Page:A History of Domestic Manners and Sentiments in England During the Middle Ages.djvu/179

 and Sentiments. 159 The praftice is alluded to in the romance of SirTrirtrem (fytte i. ft. i.)— The kyng no fey d no more^ Bot ivejche and yede (went) to mete ; Bred thai pard and fc hare (cut), Tnough thai hadde at ete. It was the duty of the almoner to fay grace. The following direftions are given in the Boke of Curtafye (p. 30) : — The aumenere by this hat he fay de grace. And the almef-dyffhe hafe fett in place ; Therin the kar-ver a lofe fchalle fette, To f ewe Godfyrfl -without en lette ; Thefe othere hfes he parys aboute. Lays hit myd (with) dyffhe, ivithouten doute. The ufe of the tranchoir, which Froiffart calls a tailloir, is not unfre- quently alluded to in the older French writers. That writer tells the 10. A Dii Scene. ftory of a prince who, having received poifon in a powder, and fufpefting it, put it on a tailloir of bread, and thus gave it to a dog to eat. One of the French poets of the tifteenth century. Martial de Paris, fpeaking againft the extravagant tables kept by the biihcjps at that time, exclaims, "Alas! what have the poor? They have only the tranchoirs of bread which