Name: The closet of Sir Kenelm Digby Knight opened
Author: Sir Kenelm Digby

after my Glorious Masters Decease." Of this book he says, " The world hath not yet seen such another Piece." Commend me to the forthright methods of seventeenth century advertisement ! In the second part, " Excellent Directions for Cookery," The Closet 0/)£?;/^^was largely drawn on. In 1696 appeared The Family Physician, by George Hartman, Phylo-Chy- mist . . . who liv'd and Travell'd with the Honour- able Sir Kenelm Digby in several parts of Europe, the space of Seven Years till he died. This other choice compilation owes much to the " incompar- able " one, and is described as " the marrow of col- lections." But Hartman is not the only witness to Digby's connoisseurship in the joint mysteries. Better to my mind than even Hartman's are the style and the spirit of Master May. In 1660 appeared The Ac- complisht Cook, or the Art and Mystery of Cookery . . . approved by the fifty years experience and in- dustry of Robert May, in his attendance on Several Persons of Honour. It is dedicated to Lord Lum- ley, Lord Lovelace, Sir Wm. Paston, Sir Kenelme Digby, and Sir Frederick Cornwallis, " so well known to the Nation for their admired Hospitali- ties," and generally to " the race Of those that for the Gusto stand, Whose tables a whole Ark command Of Nature's plentie." " He is an Alien, a meer Stranger in England that hath not been acquaintedwith your generous house- keeping; for my own part, my more particular Tyes xlvi INTRODUCTIO,'Mi of Service to you, my Honoured Lords, have built me up to the height of this experience." His pre- face is a heartrending cry of regret for the good old times before usurping Parliaments banished splendidly extravagant gentlemen across the seas, " those golden days of Peace and Hospitality, when you enjoy'd your own, so as to entertain and relieve others . . . those golden days wherein were prac- tised the Triumphs and Trophies of Cookery, then was Hospitality esteemed and Neighbourhood pre- served, the Poor cherished and God honoured ; then was Religion less talk't on and more practis't, then was Atheism and Schisme less in Fashion, and then did men strive to be good rather than to seem so." High-souledwere the cbefs of the seventeenth century ! The 1669 edition of The Closet Opened is evi- dently the first. The interleaved example men- tioned in the Catalogue of the Digby Library is of the same date. Whoever prepared it for the press and wrote the egregious preface " To the Reader " — Hartman, or as 1 think, another — gave it the title ; but it was a borrowed one. Some years earlier, in 1655, had appeared The Qjueetis Closet Opened^ Incomparable Secrets which were presented unto the Queen by the most Experienced Persons of the TimeSf many wherof were had in Esteem when she pleased to descend to Private Recreation. The Queen, of course, is Henrietta Maria, and chief among the "Experienced Persons" referred to was certainly her Chancellor, Digby. Possibly he may even have suggested the printing of the collection. Like titles INTRODUCTIOU^ xlvii are met with again and again. Nature s Cabinet Opened^ a medical work, was attributed to Browne, though he repudiated it. Ruthven's book I have already alluded to. The Queen-like Closet^ a Rich Cabinet, by Hannah Wolly, came out in 1 670.

AI-modernized reading of the original text

after my Glorious Masters Decease." Of this book he says, " The world hath not yet seen such another Piece." Commend me to the forthright methods of seventeenth century advertisement ! In the second part, " Excellent Directions for Cookery," The Closet 0/)£?;/^^was largely drawn on. In 1696 appeared The Family Physician, by George Hartman, Phylo-Chymist . . . who liv'd and Travell'd with the Honourable Sir Kenelm Digby in several parts of Europe, the space of Seven Years till he died. This other choice compilation owes much to the " incomparable " one, and is described as " the marrow of collections." But Hartman is not the only witness to Digby's connoisseurship in the joint mysteries. Better to my mind than even Hartman's are the style and the spirit of Master May. In 1660 appeared The Accomplisht Cook, or the Art and Mystery of Cookery . . . approved by the fifty years experience and industry of Robert May, in his attendance on Several Persons of Honour. It is dedicated to Lord Lumley, Lord Lovelace, Sir Wm. Paston, Sir Kenelme Digby, and Sir Frederick Cornwallis, " so well known to the Nation for their admired Hospitalities," and generally to " the race Of those that for the Gusto stand, Whose tables a whole Ark command Of Nature's plentie." " He is an Alien, a meer Stranger in England that hath not been acquainted with your generous housekeeping; for my own part, my more particular Tyes xlvi INTRODUCTIO,'Mi of Service to you, my Honoured Lords, have built me up to the height of this experience." His preface is a heartrending cry of regret for the good old times before usurping Parliaments banished splendidly extravagant gentlemen across the seas, " those golden days of Peace and Hospitality, when you enjoy'd your own, so as to entertain and relieve others . . . those golden days wherein were practised the Triumphs and Trophies of Cookery, then was Hospitality esteemed and Neighbourhood preserved, the Poor cherished and God honoured ; then was Religion less talk't on and more practis't, then was Atheism and Schisme less in Fashion, and then did men strive to be good rather than to seem so." High-souled were the cbefs of the seventeenth century ! The 1669 edition of The Closet Opened is evidently the first. The interleaved example mentioned in the Catalogue of the Digby Library is of the same date. Whoever prepared it for the press and wrote the egregious preface " To the Reader " — Hartman, or as 1 think, another — gave it the title ; but it was a borrowed one. Some years earlier, in 1655, had appeared The Queen's Closet Opened, Incomparable Secrets which were presented unto the Queen by the most Experienced Persons of the Times, many wherof were had in Esteem when she pleased to descend to Private Recreation. The Queen, of course, is Henrietta Maria, and chief among the "Experienced Persons" referred to was certainly her Chancellor, Digby. Possibly he may even have suggested the printing of the collection. Like titles INTRODUCTIOU^ xlvii are met with again and again. Nature's Cabinet Opened, a medical work, was attributed to Browne, though he repudiated it. Ruthven's book I have already alluded to. The Queen-like Closet^ a Rich Cabinet, by Hannah Wolly, came out in 1 670.