Burnysshe no bones / with your teth / beware
[Sidenote: Don't burnish bones with your teeth.]
Suche houndis tacches / falle of vncurtesye
But with your knyf / make the bones bare 234
Handle your mete / so wel and so clenly
[Sidenote: Handle your food cleanly,]
That ye offende not the company
Where ye be sette / as ferfort[=h] as ye can
Reme_m_bryng wel / that manners make ma[=n]. 238
[Sidenote: for Manners make Man.]
[35]
And_e_ whan that / ye ete your mete small_e_
With open mout[=h] / beware ye not ete
[Sidenote: Eat with your lips closed]
But loke your lippea / be closed as a wall_e_ 241
Whan to and_e_ fro / ye trauerse your mete
Kepe you so cloos / that men haue no co_n_seite
To say of you / ony langage or vilonye
Bicause ye ete your mete / vnmanerly 245
* * * * *
THE ORIEL TEXT.
[36]
Be ware, my child, of laughing ou_er_ mesure,
Ye shall not Also at the borde your_e_ naylis pare,
Ne pike not your_e_ teth wyth your_e_ knyff, I you ensure,
Ete at your_e_ messe, and odir folkes spare; 249
A glottou_n_ can but make dissches bare,
And of Inough he taketh neu_er_ hede,
He fedith for lust more than[1] he doth for nede.
[Sidenote 1: MS. that.]
[37]
And whan the borde is then [as] of s_er_uice, 253
Not replenyshide wyth gret diuercite,
Of mete and drincke good chere may than suffice,
Hit is A signe of gret humanite, 256
Wyth gladsom chere than fulsom for to be;
The poet seyth howe that the poure borde
Men may encrese wyth cherefull wille and worde.
[38]