The books of demeanour which have been
collected by Mr. Furnivall for the Early
English Text Society have their incidental
value as illustrating the immediate theme,
and are curious, from the growth in consecu-
tive compilations of the code of instructions
for behaviour at table, as evidences of an
increasing cultivation both in manners and
the variety of appliances for domestic use,
including relays of knives for the successive
courses. Distinctions were gradually drawn
between genteel and vulgar or coarse ways
of eating, and facilities were provided for
keeping the food from direct contact with
the fingers, and other primitive offences
against decorum. Many of the precepts
in the late fifteenth century “ Babies’ Book,”
while they demonstrate the necessity for
Etiquette of the Table. 257
admonition, speak also to an advance in
politeness and delicacy at table. There
must be a beginning somewhere ; and the
authors of these guides to deportment had
imbibed the feeling for something higher and
better, before they undertook to communicate
their views to the young generation.
There is no doubt that the “ Babies’ Book”
and its existing congeners are the successors
of anterior and still more imperfect attempts
to introduce at table some degree of clean-
liness and decency. When the “ Babies’
Book” made its appearance, the progress in
this direction must have been immense. But
the observance of such niceties was of course
at first exceptional; and the ideas which
we see here embodied were very sparingly
carried into practice outside the verge of the
Court itself and the homes of a few of the
aristocracy.
There may be an inclination to revolt
against the barbarous doggerel in which the
instruction is, as a rule, conveyed, and against
the tedious process of perusing a series of pro-
ductions which follow mainly the same lines.
s
258 Etiquette of the Table.
But it is to be recollected that these manuals
were necessarily renewed in the manuscript
form from age to age, with variations and addi-
tions, and that the writers resorted to metre as
a means of impressing the rules of conduct
more forcibly on their pupils.
Of all the works devoted to the manage-
ment of the table and kitchen, the “ Book of
Nurture,” by John Russell, usher of the
chamber and marshal of the ball to Humphrey,
Duke of Gloucester, is perhaps, on the whole,
the most elaborate, most trustworthy, and
most important. It leaves little connected
with the cuisine of a noble establishment of
the fifteenth century untouched and unex-
plained; and although it assumes the metrical
form, and in a literary respect is a dreary per-
formance, its value as a guide to almost every
branch of the subject is indubitable. It lays
bare to our eyes the entire machinery of the
household, and we gain a clearer insight from
it than from the rest of the group of treatises,
not merely into what a great man of those
daysand his familyand retainers ate and drank,
and how they used to behave themselves at
Etiquette oj the Table.
259
table, but into the process of making various
drinks, the mystery of carving, and the division
of duties among the members of the staff.
It is, in fact, the earliest comprehensive book
in our literature.
Page 81
Presented as published in 1886. Historical recipes may not meet modern food-safety standards. Cook from the modern interpretation, not the original instructions.
AI-modernized reading of the original text
The books of demeanour which have been collected by Mr. Furnivall for the Early English Text Society have their incidental value as illustrating the immediate theme, and are curious, from the growth in consecutive compilations of the code of instructions for behaviour at table, as evidences of an increasing cultivation both in manners and the variety of appliances for domestic use, including relays of knives for the successive courses. Distinctions were gradually drawn between genteel and vulgar or coarse ways of eating, and facilities were provided for keeping the food from direct contact with the fingers, and other primitive offences against decorum. Many of the precepts in the late fifteenth century “ Babies’ Book,” while they demonstrate the necessity for
Etiquette of the Table. 257
admonition, speak also to an advance in politeness and delicacy at table. There must be a beginning somewhere ; and the authors of these guides to deportment had imbibed the feeling for something higher and better, before they undertook to communicate their views to the young generation.
There is no doubt that the “ Babies’ Book” and its existing congeners are the successors of anterior and still more imperfect attempts to introduce at table some degree of cleanliness and decency. When the “ Babies’ Book” made its appearance, the progress in this direction must have been immense. But the observance of such niceties was of course at first exceptional; and the ideas which we see here embodied were very sparingly carried into practice outside the verge of the Court itself and the homes of a few of the aristocracy.
There may be an inclination to revolt against the barbarous doggerel in which the instruction is, as a rule, conveyed, and against the tedious process of perusing a series of productions which follow mainly the same lines.
s
258 Etiquette of the Table.
But it is to be recollected that these manuals were necessarily renewed in the manuscript form from age to age, with variations and additions, and that the writers resorted to metre as a means of impressing the rules of conduct more forcibly on their pupils.
Of all the works devoted to the management of the table and kitchen, the “ Book of Nurture,” by John Russell, usher of the chamber and marshal of the ball to Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester, is perhaps, on the whole, the most elaborate, most trustworthy, and most important. It leaves little connected with the cuisine of a noble establishment of the fifteenth century untouched and unexplained; and although it assumes the metrical form, and in a literary respect is a dreary performance, its value as a guide to almost every branch of the subject is indubitable. It lays bare to our eyes the entire machinery of the household, and we gain a clearer insight from it than from the rest of the group of treatises, not merely into what a great man of those daysand his familyand retainers ate and drank, and how they used to behave themselves at
Etiquette oj the Table.
table, but into the process of making various drinks, the mystery of carving, and the division of duties among the members of the staff. It is, in fact, the earliest comprehensive book in our literature.