These are worth quoting for the sake of Tyrwhitt’s note on 16993. ‘Wine of ape,’ he says, ‘I understood to mean the same as vin de singe in the old Calendrier des Bergiers. Sign 1. ii. b. The author is treating of physiognomy, and in his description of the four temperaments he mentions, among other circumstances, the different effects of wine upon them. The choleric, he says, a vin de Lyon; cest a dire, quant a bien beu veult tanser, noyser et battre. The sanguine a vin de singe; quant a plus beu tant est plus joyeux. In the same manner the phlegmatic is said to have vin de mouton, and the melancholick vin de porceau.’
In the Manciple’s Prologue, lines 17043 to 17050, we have the following praise of wine as a reconciler:—
Then gan our hoste to laughen wonder loude,
And sayd: I see wel it is necessary
Wher that we gon good drinke with us to cary;
For that wol turnen rancour and disese
To accord and love, and many a wrong apese.
O Bacchus, Bacchus, blessed be thy name,
That so canst turnen ernest into game:
Worship and thonke be to thy deitee.
If Laudibus arguitur vini vinosus Homerus be a true rule, we might say that Chaucer liked his glass.
In the Persones Tale, under heading De Gulâ, we read, ‘After avarice cometh glotonie, which is expresse agenst the commandement of God. Glotonie is unmesurable appetit to ete or to drinke.... This sinne hath many spices. The first is dronkennesse, that is the horrible sepulture of manne’s reson: and this is dedly sinne.’
The Rime of Sire Thopas is tantalising. It breaks off just as we are assured that Sire Thopas
Himself drank water of the well,
As did the knight Sire Percivell
So worthy under wede,
Till on a day——
Hiatus valde deflendus! Yet we find with strange inconsistency in lines 13801-13803—
And ther he swore on ale and bred
How that the geaunt should be ded,
Betide what so betide.