The POETICAL FEAST.
The ARGUMENT.
The Poetical Feast teaches the Studious how to banquet. That Thriftiness with Jocoseness, Chearfulness without Obscenity, and learned Stories, ought to season their Feasts. Iambics are bloody. Poets are Men of no great Judgment. The three chief Properties of a good Maid Servant. Fidelity, Deformity, and a high Spirit. A Place out of the Prologue of Terence's Eunuchus is illustrated. Also Horace's Epode to Canidia. A Place out of Seneca. Aliud agere, nihil agere, male agere. A Place out of the Elenchi of Aristotle is explain'd. A Theme poetically varied, and in a different Metre. Sentences are taken from Flowers and Trees in the Garden. Also some Verses are compos'd in Greek.
HILARY, LEONARD, CRATO, GUESTS, MARGARET, CARINUS, EUBULUS, SBRULIUS,
PARTHENIUS, MUS, Hilary's Servant.
Hi. Levis apparatus, animus est lautissimus.
Le. Cænam sinistro es auspicatus omine.
Hi. Imo absit omen triste. Sed cur hoc putas?
Le. Cruenti Iambi haud congruent convivio.
Hi. I have but slender Fare, but a very liberal Mind.
Le. You have begun the Banquet with a bad Omen.