From the

began to mee in a bitter cup, and shall I not pledge him?" i. e. drink the same. speech of Lawrence Saunders.

In "A brief Character of the Low Countries under the States," 12mo. Lond. 1652, p. 57, speaking of a Dutch Feast, the author tells us: "At those times it goes hard with a stranger; all in curtesie will be drinking to him, and all that do so he must pledge: till he doth, the fill'd cups circle round his trencher, from whence they are not taken away till emptyed."

I know not what the following passage means in Samuel Rowland's "Satyres; Humour's Ordinarie." 4to. F 2:

"Tom is no more like thee than chalk's like cheese.

To pledge a health, or to drink up-se frieze: Fill him a beaker, (a) he will never flinch," &c.

The term Upsie-Freeze occurs again in Dekker's "Dead Term, or Westminster's Speech to London, &c." 4to. 1607, Signat. A 4. “ Fellowes there are that followe mee, who in deepe bowles shall drowne the Dutchman, and make him lie under the table. At his owne weapon of Upsie Freeze will they dare him, and beat him with wine-pots till he be dead drunke."

So, in Massinger's Virgin Martyr, act ii. sc. 1, Spungius calls Bacchus "The God of brewed wine and sugar, great patron of robpots, Upsy freesy tipplers, and supernaculumtakers."

In "Times Curtaine drawne, or the Anatomie of Vanitie, &c. by Richard Brathwayte, Oxonian," 8vo. Lond. 1621, in "Ebrius experiens, or the Drunkard's Humour," Signat. M 3, is the subsequent passage:

"To it we went, we two being all were left, (For all the rest of sense were quite bereft,) Where either call'd for wine that best did please,

Thus helter-skelter drunke we Upsefrese.I was conjured by my kissing friend

To pledge him but an health, and then depart,

(a) Beaker, a bowl or dish for containing liquor: probably from the Italian bicchiere, patera, scyphus. Dr. Johnson defines it "a cup with the spout in the form of a bird's beak;" but gives us no proof that such was the form of the beaker in ancient times.

Which if I did, Is'de ever have his heart. I gave assent; the health, five senses were, (Though scarce one sense did 'twixt us both appeare,)

Which as he drunk I pledg'd; both pledg'd and drunk,

Seeing him now full charg'd behinde I shrunke," &c.

In a curious satirical little book in my possession, which was bought at the Duke of Bridgewater's sale in 1800 (the title-page of which is unfortunately torn out), dedicated to George Doddington, Esq., and written as I guess from internal evidence about the time of Charles II., I find the following, Introd. p. 9:

"Awake! thou noblest drunkard, Bacchus, thou must likewise stand to me (if, at least, thou canst for reeling), teach me how to take the German's OP SIJN FRIZE, the Danish Rowsa, the Switzer's Stoop of Rhenish, the Italian Parmasant, the Englishman's healths and frolicks. Hide not a drop of thy moist mystery from me, thou plumpest swill-bowl." This little octavo volume contains 100 pages.

In "England's Bane; or the Description of Drunkennesse," by Thomas Young, 4to. Lond. 1617, are some curious passages concerning the then customs of drinking: Signat. B. 3 b. "I myselfe have seen and (to my grief of conscience) may now say have in presence, yea, and amongst others, been an actor in the businesse, when upon our knees, after healthes to many private punkes, a health have been drunke to all the whoores in the world." Signat. D. 1 b. "He is a man of no fashion that cannot drinke Supernaculum, carouse the hunter's hoop, quaffe Upsey-freese crosse, bowse in Permoysaunt, in Pimlico, in Crambo, with healthes, gloves, numpes, frolicks, and a thousand such domineering inventions, (a) as by the bell, by the cards, by the dye, by the dozen, by the yard, and so by measure we drink out of measure. There are in London drinking schooles:

(a) It is singular that a part of this should have been borrowed from "Pierce Pennilesse his Supplication to the Divell, by Thomas Nash, Gent.," 4to. Lond. 1595, Sign. F. "Nowe he is nobody that cannot drinke Supernagulum, carouse the Hunter's Hoope, quaffe Upse freze Crosse, with healths, gloves, mumpes, polockes, and a thousand such domineering inventions."

so that drunkennese is professed with us as a liberall arte and science." Signat. E. 4 b. "I have seene a company amongst the very woods and forrests" (he speaks of the New Forest and Windsor Forest) "drinking for a muggle. Sixe determined to trie their strengths who could drinke most glasses for the muggle. The first drinkes a glasse of a pint, the second two, the next three, and so every one multiplieth till the last taketh sixe. Then the first beginneth againe and taketh seven, and in this manner they drinke thrice a peece round, every man taking a glasse more then his fellow, so that hee that dranke least, which was the first, drank one and twentie pints, and the sixth man thirty-six." Our author observes, Signat. D. 1 b: "Before we were acquainted with the lingering wars of the Low-countries, drunkennes was held in the highest degree of hatred that might be amongst us."

