Caput apri defero
Reddens laudes Domino.
"The boar's head, as I understand,
Is the rarest dish in all this land,
Which thus bedeck'd with a gay garland
Let us servire cantico.
Caput apri defero, etc.
"Our Steward hath provided this
In honour of the King of Bliss,
Which on this day to be served is
In Reginensi Atrio.
Caput apri defero,"
Etc., etc., etc.]
[Footnote 6: NOTE F.
The peacock was anciently in great demand for stately entertainments.
Sometimes it was made into a pie, at one end of which the head appeared
above the crust in all its plumage, with the beak richly gilt; at the
other end the tail was displayed. Such pies were served up at the
solemn banquets of chivalry, when knights-errant pledged themselves to
undertake any perilous enterprise; whence came the ancient oath, used by
Justice Shallow, "by cock and pie."
The peacock was also an important dish for the Christmas feast; and
Massinger, in his "City Madam," gives some idea of the extravagance
with which this, as well as other dishes, was prepared for the gorgeous
revels of the olden times:
"Men may talk of country Christmasses, Their thirty pound butter'd eggs,
their pies of carps' tongues: Their pheasants drench'd with ambergris;
the carcases of three fat wethers bruised for gravy, to make sauce for a
single peacock!"]
[Footnote 7: NOTE G.
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