Meaning:
"Cakes and ale" are synonymous with the good life, like "beer and skittles."
Background:
The word cake is often used as as a metaphor for `a good thing' - as in `take
the cake' for example. The first use of cakes and ale with that allusion is
Shakespeare's Twelfth Night, 1602:
SIR TOBY BELCH:
Out o' tune, sir: ye lie. Art any more than a steward? Dost thou think,
because thou art virtuous, there shall be no more cakes and ale?
- www.phrases.org.uk [edited]
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I need help to understand Shakespeare but the phrase reminds me of an attitude
toward wealth and material comfort.
When Seneca was challenged about his immense riches (think of 和珅 or Warren
Buffett of the first-century Roman Empire) as unbefitting a Stoic, he replied
that piling up wealth was fine, even for a Stoic; it's a no-no, however, to
become attached to it. He said he could be stripped off everything and go in
exile the next day with the same tranquility as he had today. Lao Zi, who said
知其雄，守其雌, would've agreed. No more cakes and ale? Just the same, if not better.
