Such is his comment.
The effects of the wine are characterised in the following fashion by Garrick, when Sparkish, entering, according to the stage directions, ‘fuddled,’ declares that
‘when a man has wit, and a great deal of it, Champaign gives it a double edge, and nothing can withstand it; ’tis a lighted match to gunpowder; the mine is sprung, and the poor devils are tossed heels uppermost in an instant.’[344]
LORD MINIKIN.
We greet, too, what was perhaps the first appearance of a joke now grown venerable in its antiquity in a farce of Foote’s, the scene of which is laid at Bath. He introduces us to a party of pseudo-invalids devoting their whole time and attention to conviviality, recruiting their debilitated stomachs with turtle and venison, and alternating Bath waters with the choicest vintages, so that the hero Racket is fain to observe to one of them,
‘My dear Sir Kit, how often has Dr. Carawitchet told you that your rich food and Champaigne would produce nothing but poor health and real pain?’[345]
And how many gentlemen in difficulties have not since followed the example set by Harry Dornton in the spunging-house, and ordered, as a consolation,
‘a bottle of Champagne and two rummers’![346]