flincher under the effects of good fellowship. It is said that he is intoxicated, fuddled, flustered, tipsy, top-heavy, boosy, chuckfull, pot-valiant, in drink, in his cups, under the table, cut, overtaken, elevated, concerned, exhilarated, on a merry pin (alluding to the old English practice of graduating the cup by certain pegs or pins), a little in the suds, in a quandary. At Oxford, he is said to be cup-sprung, the favourite state and expression of a great genius who was some time porter of one of the colleges; maudlin, a phrase supposed to have its derivation from Magdalen the Penitent, between whom and any one who drinks till the liquor flows out of his eyes there is an indisputable resemblance; high, or in nubibus. At mathematical Cambridge, he cannot sport a right line; has business on both sides of the way; or has been taking a lunar. The sailors say, he is groggy, breezy, slewed (in his hammock), heels a little, heels and sets (as a boat in a rough sea), is taking an observation, has been in a storm, and (when dead drunk) is cast away. With the sportsman, he is winged, has got a spur in his head, shows his hob-nails, is half-cocked, chases geese, or has caught a turkey. Among other phrases, common to all classes, he is said to see double, to look as if he could not help it, to look queerish, to look sweet, or to have sugar in his eye; to be rather so-so, to have had a little, had enough, had a drop too much (accompanied generally with a compassionate exclamation of "Alas! poor fellow!"), got his skin full, got more than he can carry, lost his legs. It is also said, that he has got a crumb in his beard, his little hat on, his night-cap on, a pinch of snuff in his wig, his wig oiled. At times he has been among the Philistines; at others, is as wise as Solomon. And in the worst and happiest states, he is drunk as a piper, drunk as an owl, drunk as a lord, fuddled as an ape, merry as a grig, happy as a king. SACK. Shakespeare's commentators have been sadly puzzled to know what liquor was called sack in the plays of this immortal bard: there is, however, no doubt that it was neither more nor less than sherry, and a hundred authorities might be quoted to establish that fact. Falstaff expressly calls it sherris sack; and Blount, in his "Glossographia," describes it, "Sherry sack, so called from Xeres, a town in Andalusia, in Spain, where that kind of sack is made;" and Gervase Markham, in his "English Housewife," says, "Your best sacke are of Seres, in Spain." That Falstaff drank sack with sugar, is well known; and if further proof were wanting that this sack was not a sweet wine, but was actually sherry, it is abundantly furnished by Dr. Venner's curious work, "Via Recta ad Vitam Longam." After discussing medicinally the propriety of mixing sugar with sack, he adds, "But what I have spoken of mixing sugar with sack, must be understood of sherie sack." It is not meant to be asserted, says Dr. Nares in his glossary, that whenever sack alone is mentioned, sherry is always intended, but that the sack which was taken with sugar was usually sherry; and he quotes several authors to show that the terms are perfectly synonymous, and among others an old ballad, introduced in a poem called "Pasquil's Palinodia," every stanza, to the number of twelve, ending, -"Give me sacke, old sacke, boys, To make the muses merry. The life of mirth, and the joy of the earth, ROYAL CUP. The celebrated Margaret of Voldemar, who flourished in the thirteenth century, and bore upon her brow the crowns of Denmark, Sweden, and Norway, had a convivial cup; it had ten lips, which were marked with the respective names of those whom she honoured with her intimacy, who were the companions of her table, and permitted to taste the Tuscan grape out of the same vessel. It was the custom among the ancients, at feasts, to choose a king or master, to order how much each guest should drink, whom all the company were bound to obey. He was chosen by throwing dice, upon the sides of which were engraven or painted the images of Saturn, Jupiter, Mars, Apollo, Venus, and Diana. He who threw up Venus was made king: thus Horace, Quem Venus dicet arbitrum bibendi." 66 DRINKING HEALTHS. Health, my Lord King, the sweet Rowena said, We still retain, and must for ever prize. Different are the versions that relate to the antiquity of this custom. The ancient Greeks and Romans used at their meals to make libations, pour out, and even drink wine, in honour of the gods. The first health which we hear of in history is, however, ascribed (in the words of the story) to the pertinent and sensible Rowena, a beautiful daughter of Hengist, general of the Saxons, who having the Isle of Thanet given him by Vortigern for assisting him against the Picts and Scots, obtained as much ground as he could encompass with an ox's hide, to build a castle; which, being completed, he invited Vortigern to supper. After the entertainment, Hengist called his daughter Rowena, who entered with great dignity and magnificence, carrying a golden bowl, full of wine, in her hand, out of which she drank, and in the Saxon language said "Be of health, Lord King!" To this Vortigern replied, "Drink health!" The story adds, that Vortigern, enamoured with Rowena's beauty, married her in a short time after, and gave her father the whole kingdom of Kent. William of Malmesbury thus adverts to the custom: "It is said it first took its rise from the death of young King Edward (called the martyr), son to Edgar, who was by the contrivance of Elfrida, his step-mother, traitorously stabbed in the back as he was drinking." Pepys, in his "Diary," says: "To the Rhenish winehouse, where Mr. Moore shewed us the French manner, when a health is drunk, to bow to him that drunk to you, and then apply yourself to him, whose lady's health is drunk, and then to the person that you drink to, which I never knew before: but it seems is now the fashion." The celebrated William Prynne, in 1628, wrote a |