The Forme of Cury | Page 9

which we shall speak more particularly hereafter,
Chaucer, and Wiclif; with whom we have associated Junius'
Etymologicon Anglicanum.
As the abbreviations of the Roll are here retained, in order to establish
and confirm the age of it, it has been thought proper to adopt the types
which our printer had projected for Domesday-Book, with which we
find that our characters very nearly coincide.
The names of the dishes and sauces have occasioned the greatest
perplexity. These are not only many in number, but are often so horrid
and barbarous, to our ears at least, as to be inveloped in several
instances in almost impenetrable obscurity. Bishop Godwin complains
of this so long ago as 1616 [115]. The Contents prefixed will exhibit at
once a most formidable list of these hideous names and titles, so that
there is no need to report them here. A few of these terms the Editor
humbly hopes he has happily enucleated, but still, notwithstanding all
his labour and pains, the argument is in itself so abstruse at this
distance of time, the helps so few, and his abilities in this line of
knowledge and science so slender and confined, that he fears he has left
the far greater part of the task for the more sagacious reader to supply:
indeed, he has not the least doubt, but other gentlemen of curiosity in
such matters (and this publication is intended for them alone) will be so
happy as to clear up several difficulties, which appear now to him
insuperable. It must be confessed again, thatthe Editor may probably
have often failed in those very points, which he fancies and flatters
himself to have elucidated, but this he is willing to leave to the candour

of the public.
Now in regard to the helps I mentioned; there is not much to be learnt
from the Great Inthronization-feast of archbishop Robert Winchelsea,
A. 1295, even if it were his; but I rather think it belongs to archbishop
William Warham, A. 1504 [116]. Some use, however, has been made
of it.
Ralph Bourne was installed abbot of St. Augustine's, near Canterbury,
A. 1309; and William Thorne has inserted a list of provisions bought
for the feast, with their prices, in his Chronicle [117].
The Great Feast at the Inthronization of George Nevile archbishop of
York, 6 Edward IV. is printed by Mr. Hearne [118], and has been of
good service.
Elizabeth, queen of king Henry VII. was crowned A. 1487, and the
messes at the dinner, in two courses, are registered in the late edition of
Leland's Collectenea, A. 1770 [119], and we have profited thereby.
The Lenten Inthronization-feast of archbishop William Warham, A.
1504 [120], given us at large by Mr. Hearne [121], has been also
consulted.
There is a large catalogue of viands in Rabelais, lib. iv. cap. 59. 60.
And the English translation of Mr. Ozell affording little information, I
had recourse to the French original, but not to much more advantage.
There is also a Royal Feast at the wedding of the earl of Devonshire, in
the Harleian Misc. No. 279, and it has not been neglected.
Randle Holme, in his multifarious _Academy of Armory_, has an
alphabet of terms and dishes [122]; but though I have pressed him into
the service, he has not contributed much as to the more difficult points.
The Antiquarian Repertory, vol. II. p. 211, exhibits an entertainment of
the mayor of Rochester, A. 1460; but there is little to be learned from
thence. The present work was printed before No. 31 of the Antiquarian

Repertory, wherein some ancient recipes in Cookery are published,
came to the Editor's hand.
I must not omit my acknowledgments to my learned friend the present
dean of Carlisle, to whom I stand indebted for his useful notes on the
Northumberland-Household Book, as also for the book itself.
Our chief assistance, however, has been drawn from a MS belonging to
the Editor, denoted, when cited, by the signature _MS. Ed._ It is a
vellum miscellany in small quarto, and the part respecting this subject
consists of ninety-one English recipes (or _nyms_) in cookery. These
are disposed into two parts, and are intituled, 'Hic incipiunt universa
servicia tam de carnibus quam de pissibus.' [123] The second part,
relates to the dressing of fish, and other lenten fare, though forms are
also there intermixed which properly belong to flesh-days. This leads
me to observe, that both here, and in the Roll, messes are sometimes
accommodated, by making the necessary alterations, both to flesh and
fish-days. [124] Now, though the subjects of the MS are various, yet
the hand-writing is uniform; and at the end of one of the tracts is added,
'Explicit massa Compoti, Anno Dñi M'lo CCC'mo octogesimo primo
ipso die Felicis et Audacti.' [125], i.e. 30 Aug.