stands well how to dress eggs that have been
already sat upon.' The Perusian, then for
the first time remarked that its shell was not
natural, but made of dough, and that a fat fig-
strongly seasoned with pepper."
pecker was hidden in the yolk, which was

taken their places upon the couches, re-
signed their sandals to the attendant slaves,
and dipped their hands in silver bowls of
water. There is a slight pause, and the
first course enters. It is some time since
we dined at Devonshire House, but we
fancy that the following specimen of family
plate would be very difficult to match. ter a brief interval,-
We must look for its companions among
the old college chests of Corpus or Trinity,
of which our recondite friend, the excel-
lent tutor of Caius, has recently issued
such admirable copies :-

"In the centre of the plateau ornamented with tortoise-shell, stood an ass of bronze, on either side of which hung silver panniers, filled with white and black olives, preserved by the art of the cook until this period of the year; on the back of the beast sat a Silenus, from whose skin the most delicious garum flowed upon the sumen beneath. Near this, on two silver gridirons, lay delicately dressed sausages, beneath which Syrian plums, mixed with the seed of the pomegranate, presented the appearance of glowing coals. Around stood silver dishes, containing asparagus, lactuca, radishes, and other productions of the garden, in addition to lacerta flavored both with mint and rue, and with Byzantine muria, and dressed snails and oysters, whilst fresh ones in abundance were handed round. The company expressed their admiration of their host's fanciful invention, and then proceeded to help themselves to what each, according to his taste, considered the best incentive of an appetite. At the same time slaves carried round, in golden goblets, the mulsum, composed of Hymettian honey and Falernian wines. They were still occupied in tasting the several delicacies, when a second and smaller tray was brought in, and placed in a vacant spot within the first, to which it did not yield in point of singularity. In an elegant basket sat a hen, ingeniously carved out of wood, with outspread wings, as if she were brooding. Straightway entered two slaves, who began searching in the chaff which filled the basket, and, taking out some eggs, distributed them amongst the guests. Friends,' said Lentulus, smiling, they are pea-hen's eggs, which have been put under the hen; my only fear is that she may have sat too long upon them, but let us try them.' A slave then gave to each guest a silver cochleare, which was, however, found almost too large and heavy for the purpose, and each proceeded to break an egg with the point of it. Most of the party were already acquainted with the jokes of Lentulus, but not so the Perusians. Truly my egg has already become a hen!' cried one of them in disgust, and about to throw it away. 'Examine a little more closely,' said Pomponius, with a laugh, in which the guests at the upper sofa, who were better acquainted with the matter, joined; 'our friend's cook under

The first course of the cœna follows af

"A circle of small dishes covered with such meats as were to be met with only at the tables of plebeians, was ranged around a slip of natural turf, on which lay a honeycomb. A slave carried round the bread in a silver basket, and the guests were preparing, though with evident vexation, to help themselves to chick-peas and small fish, when, at a sign from Lentulus, two slaves hurried forward and took off the upper part of the tray, under which a number of dishes, presenting a rich selection of dainties, were concealed. There were ring doves and field-fares, capons and ducks, mullets of three pounds weight, and turbot: and in the centre a fatted hare, which, by means of artificial wings, the structor had ingeniously changed into a pegasus. The company, on the lectus summus, was agreably surprised, and applauded the host with clapping of hands, and the scissor immediately approached, and with great solemnity and almost in musical time, began to carve. On the disappearance of the first course, much conversation was kept up, but no long interval was allowed for talking. Four slaves soon entered to the sound of horns, bearing the second course, which consisted of a huge boar, surrounded by eight sucking pigs, made of sweet paste by the experienced baker, and surprisingly like real ones. On the tusks of the boar hung little baskets, woven with palm-twigs, and containing Syrian and Theban dates. Another scissor, resembling a jäger, in full costume, now approached the table, and with an immense knife, commenced cutting up the boar, pronounced by Lentulus to be a genuine Umbrian. In the mean time the boys handed the dates, and gave to each guest one of the pigs as apophoreta. On a given signal, the slaves removed the dish, and brought another containing peacocks, pheasants, the livers of geese, and rare fish. At length this course also was removed, the slaves wiped the table, and cleared away with besoms of palm-twigs the fragments that had fallen on the floor, strewing it at the same time with sawdust dyed with minium and pleasantsmelling saffron. Whilst this was being done, the eyes of the guests were suddenly attracted upwards by a noise overhead; the ceiling opened, and a large silver hoop, on which were ointment-bottles of silver and alabaster, silver garlands with beautifully chiselled leaves and circlets and other trifles, to be shared among the guests as apophoreta, descended upon the table. In the meantiine the dessert had been served wherein the new baker, whom Lentulus had purchased for 100,000 sesterces, gave a

