453. The Cottonian MS. Vespas. B. xvi, from which Price has given a long
extract in his edition of Warton, has here "With wyne of Oseye | and wyn of
Gascoyne." Whitaker's reading is "Whit wyn of Oseye and of Gascoyne." Price
observes, in a note, "good wyne of Gaskyne, and the wyne of Osee [is the
reading of MS. Harl. No. 875].--The same hand already noticed has corrected
_wyn_ to _weyte_ (wheat) _of Gascoyne_;--an obvious improvement." I by no
means partake in this opinion: _wine_ of Gascony, and _not wheat_ of
Gascony, is perpetually alluded to in the literature of France and England
from the twelfth to the sixteenth century. The reading of the text now
printed is evidently the original one, which has been corrupted in the
others: the wine more particularly known as Gascon, was a red wine. The
writer of "La Desputoison du Vin et de l'Iaue," says of it--
Vin de Gascoigne, sa coulour
N'est pas de petite valour;
Les autres vins fet honnorer.
Quant de soi les veult coulourer:
Force donne, aide, et confort,
Et d'un vin foible, fet. i. fort.
Il a de vin plaine sustance;
Il nourrist sans faire grevance:
Aus testes est bons et au flanc.
Et du rouge y a et du blanc.
(_Jubinal, Nouveau Recueil de Contes, &c._, i. 399.)