Iceland," relates the following experience :-His "host having filled a silver cup to the brim, and put on the cover, then held it towards the person who sat next to him, and desired him to take off the cover and look into the cup, a ceremony intended to secure fair play in filling it. He drank our health, desiring to be excused from emptying the cup, on account of the indifferent state of his health; but we were informed at the same time that if any one of us should neglect any part of the ceremony, or fail to invert the cup, placing the edge on one of the thumbs as a proof that we had swallowed every drop, the defaulter would be obliged by the laws of drinking to fill the cup again, and drink it off a second time. In spite of their utmost exertions, the penalty of a second draught was incurred by two of the company. were dreading the consequences of having swallowed so much wine, and in terror lest the cup should be sent round again." The "laws of drinking" were as childish as they were degrading. " We The "rouse soon did its work upon Cassio, and, true to the life, he becomes garrulous and "disposed to argufy." Quoth he, "Gentlemen, let's look to our business. Do not think, gentlemen, I am drunk: this is my ancient ;-this is my right hand, and this is my left :-I am not drunk now; I can stand well enough, and I speak well enough." All. "Excellent well." Cassio. "Why, very well, then. You must not think then that I am drunk." Cassio's rough and ready proof of his sobriety calls to mind the observation of Bishop Hall, who tells us that if the drinker "could put his finger into the flame of the candle without playing hit-I-miss-I ! he is held a sober man, however otherwise drunk he might be." Montano asks the question, "But is he often thus?" And Iago replies, "Tis evermore the prologue to his sleep: If drink rock not his cradle." That is, "He'll keep awake while the clock marks two rounds of twelve hours each, if he have not drink to make him sleep." (Clarke.) It is, however, in his representation of Cassio's "coming to himself," that Shakspeare gives us his finest impeachment of Intemperance. Cassio is overwhelmed by the loss of his reputation, and in vain does Iago suggest, "Sue to him again, and he is yours." Quick comes the reply, "I will rather sue to be despised than to deceive so good a commander with so slight, so drunken, and so indiscreet an officer. Drunk? and speak parrot ? and squabble? swagger? swear? and discourse. fustian with one's own shadow ?-O thou invisible spirit of wine, if thou hast no name to be known by, let us call thee-devil!" Iago. "What was he that you followed with your sword? What had he done to you?" "I remember a mass of things, but nothing distinctly; a quarrel, but nothing wherefore.-O that men should put an enemy in their mouths to steal away their brains! that we should with joy, pleasance, revel, and applause, transform ourselves into beasts!" 66 Iago. 'Why, but you are now well enough. How came you thus recovered ?" Cassio. "It hath pleased the devil, drunkenness, to give place to the devil, wrath: one unperfectness shows me another to make me frankly despise myself." lago. "Come, you are too severe a moraler: as the time, the place, and the condition of this country stands, I could heartily wish this had not befallen; but, since it is as it is, mend it for your own good." Cassio. "I will ask him for my place again; he shall tell me I am a drunkard! Had I as many mouths as Hydra, such an answer would stop them all. To be now a sensible man, by-and-by a fool, and presently a beast! O strange-Every inordinate cup is unbless'd, and the ingredient is a devil." To-day Shakspeare's emphatic warnings against intemperance are echoed far and wide by some of our foremost public men, and almost in the Bard of Avon's own phraseology. Shakspeare's "enemy that steals away the brains," and his bitter outburst, "the ingredient is a devil," are but foreshadowings of Mr. J. Walter M.P.'s famous utterance, "the devil in solution," and Sir Henry Thompson's emphatic deliverance, "Of all the people I know who cannot stand alcohol, it is the brain-workers." CHAPTER III. "CRUSHING A CUP."- HIGHLAND HONOURS. THE AND TUDENTS do not as a rule place much value on Warburton's edition of Shaks peare. There is, however, a passage in the preface which deserves to be remembered. The Bishop aptly remarks :-"Of all the literary exercitations of speculative men, whether designed for the use or entertainment of the world, there are none of so much importance, or which are more our immediate concern, than those which let us into the knowledge of our nature. Others may exercise the reason, or amuse the imagination; but these only can improve the heart, and form the human mind to wisdom. Now, in this science our Shakspeare is confessed to occupy the foremost place, whether we consider the amazing sagacity with which he investigates every hidden spring and wheel of human action, or his happy manner of communicating this knowledge, in the just and living paint |