_Praying you_ (he says) _to suppe with us this night,_ _And ye shall have made, at your devis,_ _A great pudding, or a round hagis,_ _A French moile, a tansie, or a froise_. These appear to have been the usual favourite dishes at an ordinary supper of this date (the first half of the fifteenth century). The _hagis_ appears to have been much the same dish as the Scottish haggis of the present day. The _moile_ was a dish made of marrow and grated bread. The _tansie_ was a kind of omelet, resembling apparently what the French now call an _omelette aux fines herbes_; while the _froise_ had small strips of bacon in it--an _omelette au lard_. This latter was a very favourite dish among the monks. After supper, the guests, or at least some of them, are represented as taking “strong nottie ale” before going to bed. They rise early, “anon as it is day,” and start on their return towards London; and they take no meal before dinner, having it _Fully in purpose to come to dinere_ _Unto Ospring, and breake there our fast._ There is a longer preface to the supplementary tale of “Beryn,” written about the same date as the “Story of Thebes,” and printed in the edition of Chaucer’s works by Urry, in which the divisions of the day are tolerably well described. The pilgrims there arrived at their destination in Canterbury “at mydmorowe,” which is interpreted in the glossaries as meaning nine o’clock in the forenoon, and then took their lodgings, “ordeyned” their dinner, and, while it was preparing, went to make their offerings to the shrine of St. Thomas in the cathedral church. Meanwhile the Pardoner had separated from the company, and engaged in a low intrigue with the “tapster,” or barmaid, who offers him a drink, but he tells her he had not yet broken his fast--we are to conclude that this was the case with the rest of the company--and _She start into the town, and set a py al hote._ Meat pies appear to have been very common articles of food in the middle ages, and to have been kept always ready at the cooks’ shops. The offering seems to have taken but a small space of time, and then-- _They set their signys upon their hedes, and som oppon their capp,_ _And sith to the dyner-ward they gan for to stapp_ (step); _Every man in his degré wissh_ (washed) _and toke his sete,_ _As they wer wont to doon at soper and at mete;_ _And wer in silence for a tyme, tyl good ale gan arise_. It appears, therefore, that people did not hold conversation while eating, but that the talk and mirth began with the liquor, whether ale or wine. It was then agreed that they should remain that day in Canterbury, and all sup together at night-- “_Then al this after-mete I hold it for the best_ _To sport and pley us,” quod the hoost, “ech man as hym lest_ (likes), _And go by tyme to soper, and to bed also,_ _So mowe we erly rysen, our jorney for to do_”.