specimen of his skill. In addition to innumera- being 127. 6s. per pound. Perhaps the Chible articles of pastry, there were artificial musnese are the only modern nation whose cooksels, field-fares filled with dried grapes and almonds, and many other things of the same ery would furnish a fair parallel; to say kind. In the middle stood a well-modelled nothing of their edible birds'-nests, for Vertumnus, who held in his apron a great va- which exorbitant sums are given, a little riety of fruits. Around lay sweet quinces, plate of roasted ice costs at Pekin about stuck full of almonds, and having the appear- forty shillings. The oysters were imported ance of sea-urchins, with melons cut into vari- from England, and an educated Apicius ous shapes. Whilst the party was praising distinguished immediately a true native from the fancy of the baker, a slave handed round an alien or foreigner; just as the same practooth-picks, made of the leaves of the mastichpistachio, and Lentulus invited the guests to tised lip would assign the proper birthplace assist themselves to the confectionary and fruits-whether Umbrian, Lucanian, or Tuscan with which the god was loaded. The Peru-of the majestic boar. The boar of the sians, who were particularly astonished by the Roman table was our venison, and was regifts of Vertumnus at such a season, stretched garded in the same light as those noble across the table and seized the inviting apples haunches which county M. P.'s distribute and grapes, but drew back in affright, when, as they touched them, a stream of saffron, dis- among the neighboring manor-houses. The charged from the fruit, besprinkled them. The present of a boar to a gentleman in lodgings merriment became general, when several of was often more flattering than convenient. the guests attempted cautiously to help them- Becker refers to Martial for an account of selves to the mysterious fruit, and each time a the expense of serving up this important red stream shot forth."-Pp. 127-140. dish. Martial, who was great among the Fudge family of Rome, sometimes received This is at once one of the liveliest and a basket of this sort from the Lansdownes most instructive accounts of a Roman ban- of the Aventine. Of course the boar was quet, which it has ever been our fortune to the dish of a dinner. The heart turned to read. It has of course none of the fiction it as to the final object of the day's exisof Smollett, being a careful compilation of tence. It was proper that such a luminary particulars from Latin authors; a curious should be encircled by his attendant stars. specimen of mosaic gastronomy, in which Accordingly, the eight sucking pigs, comeach piece bears the mark of the manufac- posed of paste, had a very charming appeartory from which it was taken. Petronius, ance. Occasionally, these piglings were made Martial, and Plautus, are among the chief in a different way. Becker compares those authorities. But the most diligent dis- mentioned in Petronius to the rye-bread of crimination and industry cannot preserve Westphalia, very hard, and capable of bea description of Roman festivity altogether ing sent to a great distance. free from the appearance of exaggeration. The fitting up of the table scarcely corOne of the tempting dishes of the supper responded with the luxuries piled upon it. which Pliny had prepared for his friend S. The Romans had no word for table-cloth in Clarus, consisted of three snails; a famous the language. Even Augustus could not delicacy of the Latin table, and sometimes please the eye of Virgil with a beautiful patraised by the skilful breeder to so marvel-tern in damask. The interposition of a lous a size, that a single shell is said to have purple duster between the various pauses of been capable of holding ten quarts. Cer- the repast, afforded a very poor substitute. tainly Lord Spenser's prize ox is a more In fact, the linen department seems to have agreeable spectacle than Hirpinus's prize snail.

