Ale, and Tobacco 49 



386. Bos lassus fortius figit pedem. Hieronym. Ep. 103 ad AugusHnum {Corp. 

 Script. Eccles. vol. 55, p. 236), where the sentence is quoted as a proverb, warning 

 the young man not to provoke the old to combat. 



390. front March to Christmas. The best beer was brewed in March. Cf. 

 Harrison, A Description of England, 1577, Bk. Ill, cap. I. (Elizabethan England, 

 ed. Lothrop Withington, p. 93): "The beer that is used at noblemen's tables, 

 in their fixed and standing houses, is commonly of a year old, or peradventure of 

 two years tunning or more; but this is not general. It is also brewed in March 

 and therefore called March-beer; but for the household it is not usually under a 

 month's age." Cf. also " March-Beere," below. The excellence of English beer 

 is well attested. Cf. Rye, England as seen by Foreigners, pp. 9, 79, 109, and 190. 



Andrea Trevisano, writing in 1497, says that where both wine and beer were 

 served the latter was often preferred (ib. xliv) . 



395. the parson shall account you one of his best parishoners. The allusion 

 is to the so-called church-ales, held for the purpose of raising parish funds. Ale 

 was brewed for the occasion and sold to the parishioners. Cf. Stubbs, Anatomy of 

 Abuses, 1595 (Ed. FurnivaU, New Shakespeare Soc, Ser. VI, No. 6, p. ISO): "In 

 certaine Townes, where drunken Bachus beares all the sway against a Christmas, 

 an Easter, Whitsonday, or some other time, the Church-wardens (for so they call 

 them) of every parish, with the consent of the whole Parish, provide half a score 

 or twentie quarters of mault, whereof some they buy of the Church-stock and some 

 is given to them of the Parishioners themselves, everyone conferring somewhat, 

 according to his abilitie; which mault being made into very strong ale or beere, 

 is set to sale, either in the church, or some other place assigned to that purpose. 

 Then, when the Nippitatum, this Huf-cap (as they call it) and this ^ectar of lyf e, 

 is set abroche, wel is that he can get the soonest to it, and spends the moste at it, 



he is counted the godliest man of all the rest For they repaire their 



churches and chappels with it; they buy books for service, cuppes for the cele- 

 bration of the Sacrament, surplesses for Sir Ihon, and such other necessaries.'' 



398. bee allowed a Robin-hood, or Mother Red-cap to hang at your doore. " Robin 

 Hood" and "Mother Red Cap" are not uncommon as inn names in England today. 

 There are or have been "Robin Hood" inns at Wisbach, Lithington, Gt. Cres- 

 singham. Cherry Hinton, and Thetford in Cambridgeshire. Mother Red 

 Cap signes are noted by Tarwood and Hotten {The History of Signboards) as 

 occurring in upper HoUoway; Camden Town; Blackburn, Lancashire; etc. 

 The authors quote Braithwaite, Whimsies of a New Cast of Characters (1631) : 

 "He (the painter) bestows his pencils on an aged piece of decayed canvas, in a 

 sooty alehouse where Mother Red-cap must be set out in her own colours." The 

 name is common in folk lore. A Mother Redcap appears as the chief story telling 

 gossip of Drayton's Moon-Calf {Poems, ed. Chalmers, English Poets, IV, 130 ff.) : 



Amongst the rest at the World's labour, there, 

 Four good old women most especial were. 

 Who has been jolly wenches in their days. 

 Through all the parish and had borne the praise 



