2. 712.).

In a curious old poem of the early part of the fourteenth century entitled _De Baptismo_, by William of Shoreham, it appears to the poet, necessary to lay down that ale must not be used for purposes of baptism, but “kende water” (_i.e._, natural water) only. The verse is as follows:— Therefore ine wine me ne may, Inne sithere ne inne pereye, Ne inne thing that neuere water nes Thory cristning man may reneye, Ne inne ale; For thei hight were water ferst, Of water neth hit tale.[14] [12] Male = bag or wallet. [13] Whether men give any meat away or no, Go thou not without (giving). [14] See p. 401. This old English requires some little explanation, and may be rendered thus:—Therefore man may not renounce (his sins) through christening in wine, in cider, nor in perry, nor in anything that never was water, nor yet in ale, for though this (_i.e._, ale) was water first, it is acounted water no longer. {39} Whilst Christmas, as far as eating was concerned, always had its specialities, its liquor _carte_ seems even in the thirteenth century to have been of a very varied character. An old carolist of the period thus sings (we follow Douce’s translation):— Lordlings, Christmas loves good drinking, Wines of Gascoigne, France, Anjou, English ale that drives out thinking, Prince of liquors, old or new, Every neighbour shares the bowl, Drinks of the spicy liquor deep; Drinks his fill without control, Till he drowns his care in sleep. _Piers the Ploughman_, a poem by William Longland, written towards the close of the fourteenth century, contains a curious confession of the tricks played by the ale-sellers upon their customers:— I boughte hire Barly heo breuh hit to sulle; Peni-ale and piriwhit heo pourede to-gedere For laborers and louh folk that liuen be hem-seluen. The Beste in the Bed-chaumbre lay bi the wowe, Hose Bummede therof Boughte hit ther-after, A galoun for a grote, God wot, no lasse, Whon hit com in Cuppemel; such craftes me usede. This, being interpreted, in modern English would read somewhat as follows:—I bought her barley they brew it to sell; Peny ale (_i.e._, ale at a penny a gallon) and small perry she poured together for labourers and poor folk that live by themselves. The best lay in the bed chamber by the wall, whoso drank thereof bought it (_i.e._, the penny ale) by the sample (_i.e._, of the best) a gallon for a groat, God knows, no less, when it came in by cupfulls; such craft I used. Piers the Ploughman, in describing the scarcity of labour after the great plague in the fourteenth century and the independence of the labouring men that arose from the high wages they were enabled to demand, says that after harvest they would eat none but the finest bread, Ne non half-penny Ale In none wyse drynke, Bote of the Beste and the Brouneste that Brewesters sullen. * * * * * Mai no peny-Ale hem paye ne no pece of Bacun, {40} Bote hit weore Fresch Flesch or elles Fisch y-Friyet, Both chaud and plus chaud for chele of heore mawe.[15] [15] As we should say, “hot and hot,” for chill of their stomach. Chaucer has many references to ale. The Cook, who was no mean proficient in his proper art, was a judge of ale as well:— A coke thei hadde with them for the nones, To boyle the chickens, and the marrie bones, And pouder marchaunt tarte, and galengale, Well coude he know a pot of London ale. The Miller prepares himself to tell his tale aright by swallowing mighty draughts of the same liquor. He knows he is drunk, and is not ashamed, thinking it quite sufficient excuse to lay the blame upon that seductive fluid, “the ale of Southwerk”:— Now herkeneth, quod the miller, all and some But first I make a protestatioun, That I am dronke, I know it by my soun; And therefore if that I misspeke or say, Wite it the ale of Southwerk, I you pray. The two Cambridge students who lodge a night at the miller of Trompington’s are feasted by their host in this wise:— The miller the toun his daughter sent For ale and bred, and roasted hem a goos, * * * * * They soupen and they speken of solace, And drinken ever strong ale at the best. Abouten midnight wente they to rest. Before they went, however, they had “dronken all that was in crouke,” and the miller, who appears to have had the lion’s share, had decidedly imbibed too much. Well hath this miller vernished his hed, Full pale he was, for-dronken, and nought