Chapter 24

[228]Les Célébrités du Vin de Champagne, Epernay, 1880.[229]H. Taine’sL’Ancien Régime. At Rethel a poinçon of thejauge de Reimspaid 50 to 60 francs for thedroit de détailalone.[230]Arthur Young’sTravels in France in 1787–9.[231]H. Taine’sL’Ancien Régime.[232]Crebillon the younger’sLes Bijoux Indiscrets.[233]AMS.account of the wine culture of Poligny in the Jura states that in 1774 attempts were made to imitate the gray and pink wines of the Champagne, then selling at 3 livres 10 sous the bottle.[234]Erckmann-Chatrian’sHistoire d’un Paysan.[235]‘Suppose Champagne flowing,’ says Carlyle, when describing this banquet in hisFrench Revolution.[236]Carlyle’sFrench Revolution.[237]The date ‘An 1erde la liberté’ may possibly refer to the ‘Year One’ of the Republican calendar (1792), in which Mirabeau fell in a duel at Fribourg. But an earlier edition of the same caricature seems to have been published, according to De Goncourt in theJournal de la Mode et du Goût, in May 1790.[238]‘Malgré les calembours, les brocards, les dictons,Je veux à mes repas vuider mes deux flacons,’are the lines assigned to him inLe Vicomte de Barjoleau, ou le Souper des Noirs, a two-act comedy of the epoch.[239]Le GourmandLE GOURMAND: AN INCIDENT OF LOUIS XVI.’S FLIGHT FROM PARIS(From a caricature of the period).This caricature, which is neither signed nor dated, is simply entitled ‘Le Gourmand;’ though Jaime, in hisHistoire de la Caricature, states that it represents Louis XVI. at Varennes. According to Carlyle, however, the king reached Varennes at eleven o’clock at night, was at once arrested in his carriage, and taken to Procureur Sausse’s house. Here he ‘demands refreshments, as is written; gets bread-and-cheese, with a bottle of Burgundy, and remarks that it is the best Burgundy he ever drunk.’ At six o’clock the following morning he left Varennes, escorted by ten thousand National Guards. Very likely there may have been a story current at the time to the effect that the arrest was due to the king’s halting to gratify his appetite. Or the caricature may represent some incident that occurred, during his return to Paris, as he passed through the Champagne district, and halted at the Hôtel de Rohan at Epernay.[240]De Goncourt’sSociété Française pendant la Révolution.[241]Ibid.[242]St. Aubin’sExpédition de Don Quichotte.[243]Aux voleurs! aux voleurs!quoted by De Goncourt.[244]Lettres du Père Duchêne, quoted by De Goncourt.[245]Les Célébrités du Vin de Champagne, Epernay, 1880.[246]Journal de ce qui s’est passé d’intéressant à Reims en 1814.[247]Ibid.[248]G. A. Sala’sParis Herself Again.[249]Gronow’sCelebrities of London and Paris, 1865.[250]Gronow’sReminiscences, 1862.[251]‘J’aime mieux les Turcs en campagneQue de voir nos vins de ChampagneProfanés par des Allemands.’Béranger’sChansons.[252]‘Rôtis sur la haute montagneTout flamme et miel, le Médéah,Le Mascara, le MilianahFeront pâlir le gai Champagne.’Poésiesde J. Boese, de Blidah.[253]‘Il a conduit PomponnetteChez Vachette,Dans le cabinet vingt-deux;Et là, même avant la bisque,Il se risqueA lui déclarer ses feux.Elle demeure accoudée,Obsédée,Résolue à résister,Inexorable et charmanteDans sa mante,Qu’elle ne veut pas quitter.Un troisième personnage,A la nageDans un seau d’argent orné,Se soulève sur la hanche,Tête blanche,Cou de glace environné.C’est le Champagne; il susurre:“Chose sûre!Quand mon bouchon partira,Tout à l’heure, cette belleSi rebelleMollement s’apaisera.Bientôt tu verras, te dis-je,Ce prodigeCesse d’invoquer l’enfer;Ton courroux est trop facile;Imbécile,Arrache mon fil de fer!Car je suis maître Champagne,Qu’accompagneLe délire aux cent couplets;Je dompte les plus sévères.A moi, verres,Coupes, flûtes et cornets!”Aussi dit le vin superbe,Moins acerbe,La femme se sent capter.C’est une cause que gagneLe Champagne;Son bouchon vient de sauter.’Le Parfait Vigneron, Paris, 1870.[254]Titi Livii Foro-JuliensisVita Henrici Quinti. The author was aprotégéof Duke Humphrey of Gloucester.[255]Francisque Michel’sHistoire du Commerce et de la Navigation à Bordeaux. It was not till the marriage of Henry III. with Eleanor of Aquitaine that we began to import Guienne wine from Bordeaux.[256]Varin’sArchives Administratives de Reims.[257]Ibid.[258]Victor Fiévet’sHistoire d’Epernay.[259]Francisque Michel’sHistoire du Commerce et de la Navigation à Bordeaux.[260]Published in 1615.[261]That of 1574. Surflet’s translation appeared in 1600.[262]Venner’sVia recta ad longam Vitam, 1628.