Chapter 5

I must own I would have the indefatigable labour of such a one gain an immortal reputation after his death; but after all, to weary one's self all one's life long with those views, is very chimerical. And certainly, he that makes but little account of the honours that might accrue to him after his death, acted like a man of sense. _Si venit post fata gloria non propero_[6].

Is it not infinitely better to divert one's self while one lives, than to idle all one's life away on poring upon books? Much better will the following song become the mouth of a man of letters, which I have transcribed out of the Mercure Galant, of the year 1711, p. 67.

"De ceux qui vivent dans l'histoire, Ma foi je n'envierai le sort. Nargues du Temple de Memoire Ou l'on ne vit que lorsque l'on est mort. J'aime bien mieux vivre pendant ma vin Pour boire avec Silvie; Car je sentirai Les momens que je vivrai Tant que je boirai."

Faith, I shan't envy him, whoe'er he be, That glorious lives in history; Nor memory's rich fane amuse my head, Where no one lives but when he's dead. I had much rather, while I life enjoy, The precious moments all employ, With my lov'd Silvia, and delicious wine, Both wonderful, and both divine. For that I truly live, and healthy prove, Is that I drink, and that I love.

This is exactly the same thing that Racan said to Maynard in this ode[7].

"Je sai, Maynard, que les merveilles Qui naissent de tes longues veilles Vivront autant que l'univers; Mais que te sert il que ta gloire Eclipse au Temple de Memoire Quand tu seras mange des vers? Quitte cette inutile peine, Buvons plutot a longue haleine De ce doux jus delicieux, Qui pour l'excellence precede Le bruvage que Ganimede Verse dans la coupe des dieux."

Maynard, I know thy thoughts express'd in rhyme, Those wonders of thy bright immortal pen, Shall live for ever in the minds of men, Till vast eternity shall swallow time. Yet should thy glories, now so radiant bright, In Memory's rare temple lose their light; Suffer eclipse, when to the worms a prey, Those reptiles eat thy poor remains away. Does this reflection chagrin thee, my friend, Thus to the useless thought decree an end? Drink, and drink largely, that delicious juice, The em'rald vines in purple gems produce, Which for its excellence surpasses far That liquor which, to bright celestial souls, Jove's minion, Ganimede, with steady care, Richly dispenses in immortal bowls.

So much for poetry, let us come to the point, and instance some learned men, that have loved this diversion. And first, enter Erasmus, who certainly was no enemy to wine, since he chose rather to continue where the plague was than drink water. To prove this, I shall instance part of a letter written to this great man by Armonius, an Italian, and a very learned person:-- "Immediately after my arrival in England, I endeavoured to inform myself where you were, because in your last you told me, the plague had forced you to quit Cambridge. At length I was told for certain, that you had indeed left the town, but retiring into a place where there was no wine, which to you being worse than the plague, you returned thither, and where you now are. O intrepid soldier of Bacchus, whom so eminent a danger could not compel to desert his general!" The Latin having much more force, for the sake of those who understand that language, I shall take the liberty to insert it, as follows:-- _Simul atque Anglicum solum tetigi, ubi locorum esses rogare cepi, siquidem Cantabrigiensem pestem fugere te scripsisti. Unus tandem sixtinus mihi dixit te quidem Cantabrigiam. Ob pestem reliquisse et concessisse nescio quo, ubi cum vini penuria laborares, et eo carere gravius peste duceres, Cantabrigiam repetiisse atque ibi nunc esse. O fortem Bassarei commilitonem, qui in summo periculo ducem deserere nolueris_[8].

"Daniel Heinsius loved to drink a little. One day, when he was not in a condition to read his lectures, having got drunk the day before, some arch wags fixed these words on the school-door:-- _Daniel Heinsius, non leget hodie, propter hesternam carpulam_[9]."

"George Sharpe, a Scotchman, professor, and vice-chancellor of Montpelier, who died in the year 1673, on his birth-day, aged fifty-nine years, was a great drunkard[10]."

