The Curiosities of Ale & Beer. John Bickerdyke
the tax was one penny Parisien; for each lotus of god-ale the tax was ½d. (Rhymer 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.
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,
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.
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