Hannah Woolley (1622-c.1675) published books on household management long before writers like Isabella Beeton were doing so. In her early life she worked as a household servant, and after her marriage she helped to run grammar schools, first in Essex and then in Hackney (London). It was after she was widowed that Woolley began to write for publication. Her first book: The Gentlewoman's Companion: Or, A Guide to the Female Sex was first published in 1673. She was the first woman to publish such a book as a commercial enterprise.
It's her pronouncements on table manners that interest us here in this blog post. However, it should be noted that it is a book that sheds lights on her views on all manner of topics such as fashion, speaking in front of others, cookery and creating medicines. The Gentlewoman's Companion tells us something of the kinds of behaviour expected of children at table, and offers some insight into the expected comportment of young women.
Clearly, teaching daughters was something Hannah Woolley cared passionately about. She bemoaned how many parents were negligent in their education whereas they would send their 'barren noddles of [their] sons to the university' (Woolley, 1673: 2). However, girls' education should not be overly strict, she felt. Any correction should be moderate. We might contrast her writing here with the formidable Susanna Wesley who certainly voiced the idea that sparing the rod would spoil the child.
Hannah Woolley had much to say about table manners inThe Gentlewoman's Companion. Here are a few of her maxims (Woolley, 1682: 29).
- 'Be not absent when dinner is on the table, but present when Grace is said; and sit not down before you have done obedience to your parents, and to the company present'.
- 'Receive what is given you, thankfully'.
- 'Be not talkative at table, nay, nor do not speak unless you are asked a question'.
- 'Eat not your meat ['meat' may well have meant all food] greedily, nor fill your mouth too full'.
- 'Empty your mouth before you drink'.
- 'Avoid smacking in your eating'.
- 'Forbear putting both hands to your mouth at once; nor gnaw your meat, but cut it handsomely and eat sparingly'.
- 'When you have dined or supt, rise from the table and carry your trencher or plate with you, doing your obedience to the company; and then attend in the room till the rest rise'.
- 'Keep your cloths from greasing by pinning or keeping your napkin tite around you'.
- 'You will show yourself too fancy by calling for sauce or any dainty things'.
- And later (p. 108, for example): 'It is uncivil to rub your teeth in company, or to pick them at or after meals, with your knife, or otherwise; for it is a thing indecent and distasteful'.
Explicit instruction on table manners such as this had been around since medieval times. And there is much in Woolley's writing here that mirrors the pronouncements in the Babees Book of the fifteenth century and Erasmus's sixteenth century advice in his De Civilitate Morum Puerilium (On Civility in Children) (Desiderius Erasmus, 1530). Bodily control is outlined in detail and nothing seems to be left to chance. Obedience to one's elders, and by implication one's betters is clearly the order of the day, and a sense of Godliness permeates the advice in her desire that proper comportment for girls meant avoiding looking 'too fancy' in wanting 'dainty things'. Not appearing too ravenous or devouring one's food too greedily appears later in her book too (p. 97); these were clearly regarded as unattractive traits in a woman. And dining as a guest was also outlined in detail; being first to rush to fill one's plate was something to avoid at all costs (p. 98).
Carving at table was a skill that Hannah Woolley evidently thought was vital for a woman to perfect. There is much detail in her book about how to carve different kinds of meats (including those cooked in different ways). You also get a strong sense that carving was a normal activity for women to do. They may even have been asked to do this as a guest at another house for dinner; to be asked was quite a compliment. Distributing the best pieces of meat first was important and young women were encouraged to use a fork not their fingers for this purpose. But Woolley notes how hard carving can be. Controlling one's body even if in excruciating pain was vital. She advises to 'avoid clapping your fingers in your mouth and licking them although you have burnt them with carving' (pp. 98-99).
Woolley's ideas on proper comportment at table certainly chime with ideas from medieval times in many respects and many of her pronouncements are still regarded as 'good manners' today. Being able to eat in a way that maintains a degree of cleanliness and bodily order is still prized by many, some even suggesting that not enough is done to teach children 'good' table manners today. However, Woolley's detail on carving is a departure; in much earlier writing this would very likely have been the preserve of boys. The Boke of Keruynge (The Book of Carving, published in 1508) for example, was a manual for well to do boys who needed to be able to lay table, carve and serve sauces if they were to move onwards and upwards in society. In fact even today, carving the Sunday roast or barbecuing meat are often regarded as the preserve of males - a link between meat and masculinity. It is interesting to note a different take on this from earlier times.
References
Erasmus, Desiderius, De Civilitate Morum Puerilium Libellus, Eleanor Merchant, trans. (London, Random House: 2008).
Rickert, Edith, ed., The Babees’ Book: Medieval Manners for the Young Done into Modern English (from Dr Furnivall’s Texts), (London, 1908).
Woolley, Hannah, The Gentlewoman’s Companion, or A Guide to the Female Sex… 3rd edn. (London, 1682).
Image credit
Hannah Woolley and front cover of book courtesy of Wellcome Collection on Wikimedia Commons, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Hannah_Woolley_picture.jpg.
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