Re: Courtliness, SCA, Cloved Fruit

["Joyce A. Baldwin" <jocetta@ibm.net>]

Poster: "Joyce A. Baldwin" <jocetta@ibm.net>


>I can say with confidence one SCA tradition that is pretty widely practiced
>and is NOT based in courtly love in ANY way is Cloved Fruit.  Don't be
>fooled.  I've done the research.
>
>Andrew

Yes this is a made up SCA custom.  Mistress Alizaunde de Bregeuf in the
East Kingdom claims to have invented it many years ago for an event,
intending it as a simple entertainment for that single event.  She was very
surprised to return from a year out of the country and find it an
established custom!  But then, the SCA started out as a single party thrown
for Mistress Diana Listmaker....another example of an idea too good to
happen just once.

BTW, for those unacquainted with the custom: a Lord or Lady presents a
clove studded fruit (orginally and classically a lemon, but people have
been getting creative) to a member of the opposite gender.  Optionally, the
one presented with the fruit may remove and gently bite a clove to sweeten
the breathe.  They then kiss.  A lord may kiss only the portion of the lady
that is offered:  the rule is Ladies' Choice/Gentlemans'  Consent.  This
means the kiss can range from a gallant (non-slobbery) salutation on the
back of the lady's extended hand (in one case I've heard of, her little
finger only),  to a friendly peck on the cheek she presents,  to an
attempted tonsillectomy.  A discreet withdrawal to a secluded location is
recommended for the latter option.  

The gentle who has received the fruit then finds another gentle of the
opposite gender to present it to, and so it circulates around the event.

WARNING!  In some locations there is a custom that if a lady is presented
with a fruit with a single remaining clove in it and accepts, she is
implying that she will accompany the lord home that evening.  THIS IS NOT
UNIVERSAL!  It is not, as far as I know, a custom in the Eastern Seaboard
kingdomes.  DO NOT assume any lady has knowlege of it!  

Did I leave anything out?

Jocetta
Joyce A. Baldwin
Diva Extraordinaire

In the Society for Creative Anachronism:
Lady Jocetta Thrushleigh of Rowansgarth
Exchequer, Canton of Buckston on Eno
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