In Bernardus de Cura Rei Familiaris, ed. Lumby, p. 13, a drunken man is thus described:—
'And qhuilis a nape, to mak mowis as a fule,
Bot as a sow, quhen he fallis in a pule.'
And Lydgate, in his Troy-book, L. 1, back, col. 2, says of one:—'And with a strawe playeth lyke an ape.'
Warton (Hist. E. P. ed. 1871, i. 283) gives a slight sketch of chapter 159 in the Gesta, referring to Tyrwhitt's note, and explaining it in the words—'when a man begins to drink, he is meek and ignorant as the lamb, then becomes bold as the lion, his courage is soon transformed into the foolishness of the ape, and at last he wallows in the mire like a sow.'
In Colyn Blowboll's Testament, l. 280 (pr. in Hazlitt's Early Pop. Poetry, i. 104-5) we find:—
'Such as wilbe drongen (sic) as an ape ...
And in such caas often tymes they be
That one may make them play with strawes thre.'
Barclay, in his Ship of Fools, ed. Jamieson, i. 96, speaking of drunken men, says—