surely to the mark. Many proverbs, however, display a very epigrammatical turn and point, and some epigrams have acquired a circulation surpassing that of many proverbs; and in a paper like the present it is not desirable to classify them apart, inasmuch as the principal ends of order and clearness will be satisfied by grouping them according to the sentiments successively selected for illustration and review.

The proverbial current sets in strongly against drinking when it takes the developed form of drunkenness. 'Drunkenness is an egg from which all the vices are hatched' cannot be accused of understating the case against the national vice of Great Britain. Similar in sense is the saying that Drunkenness is a pair of spectacles with which to see the devil and all his works.' Drunkenness is voluntary madness' is an ancient saying, probably re-echoed rather than originated by Seneca, and put into the concrete by Sir Edward Čoke in the declaration that "The drunkard is a voluntary demon' (Ebriosus voluntarius dæmon est). Some proverbs have small mercy on drunkards. One plainly puts it, 'Drunkards have fools' tongues and knaves' hearts,' which is not at all true of most drunkards before becoming so. 'What you do when you are drunk you must pay for when you are sober,' is a warning that many would have been the wiser had they heeded; and 'He that kills a man when he is drunk must be hanged when he is sober,' is a popular rendering of an old and often-affirmed rule of criminal jurisprudence. All proverbs as to drunkards, however, are not to be trusted. Nothing more delusive was ever said than that 'The drunkard is no one's enemy but his own,' the fact being that he is every one's enemy besides his own; and in regard to another, Drunken folks seldom take harm,' where 'take harm' means 'meet with accident,' honest Ray enters his protest and dissent: This is so far from being true, that, on the contrary, of my own. observation, I could give divers instances of such as have received very much harm when drunk.' Another proverb to the effect that A special Providence watches over drunkards, fools, and children,' may qualify and explain the preceding so as to make it signify that drunkards come to harm much seldomer than might be expected. That many of them have narrow escapes is true, but the many who are carried to hospitals, and on whom inquests are held, sternly forbid the false confidence which none but the drunken, indeed, are ever likely to entertain. That tippling and accidents have a very natural fellowship is made clear by the following lines from the book of Elegant Extracts', said to be a free translation of an epigram by Jacopo Sannazaro, who flourished about 1458

'A

A humorous fellow, in a tavern late,

Being drunk and valiant, gets a broken pate;
The surgeon with his implements and skill,
Searches the skull deeper and deeper still,
To feel the brains and see if they were sound;
And as he kept ado about the wound,

The fellow cries, "Good surgeon, spare your pains
When I began this brawl I had no brains.*"**

Certain classes have been proverbially noted for intemperance. 'As drunk as a tinker' is an abridged form of the other saw, Cobblers and tinkers are the best ale-drinkers.' Vagrancy has never been a school of sobriety; hence 'As drunk as a beggar' is of old descent-much older, if Ray is correct, than 'As drunk as a lord;' for in allusion to the former he remarks: This proverb is beginning now to be disused, and instead of it people are ready to say As drunk as a lord,' so much hath that vice (the more's the pity) prevailed among the nobility and gentry of late years.' Ray refers, it should be remembered, to the early part of the last century. As sober as a judge' is a contrast to the foregoing character, and is a testimony to the judicial reputation for sobriety-though the bench has had some conspicuous exceptions to the rule. As drunk as David's sow' is a saying which, for the credit of the piggery, must not be left without explanation. It is related that a Welshman named David Lloyd, living at Hereford-so precise is the legend—had a sow with six legs, which he took some visitors to see, saying 'Here she is! did you ever see such a sow as that?' Unhappily, David had also a drunken wife, who, just before, had taken the place of the sober sow, and the visitors observing the transposition, jocosely replied that 'it was the drunkennest sow that they ever did see.' And so 'As drunk as David's sow' became a popular saying in the country round. The English reputation for tippling is indicated in the saying, 'In settling an island, the first building erected by a Spaniard would be a church, by a Frenchman a fort, by a Dutchman a warehouse, and by an Englishman an alehouse!' Degrees of comparison between drunkards are not always easily instituted; and this difficulty is stated in an epigram attributed to the learned Julius Cæsar Scaligerrendered thus by a critic in the 'Quarterly Review':

'Drunk gets Loser twice each day;
Bibo once o'erwets his clay;

Do not either drunker call.

*Dum capit Aufidio tractat chirurgus et ipsum,
Altius exquirit, quo videat cerebrum ;

Ingemit Aufidius, Quid me, chirurge, fatigas?
Cum subii rixam non habui cerebrum.'

Bibo drunk is drunk forever,
For his sober fit comes never,
And his once is-once for all! '*

Butler, the author of Hudibras,' has an epigram on a drinking club, which some clubs not professedly formed for drinking might take to themselves without a violation of the ninth commandment :

The jolly members of a toping club,

Like pipe-staves are but hooped into a tub,
And in close confederacy link,

For nothing else but to hold drink!'

Laudibus vini arguitur vinosus, has been rendered:

'Who praises drinking proves him thence

A sot on his own evidence.'

Other evidence still more direct has been furnished by some celebrated topers. If Walter Mapes, an eminent scholar of the twelfth century, has not been wrongly considered the author of an old drinking song, he was a most unblushing vinosus. One verse of the original, and Leigh Hunt's translation, are subjoined;† but a closer rendering may be presented:

I propose in a tavern to draw my last sigh,

With the wine at my mouth, just ready to die,

That the choirs of good angels, on coming, may cry,
'God cast on this toper a merciful eye!'

