DRINKING DRINKING
If you are invited to drink at any man's house more than you think is wholesome, you may say "you wish you could, but so little makes you both drunk and sick; that you should only be bad company by doing so."
Non est ab homine nunquam sobrio postulanda prudentia.
Prudence must not be expected from a man who is never sober.
Mynheer Vandunck, though he never was drunk,
Sipped brandy and water gayly.
Let us eat and drink, for to-morrow we die.
Nothing in Nature's sober found,
But an eternal Health goes round.
Fill up the Bowl then, fill it high—
Fill all the Glasses there; for why
Should every Creature Drink but I?
Why, Man of Morals, tell me why?
Cowley—Anacreon II. Drinking.
The thirsty Earth soaks up the Rain,
And drinks, and gapes for Drink again;
The Plants suck in the Earth and are
With constant Drinking fresh and fair.
Cowley—Anacreon II. Drinking.
Let the farmer praise his grounds,
Let the huntsman praise his hounds,
The shepherd his dew scented lawn,
But I more blessed than they,
Spend each happy night and day
With my charming little cruiskeen lan, lan, lan.
Cruiskeen Lawn—Irish Song.
Did you ever hear of Captain Wattle?
He was all for love and a little for the bottle.
Chas. Dibdin—Captain Wattle and Miss Rol.
When I got up to the Peacock—where I found everybody drinking hot punch in self-preservation.
"Wery good power o' suction, Sammy," said Mr. Weller the elder…. "You'd ha' made an uncommon fine oyster, Sammy, if you'd been born in that station o' life."
Inebriate of air am I,
And debauchee of dew,
Reeling, through endless summer days,
From inns of molten blue.
Emily Dickinson—Poems. XX.
How gracious those dews of solace that over my senses fall
At the clink of the ice in the pitcher the boy brings up the hall.
Eugene Field—The Clink of the Ice.
Come landlord fill a flowing bowl until it does run over,
Tonight we will all merry be—tomorrow we'll get sober.
Fletcher—Bloody Brother. Act II. Sc. 2.
Landlord fill the flowing bowl
Until it doth run over:
For to-night we'll merry be
To-morrow we'll be sober.
Version of Fletcher's song in Three Jolly Postboys. (18th century song.)
Drink to-day, and drown all sorrow;
You shall perhaps not do it to-morrow.
Fletcher—The Bloody Brother. Song. Act II. Sc. 2.
Tell me I hate the bowl? Hate is a feeble word;
I loathe, abhor—my very soul and strong disgust is stirred
Whene'er I see or hear or tell of the dark beverage of hell.
Attributed to John B. Gough; denied by him.
It's a long time between drinks.
The Governor of South Carolina required the return of a fugitive slave. The Governor of North Carolina hesitated because of powerful friends of the fugitive. He gave a banquet to his official brother. The Governor of South Carolina in a speech demanded the return of the slave and ended with "What do you say?" The Governor of North Carolina replied as above. It is also attributed to Judge Ædanus Burke.
Where the drink goes in, there the wit goes out.
| author = Herbert
| work = Jacula Prudentum.
If you'd dip in such joys, come—the better, the quicker!—
But remember the fee—for it suits not my ends
To let you make havoc, scot free, with my liquor,
As though I wore one of your heavy-pursed friends.
Horace. Bk. IV. Ode XII. To Vergil. Trans. by Theo. Martin.
They who drink beer will think beer.
Quoted by Washington Irving—Sketch-book, Stratford-on-Avon. They who drink water will think water. (Travesty of the foregoing.)
Nor shall our cups make any guilty men;
But at our parting, we will be, as when
We innocently met.
Ben Jonson—Epigram CI.
Well, as he brews, so shall he drink.
Ben Jonson—Every Man in His Humour. Act II. Sc. 1.