[263]Writing to Sir Walter Mildmay in 1569, the Earl of Shrewsbury, who had charge of the royal prisoner, complains that his regular allowance of wine duty free is not enough. ‘The expenses I have to bear this year on account of the Queen of the Scots are so considerable as to compel me to beg you will kindly consider them. In fact, two butts of wine a month hardly serve for our ordinary use; and besides this, I have to supply what is required by the Princess for her baths and similar uses.’[264]Clarendon’sMemoirs.[265]Letter of Guy Patin, 1660.[266]Otway’sSoldier’s Fortune, act iv. sc. 1, 1681.[267]Ibid.[268]Redding’sHistory and Description of Modern Wines.[269]Otway’sFriendship in Fashion, 1678.[270]‘Nous parler toujours des vinsD’Ay, d’Avenet, et de Reims.’Œuvres de Saint-Evremond.[271]‘Perdre le goût de l’huitre et du vin de ChampagnePour revoir la leur d’un débile soleilEt l’humide beauté d’une verte campagne,N’est pas à mon avis un bonheur sans pareil,La faveur de la Marne, hélas, est terminée,Et notre montagne de Reims,Qui fournit tant d’excellens vins,A peu favorisé nostre goût cette année.O triste et pitoyable sort!Faut-il avoir recours aux rives de la Loire,Ou pour le mieux au fameux port,Dont Chapelle nous fait l’histoire!Faut-il se contenter de boireComme tous les peuples du Nord?Non, non, quelle heureuse nouvelle!Monsieur de Bonrepaus arrive, il est icy,Le Champagne pour lui tousjours se renouvelle,Fuyez, Loire, Bordeaux! fuyez, Cahors, aussy!’Œuvres de Saint-Evremond:Sur la Verdure qu’on met aux cheminées en Angleterre.In these verses we trace the custom, elsewhere spoken of, of drinking the Marne wines when new. St. Evremond himself, in a passage of his prose works, says that the wines of Ay should not be kept too long, or those of Reims drunk too soon.[272]Sparkling is not used here in the modern sense of effervescing: see page90.[273]Sir George Etherege’sMan of the Mode, or Sir Fopling Flutter, act iv. sc. 1, 1676.[274]Otway’sFriendship in Fashion, act ii. sc. 1, 1678.[275]Etherege’sShe wou’d if she cou’d, act iv. sc. 2, 1668.[276]Sir Charles Sedley’sMulberry Garden, act ii. sc. 2, 1668.[277]Otway’sFriendship in Fashion, act i. sc. 1, 1678.[278]Shadwell’sVirtuoso, act ii. sc. 2, 1676.[279]By Dr. Charleton, and published as late as 1692.[280]Oldham’sParaphrases from Horace, book i. ode xxxi., 1684.[281]Oldham’sWorks, &c., 1684.[282]Butler’sHudibras, part ii. canto i., 1664. Stum is unfermented wine; and the term brisk applied to Champagne is here employed not to denote effervescence, but to indicate the contrast between the thick immature fluid and the clear carefully-made wines of the Champagne.[283]Butler’sHudibras, part iii. canto iii., 1678.[284]Sedley’sThe Doctor and his Patients. No date, but Sedley died in 1701.[285]Thomson’s Poems.[286]Cyrus Redding’s evidence before the Parliamentary Committee on the Wine-Duties, 1851.[287]Redding’sFrench Wines.[288]Varin’sArchives Administratives de Reims.[289]Louis Perrier’sMémoire sur le Vin de Champagne.[290]St. Simon’sMémoires.[291]Redding’sFrench Wines.[292]Farquhar’sLove and a Bottle, act ii. sc. 2, 1698.[293]An evident allusion to its effervescence; whilst the words ‘straw doublet’ most likely refer to the covering of the flask.[294]Cibber’sLove makes a Man, act i. sc. 1, 1700.[295]Farquhar’sThe Inconstant, or the Way to win Him, act i. scene 2, 1703.[296]Epilogue to theConstant Couple, or a Trip to the Jubileeof Farquhar, spoken by Wilks in 1700. Locket’s tavern, which stood on the site now occupied by Drummond’s bank at Charing Cross, was especially famous for its Champagne. In theQuack Vintners, a satire against Brooke and Hilliers, published in 1712, we read:‘May Locket still his ancient fame maintainFor Ortland dainties and for rich Champaign,Where new-made lords their native clay refine,And into noble blood turn noble wine.’[297]Farquhar’sTwin Rivals, act v. sc. 1, 1705.[298]Several other writers, who speak of ‘bottles’ of other wines, use the word ‘flask’ when referring to Champagne.[299]Farquhar’sBeaux’ Stratagem, act iii. sc. 3, 1706.[300]Memoir, prefixed to Leigh Hunt’s edition of Congreve’s works.[301]Cunninghame’sHistory of Britain from the Revolution to the Hanover Succession.[302]Farquhar’sThe Constant Couple, or a Trip to the Jubilee, act v. sc. 1, 1700. M. Francisque Michel, in hisHistoire du Commerce et de la Navigation à Bordeaux, clearly establishes that from the beginning to the middle of the eighteenth century all the best growths of the Médoc were bought and shipped for England. It was not until after 1755 that any went to Paris.