Health, Intoxication, and Civil Conversation in Renaissance England

2014/01/01 by J. Richards · 1 citation
Economics, Econometrics and Finance · #Historical Economic and Social Studies

paper · doi:10.1093/pastj/gtt034

Abstract

‘He kept bottles of wine at his lodgeing, and many times he would drinke liberally by himselfe to refreshe his spirits, and exalt his muse.’ 1 So records John Aubrey in his brief biography of the poet Andrew Marvell. The idea that alcohol lubricates the imagination is entrenched in Renaissance culture, and with good reason. As Shakespeare’s figure of excess John Falstaff reliably explains, wine ‘ascends me into the brain, dries me there all the foolish and dull and crudy vapours which environ it; makes it apprehensive, quick, forgetive, full of nimble, fiery, and delectable shapes, which delivered o'er to the voice, the tongue, which is the birth, becomes excellent wit.’ 2 Literary scholars have long recognized the good as well as bad effects of intoxication on the tongue and on wit; there are plenty of textual examples to attest to both. Recently, though, it has been the beneficial effects...

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