^u etyst be y^i lyfe