Culture, General Things, Food and Drink, Drink, Wine
Wine is in Drink.
Pepy's Diary. 25 Nov 1661. To Westminster Hall [Map] in the morning with Captain Lambert, and there he did at the Dog [Map] give me and some other friends of his, his foy, he being to set sail to-day towards the Streights. Here we had oysters and good wine. Having this morning met in the Hall with Mr. Sanchy, we appointed to meet at the play this afternoon.
Pepy's Diary. 06 Dec 1661. Lay long in bed, and then to Westminster Hall [Map] and there walked, and then with Mr. Spicer, Hawly, Washington, and little Mr. Ashwell (my old friends at the Exchequer) to the Dog [Map], and gave them two or three quarts of wine, and so away to White Hall, where, at Sir G. Carteret's (age 51), Sir Williams both and I dined very pleasantly; and after dinner, by appointment, came the Governors of the East India Company, to sign and seal the contract between us1 (in the King's (age 31) name) and them.
Note 1. Charles II's charter to the Company, confirming and extending the former charter, is dated April 3rd, 1661. Bombay, India, just acquired as part of Queen Katherine's dowry, was made over to the Company by Letters Patent dated March 27th, 1669.
Pepy's Diary. 07 Dec 1661. This morning comes Captain Ferrers and the German, Emanuel Luffe, who goes as one of my Lord's footmen, though he deserves a much better preferment, to take their leave of me, and here I got the German to play upon my Theorbo, which he did both below and in my wife's chamber, who was in bed. He plays bravely. I find by him that my lute is a most excellent lute. I did give them a mince pie and a collar of brawn and some wine for their breakfast, and were very merry, and sent for Mr. Adamson's neighbour to drink Mr. Shepley's health.
Pepy's Diary. 25 Dec 1661. After dinner my wife comes up to me and all friends again, and she and I to walk upon the leads, and there Sir W. Pen (age 40) called us, and we went to his house and supped with him, but before supper Captain Cock came to us half drunk, and began to talk, but Sir W. Pen knowing his humour and that there was no end of his talking, drinks four great glasses of wine to him, one after another, healths to the King (age 31), and by that means made him drunk, and so he went away, and so we sat down to supper, and were merry, and so after supper home and to bed.
Pepy's Diary. 27 Dec 1661. Here I met with Mr. Crumlum (and told him of my endeavour to get Stephens's Thesaurus for the school), and so home, and after dinner comes Mr. Faulconberge to see me, and at his desire I sent over for his kinsman Mr. Knightly, the merchant, and so he came over and sat and drank with us, and at his request I went over with him, and there I sat till the evening, and till both Mr. Knightly and Mr. Faulconberge (for whom I sent my boy to get a coach to carry him to Westminster) were both drunk, and so home, but better wine I never drank in all my life. So home, and finding my wife gone to Sir W. Pen's (age 40), I went thither, and there I sat and played at cards and supped, and so home and to bed.
Pepy's Diary. 30 Dec 1661. At the office about this estimate and so with my wife and Sir W. Pen (age 40) to see our pictures, which do not much displease us, and so back again, and I staid at the Mitre, whither I had invited all my old acquaintance of the Exchequer to a good chine of beef, which with three barrels of oysters and three pullets, and plenty of wine and mirth, was our dinner, and there was about twelve of us, among others Mr. Bowyer, the old man, and Mr. Faulconberge, Shadwell, Taylor, Spicer, Woodruffe (who by reason of some friend that dined with him came to us after dinner), Servington, &c., and here I made them a foolish promise to give them one this day twelvemonth, and so for ever while I live, but I do not intend it.
Pepy's Diary. 20 Jan 1662. This morning Sir Win. Batten (age 61) and Pen (age 40) and I did begin the examining the Treasurer's accounts, the first time ever he had passed in the office, which is very long, and we were all at it till noon, and then to dinner, he providing a fine dinner for us, and we eat it at Sir W. Batten's, where we were very merry, there being at table the Treasurer and we three, Mr. Wayth, Ferrer, Smith, Turner, and Mr. Morrice, the wine cooper, who this day did divide the two butts, which we four did send for, of sherry from Cales, and mine was put into a hogshead, and the vessel filled up with four gallons of Malaga wine, but what it will stand us in I know not: but it is the first great quantity of wine that I ever bought.
