previous next

First, then, I saw a man whose name was Nereus;
With noble oysters laden; an aged man,
And clad in brown sea-weed. I took the oysters
And eke some fine sea-urchins; a good prelude
To a rich banquet daintily supplied.
When they were done, next came some little fish,
Still quivering as if they felt a fear
Of what should now befal them. Courage, said I,
My little friends, and fear no harm from me;
And to spare them I bought a large flat glaucus.
Then a torpedo came; for it did strike me,
That even if my wife should chance to touch it
She from its shock would surely take no harm.
So for my frying-pan I've soles and plaice,
Carides, gudgeons, perch, and spars, and eels,
A dish more varied than a peacock's tail.
Slices of meat, and feet, and snouts, and ears,
And a pig's liver neatly wrapp'd in caul.
For by itself it looks too coarse and livid.
No cook shall touch or e'er behold these dainties;
He would destroy them all. I'll manage them
Myself; with skill and varied art the sauce
I will compound, in such a tasty way
That all the guests shall plunge their very teeth
[p. 178] Into the dish for joy and eagerness;
And the recipes and different modes of dressing
I am prepared to teach the world for nothing,
If men are only wise enough to learn.

Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 United States License.

An XML version of this text is available for download, with the additional restriction that you offer Perseus any modifications you make. Perseus provides credit for all accepted changes, storing new additions in a versioning system.

load focus Greek (Charles Burton Gulick, 1927)
load focus Greek (Kaibel)
hide Display Preferences
Greek Display:
Arabic Display:
View by Default:
Browse Bar: