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Article THE ANTIQUITY OF DRINKING HEALTHS. ← Page 2 of 3 →
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
The Antiquity Of Drinking Healths.
Jt being , in plain English , " We pray for you , valiant Sir , an < 2 drink your health . " Here then is the custom of drinking to the health and prosperity pf superiors by whom we have been benefited , or of our equals with whom we live in reciprocal friendship , in vogue among the Grecians so early as Theseus , in those remote ages which are distil guished in history by the splendid appellation of the heroic that
ages ; is , many centuries before the commencement of the Christian jera Neither , like us , were they wanting to pay this regard to strangers or foreigners of eminent rank and merit . Asconius , explaining the meaning of more Greeco bibere , drinking after the manner of the Greeks , says , that it was their custom , in their libations , first to pay their devotions to the gods , and then
mention their friends in terms of esteem and affection , and wishes for their prosperity . Every tirne they venerated the gods , or wished health to their friends , it was in neat wine ; nay , it was indispensable to this reli gious ceremony , for such it was accounted , to drink inerum , that is , wine not only undiluted with water , but withoflt any other of the mixtures then used , as saffron , honey , Gfcr "
I am apt to think that from this ancient practice is derived that modern ceremony of never drinking to any one , when they drink water , or mix water with their wine , which an ever-to-be-lamented sally of youth gave me too long an opportunity of observing formerly among the French , especially the beau monde . I was often complimented with" SirI cannot to do myself the
ho-, , presume nour of drinking to you , as I drink only water , or more water than wine ; " arid not a few have I seen , among that jocular people , who wantonly affected to take no notice of a person drinking to them in a dilution . Nothing is more common at their free entertainments , than this exhortation , " Come , let us drink neat , here ' s a choice
toast to worthy Mr . , or to the enchanting Miss ; " which always went round with an hilarity , \ vhich more phlegmatic nations may admire , but cannot come up to . Though temperance was their general character , yet , among their country Esquires , there were very hard drinkers , and so obstinately tenacious of these ancient customs , that they would not admit of any mitigation . Poland is not the only country where it may be a Gentleman ' s misfortune
to fall in with such an overbearing bottle-man as the Palatine , who , observing a Frenchman to pass his glass , said , in a great heat , to Cardinal de Polignac , the divine author of Anti-Lucretius , then in Poland , «< Why does not that Frenchman drink > . " The Cardinal mildly answered , f He is sick , my Lord ; " "Lethim instantly die or drink , replied the Palatine . " This sot would have met with his
patch in the German mentioned by Count Oxenstiern , who , in 3 Compotation at Venice , called for a glass of so unmerciful a size , that it would have laid half a dozen Italian ? on the floor , and , nam- ! ing a certain Potentate , ' drank it off to a noble Venetian ; and then , ordering it to be filled again , offered it to him ; but he , half fri g htened , said that he was not used to such achjevementsj an 4 that there
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
The Antiquity Of Drinking Healths.
Jt being , in plain English , " We pray for you , valiant Sir , an < 2 drink your health . " Here then is the custom of drinking to the health and prosperity pf superiors by whom we have been benefited , or of our equals with whom we live in reciprocal friendship , in vogue among the Grecians so early as Theseus , in those remote ages which are distil guished in history by the splendid appellation of the heroic that
ages ; is , many centuries before the commencement of the Christian jera Neither , like us , were they wanting to pay this regard to strangers or foreigners of eminent rank and merit . Asconius , explaining the meaning of more Greeco bibere , drinking after the manner of the Greeks , says , that it was their custom , in their libations , first to pay their devotions to the gods , and then
mention their friends in terms of esteem and affection , and wishes for their prosperity . Every tirne they venerated the gods , or wished health to their friends , it was in neat wine ; nay , it was indispensable to this reli gious ceremony , for such it was accounted , to drink inerum , that is , wine not only undiluted with water , but withoflt any other of the mixtures then used , as saffron , honey , Gfcr "
I am apt to think that from this ancient practice is derived that modern ceremony of never drinking to any one , when they drink water , or mix water with their wine , which an ever-to-be-lamented sally of youth gave me too long an opportunity of observing formerly among the French , especially the beau monde . I was often complimented with" SirI cannot to do myself the
ho-, , presume nour of drinking to you , as I drink only water , or more water than wine ; " arid not a few have I seen , among that jocular people , who wantonly affected to take no notice of a person drinking to them in a dilution . Nothing is more common at their free entertainments , than this exhortation , " Come , let us drink neat , here ' s a choice
toast to worthy Mr . , or to the enchanting Miss ; " which always went round with an hilarity , \ vhich more phlegmatic nations may admire , but cannot come up to . Though temperance was their general character , yet , among their country Esquires , there were very hard drinkers , and so obstinately tenacious of these ancient customs , that they would not admit of any mitigation . Poland is not the only country where it may be a Gentleman ' s misfortune
to fall in with such an overbearing bottle-man as the Palatine , who , observing a Frenchman to pass his glass , said , in a great heat , to Cardinal de Polignac , the divine author of Anti-Lucretius , then in Poland , «< Why does not that Frenchman drink > . " The Cardinal mildly answered , f He is sick , my Lord ; " "Lethim instantly die or drink , replied the Palatine . " This sot would have met with his
patch in the German mentioned by Count Oxenstiern , who , in 3 Compotation at Venice , called for a glass of so unmerciful a size , that it would have laid half a dozen Italian ? on the floor , and , nam- ! ing a certain Potentate , ' drank it off to a noble Venetian ; and then , ordering it to be filled again , offered it to him ; but he , half fri g htened , said that he was not used to such achjevementsj an 4 that there