[20.] Tavern. t. 1, liv. iii. ch. 9.
[21.] Voyag. t. ii. p. 129.
[CHAP. XVII.]
OF THE DRUNKENNESS OF THE GERMANS.
The Germans were, in all times and ages, great drinkers, and in the words of one of their own poets,
“Illic nobilitas, æterno nomine digna
Exhaurire cados, siccareque pocula longa[1].”
——————————— worthy eternal fame!
’Tis there a piece of true nobility,
To empty casks, and drink deep goblets dry.
To demonstrate the origin of their bibacity, it is absolutely necessary to go higher than Tacitus, who in the treatise which he composed in relation to their customs and manners, thus speaks: “It is no shame with them to pass whole days and nights in drinking; but quarrellings are very frequent amongst them, as are usual amongst folks in that respect, and more often end at daggers drawing than in Billingsgate. It is, however, in such meetings, that alliances and reconciliations are formed. Here they treat of the election of princes. In short, of all affairs, of peace and war. Those opportunities they think most proper, inasmuch as then people shake off all disguise of thought and reflection, and the heat of debauch engages the soul of man to resolutions the most bold and hardy[2].”