Falstaff is in extravaganza of obesity, not
requiring so much "stuffing" as ours does.]

[Footnote 154: PYM was then at the head of the Commons, and was usually
deputed to address personally the motley petitioners. We have a curious
speech he made to the _tradesmen's wives_ in Echard's "History of
England," vol. ii. 290.]

[Footnote 155: Prynne's tract entitled "Health's Sicknesse" is full of
curious allusions to the drinking-customs of the era of Charles the
First. His paradoxical title alludes to the sickness that results from
too freely drinking "healths."]

[Footnote 156: Camden's "History of Queen Elizabeth," Book III. Many
statutes against drunkenness, by way of prevention, passed in the reign
of James the First. Our law looks on this vice as an aggravation of any
offence committed, not as an excuse for criminal misbehaviour. See
"Blackstone," book iv. c. 2, sec. 3. In Mr. Gifford's "Massinger," vol.
ii. 458, is a note to show that when we were young scholars, we soon
equalled, if we did not surpass, our masters. Mr. Gilchrist there
furnishes an extract from Sir Richard Baker's Chronicle, which traces
the origin of this exotic custom to the source mentioned; but the whole
passage from Baker is literally transcribed from Camden.]

[Footnote 157: Nash's "Pierce Pennilesse," 1595, sig. F 2.]

[Footnote 158: These barbarous phrases are Dutch, Danish, or German. The
term _skinker_, a filler of wine, a butler or cup-bearer, according to
Phillips; and in taverns, as appears by our dramatic poets, a _drawer_,
is Dutch, or, according to Dr. Nott, purely Danish, from _skenker_.

_Half-seas over_, or nearly drunk, is likely to have been a proverbial
phrase from the Dutch, applied to that state of ebriety by an idea
familiar with those water-rats. Thus _op-zee_, Dutch, means literally
_over-sea_. Mr. Gifford has recently told us in his "Jonson," that it
was a name given to a stupifying beer introduced into England from the
Low Countries; hence _op-zee_, or over-sea; and _freezen_ in German,
signifies to _swallow greedily_: from this vile alliance they compounded
a harsh term, often used in our old plays. Thus Jonson:

I do not like the dulness of your eye,
It hath a heavy cast, 'tis _upsee Dutch_.

_Alchemist_, A. iv. S. 2.

And Fletcher has "upse-freeze;" which Dr. Nott explains in his edition
of Decker's "Gull's Hornbook," as "a tipsy draught, or swallowing liquor
till drunk." Mr. Giffo