Page:A History of Domestic Manners and Sentiments in England During the Middle Ages.djvu/171

 and Sentiments. 151 for want of other weapons, fnatched from the hands of one of the attend- ants a long fpit " full of plovers, which were hot and roafted :" — hi dus avo'it un grant hajiier fa'tji, Plain de ploviers, qui chaut Junt et rojii. — Romans de Garin, ii. 19. But the mofl curious illuftration of the univerfality of this praftice is found in a Latin ftory, probably of the thirteenth century, in which we are told of a man who had a glutton for his wife. One day he roafted for their dinner a fowl, and when they had fat down at the table, the wife faid, "Give me a wing?" The hulband gave her the wing; and. No. 106. Bringing the Dinner into Hall. at her demand, all the other members in fuccelTion, until Ihe had devoured the whole fowl herfelf, at which, no longer able to contain his anger, he faid, " Lo, you have eaten the whole fowl yourfelf, and nothing remains but the fpit, which it is but right that you lliould tafte alfo." And thereupon he took the fpit, and beat her feverely with it. Our cut (No. 106), taken from a large illumination, given from a manufcript of the fifteenth century by the late M. du Sommerard, in his great work on mediaeval art, reprefents the fervants of the hall, headed by the fteward, or mmtre d' hotel, with his rod of office, bringing the di flies