How to Sit at the Table

1530

“Make sure that you do not bother the person sitting next to you with your feet. Squirming in your seat, and sitting now on one buttock and now the other, gives the impression that you are farting or trying to fart. Therefore, your body should remain upright and balanced.”

Desiderius Erasmus, De civilitate morum puerilium

Further guidance on flatulence from the Prince of Humanists: the only thing worse than being exposed as a dinner-table farter is being wrongfully suspected.