CHAP. LI.
¶ Of Aesopes proud platter.
BVt in the relation and report of this argument, notorious aboue all the rest in our memorie [unspec D] is that platter of Clodius Aesopus, the plaier of Tragedies, which was esteemed worth * 1.1 six hundred Sestertia. In this one charger he serued vp at the table all kind of birds that either could sing or say after a man: and they cost him six hundred Sesterces apeece. And surely it was no delight & pleasure that he sought herein to content the tooth, but only that he would haue the name to eat the resemblers of mans voice: without any consideration & regard that he had of all that great riches and reuenues of his owne, which himselfe had gotten by his tongue, and by counterfeiting the speech of others. A father verily worthie such a sonne, who as we said before, deuoured those precious pearles. And to speake a truth, it is hard to judge whether of them twaine plaied the beast more, the father or, the sonne. But that it seemeth lesse pride and prodigalitie to swallow down the throat the greatest riches of Nature, than to chew and eat at [unspec E] a supper mens tongues, that is to say, those birds that could pronounce our language.