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 _aquâ 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 hudôr
pinousi maniên sôphrona 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, _Purpuræam
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 quæ 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, Celtæ and Iberians, were the
greatest drinkers that ever were. Ælian[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.
Athenæus[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. Ælian
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 Pergræcari, of which every one knows the signification,
is derived. Ælian 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 concitatæ 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 hæc 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: Ælian, 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, æterno 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."
M. Misson, who was also some time in Germany, gives us yet a larger
description. "The Germans," says he[5], "are, as you know, strange
drinkers. There are no people in the world more caressing, more civil,
more officious, but still another cup. They have terrible customs on
that article of drinking. Every thing is transacted over the bottle; you
can do nothing without drinking. One can scarce speak three words at a
visit, but you are astonished to see the collation come in, or at least
a good quantity of wine, attended with crusts of bread cut into little
pieces, upon a plate with salt and pepper, a fatal preparative for bad
drinkers. I must instruct you in the laws they observe in their cups;
laws sacred and inviolable. You must never drink without drinking some
one's health, which having done, you must immediately present the glass
to the party you drank to, who must never refuse it, but drink it to the
last drop. Reflect a little, I beseech you, on these customs, and you
will see how, and by what means, it is impossible to cease from
drinking. After this manner one shall never have done. It is a perpetual
circle to drink after the German fashion; it is to drink for ever.
You must likewise know, that the glasses too are respected in those
countries as much as the wine is loved; they range them all about in
ranks and files; most of their rooms are wainscotted up two thirds of
the wall, and the glasses are ranged all about, like organ pipes, upon
the cornish. They begin with the small, and end with the large ones,
which are like melon glasses, and must be taken off at one draught, when
they drink any health of importance."
Let us observe here[6], "That it was the custom of the ancient Greeks to
drink largely after meals, and that this custom is now practised in
Germany." This was what Æneas, and the people of his train, used to do,
as we learn from these verses of Virgil[7]:--
"Postquam prima quies epulis, mensæque remotæ,
Crateras magnas statuunt et vina coronant.
After the teeth had gain'd their first repose,
The dishes ta'en away, the cloth remov'd,
The rich repast gigantic tankards close,
Replete with wines, by nicest tastes approv'd.
It is the same thing with the Armenians, they never drink till at the
end of their meals. "After they have said grace, the dishes are removed,
in order to bring in the desert, and then they prepare themselves to
drink to excess."
We come now to the Swiss. Here follows what Daniel Eremita, a very
learned man, who published a description of their country, has said of
them. "[8]They have the same simplicity in drinking, but they do not
keep the same moderation. Wine is what they place their delight in, and
they prefer it to all things in the world. At their assemblies, both for
pleasure and business, or any other affairs, wine always makes a party;
with which, when they have overloaded their stomach, they discharge it,
and sit down to it again, and drink as they did at first. They leave the
care of their family to their wives and children, who live with the
utmost economy, in favour of their husbands, who are continually at the
tavern. They talk with glass in hand, and please themselves in that
posture to recount their acts and jests, and those of their ancestors,
as examples to posterity. They speak freely all they know, and know not
what a secret is. In short, this way of life does not only continue
whole days successively, but all the time they live."
Nor have things now taken another aspect in Switzerland. The author of a
travel lately into that country, tells us for certain, that "wine is a
singular attractive, a powerful charm, against which the Swiss can make
no manner of resistance[9]."
Before I close this chapter I shall take notice of the Flemings, whom we
ought to look upon as making part of Germany, who, though they are
surrounded by water, take care never to drink any, which made Scaliger,
when in Holland, say to Douza,
"In mediis habitamus aquis, quis credere possit
Et tamen hic nullæ, Douza, bibuntur aquæ[10]."
Amidst the waters here we live,
Yet who can any credit give
To what I say, for, Douza, here
No water drinkers e'er appear.
Guicciardin, in his description of the low countries, accuses the people
of drinking too much. _Hanno_[11], says he, _poi per la maggior parte
quel vitio del bere troppo_. He adds, however, "That they are in some
sort excusable, because the air of the country being for the most part
of the year humid, and apt to inspire melancholy, they could not,
perhaps, make use of a more efficacious remedy to expel this irksome,
unwholesome melancholy, than wine, which, I suppose, was Horace's
sentiment, when he said, With wine drive away care. The words in the
original are, _Ma sono in qualche parte scusabili, per che essendo
l'aria del paese il pui del tempo humida et malinconica, non potrieno
peraventura trovar instromento piu idoneo a scacciare et battere la
malinconia odiosa et mal sana che il vino, si come pare che accerni
Horatio dicendo. Vino pellite curas._"
But without any farther talking of the Germans, I shall end this chapter
with this necessary remark, that one need not go out of England for
examples of hard drinking, our country, God bless it, does not come
behind any other in this particular.