On Cookery in general. 139 



letters in Italy, his daughter Catherine did for cookery and 

 carving in France. 



This princess, the mother of kings, endowed with the gifts 

 of fortune, and by nature with the gift of a palate, whose in- 

 tuitive sensibility was never equalled, crossed the Alps with a 

 noble troop of cooks and conjurers. By the aid of Berini, she 

 recovered from oblivion sauces which had been lost for ages. 

 " Let the foolish vulgar," says our enlightened author, " laugh 

 at the importance which the Queen-mother placed in the art 

 of cookery:" — " it was at the table she named her deputies, 

 bought votes, and softened the rigid virtue of a modern CatoP 



The long reign of this celebrated woman was distinguished 

 by the splendour of her repasts, though the glory of some of 

 them was tarnished by the purposes for which they were given. 

 One was for the arrangement of the massacre of St. Bartho- 

 lomew ; and another, in honour of the execution of Cavages, 

 whom her son Charles wished to see hanged. 



Some uncandid historians have insinuated, that the cooks 

 of this tyrannical lady were, according to the expression of 

 Tacitus, instrumenta regince, ministers of her vengeance, and 

 instruments of her cruelty. At this Mons. Ude is very indig- 

 nant ; and he very slyly insinuates, that she had doctors and 

 apothecaries, whose heads were more fertile in inventions than 

 that of a devoted artist, who never left his kitchen. 



What was thus so happily commenced by Catherine, was 

 most vigorously carried on, and improved, by her hungry son, 

 Henry III., who spent whole days at the table. The constel- 

 lations of the kitchen shone, as might be supposed, with the 

 greatest splendour, under this gourmand king. He had the 

 good fortune to witness the invention of the fricandeau — an 

 invention, considered only second to the wheel-barrow and 

 spinning-wheel! 



We cannot follow our author through all the mazes of mo- 

 narchical influence over cookery, and the consequent national 

 prosperity. The nation continued to flourish during the reign 

 of Henry III.; and we had always entertained a high respect 

 for Henry IV. ; but, if the poor have preserved his memory, 

 his cooks have not. He did nothing for them ; and they, in 

 return, did nothing for him. A fatal love for romantic gluttony 



