A History of Domestic Manners and Sentiments in England During the Middle Ages

by Thomas Wright

I shall at the towne agayne
Prepare for you a banket,
Of metys that be most delycate,
And most pleasaunt drynkes and wynes therate,
That is possyble to get.
Which shall be in a chamber feyre
Preparyd poynt devyse (in perfection),
With damaske water made so well
That all the howse thereof shall smell
As it were Paradyse.

In “Acolastus,” a work by the grammarian Palsgrave, published in 1540, the banquet is still identified with the rere-supper, when he speaks of “the rere-supper, or banket, where men syt downe to drynke and eate agayne after their meate.” And again, still later, Higins, in his “Nomenclator,” published in 1585, explains the Latin word pocœnium by “a reare-supper, or a banket after supper.” The term rere-supper was in use throughout the fifteenth century. An English vocabulary of that century speaks of a meal between dinner and supper, under the name of “a myd-dyner under-mete,” the same which, no doubt, was called by a French word, a bever, as consisting especially in taking a drink, and which, removed to the time between breakfast and dinner, is now called a luncheon.

In the introduction to Lydgate’s “Story of Thebes,” which is introduced as a continuation of the “Canterbury Tales,” the poet pretends to have arrived at the inn in Canterbury when it was occupied by the pilgrims, who invite him to sup with them, and he joins their company. “Our host,” who is the leader of the pilgrims, offers him his place at their supper heartily: Praying you (he says) to suppe with us this night,
And ye shall have made, at your devis,
A great pudding, or a round hagis,
A French moile, a tansie, or a froise.
These appear to have been the usual favourite dishes at an ordinary supper of this date (the first half of the fifteenth century). The hagis appears to have been much the same dish as the Scottish haggis of the present day. The moile was a dish made of marrow and grated bread. The tansie was a kind of omelet, resembling apparently what the French now call an omelette aux fines herbes; while the froise had small strips of bacon in it—an omelette au lard. This latter was a very favourite dish among the monks. After supper, the guests, or at least some of them, are represented as taking “strong nottie ale” before going to bed. They rise early, “anon as it is day,” and start on their return towards London; and they take no meal before dinner, having it

Fully in purpose to come to dinere
Unto Ospring, and breake there our fast.

