Editing Supper (section)

==History==
{{Quote box|quote=Though in respect of the dinner hour on board a [[man-of-war]], ''the people'' have no reason to complain; yet they have just cause, almost for mutiny, in the outrageous hours assigned for their breakfast and supper.
Eight o'clock for breakfast; twelve for dinner; four for supper; and no meals but these; no lunches and no cold snacks.|author=[[Herman Melville]], 1850|title=''[[White-Jacket]]'', Chapter VII: Breakfast, Dinner, and Supper.|width=40%}}
Supper was originally a secondary lighter evening meal. The main meal of the day, called dinner, used to be served closer to what is known as lunchtime, around the middle of the day, but crept later over the centuries, mostly over the course of the 19th century. When dinner was still at the early time, eating a lighter supper in the evening was very common; it was not always the last meal of the day, as there might be a [[tea (meal)|tea]] later. Reflecting the typical custom of 17th century elites, [[Louis XIV]] dined at noon, with a supper at 10&nbsp;pm.<ref>Strong, 250</ref> Even when dinner was in the early evening, supper was served at a [[ball (dance party)|ball]], or after returning from it,  and might be after other evening excursions. At an English ball in 1791, supper was served to 140 guests at 1:00&nbsp;am.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.regencyhistory.net/2013/12/frances-bankes-ball-at-kingston-lacy-19.html |title=Frances Bankes' ball at Kingston Lacy 19 December 1791 (From Regency History) |publisher=Regency History.net |access-date=2014-01-03}}</ref> They would all have had dinner at home many hours earlier, before coming out. Other, grander, balls served supper even later, up to 3:30&nbsp;am, at a London ball given in 1811 by the [[Duchess of Bedford]].<ref>Day, Ivan, [http://foodhistorjottings.blogspot.com/2013/05/pride-and-prejudice-having-ball.html "Pride and Prejudice – Having a Ball"], Food Jottings</ref>