Pepy's Diary. 22 Jan 1662. So to the Wardrobe and there dined, meeting my wife there, who went after dinner with my Lady to see Mr. George Montagu's (age 39) lady, and I to have a meeting by appointment with Tho. Trice and Dr. Williams in order to a treating about the difference between us, but I find there is no hopes of ending it but by law, and so after a pint or two of wine we parted.
Pepy's Diary. 26 Jan 1662. Lord's Day. To church in the morning, and then home to dinner alone with my wife, and so both to church in the afternoon and home again, and so to read and talk with my wife, and to supper and to bed. It having been a very fine clear frosty day-God send us more of them!-for the warm weather all this winter makes us fear a sick summer. But thanks be to God, since my leaving drinking of wine, I do find myself much better and do mind my business better, and do spend less money, and less time lost in idle company.
Pepy's Diary. 03 Feb 1662. After musique practice I went to the office, and there with the two Sir Williams all the morning about business, and at noon I dined with Sir W. Batten (age 61) with many friends more, it being his wedding-day, and among other froliques, it being their third year, they had three pyes, whereof the middlemost was made of an ovall form, in an ovall hole within the other two, which made much mirth, and was called the middle piece; and above all the rest, we had great striving to steal a spooneful out of it; and I remember Mrs. Mills, the minister's wife, did steal one for me and did give it me; and to end all, Mrs. Shippman did fill the pye full of white wine, it holding at least a pint and a half, and did drink it off for a health to Sir William and my Lady, it being the greatest draft that ever I did see a woman drink in my life.
Pepy's Diary. 05 Feb 1662. At noon Sir W. Pen (age 40) dined with me, and after dinner he and I and my wife to the Theatre [Map], and went in, but being very early we went out again to the next door, and drank some Rhenish wine and sugar, and so to the House again, and there saw "Rule a wife and have a wife" very well done. And here also I did look long upon my Baroness Castlemaine's (age 21), who, notwithstanding her late sickness, continues a great beauty.
Pepy's Diary. 17 Feb 1662. The Sir Williams being unwilling to eat flesh1, Captain Cocke (age 45) and I had a breast of veal roasted. And here I drank wine upon necessity, being ill for want of it, and I find reason to fear that by my too sudden leaving off wine, I do contract many evils upon myself.
Note 1. In Lent, of which the observance, intermitted for nineteen years, was now reviving. We have seen that Pepys, as yet, had not cast off all show of Puritanism. "In this month the Fishmongers' Company petitioned the King (age 31) that Lent might be kept, because they had provided abundance of fish for this season, and their prayer was granted".-Rugge. B.
Pepy's Diary. 22 Mar 1662. At the office all the morning. At noon Sir Williams both and I by water down to the Lewes [Ship], Captain Dekins, his ship, a merchantman, where we met the owners, Sir John Lewes and Alderman Lewes, and several other great merchants; among others one Jefferys, a merry man that is a fumbler, and he and I called brothers, and he made all the mirth in the company. We had a very fine dinner, and all our wives' healths, with seven or nine guns apiece; and exceeding merry we were, and so home by barge again, and I vexed to find Griffin leave the office door open, and had a design to have carried away the screw or the carpet in revenge to him, but at last I would not, but sent for him and chid him, and so to supper and to bed, having drank a great deal of wine.
Culture, General Things, Food and Drink, Drink, Maluesye Wine
Maluesye Wine. Also Malvesy. Chaucer "maluesye". Ultimately from Malvasia, the Italian. name of a town in the Morea, Gk. Monemvasia, where the wine was orig. produced. Most ampelographers believe that the Malvasia family of grapes are of ancient origin, most likely originating in Crete, Greece.
