The Discourse1 of the Drinkers.
Then did they fall upon the chat of victuals2 and some belly3 furniture to be snatched at in the very same place. Which purpose was no sooner mentioned, but forthwith began flagons to go, gammons to trot4, goblets5 to fly, great bowls to ting, glasses to ring. Draw, reach, fill, mix, give it me without water. So, my friend, so, whip me off this glass neatly6, bring me hither some claret, a full weeping glass till it run over. A cessation and truce7 with thirst. Ha, thou false fever, wilt8 thou not be gone? By my figgins, godmother, I cannot as yet enter in the humour of being merry, nor drink so currently as I would. You have catched a cold, gammer? Yea, forsooth, sir. By the belly of Sanct Buff, let us talk of our drink: I never drink but at my hours, like the Pope’s mule9. And I never drink but in my breviary, like a fair father guardian10. Which was first, thirst or drinking? Thirst, for who in the time of innocence11 would have drunk without being athirst? Nay12, sir, it was drinking; for privatio praesupponit habitum. I am learned, you see: Foecundi calices quem non fecere disertum? We poor innocents drink but too much without thirst. Not I truly, who am a sinner, for I never drink without thirst, either present or future. To prevent it, as you know, I drink for the thirst to come. I drink eternally. This is to me an eternity13 of drinking, and drinking of eternity. Let us sing, let us drink, and tune14 up our roundelays. Where is my funnel15? What, it seems I do not drink but by an attorney? Do you wet yourselves to dry, or do you dry to wet you? Pish, I understand not the rhetoric16 (theoric, I should say), but I help myself somewhat by the practice. Baste17! enough! I sup, I wet, I humect, I moisten my gullet, I drink, and all for fear of dying. Drink always and you shall never die. If I drink not, I am a-ground, dry, gravelled and spent. I am stark18 dead without drink, and my soul ready to fly into some marsh19 amongst frogs; the soul never dwells in a dry place, drouth kills it. O you butlers, creators of new forms, make me of no drinker a drinker, a perennity and everlastingness20 of sprinkling and bedewing me through these my parched21 and sinewy22 bowels23. He drinks in vain that feels not the pleasure of it. This entereth into my veins,— the pissing tools and urinal vessels24 shall have nothing of it. I would willingly wash the tripes of the calf25 which I apparelled this morning. I have pretty well now ballasted my stomach and stuffed my paunch. If the papers of my bonds and bills could drink as well as I do, my creditors26 would not want for wine when they come to see me, or when they are to make any formal exhibition of their rights to what of me they can demand. This hand of yours spoils your nose. O how many other such will enter here before this go out! What, drink so shallow? It is enough to break both girds and petrel. This is called a cup of dissimulation27, or flagonal hypocrisy28.
What difference is there between a bottle and a flagon. Great difference; for the bottle is stopped and shut up with a stopple, but the flagon with a vice29 (La bouteille est fermee a bouchon, et le flaccon a vis.). Bravely and well played upon the words! Our fathers drank lustily, and emptied their cans. Well cacked, well sung! Come, let us drink: will you send nothing to the river? Here is one going to wash the tripes. I drink no more than a sponge. I drink like a Templar knight31. And I, tanquam sponsus. And I, sicut terra sine aqua. Give me a synonymon for a gammon of bacon. It is the compulsory32 of drinkers: it is a pulley. By a pulley-rope wine is let down into a cellar, and by a gammon into the stomach. Hey! now, boys, hither, some drink, some drink. There is no trouble in it. Respice personam, pone33 pro34 duos, bus non est in usu. If I could get up as well as I can swallow down, I had been long ere now very high in the air.
