A. I beg your pardon—
B. But come, eat with me,
And dress with skill whate'er is in the house.
81. And Alexis, in his Caldron, shows plainly that cookery is an art practised by freeborn men; for a cook is represented in that play as a citizen of no mean reputation; and those who have written cookery books, such as Heraclides and Glaucus the Locrian, say that the art of cookery is one in which it is not even every freeborn man who can become eminent. And the younger Cratinus, in his play called the Giants, extols this art highly, saying—
A. Consider, now, how sweet the earth doth smell,
How fragrantly the smoke ascends to heaven:
There lives, I fancy, here within this cave
Some perfume-seller, or Sicilian cook.
B. The scent of both is equally delicious.
And Antiphanes, in his Slave hard to Sell, praises the Sicilian cooks, and says—