[303]‘Vos, ô Britanni (fœdera nam sinuntIncœpta pacis) dissociabilemTranate pontum. Quid cruentoPerdere opes juvat usque Marte.Lætis Remensam quam satius fuitStipare Bacchum navibus; et domumAnferre funestis trophæisExuvias pretiosiores!’Coffin’sCampania vindicata, 1712. The force of the reference to England is better understood when it is mentioned that no other nation is alluded to as purchasing the wines of the Champagne.[304]A practice not lost sight of at a later date, to judge from Borachio’s observation, ‘I turn Alicant into Burgundy and sour cider into Champagne of the first growth of France.’ Jephson’sTwo Strings to your Bow, act i. sc. 2.[305]The Tatler, No. 131, Feb. 9, 1709.[306]Mrs. Centlivre’sA Bold Stroke for a Wife, act v. sc. 1, 1718.[307]Gay’s poemOn Wine, published in 1708.[308]Gay’sWelcome from Greece.[309]Prior’sAlma, or the Progress of the Mind.[310]Prior’sAlma, or the Progress of the Mind.[311]Prior’sBibo and Charon.[312]Shenstone’sVerses written at a Tavern at Henley.[313]Vanbrugh’sJourney to London, act i. sc. 2. Left unfinished at his death in 1726.[314]Swift’sJournal to Stella, March 12, 1712–13.[315]Ibid. Feb. 20, 1712–13.[316]Ibid. April 9, 1711.[317]Ibid. March 18, 1710.[318]Ibid. March 29, 1711–12.[319]Ibid. Dec. 21, 1711.[320]Ibid. April 7, 1711.[321]Letter to Mr. Congreve, April 7, 1715.[322]Mrs. Centlivre’sA Bold Stroke for a Wife, act i. sc. 1, 1718.[323]Fielding’sThe Miser, 1732.[324]The Rake’s Progress, or the Humours of Drury Lane: a poem published in 1735, to accompany a set of prints pirated from Hogarth’s.[325]Blunt’sGeneva: a poem dedicated to Sir R. Walpole, 1729.[326]Hoadley’sSuspicious Husband, act iv. sc. 1, 1747.[327]This wine, though sometimes sent by way of Dunkirk, was usually forwardedviâCalais, by the intermediary of a Sieur Labertauche, a commission-agent at that port, the cost of transport from Epernay to Calais being from 70 to 75 livres per queue. Abobillonof wine was sent with each lot of casks for filling up. Moreover, from 1731 Bertin annually despatches a certain quantity of cream of tartar, destined to cure the ropiness to which all white wines were especially subject before the discovery that tannin destroys the principle engendering this disease.[328]Chabane appears to have been fully cognisant of the method ofcollageandsoutirage(fining and racking) practised in the Champagne; and Bertin, in one of his letters dated July 1752, mentions the enclosure of a receipt for a kind ofcollage, by following which all necessity todépoterthe bottles is obviated. This enclosure is unfortunately lost.[329]Ms. correspondence of Bertin du Rocheret, quoted by M. Louis Perrier in hisMémoire sur le Vin de Champagne. M. Perrier states that the prohibition was removed by an act of the 1st Nov. 1745; and a letter of Bertin to Chabane, the following year, bears this out. It is therefore singular to find the following entry in Bubb Doddington’sDiary, under the date of Feb. 1, 1753: ‘Went to the House to vote for liberty to import Champaign in bottles. Lord Hillsborough moved it; Mr. Fox seconded it. We lost the Motion. Ayes, 74; Noes, 141.’[330]Letter to Sir Horace Mann, June 18, 1751.[331]Jesse’sSelwyn and his Contemporaries. It is very probable that the name printed as Prissieux is really Puissieux, a title of the Sillery family.[332]Lady Mary Wortley Montague’sLetter from Arthur Grey, the Footman, to Mrs. Murray. Written in the autumn of 1721.[333]Lady M. W. Montague’sThe Lover. This is generally designated ‘a ballad to Mr. Congreve,’ but is headed in Lady Mary’s note-book, ‘To Molly,’ and, as Mr. Moy Thomas has suggested, was probably addressed to Lord Hervey, Pope’s ‘Lord Fanny.’[334]Note to hisLetter on Bowles.[335]Westminster Magazine, 1774.[336]Grainger’sThe Sugar Cane, 1764.[337]Coleman and Garrick’sClandestine Marriage, act i. sc. 2, 1766.[338]Garrick’sBon Ton, or High Life above Stairs, act i. sc. 2, 1775.[339]Ibid.[340]Ibid. act ii. sc. 1.[341]Townley’sHigh Life below Stairs, act ii. sc. 1, 1759.[342]So in Mrs. Cowley’sWhich is the Man?Burgundy is extolled and ‘vile Port’ denounced; and in Cumberland’sThe Fashionable Lover(1772) a sneer is levelled at a ‘paltry Port-drinking club.’ Burgundy, too, is in favour in Holcroft’sThe Road to Ruin, 1792.[343]Foote’sThe Lame Lover, act iii. sc. 1, 1770.[344]Garrick’sThe Country Girl, act v. sc. 1.[345]Foote’sThe Fair Maid of Bath, act i. sc. 1, 1771.[346]Holcroft’sThe Road to Ruin, act iv. sc. 2, 1792.[347]Sir Edward Barry’sObservations, Historical, Critical, and Medical, on the Wines of the Ancients, and the analogy between them and Modern Wines, 1775.[348]Tickell’sPoems.[349]Timbs’Clubs and Club Life.[350]In theEncyclopédie Méthodique.