Barthius may also be reckoned amongst those learned topers, if what Coloniez says be true. "I knew," says he, "some learned men in Holland, who spoke of Scriverius as of a man extremely amorous. M. Vossius, amongst others, related to me one day, that Barthius being come from Germany to Haerlaem to see Scriverius, had in his company a lady perfectly beautiful, whom Scriverius had no sooner seen, but he found means to make Barthius drunk, that he might entertain the lady with greater liberty, which he accomplished. It was not, however, so well managed, but Barthius coming to himself had some reason to suspect what had past, which grew so much upon him, that he took the lady along with him in a rage, and drowned her in the Rhine[11]."

Scaliger treats as a drunkard, John Kuklin, a calvinist minister, native of Hesse, and a very learned man[12].

"Nicolas de Bourbon, of Bar sur l'Aube, was nephew's son to the poet Nicolas Bourbon, who lived in the time of Francis the First; after having been king's professor, then canon of Langres, made himself father of the oratory. ----He was a prodigious dry soul, and loved good wine, which made him often say, That though he was of the French academy, yet that when he read French verses he fancied he was drinking water."

The great Buchanan, so famous for his fine writings, was a terrible drinker, if we may give any credit to Father Garasse. What follows is taken out of his Doctrine Curieuse, p. 748. "I shall," says he, "recount to our new atheists, the miserable end of a man of their belief and humour, as to eating and drinking. The libertine having passed his debauched youth in Paris and Bourdeaux, more diligent in finding out tavern bushes than the laurel of Parnassus; and being towards the latter end of his life, recalled into Scotland, to instruct the young prince, James VI. continuing his intemperance, he grew at last so dropsical by drinking, that by way of jeer he said he was in labour. _Vino intercute_, not _aqua intercute_. As ill as he was, he would, however, not abstain from drinking bumpers, and them too all of pure wine, as he used to do at Bourdeaux. The physicians who had care of his health, by order of the king, seeing the extravagant excesses of their patient, told him roundly, and in a kind of heat, that he did all he could to kill himself, and that, if he continued this course of life, he could not live above a fortnight, or three weeks, longer. He desired them then to hold a consultation amongst themselves, and let him know how long he might live if he abstained from wine. They did so, and told him, he might on that condition live five or six years longer. Upon which he gave them an answer worthy his humour. Go, says he, with your regimens and prescriptions, and know, that I had rather live three weeks, and get drunk every day, than six years without drinking wine. And as soon as he had thus dismissed the physicians, he caused a barrel of wine of Grave to be placed at his bed's head, resolving to see the bottom of it before he died; and carried himself so valiantly in this encounter, that he drank it up to the lees, fulfilling literally the contents of this quaint epigram of Epigonus upon a frog, who falling into a pipe of wine, cried out,

+pheu tines hudor pinousi manien sophrona mainomenoi.+

"Having death and the glass between his teeth, the ministers visited him to bring him to himself, that he might take resolution to die with some thought and reflection; one of them especially exhorted him to recite the Lord's Prayer; upon which, opening his eyes, he looked very ghastly upon the minister, And what is that, says he, that you call the Lord's Prayer? The standers by answered, It was the Our Father; and that, if he could not pronounce that prayer, they desired him that at least he would recite some christian prayer, that he might die like a good man. For my part, replied he, I never knew any other prayer than this,

"Cynthia prima suis miserum me cepit ocellis, Contractum nullis ante cupidinibus."[12a]

Cynthia's fine eyes, me wretched, first could move, Before that time I knew not what was love.

"And scarce had he repeated ten or twelve verses of that elegy of Propertius, but he expired, surrounded with cups and glasses, and of him one may really say, that he vomitted his purple soul out, _Purpuraeam vomit ille animam_[13]."

I shall not vouch for the truth of this story, but you have it as I find it; nor must it be expected that Buchanan, who was their mortal enemy, should find any favour from the priests of the church of Rome.

Justus Lipsius got sometimes drunk; he tells us so himself, in his Commentary on Seneca, for in that passage where the philosopher says, that drunkenness cures some certain distempers, he makes on the word distempers this remark following--Melancholy (we know it by experience) or cold. And in the discourses which he says were carried on between Carrio Demius and Dusa, upon subjects of literature, and which he inserts in his Ancient Lessons, they had always a glass in their hand.

