Mazer of the Fourteenth Century.
The mazer cup was evidently regarded as a family heirloom, and as such inscribed with quaint legends and pious aphorisms, and sometimes decorated with rich chasing and carving, as Chaucer has so beautifully described in the "Mazer yrought of the maple," mentioned in his Shepherd's Callender. The quaint simplicity, both of the devices and inscriptions of many of the wassail bowls, furnishes curious illustration of the manners and ideas of the age to which they belong. Our forefathers had a pious, but withal a very convenient fashion, of uniting religion with their daily sports, and even, as it might seem, seeking to sanctify their excesses. Both Chaucer and Dunbar wind up their freest versions of the Decameron with a pious couplet, and in like spirit the old toper invoked the Trinity on the rim of his wassail bowl, and engraved the mystic saint Christopher within it. The woodcut represents a very beautiful mazer of the time of Richard II., now in the possession of Evelyn Philip Shirley, Esq, M.P. It is made of highly polished wood, apparently maple, and hooped with a richly embossed rim of silver gilt, on which is inscribed, as shewn in the annexed fac-simile of a portion of the "edgle of sylver," the following characteristic invocation:—
In. the. name. of. the. trinitie
fille. the. kup. and. drinke. to. me.
From the tenor of such legends frequently inscribed on these ancient cups, it has not been uncommon to describe them as sacred vessels, designed only for use in the service of the Church. Thus a maple cup, bearing the date 1608, was forwarded for exhibition at a meeting of the British Archæological Association in 1848, as a chalice;[697] and another, apparently of the same character, made in the year 1611, was shewn to the members of the Archæological Institute in 1850, which it was also conjectured "might have served in some rural parish as a chalice."[698] Such cups, however, were by no means rare in the beginning of the seventeenth century, and though frequently inscribed in terms calculated to suggest such a sacred character, there will generally be found some accompaniment in the legend or devices no less characteristic of mirth and good fellowship. On the 4th January 1667, Mr. Pepys notes in his gossiping Diary, having "last of all, a flagon of ale and apples, drunk out of a wood cup, as a Christmas draught, which made all merry." Fountainhall in his "Decisions," records some curious notes of an action brought by Sir Alexander Ogilvie, afterwards Lord Forglen, in 1685, against Sir Alexander Forbes of Tolquhoun, for stealing a gilded mazer cup out of his house, which was afterwards accidentally discovered in the hands of a goldsmith in Aberdeen, with whom its careless owner had left it some years before for repair. From such glimpses as we recover of the history of the litigants, neither of the old Scottish baronets seem characters likely to have gifted chalices, even of maple or ashen wood, though probably well fitted to match with Secretary Pepys in discussing a "Christmas draught." One quaint, but very beautiful allusion, however, is made by an old Scottish writer to the mazer cup, referring to it metaphorically, as to a sacramental chalice. The passage occurs in Zacharie Boyd's "Last Battell of the Soule," published at Edinburgh in 1629. "Take now," says he, "the cup of salvation, the great Mazer of His mercy, and call upon the name of the Lord."
A curious wooden cup, in the collection of W. B. Johnstone, Esq., bearing the date 1611, serves to illustrate the character of the pious legends graven on the mazers of the seventeenth century,—not unsuited in part for the decoration of a sacramental chalice, but also accompanied with other devices and allusions, which leave no doubt of the real destination of the mazer for the convivial board. Its height is nine inches, and its greatest circumference, a little below the brim, nineteen inches. The outer surface of the bowl is divided into ornamental compartments, within which are grouped the lion, unicorn, stag, ostrich, hedgehog, dog, and cock, with trees, flowers, &c. The ostrich is represented regaling himself with a horse-shoe![699] Around the rim, bowl, stem, and even on the lower side of the stand, the carver has indulged his moralizing vein, both in prose and verse. The inscription on the bowl reads,—
THE FOUNTAYNE OF ALL HEALTH AND WEALTH AND JOYES,
TO THIRSTY SOULES HE GIVETH DRINK INDEED;
SUCH AS TURN TO HIM FROM THEIR EVILL WAYES
SHALL FINDE SOUND COMFORT IN THEIR GREATEST NEEDE;
BUT EVILL WORKERS THAT IN SINNE REMAINE,
THEY ARE ORDAYNED TO ETERNALL PAYNE.
FOR EVERY ONE OF US SHALL BE REWARDED ACCORDING TO
OUR WORKES; THEREFORE REPENT UNFAYNEDLY AND AMEND.
Round the rim of the stand are the words and date:—THEY THAT SEEKE AFTER THE LORD SHALL PRAYSE HIM, THEIR HARTS SHALL LIVE FOR EVER. 1611.; and then on the underside of the stand the cup thus takes up the hortatory strain, in a mixed vein, in propria persona:—
MISSUSE ME NOT ALTHOUGH I AM NO PLATE;
A MAPLE CUPP THAT IS NOT OUT OF DATE.
DRINKE WELL, AND WELCOME, BUT BE NOT TOO FREE,
EXAMINE WHETHER THAT IN CHRIST YOU BE;
IF THAT YOUR FAITH BE TRUE, AND FIRM, AND SOUND,
THEN IN ALL GOOD WORKS YOU WILL STILL ABOUND.
SO RUN THAT YE MAY OBTAYNE.
There was perhaps a little quiet humour lurking in the mind of the carver when he inscribed these latter excellent and very practical maxims on the underside of the stand, where it is only possible to peruse them when the cup is empty! It will be seen that this maple cup bears a very close resemblance to the contemporary vessels of the same class referred to in the Journals of the Archæological Association and of the Institute. Their odd devices and quaint inscriptions are not unworthy of note by the historian as indicative of the old Puritan spirit manifesting itself in this simple guise during the reign of James, preparatory to its stern outbreak in that of his son.