Tea at Trianon: Table Manners: Mistakes You Should Stop Making

John Wilson Croker on Marie-Antoinette

"We have followed the history of Marie Antoinette with the greatest diligence and scrupulosity. We have lived in those times. We have talked with some of her friends and some of her enemies; we have read, certainly not all, but hundreds of the libels written against her; and we have, in short, examined her life with– if we may be allowed to say so of ourselves– something of the accuracy of contemporaries, the diligence of inquirers, and the impartiality of historians, all combined; and we feel it our duty to declare, in as a solemn a manner as literature admits of, our well-matured opinion that every reproach against the morals of the queen was a gross calumny– that she was, as we have said, one of the purest of human beings."

~from History of the Guillotine by John Wilson Croker, 1844

Edmund Burke on Marie-Antoinette

"It is now sixteen or seventeen years since I saw the queen of France, then dauphiness, at Versailles; and surely there never lighted on this orb, which she hardly seemed to touch, a more delightful vision. I saw her just above the horizon, decorating and cheering the elevated sphere she had just begun to move in, glittering like a morning star full of life and splendor and joy. Oh, what a revolution....Little did I dream that I should have lived to see such disasters fall upon her, in a nation of gallant men, in a nation of men of honor and of cavaliers! I thought ten thousand swords must have leaped from their scabbards, to avenge even a look which threatened her with insult. But the age of chivalry is gone; that of sophisters, economists, and calculators has succeeded...."

~Edmund Burke, October 1790

Wednesday, April 6, 2022

Table Manners: Mistakes You Should Stop Making

From Southern Living:

You know the drill about which piece to use when: work from the outside in. But what about when you're taking a breather or finished with the meal? There are two widely accepted resting positions for your silver: You can go with continental-style, which includes placing your fork and knife at the center of your plate in an inverted V (knife on bottom, fork tines up). Or you can go with American-style, in which you place your knife diagonally on the top right of your plate and the fork on the plate, tines up. Once you've finished the meal, both the fork (tines up or down) and knife (blade facing in) should be placed diagonally on the plate (handles at 4 o'clock, tips at 10).

There's a little drama when it comes to the Great Napkin Debate. Experts generally agree as to where your napkin should go at the end of the meal: Neatly placed to the left of your plate. But when it comes to where the napkin goes when you get up from the table mid-meal, people fall into two camps: Table vs. Chair. The pro-table crowd says, "Put the napkin on the table to the left of your plate, just as you would at the end of the meal." They also argue, "The napkin is messy, and it will leave a mess on the chair" and "That chair ain't clean, and germs are bad." The pro-chair crowd says, "You put the napkin to the left of your plate at the end of the meal. Let's not make this confusing." While we can certainly appreciate both sides of the debate, we're Team Table. (Read more.)