[72]. "And bring us in Good Ale"
really good ale, that is, before beer was made "so mortal small," 133 years before tea-leaves came from China (to be boiled and the decoction stored in a barrel); 140 before the first coffee-house in London; and even, one might be tempted to add, before milk came from the cow, for as late as 1512 the two young sons of the fifth earl of Northumberland, Lord Percy aged eleven (who afterwards loved Anne Boleyn), and his younger brother, Maister Thomas Percy, were allowed for "braikfaste" even on "Fysch," or fast Days: "Half a Loif of houshold Brede, a Manchet, a Dysch of Butter, a Pece of Saltfish, a Dysch of Sproits or iii White Herrynge," and a Potell of Bere, i.e. two quarts or Eight mugfuls.
"Hores," or heres, means hairs—cow's or dairymaid's. Butter is less hairy nowadays, though on the other hand we have margarine.
I thought perhaps "Godes good" referred to a "podinge" for Saturdays—a hodge-podge of the scraps and pieces left over through the week; but I find it is really an old phrase for yeast.
[73].
"I' sooth a Feast of Fats" (from the Irish of the twelfth century) like that dream of the rats in the "Pied Piper of Hamelin" as they scuttled to their doom in the cold Weser. For a feast of sweets there is Porphyrio's in the "Eve of St. Agnes:
"And still she slept an azure-lidded sleep,
In blanchèd linen, smooth, and lavendered,
While he from forth the closet brought a heap
Of candied apple, quince, and plum, and gourd;