LOVE, PRESENT AND PAST. THEY stood in their young beauty where the shade And as he watch'd her colour come and go, "Lift up those dearest eyes, and let me read Mine own! mine own! it is a thought of pride Nay, love, I pray thee weep not! Must I swear She heard him long in silence, and at last I feel all joy departs with thee; no eye Till thou return; the grave has closed o'er all Thou art mine all. It is a fearful thing Surely thou wilt but smile when others scorn Go now, while I am calm. God knoweth where Still sounding in thy heart! Go on thy way, They parted; years roll'd on before they stood Than when they said farewell; at last he came, To her, alas! to her those years had brought And he, who thought to hear but words of blame, He stopp'd; for as he spoke, a bitter smile "We never can be friends, for friends should feel There was a time when thou and I were one There was a time when at thy lightest word Then at thy footstep how the red blood came I blame thee not, for now my alter'd heart At times I weep to think such love could be, At times there come old thoughts across my brain, Come they to thee? Ah, no! for thou would'st weep Surely thou could'st not smile, if e'er to thee I seem to hear again that blessed stream, Yea! one by one, past hours of bliss return; I do not blame thee now; I said the truth: At times I see a vision dark and strange - A woman weeping that thy heart could change! Oh! if that dreary vision ever cross'd Thy soul, e'en now, when all our love is lost, Strange! strange how all are pass'd-love, hope, and grief; I deem'd that grief would dwell with me for aye; We, who once boasted Death should hardly tear How those who see us meet would laugh to know Alas! methinks I would recall again A DINNER IN ANCIENT EGYPT. COMPARED with the profuse luxury of an ancient Egyptian dinner, our modern dinners, with all their gastronomical appliances, are little better than starveling sophistications. If the allegation of lost arts be sustained or demonstrated by a critical survey of the Egyptian laboratory, workshop, or factory, eating on a gigantic scale may also be regarded as one of the artes perdite. England has been pronounced to be an "eminently dining nation;" and it has been sarcastically said that "her hypocrites cannot harangue, her knaves cannot intrigue, her dupes cannot subscribe, and her cabinet ministers cannot consult without the intervention of a dinner." But let us examine the history of dinners in an inverse order, tracing their genealogy backwards from England's Modern Babylon to Egypt's "City of Thrones," and we shall be compelled to admit our inferiority. The stream inverting the natural order grows wider and deeper as you ascend to its source. gulosity of Parson Adams and Tom Jones yields to Massinger's Justice Greedy, and his ideas of various and substantial dishes must give precedence to Chaucer's Franklein: The "Withouten bake mete never was his house, Of fish and flesh, and that so plenteous, It snewed in his hall of mete and drinke, Ofevery dainty that men could of thinke." system. There was the jentaculum, the prandium, the merenda, the cænum, the comissatio. What an enviable digestion the Romans must have had, especially when we consider their dishes, their roast boars, swines' bellies, goats and squirrels, cranes, peacocks, swans, and guinea-pigs! But, after all, what were English to the Roman gourmands who preceded, and, perhaps, taught them? Think of Esop's single dish that cost 800l., of Domitian's rhombus, of Vitellius's shield of Minerva, of Maximin's elephantine breakfasts, of Heliogabalus's parrot tongues! What glory to the imperial glutton who offered half his empire for a new sauce; what spirit in the resolution of Apicius when he destroyed himself because he had only 220,000l. sterling left to be devoted to the purposes of gastronomy! Yet what was Roman gluttony compared to the gigantic gourmandism of Egypt! Plutarch records the memorable circumstance of fifteen boars being roasted whole for a supper of Antony and Cleopatra; and Lucian describes a dinner given by the "Gipsy Queen" to Cæsar during a former liaison, which was "mounted" on the same gigantic scale : Look again at the frequency of the Roman meals, and we shall be quickly satisfied (which Roman gastronomy was not) that our meals are parsimonious and unsatisfactory innovations on a grand omnivorous "With dainties Egypt piled the groaning board, Whatever sea, or sky, or land afford.” This, too, was in the decline of Egypt under the Greek dynasty! From that er pede Herculem we may infer how Gargantuan were her repasts in the zenith of her greatness. Homer, who had grateful reminiscences of the dinners given by the kings and magnates of the Theban City of Thrones, leads to a favourable imagination of the scale on which they