Hold you pleased with the meat and drink set before you, nor ask for better. Wipe your mouth before you drink lest it foul the edge of the cup; and keep your fingers, your lips and your chin clean, if you would win a good name. When your meat is in your mouth, do not drink or speak or laugh—Dame Courtesy forbids. Praise your fare, wheresoever you be, for whether it be good or bad it must be taken in good part.
Whether you spit near or far, hold your hand before your mouth to hide it.
Keep your knife clean and sharp, and cleanse it on some cut bread, not on the cloth, I bid you; a courteous man is careful of the cloth. Do not put your spoon in the dish or on the edge of it, as the untaught do, or make a noise when you sup as do boys. Do not put the meat off your trencher into the dish, but get a voider and empty it into that.
When your better hands you a cup, take it with both hands lest it fall, and drink yourself and set it by; and if he speaks to you, doff your cap and bow your knee.
Do not scratch yourself at the table so that men call you a daw,[[69]] nor wipe your nose or nostrils, else men will say you are come of churls. Make neither the cat nor the dog your fellow at the table. And do not play with the spoon, or your trencher, or your knife; but lead your life in cleanliness and honest manners.
This book is made for young children that bide not long at the school.[[70]] It may soon be conned and learned, and will make them good if they be bad. God give them grace to be virtuous, for so may they thrive.
Amen! quoth Kate.[[70]]
STANS PUER AD MENSAM[[71]]
MY dear son, first thyself enable
With all thine heart to virtuous discipline;