The History of King Richard the Third by Thomas More. George, Duke of Clarence (age 28), was a goodly noble prince, and at all points fortunate, if either his own ambition had not set him against his brother (age 35), or the envy of his enemies had not set his brother against him. For were it by the Queen (age 41) and the lords of her blood, who highly maligned the King's kindred (as women commonly, not of malice but of nature, hate them whom their husbands love), or were it a proud appetite of the Duke himself intending to be king, in any case, heinous treason was there laid to his charge, and, finally, were he faulty or were he faultless, attainted was he by Parliament and judged to the death, and thereupon hastily drowned in a butt of malmesey, whose death, King Edward (although he commanded it), when he knew it was done, piteously bewailed and sorrowfully repented. .
Chronicle of Robert Fabyan 1478. This yere, that is to meane ye xviii. daye of February, the Duke of Clarence (age 28) and....2brother to the King, thanne being prysoner in ye Tower [Map], was secretely put to deth and drowned in a barell of maluesye within the said Tower. And this mayer this yere pursued also the reparacyon of the wallys, but nat so dylygently as his predccessour dyd, wherfore it was nat spedde as it might haue been, and also he was a syke and a feble man, and hadde not so sharpe and quycke mynde as that other hadde. And one other cause was, whiche ensuythe of a generaltie, that for the more partie one mayer wyll nat fynesshe that thing whiche that other begynneth, for then they thynke, be the dede neuer so good and profitable, that the honoure therof shalbe ascribed to the begynner, and nat to the fynyssher, whiche lacke of charytie and deSire of veingiory causeth many good actes and dedys to dye and growe out of minde, to the great decaye of the cōmon weale of the cytie.
Note 2. second brother. edit. 1542. 1559.
On 18 Feb 1478 George York 1st Duke of Clarence (age 28) was drowned in a butt of wine (Malmsey) wine in the Bowyer Tower in the Tower of London [Map]. Duke Clarence, Earl Salisbury extinct. "in a butt of Malmsey wine" may refer to 1 a butt full of Malmsey wine or 2 a butt that once contained Malmsey wine that was subsequently re-used for another purpose such as washing or bathing.
William Hussey (age 35) conducted the impeachment of the Duke of Clarence for treason.
Richard, Duke of Gloucester (age 25) succeeded 2nd Earl Richmond.
The only other person known to have been executed, or ritually killed, by drowning in a butt of wine is Muirchertach mac Muiredaig High King of Ireland (as reported by the Annals of Ulster) in his case at Newgrange Passage Tomb [Map].
Richard III. [Clarence wakes].
CLARENCE. Where art thou, keeper? Give me a cup of wine.
SECOND MURDERER. You shall have wine enough, my lord, anon.
CLARENCE. In God's name, what art thou?
FIRST MURDERER A man, as you are.
CLARENCE But not, as I am, royal.
FIRST MURDERER Nor you, as we are, loyal.
CLARENCE Thy voice is thunder, but thy looks are humble.
FIRST MURDERER My voice is now the King's, my looks mine own.
CLARENCE How darkly and how deadly dost thou speak! Your eyes do menace me. Why look you pale? Who sent you hither? Wherefore do you come?
SECOND MURDERER To, to, to-
CLARENCE To murder me?
BOTH Ay, ay.
CLARENCE You scarcely have the hearts to tell me so And therefore cannot have the hearts to do it. Wherein, my friends, have I offended you? FIRST MURDERER Offended us you have not, but the King.
CLARENCE I shall be reconciled to him again.
SECOND MURDERER Never, my lord. Therefore prepare to die.
CLARENCE Are you drawn forth among a world of men To slay the innocent? What is my offense? Where is the evidence that doth accuse me? What lawful quest have given their verdict up Unto the frowning judge? Or who pronounced The bitter sentence of poor Clarence' death Before I be convict by course of law? To threaten me with death is most unlawful. I charge you, as you hope to have redemption, By Christ's dear blood shed for our grievous sins, That you depart, and lay no hands on me. The deed you undertake is damnable.
FIRST MURDERER What we will do, we do upon command.
SECOND MURDERER And he that hath commanded is our king.
