The age-herald., 1897-10-24
THE FORK AND ITS EVOLUTION.
It Required Fifteen Hundred Years to Develop
 | From the Pitchfork.
I dine with forks that have but two
 prongs.

pionSS.
 SWIFT.
 There can be but little doubt that the
 table fork owes it's origin to the pitch
 fork, yet 1t required fifteen hundred years and perhaps twice that time to evolve the idea. Forks are a modern in- yeption when compared with spoons.
 The Irishman who defined a fork as "a
 split spoon had a true idea of it's ori- gin, as the earliest ones had only two prongs.
 The first medieval mention of forks is at the marriage of Byzantine maiden to the Doge of Venice, in the eleventh
 century. In Venice, this young woman
 ate as she was accustomed to do at
 home, cutting her meat in a few small bits on her plate, and carrying it 60 her
 mouth with a two-tined fork. The Ven etians regarded thss manner of eating as morbid luxury,
 II seems highly probable that the fork originated in the Byzantine court, and
 thence spread southward. It was not introduced into Eng.an generally, un- til about the latter end of the sixteenth century, and its introduction lies al the door of one Thomas Coryatt.
 Coryatt was the son of a prebendary of York cathedral, and was a member of the household of Prince Henry, tho eldest Son of James l. He published a curious account of a walking tour under the title "Coryatt's Crudities Hastily Gobbled Up in Five, Months Travels in | France, Italy, etc.,. wherein he speaks of an article called 8, 'forke." It is certain that forks were in use in the early middle ages, but only to spit meat ard toast bread. They were never | seen on the table. In the fourteenth | century, rClemence de Hongrie had thir- | ty spoons and one gold fork. The Duke of Anjou, in 1360 had a fork. The in- ventory of Charles V. of France, twenty years later, describes two forks with crystal handles. With silverware worth a million, the emonarch possessed all told only twelve forks The use of a fork was considered such luxury that many monastic orders forbade their members | to indulge in it. Its use was considered | efteminate and beneath the dignity os | true man." @4'-ta
 Queen Eleanor wife of Edward l., had among her plate fork of crystal and a silver fork with an ivory and ebony handle. The Duchess of Touraine had only two forks. though she boasted ten dozen spoons. fi As late as the sixtsent,h century forks were a great rarity. Queen Elizabeth was the first English sovereign and the only woman who used one in her day. Her nobfes thought it was sheer affec-2 tation on her part, and so great was the prejudice against their use, even by ed- ucated people, that an eminent divine pl'eached' sermon about forks saying: Ut is an insult ito the Almighty not to touch ones meat with ones fingers" As late as the reign of George I. so lEtle was knnwn. of forks and their use that few inns provided them for the use of their guests. No one thought of carry ing the food to the mouth with fork | ursdl Queen Elizabeth set the fashion
 In a little book entitled ''Isle des Her maphroditfs," ridicu1ing the effeminate dandees of the French court of Henry ", the writer tells how it was forbid den on the fabulous island to eat meat with the fingers. Everyone was com pelled to get his food in his mouth with fork. These forks kept the hands of the diners so clean that no one wished water and towels between the courses. The performance was as good as play"
 
 century came the introduction of forks into France, Germany and England, by the Italians. Louis XIII. used fork, though his wife, Anna of Austria, ate | with her fingers.
 To the genial Duke de Montausier do we olwe it is probable, the general use of forks His wife was the beautiful Julia d'Argennes daughter of the Marquis de ,,ul,fa al Tho MaruIiiSS hnlIssa . the abode of the Highest culture of the period, and true to the Italian traditions of his family, the Marquis always used a fork AS soon as the Duke learned it's use and saw it's advantages, he exerted his influence to encourage the use of forks among the French aristocracy, and as the first court official of Louis XIV, his lead was followed. Forks were first manufactured in Eng land in y160S Their use was ridiclfred by men of the times. who argued that the English race must be degenera ting when a knife and a spoon were not enough for use at the table.
 Ben Johrson, speaking of the manners of Venice, says by the mouth of Sir Poii- tick Would-be:
 iThen you must learn the use And handling of your silver fork at meals.
 This was written in 1907, and nine years later he speaks of them in Eng land:
 Sledge-Forks? What be they? Meer-The lar liable use of forks sz Brought into custom here asi they s,eesst. are in Italy, To the sparing of napkins. . Forks for green ginger appear in al- most every inventory of importance. The will of Sir Hugh Willoughby, in 1443, mentions 'dj forks for grene gynger;" and in 1500 "a orange for grene ginger" figures. .+.-
 There is nothing new under the sun, says the prophet; in 1515 mention is made of silver spone vt a forke'' and in 1854, "a spone vt 8 forke in