fysshe but whiche was taken out of the ryuer of Tybre or other places of equall or of more distaunce. Also he wolde haue disshes of meate made of Camelles heeles, the combes of cockes newly cutte, the tunges of pecockes and nyghtyngales, partriches egges, and other thinges harde for to come by, wherto be no englysshe names founden (as I suppose) apte to the true signification.

More ouer all thoughe I dispraysed nygarshippe and vicious scarcitie, in these nombre of disshes whiche I haue commended, yet I desyre nat to haue therin meates for any occasion to moche sumptuous. For in one or two disshes may be employed as moche money as in twentie, perchaunce as good or better in eatynge. Wherof there re

◄ Ad mare piscem nunquam comedit: in longissimis à mari locis omnia marina semper exhibuit: murænarum lactibus et luporum in locis mediterraneis rusticos pavit. Pisces semper quasi in marinâ aquâ cum colore suo coctos conditura veneta comedit.'-Hist. Aug. tom i. p. 855, ed. 1671.

'Comedit sæpius ad imitationem Apicii calcanea camelorum, et cristas vivis gallinaceis demptas, linguas pavonum et lusciniarum: quod qui ederet, ab epilepsiâ tutus diceretur. Exhibuit et Palatinis ingentes dapes extis mullorum refertas, et cerebellis phoenicopterum et perdicum ovis, et cerebellis turdorum, et capitibus psittacorum et fasianorum et pavonum.'-Hist. Aug. tom. i. p. 835.

The author, however, must have been accustomed to see delicacies quite as récherché as those mentioned in the text, served up in England. For Harrison, speaking of the gentry, says, 'It is a world to see what great prouision is made of all maner of delicat meats from euerie quarter of the countrie, wherein beside that they are often comparable herein to the nobilitie of the land; they will seldome regard anie thing that the butcher usuallie killeth, but reiect the same as not worthie to come in place. In such cases also gelisses of all colours, mixed with a varietie in the representation of sundrie floures, herbs, trees, formes of beasts, fish, foules, and fruits, and thereunto march paine, wrought with no small curiositie, tarts of diuerse hewes and sundrie denominations, conserues of old fruits, forren and home-bred, suckets, codinacs, marmilats, marchpaine, sugerbread, gingerbread, florentines, wild foule, venison of all sorts, and sundrie outlandish confections, altogither seasoned with suger (which Plinie calleth mel ex arundinibus, a deuise not common nor greatlie used in old time at the table, but onelie in medicine, although it grew in Arabia, India, and Sicilia) do generallie beare the swaie, besides infinit deuises of our owne not possible for me to remember.'Descript. Engl. p. 167.

• Stubbes, at a later period of the same century, says, 'You shall haue twenty, fourty, sixtie, yea, a hundred pound spent in some one house in banquetting and

mayneth a noble example of Cleopatra, doughter of Ptolomee, late kinge of Egypt (whome Cesar in his lyfe helde for his Concubine) the same lady Antoni (with whome Octauiane deuided the empire) loued also peramours,a abandonynge his wyfe, which was suster to Octauian. And the warres betwene him and Octauian ceasinge by a litle space, he (durynge that tyme) lyued in moste prodigall riotte, and thinkyng all thinge in the see, the lande, and the ayre to be made for satisfienge his gloteny, he deuoured all flesshe and fysshe that mought be anywhere founden. Cleopatra disdayninge to be vainquisshed in any excesse by a Romane, layde a wager with Antony that she her selfe wolde receyue in to her body at one souper the value of fyftie thousande poundes, whiche to Antony was thought in a maner to be impossible. The wager was put in to the handes of Numatius Plancus, a noble

feasting .. Yea, it is counted but a small matter for a man that can scarsly dispende fourty poundes by the yeare, to bestowe against one time, tenne or twenty poundes thereof in spices.'-Anat. of Abuses, p. 71, ed. 1595.

