There were claret and Crete wine in clear silver fountains
Rhenish wine and Rochelle and wine from Mount Rose
All in flagons of fine gold; and on the fair cupboard
Stood store of gilt goblets glorious of hue,
Sixty of one set, with jewels on their sides.
When the banquet was over the guests washed their hands in rosewater and partook of wine and spices in another chamber.
But the poor were much oppressed. Their fare was very simple, a loaf of beans and bran, an oaten cake with cheese or curds and cream, and sometimes perhaps parsley and leeks or cherries and apples in their season.
Of the poor ploughman, the poet sang,
His coat of the cloth that is named carry-marry,
His hood full of holes, with the hair sticking through them;