honey, salt, vinegar, raisins, mustard and oil,' commends. But the present receipt is, to let the water boil well; throw in salt and a bit of butter; and so not only sprouts but spinage will be green. There is a most extraordinary observation of the editor's, to which I cannot but agree; that it is a vulgar error, that walnut-trees, like Russian wives, thrive the better for being beaten; and that long poles and stones are used by boys and others to get the fruit down, the walnut-tree being so very high they could not otherwise reach it, rather out of kindness to themselves, than any regard to the tree that bears it. As for asparagus, there is an excellent remark, that, according to Pliny, they were the great care of the ancient gardeners, and that at Ravenna three weighed a pound; but that in England it was thought a rarity when a hundred of them weighed thirty: that cucumbers are apt to rise in the stomach, unless pared, or boiled with oil, vinegar, and honey; that the Egyptians would drink hard without any disturbance, because it was a rule for them to have always boiled cab way to roast onions is in colewort leaves, for fear of burning them: that beets are good for smiths, because they, working at the fire, are generally costive: that Petronius has recorded a little old woman, who sold the agreste olus of the ancients; which honour I take to be as much due to those who in our days cry nettle-tops, elder-buds, and cliver, in spring-time very wholesome. The work is divided into ten books; of which the first treats of soups and pickles, and amongst other things shows, that sauce-pans were tinned before the time of Pliny; that Gordian used a glass of bitter in a morning; that the ancients scalded their wine; and that burnt claret, as now practised, with spice and sugar, is pernicious; that the adulteration of wine was as ancient as Cato;bage for their first dish at supper: that the best that braton was a Roman dish, which Apicius commends as wonderful; its sauce then was mustard and honey, before the frequent use of sugar: nor were soused hogs-feet, cheeks, and ears, unknown to those ages. It is very probable, they were not so superstitious as to have so great a delicate only at Christmas. It were worth a dissertation between two learned persons, so it were managed with temper and candour, to know whether the Britons taught it to the Romans, or whether Cæsar introduced it into Britain: and it is strange he should take no notice of it; whereas he has recorded, that they did not cat hare's flesh; that the ancients used to marinate their fish, by frying them in oil, and, the moment they were taken out, pouring boiling vinegar upon them. The learned annotator observes, that the best way of keeping the liquor in oysters is, by laying the deep shell downwards; and by this means Apicius conveyed oysters to Tiberius when in Parthia; a noble invention, since made use of at Colchester with most admirable success! What estates might Brawn or Locket have got in those days, when Apicius, only for boiling sprouts after a new fashion, deservedly came into the good graces of Drusus, who then commanded the Roman armies! The fourth book contains the universal Art of Cookery. As Matthæus Sylvaticus composed the Pandects of Physic, and Justinian those of Law; so Apicius has done the Pandects of his Art, in this book which bears that inscription. The first chapter contains the admirable receipt of a salacacaby of Apicius. Bruise in a mortar parsleyseed, dried pennyroyal, dried mint, ginger, green coriander, raisins stoned, honey, vinegar, oil, and wine; put them into a cacabulum; three crusts of pycentine bread, the flesh of a pullet, goat stones, vestine cheese, pine kernels, cucumbers, dried onions minced small; pour a soup over it, garnish it with snow, and send it up in the cacabulum. This cacabulum being an unusual vessel, my friend went to his dictionary, where, finding an odd interpretation of it, he was easily persuaded, from the whimsicalness of the composition, and the fan The first book having treated of sauces or stand-tasticalness of snow for its garniture, that the proing pickles for relish, which are used in most of the succeeding receipts; the second has a glorious subject, of sausages, both with skins and without, which contains matters no less remarkable than the former. The ancients that were delicate in their cating prepared their own mushrooms with an amber, or at least a silver knife; where the annotator shows elegantly, against Hardouinus, that the whole knife, and not only the handle, was of amber or silver, lest the rustiness of an ordinary knife might prove infectious. This is a nicety which I hope we may in time arrive to; for the Britons, though not very forward in inventions, yet are out-done by no nations in imitation or improvements. The third book is of such edibles as are produced in gardens. The Romans used nitre, to make their herbs look green; the annotator shows our salt-petre at present to differ from the ancient nitre. Apicius had a way of mincing them first with oil and salt, and so boiling them; which Pliny perest vessel for a physician to prescribe, to send to table upon that occasion, might be a bed-pan. There are some admirable remarks in the annotations to the second chapter, concerning the dialogue of Asellius Sabinus, who introduces a combat between