[228]Les Célébrités du Vin de Champagne, Epernay, 1880.

[229]H. Taine’sL’Ancien Régime. At Rethel a poinçon of thejauge de Reimspaid 50 to 60 francs for thedroit de détailalone.

[230]Arthur Young’sTravels in France in 1787–9.

[231]H. Taine’sL’Ancien Régime.

[232]Crebillon the younger’sLes Bijoux Indiscrets.

[233]AMS.account of the wine culture of Poligny in the Jura states that in 1774 attempts were made to imitate the gray and pink wines of the Champagne, then selling at 3 livres 10 sous the bottle.

[234]Erckmann-Chatrian’sHistoire d’un Paysan.

[235]‘Suppose Champagne flowing,’ says Carlyle, when describing this banquet in hisFrench Revolution.

[236]Carlyle’sFrench Revolution.

[237]The date ‘An 1erde la liberté’ may possibly refer to the ‘Year One’ of the Republican calendar (1792), in which Mirabeau fell in a duel at Fribourg. But an earlier edition of the same caricature seems to have been published, according to De Goncourt in theJournal de la Mode et du Goût, in May 1790.

[238]‘Malgré les calembours, les brocards, les dictons,Je veux à mes repas vuider mes deux flacons,’are the lines assigned to him inLe Vicomte de Barjoleau, ou le Souper des Noirs, a two-act comedy of the epoch.

[238]

‘Malgré les calembours, les brocards, les dictons,Je veux à mes repas vuider mes deux flacons,’

‘Malgré les calembours, les brocards, les dictons,

Je veux à mes repas vuider mes deux flacons,’

are the lines assigned to him inLe Vicomte de Barjoleau, ou le Souper des Noirs, a two-act comedy of the epoch.

[239]Le GourmandLE GOURMAND: AN INCIDENT OF LOUIS XVI.’S FLIGHT FROM PARIS(From a caricature of the period).This caricature, which is neither signed nor dated, is simply entitled ‘Le Gourmand;’ though Jaime, in hisHistoire de la Caricature, states that it represents Louis XVI. at Varennes. According to Carlyle, however, the king reached Varennes at eleven o’clock at night, was at once arrested in his carriage, and taken to Procureur Sausse’s house. Here he ‘demands refreshments, as is written; gets bread-and-cheese, with a bottle of Burgundy, and remarks that it is the best Burgundy he ever drunk.’ At six o’clock the following morning he left Varennes, escorted by ten thousand National Guards. Very likely there may have been a story current at the time to the effect that the arrest was due to the king’s halting to gratify his appetite. Or the caricature may represent some incident that occurred, during his return to Paris, as he passed through the Champagne district, and halted at the Hôtel de Rohan at Epernay.

[239]

Le GourmandLE GOURMAND: AN INCIDENT OF LOUIS XVI.’S FLIGHT FROM PARIS(From a caricature of the period).

LE GOURMAND: AN INCIDENT OF LOUIS XVI.’S FLIGHT FROM PARIS(From a caricature of the period).

This caricature, which is neither signed nor dated, is simply entitled ‘Le Gourmand;’ though Jaime, in hisHistoire de la Caricature, states that it represents Louis XVI. at Varennes. According to Carlyle, however, the king reached Varennes at eleven o’clock at night, was at once arrested in his carriage, and taken to Procureur Sausse’s house. Here he ‘demands refreshments, as is written; gets bread-and-cheese, with a bottle of Burgundy, and remarks that it is the best Burgundy he ever drunk.’ At six o’clock the following morning he left Varennes, escorted by ten thousand National Guards. Very likely there may have been a story current at the time to the effect that the arrest was due to the king’s halting to gratify his appetite. Or the caricature may represent some incident that occurred, during his return to Paris, as he passed through the Champagne district, and halted at the Hôtel de Rohan at Epernay.

[240]De Goncourt’sSociété Française pendant la Révolution.

[241]Ibid.

[242]St. Aubin’sExpédition de Don Quichotte.

[243]Aux voleurs! aux voleurs!quoted by De Goncourt.

[244]Lettres du Père Duchêne, quoted by De Goncourt.

[245]Les Célébrités du Vin de Champagne, Epernay, 1880.

[246]Journal de ce qui s’est passé d’intéressant à Reims en 1814.

[247]Ibid.

[248]G. A. Sala’sParis Herself Again.

[249]Gronow’sCelebrities of London and Paris, 1865.

[250]Gronow’sReminiscences, 1862.

[251]‘J’aime mieux les Turcs en campagneQue de voir nos vins de ChampagneProfanés par des Allemands.’Béranger’sChansons.

[251]

‘J’aime mieux les Turcs en campagneQue de voir nos vins de ChampagneProfanés par des Allemands.’