In the dedication to "The Drunkard's Cup," a Sermon, by Robert Harris, Prest. of Trinity College, Oxford, in his Works, fol. Lond. 1653 (dedicated to the Justices of the Peace about Hanwell, in Oxfordshire), is the following curious passage: "There is (they say) an art of drinking now, and in the world it is become a great profession. There are degrees and titles given under the names of Roaring Boyes, Damned Crew, &c. There are lawes and ceremonies to be observed both by the firsts and seconds, &c. There is a drinking by the foot, by the yard, &c., a drinking by the douzens, by the scores, &c. for the wager, for the victory, man against man, house against house, town against town, and how not? There are also Terms of art, fetched from hell (for the better distinguishing of the practitioners): one is coloured, another is foxt, a third is gone to the dogs, a fourth is well to live, &c."

In the body of the Sermon, he mentions "the strange saucinesse of base vermine, in tossing the name of his most excellent Majesty in their foaming mouthes, and in daring to make that a shooing horne to draw on drink, by drinking healths to him."

The following, at p. 307, is curious: "I doe not speake of those beasts that must be answered and have right done them, in the same measure, gesture, course, &c., but of such onely as leave you to your measure (you will keepe a

turne and your time in pledging), is it any hurt to pledge such? How pledge them? You mistake if you thinke that we speake against any true civility. If thou lust to pledge the Lord's prophets in woes, pledge good fellowes in their measures and challenges: if not so, learne still to sharpe a peremptory answer to an unreasonable demand. Say-I will pray for the king's health, and drinke for mine owne." page 299 we find "somewhat whitled," and in page 301, "buckt with drink," as terms expressing the different degrees of drunkenness.

In

In Gayton's Festivous Notes upon Don Quixote, fol. Lond. 1654, p. 234, I find a singular passage, which I confess I do not thoroughly understand, concerning the then modes of drinking. He is describing a drinking bout of female gossips: "Dispatching a lusty rummer of Rhenish to little Periwig, who passed it instantly to Steepen Malten, and she conveigh'd with much agility to Daplusee, who made bold to stretch the countesses gowne into a pledge, and cover and come, which was the only plausible mode of drinking they delighted in this was precisely observed by the other three, that their moistned braines gave leave for their glibb'd tongues to chat liberally."

The following occurs in Herrick's Hesperides, p. 146:

"Each man upon his back Shall swallow his sack,

This health will indure no shrinking;
The rest shall dance round
Him that lies on the ground;

Fore me this is excellent drinking."

In the character of "A Bad Husband," at the end of " England's Jests refined and improved," 12mo. Lond. 1687, occur the following traits. "He is a passionate lover of morning-draughts, which he generally continues till dinner-time; a rigid exacter of Num-Groats and collector-general of Foys (a) and Biberidge. (b) He admires the prudence of that apothegm, lets drink first: and would rather sell 20 per cent. to loss than make a dry bargain."

It appears from Allan Ramsay's Poems, 4to. Edinb. 1721, p. 120, that in Scotland, of those "wha had been fou Yestreen," i. e. drunk the night before, "payment of the drunken groat is very peremptorily demanded by the common people, next morning: but if they frankly confess the debt due, they are passed for twopence."

(a) Sir Frederick Morton Eden, in his "State of the Poor," 4to. Lond. 1797, vol. i. p. 560, gives us the following passage from Fergusson's Farmer's Ingle:

"On some feast day, the wee-things buskit braw,
Shall heeze her heart up wi' a silent joy,
Fu' cadgie that her head was up, and saw
Her ain spun cleething on a darling Oy,
Careless tho' death should make the feast her
Foy."

After explaining Oy in a note to signify Grandchild, from the Gaelic Ogha, he tells us "A Foy is the feast a person, who is about to leave a place, gives to his friends before his departure. The metaphorical application of the word in the above passage is eminently beautiful and happy."

(b) "BEVERAGE, Beverege, or Beveridge, reward, consequence. 'Tis a word now in use for a refreshment between dinner and supper; and we use the word when any one pays for wearing new clothes, &c." Hearne's Glossary to Robert of Gloucester's Chronicle, in v.

Grose says, "There is a kind of Beverage called 'Foot-Ale' required from one entering on a new occupation." If I mistake not, this is called in some places "to set your footing."

dice, and after crying Hy-jinks, he throws them out the number he casts up points out the person must drink, he who threw beginning at himself number one, and so round till the number of the persons agree with that of the dice (which may fall upon himself if the number be within twelve), then he sets the dice to him, or bids him take them: he on whom they fall is obliged to drink, or pay a small forfeiture in money; then throws, and so on but if he forgets to cry Hy-jinks he pays a forfeiture into the bank. Now he on whom it falls to drink, if there be anything in bank worth drawing, gets it all if he drinks. Then, with a great deal of caution, he empties his cup, sweeps up the money, and orders the cup to be filled again, and then throws; for, if he err in the articles, he loses the privilege of drawing the money. The articles are (1) Drink. (2) Draw. (3) Fill. (4) Cry Hyjinks. (5) Count just. (6) Chuse your doublet man, viz. when two equal numbers of the dice are thrown, the person whom you chuse must pay a double of the common forfeiture, and so must you when the dice is in his hand. rare project this," adds honest Allan, "and no bubble, I can assure you; for a covetous fellow may save money, and get himself as drunk as he can desire in less than an hour's time." It is probable he might have subjoined "experto crede Roberto.'

