Cousteaulx, pain, vin et puis viande,
Puis apporter ce qu’on demande.
In the “Haven of Health” (Thomas Coghan, London, 1636) are these verses, quoted from an earlier author:—
Sal primo poni debet, primoque reponi,
Omnis mensa male ponitur absque sale.
A curious little treatise, with the title “How to serve a Lord,” specifies how the principal salt-cellar shall be placed:—
Thenne here-uppon the boteler or panter shall bring forthe his pryncipall salte … he shall sette the saler in the myddys of the tabull accordyng to the place where the principall soverain shall sette … thenne the seconde salte att the lower ende … then salte selers shall be sette uppon the syde tablys.
The custom of placing salt upon the table before all else is thought to have originated in the ancient conception of this substance as the symbol of friendship; and indeed no banquet, however elaborate, was complete without it. The salt was, moreover, the last article to be removed from the hospitable board.
It was as though our forefathers thereby intended that the guests, seeing salt on the table, might realize that they were “invited in love and were loved before they came;” and the fact that it was allowed to remain after the other dishes had been removed might serve to remind them that while feasts, like many other good things, come to an end, love and friendship may be perpetual.[338]