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Wine And Spirits: Quotations from Cyclopedia of Practical Quotations

I hang no ivie out to sell my wine; The nectar of good wits will sell itself.— ALLOT — England's Parnassus. Sonnet

to the Reader. Old Simon the cellarer keeps a rare store Of Malmsey and Malvoisie.— G. W. BELLAMY — Simon the Cellarer.

John Barleycorn was a hero bold, Of noble enterprise, For if you do but taste his blood, 'Twill make your courage rise, 'Twill make a man forget his wo; 'Twill heighten all his joy.— BURNS — John Barleycorn. St. 13

So Noah, when he anchor'd safe on The mountain's top, his lofty haven, And all the passengers he bore Were on the new world set ashore, He made it next his chief design To plant and propagate a vine, Which since has overwhelm'd and drown'd Far greater numbers, on dry ground, Of wretched mankind, one by one, Than all the flood before had done.— BUTLER — Satire upon Drunkenness. L. 105.

Few things surpass old wine; and they may preach Who please, the more because they preach in vain,- Let us have wine and women, mirth and laughter, Sermons and soda-water the day after.— BYRON — Don Juan. Canto II. St. 178.

Sweet is old wine in bottles, ale in barrels.— BYRON — Sweet Things. St. 5.

Which cheers the sad, revives the old, inspires The young, makes Weariness forget his toil, And Fear her danger; opens a new world When this, the present, palls.— BYRON — Sardanapalus. Act I. Sc. 1.

Alcohol is not wine but an atrocious usurper of its name and rights. The wine of the cluster is the pure blood of the grape. Death follows life, and corruption death, and there results a deadly something, which men call wine, but wrongly for it is no longer vinous. The vine disowns it. It is a corpse, not a living thing.— ABRAHAM COLES — The Evangel. P. 230.

Taking our stand on the immovable rock of Christ's character we risk nothing in saying, that the wine of miracle answered to the wine of nature, and was not intoxicating. No counter proof can equal the force of that drawn from His attributes. It is an indecency and a calumny to impute to Christ conduct which requires apology.— ABRAHAM COLES — The Evangel. Note.

P. 209. The modest water saw its God and blushed.— ABRAHAM COLES — Translation of

CRASHAW'S Epigram, Nympha pudica Deum vidit et erubuit. Sing! Who sings To her who weareth a hundred rings? Ah, who is this lady fine? The Vine, boys, the Vine! The mother of the mighty Wine, A roamer is she O'er wall and tree And sometimes very good company.— BARRY CORNWALL — A Bacchanalian

Song. Ten thousand casks, Forever dribbling out their base contents, Touch'd by the Midas finger of the state, Bleed gold for ministers to sport away. Drink, and be mad then; 'tis your country bids!— COWPER — The Task. Bk. IV. L. 504. L. 504.

The conscious water saw its God and blushed.— CRASHAW — Translation of His Own

Epigram on the Miracle of Cana. St. John's Gospel. Ch. II. When Christ, at Cana's feast by power divine, Inspir'd cold water with the warmth of wine, See! cried they, while in red'ning tide it gush'd, The bashful stream hath seen its God and blush'd. C.— CRASHAW — Poëmata et Epigrammata.

Aaron Hill's trans. When asked what wines he liked to drink he replied, "That which belongs to another."— DIOGENES LAERTIUS — Lives and

Opinions of Eminent Philosophers. Diogenes. VI. Yonge's trans. Bring me wine, but wine which never grew In the belly of the grape, Or grew on vine whose tap-roots, reaching through Under the Andes to the Cape, Suffered no savor of the earth to escape.— EMERSON — Bacchus. St. 1.

From wine what sudden friendship springs?— GAY — Fables. Pt. II. Fable 6.

Let schoolmasters puzzle their brain, With grammar, and nonsense, and learning; Good liquor, I stoutly maintain, Gives genius a better discerning.— GOLDSMITH — She Stoops to Conquer. Act I. Sc. 1. Song.

*** Call things by their right names Glass of brandy and water! That is the current, but not the appropriate name; ask for a glass of liquid fire and distilled damnation.— ROBERT HALL — GREGORY'S Life of Hall. Vol. I. P. 59.

Sparkling and bright, in liquid light, Does the wine our goblets gleam in ; With hue as red as the rosy bed Which a bee would choose to dream in.— CHARLES FENNO HOFFMAN- — Sparkling

and Bright. And wine can of their wits the wise beguile, Make the sage frolic, and the serious smile.— HOMER — Odyssey. Bk. XIV. L. 520.

Pope's trans. As for the brandy, "nothing extenuate"; and the water, put nought in in malice.— DOUGLAS JERROLD — Jerrold's Wit.

Shakespeare Grog.

Claret is the liquor for boys; port for men ; but he who aspires to be a hero must drink brandy.— SAM'L JOHNSON — Boswell's Life of

Johnson. 1779. But that which most doth take my muse and me, Is a pure cup of rich Canary wine, Which is the mermaid's now, but shall be mine.— BEN JONSON — Epigram CI.

Dance and Provençal song and sunburnt mirth! Oh for a beaker full of the warm South, Full of the true, the blushful Hippocrene! With beaded bubbles winking at the brim. And purple-stained mouth.— KEATS — Ode to a Nightingale.

There is a devil in every berry of the grape. The Koran. Filled with the wine Of the vine Benign That flames so red in Sansavine.— LONGFELLOW — (Quoted) Hyperion. Ch. VIII.

Things of greatest profit are set forth with least price. Where the wine is neat there needeth no ivie bush.— LYLY — Euphues. A. 3.

Bacchus, that first from out the purple grape, Crushed the sweet poison of misused wine.— MILTON — Comus. L. 46.

O Roman punch! O potent Curaçoa! O Maraschino! Maraschino O! Delicious drams! Why have you not the art To kill this gnawing Book-worm in my heart? S.— MOORE — Twopenny Post Bag. See

Appendix, Letter VII. It has become quite a common proverb that in wine there is truth.— PLINY — Natural History. Bk. XIV. Sec. 14.

We care not for money, riches, nor wealth ; Old sack is our money, old sack is our wealth.— THOMAS RANDOLPH — The Praise of

Old Sack. Come, come, good wine is a good familiar creature, if it be well used; exclaim no more against it.— Shakespeare — Othello. Act II. Sc. 3. L. 313.

Give me a bowl of wine: I have not that alacrity of spirit, Nor cheer of mind, that I was wont to have.— Shakespeare — Richard III. Act V. Sc. 3. L. 72.

Give me a bowl of wine; In this I bury all unkindness. Julius Cæsar. Act IV. Sc. 3. L. 158. He calls for wine: "A health," quoth he, as if Who are a little wise the best fools be. He had been abroad, carousing to his mates After a storm.— Shakespeare — Taming of the Shrew. Act III. Sc. 2. L. 172.

O thou invisible spirit of wine, if thou hast no name to be known by, let us call thee devil!— Shakespeare — Othello. Act II. Sc. 3. L. 283.

Day and night my thoughts incline To the blandishments of wine, Jars were made to drain, I think; Wine, I know, was made to drink.— R. H. STODDARD — A Jar of Wine.

The hop for his profit I thus do exalt, It strengtheneth drink, and it favoureth malt: And being well brewed, long kept it will last, And drawing abide if you draw not too fast.— TUSSER — Five Hundred Points of Good

Husbandrie. A Lesson When and Where to Plant a Good Hop-Yard. Ch. XLIII.