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PARADISE REGAINED. 3g7
In mafly veflel of pure filver made,
A banquet rich and coftly furnifh'd was ;
All beafts, all birds beguil'd by fowler's trade,
All filh were there in floods or feas that pafs ;
All dainties made by art : and at the table
An hundred virgins fcrv'd
Fairfax.
In Comus, where the Lady is tempted by the Enchanter, the fcene
is laid in " afiately palace fet out with all manner of delicioufnefi, foft
" mujic, and, tablet fpread with all dainties."
* 343- /> 34- ^ paftry built]
The paftry in the beginning of the laft century was frequently of
confiderable magnitude and folidity. Of fuch kind mult have been
the pye in which Jeoffrey Hudfon, afterwards King James's Dwarf,
when eight years old was ferved up to table at an entertainment given by
the Duke of Buckingham. We may fuppofe this pye was not confider-
ably larger than was ufual on fuch occafions, otherwife the joke would
have loft much of its effecl. from fomething extraordinary being ex-
pected. A fpecies of mural paftry feems to have prevailed in fome of
the preceding centuries, when artificial reprefentations of caftles, tow-
ers, &c. were very common at all great feafts, and were called futtle-
ties, fubtilties, or fotilties.
Leland, in his account of the entertainment
at the inthronization of Archbilhop Warham in 1 504, {Colle&anea,
Vol. 6) mentions " a futtlety of three ftages, with vanes and towres
" embattled," and " a warner with eight towres embattled, and made
** withjlowres;" which poflibly meant made in paftry.
In the cata-
logue of the expences at this feaft there is a charge for wax and fugar,
in operatione de le fotilties. Probably the wax and fugar were employed
to render the pafte of flour more adhefive and tenacious, the better to
fupport itfelf when moulded into fuch a variety
of forms.
/. 344. p. 34. Gris-amber-fteam'd; J
Ambergris, or grey-amber, is efteemed the beft, and ufed in per-
fumes and cordials. A curious lady communicated the following re-
marks upon this
paflage
to Mr. Peck, which we will here tranferibe.
"
Grey amber is the amber our author here fpeaks of, and melts like
'
butter. It was formerly
a main ingredient in every
concert for a
"
banquet; viz. to fume the meat with, and that whether boiled,