sprocket wrote:
> Paul wrote:
>
>> And now that we are on the subject of cuisine, could someone tell me
>> what it was that Oliver Goldsmith had in mind when in "The School for
>> Scandal" he described the "Naabob from Calcutta coming home with
>> "crackers and sweetmeet" from India?
>> Did he refer to 'Samosas' by the word 'crackers'? The context is such
>> that I cannot think he took 'fireworks' home.
>
> I'm embarrassed to have to own that I don't know the play. But the
> Nabobs referred to weren't Indians; they were Britons who had gone to
> India, usually under the auspices of the East India Company, to find a
> fortune or more usually death. "Crackers and Sweetmeats" would
> probably refer to wealth, not food.
Well, to be more precise, the Nabobs were only those who returned home
fabulously wealthy - rather than the larger number who sought that wealth.
--
John Briggs
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