────────────────
Courteous he was, lowly, and serviceáble,
And carved before his father at the table.”
But the Prioress outmatched him, having possibly learned her manners in the French of “Stratford-atte-Bowe,” in Les Contenances de la Table, or some such thing:
“At meatë well y-taught was she withal,
She let no morsel from her lippës fall,
Nor wet her fingers in her saucë deep:
Well could she carry a morsel, and well keep,
That no dropë did fall upon her breast;
In courtesy was set full much her lest.[[4]]