red. * * * * * This miller hath so wisely bibbed ale, That as an hors he snorteth in his slepe. Geoffrey Chaucer, along with other poets and writers of his times, was unsparing in his denunciations of the vices of the clergy, their sloth, gluttony, drunkenness and other grievous lapses. Thei side of many manir metes, With song and solas sitting long; {41} And filleth their wombe, and fast fretes, And after mete with harp and song, And hot spices ever among; And fille their wombe with wine and ale. Piers the Ploughman, in his _Crede_, which is a satire upon the clergy, makes the Franciscan say, in contrasting his own order with other religious bodies:— We haunten not tavernes, ne hobelen abouten At merketes and miracles we medeley us never. The frequent directions to the monks and clergy to abstain from taverns, from drinking bouts and revels, all point to the necessity then felt of tightening the bonds of church discipline, and show the laxity that had prevailed. John Taylor, the Water Poet, frequently selected ale as his theme, and, when once mounted on his favourite hobby, soon travelled into such realms of marvellous history and miraculous philology, that it almost takes away one’s breath to follow him. The chief work in which he glorifies our English Ale has for its full title, DRINKE AND WELCOME OR THE FAMOUS HISTORIE OF THE MOST PART OF DRINKS IN USE NOW IN THE KINGDOMES OF GREAT BRITTAINE AND IRELAND, WITH AN ESPECIALL DECLARATION OF THE POTENCY, VERTUE AND OPERATION OF OUR ENGLISH ALE, WITH A DESCRIPTION OF ALL SORTS OF WATERS, FROM THE OCEAN SEA, TO THE TEARES OF A WOMAN. AS ALSO, THE CAUSES OF ALL SORTES OF WEATHER, FAIRE OR FOULE, SLEET, RAINE, HAILE, FROST, SNOWE, FOGGES, MISTS, VAPOURS, CLOUDS, STORMES, WINDES, THUNDER AND LIGHTNING COMPILED FIRST IN THE HIGH DUTCH TONGUE BY THE PAINEFULL AND INDUSTRIOUS “HULDRICKE VAN SPEAGLE, A GRAMMATICALL BREWER OF LUBECK, AND NOW MOST LEARNEDLY ENLARGED, AMPLIFIED, AND TRANSLATED INTO ENGLISH PROSE AND VERSE By JOHN TAYLOR. LONDON PRINTED BY ANNE GRIFFIN 1637. {42} After speaking of cider, perry, &c., the author goes on to speak of ale, which “hath been and now is used by the English, as well since the Conquest as in the times of the Brittains, Saxons, and Danes (for the former-recited drinks are to this day confined to the Principality) so as we enjoy them onely by a Statute called the courtesie of Wales. And to perfect any discourse in this I shall onely induce them into two heads, viz., the unparalleled liquor called Ale with his abstract Beere; whose antiquity amongst a sort of Northerne pated fellowes, is, if not altogether contemptible, of very little esteeme; this humour served the scurrilous pen of a shamelesse writer[16] in the raigne of King Henry the third; detractingly to inveigh against this unequal’d liquor. Thus ‘For muddy, foggy, fulsome, puddle, stinking, For all of these, Ale is the onely drinking.’ [16] Henry D’Avranches. “Of all the Authors that I have ever yet read, this is the only one that hath attempted to brand the glorious splendour of that _Ale-beloved_ decoction; but observe this fellow, by the perpetuall use of water (which was his accustomed drinke) he fell into such convulsions and lethargick diseases, that he remained in opinion a dead man; however, the knowing Physicians of that time, by the frequent and inward application of _Ale_, not onely recouvered him to his pristine state of health, but also enabled him in body and braine for the future, that he became famous in his writings, which for the most part were afterwards spent with most _Aleoquent_ and _Alaborate_ commendation of that admired and most superexcellent Imbrewage.” “Some there are,” he says, “that affirme that Ale was first invened by _Alexander the Great_, and that in his conquests this liquor did infuse such vigour and valour into his souldiers. Others say that famous Physician of Piemont (named _Don Alexis_) was the founder of it. But it is knowne that it was of that singular use in the time of the _Saxons_ that none were allowed to brewe it but such whose places and qualities were most _Eminent_, insomuch that we finde that one of them had the credit to give the name of a _Saxon_ Prince, who in honour of that rare quality, he called _Alle_. Some _ale_adge that it being our drinke when our land was called _Albion_, that it had the name of the