Every one knows that Baudius, professor in the university of Leyden, was a great drinker, and Culprit himself pleads guilty to the indictment. _Habemus rerum confitentem._ Here follow his own words, which I own I cannot translate without losing their beauty in the Latin, but the substance is, that he defies envy itself to say any thing against him, but that like the ancient Cato, he drank pretty liberally of the juice of the grape. _Concurrant omnes_, says he, _non dicam ut ille satiricus, Augures, Haruspices, sed quicquid est ubique hominum curiosorum, qui in aliena acta tam sedulo iniquirunt ut ea fingant quae nunquam fuerunt, nihil inveniet quod in nobis carpere possit livor, quam quod interdum ad exemplum prisci Catonii liberalitatis invitare nos patiamur, nec semper constitimus ultra sobrietatem veterum Sabinorum_[14]. And in another letter he says, that the most virulent detractor could never reproach him with any thing, but that he got sometimes drunk. _Malignitas obtrectatorum nihil aliud in nobis sigillare potest quam quod nimis commodus sum convivator, et interdum largius adspargor rore liberi patris_[15].

Balzac made also some little debauches with some of his friends at his country-house; and what he wrote to an officer who was then prisoner in Germany, makes it evidently appear that he thought it lawful so to do. "In relation," says he, "to the German manner of drinking healths, which you speak of with such trouble, as if they were so many Turkish bastinadoes, I think your sobriety in that respect to be a little too delicate, you must learn to howl when you are in company of wolves, as the proverb has it, and not to instance great generals. Don't you know, that wise ambassadors of kings have heretofore got drunk for the good of their master's affairs, and sacrificed all their prudence and gravity to the necessity of great men, and the custom of the country where they were. I do not advise you here to any forbidden acts of intemperance, but I think it no manner of harm now and then to drown your chagrin in Rhenish wine, and to make use of that agreeable means to shorten the time, the long continuance of which is ever extremely tedious to prisoners[16]."

The illustrious professor of Utrecht, whose name shall live as long as the republic of letters shall subsist, was a great drinker, and valued himself for drinking a great deal. It is reported of this learned man, that at the congress of the last peace, a certain German prince, of a sovereign house, came on purpose to have a brush with our professor, who accepted the challenge, and came off victorious, having fairly laid his enemy speechless on the floor.

[Footnote 1: Vide Preface, p. 17, l. 6, where are these words, viz. Thus shall princes love and cherish you as their most faithful children and servants, and take delight to commune with you, inasmuch as amongst you are found men excellent in all kinds of sciences, and who, thereby, may make their names, who love and cherish you, immortal]

[Footnote 2: Page 6, l. 9.]

[Footnote 3: Page 16, l. 19.]

[Footnote 4: Page 5, l. 12. Page 42, l. 13.]

[Footnote 5: Oeuv. div. du Sieur D'Espreaux, p. 246.]

[Footnote 6: Martial.]

[Footnote 7: Parnass. Franc, p. 97.]

[Footnote 8: Bayle Dict. Art. Ammon.]

[Footnote 9: Menagian, t. i. p. 26.]

[Footnote 10: Patinian, p. 106.]

[Footnote 11: Rec. de Partic. p. 318, ed. 4.]

[Footnote 12: Scaliger, p. 409.]

[[Footnote 12a: Propertius I.i.1-2.]]

[Footnote 13: Bayle Dict. Art. Buchan. D.]

[Footnote 14: Ep. xxxiii. centur. 3.]

[Footnote 15: Ep. xxvi. centur. 3.]

[Footnote 16: Lett. Chois. lib. ii. lett. 5.]

CHAP. XVI.

OF NATIONS THAT USED TO GET DRUNK.

The plot now begins to thicken upon us, and we are come to give an account of such nations with whom the custom of getting drunk was heretofore very much in vogue; and of those with whom this same custom reigns at this very day.

When we consult ancient histories upon this point, we learn from Plato[1], that the Scythians, Thracians, Celtae and Iberians, were the greatest drinkers that ever were. AElian[2] says the same in relation to the Thracians and Illyrians. It is also reported of the Parthians[3], that the more they drink the more thirsty they grow.

Athenaeus[4] also assures us, that the Thracians were great drinkers; and he says the same thing of the Milesians, Illyrians, Lydians, Persians, Carthaginians, Gauls, and Spaniards.

The Tapyrians were so much given to wine, that they past their whole lives in drinking, and even bathed their bodies in wine[5].

