[Sca-cooks] French table Service and Web site - xlation part two

[vicki shaw]

That last thing came out kinda weird.  Sorry about that long list of
words...anyway, here is paragraph two.  I have put in brackets some words to
clarify or suggest a better or alternate word..  There is one bracketed
sentence that is part of the text, however, but it is more than one word, so
you will recognize it.

I will use the french words for
echanson = wine waiter
sommelier = wine boss (lol!) cause the dictionary def i found says sommelier
is wine waiter, but the document I found said echanson was wine waiter.
>From the context, I think the echanson is below the sommelier, but I could
be wrong.

Now, they mention the garde-linge and xlated word for word this would be the
person responsible for laundry, but in this context it would appear this is
the person who holds the keys to the room where pots and pans and ewers and
drinking vessels and whatall....so I will use that word as well.

The text also keeps using the word pot and distinguishes it from ewer, so I
had to stick with pot where it said pot and ewer where it said ewer
(aiguillere).  Okay here goes:

"When the table is set and the baker has done his job [part], the hall
bailiff goes to fetch the echanson appointed to wait that day, in his
echansonnerie [wine office?].  There the garde-linge hands the covered
goblet which the echanson takes by its foot [base] in his right hand, and in
his left hand he holds a cup; [at the same time as he hands the goblet and
the cup, the garde-linge gives] basins, pots and ewers for the prince, to
the sommelier who washes and dries [them].  The sommelier gives the goblet
to the echanson who stands behind the hall bailiff who carries the basins in
his left hand.  Behind the echanson follows the sommelier of the
echansonnerie who must carry in his right hand two silver pots, one
containing the wine for the prince, and the other water.  The prince's pot
is recognized by a the figure of a unicorn [carved?  metal?] dangling from a
chain.  The sommelier must carry in his left hand a cup and nothing more,
and in this cup must rest [lying, not standing] the ewer for serving water.
This cup which the sommelier carries serves to do the trial [test] which the
echanson performs.  After the sommelier comes the aide who must then carry
the pots and cups to the prince's buffet [feast]"

Heavens to Murgatroyd, such complicated protocol!  Hope you can make sense
of it.
vicki