Just as we have left behind the Thanksgiving festivities and a Christmas dinner is not far away, we might think of table manners. Most know which fork is used for salad, which for dessert, what glass to use for champagne and what for hot mulled wine, and our children have been instructed what is done at the table and what is not… But it is interesting to see how much in common we have with the mediaeval children who were taught how to behave at the table, or rather how not to misbehave, because learning good manners was considered “better than playing the fiddle, thought that’s no harm”.
Before meals:
Wash your face and hands
Be dressed properly
Make a low curtsy or bow to your parents and wish the food may do them good
Let your betters sit before you
Say Grace before the meal, then wait a while before eating
See others served first
Take salt with your knife
Cut your bread, keep your knife sharp
At the table:
Keep your fingers and nails clean
Wipe your mouth before drinking
Behave properly
Sit upright
Remember: silence hurts no one, and is fitted for a child at table
Don’t:
Pick your teeth, or spit
Don’t fill your spoon too full
Don’t smack your lips, or gnaw the bones
Don’t scratch yourself at the table
Don’t clean your mouth or nose with the tablecloth
Don’t put your elbows on the table
Don’t belch as if you had a bean in your throat
Don’t jabber or stuff yourself
Don’t speak with your mouth full
Don’t laugh too much
After the meal don’t leave your seat before others
Adapted from:
The Lytylle Childrenes Lytil Boke, or Edyllys Be; from The Schoole of Vertue, and Booke of Good Nourture for Children by F. Seager; from The Young Children’s Book, printed from the Ashmolean MS 61 (Bodleian Library) about 1500 AD, and from The Boke of Curtasye, from Sloane MS (The British Museum), about 1460 AD.
Image from Richard Pynson’s 1526 edition of The Canterbury Tales.