Editing Caudle (section)

==Caudle parties==
[[File:Takings, or, The life of a collegian - a poem (1821) (14778349622).jpg|thumb|left|[[Richard Dagley]]'s illustration "Taking caudle" of [[Thomas Gaspey]]'s poem. The new mother reclines in a four-poster bed, recouping her energy. A member of the household sits at the foot of the bed, entertaining a visitor, who keeps her bonnet on; both of them are drinking caudle. A maidservant shows the baby to the visitor, while a dog and cat look on.]]
As caudel was served to new mothers to build up their strength, so it was offered to their visitors, to share in the happy occasion. "Cake and caudel" or "taking caudle" became [[Metonymy|the accepted phrases]] for a "lying-in visit", when women went to see their friends' new babies. These were [[women-only space|all-female occasions]], as more than one man noted. The American playwright [[Royall Tyler]] has one of the female characters in the [[comedy of manners]] ''[[The Contrast (play)|The Contrast]]'' (1787) decline the offer of a man's escorting her by claiming that "half [her] visits are cake and caudel" and therefore unsuitable for him.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Tyler |first1=Royall |last2=Kierner |first2=Cynthia A. |title=The Contrast: Manners, Morals, and Authority in the Early American Republic |date=2007 |publisher=NYU Press |isbn=9780814747926 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=HdIe7Dp1cFgC&q=%22cake+and+caudle%22&pg=PA94 |accessdate=31 December 2018 |language=en}}</ref> A generation later in 1821, [[Thomas Gaspey]] wrote of these visits (with the italics in the original):

{{poemquote|
'Twas then Eliza, though now Mrs. T.
We ought to call her, gave her lord an heir, 
And all her female friends, the babe to see
And praise its beauty, failed not to repair;
But half what they to utter there thought meet,
While ''taking caudle'', I must not repeat.
}}

Offering caudel, or cake and caudel, to all lying-in visitors is referred to as an old British custom. [[Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz|Queen Charlotte]], consort of [[George III of the United Kingdom|George III]], bore him 15 princes and princesses.  After the christening of the youngest, [[Princess Amelia of the United Kingdom|Princess Amelia]] in 1783, "the greater part of the company then paid a visit to the nursery, where they were entertained (as usual on such occasions) with cake and caudel."<ref>{{cite book |last1=Oulton |first1=W.C. |title=Authentic and Impartial Memoirs of Her Late Majesty: Charlotte Queen of Great Britain and Ireland Containing a Faithfull Retrospect of Hearly Days Her Marriage Coronation Correspondence Illness Death, Funeral Obsequies |date=1819 |page=187 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8XAloATNDhUC&q=%22cake+and+caudle%22&pg=PA187 |accessdate=31 December 2018}}</ref> This continued into [[Queen Victoria]]'s reign: the day after she gave birth to the [[Prince of Wales]], "many of the female Nobility called at Buckingham Palace, and were received by [[Anne Caulfeild, Countess of Charlemont|Lady Charlemont]], the [[Lady in waiting]], and after taking caudle were taken to the north wing to see the infant Prince."<ref>{{cite book |title=The Court magazine and belle assemblée [afterw.] and monthly critic and the Lady's magazine and museum |page=537 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_z8FAAAAQAAJ&q=%22taking+caudle%22&pg=PA538 |accessdate=31 December 2018 |language=en|last1=Critic |first1=Court Magazine Monthly |date=July 1841 }}</ref>

But it was not just nobles who came. ''[[La Belle Assemblée|The Court Magazine and Belle Assemblée]]'' reported that the aftermath of a royal birth was "a usual reception of the public to cake and caudel".<ref>{{cite book |title=The Court magazine and belle assemblée [afterw.] and monthly critic and the Lady's magazine and museum |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vz8FAAAAQAAJ&q=%22cake+and+caudle%22&pg=PA409 |accessdate=31 December 2018 |language=en|last1=Critic |first1=Court Magazine Monthly |date = July 1840}}</ref> The ''[[London Chronicle]]'' reported in 1765 that "The resort of different ranks of people at St. James's to receive the Queen's Caudle is now very great."<ref>{{cite web |title=Home : Oxford English Dictionary |url=http://www.oed.com/view/Entry/29073?rskey=8vhJ7J&result=1#eid |website=www.oed.com |accessdate=31 December 2018 |language=en}}</ref>
[[File:Geboorte-aangifte prins Alexander op stadhuis te Utrech v.l.n.r. dr. Beel , prin, Bestanddeelnr 920-2952.jpg|thumb|Formal caudle party after the birth of King [[Willem-Alexander of the Netherlands]] in 1967]]

After the birth of [[Princess Augusta Sophia of the United Kingdom|Princess Augusta Sophia]], the sixth child of George III and Queen Charlotte:

{{blockquote|Connected with the event of her Royal Highness's birth,  during the usual reception of the public to cake and caudle, on Sunday 13th of November, 1768, a curious incident occurred at the Palace: - two young ladies, after having drunk plentifully of caudle, were detected in carrying off a large portion of the cake, and some of the cups in which the caudle had been served; they were allowed, however, to escape with a severe reprimand, after begging pardon on their knees for so disgraceful an act.<ref>{{cite book |title=George the Third, his Court, and family, Volume 1 |date=1820 |page=73 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=KAyQLvA3cBMC |accessdate=17 January 2019|last1=Britain) |first1=George III. (King of Great }}</ref>}}

In England, the custom had died out by around 1850,<ref>Hughes, 146</ref> but the birth of the current King [[Willem-Alexander of the Netherlands]] in [[Utrecht]] in 1967 was celebrated there a few days later by an apparently all-male caudle (''candeel'' in Dutch) party including [[Prince Claus of the Netherlands|his father]], the [[Piet de Jong|Prime Minister]], and other dignitaries, who wore [[morning dress]] to eat caudle with teaspoons from highly decorated handleless cups with saucers, held up near the mouth, as the photos in the state archives show.<ref>Caption: "Geboorte-aangifte prins Alexander op stadhuis te Utrech v.l.n.r. dr. Beel , prins Claus en Premier De Jong drinken kopje kandeel", 2 May 1967</ref>  The event was held in the Utrecht city hall, where after the caudle the new prince's birth was registered by the mayor.  The birth of the prince's mother, Queen [[Beatrix of the Netherlands]], in 1938 had also been celebrated with a caudle party.