The Cornish Pasty |
Here we come to 14th Century pasties ..... Geoffrey Chaucer (Wikipedia) 1343-1400 AD, was apparently the first English scholar to write in the vernacular English rather than French or Latin.
He is most well known for "The Canterbury Tales" ..... about pilgrims on the road to Canterbury.
"The Cook's Tale" - written between 1380 & 1390 (in Wikipedia HERE) mentions the pasty.
everypoet.com - Geoffrey Chaucer - Canterbury Tales - The Cook's Tale - the words:
Quote:
Our Host answer'd and said; "I grant it thee.
Roger, tell on; and look that it be good,
For many a pasty hast thou letten blood,
And many a Jack of Dover<1> hast thou sold,
That had been twice hot and twice cold.Notes to the Prologue to the Cook's Tale
1. Jack of Dover: an article of cookery. (Transcriber's note:
suggested by some commentators to be a kind of pie, and by
others to be a fish)
4Literature.net gives a modern "translation" of the Old English:
http://www.4literature.net/Geoffrey_Chaucer/Cook_s_Prologue/
Quote:
Our host replied: "I grant it readily.
Now tell on, Roger; see that it be good;
For many a pasty have you robbed of blood,
And many a Jack of Dover have you sold
That has been heated twice and twice grown cold.
Note to self: see
http://www.courses.fas.harvard.edu/~chaucer/teachslf/ckt-par.htm
This gives an alternative transcription, quote:
This transcription goes from "pastee" to "pastry" - a common word in Middle English was "paste" which was used for "pastry" so there is plenty of scope for confusion over this issue ..... see for instance, the Shakespeare page on this web site. It would be interesting to see the original manuscript .....
So - pasties from 1380/1390 ..... ?
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