‘J’aime mieux les Turcs en campagne

Que de voir nos vins de Champagne

Profanés par des Allemands.’

Béranger’sChansons.

[252]‘Rôtis sur la haute montagneTout flamme et miel, le Médéah,Le Mascara, le MilianahFeront pâlir le gai Champagne.’Poésiesde J. Boese, de Blidah.

[252]

‘Rôtis sur la haute montagneTout flamme et miel, le Médéah,Le Mascara, le MilianahFeront pâlir le gai Champagne.’

‘Rôtis sur la haute montagne

Tout flamme et miel, le Médéah,

Le Mascara, le Milianah

Feront pâlir le gai Champagne.’

Poésiesde J. Boese, de Blidah.

[253]‘Il a conduit PomponnetteChez Vachette,Dans le cabinet vingt-deux;Et là, même avant la bisque,Il se risqueA lui déclarer ses feux.Elle demeure accoudée,Obsédée,Résolue à résister,Inexorable et charmanteDans sa mante,Qu’elle ne veut pas quitter.Un troisième personnage,A la nageDans un seau d’argent orné,Se soulève sur la hanche,Tête blanche,Cou de glace environné.C’est le Champagne; il susurre:“Chose sûre!Quand mon bouchon partira,Tout à l’heure, cette belleSi rebelleMollement s’apaisera.Bientôt tu verras, te dis-je,Ce prodigeCesse d’invoquer l’enfer;Ton courroux est trop facile;Imbécile,Arrache mon fil de fer!Car je suis maître Champagne,Qu’accompagneLe délire aux cent couplets;Je dompte les plus sévères.A moi, verres,Coupes, flûtes et cornets!”Aussi dit le vin superbe,Moins acerbe,La femme se sent capter.C’est une cause que gagneLe Champagne;Son bouchon vient de sauter.’Le Parfait Vigneron, Paris, 1870.

[253]

‘Il a conduit PomponnetteChez Vachette,Dans le cabinet vingt-deux;Et là, même avant la bisque,Il se risqueA lui déclarer ses feux.Elle demeure accoudée,Obsédée,Résolue à résister,Inexorable et charmanteDans sa mante,Qu’elle ne veut pas quitter.Un troisième personnage,A la nageDans un seau d’argent orné,Se soulève sur la hanche,Tête blanche,Cou de glace environné.C’est le Champagne; il susurre:“Chose sûre!Quand mon bouchon partira,Tout à l’heure, cette belleSi rebelleMollement s’apaisera.Bientôt tu verras, te dis-je,Ce prodigeCesse d’invoquer l’enfer;Ton courroux est trop facile;Imbécile,Arrache mon fil de fer!Car je suis maître Champagne,Qu’accompagneLe délire aux cent couplets;Je dompte les plus sévères.A moi, verres,Coupes, flûtes et cornets!”Aussi dit le vin superbe,Moins acerbe,La femme se sent capter.C’est une cause que gagneLe Champagne;Son bouchon vient de sauter.’

‘Il a conduit PomponnetteChez Vachette,Dans le cabinet vingt-deux;Et là, même avant la bisque,Il se risqueA lui déclarer ses feux.

‘Il a conduit Pomponnette

Chez Vachette,

Dans le cabinet vingt-deux;

Et là, même avant la bisque,

Il se risque

A lui déclarer ses feux.

Elle demeure accoudée,Obsédée,Résolue à résister,Inexorable et charmanteDans sa mante,Qu’elle ne veut pas quitter.

Elle demeure accoudée,

Obsédée,

Résolue à résister,

Inexorable et charmante

Dans sa mante,

Qu’elle ne veut pas quitter.

Un troisième personnage,A la nageDans un seau d’argent orné,Se soulève sur la hanche,Tête blanche,Cou de glace environné.

Un troisième personnage,

A la nage

Dans un seau d’argent orné,

Se soulève sur la hanche,

Tête blanche,

Cou de glace environné.

C’est le Champagne; il susurre:“Chose sûre!Quand mon bouchon partira,Tout à l’heure, cette belleSi rebelleMollement s’apaisera.

C’est le Champagne; il susurre:

“Chose sûre!

Quand mon bouchon partira,

Tout à l’heure, cette belle

Si rebelle

Mollement s’apaisera.

Bientôt tu verras, te dis-je,Ce prodigeCesse d’invoquer l’enfer;Ton courroux est trop facile;Imbécile,Arrache mon fil de fer!

Bientôt tu verras, te dis-je,

Ce prodige

Cesse d’invoquer l’enfer;

Ton courroux est trop facile;

Imbécile,

Arrache mon fil de fer!

Car je suis maître Champagne,Qu’accompagneLe délire aux cent couplets;Je dompte les plus sévères.A moi, verres,Coupes, flûtes et cornets!”

Car je suis maître Champagne,

Qu’accompagne

Le délire aux cent couplets;

Je dompte les plus sévères.

A moi, verres,

Coupes, flûtes et cornets!”

Aussi dit le vin superbe,Moins acerbe,La femme se sent capter.C’est une cause que gagneLe Champagne;Son bouchon vient de sauter.’

