Page:A History of Domestic Manners and Sentiments in England During the Middle Ages.djvu/180

 i6o Hiflory of Domejlic Marnier s which remain on the table." An ordinance of the dauphin Humbert II., of the date of 1336, orders that there fhould be ferved to him at table every day " loaves of white bread for the mouth, and four fmall loaves to ferve for tranchoirs" {pro inciforio faciendo). For great people, a filver platter was often put under the tranchoir, and it was probable from the extenfion of that praftice that the tranchoirs became ultimately aban- doned, and the platters took their place. We give three examples of dinner-fcenes, from manufcripts of the four- teenth century. The lirft, cut No. no (on the laft page), is taken from a manufcript belonging to the National Library in Paris, No. 7210, containing No. A King- at Dinner. the " Pelerinage de la Vie Humaine." The party are eating fifli, or rather have been eating tliem, for the bones and remnants are ftrewed over the table. We have, in addition to thefe, the bread, knives, falt-cellars, and cups ; and on the ground a remarkable colle6lion of jugs for holding the liquors. Our fecond example, cut No. iii, is taken from an illuminated manufcript of the romance of Meliadus, preferved in the Britilli Mufeum (Additional MS., No. 12,228). We have here the curtain or tapeftry hung behind the fingle table. The man to the left is probably the fteward, or the fuperior of the hall ; next to him is the cup-bearer ferving the