Note 206 — Chapter XIV · SOCIETY IN THE OLD DOMINION.
Reading edition
Meercraft.—Have I deserved this from you two, for all My pains at court to get you each a patent?
Gilthead.—For what?
Meercraft.—Upon my project o’ the forks.
Sledge.—Forks? what be they?
Meercraft.—The laudable use of forks, Brought into custom here, as they are in Italy, To the sparing o’ napkins
Ben Jonson, The Devil is an Ass, act v. scene 3.