262

FORKS.

themselves out of the common dish which contained therepast; for, upon the question being put of who was tobetray the Saviour, the answer is as given in the abovequotation, “ It is one of the twelve that dippeth with mein the dish.”

In the passage cited from Homer, the phrase, accordingto the Latin translation, “ appositos manus porriyebant,”implies nearly the same sense. And had the ltomans beenapprised of the utility of this instrument, or in fact of anysubstitute, there could have been no occasion for the masterof the amorous art to have given his instructions to hispupils in uearly similar terms which we now use to children.

Carpe cibos digit is; est quiddam gestus edendi;

Ora nec immunda tota perunge manu.

De Arte Amandi > iii. 755.

Although Count Caylus , 3 and Grig non* * both assert theyhave been found. The former says, one with two prongswas found among rubbish in the Appian Way , which healleges to be of beautiful workmanship, terminating in thehandle with a carved stag’s foot. Notwithstanding the highreputation of that author, it is not generally credited. Thelatter says he discovered some in the ruins of a Romantown in Champagne ; but he does not describe them, other-wise than to observe that one was of copper or brass, andthe others of iron; and speaking of the latter, says, theyappear to have been used as table forks, but were coarselymade.

The truth seems to be that table forks were first used inItaly , as appears from the book of Galeotus Martius, anItalian, in the service of Matthias Corvinus , King ofHungary , who reigned from 1458 to 1490. Martius relatesthat at that periodforks were not used at table in Hungary , asin Italy , but that at meals each person laid hold of the meatwith his fingers, and on that account they were muchstained with saffron, usually put into sauces and soup. Hepraises the King for eating without a fork, yet conversingat the same time, and never dirtying his clothes.

In France , at the end of the sixteenth century, it ap-pears, from a work before cited, L’Isle des Hermaphrodites , 5the author speaks of forks as being at that time quiteunknown, even at the court of the monarch.

3 Recueil d’A.iUiquUes> iii. p. S12. tab. lxxxiv. 5**• Bulletin des Fouilles, i. p. 17. ii. p. 13J.

* Published in 1724, at Cologne.