mess:
1.
dish (of food),
course of dishes
Wiv. III. i. 63
“a of
porridge,”
Shr. IV. iv. 70, Wint. IV. iii. [iv.] 11
“our feasts In every
have
folly,”
Tim. IV. iii. 427, Lr. I. i. 119.
2.
quantity of food
stuff sufficient for a dish
2H4 II. i. 106
“to borrow a mess of
vinegar.”
3.
one of the groups of
persons, normally four, into which the company at a
banquet was divided;
Wint. I. ii. 227
“lower m-es”
(i.e. people of inferior status),
John I. i. 190
“He and his toothpick at
my worship's mess,”
Ham. V. ii. 90
“at the king's
mess.”