They
also desired the dearest food, and would have no meat from the butcher's
but the most delicate, while their list of fruits, cakes, Gates, and
outlandish confections is as long as that at any modern banquet. Wine ran
in excess. There were used fifty-six kinds of light wines, like the
French, and thirty of the strong sorts, like the Italian and Eastern. The
stronger the wine, the better it was liked. The strongest and best was in
old times called theologicum, because it was had from the clergy and
religious men, to whose houses the laity sent their bottles to be filled,
sure that the religious would neither drink nor be served with the worst;
for the merchant would have thought his soul should have gone straightway
to the devil if he had sent them any but the best. The beer served at
noblemen's tables was commonly a year old, and sometimes two, but this
age was not usual. In households generally it was not under a month old,
for beer was liked stale if it were not sour, while bread was desired as
new as possible so that it was not hot.
The husbandman and artificer ate such meat as they could easiest come by
and have most quickly ready; yet the banquets of the trades in London
were not inferior to those of the nobility. The husbandmen, however,
exceed in profusion, and it is incredible to tell what meat is consumed
at bridals, purifications, and such like odd meetings; but each guest
brought his own provision, so that the master of the house had only to
provide bread, drink, houseroom, and fire.
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