book ii., after praising Nature for her annual gifts, which tend to the

exhilaration of languid minds, he continues:--

Within The golden _Mean_ confined: beyond, there’s naught Of health, or pleasure. Therefore, when thy Heart Dilates with fervent joys, and eager soul Prompts to persue the sparkling glass, be sure ‘Tis time to shun it; if thou wilt prolong Dire compotation, forthwith Reason quits Her Empire to Confusion, and Misrule, And vain Debates; then twenty Tongues at once Conspire in senseless Jargon, naught is heard But din, and various clamour, and mad Rant: Distrust, and Jealousie to these succeed, And anger-kindling Taunt, the certain Bane Of well-knit Fellowship. Now horrid Frays Commence, the brimming glasses now are hurled With dire intent; Bottles with Bottles clash In rude Encounter. * * * * * Nor need we tell what anxious cares attend The turbulent Mirth of Wine; nor all the kinds Of Maladies, that lead to Death’s grim cave, Wrought by Intemperance: joint-racking Gout, Intestine stone, and pining Atrophy, Chill, even when the sun with July Heats Frys the scorch’d soil; and Dropsy all afloat, Yet craving Liquids.

When a poet could thus write, there is no wonder that divines should have used still stronger language. John Disney, in a powerful treatise,[204] agitates for the execution of the laws against immorality. His remarks on the Sunday closing of public-houses are especially applicable now:--

If they must have refreshment, why cannot they have it at their own houses? In truth refreshment is but a pretence for excess and drunkenness. If company meets together in a public-house on Sunday evening, when there is no danger of other business that shall call them away, who shall tell them the critical minute when they are sufficiently refreshed? Except the constable beat up their quarters, they sit very contentedly hour after hour, and call for pint after pint, and make themselves judges of their refreshment till they’re able to judge of nothing at all. If you still ask what harm there is in going to a public-house for only an hour or two, and to stay no longer, I might tell you that ‘tis enough that the Laws have forbidden it, and that her Majesty has reinforced those laws.

Bishop Beveridge, who died in Anne’s reign, wrote an important sermon on ‘The Duty of Temperance and Sobriety.’[205] He says:--

There is no sin but some have committed it in their drink; and if there be any that a drunken man doth not commit, it is not because he would not, but because he could not. He had not an opportunity.... For a man in such a condition hath no sense of the difference between good and evil; for ‘wind,’ as the prophet speaks (Hos. iv. 11), ‘hath taken away his heart.’ His reason, his understanding, his conscience, is gone; and therefore, all sins are alike to him. Hence it is that their sin never goes alone, but hath a great train of other sins always following it; insomuch that it cannot so properly be called one single sin, as all sin is one.

The legislation of the reign was not important. The 1st Anne permitted tradesmen whose principal dealings were in other goods to sell spirits by retail, without a licence, provided they did not allow tippling in their shops or houses.

Another law enacted in this reign allowed French wines and other liquors to be imported in neutral bottoms. Without this expedient it was believed that the revenue would have been insufficient to maintain the government.

FOOTNOTES:

[112] ‘Discovery of a London monster, called the Black Dog of Newgate.’

[113] J. R. Sheen, _Wines_. Cyrus Redding, _Modern Wines_.

[114] Beaumont and Fletcher, _The Chances_. V.

[115] _History of Signboards._

[116] _History of the English People._

[117] Strickland: _Lives of Queens_.

[118] Burton observes (_Anatomy of Melancholy_, i. 2): ‘Drunken women most part bring forth children like unto themselves.’

[119] The author of the _History of Signboards_ is wrong in saying (p. 52) that James married a daughter of Christian IV. James married a daughter of Frederic II. and a sister of Christian IV. Frederick was dead before the marriage of James.

[120] Sir John Harrington, _Nugæ Antiquæ_, i. 348. It is cited, more or less, in Lingard, _Hist. Eng._; Nichols’ _Progresses_; Aubrey, _Hist. Eng._; Samuelson, _Hist. Drink_; Sandys’ _Chrismastide_, &c.

[121] Charles Lamb’s Works, _On the Poetical Works of George Wither_.

[122] Hazlitt, _Lectures on the English Poets_.

[123] Cited in Sir H. Ellis’s Brand, _Pop. Antiq._, and in Nares’ _Glossary_.

[124] George Herbert: _Country Parson_.

[125] _Virgidemiarum_, ii. 3.

[126] _Nabal and Abigail._

[127] Blackstone: _Comm. on the Laws of England_, iv. 4.

[128] Court of Hastings Book for Lyme.

[129] _Philocothonista_, or the Drunkard opened, 1635.

[130] For a picture of social degradation in this direction, see Middleton’s _A Chast Mayd in Cheape-side_, 1630 (or T. Middleton’s _Works_, iv. 44, &c.).

[131] Heywood and Rowley, _Fortune by Sea and Land_.

[132] Gervase Markham, _English Housewife_, 1683.

[133] Pasquil, _Palinodia_, 1619.

[134] _Familiar Letters, II._ 60.

[135] Heywood, _Rape of Lucrece_.

[136] _Healthes; Sicknesse_, 1628.

[137] _Gent’s Mag._ for 1791.

[138] _Lives of the English Poets._

[139] _The Royalist_, 1646.

