Ten Thousand Wonderful Things: Comprising whatever is marvellous and rare, curious, eccentric and extraordinary in all ages and nations
History
Ten Thousand Wonderful Things: Comprising whatever is marvellous and rare, curious, eccentric and extraordinary in all ages and nations
Curiosities and wonders; Encyclopedias and dictionaries; Folklore
them fainting, a gentleman who was present, mounted upon a mighty
strong horse, alighted, and tyed him to one of the wretch's limbs, yet
for all this they were constrained to cut the flesh under his arms
and thighs with a sharp razor, whereby his body was the easier torn
in pieces; which done, the fury of the people was so great, that they
pulled his dismembered carcass out of the executioner's hands, which
they dragged up and down the dirt, and, cutting off the flesh with
their knives, the bones which remained were brought to the place of
execution, and there burnt, the ashes were cast in the wind, being
judged unworthy of the earth's burial; by the same sentence all his
goods were forfeited to the king. It was also ordained that the house
where he had been born should be beaten down, a recompence being given
the owner thereof, and never any house to be built again upon that
ground; that within fifteen days after the publication of the sentence,
by sound of trumpet in the town of Angoulesme, his father and mother
should depart the realm, never to return again; if they did, to be
hanged up presently: his brethren, sisters, and other kindred were
forbidden to carry the name of Ravilliac, but to take some other, and
the substitute of the king's attorney-general had charge to see the
execution of the sentence at his peril."
KNIVES AND FORKS.
"In all ancient pictures of Eating, &c. knives are seen in the hands of
the guests, but _no Forks_."--_Turner's Saxons._
"Here I will mention a thing," says Coryat in his 'Crudities,' "that
might have been spoken of before in the discourse of the first Italian
toun. I obserued a custome in all those Italian cities and townes
through which I passed, that is not vsed in any other country that
I saw in my traules, neither doe I think that any other nation of
Christendome doth vse it, but only Italy. The Italians, and also most
strangers that are commorant in Italy, doe alwaies at their meales vse
a _little forke_ when they cut their meate. For while with their knife,
which they hold in one hand, they cut their meate out of the dish, they
fasten their forke, which they hold in their other hand, upon the same
dish, so that whatsoever he be that sitting in the company of others at
meate, should vnaduisedly touch the dish of meate with his fingers from
which all at the table doe cut, he will give occasion of offence unto
the company, as hauing transgressed the laws of good manners, in so
much that for his error he shall be at the least broue-beaten, if not
reprehended in words.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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