"Like a drowned man, a fool and a madman: one draught above heat makes him a fool: the second mads him; and a third drowns him." Twelfth Night 1: 5. 'And in ROMEO AND JULIET we have this description: "Thou are like one of those fellows that, when he enters the confines of a tavern, claps me his sword upon the table, and says, 'God send me no need of thee!' and by the operation of the second cup, draws him on the drawer, when, indeed, there is no need." The ill effects of wine and strong drink are variously described, or alluded to, in the following passages: "I'll heat his blood with Rhenish wine to-night.” Troi. and Cres. 5:1. "Thou are going to Lord Timon's feast . . . to see meat fill knaves and wine heat fools." Timon 1: I. "Now in madness Being full of supper and distempering draughts Upon malicious knavery, dost thou come, To start my quiet." Othello I: I. It seems that the idea prevailed in Shakspeare's day, as it does yet, that clemency should be extended toward one who commits a crime when drunk, for in KING HENRY V. we have this: "Enlarge the man committed yesterday That rail'd against our person: we consider It was excess of wine that set him on; And, on his more advice, we pardon him. Hen. V. 2: 2. We have seen, in Measure for MEASURE, how that the culprit was permitted to continue in a sottish condition, even when in the condemned cell, and how his drunkenness was made a plea for putting off his execution. Timon of Athens alludes to the same thought in his harangue against thieves: "Rascal thieves Here's gold. Go suck the subtle blood o' the grape Till the high fever seeth your blood to froth And so 'scape hanging." Timon 4: 3. The custom of social drinking and of drinking in hospitality, is thus referred to: "I have very poor and unhappy brains for drinking: I could well wish courtesy would invent some other custom of entertainment.' "I have drunk but one cup to-night, and that was craftily qualified too,—and behold what innovation it makes here: I am unfortunate in the infirmity and dare not task my weakness any more." Othello 2: 3. "To my mind, though I am native here And to the manner born, it is a custom More honor'd in the breach than the observance. This heavy-head revel, east and west, Makes us traduced and tax'd of other nations: They clepe us drunkards, and with swinish phrase Ham. 1:4. The splendid advantages of a temperate life to health and morals is nobly set forth in the language of good old Adam in As You Like It. The old hero says:— "Though I look old yet I am strong and lusty, For in my youth I never did apply Hot and rebellious liquors in my blood: Nor did not with unbashful forehead woo This reminds us forcibly of Milton: “O, madness to think use of strongest wines When God, with these forbidden, made choice to rear Samson Agonistes. Shakspeare further testifies of the virtues of temperance: "Ask God for temperance; that's the appliance only Hen. VIII. I: I. The following words, addressed by Hamlet to his mother, refer to another evil than that of drinking, but are equally applicable to the virtue and power of abstinence of strong drink: “... refrain And that shall lend a kind of easiness To the next abstinence: the next more easy; With wondrous potency." Hamlet 3: 4. This also is a tribute to the value of temperance: "For aught I see, they are as sick that surfeit with too much, as they that starve with nothing: it is no small happiness, therefore, to be seated in the mean: superfluity comes sooner by white hairs, but competency lives longer." Mer. of Ven. 1: 2. To the praise of water as a beverage we have this passage which makes an admirable sentiment or "toast" at a feast : : "Here's that, which is too weak to be a sinner, Tim. of Athens 1: 2. Thus, Shakspeare witnessed against the use of strong drink on all the grounds of experience, physiology, and morals, and recognized with high approval the practice of abstinence, long before any organized society for that purpose was in existence. The poet Cowper went still further. He saw the evil not only in the use and customs of society, but also in the chief corner-stone of the whole devil's structure of the drinking system,-the licensed saloonand he satirized the iniquitous system thus: "The excise is fattened with the rich result GENERAL INDEX The subjects given in capitals and small capitals refer to Scripture Themes in AUTHOR'S EXPLANATION, 117. AMBITION, 119. ATONEMENT, 213. ATTRIBUTES OF GOD, 148. A greater than genius, 11; than Solo- mon, 12. Aaron the Moor-an infidel, 94. Abel, 51; murder of, 87; blood of cries Abraham quoted by Shylock, 62; bosom Abstinence, virtue of, 277. Adam, his sons my brothers, transgres- Adam in As You Like It, advantages of temperance, 272, 277. Age, old, 176, 211. Ahab, comparison with Macbeth, 87, 98; All's well that ends well,-scripture All-seer, that high, 168. All-souls day, 168. Amen, could not say it, 109. Ambition, sin of fallen angels, 119; Angel, man like an, 185. Angelo, 10; as a judge, a criminal, 71; Angelus, the, 77. Antonio, 63; his hatred of the Jew, 67; weakness of, 68; saved by Portia, 74; Authority, men's brief, 71, 168. BELIEFS, 218. BETRAYAL, 249. Bacchanalian feast, 274. Bachelor, married man and, 191. Banished, a word the damned use in Battle, few die well who die in, 256. his death-bed scene, 221. Beauty, effect of time upon, 179. Beer, English, compared with French Bell, its call to worship, 217. Bible, the one book of England, VIII; the highest inspiration to Poet, 27; Birds climbing high, 120. Blind man, miracle of healing, 54. Book of life, 154; name blotted from, Book of Numbers, 52. Brother, better to die than sister's Brutus, wife's view of marriage, 84. Cardinal, death scene of, 221. 102; denounces wine as a devil, 272. son on, II; personality of, 12; knows Chaste, Isabella, 254; Desdemona and Chastity the jewel of our house, 254. Children, sins of fathers and, 60, 235- 202. Christ in the sonnets, XI; wrote noth- Christian, ministry of, 123; ensign of Christianity and the drama, 3, 103. Church, marriage and the, 187-189; bell of, 127; inside of a, 226. Churchman, meekness becomes a, 191; prayer of, 218. Clarke's concordance quoted, 19. Clarence, Duke of, his dream of the Clergy, 122; responsibility and duty of, Clergyman, false and deceitful, a, 143. Coleridge, 64, 75, 83, 94, 98. Columbus, Shakspeare the literary, 7. |