The Tarentins used to drink from morning till night, and got quite drunk in public[6].

The Leontins, a people in Sicily, were such great drunkards, that they occasioned this proverb, viz. the Leontins are always near a cup of wine[7].

The Byzantins must not be refused a place in this chapter. AElian reports[8], that Leonides, their general, being besieged, and unable to make his men keep their posts, which they quitted every moment to go and get drunk at the taverns, he immediately gave orders that the vintners should repair with all their liquors to the ramparts, by which stratagem he kept them to their duty.

But as it may be said that the nations we have already mentioned were all barbarous, we shall, for that reason, verify what Montaigne says, that amongst nations the best regulated, and most polite, this essay of drinking deep was very much in use[9].

The Greeks, whom one may look upon as the only nation of the world for politeness and good sense, are a proof of what I advance. They celebrated the feasts of Bacchus with a great deal of solemnity; it is from them that Pergraecari, of which every one knows the signification, is derived. AElian assures us, that they were so very luxurious, that they put perfumed oils into their wine, which they called wine of myrrh.

The Romans had also a very strong passion for wine, so that at Rome there were frequently very great seditions for want of it. _Seditiones sunt concitatae graves ob inopiam vini_[10], says Ammianus Marcellinus, in the Life of Constantius and Gallus; and in the reign of Constantius only, the same historian says, there was a sedition also upon that very account.

Titus Livius tells us, that the Clusians passed the Alps, and came to inhabit the country that the Etrurians possessed before, to have the pleasure of drinking wine[11].

Let us now descend to some nations, with whom, at present, this custom of getting drunk is received.

Sir Paul Ricaut[12] assures us, that the Turks considering that wine rejoices the heart, and comforts the stomach, have begun to drink it; adding, that at present there are only a few (ulamah) ecclesiastical hypocrites or some ignorant bigots, or superannuated people, that abstain from that liquor; but at the same time drunkenness is grown very common amongst them.

M. Du Mont confirms this truth, "As to wine," says he, "though it be as expressly forbidden as swine's flesh, it is nevertheless very certain that a great many Mahometans transgress that precept; and the justest thing that I can say in that respect is, that abstinence from wine is observed there almost after the same manner as Lent in France[13]."

The Persians too drink wine to excess, though their law forbids the use of it; and they say for an excuse, "That it is to pass away the time, and sweeten the cares that surprise them[14]."

The Armenians are no way behind the Persians, if we may believe Tavernier, who says, that with them, "He that treats thinks he has handsomely acquitted himself of his entertainment, if his guests cannot find the door when they have a mind to go home, which would very often happen, without the assistance of their servants, who lead them, and yet have not power enough sometimes to keep them from falling down in the room, or in the street, which is a great satisfaction to the host; for if he finds any of them master of so much judgment as to guide himself, though he reels never so much, he laments very much, as having the misfortune of spending his money to no purpose[15].

The Siameze drink wine very heartily when they can get it, though every thing that may intoxicate them is forbidden by their law[16].

Father le Clerc, author of a Relation of Gaspesia, assures us, that drunkenness is the favourite vice of the inhabitants of that country[17].

The inhabitants of the coast of Africa are great drunkards; they would give all they had in the world for a glass of brandy. At Loanda, capital of the kingdom of Angola, a firkin of wine sells for above thirty pounds sterling. They love it extremely, and they tell you a pleasant story hereupon of the great duke of Bamba, which is a province of the king of Congo, viz. that he once refused the crown, as he himself owned to the fathers missioners, that he might be always near the Portuguese, and drink, by their means, sometimes a little wine or brandy[18].

The Muscovites love wine with a kind of fury, and it has been known, that when a man who has drunk to excess, and can swallow no more, they wash him soundly with it. And in Germany you are not looked upon to have treated your guest like a friend, if you do not reduce him to that condition, as quite to forget himself, and know not what he does[19].

"As Georgia produces strong wines, so its inhabitants are great drunkards, the strongest liquors is what they love most; and at their entertainments they drink more brandy than wine, women as well as men.[20]"

Sir John Chardin[21] assures us, That there is no country in the world where they drink so much wine, and more excellent, than they do at Georgia; adding, that the Georgians are great drunkards, and that the clergy get drunk as well as the laity.

