“The whole Trial and Indictment of Sir JOHN BARLEY-CORN—Kⁿᵗ.
A Person of Noble Birth and Extraction, and well known by Rich and Poor throughout the Kingdom of Great Britain: Being accused of several Misdemeanours, by him committed against His Majesty’s Liege People; by killing some, wounding others, and bringing Thousands to Beggary, and ruins many a poor Family.
Here you have the Substance of the Evidence given in against him on his Trial, with the Names of the Judges, Jury, and Witnesses. Also the Comical Defence Sir John makes for himself, and the Character given him by some of his Neighbours, namely, Hewson the Cobbler, an honest friend of Sir John’s, who is entomb’d as a Memorandum, at the Two Brewers in East Smithfield.
Taken in Short Hand by Thomas Tosspott, Foreman of the Jury.”
One of the witnesses, hight Mistress Full-Pot, the hostess, called in his defence, thus winds up her evidence,—
“Nay, I beseech you, give me leave to speak to you; if you put him to Death, all England is undone, for there is not such another in the Land that can do as he can do, and hath done; for he can make a Cripple to go, he can make a Coward to fight with a valiant Soldier, nay, he can make a good Soldier feel neither Hunger or Cold. Besides, for Valour in himself, there are few that can encounter with him, for he can pull down the strongest Man in the World, and lay him fast asleep.”
Of course, the jury found a verdict of Not Guilty.
Beer has a large literature of its own, principally metrical, but this has pretty well been collected in two books—The Curiosities of Ale and Beer, by John Bickerdyke; and In Praise of Ale, by W. T. Marchant—either of which would be a valuable addition to any one’s library. Yet in neither of them is met with Ned Ward’s “Dialogue between Claret and Darby Ale,” published 1691, in which each of the drinks speak for themselves; and, of course, the arguments of ale are all potent over his antagonist. Space will only allow of a very short extract.