This is, as Tyrwhitt says, 'A genuine old expression.' He does not, however, notice this passage. We can easily trace its origin from the French pleonasm, aimer par amour. Thus Froissart, in his Chronicle, says, 'Il (Eustace d'Aubecthicourt) aima adonc par amours, et depuis espousa, madame Ysabel de Juliers, fille jadis au comte de Juliers,' tom i. p. 203, ed. 1574, which Lord Berners translates, 'He was as than a lusty louer paramours, and after he maryed the lady Isabell of Jullyers, somtyme doughter to therle of Jullyers.'-Chron. vol. i. p. 233, ed. 1812. The meaning implied was not necessarily dishonourable, and in an analogous passage, 'Comment le Roy d'Angleterre fut enamouré de la Comtesse de Salebery,' (Ibid. p. 85) we find Lord Berners in his translation employing a similarly hybrid expression: 'Howe the kyng of England was in amours with the Countesse of Salisbury.'-Ubi supra, p. 98. Chaucer adopts the phrase in The Knight's Tale:

and again,

'For par amour I loved her first, then thou,'

'I knowe wel, that every lusty knight

That loveth paramours, and hath his might,
Were it in Engelond, or elleswhere,

They wold, here thankes, wilne to be there.'

Poet. Works, vol. ii. pp. 36, 65.

In Palsgrave we find, Paramour, a man-acoincte; paramour, a woman-dame peramour.'-L'Esclaircissement, p. 251, ed. 1852.

Romane. The next day Cleopatra prepared for Antony a ryght sumptuous souper, but wherat Antony nothing meruailed, knowinge the value therof by his accustomed fare, than the quene smylyng called for a goblet, wher into she dyd poure a quantitie of very tarte vinegre, and takynge a perle which hynge at one of her eares, she quickely dyd let it fall in to the vinegre, wherein beynge shortely dissolued (as it is the nature of the perle) she immediately dranke it, and all thoughe she had vainquisshed Antony accordynge to her wager, the perle without any dought beinge of the value of L. M. li., yet hadde she lykewyse dronken an other perle of lyke value, whiche was hangynge at her other eare, had nat Numatius Plancus, as an indifferent iudge, furthewith gyuen iugement that Antony was all redy vainquisshed.a I haue rehersed this historie wrytten by Macrobius Plini li. ix. and also Plini, to the intent that the vanitie in sumptuous festinge shulde be the better expressed. Androcides (a man of excellent wisedome) wrate unto the great kynge Alexander an epistell, desyrynge xiv. natu- hym to refrayne his intemperance, wherin he sayd, Noble prince, whan thou wylte drynke wyne, remember thanne that thou drynkest the bloode of

Macrobius
Satu. li.

ca. xxxv.

Plinius li.

ral hist.

cap. v.

a

'Nam cum Antonius quicquid mari aut terrâ aut etiam cælo gigneretur ad satiandam ingluviem suam natum existimans faucibus ac dentibus suis subderet, eâque re captus de Romano imperio facere vellet Ægyptium regnum, Cleopatra uxor, quæ vinci à Romanis nec luxuriâ dignaretur, sponsione provocavit insumere se posse in unam cœnam sestertium centies. Id mirum Antonio visum, nec moratus sponsione contendit, dignus sculnâ Munatio Planco qui tam honesti certaminis arbiter electus est. Alterâ die Cleopatra pertemptans Antonium pollucibilem sanè cœnam paravit, sed quam non miraretur Antonius, quippe qui omnia quæ adponebantur ex quotidianis opibus agnosceret. Tunc regina adridens fialam poposcit, cui aceti nonnihil acris infudit, atque illuc unionem demptum ex aure alterâ festinabunda demisit, eumque maturè dissolutum, uti natura est ejus lapidis, absorbuit. et quamvis eo facto sponsione vicisset, quippe cum ipsa margarita centies sestertium sine contentione evaluisset, manum tamen et ad alterius unionem auris similiter admovit, nisi Munatius Plancus, judex severissimus, superatum Antonium maturè pronuntiasset.'-Macrob. Sat. lib. iii. cap. 17. This story is also, as Sir Thos. Elyot reminds us, narrated by Pliny in the ninth book of his Natural History.