mushrooms, chats, or beccofico's, oysters, and redwings; a work that ought to be published: for the same annotator observes, that this island is not destitute of redwings, though coming to us only in the hardest weather, and therefore seldom brought fat to our tables; that the chats come to us in April and breed, and about autumn return to Afric; that experience shows us they may be kept in cages, fed with beef or wether mutton, figs, grapes, and minced filberts, being dainties not unworthy the care of such as would preserve our British dishes; the first delighting in hodge-podge, galimaufries, forced meats, jussels, and salmagundies; the latter in spear-ribs, surloins, chines and barous; and thence our terms of art, both as to dressing and carving, sauce, prescribed after a physical manner, in form of an electuary, made of pepper, rue, parsley-seed, juniper, thyme dried, mint, pennyroyal, honey, &c." with which any apothecary in that country can furnish you. 4. Beef, with onion sauce, and commended by Celsus, but not much approved by Hippocrates, because the Greeks scarce knew how to make oxen, and powdering-tubs were in very few become very different; for they, lying upon a sort of couch, could not have carved those dishes which our ancestors, when they sat upon forms, used to do. But, since the use of cushions and elbowchairs, and the editions of good books and authors, it may be hoped in time we may come up to them. For indeed hitherto we have been something to blame; and I believe few of us have seen a dish of capon-stones at table; (lamb-stones is acknow-families: for physicians have been very peculiar ledged by the learned annotator that we have) for the art of making capons has long been buried in oblivion. Varro, the great Roman antiquary, tells us how to do it by burning of their spurs; which, occasioning their sterility, makes then capons in effect, though those parts thereby became more large and tender. The fifth book is of pease-porridge; under which are included, frumetary, watergruel, milk-porridge, rice-milk, flumary, stir-about, and the like. The Latin or rather Greek name is ausprios; but my friend was pleased to entitle it pantagruel, a name used by Rabelais, an eminent physician. There are some very remarkable things in it; as, the emperor Julianus had seldoin any thing but spoonmcat at supper: that the herb fenugreek, with pickles, oil, and wine, was a Roman dainty; upon which the annotator observes, that it is not used in our kitchens, for a certain ungrateful bitterness that it has; and that it is plainly a physical diet, that will give a stool; and that, mixed with oats, it is the best purge for horses: an excellent invention for frugality, that nothing might be lost; for what the lord did not eat, he might send to his stable! The sixth book treats of wild-fowl; how to dress ostriches, (the biggest, grossest, and most difficult of digestion, of any bird) phoenicoptrices, parrots, &c. The seventh book treats of things sumptuous and costly, and therefore chiefly concerning hog-meat; in which the Romans came to that excess, that the laws forbad the usage of hogs-barslet, sweet-breads, cheeks, &c. at their public suppers; and Cato, when censor, sought to restrain the extravagant use of brawn, by several of his orations. So much regard was had then to the art of cookery, that we see it took place in the thoughts of the wisest men, and bore a part in their most important councils. But, alas! the degeneracy of our present age is such, that I believe few besides the annotator know the excellency of a virgin sow, especially of the black kind brought from China; and how to make the most of her liver, lights, brains, and pettitoes; and to vary her into those fifty dishes which, Pliny says, were usually made of that delicious creature. Besides, Galen tells us more of its excellencies: "That fellow that eats bacon for two or three days before he is to box or wrestle, shall be much stronger than if he should eat the best roast beef or bag pudding in the parish." The eighth book treats of such dainties as fourfooted beasts afford us; as, 1. the wild boar, which they used to boil with all its bristles on. 2. The deer, dressed with broth made with pepper, wine, honey, oil, and stewed damsons, &c. 3. The wild sheep, of which there are "innumerable in the mountains of Yorkshire and Westmoreland, that will let nobody handle them;" but, if they are caught, they are to be sent up with an "elegant in their diet in all ages; otherwise Galen would scarce have found out that young foxes were in season in autumn. 5. The sucking pig boiled in paper. 