We’d make him richer far,
More powerful and more prosperous
Than Eastern monarchs are.”
It may be noted, by way of illustration, that Dryden, in his “Vindication of the Duke of Guise,” remarks somewhat vindictively that the only service Shadwell could render the king was to increase his revenue by drinking.
Finally, in England, as in Greece and Rome, black care sat heavily by the hearths of men; and English singers, following the examples of Horace and Anacreon, called upon wine to drown the unwelcome guest. “Fortune’s a jade!” they cried with Beaumont’s Yeoman, but courage and strong drink will bid the hussy stand. Davenant echoed the sentiment defiantly in his mad round,
“Come, boys! a health, a health, a double health,
To those who ’scape from care by shunning wealth;”
and Ford gave the fullest expression to the gay laws of Sans Souci in his drinking-song in “The Sun’s Darling:”—
“Cast away care; he that loves sorrow
Lengthens not a day, nor can buy to-morrow;