CLARENCE Erroneous vassals, the great King of kings Hath in the table of His law commanded That thou shalt do no murder. Will you then Spurn at His edict and fulfill a man's? Take heed, for He holds vengeance in His hand To hurl upon their heads that break His law.
SECOND MURDERER And that same vengeance doth He hurl on thee For false forswearing and for murder too. Thou didst receive the sacrament to fight In quarrel of the House of Lancaster.
FIRST MURDERER And, like a traitor to the name of God, Didst break that vow, and with thy treacherous blade Unrippedst the bowels of thy sovereign's son.
SECOND MURDERER Whom thou wast sworn to cherish and defend.
FIRST MURDERER How canst thou urge God's dreadful law to us When thou hast broke it in such dear degree?
CLARENCE Alas! For whose sake did I that ill deed? For Edward, for my brother, for his sake. He sends you not to murder me for this, For in that sin he is as deep as I. If God will be avengèd for the deed, O, know you yet He doth it publicly! Take not the quarrel from His powerful arm; He needs no indirect or lawless course To cut off those that have offended Him.
FIRST MURDERER Who made thee then a bloody minister When gallant-springing, brave Plantagenet, That princely novice, was struck dead by thee?
CLARENCE My brother's love, the devil, and my rage.
FIRST MURDERER Thy brother's love, our duty, and thy faults Provoke us hither now to slaughter thee.
CLARENCE If you do love my brother, hate not me. I am his brother, and I love him well. If you are hired for meed, go back again, And I will send you to my brother Gloucester, Who shall reward you better for my life Than Edward will for tidings of my death.
SECOND MURDERER You are deceived. Your brother Gloucester hates you.
CLARENCE O no, he loves me, and he holds me dear. Go you to him from me.
FIRST MURDERER Ay, so we will.
CLARENCE Tell him, when that our princely father York Blessed his three sons with his victorious arm, He little thought of this divided friendship. Bid Gloucester think of this, and he will weep.
FIRST MURDERER Ay, millstones, as he lessoned us to weep.
CLARENCE O, do not slander him, for he is kind.
FIRST MURDERER Right, as snow in harvest. Come, you deceive yourself. 'Tis he that sends us to destroy you here.
CLARENCE It cannot be, for he bewept my fortune, And hugged me in his arms, and swore with sobs That he would labor my delivery.
FIRST MURDERER Why, so he doth, when he delivers you From this Earth's thralldom to the joys of heaven.
SECOND MURDERER Make peace with God, for you must die, my lord.
CLARENCE Have you that holy feeling in your souls To counsel me to make my peace with God, And are you yet to your own souls so blind That you will war with God by murd'ring me? O sirs, consider: they that set you on To do this deed will hate you for the deed.
SECOND MURDERER, to First Murderer What shall we do?
CLARENCE Relent, and save your souls. Which of you-if you were a prince's son Being pent from liberty, as I am now-If two such murderers as yourselves came to you, Would not entreat for life? Ay, you would beg, Were you in my distress.
FIRST MURDERER Relent? No. 'Tis cowardly and womanish.
CLARENCE Not to relent is beastly, savage, devilish. To Second Murderer. My friend, I spy some pity in thy looks. O, if thine eye be not a flatterer, Come thou on my side and entreat for me. A begging prince what beggar pities not?
SECOND MURDERER Look behind you, my lord.
FIRST MURDERER Take that, and that. (Stabs him.) If all this will not do, I'll drown you in the malmsey butt within. He exits with the body.
SECOND MURDERER A bloody deed, and desperately dispatched. How fain, like Pilate, would I wash my hands Of this most grievous murder.
[Enter First Murderer]
FIRST MURDERER How now? What mean'st thou that thou help'st me not? By heavens, the Duke shall know how slack you have been.
SECOND MURDERER I would he knew that I had saved his brother. Take thou the fee, and tell him what I say, For I repent me that the Duke is slain.
[He exits].
FIRST MURDERER So do not I. Go, coward as thou art. Well, I'll go hide the body in some hole Till that the Duke give order for his burial. And when I have my meed, I will away, For this will out, and then I must not stay.
