42. _fan_, the fan or vane or board of the quintain. The quintain, as is
well known, consisted of a cross-bar turning on a pivot at the top of a
post. At one end of the cross-bar was the fan or board, sometimes painted
to look like a shield, and at the other was a club or bag of sand. The
jouster at the fan had to strike the shield, and at the same time to avoid
the stroke given by the swinging bag. The Cook was hardly in a condition
for this; his eye and hand were alike unsteady, and his figure did not
suggest that he possessed the requisite agility. See _Quintain_ in Nares,
and Strutt's Sports and Pastimes, bk. iii. c. 1; As You Like It, i. 2. 263,
on which see Mr. Wright's note (Clar. Press Series); Stow, Survey of
London, ed. Thoms, pp. 36, 215.
44. _wyn ape_, ape-wine, or ape's wine. Tyrwhitt rightly considers this the
same as the _vin de singe_ in the Calendrier des Bergers, sign. [437] l.
ii. b., where the author speaks of the different effects produced by wine
upon different men, according to their temperaments. 'The Cholerick, he
says, _a vin de lyon; cest a dire, quant a bien beu, veult tanser, noyser,
et battre_. The Sanguine _a vin de singe; quant a plus beu, tant est plus
joyeux_. In the same manner, the Phlegmatic is said to have _vin de
mouton_, and the Melancholick _vin de porceau_.'
Tyrwhitt adds--'I find the same four animals applied to illustrate the
effects of wine in a little Rabbinical tradition, which I shall transcribe
here from Fabricius, Cod. Pseudepig. Veteris Testamenti, vol. i. p. 275.
"Vineas plantanti Noacho Satanam se junxisse memorant, qui, dum Noa vites
plantaret, mactaverit apud illas _ovem_, _leonem_, _simiam_, et _suem_:
Quod principio potûs vini homo sit instar _ovis_, vinum sumptum efficiat ex
homine _leonem_, largius haustum mutet eum in saltantem _simiam_, ad
ebrietatem infusum transformet illum in pollutam et prostratam _suem_." See
also Gesta Romanorum, c. 159, where a story of the same purport is quoted
from Josephus, _in libro de casu rerum naturalium_.' Wine of ape occurs in
a detailed proverb, in Le Roux de Lincy, Prov. Franç. 1842, p. 157. The
most ancient source is the Talmudical Parable, given in _Rabbinische
Blumenlese_, Leipzig, 1844, p. 192, by Leopold Dukes (N. and Q. S. i. xii.
123).
In Bernardus de Cura Rei Familiaris, ed. Lumby, p. 13, a drunken man is
thus described:--
'And qhuilis _a nape_, to mak mowis as a fule,
Bot as _a sow_, quhen he fallis in a pule.'
And Lydgate, in his Troy-book, L. 1, back, col. 2, says of one:--'And with
a strawe playeth lyke an ape.'
Warton (Hist. E. P. ed. 1871, i. 283) gives a slight sketch of chapter 159
in the Gesta, referring to Tyrwhitt's note, and explaining it in the
words--'when a man begins to drink, he is meek and ignorant as the lamb,
then becomes bold as the lion, his courage is soon transformed into the
foolishness of the ape, and at last he wallows in the mire like a sow.'
In Colyn Blowboll's Testament, l. 280 (pr. in Hazlitt's Early Pop. Poetry,
i. 104-5) we find:--
'Such as wilbe drongen (_sic_) _as an ape_ ...
And in such caas often tymes they be
That one may make them _play with strawes thre_.'
Barclay, in his Ship of Fools, ed. Jamieson, i. 96, speaking of drunken
men, says--
'Some _sowe-dronke_, swaloyng mete without mesure.'