Woe unto them that rise up early in the morning, [that] they may follow strong drink; that continue until night, [till] wine inflame them!
Ver. 11. Woe unto them that rise up early.] Heb., The early risers, but for an ill purpose. O intolerandum flagitium, saith one, a homines inertiae, somnique plenissimos, &c.; O intolerable wickedness, that men so lazy, and more sleepy than dormice, should be up and at it so very early - they rise early to corrupt their actions, saith another prophet Zep 3:7 - and should have their brains crowing before day. Neither are they so soon up alone, but they call up others (as the Hebrew word here signifieth) to serve them, and sit with them on their ale bench; for they are good fellows, they say, and must have company.
That they may follow strong drink.] b Pursue it eagerly, as the worldling doth his gain, the hunter his game. Their motto is, Take away our liquor, ye take away our life. By strong drink, here understand any inebriating liquor, whereof, besides wine, the Italians have twenty distinct kinds, to please the gusto. Pliny c cries out, Hei mira vitiorum solertia inventum est quemadmodum aqua quoque inebriaret! Portentosum sane potionis genus, &c.
That continue unto night.] All the life long days these ale stakes stick to it, quaffing and carousing. Diem noctemque continuare potando nulli probrum, saith Tacitus of the old Germans. To drink whole days together is among them no disgrace, neither is it among many of their posterity to this day. About the midst of Queen Elizabeth's reign that cursed sin was first brought over into England, say some, out of the Low Countries; before which time there was neither general practice nor legal punishment of that vice in this kingdom. d
Till wine inflame them.] By which expression, Omnem ebriorum insanium intelligit, saith Oecolampadius, he meaneth all the drunkard's mad pranks, when heated with wine, and yet more with lusts and passions; see Proverbs 23:29,34. Tyrone the rebel, 1567, was such a drunkard, that to cool his body when it was immoderately inflamed with wine and whisky, he would many times be buried in the earth up to the chin. e
a Osor. in loc.
b Studium ebrietatis illis obiecit,
c Lib. xiv. cap. ult.
d Fuller's Church History, p. 61.
e Camden's Elisabeth, p. 89.