_W. Bull._ The tailors are the best judges of that; but Champaign, I suppose. _Mock._ Is Champaign a tailor? Methinks it were a fitter name for a wig-maker. I think they call my wig a campaign. _W. Bull._ You're clear out, sir--clear out. Champaign is a fine liquor, which all great beaux drink to make 'em witty. _Mock._ Witty! O, by the universe, I must be witty! I'll drink nothing else; I never was witty in my life. Here, Club, bring us a bottle of what d'ye call it--the witty liquor.' The Widow having retired, Club, Mockmode's servant, reënters with a bottle and glasses. '_Mock._ Is that the witty liquor? Come, fill the glasses.... But where's the wit now, Club? Have you found it? _Club._ Egad, master, I think 'tis a very good jest. _Mock._ What? _Club._ Why, drinking. You'll find, master, that this same gentleman in the straw doublet, this same Will o' the Wisp, is a wit at the bottom. Here, here, master, how it puns and quibbles in the glass![293] _Mock._ By the universe, now I have it; the wit lies in the jingling! All wit consists most in jingling. Hear how the glasses rhyme to one another.... I fancy this same wine is all sold at Will's Coffee-house.' Here we have a palpable hit at the source of inspiration indulged in by many of the wits and rhymesters who gathered round 'glorious John Dryden' within the hallowed walls of that famous rendezvous. And likely enough, when they 'were all at supper, all in good humour, Champaign was the word, and wit flew about the room like a pack of losing cards.'[294] Farquhar seems, above all others, to have hailed the new wine with pleasure. We all remember the 'red Burgundy' which saves Mirabel from his perilous position in the cut-throats' den; but the flighty hero of the _Inconstant_ is equally enthusiastic over sparkling wine when he exclaims: 'Give me the plump Venetian, brisk and sanguine, that smiles upon me like the glowing sun, and meets my lips like sparkling wine, her person shining as the glass, and spirit like the foaming liquor.'[295] The benignant influence of the beverage is, moreover, referred to by Farquhar in his epilogue to the _Constant Couple_, where, in alluding to the critics, it is said that 'To coffee some retreat to save their pockets, Others, more generous, damn the play at Locket's; But there, I hope, the author's fears are vain, Malice ne'er spoke in generous Champain.'[296] Further, he makes Benjamin Wouldbe exclaim: 'Show me that proud stoick that can bear success and Champain; philosophy can support us in hard fortune, but who can have patience in prosperity?'[297]