The bill of fare of this feast, which was given on a fast-day, is the more worthy of attention, in that it proves to us what numerous resources cookery already possessed.  This was especially the case as regards fish, notwithstanding that the transport of fresh sea-fish was so difficult, owing to the bad state of the roads.

First, a quarter of a pint of Grenache was given to each guest on sitting down, then “hot eschaudes, roast apples with white sugar-plums upon them, roasted figs, sorrel and watercress, and rosemary.”

“Soups.—­A rich soup, composed of six trout, six tenches, white herring, freshwater eels, salted twenty-four hours, and three whiting, soaked twelve hours; almonds, ginger, saffron, cinnamon powder and sweetmeats.

“Salt-Water Fish.—­Soles, gurnets, congers, turbots, and salmon.

“Fresh-Water Fish.—­Lux faudis (pike with roe), carps from the Marne, breams.

“Side-Dishes.—­Lampreys a la boee, orange-apples (one for each guest), porpoise with sauce, mackerel, soles, bream, and shad a la cameline, with verjuice, rice and fried almonds upon them; sugar and apples.

[Illustration:  Fig. 125.—­Officers of the Table and of the Chamber of the Imperial Court:  Cup-bearer, Cook, Barber, and Tailor, from a Picture in the “Triomphe de Maximilien T.,” engraved by J. Resch, Burgmayer, and others (1512), from Drawings by Albert Durer.]

“Dessert.—­Stewed fruit with white and vermilion sugar-plums; figs, dates, grapes, and filberts.

“Hypocras for issue de table, with oublies and supplications.

“Wines and spices compose the baute-hors.”

To this fasting repast we give by way of contrast the bill of fare at the nuptial feast of Master Helye, “to which forty guests were bidden on a Tuesday in May, a ‘day of flesh.’”

“Soups.—­Capons with white sauce, ornamented with pomegranate and crimson sweetmeats.

“Roasts.—­Quarter of roe-deer, goslings, young chickens, and sauces of orange, cameline, and verjuice.

“Side-Dishes.—­Jellies of crayfish and loach; young rabbits and pork.

“Dessert.—­Froumentee and venison.

“Issue.—­Hypocras.

“Boute-Hors.—­Wine and spices.”

The clever editor of the “Menagier de Paris,” M. le Baron Jerome Pichon, after giving us this curious account of the mode of living of the citizens of that day, thus sums up the whole arrangements for the table in the fourteenth century:  “The different provisions necessary for food are usually entrusted to the squires of the kitchen, and were chosen, purchased, and paid for by one or more of these officials, assisted by the cooks.  The dishes prepared by the cooks were placed, by the help of the esquires, on dressers in the kitchen until the moment of serving.  Thence they were carried to the tables.  Let us imagine a vast hall hung with tapestries and other brilliant