Amidst the waters here we live,
Yet who can any credit give
To what I say, for, Douza, here
No water drinkers e’er appear.
Guicciardin, in his description of the low countries, accuses the people of drinking too much. Hanno[11], says he, poi per la maggior parte quel vitio del bere troppo. He adds, however, “That they are in some sort excusable, because the air of the country being for the most part of the year humid, and apt to inspire melancholy, they could not, perhaps, make use of a more efficacious remedy to expel this irksome, unwholesome melancholy, than wine, which, I suppose, was Horace’s sentiment, when he said, With wine drive away care. The words in the original are, Ma sono in qualche parte scusabili, per che essendo l’aria del paese il pui del tempo humida et malinconica, non potrieno peraventura trovar instromento piu idoneo a scacciare et battere la malinconia odiosa et mal sana che il vino, si come pare che accerni Horatio dicendo. Vino pellite curas.”
But without any farther talking of the Germans, I shall end this chapter with this necessary remark, that one need not go out of England for examples of hard drinking, our country, God bless it, does not come behind any other in this particular.
[1.] G. Brusch. Inter. p. 405.
[2.] Diem noctemque continuare nullum probium, crebræ ut inter vinolentos rixæ, raro conviciis sepius cede et vulneribus transiguntur. Sed et de reconciliandis invicem inimicitiis et pangendis affinitatibus et adsciscendis principibus, de pace denique ac bello plerunque in conviviis consultant; tanquam nullo magis tempore aut ad simplices cogitationes patea animus, aut ad magnas incalescat. Tacitus, Germania 22.
[3.] Memoir de Thou. liv. ii. p. 63.
[4.] Voyag. p. 27. ed. 1646.