Thus became Tom Tosspot rich,— thus went in the tailor’s stitch. Thus did Bacchus conquer th’ Inde — thus Philosophy, Melinde. A little rain allays35 a great deal of wind: long tippling breaks the thunder. But if there came such liquor from my ballock, would you not willingly thereafter suck the udder whence it issued? Here, page, fill! I prithee, forget me not when it comes to my turn, and I will enter the election I have made of thee into the very register of my heart. Sup, Guillot, and spare not, there is somewhat in the pot. I appeal from thirst, and disclaim36 its jurisdiction37. Page, sue out my appeal in form. This remnant in the bottom of the glass must follow its leader. I was wont38 heretofore to drink out all, but now I leave nothing. Let us not make too much haste; it is requisite39 we carry all along with us. Heyday40, here are tripes fit for our sport, and, in earnest, excellent godebillios of the dun ox (you know) with the black streak41. O, for God’s sake, let us lash42 them soundly, yet thriftily43. Drink, or I will,— No, no, drink, I beseech44 you (Ou je vous, je vous prie.). Sparrows will not eat unless you bob them on the tail, nor can I drink if I be not fairly spoke45 to. The concavities of my body are like another Hell for their capacity. Lagonaedatera (Greek lateris cavitas: Greek orcus: and Greek alter.). There is not a corner, nor coney-burrow in all my body, where this wine doth not ferret out my thirst. Ho, this will bang it soundly. But this shall banish46 it utterly47. Let us wind our horns by the sound of flagons and bottles, and cry aloud, that whoever hath lost his thirst come not hither to seek it. Long clysters of drinking are to be voided without doors. The great God made the planets, and we make the platters neat. I have the word of the gospel in my mouth, Sitio. The stone called asbestos is not more unquenchable than the thirst of my paternity. Appetite comes with eating, says Angeston, but the thirst goes away with drinking. I have a remedy against thirst, quite contrary to that which is good against the biting of a mad dog. Keep running after a dog, and he will never bite you; drink always before the thirst, and it will never come upon you. There I catch you, I awake you. Argus had a hundred eyes for his sight, a butler should have (like Briareus) a hundred hands wherewith to fill us wine indefatigably48. Hey now, lads, let us moisten ourselves, it will be time to dry hereafter. White wine here, wine, boys! Pour out all in the name of Lucifer, fill here, you, fill and fill (peascods on you) till it be full. My tongue peels. Lans trinque; to thee, countryman, I drink to thee, good fellow, comrade to thee, lusty, lively! Ha, la, la, that was drunk to some purpose, and bravely gulped49 over. O lachryma Christi, it is of the best grape! I’faith, pure Greek, Greek! O the fine white wine! upon my conscience, it is a kind of taffetas wine,— hin, hin, it is of one ear, well wrought50, and of good wool. Courage, comrade, up thy heart, billy! We will not be beasted at this bout30, for I have got one trick. Ex hoc in hoc. There is no enchantment51 nor charm there, every one of you hath seen it. My ‘prenticeship is out, I am a free man at this trade. I am prester mast (Prestre mace52, maistre passe.), Prish, Brum! I should say, master past. O the drinkers, those that are a-dry, O poor thirsty souls! Good page, my friend, fill me here some, and crown the wine, I pray thee. Like a cardinal53! Natura abhorret vacuum. Would you say that a fly could drink in this? This is after the fashion of Switzerland. Clear off, neat, supernaculum! Come, therefore, blades, to this divine liquor and celestial54 juice, swill55 it over heartily56, and spare not! It is a decoction of nectar and ambrosia57.