Aussi dit le vin superbe,

Moins acerbe,

La femme se sent capter.

C’est une cause que gagne

Le Champagne;

Son bouchon vient de sauter.’

Le Parfait Vigneron, Paris, 1870.

[254]Titi Livii Foro-JuliensisVita Henrici Quinti. The author was aprotégéof Duke Humphrey of Gloucester.

[255]Francisque Michel’sHistoire du Commerce et de la Navigation à Bordeaux. It was not till the marriage of Henry III. with Eleanor of Aquitaine that we began to import Guienne wine from Bordeaux.

[256]Varin’sArchives Administratives de Reims.

[257]Ibid.

[258]Victor Fiévet’sHistoire d’Epernay.

[259]Francisque Michel’sHistoire du Commerce et de la Navigation à Bordeaux.

[260]Published in 1615.

[261]That of 1574. Surflet’s translation appeared in 1600.

[262]Venner’sVia recta ad longam Vitam, 1628.

[263]Writing to Sir Walter Mildmay in 1569, the Earl of Shrewsbury, who had charge of the royal prisoner, complains that his regular allowance of wine duty free is not enough. ‘The expenses I have to bear this year on account of the Queen of the Scots are so considerable as to compel me to beg you will kindly consider them. In fact, two butts of wine a month hardly serve for our ordinary use; and besides this, I have to supply what is required by the Princess for her baths and similar uses.’

[264]Clarendon’sMemoirs.

[265]Letter of Guy Patin, 1660.

[266]Otway’sSoldier’s Fortune, act iv. sc. 1, 1681.

[267]Ibid.

[268]Redding’sHistory and Description of Modern Wines.

[269]Otway’sFriendship in Fashion, 1678.

[270]‘Nous parler toujours des vinsD’Ay, d’Avenet, et de Reims.’Œuvres de Saint-Evremond.

[270]

‘Nous parler toujours des vinsD’Ay, d’Avenet, et de Reims.’

‘Nous parler toujours des vins

D’Ay, d’Avenet, et de Reims.’

Œuvres de Saint-Evremond.

[271]‘Perdre le goût de l’huitre et du vin de ChampagnePour revoir la leur d’un débile soleilEt l’humide beauté d’une verte campagne,N’est pas à mon avis un bonheur sans pareil,La faveur de la Marne, hélas, est terminée,Et notre montagne de Reims,Qui fournit tant d’excellens vins,A peu favorisé nostre goût cette année.O triste et pitoyable sort!Faut-il avoir recours aux rives de la Loire,Ou pour le mieux au fameux port,Dont Chapelle nous fait l’histoire!Faut-il se contenter de boireComme tous les peuples du Nord?Non, non, quelle heureuse nouvelle!Monsieur de Bonrepaus arrive, il est icy,Le Champagne pour lui tousjours se renouvelle,Fuyez, Loire, Bordeaux! fuyez, Cahors, aussy!’Œuvres de Saint-Evremond:Sur la Verdure qu’on met aux cheminées en Angleterre.In these verses we trace the custom, elsewhere spoken of, of drinking the Marne wines when new. St. Evremond himself, in a passage of his prose works, says that the wines of Ay should not be kept too long, or those of Reims drunk too soon.

[271]

‘Perdre le goût de l’huitre et du vin de ChampagnePour revoir la leur d’un débile soleilEt l’humide beauté d’une verte campagne,N’est pas à mon avis un bonheur sans pareil,La faveur de la Marne, hélas, est terminée,Et notre montagne de Reims,Qui fournit tant d’excellens vins,A peu favorisé nostre goût cette année.O triste et pitoyable sort!Faut-il avoir recours aux rives de la Loire,Ou pour le mieux au fameux port,Dont Chapelle nous fait l’histoire!Faut-il se contenter de boireComme tous les peuples du Nord?Non, non, quelle heureuse nouvelle!Monsieur de Bonrepaus arrive, il est icy,Le Champagne pour lui tousjours se renouvelle,Fuyez, Loire, Bordeaux! fuyez, Cahors, aussy!’

‘Perdre le goût de l’huitre et du vin de Champagne

Pour revoir la leur d’un débile soleil

Et l’humide beauté d’une verte campagne,

N’est pas à mon avis un bonheur sans pareil,

La faveur de la Marne, hélas, est terminée,

Et notre montagne de Reims,

Qui fournit tant d’excellens vins,

A peu favorisé nostre goût cette année.

O triste et pitoyable sort!

Faut-il avoir recours aux rives de la Loire,

Ou pour le mieux au fameux port,

Dont Chapelle nous fait l’histoire!

Faut-il se contenter de boire

Comme tous les peuples du Nord?

Non, non, quelle heureuse nouvelle!

Monsieur de Bonrepaus arrive, il est icy,

Le Champagne pour lui tousjours se renouvelle,

Fuyez, Loire, Bordeaux! fuyez, Cahors, aussy!’

Œuvres de Saint-Evremond:Sur la Verdure qu’on met aux cheminées en Angleterre.

In these verses we trace the custom, elsewhere spoken of, of drinking the Marne wines when new. St. Evremond himself, in a passage of his prose works, says that the wines of Ay should not be kept too long, or those of Reims drunk too soon.

