Fie on hir pompe, and on hir glotonie, And on hir lewednesse; I hem defie. 7510 Me thinketh they ben like Jovinian, Fat as a whale, and walken as a swan Al vinolent as botel in the spence; Hir praier is of ful gret reverence; Whan they for soules say the Psalm of Davit, 7515 Lo, buf they say, _cor meum eructavit_. Tyrwhitt informs us that Jovinian was ‘perhaps the supposed emperour of that name in the _Gesta Romanorum_, c. lix., whose story was worked up into a _Morality_, under the title of “_L’orgueil et présomption de l’Empereur Jovinien_--à 19 Personages.”’ The following lines, still from the Sompnour’s Tale, are not Chaucer’s own, but a quotation or paraphrase from Seneca:-- A lord is lost if he be vicious 7630 And dronkennesse is eke a foule record Of any man, and namely of a lord. 7632 * * * * * For goddes love drinke more attemprely. 7635 Win maketh man to lesen wretchedly His mind, and eke his limmes everich on. 7637 The Marchante’s Tale abounds with allusions. Wine played no unimportant part at the marriage of January and May. It was not spared at the wedding. As we read in line 9596: Bacchus the win hem skinketh al aboute. The aged bridegroom primed himself by its aid-- He drinketh Ipocras, clarré, and vernage Of spices hot, to encresen his corage. Lines 9681, 9682. And in the morning when ‘that the day gan dawe,’ we read that ‘then he taketh a sop in fine clarré’--line 9717. All this, no doubt, is drawn from the marriage customs of Chaucer’s days. In these times of luxury and excess what an example does the ‘poure widewe’ furnish in the Nonnes Prestes Tale. Truly idyllic!-- Full sooty was hire boure, and eke hire halle, In which she ete many a slender mele. Of poinant sauce ne knew she never a dele. No deintee morsel passed thurgh hire throte; Hire diete was accordant to hire cote. Repletion ne made hire never sike; Attempre diete was all hire physike, And exercise, and hertes suffisance. The goute let hire nothing for to dance, No apoplexie shente not hire hed. No win ne dranke she, neyther white ne red: Hire bord was served most with white and black, Milk and broun bred, in which she fond no lack, Seinde bacon, and somtime an ey or twey; For she was as it were a maner dey. Could she have divined that one day Professor Mayor would give to the world ‘Modicus cibi medicussibi’? In the Manciple’s Prologue we find the following lines. The Manciple is chaffing the ‘coke’ for having had too much to drink. _Inter alia_, he remarks, lines 16993, 16994:-- I trow that ye have dronken win of ape, And that is whan men playen with a straw.