In the _Cynthia’s Revels_ of Ben Jonson, occurs an allusion to that hideous custom, the practice of which he attributes to a representative lover stabbing himself, drinking a health, and writing languishing letters in his blood. In the _Humorous Lieutenant_ of Beaumont and Fletcher, allusion is made to the same practice of gentlemen cutting and stabbing themselves, and mingling their blood with the wine in which they toasted their mistresses. In the _Merchant of Venice_ the Prince of Morocco, with the same meaning, speaks of ‘making an incision for love.’ Jonson occupied the president’s chair in the Apollo room in the _Devil_ Tavern (on the site of which is Child’s bank), surrounded by the ‘eruditi, urbani, hilares, honesti,’ of that age. A contemporary dramatist, Shakerly Marmion, describes him thus:-- The boon Delphic god Drinks _sack_, and keeps his Bacchanalia, And has his incense and his altars smoking, And speaks in sparkling prophecies. The tavern to which Ben gave such a lasting reputation had for a sign the Devil, and St. Dunstan twigging his nose with a pair of hot tongs. Over the chimney inside were engraved in black marble his _leges conviviales_, and over the door some verses by the same hand, which wind up with a eulogistic encomium upon wine. Ply it, and you all are mounted, ‘Tis the true Phœbian liquor, Cheers the brains, makes wit the quicker; Pays all debts, cures all diseases, And at once three senses pleases.[110] Two authors, who would well bear comparison, remain to be mentioned--Barnabie Googe and Thomas Tusser. The latter was a georgical poet of great popularity in the sixteenth century. His poems were faithful pictures of the domestic life of the English farmer of his day. He concerns us now simply for his belief in the strengthening virtues of the hop. Among his ‘Directions for Cultivating a Hop Garden,’ we find:-- The hop for his profit I thus do exalt, It strengtheneth drink, and it favoureth malt; And being well brewed, long kept it will last, And drawing abide--if ye draw not too fast. His entire poem, after considerable expansion, appeared under the title of _Five Hundreth Points of Good Husbandrie_. Googe wrote upon the same subject.[111] We can glean from him some useful information upon the culture of the vine in England. He says:--