When Magnus had run through these quotations, Cynulcus, looking at the philosophers who were present, said—
Have you seen the Thasian brine,1 and heard how he does bark?as Cratinus says, in his Archilochi. For he, forgetting before what a tribunal he was making an exhibition of his fine iambics, read his colabri with his natural greediness, and at the same time with his usual elegance of expression, and
How speedily the fellow did revenge himself, and thoroughly;
It does not seem a case of one blind speaking to a deaf man:
Melodies out of time, and tuneless cymbals:and after all this fine ignorant stupidity, he goes round to people's houses, seeking out where any handsome banquet is prepared, carrying his conduct to a length even beyond the Athenian Chærephon, of whom Alexis says in his Fugitive—
That Chærephon has always got some trick,But this man has no hesitation, like the excellent Magnus, even to make excursions quite beyond the boundaries for the sake of his stomach, as Alexis said in his Men who Died together—
And now he's looking for some feast to share
Where he himself will not be call'd upon
For any contribution. For wheresoever
A pot, such as is let to cooks, does stand,
Thither he goeth at the earliest dawn;
And if he sees one come to hire it
For any feast, he asks the cook the name
Of him who gives the feast, and then as soon
As the door opens, in he walks the first.
Chærephon comes to Corinth for a supper,[p. 265] And Theopompus, in his Ulysses, says—
Though he has never had an invitation;
But still he flies across the sea, so sweet
It is to eat of what another pays for.
Well said Euripides, "It is not bad
For a rich man to dine at other's cost."
