Page:The forme of cury (1780).djvu/32

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[xviii]

do Patroclus and Automedon in the ninth Iliad. It were to be wished indeed, that the Reader could be made acquainted with the names of our master-cooks, but it is not in the power of the Editor to gratify him in that; this, however, he may be assured of, that as the Art was of consequence in the reign of Richard, a prince renowned and celebrated in the Roll,[1] for the splendor and elegance of his table, they must have been persons of no inconsiderable rank: the king's first and second cooks are now esquires by their office, and there is all the reason in the world to believe they were of equal dignity heretofore.[2] To say a word of king Richard: he is said in the proeme to have been 'acōnted the best and ryallest vyānd [curioso in eating] of all estē kynges.' This, however, must rest upon the testimony of our cooks, since it does not appear otherwise by the suffrage of history, that he was particularly remarkable for his niceness and delicacy in eating, like Heliogabalus, whose favourite dishes are said to have been the tongues of peacocks and nightingales, and the brains of parrots and pheasants;[3] or like Sept. Geta, who, according to Jul. Capitolinus,[4] was so curious, so whimsical, as to order the dishes at his dinners to consist of things which all began with the same letters. Sardanapalus

  1. ↑ Vide the proeme.
  2. ↑ See above.
  3. ↑ Univ. Hist. XV. p. 352. 'Æsopus pater linguas avium humana vocales lingua cænavit; filius margaritas.' Lister ad Apicium, p. vii.
  4. ↑ Jul. Capitolinus, c. 5.

again,

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