I have a project to joyn
Sicily to my lands on the continent, that when I have a mind to go
into Africa, I may sail by my own coasts. But prithee Agamemnon tell
me what moot-point was it you argued to day; for tho' I plead no
causes my self, yet I have had a share of letters in my time; and that
you may not think me sick of them now, have three libraries, the one
Greek, the other two Latin; therefore as you love me tell me what was
the state of the question:" "The poor and the rich are enemies," said
Agamemnon: "And what is poor," answered Trimalchio? "Spoke like a
gentleman," replyed Agamemnon. But making nothing of the matter, "If
it be so," said Trimalchio, "where lies the dispute? And if it be not
so, 'tis nothing."
While we all humm'd this and the like stuff, "I beseech ye," said he,
"my dear Agamemnon, do you remember the twelve labours of Hercules, or
the story of Ulysses, how a Cyclop put his thumb out of joint with a
mawkin? I read such things in Homer when I was a boy; nay, saw my
self the Sybil of Curna hanging in a glass bottle: And when the boys
asked her, 'Sybil, what wouldst thou?' She answered, 'I would die.'"
He had not yet run to the end of the rope, when an over-grown hog was
brought to the table. We all wondered at the quickness of the thing,
and swore a capon could not be dress'd in the time; and that the more,
because the hog seemed larger than was the boar, we had a little
before: When Trimalchio looking more intent upon him, "What, what,"
said he, "are not his guts taken out? No, (so help me Hercules) they
are not! Bring hither, bring hither this rogue of a cook.
Pages:
57
58
59
60
61
62
63
64
65
66
67
68
69
70
71
72
73
74
75
76
77
78
79
80
81