Entertainment
The great feasts and banquets of the medieval age were filled with entertainments including dancers, masked performers, mimes, jesters, jugglers, minstrels, and other musicians. Trumpeters lined the walls and heralded the entrance of a course during the meal. The trumpeting drew the attention of the guests to the head table, where the cook’s piece de resistance was presented to the host. Smaller versions or dishes which contained the same preparation presented in a less flamboyant manner were distributed to the lesser tables.
In English and Northern European feasts another form of entertainment was presented in the form of subtleties. A subtlety was the use of the food itself, in some form or another, to entertain the guests. Subtleties were brought to the tables at the end of the course, to encourage conversation and to amuse the guests while preparing themselves for the next course. Often these were lines of verse spelled out in marzipan, or the shapes of various figures made from the placement of fruits and nuts. In France the subtleties were known as entremets, meaning between the courses, and were sometimes edible in themselves, sometimes not.
The entremets preceding a course which would include fish were often small boats shaped like swans, with a fisherman sailing on a sea of watered silk. While the guests were amused by the entremets the entertainers would perform in the U shape created by the manner in which the tables were aligned, with all guests afforded a clear view by the practice of seating them only along one side of the table. As the guests were entertained the servants cleaned the tables in preparation for the next course. Only the head table was covered with a cloth at most feasts and banquets, and the practice of using plates made of bread to hold dishes made with sauces was undoubtedly a messy one.
During the appropriate season the guests were entertained with music such as carols for the Christmas season and so forth. Entertainments were less elaborate during Lent and Advent. Often the host’s wife and her attending ladies, if she was not attending the feast, would join the company for the entertainments, excusing herself when the trumpeters entered again to announce the entry of the next course. The company did not join in the singing and were expected to award the performers with polite applause.
The entry of some courses were part of the entertainment. In the event of the course containing a roast, the spitted meat was brought directly into the main hall, often followed by a grate containing hot coals, over which the spitted roast would be suspended as it was carved, and portions served to the messes. The entry of peacocks was invariably accompanied by the spread of the tail behind the roast fowl, swans were often accompanied by cygnets made of confectionery sugar, following in a trail behind their “mother”. These were carried to the head table to be carved before the host, while the lesser tables were being served less showy dishes.