[Sca-cooks] Re: seving wenches

[Jadwiga Zajaczkowa / Jenne Heise]

> Well, considering that most of the ettiquete books were aimed at seven 
> to eleven year old boys, what do you think?
> 
 > I think they referred to existing rude/crude behavior in order to 
>illustrate polite behavior for persons aspiring to conduct themselves 
>honorably in public.

I guess what I don't get is how this proves that this behavior was more 
to be seen in period than it is in our day? I mean, young men between 10 
and 30 sometimes practice this kind of behavior in groups now when they 
don't feel the need to be polite-- but they don't do it in public mixed groups. 
Mostly.  We still pet the cat at the table, or scratch our heads while 
eating, or 

When you look at the rules for proper behavior as a whole, it is mostly 
the sort of thing that you SAY to seven to eleven year olds. Because 
even though the grown-ups don't do it, it's the sort of things kids want 
to do. Reading those courtesy books sounds exactly like the mom's 
table-litany to me. I hear people saying these things to their kids all 
the time!

For instance: 
The Little Children's Little Book (courtesy book c. 1480)

"See that your hands and nails are clean.
Don't eat till you're told.
or sit down till you're told.
Till you are fully helped, touch nothing.
Don't break your bread in two,
or put your pieces in your pocket,
or your meat in the saltcellar.
Don't pick your ears or nose, 
or drink with your mouth full,
Don't spit over or on the table; that's not proper.
Don't out your elbows on the table,
nor belch as if you had a bean in your throat.
Be careful of good food; and be courteous and cheerful
Don't whisper in any man's ear.
Take your food with your fingers, and don't waste it.
Don't grin or talk too much, or spill your food.
Keep your cloth clean before you.
Cut your meat; don't bite it.
Don't open your mouth too wide when you eat,
or blow on your food. 
Keep your trencher clean.
Don't rush at the cheese,
or throw your bones on the floor,
Sit still till grace is said and you've washed your hands,
and don't spit in the basin.
Rise quietly, don't jabber, but
thank your host and all the company,
and then men will say, `A gentleman was here!'
He who despises this teaching
isn't fit to sit at a good man's table."


Text (slightly regularized and some small changes in running commentary) 
from The Babees Book, ed. Frederick J. Furnivall, EETS 32, 1868, pp. 
16-24., 
http://www.courses.fas.harvard.edu/~chaucer/special/lifemann/manners/childbk.html

-- 
-- Jadwiga Zajaczkowa, Knowledge Pika jenne at fiedlerfamily.net 
"I don't care what you say / I don't play the same games you play.
...And as for me I can sit here and bide my time
I got nothing to lose if I speak my mind.
I don't care anymore I don't care no more." Phil Collins