Ebrietatis Encomium Part 12

[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 n.o.bilitas, aeterno nomine digna Exhaurire cados, siccareque pocula longa[1]."

---------------------- worthy eternal fame!

'Tis there a piece of true n.o.bility, 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 pa.s.s 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 dic.u.n.t, 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, a.s.semble a prodigious number of people, of both s.e.xes, and of all ages; there one may see wives supporting their husbands, daughters their fathers, tottering upon their horses or a.s.ses, a true image of a Baccha.n.a.l. 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 pa.s.ses 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 quant.i.ty 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 gla.s.s 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 gla.s.ses 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 gla.s.ses 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 gla.s.ses, 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 aeneas, and the people of his train, used to do, as we learn from these verses of Virgil[7]:--

"Postquam prima quies epulis, mensaeque remotae, 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 a.s.semblies, 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 gla.s.s 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 nullae, Douza, bibuntur aquae[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, G.o.d bless it, does not come behind any other in this particular.

[Footnote 1: G. Brusch. Inter. p. 405.]

[Footnote 2: Diem noctemque continuare nullum probium, crebrae ut inter vinolentos rixae, raro conviciis sepius cede et vulneribus transiguntur. Sed et de reconciliandis invicem inimicitiis et pangendis affinitatibus et adsciscendis principibus, de pace denique ac bello plerunque in conviviis consultant; tanquam nullo magis tempore aut ad simplices cogitationes patea animus, aut ad magnas incalescat.] [[Tacitus, _Germania_ 22.]]