The culinary economy of Gallus may admit of some slight illustrations which Becker has himself occasionally supplied in his notes; these we shall embody and expand. The garum was a popular sauce, supposed to correspond with the modern caviare, being, like it, the produce of a seafish. Every reader of Horace knows the fame of the mullus. The price of particularly fine fish of this species would have astonished the Mansion House; one weighing six pounds brought 74/. in solid money,

been supplied on the same principle that regulates an establishment at Stockwell or Chelsea-every guest brought his own napkin; and why not his fork and silver spoon? The absence of knives was simply owing to taste-they had them; but only the carver thought it worth while to employ them. In the mode of serving a dinner we notice one peculiarity that might be imitated with advantage; the dishes were not brought in singly, but a complete course was placed on the table in trays, which were frequently remarkable for the splendor and costliness of the workmanship and materials. The

dishes varied from clay to silver, adorned particole de' corpi molto grate." It is easy with engravings, and the most delicate cu- to conceive how exquisitely this faint yet riosities of the chaser. The Roman side- rich twilight harmonized with the delicate board surpassed any article of that kind in colors of costume, et pictum croceo velaan English dining-room, its slab being men acantho;" and how the glowing counformed of marble or silver, on which the tenance of Julus must have shone into the most magnificent pieces of family plate voluptuous eyes of Dido pressing the child were conspicuously displayed. Thus Vir- to her heart! And, perhaps, by regardgil,ing it in relation to the general character and decoration of their domestic interiors, we shall see additional reasons for believing the custom of wearing garlands at festive entertainments to have been a graceful characteristic of Roman manners. however, is known of their composition or Very little, distribution; and we shall only observe that a Latin exquisite, with a festoon of flowers round his neck, might afford to smile at a Young Englander from the Albany in a white stock and steel buckle; and assuredly the poorest citizen, with his head bare, would have had great difficulty in restraining the action of his risible nerves at the glossy pyramid of a four-and-nine !

"Ingens argentum mensis, cœlataque in auro Fortia facta patrum, series longissima rerum." The sweet-smelling saw-dust, swept by a palm-twig besom, is nevertheless very pleasantly replaced among ourselves by the soft and yielding Turkey carpet. The rushfloor of our magnificent nobles in the sixteenth century will be recollected. The same mixture of squalor and luxury may be traced in the Roman manner of lighting.The use of the oil-lamp was universal, and every grace of invention was exhausted to shape and decorate the lamp, at the same moment that the ascending vapor was defacing the beauty of the ceiling. The simple and obvious precaution of "glass cylinders to consume the smoke," seems never to have occurred to a Roman upholder. They were made of bronze, marble, gold, silver, and terra cotta. "As the orifice for pouring in the oil was small, special, boatlike vessels, infundibula, having in front a small hole only, were used. Instruments were also used for snuffing the wicks, and were fastened by a chain to the lamp; small pincers for raising the wick have also been found at Pompeii in great numbers. When a figure stood upon the lamp, it sometimes held its instrument by a chain in its hand." The picturesque of light, if we may so speak, was admirably understood and realized by the Romans. Mr. Rogers has pointed out the exquisite arrangement of the lights in the banquet-hall of the Carthaginian queen. The poet makes the lustre fall from the ceiling,

"Dependent lychni laquearibus aureis, Incensi, et noctem flammis funalia vincunt."

The use of wax candles, as in this passage, obviated the unpleasantness of the oilfed lamp. In a similar manner, the " starry lamps" of Milton from the arched roof "yielded light as from a sky." The most learned criticism of painting has established the truth of this ancient rule of poetic art, and hence the remark of the profound Da Vinci,-" Il lume grande, ed alto, e non troppo potente, sarà quello, che renderà le

The description of a Roman dinner-party would not be complete without a specimen of the conversation; we quote, therefore, two little stories which remind the reader of some of the strange narratives in our fairy-history and popular demonology. The straw doll left in the place of the child bears the true sign of the good people of our own meadow-rings. We may add, though every scholar remembers the fact, that one of the letters of Pliny contains the rudiments of all the famous ghost-stories of modern times, from the Cock Lane speci

* Becker gives us a very good specimen of lightlamps had been long shining in the marble panels ing in one of the saloons of Gallus,-"The of the walls of the triclinium, where Earinos, with assistants, was making preparations under the direction of the tricliniarch, fot the nocturnal commissatio. Upon the polished tables between the tapestried couches stood an elegant bronze candelabrum, in the form of a stem of a tree, from the wintry and almost leafless branches of which four two-flamed lamps, emulating each other in beauty of shape, were suspended. Other lamps hung by chains from the ceiling, which was richly gilt and ingeniously inlaid with ivory, in order to expel the darkness of night from all parts of the saloon. A number of costly goblets and larger vessels were arranged on two silver sideboards,

and on one of them a slave was just placing another vessel filled with snow, together with its colum, and on the other was the steaming caldarium, containing water kept constantly boiling by coals in its inner cylinder, in case any of the guests should prefer the calda, the drink of winter, to the snow-drink, for which he might think the season not sufficiently advanced."

