_Herbs._] Amongst herbs to be eaten I find gourds, cucumbers, coleworts,
melons, disallowed, but especially cabbage. It causeth troublesome dreams,
and sends up black vapours to the brain. Galen, _loc. affect. l. 3. c. 6_,
of all herbs condemns cabbage; and Isaac, _lib. 2. c. 1._ _Animae
gravitatem facit_, it brings heaviness to the soul. Some are of opinion
that all raw herbs and salads breed melancholy blood, except bugloss and
lettuce. Crato, _consil. 21. lib. 2_, speaks against all herbs and worts,
except borage, bugloss, fennel, parsley, dill, balm, succory. Magninus,
_regim. sanitatis, part. 3. cap. 31._ _Omnes herbae simpliciter malae, via
cibi_; all herbs are simply evil to feed on (as he thinks). So did that
scoffing cook in [1366]Plautus hold:

"Non ego coenam condio ut alii coqui solent,
Qui mihi condita prata in patinis proferunt,
Boves qui convivas faciunt, herbasque aggerunt."

"Like other cooks I do not supper dress,
That put whole meadows into a platter,
And make no better of their guests than beeves,
With herbs and grass to feed them fatter."

Our Italians and Spaniards do make a whole dinner of herbs and salads
(which our said Plautus calls _coenas terrestras_, Horace, _coenas sine
sanguine_), by which means, as he follows it,

[1367] "Hic homines tam brevem vitam colunt------
Qui herbas hujusmodi in alvum suum congerunt,
Formidolosum dictu, non esu modo,
Quas herbas pecudes non edunt, homines edunt."