XXXII | The Table.
It is pretended, says Athenæus, that in the Homeric times each guest had a table to himself,[XXXII_1] on which he was served with “a saddle-back of beef, or a whole sheep or goat.” It was the custom among the heroes, all men of high lineage, and tolerably aristocratic in their tastes. The burghers of those warlike times and the villeins of the epoch eat their dinner, without form or ceremony, on a heap of grass, which also served them as a seat or couch.[XXXII_2]
Wooden tables—at first very clumsy ones, no doubt—only came into use when the development of human industry had enabled men to understand that they might be preferable to a truss of hay.[XXXII_3] A passage in Homer would seem to show that they were very much like ours.[XXXII_4] Perhaps the circular form was generally preferred.[XXXII_5]
Luxury soon called for the most precious materials, and the Greeks had, at a very early period, tables of bronze,[XXXII_6] and even of fine silver.[XXXII_7] The isle of Rhenea produced magnificent ones,[XXXII_8] and an expensive fashion caused those luxurious pieces of furniture to be prized when they presented delicate incrustations of silver, bronze, or ivory, and rested on lions’ claws or leopards’ feet.[XXXII_9]
Cneus Manlius introduced these rarities into Rome after the conquest of Asia.[XXXII_10] He was also the originator of tables veneered with plates of gold,[XXXII_11] which ere long adorned the dining-rooms of princes and senators, and the excessive price of which was only surpassed by that of tables made of precious woods from distant countries.[XXXII_12] The maple, the whitten, and a species of African lemon-tree occupied the first rank,[XXXII_13] and the prodigious skill of the workmen gave them a value superior to gold and silver.[XXXII_14]
The most beautiful of these tables were spotted or veined to imitate the tiger’s or panther’s skin; but they acquired an exorbitant claim upon the admiration of connoisseurs when they bore the marvellous design of a peacock’s tail. This fantastic play of nature commanded a boundless price.[XXXII_15]
An artist of unrivalled talent, Carvilius Pollio, was the first, according to Pliny,[XXXII_16] who enriched these magnificent woods with buhl-work of ivory and shell in the acme of perfection.[XXXII_17] Under the reign of Nero, the Romans dyed this shell, and thought to increase its primitive value by giving it the tints and accidental shades of the cedar, the maple, and the lemon tree.[XXXII_18]
These splendid pieces of furniture were at first square;[XXXII_19] then round;[XXXII_20] then in the form of a half-circle or half-moon, and this horseshoe-shaped table they called a sigma, from the name of that Greek letter, which resembled our C.[XXXII_21] The guests whom any person wished to honour most were placed at the extremities of this hemicycle,[XXXII_22] overlaid with magnificent covers, which replaced the skins of beasts, formerly used for their adornment; and, in addition, they were spread with tissues of fine linen and rich stuffs elaborately worked.[XXXII_23]
The tables were changed at each course.[XXXII_24] The Greeks cleaned them with sponge;[XXXII_25] the Latins used a sort of thick, plushed, linen cloth.[XXXII_26]
The opulent citizens possessed a great number of tables; some were of ivory,[XXXII_27] others of maple wood, cedar of Mount Atlas,[XXXII_28] or lemon.[XXXII_29][U] Cicero had one of this latter kind of wood which cost him 200,000 sesterces—about £1,480.[XXXII_30] They rested on one, two, or three feet,[XXXII_31] and were called monopedes, bipedes, and tripedes.
The Romans often changed tables only twice during the repast. Fish and flesh appeared on the first, and the fruit was served on the second.[XXXII_32] The same custom was common to the Greeks and the oriental nations. The Hebrews had also two tables in their solemn feasts and sacrificial banquets; on one was served the flesh of the victim, and on the other they placed the cup of benediction, which passed round from one to another, and was called “the cup of praise.”[XXXII_33]
The luxury of Rome seemed to revive after she had become extinct. Saint Rémi, Bishop of Rheims, left to his heirs a silver table, embellished with figures.[XXXII_34] Charlemagne had three made of the same metal—the first represented the ancient capital of the world; the second, Constantinople; the third, every known region of the earth.[XXXII_35] Aymar, Viscount of Limoges, found on his estate a treasure, which consisted of a table, round which were seated an emperor, his wife, and several children—all as large as life, and of massive gold. Richard Cœur-de-Lion pretended that the treasure belonged to him as Lord of Limousin, and went to lay siege to the castle of Chalons, to which Aymar had retired, where the king received a wound, of which he died the 6th of April, 1199.[XXXII_36]
Silver tables still existed in the 17th century. Madame de Sévigné (1689), speaking of persons who, following the example of Louis XIV., sent their plate to the mint, says: “Madame de Chaulnes has sent her table, two guéridons, and her beautiful toilet of silver gilt.”