men to the last appearance in Whitechapel and it was long before I recovered myself. churchyard. Nor should it be forgotten My friend was astonished at my visiting her at that these tales are taken by Becker from such an unusual hour. Had you only come the amusing history of Petronius. The sooner,' said she, 'you might have assisted us, for a wolf has been breaking into the villa and professor accounts for the comparative pau- destroying several sheep; but he did not city of fabulous stories among the Romans escape with impunity, for my slave has pierced by their inclusion in the mythology. The him through with a spear.' I shuddered, and English legend of a fairy would have been did not obtain any sleep during that night.— the Latin prodigy of a god. The reader As soon as it was day I hastened homewards, will please to remember that the following clothes had lain, nothing more than a large and saw, on reaching the place where the anecdote is told by Bassus at that most stain of blood; but found the warrior lying in thrilling instant, when the Roman jäger is bed at home, and a surgeon bandaging his waving his long knife over the hissing boar. neck. I then became aware that he was one Some one had alluded to the possibility of of those whom we call versipelles, and could a Circean transformation in that respected never afterwards eat bread in his company.' animal; others laughed. The days for me- This was the man's story. Say what you tamorphosis, they exclaimed, were past:- will, such things often happen.' The company laughed at and jeered the narrator, who endeavored by philosophical arguments to defend his credulity. At length the second Perusian, who sat in the lowest place, said, 'Bassus may not be so very wrong after all; for some time since I bought a slave who had formerly lived at Miletus, and who told me a wonderful story in the following words. In the house where I served, a boy-beautiful as a statue-had died. His mother was inconsolable, and all were standing mourning round the round the house. There was in the family a bed, when the striga were heard shrieking Cappadocian, a tall daring fellow, who had seized a sword, ran out of doors, with his left once overcome a mad ox. This man, having hand cautiously concealed in his mantle, and cut one of the hags in two. We heard their shrieks, although we saw nothing; but the Cappadocian staggered backwards upon a couch, and his whole body became as blue as if he had been beaten, for he had been touched by the hands of the witches. He closed the house-door again; but when the mother returned to her dead child, she saw with horror that the strige had already taken away the body, and left a straw doll in its place!"

Laugh as you will,' said Bassus, it still cannot be denied. Only the other day, one who was formerly a slave to a man in humble circumstances at Capua, but has now become a rich freedman, related to me a circumstance which he had himself experienced; it is enough to make one's hair stand on end. If not displeasing to you, I will communicate it.' The company, partly from curiosity, and partly wishing for a laugh against Bassus, begged him to tell the story, and he thus began: When I was a slave,' related my informant, 'I happened, by the dispensation of the gods, to conceive a liking for an inn-keeper's wife; not from an unworthy passion, but because she never denied me what I asked for, and any thing I saved and gave into her charge I was sure not to be cheated of. Her husband had a small villa at the fifth milestone, and, as it chanced, fell sick there and died. In misfortune, thought I, we know our friends, and therefore considered how I could get to my friend at the villa. My master was by accident absent from Capua, but a stranger-a warrior-was stopping in our house; of him I made a confidant, begging that he would accompany me in the night to the villa, and he consented to do so. We are here, though reluctantly, comWe waited for the time of the cock-crowing, and then stole off; the moon was shining, and pelled to conclude our observations on Galit was as clear as mid-day. About half-way, lus; but we should be unjust to Becker's by the side of the road, was a group of sepul- very industrious and careful translator, if chral monuments, at which my companion we closed this subject without some notice stopped on some pretence or other; but I went of his claims to our thanks and good cpinon, singing a song and gazing at the stars. At length I looked round, and saw my companion standing in the road. He took off his clothes and laid them down, then went round them in a circle, spat three times upon them, and immediately became a wolf. He next began to howl, and then dashed into the thicket. At first I did not know what to do, but at length approached for the purpose of taking the clothes with me; but, behold! they had become stone. Horror-stricken, I drew my sword, and continued slashing it about in the air until I reached the villa. I entered the house breathless, the sweat dropped from me,

ion. In introducing these learned tales of Charicles and Gallus to English readers, Mr. Metcalfe has done much more than we usually expect or receive from one who undertakes the version of a book into another language. He has not only translated, but rearranged his original. The physiognomy of German works in general, as many of our readers will readily admit, is not of the most attractive character. In researches into antiquity, this repulsiveness of feature is particularly remarkable. Mr. Metcalfe's

1.

