For rudness it is the pottge to sup
Or speak to any, your head in a cup
The knife it is sharp to cut fair the meat
Your mouth not to be full when you eat
Not smacking the lips, as do common hogs
Nor gnaw the bones as if you were a dog
Such rudness abhore such beastlyness fly
At the table behave your self with good manners
Let not the tongue at the table walk
And of no matter neither not talk
Temper the tongue and the belly as well
For measure is treasure the proverb does say
Dont pick your teeth at the table sitting
This is the rudness of youth it is to be abhorred
yourself mannerly behave at your hosts
If occassion of laughter at the table you see
Beware that you use the same moderately
Of good manners learn so much thou can
If you prefer when you are a man
Ok so its not what we today would call a poem but it shows the length to which people went in Elizabethan times to stress good manners.
