Note 283 — The Table. (continued 2)
Reading edition
The beverage of which these persons are here supposed to partake was probably what, in Charles the First's time, was called white wine; which, if diluted, as was no doubt very commonly done, would present a very watery aspect. A very curious account of the wines in vogue during the reigns of Elizabeth and James I. is given by Taylor the Water-Poet in his Praise of Hempseed. Cartwright, in his Ordinary, has the following passage, describing the various sorts of wine used in his day:—
"Hearsay. Thou hast forgotten Wine, Lieutenant, wine.
Slicer. Then to avoid the grosse absurdity Of a dry Battel, 'cause there must some bloud Be spilt (on th' enemies side, I mean) you may Have there a Rundlet of brisk Claret, and As much of Aligant, the same quantitie Of Tent would not be wanting, 'tis a wine Most like to bloud. Some shall bleed fainter colours, As Sack, and white wine. Some that have the itch (As there are Taylors still in every Army) Shall run with Renish, that hath Brimstone in't."
Aligant mentioned in this extract was the wine grown in Alicante, a province of the ancient Kingdom of Valencia. Sometimes it was spelled Aligaunt or Aligaunte:—
"Pseud. In Ganges Iles I thirty rivers saw Fill'd with sweet nectar.
Lach. O dainty lyer!
Pseud. Thirty rivers more With Aligaunte."
Timon, a Play, p. 39.
In the Privy Purse Expenses of Henry VIII., under date of Feb. 16, 1530, occurs the following item:—"Paied to the S'geant of the Sello' for iii tonne of white wyne of galiake (Gaillac in Languedoc)." See also the Northumberland House-Hold Book, ed. 1827, p. 414; and Taylor's Penniless Pilgrimage, 1618 (Works, 1630, i. 136).