g there.
You should have come to Sandwich to eat them. It is a shame for you that
you did not. An epicure talk of danger when he is in search of a dainty!
Did not Leander swim over the Hellespont in a tempest to get to his
mistress? And what is a wench to a barrel of exquisite oysters?

_Apicius_.--Nay; I am sure you can't blame me for any want of alertness
in seeking fine fishes. I sailed to the coast of Africa, from Minturnae
in Campania, only to taste of one species, which I heard was larger there
than it was on our coast; and finding that I had received a false
information, I returned immediately, without even deigning to land.

_Darteneuf_.--There was some sense in that. But why did not you also
make a voyage to Sandwich? Had you once tasted those oysters in their
highest perfection, you would never have come back; you would have eaten
till you burst.

_Apicius_.--I wish I had. It would have been better than poisoning
myself, as I did at Rome, because I found, upon the balance of my
accounts, I had only the pitiful sum of fourscore thousand pounds left,
which would not afford me a table to keep me from starving.

_Darteneuf_.--A sum of fourscore thousand pounds not keep you from
starving! Would I had had it! I should have been twenty years in
spending it, with the best table in London.

_Apicius_.--Alas, poor man! This shows that you English have no idea of
the luxury that reigned in our tables. Before I died I had spent in my
kitchen 807,291 pounds 13s. 4d.

_Darteneuf_.--I don't believe a word of it. There is certainly an error
in the account.

_Apicius_.--Why, the establishment of Lucullus for his suppers in the
Apollo--I mean for every supper he sat down to in the room which he
called by that name--was 5,000 drachms, which is in your money 1,614
pounds 11s. 8d.

_Darteneuf_.--Would I had supped with him there! But are you sure there
is no blunder in these calculations?

_Apicius_.--Ask your learned men that. I reckon as they tell me. But
you may think that these feasts were made only by great men, by
triumphant generals, like Lucullus, who had plundered all Asia to help
him in his housekeeping. What will you say when I tell you that the
player AEsopus had one dish that cost him 6,000 sestertia--that is, 4,843
pounds 10s. English?

_Darteneuf_.--What will I say? Why, that I pity my worthy friend Mr.
Gibber, and that, if I had known this when alive, I should have hanged
myself for ve