The English were extremely partial to a drink they called Clarey, or Clarre. According to Arnold[XXVIII_173] it was compounded in the following manner:—
“For eighteen gallons of good wyne, take halfe a pounde of ginger, quarter of a pound of long peper, an ounce of safron, a quarter of an ounce of coliaundyr, two ounces of calomole dromatycus, and the third part as much honey that is clarifyed as of youre wyne, streyne them through a cloth, and do it into a clene vessell.”
John, in the first year of his reign, made a law that a tun of Rochelle wine should not be sold for more than twenty shillings, a tun of wine from Anjou for twenty-three shillings, and a tun of French wine for twenty-five shillings, except some that might be of the very best sort, which was allowed to be raised to twenty-six shillings and fourpence, but not for more, in any case. By retail, a gallon of Rochelle wine was to be sold for fourpence, and a gallon of white wine for sixpence, and no dearer.[XXVIII_174]
XXIX.
REPASTS.
Mortals were formerly remarkably sober, and the gods themselves set them the example, by feeding exclusively on ambrosia and nectar.[XXIX_1] The most illustrious warriors in the Homeric ages were generally contented with a piece of roast beef; for a festival, or a wedding dinner, the frugal fare was a piece of roast beef; and the king of kings, the pompous Agamemnon, offered no greater rarity to the august chiefs of Greece, assembled round his hospitable table. It is true that the guest to be most honoured received for his own share an entire fillet of beef.[XXIX_2]
The vigorous but uncultivated appetites of these heroes were hardly satisfied when everything disappeared, and none of them thought to prolong the pleasures of good cheer.[XXIX_3] Happy times of ingenuous and ignorant frugality! what has become of you?
It must not, however, be imagined that they were entirely destitute of more refined aliments. Homer gives to the Hellespont the epithet of fishy; Ithaca, and several other islands of Greece, abounded in excellent game;[XXIX_4] but the magiric genius was asleep—it awoke at a later period.
Beware, however, of a mistake: those men—with so little choice respecting their viands—all possessed stomachs of astounding capacity.[XXIX_5] Theagenes, an athlete of Thasos, eat a whole bull;[XXIX_6] Milo of Crotona did the same thing—at least once.[XXIX_7] Titormus had an ox served for supper, and when he rose from table, they say not a morsel remained.[XXIX_8] Astydamas of Miletus, invited to supper by the Persian, Ariobarzanes, devoured a feast prepared for nine persons.[XXIX_9] Cambis, King of Lydia, had such an unfortunate appetite, that one night the glutton devoured his wife![XXIX_10] Thys, King of the Paphlagonians, was afflicted with voracity nearly similar.[XXIX_11] The Persian Cantibaris, eat so much and so long that his jaws were at last tired, and then attentive servants used to press the food into his mouth.[XXIX_12]
These are facts of which we do not exactly guarantee the truth, for history—it is no secret—has some little resemblance to the microscope: it frequently magnifies objects by presenting them to us through its deceitful prism.