A quart of Beer,
A quart of Wine,
Two pieces of Salt Fish,
Half a dozen Red Herrings,
Four White ones, and
A Dish of Sprats!!!
“They DINED at Ten—Supped at Four in the afternoon,—The Gates were all shut at nine, and no further ingress or egress permitted.”—See pages 314 and 318.
But now, A.D. 1821,
“The Gentleman who dines the latest
Is, in our Street, esteemed the greatest:
But surely greater than them all,
Is he who never Dines[82] at all.”
Dinners at Night,
AND
Suppers in the Morning,
A few Cautionary Hints to Modern Fashionables.—
“The Ancients did delight, forsooth,
To sport in allegoric Truth;
Apollo, as we long have read since,
Was God of Music, and of Med’cines.
In Prose, Apollo is the Sun,
And when he has his course begun,
The allegory then implies
’Tis Time for wise men to arise;
For ancient sages all commend
The morning, as the Muses friend;
But modern Wits are seldom able
To sift the moral of this fable;—
But give to Sleep’s oblivious power
The treasures of the morning hour,
And leave reluctant, and with Pain,
With feeble nerve, and muddy Brain,
Their favorite couches late at noon,
And quit them then perhaps too soon,
Mistaking by a sunblind sight
The Night for Day—and Day for Night.
Quitting their healthful guide Apollo,
What fatal follies do they follow!
Dinners at night—and in the Morn
Suppers, serv’d up as if in scorn
Of Nature’s wholesome regulations,
Both in their Viands and Potations.
Besides, Apollo is M. D.
As all Mythologists agree,
And skill’d in Herbs and all their virtues,
As well as Ayton is, or Curtis.
No doubt his excellence would stoop
To dictate a Receipt for Soup,
Show as much skill in dressing Salad,
As in composing of a Ballad,
’Twixt Health and Riot draw a line,
And teach us How—and When—to dine.
The Stomach, that great Organ, soon,
If overcharg’d, is out of tune,
Blown up with Wind that sore annoys
The Ear with most unhallow’d noise!!
Now all these Sorrows and Diseases
A man may fly from if he pleases;
For rising early will restore
His powers to what they were before,
Teach him to Dine at Nature’s call,
And to Sup lightly, if at all;
Teach him each morning to preserve
The active brain, and steady nerve;
Provide him with a share of Health
For the pursuit of fame, or wealth;
And leave the folly of Night Dinners
To Fools and Dandies, and Old Sinners!!!”
That distressing interruption of the Circulation, which is called “Nightmare,” “Globus Hystericus,” “Spasms,” “Cramp,” or “Gout,” in the Stomach, with which few who have passed the Meridian of Life[83], are so fortunate as not to be too well acquainted, we believe to arise from the same causes—which in the day produce Palpitation of the Heart.