II. Second rule. One must not get drunk but in good company. That is to say, with good friends, people of wit, honour, and good humour, and where there is good wine. For example, a man in former times would have done very ill to get drunk with Heliogabalus, whose historian[2] reports, that after having made his friends drunk, he used to shut them up in an apartment, and at night let loose upon them lions, leopards, and tigers, which always tore to pieces some of them. On the other hand, the best wine in the world will taste very bad in bad company. It is therefore that Martial reproaches one, that he spoiled his good wine with his silly babbling.
—————— Verbis mucida vina facis.[2a]
[a.] Pliny, Natural History XIV.50 (or XIV.xxviii.146).
[1.] De Tranquillitate.
[2.] Ælius Lamprid. in Vit. Heliogab.
[2a.] Martial VIII.vi.4.
[CHAP. XXIX.]
THIRD RULE, WITH GOOD WINE.
When one has a mind to get drunk, one should make choice of good wine, and not drink bad, which is prejudicial to health. For example, green wine is very bad; this Guilleaume Cretin[1], a great punster, has expressed in these verses, which, I own, I am not able to put into English:—
“Par ce vin verds Atropos a trop os
Des corps humains ruez envers en vers