During the dinner or supper of the king, a group of lordly courtiers stand behind his chair, and endeavour—though frequently in vain—to divert him, and make him laugh; and another group, composed of ladies of the court, stand behind the queen’s chair, who, on their part, try to amuse her, and excite a smile.
Whether the king eat in public or private, the table is always served in the same manner:—
| AT DINNER. | |
| TWO LARGE TERRINES OF SOUP. TWO MIDDLING-SIZED ONES. TWO SMALL ONES AS SIDE DISHES. | |
| FIRST COURSE. | SECOND COURSE. |
| TWO LARGE DISHES. | TWO LARGE DISHES OF ROAST. |
| TWO MIDDLING-SIZED ONES. | TWO MORE, AS SIDE DISHES. |
| SIX SMALL ONES, AS SIDE DISHES. | |
| AT SUPPER. | |
| The same number of dishes, only there is but three-fourths of the quantity of soup. | |
The king eats only with the royal family and princes of the blood.
Sometimes, however, the Pope’s nuncio has the honour of sitting at his table, but always at the distance of four places.[XXIX_96]
The luxury of the table was carried so far under Edward III. of England, that that prince was constrained, in the 17th year of his reign, to impose sumptuary laws on his subjects, forbidding the common people the indulgence of costly food and fine wines.[XXIX_97]
The necessity for this measure is demonstrated by the fact, of which we read in the chronicles of Stow,[XXIX_98] that, “at the marriage of Lionel, Duke of Clarence, the third son of Edward III., with Violentis, the daughter of Galeasius II., Duke of Milan, there was a rich feast, in which above thirty courses were served at the table, and the fragments that remained were more than sufficient to have served a thousand people.”
The same chronicler also informs us that King Richard II. held the Christmas feasts in the great hall of Westminster in 1399, “and such numbers came, that every day there were slain twenty-six or twenty-eight oxen and three hundred sheep, besides fowls without number.”[XXIX_99]
Richard Nevil, Earl of Warwick, kept so good a table, that his guests often eat six fat oxen for their breakfast.[XXIX_100] “In number of dishes and change of meate,” says Holinshed,[XXIX_101] “the nobilitie of Englande do most exceede, sith there is no daye in maner that passeth over their heades, wherein they have not onely beefe, mutton, veale, lambe, kidde, pork, conie, capon, pigge, or so many of these as the season yieldeth, but also some portion of the redde or fallow deere, beside great varietie of fishe and wilde fowle, and thereto sundrie other delicates, wherein the sweet hand of the portingale is not wanting.”