Page:A History of Domestic Manners and Sentiments in England During the Middle Ages.djvu/389

 and Sentiments. 369 Another pra6lice ftriftly forbidden in thefe rules was picking your teeth with your knife while at table. From the ufe thus made of the hand, in the abfence of forks, it may be fuppofed that we Ihould have direftions for keeping it clean during the procefs of eating. One of thefe appears droll enough to us at the prefent day. It is direfted that a perfon fitting at table in company is not to blow his nofe with the hand with which he takes his meat. Handkerchiefs were not yet in ufe, and the alternative of courfe was that, if any one felt the need of performing the operation in queftion, he was to lay down his knife, and to do it with the hand which held it. In one of the French codes this diredion is given rather covertly, as follows : — Ne touche ton ncz, a main nue Dont ta viande ejl tenue. But in another it is enunciated more crudely, thus : — Enfant, je ton ne% eji mor'veux, Ne le torche de la main nue De quoy ta T'.ande ejl tenue ; Lefait ejl 'vilain et honteux. All thefe circumftances fliow a ftate of manners which was very far from refined. Among other diredions for table, you are told not to leave your fpoon in your platter ; not to return back to your plate the food you have put in your mouth ; not to dip your meat in the falt-cellar to fait it, but to take a little fait on your knife and put it on the meat 5 not to drink from a cup with a dirty mouth 3 not to offer to another perfon the remains of your pottage ; not to eat much cheefe ; to take only two or three nuts, when they are placed before you ; not to play with your knife ; not to roll your napkin into a cord, or tie it in knots j and not to get intoxicated during dinner-time ! Our next cut (No. 240) reprefents one of the backed feats, after a pattern of this century. It is taken from a manufcript of the romance of Launcelot du Lac, in the National Library at Paris (No. 594). It is probable that this feat belonged to the parlour, or, as the name fignifies, 3 B converfation