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[[File:Poskromienie złośnicy.jpg|Poskromienie złośnicy|thumb|upright|One of the ways to tame a shrew in one of William Shakespeare's comedies was to remove from her diet anything that was too ''hot'' and choler-engendering, such as beef with mustard.<br>{{small|By John Augustus Atkinson (18th/19th cent.)}}]]
At a great lord's court, every meal is a feast, not just for the lord himself, but also for his family, guests and major retainers. How, then, do you ensure that each person at the table gets a diet that is appropriate for their own particular temperament? The only way to do so is to serve a variety of dishes with different humoral qualities all at once and let each diner pick whatever their medic advised them to eat (or what they've read is good for them in a book). Known as "''service à la française''", or service in the French way, it's the been the predominant way of serving food at banquets in Europe since the Middle Ages and will continue to be until the 19th century, when "''service à la russe''", or service in the Russian way, will take over, with each dish served to each diner separately in a strict order.
But does it really work? After all, a doctor may advise, recommend, maybe even gently admonish, but he must never forget that he is his lord's servant. In fact, it's not rare for a patient, unused to being ordered around, to diagnose his illness and plan his own therapy by himself, summoning the doctor only to do what the patient ordered, as in: now you will give me an enema. So how can a dietitian make sure that his employer eats only what's good for him? Sometimes all a doctor can do is complain in general terms, which is exactly what John Archer, court physician to King Charles II of England, does.
