in Wine, Beer, and Ale Together by the Ears (Wine, Beer, Ale, and Tobacco Contending for Superiority) — Anonymous
Metadata
Play
Wine, Beer, and Ale Together by the Ears (Wine, Beer, Ale, and Tobacco Contending for Superiority)
Author
Anonymous
Year (catalogued)
1629
First performance
1625
Decade
1620s
Genre
Dialogue
Play type
University (?)
Speech prefix(es)
Toſt.
Words
402
Characters
1954
Typicality
0.34 (cosine to cluster centroid)
TCP id
A01424
BritDrama no.
2168
Cluster
Cluster 11 — Tosspots & tavern railers
Important excerpts
No keyword-matching excerpt could be extracted (the cluster label doesn't share vocabulary with this character's speech).
Full speech
Nutmeg? round and found and all of a colour, art thou there? Nutmeg, I love thee Nutmeg. Whats that a Ghost? Sugar: I'll Beatrice him to pieces. Cannot Tossed stand without holding? I'll tell thee, I have been with my M. Ale. Sirrah, I was very dry, and he has made me drunk: do I not crumble? I shall fallen a pieces; but I'll beat Sugar for all that: I do not weigh him, he is a poor Rogue, I have known him sold for two pence, when he was young, wrapped in swaddling clouts of Paper. I know his breeding, a Drawer brought him up, and now he's grown so lumpish. Rude? Let me but crush him: Rude? Sirrah, 'tis well known you came from Barbary your self, & because of some few Pounds in a Chest, you think to domineer over Tossed: you're a little handsome, I confess; and Wenches lick their lips after you; but for all that, would I might sink to the bot tome, if I do not —: I will give Sugar but one box. I tell thee, Sugar, I am now friends with thee. But if it be as you say— Hight? 'tis no matter, Sugar: you will justify that Wine and Beer offered this wrong unto Ale. Ods quotha? I do mean to be even with some body. They shall find that Ale has those about him that are not altogether dow. Ale must not be put down so long as Tossed has a crumb of life left. Beer too? Come not near me, Nutmeg, lest I grate you, and slise you. Nutmeg, do you mark? 'Tis all one for that: O, are you there? pray tell me which of they is't? You will not tell me then. Hark you Beer, March-beer, this way a little. I must stir you a little Beer: what colour had you to quarrel with my Master. Wine too But, but me no buts, I care not a straw for his buts; dee hear sir, do you long to be Graves Wine. Fire and water are not to be trusted, away new River, away, I wash my hands on thee. Over head and ears in Ale. I am cool again: I may believe you are friends; then I am content to put up. Sugar and Nutmeg, come, we be three. A match, I am for any thing but Water.
Plot summary
Plot — Wine, Beer, and Ale Together by the Ears (Wine, Beer, Ale, and Tobacco Contending for Superiority)
There is dissension among the servants of Wine, Beer, and Ale: the drunken, quarrelsome Toast picks a fight with Sugar, who is also in his master’s bad books for excessive womanizing. The masters also bicker: Beer wants to take the wall, and Wine asserts his social superiority. Ale arrives in time to see Wine challenge Beer toa duel, and tries to make the peace. Unfortunately he does it by insisting that he is their better, on grounds of antiquity, learning, and property (for there are many houses named after him). This only exacerbates the situation. Water arrives and asks to adjudicate the argument and reconcile them. He allows them all their own distinctive application: Wine for courtiers and gallants, Beer for citizens, and Ale for country people. The altercation is resolved, though it takes a little more persuasion to get Toast, who has brought a knife in his master’s defence, to put it away. Wine, Beer, and Ale sing a song, and the characters dance. B-Text In this version, business in which Wine smokes a pipe of tobacco is omitted, and Tobacco introduced as a character: he interrupts the festive ending before the characters can dance, insisting that he too is a kind of drink and is the best of all. Afraid of his power to seduce men against them, the other drinks invite him to join them on equal terms, and Tobacco agrees, In the dance, each of the servants is appropriately applied to his master: Sugar is shaken ver Wine, Nutmeg grated over Beer, and Toast has his backside warmed and placed over Ale’s mouth.