were conducted by describing the glorious spreads in which the Grecian heroes of the Iliad, their contemporaries, indulged. We will take the first example that occurs. "Patroclus o'er the blazing fire Heaps in the brazen vase three chines entire ; The brazen vase Automedon sustains, Which flesh of porker, sheep, and goat contains ; Achilles at the genial feast presides, raise, The tent is brighten'd with the rising blaze; Then, when the lingering flames at length subside, He strews the bed of glowing embers wide; Above the coals the smoking fragments turns, And sprinkles sacred salt from lifted urns. With bread the glittering canisters they load, Which round the board Menætius' son bestow'd, Who, opposite Ulysses, full in sight, Amid the greedy flames Patroclus pours; It is a curious reflection that the ancient Thebans, seated in chairs in the English (not the Roman) fashion, the ladies being intermixed with the gentlemen, often dined off roast beef and goose; that they had their puddings and pies; that they drank their beer out of glasses, and their wine out of decanters; that they challenged each other as we now do, and drank toasts and healths. They had whets before dinner, like the Russians, consisting of pungent vegetables or strong cordials, handed round the drawing-room, previous to applying the test of the appetite to the more substantial luxuries of the dining room. Though beef and goose (mutton was excluded in compliment to the ram-headed Ammon) constituted the staple articles of a good dinner in the City of Thrones," other rarities and substantials were added at the tables of the rich, such as widgeons, quails, wild ducks, kid, and fish of various kinds, intermixed with an endless succession of vegetables. In one respect we might take a lesson from the Egyptian bon virant. The torture of suspense to which a dinner-party in our civilised times is exposed during the awful hour which precedes dinner has often furnished the essayist and the Cockney with materials of eloquent complaint. "They managed these things better" in the "hundred-gated" metropolis. The Egyptian bon vivants had music to entertain their guests both before and after that meal, which, according to a learned authority, constitutes the most serious as well as agreeable occupation of our existence. Generally, dinner was served without a cloth; although there are instances of linen coverings in imitation of palm-leaves. Plates were occasionally used; perhaps knives, as both are seen among the painted frescoes of the tombs exhibited on sideboards. There was no fork school," because there were no forks. There might, nevertheless, have been a "silver-spoon school," silver without any reflection on the mental acuteness of the real Theban "Amphytrion," for he is the "real Amphytrion with whom one dines." Spoons were used instead of forks, with a similar bowl, but with a shorter handle than ours. Those in the British Museum are of ornamented tortoise-shell, ivory, and alabaster. There can scarcely be a doubt that similar utensils of silver and gold were used at the great tables. Considering that the chief dishes were rich soups and stews, spoons were at all events a more civilised custom than Chinese chopsticks or Turkish fingers. It is not improbable that both knife and silver spoon were used. Dinner was served on a round table. Near the dishes were placed ornamented rolls of wheaten bread; trays of which, in readiness, were also profusely heaped on adjacent sideboards. Homer says, speaking of a Theban banquet, "the glittering canisters were piled with bread;" napkins and water-ewers were supplied the guests by beautiful slaves of both sexes who waited on them, and who presented them wine in goblets. Ionians and Greeks, as well as Negroes, are undoubtedly among them. The dessert generally consisted of grapes, dates, and figs. Changes were made by removing the table, with all the dishes upon it, and substituting in this manner a second and third course. The frescoes which record these circumstances depict the luxurious variety of a Theban dinner. Others record a ponderous profusion and abundant simplicity, more consonant to the banquet of Achilles. Complete pictures are seen in the tombs of the whole preparatory process, ab ovo. First appears the poultry-yard, with the cooped and fattened poultry in the process of se lection and plucking; next, the shambles; and lastly, the kitchen, where we have the whole culinary process laid open before us. First the ox is slaughtered and divided into joints; some for roasting and stewing, and some for boiling. Ribs of beef, fillets, legs of beef, calves'head, liver, hearts, and tongues, seem But to be the favourite joints. some are perfectly indescribable by any modern designation; and others, though unique, are still traditionally |