1 discourse | |
n.论文,演说;谈话;话语;vi.讲述,著述 | |
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2 victuals | |
n.食物;食品 | |
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3 belly | |
n.肚子,腹部;(像肚子一样)鼓起的部分,膛 | |
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4 trot | |
n.疾走,慢跑;n.老太婆;现成译本;(复数)trots:腹泻(与the 连用);v.小跑,快步走,赶紧 | |
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5 goblets | |
n.高脚酒杯( goblet的名词复数 ) | |
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6 neatly | |
adv.整洁地,干净地,灵巧地,熟练地 | |
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7 truce | |
n.休战,(争执,烦恼等的)缓和;v.以停战结束 | |
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8 wilt | |
v.(使)植物凋谢或枯萎;(指人)疲倦,衰弱 | |
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9 mule | |
n.骡子,杂种,执拗的人 | |
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10 guardian | |
n.监护人;守卫者,保护者 | |
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11 innocence | |
n.无罪;天真;无害 | |
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12 nay | |
adv.不;n.反对票,投反对票者 | |
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13 eternity | |
n.不朽,来世;永恒,无穷 | |
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14 tune | |
n.调子;和谐,协调;v.调音,调节,调整 | |
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15 funnel | |
n.漏斗;烟囱;v.汇集 | |
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16 rhetoric | |
n.修辞学,浮夸之言语 | |
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17 baste | |
v.殴打,公开责骂 | |
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18 stark | |
adj.荒凉的;严酷的;完全的;adv.完全地 | |
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19 marsh | |
n.沼泽,湿地 | |
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20 everlastingness | |
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21 parched | |
adj.焦干的;极渴的;v.(使)焦干 | |
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22 sinewy | |
adj.多腱的,强壮有力的 | |
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23 bowels | |
n.肠,内脏,内部;肠( bowel的名词复数 );内部,最深处 | |
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24 vessels | |
n.血管( vessel的名词复数 );船;容器;(具有特殊品质或接受特殊品质的)人 | |
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25 calf | |
n.小牛,犊,幼仔,小牛皮 | |
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26 creditors | |
n.债权人,债主( creditor的名词复数 ) | |
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27 dissimulation | |
n.掩饰,虚伪,装糊涂 | |
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28 hypocrisy | |
n.伪善,虚伪 | |
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29 vice | |
n.坏事;恶习;[pl.]台钳,老虎钳;adj.副的 | |
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30 bout | |
n.侵袭,发作;一次(阵,回);拳击等比赛 | |
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31 knight | |
n.骑士,武士;爵士 | |
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32 compulsory | |
n.强制的,必修的;规定的,义务的 | |
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33 pone | |
n.玉米饼 | |
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34 pro | |
n.赞成,赞成的意见,赞成者 | |
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35 allays | |
v.减轻,缓和( allay的第三人称单数 ) | |
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36 disclaim | |
v.放弃权利,拒绝承认 | |
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37 jurisdiction | |
n.司法权,审判权,管辖权,控制权 | |
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38 wont | |
adj.习惯于;v.习惯;n.习惯 | |
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39 requisite | |
adj.需要的,必不可少的;n.必需品 | |
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40 heyday | |
n.全盛时期,青春期 | |
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41 streak | |
n.条理,斑纹,倾向,少许,痕迹;v.加条纹,变成条纹,奔驰,快速移动 | |
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42 lash | |
v.系牢;鞭打;猛烈抨击;n.鞭打;眼睫毛 | |
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43 thriftily | |
节俭地; 繁茂地; 繁荣的 | |
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44 beseech | |
v.祈求,恳求 | |
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45 spoke | |
n.(车轮的)辐条;轮辐;破坏某人的计划;阻挠某人的行动 v.讲,谈(speak的过去式);说;演说;从某种观点来说 | |
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46 banish | |
vt.放逐,驱逐;消除,排除 | |
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47 utterly | |
adv.完全地,绝对地 | |
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48 indefatigably | |
adv.不厌倦地,不屈不挠地 | |
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49 gulped | |
v.狼吞虎咽地吃,吞咽( gulp的过去式和过去分词 );大口地吸(气);哽住 | |
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50 wrought | |
v.引起;以…原料制作;运转;adj.制造的 | |
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51 enchantment | |
n.迷惑,妖术,魅力 | |
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52 mace | |
n.狼牙棒,豆蔻干皮 | |
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53 cardinal | |
n.(天主教的)红衣主教;adj.首要的,基本的 | |
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54 celestial | |
adj.天体的;天上的 | |
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55 swill | |
v.冲洗;痛饮;n.泔脚饲料;猪食;(谈话或写作中的)无意义的话 | |
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56 heartily | |
adv.衷心地,诚恳地,十分,很 | |
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57 ambrosia | |
n.神的食物;蜂食 | |
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