At some distance from the sigma, on a slightly raised platform, were three kinds of elegant crédences for the cups, wines, and vases.[XXXII_37] The major-domo himself, generally attended to this part of the service.
A very curious old book, cited by Strutt, “The Booke of Kervynge,”[XXXII_38] contains the following instructions as to the manner of laying the cloth for the King of England:—
“Serve your Soverayne with wafers and ypocras. Also loke your composte be fayre and clene, and your ale fyve dayes olde before men drynke it, and be curtays of answere to eche persone; and whan ye laye the clothe, wype the borde clene with a cloute (cloth); then lay a couch (cloth), take your feluwe, that one ende, and holde you the other ende, then drawe the clothe straught, the bought on the utter edge, take the utter parte and hange it even, then take the thyrde clothe, and laye it bought on the inner edge, and laye estat with the upper parte halfe a fote brode, then cover thy cupborde and thyne ewery with the towel of dyaper; than take thy towell about thy necke, and laye that on syde of the towel upon thy lefte arme, and thereon laye your soveraynes napkyn, and on thyn arme seven loves of brede, with thre or foure trenchour loves, with the ende of the towel, in the lefte hande as the maner is; then take thy salte seller in thy lefte hande, and take the ende of the
DESCRIPTION OF PLATE No. XXVII.
No. 1. Etruscan flat vase, of terra cotta, with a cover, to hold a particular drink (warm, perhaps).
No. 2. A marble vase, ornamented, for water.
No. 3. A metal vase, to fill the cups of the guests.
No. 4. A Greek Etruscan drinking vase, of terra cotta, in form of a seated Bacchanal.—“Hercul.”
towell in your ryght hand, to bear in spones and knyves; than set your salte on the ryght syde, where your soverayne shall sytte, and on the lefte syde the salte set your trenchoures; than laye your knyves, and set your brede one lofe by another; your spones, and your napkyns, fayre folder besyde your brede, than over your brede, and trenchours, spones, and knyves, and at every ende of the table set a salte seller, with two trenchour loves, and yf ye wyll wrappe youre soverayne’s brede stately, ye must square and proporcyon your brede, and see that no lofe be more than another; and than shall ye make your wrapper manerly; than take a towell of reynes, of two yerdes and an halfe, and take the towell by the endes double, and laye it on the table; than take the ende of the bought a handfull in your hande, and wrape it harde, and laye the ende so wrapped betwene two towells, upon that ende so wrapped laye your brede, bottom to bottom, syx or seven loves; than set your brede manerly in fourm, and whan your soverayne’s table is thus arrayed, cover all other bordes with salt, trenchours, and cuppes; and se thyn ewery be arrayed with basyns and ewers, and water, hote and colde; and se ye have napkins, cuppes and spones; and se your pottes for wyne and ale be made clene, and to the surnape make curtesy, with a clothe, under a fayre double napry; than take the towelle’s ende next you, and the utter ende of the clothe, on the utter syde of the table, and holde these three endes at ones, and folde them at ones, that a plyte passe not a fote brode; than laye it as it should lye: and after mete wasshe with that, that is at the ryghte ende of the table, ye must guyde it out, and the marshall must convey it; and loke on eche clothe, the ryghte syde be outwarde, and draw it streygthe; than must ye reyse the upper parte of the towell, and laye it without ony grouyng, and at every ende of the towell, ye must convey halfe a yarde that the sewer may make reverently and let it be. And whan your soverayne hath washen, drawe the surnape even; than bere the surnape to the myddes of the borde, and take it up before your soverayne, and bere it into the ewery agayne; and whan your soverayne is set, loke your towell be aboute your necke; then make your soverayne curtesy; than uncover your brede, and set it by the salt, and laye your napkyn, knyfe, and spone, afore hym; than knele on your knee till the purpayne passe eyght loves; and loke ye set at your endes of the table foure loves at a messe; and se that every persone have napkyn and spone, and wayte well to the server, how many dysshes be covered, that so many cuppes cover ye; than serve ye forth the table manerly, that every man may speke your curtesy.”