countrey; _Twiscus_ in his _Euphorbinum_ will have it from _Albanta_ or _Epirus_, _Wolfgang Plashendorph_ of _Gustenburg_, saies that _Alecto_ (one of the three furies) gave the receipt of it to _Albumazar_, a Magician, and he (having _Aliance_ {43} with _Aladine_, the Soldan at _Aleppo_) first brew’d it there, whereto may be _Aleuded_, the story how _Alphonsus_ of _Scicily_, sent it from thence to the battell of _Alcazar_. My Authour is of Anaxagoras’ opinion, that _Ale_ is to be held in high price for the nutritive substance that it is indued withall, and how precious a nurse it is in generall to Mankinde. “It is true that the overmuch taking of it doth so much exhilerate the spirits, that a man is not improperly said to be in the _Aletitude_ (observe the word, I pray you, and all the words before or after for you shall find their first syllable to be _Ale_), and some writers are of opinion that the Turkish _Alcoran_ was invented by Mahomet, out of such furious raptures as _Ale_ inspired him withall; some affirme Bacchus (_Al’as Liber Pater_) was the first Brewer of it, among the _Indians_, who being a stranger to them they nam’d it _Ale_, as brought by an _Alien_: in a word, _Somnus altus_ signifies dead sleepe: _Quies alta_, Great rest; _Altus_ and _Alta_, noble and excellent: It is (for the most part) extracted out of the spirit of a Graine called Barley, which was of that estimation amongest the ancient _Galles_ that their Prophets (whom they called _Bards_) used it in their most important prophesies and ceremonies: This Graine, after it had beene watered and dryed, was at first ground in a Mill in the island of _Malta_, from whence it is supposed to gaine the name of Malt; but I take it more proper from the word _Malleolus_, which signifies a Hammer or Maule, for _Hanniball_ (that great _Carthaginian_ Captaine) in his sixteene yeeres warres against the Romans, was called the _Maule_ of _Italie_, for it is conjectured that he victoriously Mauld them by reason that his army was daily refreshed with the Spiritefull Elixar of _Mault_. “It holds very significant to compare a man in the _Aletitude_ to be in a planetarie height, for in a Planet, the Altitude is his motion in which he is carried from the lowest place of Heaven or from the Center of the Earth, into the most highest place, or unto the top of his circle, and then it is said to be in _Apogee_, that is the most _Transcendant_ part of all, so the Sublunarie of a Stupified Spirit, being elevated by the efficacious vigour of this uncontrolleable vertue, renders him most capable for high actions.” After much more in the same vein, sufficient to astonish the most reckless of modern punsters, our author winds up his account of the antiquity of ale as follows:— “I will therefore _shut up_ with that admirable conclusion insisted upon in our time by a discreet Gentleman in a Solemne Assembly, who by a Politick observation, very aptly compares _Ale_ and Cakes with Wine and {44} Waters, neither doth he hold it fit that it should stand in competition with the meanest wines, but with that most excellent composition which the Prince of Physicians _Hippocrases_ had so ingeniously compounded for the preservation of Mankinde, and which (to this day) speakes the Author by the name of _Hippocras_. So that you see for Antiquity—_Ale_ was famous amongst the _Troians_, _Brittaines_, _Romans_, _Saxons_, _Normans_, _Englishmen_, _Welch_, besides in _Scotland_, from the highest and Noblest Palace to the poorest and meanest Cottage.” Other curious details with respect to the use of ale in the Middle Ages and in modern times will be found in their appropriate places, and having established clearly enough the highly respectable antiquity of the Prince of liquors, old or new, it is time, in the elegant language of the Water Poet, to “shut up” this portion of the subject; and so we pass on, concluding here with an extract from the _Philosopher’s Banquet_, on the pre-eminence of ale:— Ale for antiquity may plead and stand Before the conquest, conquering in this land; Beere, that is younger brother of her age, Was not then borne, nor right to bee her page; In every pedling village, borough, town, Ale plaid at football, and tript all lads down; And tho’ shee’s rivall’d now by beere, her mate, Most doctors aiwt on herthis shewes her state. [Illustration] {45} [Illustration]