Food

Sir Gawain and the Green Knight

Lines 44-49

"For the feasting lasted a full fortnight and one day,

With more food and drink than a fellow could dream of.

The hubbub of their humor was heavenly to hear:

Pleasant dialogue by and dancing after dusk,

So house and hall were lit with happiness

And lords and ladies were luminous with joy.

Lines 1016-1023

"Beneath the din of drums

Men followed their affairs,

And trumpets thrilled and thrummed

As those two tended theirs.

They drank and danced all day and next

And danced and drank the day after that,

Then Saint Johns Day passed with a gentler joy

As the Christmas feasting came to a close"

Lines 1952-1956

"And with meals and mirth and minstrelsy

They made as much amusement as any mortal could,

And among those merry men and laughing ladies

Gawain and his host got giddy together;

Only lunatics and drunkards could have looked more delirious."

The Fairy Queen Book 2, Canto 12, SECTION 56

"In her left hand a cup of gold she held,

And with her right the riper fruit did reach,

Whos sappy liquor, that with fulness sweld,

Into her cup she scruzd, with daintie breach

Of her fine fingers, without fowle empeach,

That so fair wine-presse made the wine more sweet:

Therefore she usd to give to drinke to each,

Whom passing by she happened to meet:

It was her guise, all Straugners goodly so to greet."

William Shakespeare's The Tempest, Act 2, Scene 2

_________

Enter STEPHANO, singing: a bottle in his hand

_________

STEPHANO

I shall no more to sea, to sea,

Here shall I die ashore--

This is a very scurvy tune to sing at a man's

funeral: well, here's my comfort.

Drinks

Sings

The master, the swabber, the boatswain and I,

The gunner and his mate

Loved Mall, Meg and Marian and Margery,

But none of us cared for Kate;

For she had a tongue with a tang,

Would cry to a sailor, Go hang!

She loved not the savour of tar nor of pitch,

Yet a tailor might scratch her where'er she did itch:

Then to sea, boys, and let her go hang!

This is a scurvy tune too: but here's my comfort.

Drinks
_________________

CALIBAN

[Sings drunkenly]

Farewell master; farewell, farewell!

TRINCULO

A howling monster: a drunken monster!

CALIBAN

No more dams I'll make for fish

Nor fetch in firing

At requiring;

Nor scrape trencher, nor wash dish

'Ban, 'Ban, Cacaliban

Has a new master: get a new man.

Freedom, hey-day! hey-day, freedom! freedom,

hey-day, freedom!

STEPHANO

O brave monster! Lead the way.

________________________________

Act III, Scene 2

Enter PROSPERO above, invisible. Enter several strange Shapes, bringing in a banquet; they dance about it with gentle actions of salutation; and, inviting the King, & c. to eat, they depart
_____________

ALONSO

I cannot too much muse

Such shapes, such gesture and such sound, expressing,

Although they want the use of tongue, a kind

Of excellent dumb discourse.

PROSPERO

[Aside] Praise in departing.

FRANCISCO

They vanish'd strangely.

SEBASTIAN

No matter, since

They have left their viands behind; for we have stomachs.

Will't please you taste of what is here?

ALONSO

Not I.

John Milton, Paradise Lost, Book 1

Lines 1-4

Of man's first disobedience, and the fruit

Of that forbidden tree, whose mortal taste

Brought death into the world, and all our woe,

With loss of Eden