Like people like priest.

Quales populus talis sacerdos.

We have taken care not to forget Germany. _Vocabitur haec quoque votis._ Which we reserve to the next chapter.

[Footnote 1: Lips. cent. 3, ep. li.]

[Footnote 2: Lib. ii. cap. 15.]

[Footnote 3: Erasm. Adag.]

[Footnote 4: Lib. x. cap. 10.]

[Footnote 5: AElian, lib. iii. cap. 13.]

[Footnote 6: Lib. xii.]

[Footnote 7: Forner de Ebriet. lib. i. cap. 12.]

[Footnote 8: Lib. iii. cap. 14.]

[Footnote 9: Essays, l. ii. cap. 2.]

[Footnote 10: Hist. Aug. Script. ed. 1609. fol. p. 414, and p. 425.]

[Footnote 11: P. 85.]

[Footnote 12: Hist. of the Turks.]

[Footnote 13: Voyage, t. 3, let. v.]

[Footnote 14: Tavernier's Trav. 1. lib. v. cap. 17.]

[Footnote 15: Tavern. t. 1, lib. v. cap. 17.]

[Footnote 16: Loubere, liv. i. ch. 9.]

[Footnote 17: Bibl. Univ. t. xxiii. p. 44.]

[Footnote 18: Viaggo del Congo.]

[Footnote 19: Chevrean, t. ii. p. 215.]

[Footnote 20: Tavern. t. 1, liv. iii. ch. 9.]

[Footnote 21: Voyag. t. ii. p. 129.]

CHAP. XVII.

OF THE DRUNKENNESS OF THE GERMANS.

The Germans were, in all times and ages, great drinkers, and in the words of one of their own poets,

"Illic nobilitas, aeterno nomine digna Exhaurire cados, siccareque pocula longa[1]."

worthy eternal fame! 'Tis there a piece of true nobility, To empty casks, and drink deep goblets dry.

To demonstrate the origin of their bibacity, it is absolutely necessary to go higher than Tacitus, who in the treatise which he composed in relation to their customs and manners, thus speaks: "It is no shame with them to pass whole days and nights in drinking; but quarrellings are very frequent amongst them, as are usual amongst folks in that respect, and more often end at daggers drawing than in Billingsgate. It is, however, in such meetings, that alliances and reconciliations are formed. Here they treat of the election of princes. In short, of all affairs, of peace and war. Those opportunities they think most proper, inasmuch as then people shake off all disguise of thought and reflection, and the heat of debauch engages the soul of man to resolutions the most bold and hardy[2]."

Owen, our countryman, has made an epitaph in honour of these our substantial topers, the Germans; the sense of which is, that if truth lies hidden in wine, they are the first people in the world that will find it out. His words are,

Si latet in vino verum, ut proverbia dicunt, Invenit verum Teuto vel inveniet.

Let us see now what travellers have said on this subject of the Germans: and we will begin with M. Aug. de Thou[3], an eye-witness thereof. "There is," says he, "before Mulhausen, a large place, or square, where, during the fair, assemble a prodigious number of people, of both sexes, and of all ages; there one may see wives supporting their husbands, daughters their fathers, tottering upon their horses or asses, a true image of a Bacchanal. The public-houses are full of drinkers, where the young women who wait, pour wine into goblets out of a large bottle with a long neck, without spilling one drop. They press you to drink with pleasantries the most agreeable in the world. People drink here continually, and return at all hours to do the same thing over again."

This pleasant sight, so new to M. de Thou, continues almost all night. And what is very particular amongst such a great concourse of people, and such a number of drunkards, every thing passes without dispute and quarrelling.

Let us now see what the duke de Rohan says on this head, whose words are these[4]:-- "From thence I came to Trent, a place noways agreeable, and famous for nothing but the last council which was held there; and if it was not that it was half Italian, (being glad of coming out of little Barbary, and a universal tippling-house,) I would take no notice of it; being well satisfied, that the mathematicians of our times can no where find out the perpetual motion so well as here, where the goblets of Germans are an evident demonstration of its possibility--they think they cannot make good cheer, nor permit friendship or fraternity, as they call it, with any, without giving the seal brimful of wine, to seal it for perpetuity."