s commonly placed about the middle, and
served as a kind of boundary to the different quality of the guests
invited. Those of distinction were ranked above; the space below being
assigned to the dependants, inferior relations of the master of the
house, etc.[971] Shakespeare would seem to allude to this custom in the
"Winter's Tale" (i. 2), where Leontes says:

"lower messes,
Perchance, are to this business purblind?"

[971] Gifford's note on "Massinger's Works," 1813, vol. i. p.
170; see Dyce's "Glossary to Shakespeare," pp. 269, 380.

Upon which passage Steevens adds, "Leontes comprehends inferiority of
understanding in the idea of inferiority of rank." Ben Jonson, speaking
of the characteristics of an insolent coxcomb, remarks: "His fashion is
not to take knowledge of him that is beneath him in clothes. He never
drinks below the salt."

_Ordinary._ This was a public dinner, where each paid his share, an
allusion to which custom is made by Enobarbus, in "Antony and Cleopatra"
(ii. 2), who, speaking of Antony, says:

"Being barber'd ten times o'er, goes to the feast,
And, for his ordinary, pays his heart
For what his eyes eat only."

Again, in "All's Well that Ends Well" (ii. 3), Lafeu says: "I did think
thee, for two ordinaries, to be a pretty wise fellow; thou didst make
tolerable vent of thy travel."

The "ordinary" also denoted the lounging-place of the men of the town,
and the fantastic gallants who herded together. They were, says the
author of "Curiosities of Literature" (vol. iii. p. 82), "the exchange
for news, the echoing-places for all sorts of town talk; there they
might hear of the last new play and poem, and the last fresh widow
sighing for some knight to make her a lady; these resorts were attended
also to save charges of housekeeping."

_Drinking Customs._ Shakespeare has given several allusions to the old
customs associated with drinking, which have always varied in different
countries. At the present day many of the drinking customs still
observed are very curious, especially those kept up at the universities
and inns-of-court.

_Alms-drink_ was a phrase in use, says Warburton, among good fellows, to
signify that liquor of another's share which his companion drank to ease
him. So, in "Antony and Cleopatra" (ii. 7) one of the servants says of
Lepidus: "They have made him drink alms-drink."

_By-drinkings._ This was a phrase for drinkings b