DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.67419#0096
74
NEEDLEWORK OF THE DARK AGES.
vows over them, the highest honours were conferred
on them. Their flesh is celebrated as the “nutri-
ment of lovers,” and the “ viand of worthiesand
a peacock was always the most distinguished dish
at the solemn banquets of princes or nobles. On
these occasions it was served up on a golden dish, and
carried to table by a lady of rank, attended by a
train of high-born dames and damsels, and accom-
panied by music. If it was on the occasion of a
tournament, the successful knight always carved it,
so regulating his portions that each individual, be
the company ever so numerous, might taste. For
the oath, the knight rising from his seat and ex-
tending his hand over the bird, vowed some daring
enterprise of arms or love :—“ I vow to God, to the
blessed Virgin, to the dames, and to the pea-
cock, &c. &c.”
In later and less imaginative times, the peacock,
though still a favourite dish at a banquet, seems to
have been regarded more from its affording “ good
eating” than from any more refined attribute.
Massinger speaks of
“ the carcases
Of three fat wethers bruised for gravy, to
Make sauce for a single peacock.’’
In Shakspeare’s time the bird was usually put
into a pie, the head, richly gilt, being placed at one
end of the dish, and the tail, spread out in its full
circumference, at the other. And alas ! for the de-
generacy of those days. The solemn and knightly
adjuration of former times had even then dwindled
into the absurd oath which Shakspeare puts into the
mouth of Justice Shallow :—
NEEDLEWORK OF THE DARK AGES.
vows over them, the highest honours were conferred
on them. Their flesh is celebrated as the “nutri-
ment of lovers,” and the “ viand of worthiesand
a peacock was always the most distinguished dish
at the solemn banquets of princes or nobles. On
these occasions it was served up on a golden dish, and
carried to table by a lady of rank, attended by a
train of high-born dames and damsels, and accom-
panied by music. If it was on the occasion of a
tournament, the successful knight always carved it,
so regulating his portions that each individual, be
the company ever so numerous, might taste. For
the oath, the knight rising from his seat and ex-
tending his hand over the bird, vowed some daring
enterprise of arms or love :—“ I vow to God, to the
blessed Virgin, to the dames, and to the pea-
cock, &c. &c.”
In later and less imaginative times, the peacock,
though still a favourite dish at a banquet, seems to
have been regarded more from its affording “ good
eating” than from any more refined attribute.
Massinger speaks of
“ the carcases
Of three fat wethers bruised for gravy, to
Make sauce for a single peacock.’’
In Shakspeare’s time the bird was usually put
into a pie, the head, richly gilt, being placed at one
end of the dish, and the tail, spread out in its full
circumference, at the other. And alas ! for the de-
generacy of those days. The solemn and knightly
adjuration of former times had even then dwindled
into the absurd oath which Shakspeare puts into the
mouth of Justice Shallow :—