From the Edinburgh Review.

DANIEL DE FOE.

The Novels and Miscellaneous Works of Daniel De Foe; with a Biographical Memoir of the Author, Literary Prefaces to the various pieces, and illustrative Notes ; including all contained in the Edition attributed to the late Sir Walter Scott, with considerable additions. 20 vols. 8vo.

Oxford: 1842.

The Works of Daniel De Foe; with a Memoir of his Life and Writings. By WILLIAM HAZLITT, Jun. 3 vols. royal 8vo. London: 1843.

first step, therefore, was to change the appearance of these Greek and Roman stories. Each scene, as it came from the pen of Becker, was separated from its successor by elaborate notes and curious disquisitions; and, accordingly, resembled a pleasant garden broken up into fragments, by thorn hedges with a deep ditch on either side. To fill up the ditch and cut down the hedge was obviously the first thing to be accomplished. The improvement was happily effected. The notes were transferred to 2. the foot of the page, and the disquisitions found an appropriate home in the appendix. In this manner the stream of the story was suffered to flow in a clear and uninterrupted It is with De Foe dead, as it was with current, through the classic scenery that De Foe living. He stands apart from the covered its banks. Some slight abbrevia- circle of the reigning wits of his time. tion of the author's unwearied research was Along with their names, his name is not also judged to be expedient. Minor illus-called over. What in this respect was the trations have been omitted, abstruse inqui- fashion formerly, is the fashion still; and ries avoided, and many profuse references whether sought for in the Histories of Smolindicated instead of being quoted. The lett or of Lord Mahon, his niche is vacant. result of these efforts has been very satisfac- He is to be found, if at all, aloof from his tory. Mr. Metcalfe has followed the foot-great contemporaries. His life to be fairly steps of the Professor with the modesty of a gentleman and the ease of a scholar. We should hope that the welcome of Charicles and Gallus will encourage him to turn over some new leaf in the golden volume of He was born much about the time of Athenian or Latin fiction. We know not that year of grace, 1661, when Mr. Pepys any page in which there is more space for and his wife, walking in Whitehall Gardens, the rich illumination and ornamental writ- saw the finest smocks and linen petticoats ing of erudition and taste. "An early ac-of my Lady Castlemaine, laced with rich lace quaintance with the classics," is the elegant remark of Bishop Hurd, "is what may be called the good-breeding of poetry, as it gives a certain gracefulness to the mind that contracted it in youth." This good breeding we consider Mr. Metcalfe's translations of Becker to supply in a very interesting

manner.

GREAT RUSSIAN RAILWAY.-The largest tract of railway ever contemplated in Europe is that from St. Petersburgh to Odessa-extending over an uninterrupted line of 1,600 miles. It will connect the Baltic and the Black, and consequently the Caspian, seas-traversing three different zones of temperature; and a person may thus leave the Russian capital in the depth of winter, and arrive, on the same rail, at Odessa, in warm, nay hot, weather. It is, however, the beginning of what may be termed an overland route-connecting, in fine, the Russian metropolis and Ispahan. The Emperor Nicholas takes great interest in this gigantic plan.-Advertiser.

VOL. VI.-No. 1V.

30

written, should be written as the 'Life and Strange Surprising Adventures of Daniel De Foe; who lived above Seventy Years all alone, in the Island of Great Britain.'

at the bottom,' that ever they saw: 'it did me good to look at them,' adds the worthy man. There was but little in those days to do any body good. The people, drunk with the orgies of the Restoration, rejoiced in the gay dissoluteness of the court. To be a bad Englishman and a worse Christian, was to be a good Protestant and a loyal subject. Sheldon governed the Church, and Clarendon the State; the Bishop having no better charity than to bring a Presbyterian preacher into contempt, and the Chancellor no better wisdom than to reduce him to beggary. While Sheldon entertained his dinner-table with caricatures of a dissenting minister's sermon, 'till,' says one of his guests, it made us all burst;' Clarendon was drawing up that Act of Uniformity, by which, in one day, he threw out three thousand ministers from the benefices they held.

This was in 1662; and the beginning of that system of religious persecution, under which, with God's blessing, the better part of the English character reawakened, and the hardy virtues of Dissent struck root and