Epigrammatic epitaphs on drunkards are not common. Athenæus gives one concerning a certain Arcadion :

This is the monument of that great drinker
Arcadion; and his two loving sons,

Dorcon and Charmylus, have placed it here,
At this the entrance of his native city;

And know, traveller, the man did die

From drinking strong wine in too large a cup.'

On an old Greck dame who loved her drops, strong and often

* Inebriatur bis Loserus in die ;
Semel Bibinus: his quis ebriosior?
Imo Bibo non fit ebrius semel,

Non fit, sed est; et semper illud semel.

+ Meum est propositum in tabernâ mori,
Vinum sit appositum morienti ori;

Ut dicunt cum venerint angelorum chori,
'Deus sit propitius huic potatori!'

'I propose to end my days-in a tavern drinking;

May some Christian hold for me-the wine when I am shrinking;
That the cherubims may cry-when they see me sinking,

"God be merciful to a soul-of this gentleman's way of thinking."

-not

-not the last of her race-Leonidas indited in her own tongue an epitaph, which in ours runs thus:

Maronis lies below-so much she drank

Her ashes may with those of wine-kegs rank;
Above her tomb behold the cup displayed
To which when living all her dues were paid;
Interred, o'er no survivors does she grieve,
But only for the drink she's forced to leave.

The race of Maronis is not yet extinct, but where are the inscriptions?

The influence of drunkards in increasing intemperance is well expressed in the proverb that Drunkards are the devil's decoy ducks;' for though what is mis-termed 'beastly' drunkenness is doubtless disgusting, yet men who are mighty to drink wine and strong drink'-especially if they are men of talent and position-exert a powerfully seducive and demoralising effect on younger persons. The outward and visible signs of drinking, even short of what passes for intemperance, have been variously described. Redness of eyes,' one of the signs noticed by the Wise Man, is not the only colour-sign of a tippling habit. 'Wine,' says one proverb, 'makes the purse poor to enrich the nose,' and a modern humorist has said that The tippler's nose blushes at what the mouth is condemned to swallow.' Mr. Jerdan, editor of the old 'Literary Gazette,' supplies the following-To a Pimple on Tom's Nose':

"Thrice red that blossom is, alas!
And thrice red has it been;
Red in the grape-red in the glass-
Red on thy nose 'tis seen.

Ah! Tom, at that red, red, red blot,
Thy well-wishers bewail;

They say the redness of that spot
'Tis makes thy poor wife pale.'

Akin to this is another epigram, author unknown :—

'Whence comes it that on Clara's face

The lily only has a place?

Is it that the absent rose

Is gone to paint her husband's nose?'

One of the extinct London comic papers, 'Diogenes,' published the following:

"Hold, man! forbear, and drink no more,

The habit on you grows."

"Grog grows on me?"

"Yes, and I see

The blossoms on your nose."

Excessive loquacity is one of the first and most noticeable manifestations of vinous activity, therefore we are not surprised at the many references in proverbial literature to the intimate

connection

connection of tipple and talk. But the want of reserve evinced by this volubility is exhibited in other ways; and hence the opinion, dating from very ancient times, that under the excitement of wine the natural character is disclosed. When wine sinks, words swim' is a maxim at least as old as Herodotus; and we have had handed down both in Greek and Latin the sentiment that 'What the sober man keeps in his breast the tippler carries on his tongue.'* General, too, was the saying 'There is truth in wine.' We find it in Theocritus,† and Ephippus cites as commonly said that 'Those who are full of wine speak truth.' The same idea passed current in the sententious form of ovos kaι aλneta ('wine and truth'). Otherwise phrased εν οινῳ αληθεια (in wine is truth”), it was adopted by the Romans in the even to us-familiar 'In vino veritas'a motto with which wine merchants, with very equivocal delicacy and tact, garnish their advertisements and trade-circulars. Do their customers really take to themselves as a compliment the insinuation that they are not used to speak the truth, or avoid hypocrisy, unless under the forcing power of wine? Might they not recall what Dr. Johnson said when this influence was pleaded in its favour by Boswell-Why, sir, that may be an argument for drinking if you suppose men in general to be liars. But, sir, I would not keep company with a fellow who lies as long as he is sober, and whom you must make drunk before you can get a word of truth out of him.' Arcanum demens detegit ebrietas (irrational drunkenness reveals what is secret) is another Latin expression of the same thought. John Owens, a celebrated. Welsh scholar of the sixteenth century, directed against the German love of drinking an epigram, embracing two famous proverbs. ‡

'Democritus said, "Truth lies buried low

Down in a well, whose opening none might know;"
But if "Truth's hid in wine," as proverbs tell,
I'll warrant me the Germans find this well.'

The comparison of wine to a mirror is a figurative reflection of this idea. From the Greeks§ it passed to the Romans, and

* Το εν καρδια νηφοντος, επι γλοττης εστιν του μεθουντος. (From Plutarch.) "Quid est in corde sobrii est in ore ebrii."

† Οινος, ὦ φιλε πᾶι, λεγεται, και αλαθεα.(Idyll 20.)

Mersum in nescio quo Verum Latitare profundo,

Democritus nemo quod repiriret, ait;

Si latet in vino Verum,' ut proverbia dicunt,

Invenit Verum Teuto, vel inveniet.

§ Κατοπτρον ειδεος χαλκος εστι, οινος δε νου. — Brass is a mirror of the form, but wine (a mirror) of the mind.'

under