[He exits].
Henry Machyn's Diary. 30 Jul 1557. The xxx day of July master Dave Gyttons, master Meynard, and master Draper, and master Smyth, master Coldwelle, and master Asse and Gybes, and master Packyngtun, and monser the Machyn de Henry [Note. The writer of this diary.], and mony mo, ded ett alff a busshell of owsturs [oysters] in Anckur lane at master Smyth and master Gytton's seller a-pone hoghedes, and candyll lyght, and onyons and red alle and clarett alle, and muskadylle and malmesey alle, fre cope [Note. Possibly 'free cups'], at viij in the mornyng.
Richard III. [Enter two Murderers].
BRAKENBURY. What wouldst thou, fellow? And how cam'st thou hither?
SECOND MURDERER I would speak with Clarence, and I came hither on my legs.
BRAKENBURY What, so brief?
FIRST MURDERER 'Tis better, sir, than to be tedious. Let him see our commission, and talk no more.
[Brakenbury reads the commission.]
BRAKENBURY. I am in this commanded to deliver The noble Duke of Clarence to your hands. I will not reason what is meant hereby Because I will be guiltless from the meaning. There lies the Duke asleep, and there the keys. He hands them keys. I'll to the King and signify to him That thus I have resigned to you my charge.
FIRST MURDERER You may, sir. 'Tis a point of wisdom. Fare you well.
[Brakenbury and the Keeper exit].
SECOND MURDERER What, shall I stab him as he sleeps?
FIRST MURDERER No. He'll say 'twas done cowardly, when he wakes.
SECOND MURDERER Why, he shall never wake until the great Judgment Day.
FIRST MURDERER Why, then he'll say we stabbed him sleeping.
SECOND MURDERER The urging of that word "judgment" hath bred a kind of remorse in me.
FIRST MURDERER What, art thou afraid?
SECOND MURDERER Not to kill him, having a warrant, but to be damned for killing him, from the which no warrant can defend me.
FIRST MURDERER I thought thou hadst been resolute.
SECOND MURDERER So I am-to let him live.
FIRST MURDERER I'll back to the Duke of Gloucester and tell him so.
SECOND MURDERER Nay, I prithee stay a little. I hope this passionate humor of mine will change. It was wont to hold me but while one tells twenty.
FIRST MURDERER How dost thou feel thyself now?
SECOND MURDERER Faith, some certain dregs of conscience are yet within me.
FIRST MURDERER Remember our reward when the deed's done.
SECOND MURDERER Zounds, he dies! I had forgot the reward.
FIRST MURDERER Where's thy conscience now?
SECOND MURDERER O, in the Duke of Gloucester's purse.
FIRST MURDERER When he opens his purse to give us our reward, thy conscience flies out.
SECOND MURDERER 'Tis no matter. Let it go. There's few or none will entertain it.
FIRST MURDERER What if it come to thee again?
SECOND MURDERER I'll not meddle with it. It makes a man a coward: a man cannot steal but it accuseth him; a man cannot swear but it checks him; a man cannot lie with his neighbor's wife but it detects him. 'Tis a blushing, shamefaced spirit that mutinies in a man's bosom. It fills a man full of obstacles. It made me once restore a purse of gold that by chance I found. It beggars any man that keeps it. It is turned out of towns and cities for a dangerous thing, and every man that means to live well endeavors to trust to himself and live without it.
FIRST MURDERER Zounds, 'tis even now at my elbow, persuading me not to kill the Duke.
SECOND MURDERER Take the devil in thy mind, and believe him not. He would insinuate with thee but to make thee sigh.
FIRST MURDERER I am strong-framed. He cannot prevail with me.
SECOND MURDERER Spoke like a tall man that respects thy reputation. Come, shall we fall to work?
FIRST MURDERER Take him on the costard with the hilts of thy sword, and then throw him into the malmsey butt in the next room.
SECOND MURDERER O, excellent device-and make a sop of him!
FIRST MURDERER Soft, he wakes.
SECOND MURDERER Strike!
FIRST MURDERER No, we'll reason with him.