PREFACE 



The little interlude or debate here studied and reprinted has been passed over 

 by students of the Elizabethan drama almost in silence. It has been thought of, 

 apparently, as a mere dramatic oddity, filling no recognized niche in the structure 

 of literary history. And yet the piece deserves to be remembered, if only as a 

 curious specimen of the wit of other days. It has, moreover, a wealth of contem- 

 porary allusion of a peculiarly interesting kind, illustrating particularly the tavern 

 manners of our ancestors and the lore and language of their drinking. The piece 

 is full of the stock witticisms, the ephemeral turns of phrase which were the modem 

 polite conversations of those days.' 



And finally the dialogue is after all not quite sui generis, but possesses a hitherto 

 unrecognized significance in its relation to the academic drama and especially 

 to the minor entertainments in vogue at Cambridge University. Definite evidence 

 that Wine, Beere and Ale was itself written for performance at Cambridge is lack- 

 ing, though it is by no means improbable that such was the case. But its imme- 

 diate literary connection with the little group of Cambridge plays among which 

 I have placed it can hardly be questioned. 



This connection is clearer in the first edition of the piece than in the second. 

 I have chosen, however, to reprint the latter because of the interest of the added 

 material. The differences, which are considerable, between the first and second 

 editions are clearly indicated in the footnotes. The third edition differs from the 

 second chiefly in matters of spelling and punctuation; variants of this sort, I have 

 not thought it necessary to record. In a few cases where I have corrected obvious 

 errors of typography in the edition of 1630, the changes have been duly noted at 

 the bottom of the page. In collating the^^hird edition I have made use of a 

 copy in the possession of Mr. Alfred C. Potter of Cambridge, Massachusetts, 

 who has very generously put his extensive collection of tobacco literature at my 

 disposal. 



* For example, Toast's riddling description of Nutmeg: "round and sound and all of a colour"; 

 Wine's excellent proverb: "At Dancing and at Foot-bali, all fellowes"; and Ale's "Gentlemen are 

 you so simple to figlit for the wall. Why the wall's my Landlords," a joke as threadbare in its day , 

 no doubt, as any of the stale witticisms of society recorded by Dean Swift. 