6. The hare, the chief of the Roman dainties; its blood being the sweetest of any animal, its natural fear contributing to that excellence. Though the emperors and nobility bad parks to fatten them in; yet in the time of Didianus Julianus, if any one had sent him one, or a pig, he would make it last him three days; whereas Alexander Severus had one every meal, which must have been a great expense, and is very remarkable. But the most exquisite animal was reserved for the last chapter; and that was the dormouse, a harmless creature, whose innocence might at least have defended it both from cooks and physicians. But Apicius found out an odd sort of fate for those poor creatures; some to be boned, and others to be put whole, with odd ingredients, into hogs-guts, and so boiled for sausages. In ancient times, people made it their business to fatten them: Aristotle rightly observes, that sleep fattened them; and Martial from thence too poetically tells us, that sleep was their only nourishment. But the annotator has cleared that point; he, good man, has tenderly observed one of them for many years, and finds, that it does not sleep all the winter, as falsely reported, but wakes at meals, and after its repast then rolls itself up in a ball to sleep. This dormouse, according to the author, did not drink in three years time; but whether other dormice do so, I cannot tell, because Bambouselbergius's treatise Of Fattening Dormice is lost. Though very costly, they became a common dish at great entertainments. Petronius delivers us an odd receipt for dressng them, and serving them up with poppies and honey; which must be a very soporiferous dainty, and as good as owl-pie to such as want a nap after dinner. The fondness of the Romans came to be so excessive towards them, that, as Pliny says, "the censorian laws, and Marcus Scaurus in his consulship, got them prohibited from public entertainments." But Nero, Commodus, and Heliogabalus, would not deny the liberty, and indeed property, of their subjects in so reasonable an enjoyment; and therefore we find them long after brought to table in the times of Ammianus Marcellinus, who tells us likewise, that "scales were brought to table in those ages, to weigh curious fishes, birds, and dormice," to see whether they were at the standard of excellence and perfection, and sometimes, I suppose, to vie with other pretenders to magnificence. The annotator takes hold of this occasion, to show "of how great use scales would be at the tables of our nobility," especially upon the bringing up of a dish of wild-fowl: "for, if twelve larks (says he) should weigh below twelve ounces, they would be very lean, and scarce tolerable; if twelve, and down-weight, they would be very well; but, if thirteen, they would be fat to perfection." We see upon how nice and exact a balance the happi- | salmagundy, with the head and tail so neatly laid, ness of eating depends! that it surprised him. He says, many of the species may be found at the Sugar Loaf in Bell Yard, as giving an excellent relish to Burton ale,' and not costing above sixpence, an inconsiderable price for so imperial a dainty! I could scarce forbear smiling, not to say worse, at such exactness and such dainties; and told my friend, that those scales would be of extraordinary use at Dunstable; and that, if the annotator had not prescribed his dormouse, I should upon the first occasion be glad to visit it, if I knew its visiting-days and hours, so as not to disturb it. My friend said, there remained but two books more, one of sea and the other of river fish, in the account of which he would not be long, seeing his memory began to fail him almost as much as my patience. "Tis true, in a long work, soft slumbers creep, And gently sink the artist into sleep'; especially when treating of dormice. The ninth book is concerning sea fish, where, amongst other learned annotations, is recorded that famous voyage of Apicius, who, having spent many millions, and being retired into Campania, heard that there were lobsters of a vast and unusual bigness in Africa, and thereupon impatiently got on shipboard the same day; and, having suffered much at sea, came at last to the coast. But the fame of so great a man's coming had landed before him, and all the fishermen sailed out to meet him, and presented him with their fairest lobsters. He asked, if they had no larger. They answered, "Their sea produced nothing more excellent than what they had brought." This honest freedom of theirs, with his disappointment, so disgusted him, that he took pet, and bade the master return home again immediately and so, it seems, Africa lost the breed of one monster more than it had before. There are many receipts in the book, to dress cramp-fish, that numb the hands of those that touch them; the cuttle-fish, whose blood is like ink; the pourcontrel, or many feet; the sea-urchin, or hedge-hog; with several others, whose sauces are agreeable to their natures. But, to the comfort of us moderns, the ancients often ate their oysters alive, and spread hard eggs minced over their sprats, as we do now over our salt-fish. There is one thing very curious concerning herrings. It seems, the ancients were very fantastical, in making one thing pass for another; so, at Petronius's supper, the cook sent up a fat goose, fish, and wild-fowl of all sorts to appearance, but still all were made out of the several parts of one single porker. The great Nicomedes, king of Bithynia, had a very delighful deception of this nature put upon him by his cook: the king was extremely affected with fresh herrings; (as indeed who is not?) but, being far up in Asia from the sea-coast, his whole wealth could not have purchased one; but his cook contrived some sort of meat, which, put into a frame, so resembled a herring, that it was extremely satisfactory both to this prince's eyes and gusto. My friend told me, that, to the honour of the city of London, he had seen a thing of this nature there; that is, a herring, or rather a I Art of Cookery, ver. 449. 2 Lord Lyttelton's Nineteenth Dialogue of the Dead (perhaps the most humorous in that admirable collection) seems to have been entirely founded on the hints suggested by Dr. King. N. The tenth book, as my friend tells me, is concerning fish sauces, which consist of variety of ingredients, amongst which is generally a kind of frumetary. But it is not to ba forgotten by any person who would boil fish exactly, that they threw them alive into the water, which at present is said to be a Dutch receipt, but was derived from the Romans. It seems, Seneca the philosopher, (a man from whose morove temper little good in the art of cookery could be expected) in his third book of Natural Questions, correcting the luxury of the times, says, the Romans were come to that daintiness, that they would not eat a fish unless upon the same day it was taken, "that it might taste of the sea," as they expressed it; and therefore had them brought by persons who rode post, and made a great outery, whereupon all other people were obliged to give them the road. It was an usual expression for a Roman to say, "in other matters I may confide in you; but in a thing of this weight, it is not consistent with my gravity and prudence. I will trust nothing but my own eyes. Bring the fish hither, let me see him breathe his last." And, when the poor fish was brought to table swimming and gasping, would cry out, "Nothing is more beautiful than a dying mullet!" My friend says, the annotator looks upon these "as jests made by the Stoics, and spoken absurdly and beyond nature;" though the annotator at the same time tells us, that it was a law at Athens, that the fishermen should not wash their fish, but bring them as they came out of the sea. Happy were the Athenians in good laws, and the Romans in great examples! But I believe our Britons need wish their friends no longer life, than till they see London served with live herrings and gasping mackarel. It is true, we are not quite so barbarous but that we throw our crabs alive into scalding water, and tie our lobsters to the spit to hear them squeak when they are roasted; our eels use the same peristaltic motion upon the gridiron, when their skin is off and their guts are out, as they did before; and our gudgeons, taking opportunity of jumping after they are flowered, give occasion to the admirable remark of some persons' folly, when, to avoid the danger of the frying-pan, they leap into the fire. My friend said, that the mention of eels put him in mind of the concluding remark of the annotator, “That they who amongst the Sybarites would fish for cels, or sell them, should be free from all taxes." I was glad to hear of the word conclude; and told him nothing could be more acceptable to me than the mention of the Sybarites, of whom I shortly intend a history, showing how they deservedly banished cocks for waking them in a morning, and smiths for being useful; how one cried out because one of the rose-leaves he lay on was rumpled; how they taught their horses to dance; and so their enemies, coming against them with guitars and harpsichords, set them so upon their round o's and minuets, that the form of their battle was broken, and three hundred thousand of them slain, as Gouldman, Lyttleton, and several other good au thors, affirm. I told my friend, I had much overstayed my hour; but if, at any time, he would find Dick Humelbergius, Caspar Barthius, and another friend, with himself, I would invite him to inner of a few but choice dishes to cover the table at once, which, except they would think of any thing better, should be a salacacaby, a dish of fenugreek, a wild sheep's head and appurtenance with a suitable electuary, a ragout of capon's stones, and some dormouse sausages. If, as friends do with one another at a venisonpasty, you shall send for a plate, you know you may command it; for what is mine is yours, as being entirely your, &c. THE ART OF LOVE: IN IMITATION OF OVID DE ARTE AMANDI. To the lord Herbert', eldest son of his excellency the earl of Pembroke and Montgomery; baron Herbert of Cardiff, Ross of Kendal, Parr, FitzHugh Marmion, St. Quintin, and Herbert of Shutland; knight of the garter, &c. &c. MY LORD, THE following lines are written on a subject that will naturally be protected by the goodness and temper of your lordship: for, as the advantages of your mind and person must kindle the flames of love in the coldest breast; so you are of an age most susceptible of them in your own. You have acquired all those accomplishments at home, which others are forced to seek abroad; and have given the world assurance, by such beginnings, that you will soon be qualified to fill the highest offices of the crown with the same universal applause, that has constantly attended your illustrious father in the discharge of them. For the good of your posterity, may you ever be happy in the choice of what you love! And though these rules will be of small use to you, that can frame much better; yet let me beg leave that, by dedicating them to your service, I may have the honour of telling the world, that I am obliged to your lordship; and that I am most entirely bore the mastership in that art; and therefore, in the fourth book De Tristibus, when he would give some account of himself to future ages, he calls himself Tenerorum Lusor Amorum, as if he gloried principally in the descriptions he had made of that passion. But The prescut imitation of him is at least such a one