There is a longer preface to the supplementary tale of “Beryn,” written about the same date as the “Story of Thebes,” and printed in the edition of Chaucer’s works by Urry, in which the divisions of the day are tolerably well described. The pilgrims there arrived at their destination in Canterbury “at mydmorowe,” which is interpreted in the glossaries as meaning nine o’clock in the forenoon, and then took their lodgings, “ordeyned” their dinner, and, while it was preparing, went to make their offerings to the shrine of St. Thomas in the cathedral church. Meanwhile the Pardoner had separated from the company, and engaged in a low intrigue with the “tapster,” or barmaid, who offers him a drink, but he tells her he had not yet broken his fast—we are to conclude that this was the case with the rest of the company—and She start into the town, and set a py al hote.
Meat pies appear to have been very common articles of food in the middle ages, and to have been kept always ready at the cooks’ shops. The offering seems to have taken but a small space of time, and then— They set their signys upon their hedes, and som oppon their capp,
And sith to the dyner-ward they gan for to stapp (step);
Every man in his degré wissh (washed) and toke his sete,
As they wer wont to doon at soper and at mete;
And wer in silence for a tyme, tyl good ale gan arise.
It appears, therefore, that people did not hold conversation while eating, but that the talk and mirth began with the liquor, whether ale or wine. It was then agreed that they should remain that day in Canterbury, and all sup together at night— “Then al this after-mete I hold it for the best
To sport and pley us,” quod the hoost, “ech man as hym lest (likes),
And go by tyme to soper, and to bed also,
So mowe we erly rysen, our jorney for to do”.
Accordingly they all walk forth into the city, where the knight, who with his son had put on fresh gowns, took the latter to the town walls to explain to him their strength, and the character of the defences; and as many of the rest as had changes of apparel with them imitated their example, and they separated in parties, according to their different tastes. The monk, the parson, and the friar, went to visit some clerical acquaintance, and indulged in spiced wine. The ladies remained at home:— The wyfe of Bath was so wery, she had no wyl to walk;
She toke the priores by the honde, “Madam, wol ye stalk
Pryvely into the garden to se the herbis growe?
And after with our hostis wife in her parlour rowe (talk)?
I wol gyve yowe the wyne, and ye shul me also;
For tyl we go to soper we have naught ellis to do.”
The prioress assents to this proposal— —and forth gon they wend,
Passing forth sofftly into the herbery;
For many a herb grew for sewe (pottage) and surgery;
And all the aleys fair and parid, and raylid, and ymakid;
The sauge and the isope yfrethid and istakid;
And othir beddis by and by fresh ydight,
For comers to the hooste right a sportful sight.
When the guests reassembled, they agreed that the knight should be their “marshall” of the table, and he ordered them all to wash, and then appointed them to their seats, that they might be properly seated together, for this was part of his duty. They thus sat two and two, each couple, no doubt, at one dish— They wissh (washed), and sett right as he bad, eche man wyth his fere,
And begonne to talk of sportis and of chere
That they had the aftir-mete whiles they wer out;
For othir occupacioune, tyll they wer servid about,
They had not at that tyme, but eny man kitt (cut) a loff.
Thus it would appear that nothing eatable was as yet placed on the table but bread. Presently, the supper was served round to them, of which there was only one “service,” out of courtesy on the part of the rich members of the company towards those who were poor, as there was to be an equal division of the expenses of the supper. In return, the highest places of the table were yielded to the persons of best estate, and these, as an acknowledgment, gave a cup of wine round at their own expense, and then left the table to retire to their beds. But the less genteel of the company, the miller and the cook, with the sompnour, the yeoman, the reeve, and the manciple, remained “drinking by the moon,”—that is, they had no candle. There was, however, one candle in the bedroom, which seems to have served to light the whole company,—for it is evident that they all slept in beds in one room,—and this candle was only put out when they were all gone to bed, which was the moment the Pardoner awaited to steal away and pursue his intrigue. Next morning they were out of their beds so early that they left the town on their homeward journey at sunrise.

CHAPTER XIX.
THE CHAMBER AND ITS FURNITURE AND USES.—BEDS.—HUTCHES AND COFFERS.—THE TOILETTE; MIRRORS.

The chambers were now, except in smaller houses, mostly above the ground-floor; and, as I have already observed, the privacy of the chamber was much greater than formerly. In the poem of “Lady Bessy,” quoted in a former chapter (the whole poem is given in Mr. Halliwell’s privately printed “Palatine Anthology”), when the earl of Derby was plotting with the lady Bessy for calling in the earl of Richmond, he proposed to repair secretly to her in her chamber, in order to prepare the letters:— “We must depart (separate), lady,” the earle said then;
“Wherefore keep this matter secretly,
And this same night, betwix nine and ten,
In your chamber I think to be.
Look that you make all things ready,
Your maids shall not our councell hear,
For I will bring no man with me
But Humphrey Brereton, my true esquire.”
He took his leave of that lady fair,
And to her chamber she went full light,
And for all things she did prepare,
Both pen and ink, and paper white.
The earl, on his part,—

—unto his study went,
Forecasting with all his might
To bring to pass all his intent;
He took no rest till it was night,
And when the stars shone fair and bright,
He him disguised in strange mannere;
He went unknown of any wight,
No more with him but his esquire.
And when he came her chamber near,
Full privily there can he stand;
To cause the lady to appeare
He made a sign with his right hand.
And when the lady there him wist,
She was as glad as she might be;
Charcoals in chimneys there were cast,
Candles on sticks standing full high.
She opened the wickett, and let him in,
And said, “Welcome, lord and knight soe free!”
A rich chair was set for him,
And another for that fair lady;
They ate the spice, and drank the wine,
He had all things at his intent.

No. 256. Interior of the Chamber.