[272]Sparkling is not used here in the modern sense of effervescing: see page90.

[273]Sir George Etherege’sMan of the Mode, or Sir Fopling Flutter, act iv. sc. 1, 1676.

[274]Otway’sFriendship in Fashion, act ii. sc. 1, 1678.

[275]Etherege’sShe wou’d if she cou’d, act iv. sc. 2, 1668.

[276]Sir Charles Sedley’sMulberry Garden, act ii. sc. 2, 1668.

[277]Otway’sFriendship in Fashion, act i. sc. 1, 1678.

[278]Shadwell’sVirtuoso, act ii. sc. 2, 1676.

[279]By Dr. Charleton, and published as late as 1692.

[280]Oldham’sParaphrases from Horace, book i. ode xxxi., 1684.

[281]Oldham’sWorks, &c., 1684.

[282]Butler’sHudibras, part ii. canto i., 1664. Stum is unfermented wine; and the term brisk applied to Champagne is here employed not to denote effervescence, but to indicate the contrast between the thick immature fluid and the clear carefully-made wines of the Champagne.

[283]Butler’sHudibras, part iii. canto iii., 1678.

[284]Sedley’sThe Doctor and his Patients. No date, but Sedley died in 1701.

[285]Thomson’s Poems.

[286]Cyrus Redding’s evidence before the Parliamentary Committee on the Wine-Duties, 1851.

[287]Redding’sFrench Wines.

[288]Varin’sArchives Administratives de Reims.

[289]Louis Perrier’sMémoire sur le Vin de Champagne.

[290]St. Simon’sMémoires.

[291]Redding’sFrench Wines.

[292]Farquhar’sLove and a Bottle, act ii. sc. 2, 1698.

[293]An evident allusion to its effervescence; whilst the words ‘straw doublet’ most likely refer to the covering of the flask.

[294]Cibber’sLove makes a Man, act i. sc. 1, 1700.

[295]Farquhar’sThe Inconstant, or the Way to win Him, act i. scene 2, 1703.

[296]Epilogue to theConstant Couple, or a Trip to the Jubileeof Farquhar, spoken by Wilks in 1700. Locket’s tavern, which stood on the site now occupied by Drummond’s bank at Charing Cross, was especially famous for its Champagne. In theQuack Vintners, a satire against Brooke and Hilliers, published in 1712, we read:‘May Locket still his ancient fame maintainFor Ortland dainties and for rich Champaign,Where new-made lords their native clay refine,And into noble blood turn noble wine.’

‘May Locket still his ancient fame maintainFor Ortland dainties and for rich Champaign,Where new-made lords their native clay refine,And into noble blood turn noble wine.’

‘May Locket still his ancient fame maintain

For Ortland dainties and for rich Champaign,

Where new-made lords their native clay refine,

And into noble blood turn noble wine.’

[297]Farquhar’sTwin Rivals, act v. sc. 1, 1705.

[298]Several other writers, who speak of ‘bottles’ of other wines, use the word ‘flask’ when referring to Champagne.

[299]Farquhar’sBeaux’ Stratagem, act iii. sc. 3, 1706.

[300]Memoir, prefixed to Leigh Hunt’s edition of Congreve’s works.

[301]Cunninghame’sHistory of Britain from the Revolution to the Hanover Succession.

[302]Farquhar’sThe Constant Couple, or a Trip to the Jubilee, act v. sc. 1, 1700. M. Francisque Michel, in hisHistoire du Commerce et de la Navigation à Bordeaux, clearly establishes that from the beginning to the middle of the eighteenth century all the best growths of the Médoc were bought and shipped for England. It was not until after 1755 that any went to Paris.

[303]‘Vos, ô Britanni (fœdera nam sinuntIncœpta pacis) dissociabilemTranate pontum. Quid cruentoPerdere opes juvat usque Marte.Lætis Remensam quam satius fuitStipare Bacchum navibus; et domumAnferre funestis trophæisExuvias pretiosiores!’Coffin’sCampania vindicata, 1712. The force of the reference to England is better understood when it is mentioned that no other nation is alluded to as purchasing the wines of the Champagne.

[303]

‘Vos, ô Britanni (fœdera nam sinuntIncœpta pacis) dissociabilemTranate pontum. Quid cruentoPerdere opes juvat usque Marte.Lætis Remensam quam satius fuitStipare Bacchum navibus; et domumAnferre funestis trophæisExuvias pretiosiores!’

‘Vos, ô Britanni (fœdera nam sinunt

Incœpta pacis) dissociabilem

Tranate pontum. Quid cruento

Perdere opes juvat usque Marte.

Lætis Remensam quam satius fuitStipare Bacchum navibus; et domumAnferre funestis trophæisExuvias pretiosiores!’

Lætis Remensam quam satius fuit

Stipare Bacchum navibus; et domum

Anferre funestis trophæis

Exuvias pretiosiores!’

Coffin’sCampania vindicata, 1712. The force of the reference to England is better understood when it is mentioned that no other nation is alluded to as purchasing the wines of the Champagne.

