meat, and strengthen the mouth of the
stomach, by drying up the superfluous
moisture of it."

Thirdly, of divers kinds of drink. Water,
as drink, the worthy doctor summarily rejects,
in a chapter not a morsel longer than a sonnet.
It may be very suitable for people
living in hot countries; but, in England, it is
"in no wise agreeable, for it doth very greatly
deject the appetite, destroy the natural heat,
and overthrow the strength of the stomach;
and, consequently, confounding the concoction,
is the cause of crudities, fluctuations, and
windiness in the body." As many lines as
he had given to water, so many pages Doctor
Venner gives to wine. Then, he has nearly
as much to say of beer, mead, cider, perry,
aqua vitæ. "Many and singular," he says,
"are the commodities of wine; for it is of itself
the most pleasant liquor of all other." He
proceeds presently to a review of the wines
used in his day, and points out their qualities.
White wine and Rhenish, thin and penetrating,
cut and attenuate gross humours; they
are good to take in the morning, fasting, and
also a little before dinner and supper, but
they are hurtful when taken with meat, or
at meals. Claret breedeth good humours,
and is very good for young men with hot
stomachs, but is hurtful for all that are of a
cold and moist constitution. To rheumy
people, it is of all wines most pernicious, but,
verily, it being moderately taken at meals, it
is for temperate bodies, so as it be a pure
and quick wine, scarcely inferior to any of
the regal wines of France. Sack is hot and
thin, wherefore it doth vehemently and
quickly heat the body. Falstaff was right in
his choice of nectar, for, says Doctor Venner,
sack " is most accommodate for old men, for
gross men," but as to his halfpenny-worth of
bread, Sir John was wrong, for sack, we learn,
"is chiefly to be drunken after the eating of
meats of gross substance, and such as consist
of an excremental moisture, as pork, fish, &c.
Sugar retardates the penetrative quality,
therefore to the cold stomach sack is
better without sugar; but where there is
reason to dread the penetrative faculty, sack
with sugar is the more acceptable. Malmsey
is very hot, and by reason that it is sweet, it
nourisheth very much. It is convenient for
all cold bodies: but for such as are hot it is
greatly hurtful, because it is very easily
convertible into red choler. It killeth worms
in children, by a certain natural and hidden
property, if they drink it fasting. Muscadel
is an inferior wine to Malmsey, having the
like virtue; Bastard, also of like virtue, is an
inferior wine to Muscadel. Canary " is of
some termed a sack, with this adjunct sweet,
but yet very improperly, for it differeth not
only from sack in sweetness and pleasantness
of taste, but also in colour and consistence,
for it is not so white in colour as sack, nor so
thin in substance; wherefore it is more
nutritive, and less penetrative. It is best
agreeable to cold constitutions and for old
bodies, so that they be not too impensively
choleric" (as some old bodies are apt to be),
"for it is a wine that will quickly inflame; and
therefore very hurtful unto hot and choleric
bodies, especially if they be young." Tent is a
gross, nutritive wine, and is very quickly
concocted into blood. Greek wine, which is of a
blackish-red colour, is "of a very temperate
nature, hotter than claret and sweeter, yet
with some pleasing sharpness adjoining. It
breedeth very good blood, reviveth the spirits,
comforteth the stomach and liver, and exceedingly
cheereth and strengtheneth the heart.
For aged people, and all such as are naturally
of a weak state of body, it is most profitable."
Greek wine is only profitable, now-a-days, for
any one who has a taste for pitch and tar.
All but a very little is extremely resinous.
"Wine of Orleans is stronger than any other
French wine, and very pleasant withal in
taste: it is for goodness scarcely, or not at
all, inferior to Muscadel. It is hurtful to
the choleric, and such as have weak brains.
To a cold constitution, and for cold and weak
stomachs, there is not a better wine, if there
be so good. It is very hurtful to them that
are young."

"There are, also," says the Doctor, " other
French wines, which far excel other wines."
These were the regal wines of France, Vin
de Coussi and Vin d' Hai, "which to the
kings and peers of France are in very
familiar use. They notably comfort the
stomach, help the concoction and distribution
of the meats, and offend not the head
with vapourous fumes. They are regal wines,
indeed, and very convenient for every
season, age, and constitution, so they might
be had." Red wine is of an austere, sharp
taste and astringent quality. The regal
wines of France answered to the champagne
of to-day, as nearly as the wine of Orleans
answered to our Burgundy.

Wine given to children is fire added upon
fire. Of wine, says the wise man, it is a
precept "that it be not given to youths, as
from fourteen years unto twenty-five; for
wine is unto them most repugnant; because
it doth above measure heat their hasty, hot,
and agitating nature, and extimulate them
(like mad men) unto enormious and
outragious actions."Another precept is that it
should be " very moderately given and that, not
too often unto young men, as from twenty-five
years of age unto thirty-five, and that it be
also of the smaller sorts of wines." Well
might you write your Groat's worth of
Repentance, you George Green, and you
Christopher Marlowe of the mighty line; well
might you perish ere repentance came,
bibbers of sack at the green age of thirty,
dead men before you had reached that period
of manhood and constant age, as from thirty-five
to fifty, when wine may be more liberally
used.  Dr. Vernier published this book when
his age was forty-three; therefore he says