the erthe. Sygnifyenge therby (as I suppose) the myght and
powar of wyne, and also warnynge Alexander of the thirste
or appetyte of bloode whyche wolde ensue by his intemperate
drynkynge. For Plini (that writeth this historie) sayth
immediately, that if Alexander hadde obeyed the preceptes of
Androcides, he hadde neuer slayne his frendes in his dron-
kennes." For undoughtedly it maye be sayde with good right
that there is nothing to the strength of mans body more
profitable than wyne, ne to voluptuouse appetites more per-
nicious, if measure lacketh. Also it is very truely and properly
written of Propertius the poete, in this sentence folowyng or
like:

By wyne beaultie fadeth, and age is defaced,
Wyne maketh forgoten that late was embraced.

Moreouer Salomon, in his boke named Ecclesiastes, calleth that countraye happy whereof the gouernours do eate in theyr tyme. And what shall we suppose is there tyme but onely that which nature and the uniuersall consente of all people hathe ordayned? And of what space is that tyme? But only that which suffiseth to the abundaunt sustentation and nat oppression of nature, ne letteth any parte of their necessary affaires about the publike weale.

[This me semeth may be one exposition of Salomons And here will I nowe make an ende to wryte any more at this tyme of moderate diete, which I haue nat done

sentence.

a

'Nec alienum fuerit commemorare hoc in loco, quod Androcydes sapientiâ clarus ad Alexandrum Magnum scripsit, intemperantiam ejus cohibens: "Vinum poturus rex, memento te bibere sanguinem terræ: cicuta hominum venenum est, cicutæ vinum." Quibus præceptis si ille obtemperavisset, profecto amicos in temulentiâ non interemisset. Prorsus ut jure dici possit, neque viribus corporis utilius aliud, neque aliud voluptatibus perniciosius, si modus absit.'-Nat. Hist. lib. xiv. cap. 7.

b

'Vino forma perit; vino corrumpitur ætas ;
Vino sæpe suum nescit amica virum.'

• See Eccles. x. 17.

Prop. lib. ii. el. 33

The passage within brackets has been omitted in all the subsequent editions.

of any presumption, but all onely to exhorte gentyll men to preserue and augment their wittes by this exhortation to temperaunce, or suche lyke by them selfes or some other better deuysed.]

CHAPTER XXIII.

Of Sapience, and the definition therof.

ALL be it that some men whiche haue hiderto radde this boke will suppose that those vertues whereof I haue treated be sufficient to make a gouernour vertuous and excellent, nethelas for as moche as the effecte of myne enterprise in this warke is to expresse, as farre furthe as god shall instructe my poore witte, what thinges do belonge to the makinge of a perfeyte publike weale, whiche well nigh may no more be without an excellent gouernour thanne the uniuersall course of nature may stande or be permanent without one chiefe disposer and meuer, which is ouer all supereminent in powar, understanding, and goodnes. Wherfore because in gouernaunce be included disposition and ordre, whiche can nat be without soueraigne knowlege, procedynge of wisedome, in a more elegant worde called Sapience, therfore I will nowe declare as moch as my litle witte doth comprehende of that parte of Sapience that of necessitie must be in euery gouernour of a iuste or perfeyte publike weale.

That such exhortation' was not altogether unnecessary, the author shows us pretty conclusively in another place; for in speaking of the sumptuary laws, which were mainly designed to check the vayne and sumptuous expenses of the meane people,' he proceeds with a touch of dry humour to inform us that 'the nobylitee was exempted, and had libertee to abyde styl in the dungeon, if they would, and to lyue lesse whyle than other men.'-Castel of Health, fo. 45, ed. 1561.

b Compare with this the author's remarks in Vol. I. p. 12.

• So Patrizi says: 'Civilis ergo scientia, quam sapientiam possumus appellare. -De Regno et Reg. Ins. lib. vi. tit. 6.