[304]A practice not lost sight of at a later date, to judge from Borachio’s observation, ‘I turn Alicant into Burgundy and sour cider into Champagne of the first growth of France.’ Jephson’sTwo Strings to your Bow, act i. sc. 2.

[305]The Tatler, No. 131, Feb. 9, 1709.

[306]Mrs. Centlivre’sA Bold Stroke for a Wife, act v. sc. 1, 1718.

[307]Gay’s poemOn Wine, published in 1708.

[308]Gay’sWelcome from Greece.

[309]Prior’sAlma, or the Progress of the Mind.

[310]Prior’sAlma, or the Progress of the Mind.

[311]Prior’sBibo and Charon.

[312]Shenstone’sVerses written at a Tavern at Henley.

[313]Vanbrugh’sJourney to London, act i. sc. 2. Left unfinished at his death in 1726.

[314]Swift’sJournal to Stella, March 12, 1712–13.

[315]Ibid. Feb. 20, 1712–13.

[316]Ibid. April 9, 1711.

[317]Ibid. March 18, 1710.

[318]Ibid. March 29, 1711–12.

[319]Ibid. Dec. 21, 1711.

[320]Ibid. April 7, 1711.

[321]Letter to Mr. Congreve, April 7, 1715.

[322]Mrs. Centlivre’sA Bold Stroke for a Wife, act i. sc. 1, 1718.

[323]Fielding’sThe Miser, 1732.

[324]The Rake’s Progress, or the Humours of Drury Lane: a poem published in 1735, to accompany a set of prints pirated from Hogarth’s.

[325]Blunt’sGeneva: a poem dedicated to Sir R. Walpole, 1729.

[326]Hoadley’sSuspicious Husband, act iv. sc. 1, 1747.

[327]This wine, though sometimes sent by way of Dunkirk, was usually forwardedviâCalais, by the intermediary of a Sieur Labertauche, a commission-agent at that port, the cost of transport from Epernay to Calais being from 70 to 75 livres per queue. Abobillonof wine was sent with each lot of casks for filling up. Moreover, from 1731 Bertin annually despatches a certain quantity of cream of tartar, destined to cure the ropiness to which all white wines were especially subject before the discovery that tannin destroys the principle engendering this disease.

[328]Chabane appears to have been fully cognisant of the method ofcollageandsoutirage(fining and racking) practised in the Champagne; and Bertin, in one of his letters dated July 1752, mentions the enclosure of a receipt for a kind ofcollage, by following which all necessity todépoterthe bottles is obviated. This enclosure is unfortunately lost.

[329]Ms. correspondence of Bertin du Rocheret, quoted by M. Louis Perrier in hisMémoire sur le Vin de Champagne. M. Perrier states that the prohibition was removed by an act of the 1st Nov. 1745; and a letter of Bertin to Chabane, the following year, bears this out. It is therefore singular to find the following entry in Bubb Doddington’sDiary, under the date of Feb. 1, 1753: ‘Went to the House to vote for liberty to import Champaign in bottles. Lord Hillsborough moved it; Mr. Fox seconded it. We lost the Motion. Ayes, 74; Noes, 141.’

[330]Letter to Sir Horace Mann, June 18, 1751.

[331]Jesse’sSelwyn and his Contemporaries. It is very probable that the name printed as Prissieux is really Puissieux, a title of the Sillery family.

[332]Lady Mary Wortley Montague’sLetter from Arthur Grey, the Footman, to Mrs. Murray. Written in the autumn of 1721.

[333]Lady M. W. Montague’sThe Lover. This is generally designated ‘a ballad to Mr. Congreve,’ but is headed in Lady Mary’s note-book, ‘To Molly,’ and, as Mr. Moy Thomas has suggested, was probably addressed to Lord Hervey, Pope’s ‘Lord Fanny.’

[334]Note to hisLetter on Bowles.

[335]Westminster Magazine, 1774.

[336]Grainger’sThe Sugar Cane, 1764.

[337]Coleman and Garrick’sClandestine Marriage, act i. sc. 2, 1766.

[338]Garrick’sBon Ton, or High Life above Stairs, act i. sc. 2, 1775.

[339]Ibid.

[340]Ibid. act ii. sc. 1.

[341]Townley’sHigh Life below Stairs, act ii. sc. 1, 1759.

[342]So in Mrs. Cowley’sWhich is the Man?Burgundy is extolled and ‘vile Port’ denounced; and in Cumberland’sThe Fashionable Lover(1772) a sneer is levelled at a ‘paltry Port-drinking club.’ Burgundy, too, is in favour in Holcroft’sThe Road to Ruin, 1792.

[343]Foote’sThe Lame Lover, act iii. sc. 1, 1770.

[344]Garrick’sThe Country Girl, act v. sc. 1.

[345]Foote’sThe Fair Maid of Bath, act i. sc. 1, 1771.

[346]Holcroft’sThe Road to Ruin, act iv. sc. 2, 1792.

[347]Sir Edward Barry’sObservations, Historical, Critical, and Medical, on the Wines of the Ancients, and the analogy between them and Modern Wines, 1775.

[348]Tickell’sPoems.

[349]Timbs’Clubs and Club Life.

[350]In theEncyclopédie Méthodique.

Back to Index Next