"Like a drowned man, a fool and a madman: one draught above heat makes him a fool: the second mads him; and a third drowns him." Twelfth Night 1: 5.

'And in ROMEO AND JULIET we have this description:

"Thou are like one of those fellows that, when he enters the confines of a tavern, claps me his sword upon the table, and says, 'God send me no need of thee!' and by the operation of the second cup, draws him on the drawer, when, indeed, there is no need."

The ill effects of wine and strong drink are variously described, or alluded to, in the following passages:

"I'll heat his blood with Rhenish wine to-night.”

Troi. and Cres. 5:1.

"Thou are going to Lord Timon's feast . . . to see meat fill knaves and wine heat fools." Timon 1: I.

"Now in madness

Being full of supper and distempering draughts

Upon malicious knavery, dost thou come,

To start my quiet." Othello I: I.

It seems that the idea prevailed in Shakspeare's day, as it does yet, that clemency should be extended toward one who commits a crime when drunk, for in KING HENRY V. we have this:

"Enlarge the man committed yesterday

That rail'd against our person: we consider

It was excess of wine that set him on;

And, on his more advice, we pardon him. Hen. V. 2: 2.

We have seen, in Measure for MEASURE, how that the culprit was permitted to continue in a sottish condition, even when in the condemned cell, and how his drunkenness was made a plea for putting off his execution. Timon of Athens alludes to the same thought in his harangue against thieves:

"Rascal thieves

Here's gold. Go suck the subtle blood o' the grape

Till the high fever seeth your blood to froth

And so 'scape hanging." Timon 4: 3.

The custom of social drinking and of drinking in hospitality, is thus referred to:

"I have very poor and unhappy brains for drinking: I could well wish courtesy would invent some other custom of entertainment.' "I have drunk but one

cup to-night, and that was craftily qualified too,—and behold what innovation it makes here: I am unfortunate in the infirmity and dare not task my weakness any more." Othello 2: 3.

"To my mind, though I am native here

And to the manner born, it is a custom

More honor'd in the breach than the observance.

This heavy-head revel, east and west,

Makes us traduced and tax'd of other nations:

They clepe us drunkards, and with swinish phrase
Soil our addition."

Ham. 1:4.

The splendid advantages of a temperate life to health and morals is nobly set forth in the language of good old Adam in As You Like It. The old hero says:—

"Though I look old yet I am strong and lusty,

For in my youth I never did apply

Hot and rebellious liquors in my blood:

Nor did not with unbashful forehead woo
The means of weakness and debility;
Therefore my age is as a lusty winter
Frosty but kindly." As You Like It 2: 3.

This reminds us forcibly of Milton:

“O, madness to think use of strongest wines
And strongest drinks our chief support of health,

When God, with these forbidden, made choice to rear
His mighty champion strong above compare,
Whose drink was only from the liquid brook."

Samson Agonistes.

Shakspeare further testifies of the virtues of temperance:

"Ask God for temperance; that's the appliance only
Which your disease requires."

Hen. VIII. I: I.

The following words, addressed by Hamlet to his mother, refer to another evil than that of drinking, but are equally applicable to the virtue and power of abstinence of strong drink:

“... refrain

And that shall lend a kind of easiness

To the next abstinence: the next more easy;
For use almost can change the stamp of nature,
And master the devil, or throw him out

With wondrous potency." Hamlet 3: 4.

This also is a tribute to the value of temperance:

"For aught I see, they are as sick that surfeit with too much, as they that starve with nothing: it is no small happiness, therefore, to be seated in the mean: superfluity comes sooner by white hairs, but competency lives longer."

Mer. of Ven. 1: 2.

To the praise of water as a beverage we have this passage which makes an admirable sentiment or "toast" at a feast :

:

"Here's that, which is too weak to be a sinner,
Honest water which ne'er left man i' the mire."

Tim. of Athens 1: 2.

Thus, Shakspeare witnessed against the use of strong drink on all the grounds of experience, physiology, and morals, and recognized with high approval the practice of abstinence, long before any organized society for that purpose was in existence.

The poet Cowper went still further. He saw the evil not only in the use and customs of society, but also in the chief corner-stone of the whole devil's structure of the drinking system,-the licensed saloonand he satirized the iniquitous system thus:

"The excise is fattened with the rich result
Of all this riot. The ten thousand casks,
For ever dribbling out their base contents,
Touched by the Midas finger of the State,
Bleed gold, for Parliament to vote away.
Gloriously drunk-obey the important call;
Her cause demands the assistance of your throats;
Ye all can swallow, and she asks no more."

GENERAL INDEX

The subjects given in capitals and small capitals refer to Scripture Themes in
Book IV.