Good wine needs no bush.
A cup of hot wine with not a drop of allaying Tiber in 't.
The wine of life is drawn, and the mere lees
Is left this vault to brag of.
O thou invisible spirit of wine, if thou hast no name to be known by, let us call thee devil!
Cas. Every inordinate cup is unbless'd, and the ingredient is a devil.
Iago. Come, come, good wine is a good familiar creature, if it be well used.
Alonso of Aragon was wont to say in commendation of age, that age appears to be best in four things,--old wood best to burn, old wine to drink, old friends to trust, and old authors to read.
Drink to me only with thine eyes,
And I will pledge with mine;
Or leave a kiss but in the cup,
And I 'll not look for wine.
Is not old wine wholesomest, old pippins toothsomest, old wood burns brightest, old linen wash whitest? Old soldiers, sweetheart, are surest, and old lovers are soundest.
I may not here omit those two main plagues and common dotages of human kind, wine and women, which have infatuated and besotted myriads of people; they go commonly together.
No cord nor cable can so forcibly draw, or hold so fast, as love can do with a twined thread.
Out-did the meat, out-did the frolick wine.
Or shear swine, all cry and no wool.
For truth is precious and divine,--
Too rich a pearl for carnal swine.
When night
Darkens the streets, then wander forth the sons
Of Belial, flown with insolence and wine.
Bacchus, that first from out the purple grape
Crush'd the sweet poison of misused wine.
We spent them not in toys, in lusts, or wine,
But search of deep philosophy,
Wit, eloquence, and poetry;
Arts which I lov'd, for they, my friend, were thine.
To happy convents bosom'd deep in vines,
Where slumber abbots purple as their wines.
Inflaming wine, pernicious to mankind.
And wine can of their wits the wise beguile,
Make the sage frolic, and the serious smile.
From wine what sudden friendship springs!
I love everything that's old: old friends, old times, old manners, old books, old wine.
Where the virgins are soft as the roses they twine,
And all save the spirit of man is divine?
Let us have wine and women, mirth and laughter,
Sermons and soda-water the day after.
Come to the bridal chamber, Death!
Come to the mother's, when she feels
For the first time her first-born's breath!
Come when the blessed seals
That close the pestilence are broke,
And crowded cities wail its stroke!
Come in consumption's ghastly form,
The earthquake shock, the ocean storm!
Come when the heart beats high and warm,
With banquet song, and dance, and wine!
And thou art terrible!--the tear,
The groan, the knell, the pall, the bier,
And all we know or dream or fear
Of agony are thine.
Oh! wherefore come ye forth in triumph from the north,
With your hands and your feet and your raiment all red?
And wherefore doth your rout send forth a joyous shout?
And whence be the grapes of the wine-press which ye tread?