A

He mentions, Ibid. p. 30, a set of drinkers called Facers, who, he 66 says, were a club of fair drinkers who inclined rather to spend a shilling on ale than two-pence for meat. They had their name from a rule they observed of obliging themselves to throw all they left in the cup in their own faces: wherefore, to save their face and cloaths, they prudently suck'd the liquor clean out.” (a)

(3) Manners and Customs, vol. i. p. 49, Anglo-Saxon Æra. Mr. Douce's MS. notes say: "It was the custom in Beaumont and

(a) Dr. Jamieson notices Whigmeleerie as the name of a ridiculous game which was occasionally used in Angus at a drinking club. A pin was stuck in the centre of a circle, from which there were as many radii as there were persons in the company, with the name of each person at the radius opposite to him. On the pin an Index was placed, and moved round by every one in his turn; and at whatsoever person's radius it stopped, he was obliged to drink off his glass. Whigmeleeries are "whims, fancies, crotchets."

Fletcher's time for the young gallants to stab themselves in the arms or elsewhere, in order to drink the healths of their mistresses, or to write their names in their own blood.' See Mason's Notes on Beaumont and Fletcher, p. 103, where many instances are adduced.

So, in "The Oxford Drollery," 8vo. Oxf. 1671, p. 124, is a song to a Scotch tune, in which the following lines occur:

3. "I stab'd mine arm to drink her health, The more fool I, the more fool I," &c.

And

4. "I will no more her servant be,

The wiser I, the wiser I,

Nor pledge her health upon my knee," &c. (4) I beg the reader's candid examination of the subsequent passages in Rigby's "Ingenious Poem called The Drunkard's Prospective, or Burning Glasse," 8vo. Lond. 1656, page 7:

"Yea every cup is fast to others wedg'd,

They alwaies double drink, they must be pledg'd.

He that begins, how many so'er they be, Looks that each one do drink as much as he." So page 12:

"Oh, how they'll wind men in, do what they

can,

By drinking healths, first unto such a man, Then unto such a woman! Then they'll send

An health to each man's mistresse or his friend;

Then to their kindred's or their parents deare,

They needs must have the other jug of beere; Then to their captains and commanders stout,

Who for to pledge they think none shall stand out;

Last to the king and queen they'll have a

cruse,

Whom for to pledge they think none dare refuse."

In the first quotation the author's meaning seems to be this: a man in company, not contented with taking what he chooses, binds another to drink the same quantity that he does.

In the last, one proposes a health which another pledges to honour by drinking to it an equal quantity with him that proposed it.

(5) Pasquier, in his Recherches, p. 501, mentions that Mary, Queen of Scots, previously to her execution, drank to all her attendants, desiring them to pledge her. See what the same author has said in p. 785 of his work concerning this custom. See also the Fabliaux of M. Le Grand, tom. i. p. 119, and his Histoire de la Vie privée des François, tom. iii. p. 270. The custom of pledging is to be found in the ancient Romance of Ogie Danoit, where Charlemagne pledges himself for Ogie. See Tressan, Corps d'Extraits de Romans de Chevalerie, tom. ii. p. 77.

Heywood, in his "Philocothonista, or the Drunkard opened, dissected, and anatomized," 4to. Lond. 1635, says, p. 45, "Of drinking cups divers and sundry sorts we have; some of Elme, some of Box, some of Maple, some of Holly, &c., mazers, broad-mouth'd dishes, noggins, whiskins, piggins, crinzes, alebowles, wassell-bowles, court-dishes, tankards, kannes, from a bottle to a pint, from a pint to a gill. Other bottles we have of leather, but they most used amongst the shepheards and harvest-people of the countrey: small jacks wee have in many ale-houses, of the citie and suburbs, tip't with silver, besides the great black jacks and bombards at the court, which when the Frenchmen first saw, they reported, at their returne into their countrey, that the Englishmen used to drinke out of their bootes: we have besides, cups made of hornes of beasts, of cocker-nuts, of goords, of the eggs of Estriches, others made of the shells of divers fishes brought from the Indies and other places, and shining like mother of Pearle. Come to plate, every taverne can afford you flat bowles, French bowles, prounet cups, beare bowles, beakers; and private householders in the citie, when they make a feast to entertaine their friends, can furnish their cupboards with flagons, tankards, beere-cups, wine-bowles, some white, some percell guilt, some guilt all over, some with covers, others without, of sundry shapes and qualities." Page 51, he tells us: "There is now profest an eighth liberal art or science call'd Ars Bibendi, i. e. the Art of Drinking. The students or professors thereof call a greene garland, or painted hoope hang'd