as Mr. Dryden mentions, "to be an endeayour of a latter poet to write like one who has written before him on the same subject; that is, not to translate his words, or be confined to his sense, but only to set him as a pattern, and to. write as he supposes that author would have done, had he lived in our age and in our country. he dares not say that sir John Denham2, or Mr. Cowley, have carried this libertin way, as the latter calls it, so far as this definition reaches." But, alas! the present imitator has come up to it, if not perhaps succeeded it. Sir John Denham had Virgil, and Mr. Cowley had Pindar, to deal with, who both wrote upon lasting foundations: but the present subject being love, it would be unreasonable to think of too great a confinement to be laid on it. And though the passion and grounds of it will continue the same through all ages; yet there will be many little modes, fashions, and graces, ways of complaisance and address, entertainments and diversions, which time will vary. Since the world will expect new things, and persons will write, and the ancients have so great a fund of learning; whom can the moderns take better to copy than such originals? It is most likely they may not come up to them; but it is a thousand to one but their imitation is better than any clumsy invention of their own. Whoever undertakes this way of writing, has as much reason to understand the true scope, genius, and force of the expressions of his author, as a literal translator: and, after all, he lies under this misfortune, that the faults are all his own; and, if there is any thing that may seem pardonable, the Latin at the bottom3 shows to whom he is engaged for it. An imitator and his author stand much upon the same terms as Ben does with his father in the comedy. What thof he be my father, I an't bound pren tice to 'en. There were many reasons why the imitator transposed several verses of Ovid, and has divided the whole into fourteen parts, rather than keep it in three books. These may be too tedious to be recited; but, among the rest, some were, that matters of the same subject might lie more compact; that too large a heap of precepts together might appear too burthensome; and therefore (if small matters may allude to greater) as Virgil in his Georgies, so here most of the parts end with some remarkable fable, which carries with it some moral: yet, if any persons please to take the six first parts as the first book, and divide the eight last, they may make three books of them again. There have by chance some twenty lines crept into the poem out of the Remedy of Love, which, (as inani? Dryden alludes to The Destruction of Troy, &c. N. 3 In the first editions of the Art of Cookery, and of the Art of Love, Dr. King printed the original under the respective pages of his translations. N. 4 Congreve's Love for Love. N. mate things are generally the most wayward and | To foreign parts there is no need to roam : provoking) since they would stay, have been suf- The blessing may be inet with nearer home. fered to stand there. But as for the love here From ludia some, others from neighbouring France, mentioned, it being all prudent, honourable, and Bring tawny skins, and puppets that can dance. virtuous, there is no need of any remedy to be pre- The seat of British empire does contain scribed for it, but the speedy obtaining of what it Beauties, that o'er the conquer'd globe will reign. desires. Should the im tator's style seem not to As fru tful fields with plenty bless the sight, be sufficiently restrained, should he not have And as the milky way adorns the night; afforded pains for review or correction, let it be So that does with those graceful nymphs abound, considered, that perhaps even in that he desired to Whose dove-like softness is with roses crown'd. imitate bis author, and would not peruse them; There tenderest blooms inviting softness spread, lest, as some of Ovid's works were, so these might Whilst by their smallest twine the captive's led. be committed to the flames. But he leaves that There youth advanc'd in majesty does shine, for the reader to do, if he pleases, when he has Fit to be mother to a race divine. bought them. No age in matrons, no decay appears; By prudence only there you guess at years. Sometimes you'll see these beauties seck the By lofty trees in royal gardens made; Or at St. James's, where a noble care Makes all things pleasing like himself appear; Or Kensington, sweet air and blest retreat Of him, that owns a sovereign, though most greats. Sometimes in wilder groves, by chariots drawn, They view the noble stag and tripping fawn. On Hyde-Park's circles if you chance to gaze, The lights revolving strike you with amaze. THE ART OF LOVE. PART I. WHOEVER Knows not what it is to love, [shade, To Bath and Tunbridge they sometimes retreat, Sometimes at marriage-rites you may espy But when their queen does to the senate go, Sometimes these beauties on Newmarket plains, 5 George prince of Denmark, consort to the queen, greatly admired these fine gardens.-They were purchased by king William from lord chan-" cellor Finch; were enlarged by queen Mary, and improved by queen Anne, who was so pleased with the place, that she frequently supped during the summer in the green-house. Queen Carolme extended the gardens to their present size, three miles and a half in compass. N.. |