Page:A History of Domestic Manners and Sentiments in England During the Middle Ages.djvu/478

 45 8 Hijiory of Do??2eJiic Manners he lliall be at the leaft brow-beaten, if not reprehended in wordes. This forme of feeding I underftand is generally ufed in all places of Italy, their forkes being for the moft part made of yron or fteele, and fome of filver, but thofe are ufed only by gentlemen. The reafon of this their curioJity is, becaufe the Italian cannot by any means indure to have his dilh touched with fingers, feeing all men's fingers are not alike cleane. Here- upon I myfelf thought good to imitate the Italian falhion by this forked cutting of meate, not only while I was in Italy, but alio in Germany, and oftentimes in England fince I came home ; being once quipped for that frequent ufing of my forke by a certain learned gentleman, a familiar friend of mine, one Mr. LawTence Whittaker, who in his merry humour doubted not to call me at table y«/TJ/er, only for ufing a forke at feeding, but for no other caufe." Furc'ifer, in Latin, it need hardly be obferved, meant literally one ^'ho carries a fork, but its proper fignification was, a villain who deferves the gallows. The ufage of forks thus introduced into England, appears foon to have become common. It is alluded to more than once in Beaumont and Fletcher, and in Ben Jonfon, but always as a foreign falliion. In Jonfon's comedy of "The Devil is an Afs," we have the following dialogue : — Meerc. Have I defer-v^d this from you nvo,for all My pains at court to get you each a patent ? Gilt. For ivhat ? Meerc. Upon my pro]eB o' the forks. Sle. Forks ? ivhat be they f Meerc. The laudable ufe of forks. Brought into cuftom here, as they are in Italy, To th f paring o napkins. In faft the new invention rendered the waihing of hands no longer fo neceffary as before, and though it was fi;ill contint;ed as a polite form before fitting down to dinner, the pradice of wafliing the hands after dinner appears to have been entirely difcontinued. Our cut No. 289, taken from the Englifh edition of the Janua Lin- guarum of Comenius, reprefents the forms of dining in England under the Prote6torate. It will be befl: defcribed by the text which accom- panies it in the book, and in which each particular objedl is mentioned. " When