[140] _English Villanies_, 1632.

[141] Howell, _State Trials_, vol. iii.

[142] _Sermon on Christian Prudence._

[143] _Funeral Sermon for the Countess of Carbery._

[144] James Usher, _Body of Divinity_, 1677.

[145] _Harleian Miscellany_, vol. x. Bridgett, who cites the passage, says the letter was sketched by a French Protestant. The internal evidence of the last sentence renders it certain that John Evelyn was not the author; to whom, according to Sir H. Ellis, it has been attributed.

[146] _Antiq. Repertory_, ii.

[147] _The Drunkard’s Prospective_ (1656).

[148] Cited by Timbs, _Club Life_, and Doran, _Table Traits_.

[149] _Rape of the Lock._

[150] 7th Edition, p. 502.

[151] _Ib._ p. 259.

[152] A picture of it is given in Knight, _Old England_, and Brand, _Hist. of Newcastle_.

[153] _Works Collected_, 1654.

[154]

‘Even from my heart much health, I wish, No health I’ll wash with drink, Healths wish’d not wash’d, in words, not wine, To be the best I think.’--Witt’s _Recreations_, 1669.

[155] ‘I have discovered a treasure of pale wine.... I assure you ‘tis the same the King drinks of.’--Otway, _Friendship in Fashion_, 1678.

[156] _French Wines and Vineyards_, 1860.

[157] Butler, _Hudibras_, iii. 3.

[158] Sir George Etheridge, _Man of the Mode_, 1676.

[159] _Magnæ Britanniæ Notitia_, 1710.

[160] Roberts: _Social Hist. Southern Counties_.

[161] Hume.

[162] Works of Sir W. Temple (_On the Cure of the Gout_), vol. iii.

[163] I. Disraeli: _Curiosities of Literature_.

[164] Blackstone: _Comment. on the Laws of Eng._ 1791.

[165] Cyrus Redding: _French Wines_.

[166] _London Pageants._ Cf. also Sandford’s _History of the Coronation of James II. and his Queen at Westminster_.

[167] _Letters of the Herbert Family._

[168] _A Book about the Table_, 1875.

[169] A view of the house is given in Pegge’s _Curialia Miscellanea_, London, 1818. Cf. also _Gent. Mag._, Suppl. to vol. lxxx. part ii.

[170] Smollett, _Hist. of Eng._

[171] _Poor Man’s Plea_, 1698.

[172] _Second Discourse on the Affairs of Scotland_, 1698.

[173] Giles Jacob: _Poetical Register_, 1723.

[174] Dr. Henry Aldrich (Dean of Christ Church), 1700.

[175] _A Discourse against Drunkenness_, Lond. 1692.

[176] _Epistolæ Medicinales_, Lond. 1691.

[177] Lecky: _England in the Eighteenth Century_, vol. i.

[178] _Memoirs of the Life and Writings of Mr. William Whiston_, Lond. 1749.

[179] _Farewell to Wine_, 1693.

[180] _Mémoires d’Angleterre_, 1698. A translation by Ozell was published, London, 1719.

[181] _Hist. of Eng._, chap. xxi.

[182] _Hist. of Eng._, chap. xxi.

[183] The expressions _Uncle_, _Aunt_, refer to the relationship between the exiled king and queen, and William III.

[184] _Table Traits_, 1854.

[185] Cited in Timbs, _History of Clubs_.

[186] See Vizetelly, _History of Champagne_.

[187] _Worn-out Characters of the Last Age._

[188] Marchamont Nedham: _Short History of the English Rebellion_, 1691.

[189] _Time’s Alteration_, cited in Sandy’s _Christmas-Tide_.

[190] Cf. Molineux, _Burton-on-Trent_.

[191] _Hist. of Eng._, chap. xviii.

[192] _Ibid._ chap. xx.

[193] See the letter of Erasmus Lewis to Swift, dated Whitehall, July 27, 1714.

[194] _English Humourists_, 1858.

[195] _Spectator_, No. 243.

[196] Cf. _Wine and Spirit Adulterations Unmasked_. The chapter on ‘Sophistication of Wines’ in Redding’s _Modern Wines_. _The Vintner’s and Licensed Victualler’s Guide_, by a Practical Man. _Art of Brewing_ (Library of Useful Knowledge). Alex. Morrice, _Practical Treatise on Brewing_. Samuel Child, _Every Man his own Brewer_. Edward Lonsdale Bennet, _Practical Notes on Wine_. Professor G. Mulder, _Chemistry of Wine_. Others may be found by reference to the chapter, ‘Bibliography.’

[197] _Essay on English Poetry._

[198] Monk’s _Life_, vol. ii. p. 401.

[199] Jebb’s _Bentley_, p. 105.

[200] Monk, _Life of Bentley_, i. 264.

[201] The river Cam.

[202] Viz. ‘now retired into harbour, after the tempests that had long agitated his society.’ So _Scriblerus_. But the learned _Scipio Maffei_ understands it of a certain wine called _Port_ from _Oporto_, a city of Portugal, of which this professor invited him to drink abundantly. Scip. Maff. _de compotationibus Academicis_.

[203] London, 1708.

[204] _View of Ancient Laws against Immorality and Prophaneness._ 1729.

[205] CXXXV.