Meet me, Cremuel. Let us dine.

WolfCrawl Week 31

• Getting the kitchen apron off the hook again

• Chatting in the kitchen with Thurston

• At Diner with Eustache

• Archangel Michael is coming for you

• Birthday Cake at last

Getting the kitchen apron off the hook again

‘Meet me, Cremuel. Let us dine.’ This is how Chapuys invites Cromwell. If I were to shout an invitation to Cromwell, I would at the same time be clutching my Turkish dagger with the sunflower handle tightly in my hand after the last few weeks. No. It's not that bad, but I'm really torn about Cromwell right now. My sympathy for him is still there, but I'm struggling to reconcile it with what he's done in the last few weeks.

But it doesn't help, we have to keep reading on and keep on eating, as Kingston so aptly put it: ‘We must work to eat and eat to work.’

It's not all gloomy either, in the second chapter my WolfCrawl world becomes a little brighter again:

THURSTON IS BACK!

Kitchen Scene by Unknown Artist, between 1610 and 1625

Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Chatting in the kitchen with Thurston

However, the kitchen is not as it used to be, that will probably take a while: Even Thurston is a bit grumpy with the kitchen boy. And while the kitchen was previously the cozy, warm part of the house, it now reflects the bloody, violent last days: two peacocks hang on a rack, their throats cut; kitchen boys sharpening their paring knives; blood puddings are stirred, the fish gutted and eels need to be killed and skinned.

They are everywhere, the mirrors.

Still Life with Peacocks by Rembrandt, ca. 1639

Rembrandt, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

At Dinner with Chapuys

You can rely on Chapuys. When he comes over to eat, the kitchen is in full swing: Eels salted in almond sauce, eels baked in orange juice, spinach tart flavoured with nutmeg and a splash of rosewater, a salad of sweet lettuce and bitter endive and veal and at the end preserved peaches¹. The salad with its sweetness and bitterness (again) also reflects the conversation between the two. Nice chat and tough political talk alternating.

Of course, Chapuys makes it clear that the Italian cuisine is in a different league to what he gets on this rainy island: Bread and olives, ravioli stuffed with cheese and herbs, light as air. Cromwell also wants to show that he knows all about Italian cuisine and has dined on the finest food in Italy, but completely ruins it when he says that the with minced pork stuffed ravioli were sprinkled with sugar. ‘More money than taste.’ That's all Chapuys can say about this offence. I feel you Eustache.

A plate with prawns and a roll, a bowl with olives, a façon de Venise, a glass of beer and almonds on a table by Jacob Foppens van Es, between 1630-1650

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Damascene cats

The painting shows the moment where the Cromwell household loses control of the Damascene cats.

Cats fighting in a larder, with loaves of bread, a dressed lamb, artichokes and grapes by Frans Snyders, between 1609-1657

Cats fighting in a larder, with loaves of bread, a dressed lamb, artichokes and grapes

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Remembering Archangel Michael

‘He remembers the stone devil, his serpentine coils; the archangel Michael, his wings with teal-coloured feathers, his sword raised to hack.’ Cromwell remembering his visit to the church in Kimbolton. Archangel Michael, the leader of the heaven´s forces, who defeats Satan.

‘Saint Michael Vanquishing Satan’ by Raphael, 1518

Raphael, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

But in the Catholic (popular) faith there is also another role of the Archangel Michael: He keeps a record of your good and bad deeds and on the Day of Judgment he will then weigh your good and bad deeds against each other. See that it works out with the good deeds on the scale, Cromwell - you have some catching up to do at the moment.

‘The Last judgement’ by Hans Memling, 1466-1473

Hans Memling, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

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Birthday of Simon Haisell, Lord Privy Seal Substack², Regent and Vicar-General in Slow-Read Matters, Master of the Books, Baron of Ink

On the birthday itself I couldn't find a painting with a cake, so I had to use a Holbein painting with a flower to congratulate. Now that I'm no longer looking for a cake but for something else, the first painting that pops up is - of course - one with a cake. So here it is belatedly for Simon’s birthday and for all of us to celebrate reaching the second milestone in the trilogy:

Detail of ‘The Marriage Feast’ at Cana by Bartolomé Esteban Murillo, ca. 1672

Bartolomé Esteban Murillo, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons, photograph by https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:DeFacto

1. ‘I am afraid once again we have failed with our apricots’ he says. Here we are again together, Cromwell and I. The anxious fear for the apricot blossoms, every single year.

2. Copyright Simon Haisell