Note 2 — WITH LUCULLUS AND APICIUS
Reading edition
The world has scarcely been as liberal to literature as to gastronomy; although the graceful French poet, the Abbé Philippe Desportes, who so celebrated his mistresses Diane, Hypolite and Cléonice in verse, was munificently rewarded for his lyrical talent by Henry III, and presented besides with an abbey worth an annual rental of ten thousand crowns for having written a sonnet which captivated the Duc de Joyeuse, brother-in-law of the king.