receives and knows only the "finished product," and treats He was acquainted with the

it only in relation to man. use of stimulants as known in a house, an inn, or an alehouse, as he had proved in many a parish between Stratford and London. We find he knew the value of "froth and lime" and "sugar" to the tapster, probably learned when, in some holiday, he enacted the part he gave to Prince Henry. He knew that tapsters sometimes put water in their beer; that brewing was one of the duties of a good housewife; that ale and beer were the drinks of the people, and where they could best be got. He was aware that wine was the drink of some foreign nations, who considered themselves on that account superior to the “aledrinking Englishmen;" that wine was the drink of the upper classes in this country, probably from its greater cost and its higher and more subtle effects. There were no temperance drinks invented at that time, and a man had then only to choose between water and beer or wine when he wished to drink. The habit of drinking healths was in full fashion, in his day; and the "heavy drinking" had begun amongst Englishmen which had previously prevailed among the Germans and Dutch.1 A number of interesting phrases are preserved to us in relation to this special subject. One little geographical notice tells powerfully in favour of Shakspere, if not against Bacon. In the Induction to the Taming of the Shrew, he praises the power of the "Wincot ale," which sent Christopher Sly to sleep. Now, Wincot was a village at a walking distance from Stratford, famed for its ale, which no doubt Shakspere had often tasted on his youthful wanderings; but we have no record of Bacon having tried that decoction.

Cyder, perry, and mead are never mentioned. No allusion appears in any drinking scene to spirits by any modern name, except aqua vitæ, which appears twice-once in connection with an Irishman, hence not meaning brandy.

1 See Dekkar, Gascoigne, Sir John Smith, Nash, Stubbs, Earle.

When Juliet's nurse calls out, "Some aqua vitæ, ho!" it is supposed to be simply a restorative. But while giving thus comparatively little information on the objective nature of these drinks, Shakspere has given us a masterly analysis of the subjective effects of stimulants in various degrees on different minds, and the views they have of it. The simple honest Adam, in As You Like It, considers his abstinence in youth the cause of his health and strength in age. Falstaff is always requiring a reinforcement of Dutch courage in "an intolerable deal of sack to a halfpenny-worth of bread;" and he gives us the reason of Prince Henry's superiority over his father, his free use of wine. Lady Macbeth is made "bold" by what had made her attendants drunk. The degradation of a higher nature is shown in Mark Antony; but the most masterly description of the effects on an imaginative, sensitive, and hot-blooded man is shown in Cassio. He knows he cannot stand much wine; he has already suffered in the past; he has resolved to have no more than one cup; tempted to his destruction by the coldblooded villain Iago, by specious pretexts, he feels the full shame of his broken resolve to himself, of his broken faith to Othello, as a moral death.

In several of his plays, Shakspere makes no mention of any stimulant; these are the Midsummer's Night's Dream, Love's Labour's Lost, Winter's Tale, All's Well That Ends Well, Comedy of Errors, Richard II., Part 3, Henry VI., and Titus Andronicus. The only allusion in Much Ado About Nothing is Leonato's invitation to Dogberry, "Drink some wine ere you go ;" and in King John the only suggestion lies in Faulconbridge's exclamation :—

"St. George, that swinged the dragon, and ere since

Sits on his horseback at mine hostess' door,

Teach us some fence!"

It is interesting to note the different kinds of stimulant and the names of the vessels and accessories in different plays:

"Cup of Charneco," "Sack," "Pot of double beer," "Three-hooped pot," "Claret," "Wine," and "Beer." (Henry VI., Part 2.)

"Butt of Malmsey," "Sop," "Wine." (King Richard III.)

"Pot of small ale," "Pot of the smallest ale," Stone jugs and sealed quarts," "Fat alewife," "Sheer ale," "On the score." (Ind. to Taming of the Shrew.)

"Muscadel and sops." (Taming of the Shrew.) "Wine and wassail,' ""Drink." (Macbeth.)

"Drunken spilth of wine," "Subtle juice o' the grape," "Honest water." (Timon of Athens.)

"Cup us," "Vats," "Tippling," "Wine." (Antony and Cleopatra.)

"Stoops of wine," "Measure," "Potations pottle-deep," "Flowing cups," "Old fond paradoxes to make fools laugh in the alehouse," "Chronicle small-beer," "The wine she drinks is made of grapes," "Cup," "Canakin," "Potent in potting," "Pottle," "Pint," "Dead drunk." (Othello.)

