and birds were carried to table on their spits, and each guest tore off as much as he wished. Fearsomely greedy were the men and women of the thirteenth century. There is a story which tells of a man and wife who sat down to a roast fowl. Tearing from the spit joint after joint, the woman greedily devoured the whole bird. "Lo," cried her wrathful husband, "you have eaten the whole bird yourself, and nothing remains but the spit; it is but right you should taste that also."
Thereupon he took the spit and beat her severely with it.
Forks had not yet arrived in England from Venice, and our ancestors ate, as their fathers had eaten, with their fingers.
"Your meat genteelly with your fingers raise,
And as in eating there's a certain grace,
Beware with greasy hands lest you besmear your face."
It was the custom of the Middle Ages for a man to bring his own knife to table, and a whetstone hung near for him to sharpen it from time to time. Ladies and gentlemen sat side by side, so that they might share the same plate.
