"King Edgar, like a king of good fellows," adds Selden, "or master of the revels, made a law for Drinking. He gave orders that studs, or knobs of silver or gold (so Malmesbury tells us.) should be fastened to the sides of their cups, or drinking vessels, that when every one knew his mark or boundary, he should, out of modesty, not either himself covet, or force another to desire, more than his stint." This is the only law, before the first parliament under king James, that has been made against those swill-bowls,
Swabbers of drunken feasts, and lusty rowers,
In full-brimmed rummers that do ply their oars,
"who, by their carouses (tippling up Nestor's years as if they were celebrating the goddess Anna Perenna,) do, at the same time, drink others' health, and mischief and spoil their own and the public."
An argument very much after this fashion was held by the learned Sir Thomas More. Sir Thomas was sent ambassador to the Emperor by king Henry the Eighth. The morning he was to have his audience, knowing the virtue of wine, he ordered his servant to bring him a good large glass of Sack; and, having drunk that, called for another. The servant, with officious ignorance, would have dissuaded him from it, but in vain; the ambassador drank off a second, and demanded a third, which he likewise drank off; insisting on a fourth, he was over-persuaded by his servant to let it alone; so he went to his audience. But when he returned home, he called for his servant, and threatened him with his cane. "You rogue," said he, "what mischief have you done me! I spoke so to the emperor, on the inspiration of those three glasses that I drank, that he told me I was fit to govern three parts of the world. Now, you dog! if I had drunk the fourth glass, I had been fit to govern all the world."
The French, a very sober people, have a proverb—
Qu'il faut, à chaque mois,
S'enivrer au moins une fois.
Which has been improved by some, on this side the water, into an excuse for getting drunk every day in the week, for fear that the specific day should be missed. It would, however, startle some of our sober readers, to find this made a question of grave argument—yet, "whether it is not healthful to be drunk once a month," is treated on by Dr. Carr in his letters to Dr. Quincy.—Brande's Jour.