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Stoops [or, as in first folio, stopes] of wine," "Flagon of Rhenish," "The Queen carouses," "Throw a union in the cup," "A stoup of liquor." (Hamlet.)

"Can," "Canary," "Cakes and ale," "Stoop of wine." (Twelfth Night.)

"Aqua vitæ," "Healths five fathom deep." (Romeo and Juliet.)

"Pot of ale," "Cups of ales." (Henry V.)

Quart of sack," "Toast," "Spigot," "Canary," "Pipewine," "Wine and sugar,' ""Pottle of burnt sack," "Toast," "Aqua vita bottle," "Fap." (Merry Wives of Windsor.) "Ale and cakes," "Baiting of bumbards [ale-barrels].” (King Henry VIII.)

"Sack," "Bottle," "Wine." (Tempest.)

"Bowl of wine" (in Julius Cæsar, Pericles, and Richard III.)

"Bottle brandished," 66 Sherris," "Sherris sack," "The

poor creature, small-beer," "Canaries," "Crack a quart," "Pottlepot." (Henry IV., Part 5.)

"These mad, mustachio, purple-hued malt worms," "Bombard of sack," "A brewer's horse," "Madeira," "Pint," "Cup of wine," "Brown bastard," "Tavern," "Bottle." (Henry IV., Part 1.)

"Glasses is your only drinking," says Falstaff when his landlady complains she must sell her silver if he will not pay her bill. But "glass," to hold liquor, was then an innovation, as shown in contemporary literature, and it is only mentioned elsewhere once-i.e., in Merchant of Venice.

Shakspere also shows many of the habits prevailing in the country at his time. While alluding to "brewers" and to "brewers' horses," he shows the prevalence of private brewing, chiefly by women, and the habits of drinking beer in those days, before the importation of tea, coffee, and cocoa.

In the Two Gentlemen of Verona, Speed, in giving a "catelog" of a maiden's conditions, says :

She brews good ale.

Launce. And thereof comes the proverb, "Blessing o' your heart, you brew good ale.”

Speed. She will often praise her liquor.

Launce. If her liquor be good, she shall; if she will not, I will; for good things should be praised. (Act ii. sc. I.)

Also Doctor Caius has for his housekeeper Mrs. Quickly (Merry Wives of Windsor): :

Quickly. I keep his house; and I wash, wring, brew, bake, scour, dress meat and drink, make the beds, and do all myself. Simple. 'Tis a great charge to come under one body's hands.

(Act i. sc. 4.)

In Act iii. sc. 3, Mrs. Ford says to her men-servants, "Be ready here, hard by in the brewhouse."

He tells us that "Good wine needs no bush.

to good wine they do use good bushes." (Epilogue to As You Like It.)

We find a general use of "sops in wine."

In the Taming of the Shrew, Act iii. sc. 2 :—

After many ceremonies done,

He calls for wine: "A health," quoth he, as if

He had been aboard, carousing to his mates
After a storm; quaffed off the muscadel.
And threw the sops all in the sexton's face,
Having no other reason,

But that his beard grew thin and gingerly,

And seemed to ask him sops, as he was drinking.1

Sir John Falstaff was much attracted by "sops " in wine and 66 toasts in his sack; and an allusion to the habit is given in Richard III., when the 1st Murderer says:

Throw him [Clarence] in the Malmsey butt in the next room.
2nd Murderer. Oh! excellent device, and make a sop of him.
(Act i. sc. 4.)

"Cakes and ale" seemed to have been given at christenings; for at Westminster the porter beats back the crowd at the christening, of the infant, afterwards Queen Elizabeth :

You must be seeing christenings?

Do you look for ale and cakes here, you rude rascals?

(King Henry VIII., Act v. sc. 3.)

In the Merry Wives of Windsor and King Henry IV. we have an example of the jolly side of tavern-life—not the lowest, and one often redeemed with touches of humour,

1 We find in Laneham's Letter (1575), Leland's Collectanea, that it was the custom then, at the marriage of the humblest as well as of the highest, for a "bride-cup," sometimes called a "knitting-cup," to be quaffed in church. At the marriage of Philip and Mary in Winchester Cathedral in 1554, after mass was done, wine and sops were hallowed and delivered to them both. And there is another description of a real rustic wedding, when the sweet "bride-cup" attracted the flies around.

D