Page:A History of Domestic Manners and Sentiments in England During the Middle Ages.djvu/476

 456 Hijiory of Domejlic Maimers appears to have varied between eleven and twelve. In a book entitled the " Haven of Health," written by a phylician named Cogan, and printed in 1 584, we are told : "When foure houres be paft after breake- faft, a man may fafely take his dinner, and the moft convenient time for dinner is about eleven of the clocke before noone. The ufual time for dinner in the imiverfities is at eleven, or elfewhere about noon," In Beaumont and Fletcher, the hour of dinner was ftill eleven ; "I never come into my dining-room," fays Merrythought, in the "Knight of the Burning Peftle," "but at eleven and fix o'clock." "What hour is't, LoUis?" afks a charafter in the "Changeling," by their contemporary Middleton. " Towards eating-hour, fir." "Dinnertime? thou mean'fl: twelve o'clock." And other writers at the beginning of the feventeenth century fpeak of twelve o'clock and feven as the hours of dinner and fupper. This continued to be the ufual hour of dinner at the clofe of the fame century. During the reign of Elizabeth, and afterwards, perfons of both fexes appear to have broken their fafl; in the fame fubflantial manner as was obferved by the Percies at the beginning of the century, and as defcribed in a previous chapter 3 yet, though generally but four hours interpofed between this and the hour of dinner, people feem to have thought it neceffary to take a fmall luncheon in the interval, which, no doubt from its confifting chiefly in drinking, was called a lever. "At ten," fays a chara6ler in one of Middleton's plays, "we drink, that's mouth-hour 5 at eleven, lay about us for viftuals, that's hand-hour; at twelve, go to dinner, that's eating-hour." "Your gallants," fays Appetitus, in the old play of " Lingua," " never fup, breakfaft, nor bever without me." The dinner was the largefl: and mofl: ceremonious meal of the day. The hearty chara6ter of this meal is remarked by a foreign traveller in England, who publiflied his"Memoires et Obfervations" in French in 1698. "Les Anglois," he tells us, "mangent beaucoup a diner; ils man- gent a reprifes, et rempliflent le fac. Leur fouper efl; leger. Gloutons a midi, fort fobres au foir," In the fixteenth century, dinner ftill began with the fame ceremonious walliing of hands as formerly ; and there was confiderable oftentation in the ewers and bafins ufed for this purpofe. Our