Chap. XXVI A Ridiculous Aversion That Some Have to Wine
An aversion to wine is a thing not very common; and there are but a very few but will say with Catullus:—
“At vos quo lubet, hinc abite lymphæ
Vini pernicies.”a
Pernicious water, bane to wine, be gone.
One should certainly be very much in the wrong to put in the number of those who had an aversion to wine the duke of Clarence. His brother, Edward the Fourth, prejudiced with the predictions of Merlin, as if they foretold, that one day that duke should usurp the crown from his children, resolved to put him to death, he only gave him the liberty to choose what death he would die of. The duke being willing to die a merry death, chose to be drowned in a butt of Malmsey. Not unlike him on whom this epigram was made.
“1In cyatho vini pleno cum musca periret;
Sic, ait Oeneus, sponte perire velim.”
In a full glass of wine expir’d a fly;
So, said Oeneus, would I freely die.
But let us come in earnest to those who have really had an antipathy to wine. Herbelot2, in his Bibliotheque Orientale, says, that there are some Mussulmans so superstitious, that they will not call wine by its true name, which is Schamr and Nedibh; and that there are some princes amongst them that have forbidden the mentioning of it by express laws. The reason of all this is, the prohibition of Mahomet to his followers, which enjoins them not to drink wine. The occasion of which prohibition is as follows: “3They say, that passing one day through a village, and seeing the people in the mirth of wine embracing and kissing one another, and making a thousand protestations of friendship, he was so charmed with the sight, that he blessed the wine, as the best thing in the world. But that, at his return, observing the same place full of blood, and having been informed, that the same men whom he had seen before so merry, had, at last, changed their mirth into rage, and been fighting with their swords, he recalled his benediction, and cursed wine for ever, on account of the bad effects it produced.”
It is one of the chief commandments amongst the Siameze, to drink no wine, nor any liquor that will procure drunkenness4.
“5Drunkenness is detested in most parts of hot countries. It is looked upon there as infamous. The greatest affront you can give a Spaniard, is to call him drunkard. I have been assured, continues M. Bayle, a servant, if his master should call him so, might bring his action at law against him, and recover damages, though any other name he will suffer very patiently, and without any right of complaint of being injured in his reputation, as rogue, hang-dog, b——, &c.”
Empedocles, we may well conclude, loved wine, which he called, Water putrified in wood.
Apollonius Thyanæus never drank any wine, no more than St. Fulgentius, bishop, S. Stephen, king of Poland, and cardinal Emeri.
“7The Severians, disciples of Severus, in the time of pope Sotherus, condemned absolutely wine, as a creature of the devil.”
De nimia sapientia libera nos domine.
a. Catullus XXVII.5-6.
1. Rem. sur Rabel. t. iv. ch. 93.
2. Page 777.
3. Du Mont. Voyag. t. iii. let. 5.
4. Chaumont Voyag. de Siam.
5. Bayle Dict. t. ii. p. 1266.
6. Ælian, lib. ii. ch. 33.
7. Du Mont. Voyag. t. iii. lit. 5.
8. Rec. choise d’Hist.
Notes
6Amongst the Locrians, Seleucus had such an aversion to wine, that he forbad any one to drink it under pain of death, or even give it to the sick.
8The emperor Frederick the Third, seeing his wife barren, consulted the physicians upon the case; who told him, that if the empress would drink wine she might be fruitful. But he told them, like a simpleton as he was, That he had rather his wife should be barren and sober, than be fruitful and drink wine. And the empress, being informed of the wise answer of the imperial ninny-hammer, her husband, said full as wisely, That if she was to be put to her choice, to drink wine or die, she should make no manner of hesitation, but prefer death.