The Day of a King
Dinner
The King’s supper hour was normally ten o’clock,
but if he had a heavy evening it might be much later, and Madame, whose attendance
was compulsory, complains that the King often did not sup before half-past eleven.
Louis enjoyed his dinner, but supper was to him
the crown of the day, and his performances at that meal filled his courtiers
with respectful amazement. One night in 1708, when in bed on invalid diet, and
being then seventy years of age, he consumed a potage, followed by four wings,
a leg, and all the white meat off three chickens. And do not hastily assume
that potage means soup, for it does not; in the seventeenth century a potage
was ordinarily a large dish of meat or fish, boiled with vegetables. There
were over a hundred and fifty potage recipes, from which let us take
Potage a la Jacobine as a sample: bone, boil, and mince as many partridges
and chickens as required, and serve hot with almond sauce on a layer of cheese.
But Louis in good health was a very different performer; then his supper was known to consist of, say, four plates of soup, a whole pheasant, a whole partridge, two slices of ham and a salad, some mutton with garlic, followed by pastry, and finished off with fruit and hard-boiled eggs. Nor did this exhaust the gastronomic possibilities of his day, for on reaching his bedroom he would find there his en cas de nuit, a snack to see him through the dark hours, and which consisted of three loaves, two bottles of wine, a decanter of water, and three cold dishes. In extenuation of what we can only call the gluttony of Louis, it must be remembered that he never ate anything between meals, and that his postmortem revealed the fact that his stomach had double the capacity of that of the normal man of his size. Supper was always eaten au grand convert, that is to say in the presence of the full Court, and with all those seated at the King's table who were entitled to the honor; it was in fact Louis en père de famille, surrounded by his family and his dependents, a sumptuous version of the evening gathering for the last meal of the day, which was taking place under every roof in the kingdom. But, let us hope, not with equal tedium, for the royal supper was a dull business. Madame tells us that the table was as silent as in a refectory, and that one had barely the courage to murmur a word in one's neighbor's ear.