cakes and ale

From William Shakespeare’s play Twelfth Night (written c. 1601–1602), Act II, scene iii: see the quotation.

• "To furnish the cakes and ale of the mind, is, we take it, the proper virtue of novels. It is for mental delight and recreation that we resort to them."
• "Doſt thou thinke becauſe thou art vertuous, there ſhall be no more Cakes and Ale?"

• pleasure