The English are often reproached with love of good cheer, and
certainly if foreigners were to judge of us from the manner in which
we celebrate our Christmas, we cannot wonder at their supposing
'biftik' to be necessary to our happiness. But high feasting has not
in any age been confined to the English, and perhaps the following
account, translated from an old chronicle, of a wedding-dinner given
by the Milanese, in 1336, to our Duke of Clarence, son of Edward III.,
may prove not unamusing or unsuggestive.
Lionel of Antwerp, Duke of Clarence, was the widower of Elizabeth of
Ulster, and his second wife, Zolante, was the sister of Giovanni
Galeazzo Visconti, Duke of Milan. The latter nuptials were celebrated
at Milan with great pomp. The most illustrious personages were invited
from every part of Europe; tournaments, balls, and other diversions,
occupied the guests, who were all furnished with splendid apartments,
till the whole company being assembled, Giovanni Galeazzo conducted
the newly-married couple from the church to his palace. In one immense
hall were laid out a hundred tables for the most distinguished guests,
including the mightiest princes in Italy, the most beautiful women,
and the most celebrated characters of the age; among whom we must not
omit to mention Francesco Petrarca. Other tables were placed in the
adjoining apartments. Seneschals, in the most sumptuous dresses,
brought in the massive dishes of gold and silver. The cup-bearers
performed their duties on horseback, galloping round the hall and
handing the choicest wines in costly vases of gold, silver, or
crystal. This custom of servants waiting at table on horseback appears
singular in our time, but it serves to give an idea of the splendour
of other days and the enormous size of the apartments. It also tends
to explain why most of the noble mansions still extant from the time
of which we speak, instead of a staircase, have a gradual ascent of
bricks, generally leading to a hall of large dimensions. And
frequently we see evident tokens that flights of steps have been
substituted in later times.
The banquet consisted of eighteen courses; and between each course
presents of various kinds were offered to the bridegroom, or
distributed by him; so that before the dinner had ended, Lionel had
presented every individual around him with some article of value,
besides 600 richly embroidered garments which he had given to the
mimes and players engaged for the occasion.
Here follows a formal account of the dinner, but we must economise our
space. The first course consisted of young pigs, gilded, with flames
issuing from their mouths; the second, of hares and pike, likewise
gilded; the third, of gilded veal and trout; the fourth, of
partridges, quails, and fish, all gilded; the fifth, of ducks, small
birds, and fish, all gilded; the sixth, of beef, capons with
garlic-sauce, and sturgeon; the seventh, of veal and capons with
lemon-sauce; the eighth, of beef-pies, with cheese and sugar, and
eel-pies with sugar and spices; the ninth, of meats, fowl and fish in
jelly (potted, we presume); the tenth, of gilded meats and lamprey;
the eleventh, of roast kid, birds, and fish; the twelfth, of hares and
venison, and fish with vinegar and sugar; the thirteenth, of beef and
deer, with lemon and sugar; the fourteenth, of fowls, capons, and
tench, covered with red and green foil; the fifteenth, of pigeons,
small birds, beans, salt tongues, and carp; the sixteenth, of rabbits,
peacocks, and eels roasted with lemon; the seventeenth, of sour milk
and cheese; and the eighteenth, of fruits of the rarest and most
expensive kinds.
At each of these courses the duke received a separate gift--beginning
with a pair of _leopards_, with velvet collars and gilded buckles.
Then followed numberless braces of pointers, greyhounds, setters, and
falcons, all with trappings and ornaments of silk, gold, and pearls;
dozens of breastplates, helmets, lances, shields, saddles, and
complete suits of armour, enriched with silver, gold, and velvet;
numerous pieces of cloth of gold and satin; horses by half-dozens,
with saddles and trappings highly ornamented; twelve beautiful
milk-white oxen; 'a vest and cowl embroidered with pearls,
representing various flowers; a baronial mantle and cowl lined with
ermine, and richly embroidered with pearls; a large ewer of massive
silver, four waistbands of wrought silver (now called filigrane); a
clump of diamonds and rubies, with a pearl of immense value in the
centre; and a variety of specimens of the choicest wines and most
elegant confectionary.'
In those times, there was little refinement of taste, and the culinary
art was probably in its infancy. Hence we find the dishes in quality
and number rather suited to satisfy the appetites of huntsmen than the
delicate palate of a courtier of our day. Sugar and spices were used
in profusion, perhaps because they were scarce and expensive, rather
than on account of their flavour. Fowls were coloured red or green;
while meat, and such other solid eatables as could only be boiled or
roasted, were gilt all over. The expense of such an entertainment must
have been immense; and when we add, that the value of most of the
gifts was vastly greater than at present, and that, besides the
presents to the bridegroom, Giovanni Galeazzo gave away 150 beautiful
horses, and his kinsman, Bernabo, jewels and golden coins to a large
amount, the whole sum disbursed on this occasion would appear so
enormous as to make one doubt whether a petty sovereign could really
afford such ostentatious prodigality. But when we consider that the
flourishing state of the commerce of Italy attracted thither all the
wealth of Europe, we are no longer surprised at an expenditure which,
however great, might at that time have been borne not by a reigning
duke of Milan or Florence alone, but even by many citizens of the
various Italian republics.
During the repast, an innumerable crowd of jesters, mimes, and
trick-players of all sorts, amused the company with their gambols; and
such was the noise produced by trumpets, drums, and other martial
instruments, by the vociferation of the performers and the applause of
the spectators, that no single voice could be heard; and a
contemporary historian compares it to the wild roar of a tempestuous
sea.