Part 16 (1/2)

”[a] Beside these things I could in like sort set downe the waies and meanes, wherby our ancient ladies of the court doo shun and auoid idlenesse, some of them exercising their fingers with the needle, other in caul-worke, diuerse in spinning of silke, some in continuall reading either of the holie scriptures, or histories of our owne or forren nations about vs, and diuerse in writing volumes of their owne, or translating of other mens into our English and Latine toong, [b] whilest the yoongest sort in the meane time applie their lutes, citharnes, p.r.i.c.kesong, and all kind of musike, which they vse onelie for recreation sake, when they haue leisure, and are free from attendance vpon the queenes maiestie, or such as they belong vnto. [c] How manie of the eldest sort also are skilfull in surgerie and distillation of waters, beside sundrie other artificiall practises perteining to the ornature and commendations of their bodies, I might (if I listed to deale further in this behalfe) easilie declare, but I pa.s.se ouer such maner of dealing, least I should seeme to glauer, and currie fauour with some of them. Neuerthelesse this I will generallie saie of them all, that as [d] ech of them are cuning in somthing wherby they keepe themselues occupied in the court, so there is in maner none of them, but when they be at home, can helpe to supplie the ordinarie want of the kitchen with a number of delicat dishes of their owne deuising, [e] wherein the Portingall is their cheefe counsellor, as some of them are most commonlie with the clearke of the kitchen, who vseth (by a tricke taken vp of late) [f] to giue in a breefe rehearsall of such and so manie dishes as are to come in at euerie course throughout the whole seruice in the dinner or supper while: which bill some doo call a [g] memoriall, other a billet, but some a fillet, bicause such are commonlie hanged on the file, and kept by the ladie or gentlewoman vnto some other purpose. But whither am I digressed?”

--1577, W. HARRISON, in _Holinshed's Chronicles_, vol. I. p. 196, ed. 1586.

[Sidenotes (all bracketed in original): [[a] Ancient ladies' employments.]

[[b] Young ladies' recreations.]

[[c] Old ladies' skill in surgery, &c.]

[[d] All are cunning [e] in cookery, helped by the Portuguese.]

[[f] Introduction of the _Carte_, [g] Memorial, Billet or Fillet.]]

[Footnote 1: This MS. contains a copy of ”The Rewle of the Moone,”

fol. 49-67, which I hope to edit for the Society.]

[Footnote 2: The next treatise to Russell in this MS. is ”The booke off the gou{er}naunce off Kyngis and Pryncis,” or _Liber Aristotiles ad Alexandrum Magnum_, a book of Lydgate's that we ought to print from the best MS. of it. At fol. 74 b. is a heading,--

Here dyed this translatour and n.o.ble poette Lidgate and the yong follower gan his prolog on this wys.]

[Footnote 3: One can fancy that a cook like Wolsey's (described by Cavendish, vol. i. p. 34), ”a Master Cook who went daily in damask satin, or velvet, with a chain of gold about his neck” (a mark of n.o.bility in earlier days), would be not _leef_ but _loth_ to obey an usher and marshal.]

[Footnote 4: Warton, ii. 264-8, ed. 1840. For further details about the Duke see the Appendix to this Preface.]

[Footnote 5: See one MS., ”How to serve a Lord,” ab. 1500 A.D., quoted in the notes to the Camden Society's Italian Relation of England, p. 97.]

[Footnote 6: For the Early English Text Society.]

[Footnote 7: I have put figures before the motions in the dress and undress drills, for they reminded me so of ”Manual and Platoon: by numbers.”]

[Footnote 8: Mr Way says that the _planere_, l. 58, is an article new to antiquarians.]

[Footnote 9: Randle Holme's tortoise and snails, in No. 12 of his Second Course, Bk. III., p. 60, col. 1, are stranger still.

”Tortoise need not seem strange to an alderman who eats turtle, nor to a West Indian who eats terrapin. Nor should snails, at least to the city of Paris, which devours myriads, nor of Ulm, which breeds millions for the table. Tortoises are good; snails excellent.” Henry H. Gibbs.]

[Footnote 10: ”It is nought all good to the goost that the gut asketh” we may well say with William who wrote _Piers Ploughmon_, v. 1, p. 17, l. 533-4, after reading the lists of things eatable, and dishes, in Russell's pages. The later feeds that Phylotheus Physiologus exclaims against[*] are nothing to them: ”What an _Hodg-potch_ do most that have Abilities make in their Stomachs, which must wonderfully oppress and distract Nature: For if you should take _Flesh_ of various sorts, _Fish_ of as many, _Cabbages_, _Parsnops_, _Potatoes_, _Mustard_, _b.u.t.ter_, _Cheese_, a _Pudden_ that contains more then ten several Ingredents, _Tarts_, _Sweet-meats_, _Custards_, and add to these _Churries_, _Plums_, _Currans_, _Apples_, _Capers_, _Olives_, _Anchovies_, _Mangoes_, _Caveare_, _&c._, and jumble them altogether into one _Ma.s.s_, what Eye would not loath, what Stomach not abhor such a _Gallemaufrey?_ yet this is done every Day, and counted _Gallent Entertainment_.”]

[Footnote 10*: Monthly Observations for the preserving of Health, 1686, p. 20-1.]

[Footnote 11: See descriptions of a dinner in Parker's Domestic Architecture of the Middle Ages, iii. 74-87 (with a good cut of the Cupboard, Dais, &c.), and in Wright's _Domestic Manners and Customs_. Russell's description of the Franklin's dinner, l.

795-818, should be noted for the sake of Chaucer's Franklin, and we may also notice that Russell orders b.u.t.ter and fruits to be served on an empty stomach before dinner, l. 77, as a whet to the appet.i.te. _Modus Cenandi_ serves potage first, and keeps the fruits, with the spices and biscuits, for dessert.]

[Footnote 12: The extracts from Bulleyn, Borde, Vaughan, and Harington are in the nature of notes, but their length gave one the excuse of printing them in bigger type as parts of a Text. In the same way I should have treated the many extracts from Laurens Andrewe, had I not wanted them intermixed with the other notes, and been also afraid of swelling this book to an unwieldy size.]

[Footnote 13: The Termes of a Kerver so common in MSS. are added, p. 151, and the subsequent arrangement of the modes of carving the birds under these Termes, p. 161-3. The Easter-Day feast (p. 162) is also new, the bit why the heads of pheasants, partridges, &c., are unwholesome--'for they ete in theyr degrees foule thynges, as wormes, todes, and other suche,' p. 165-6--and several other pieces.]

[Footnote 14: _do the_, l. 115, is _clothe_ in the MS.; _grayne_, l. 576 (see too ll. 589, 597,) is _grayue_, Scotch _greive_, A.S.

_gerefa_, a kind of bailiff; _resceyne_, ll. 547, 575, is _resceyue_, receive; &c.]