[Sca-cooks] Brown Ale -
Stefan li Rous
StefanliRous at austin.rr.com
Sun Jun 7 23:34:39 PDT 2009
<<< The nut-brown ale, the nut-brown ale,
Puts down all drink when it is stale!
The toast, the nutmeg, and the ginger
Will make a sighing man a singer.
Ale gives a buffet in the head,
But ginger under-props the brain;
When ale would strike a strong man dead
Then nutmeg tempers it again.
The nut-brown ale, the nut-brown ale,
Puts down all drink when it is stale!
John Marston (1575?-1634)
My read on the line "puts down all drink when it is stale" means, even
when it's gone bad, it's still better than anything else around.
Selene >>>
"stale" in this case has nothing to do with it being bad. I believe it
means still. Unfortunately, I can't seem to find my evidence for this
definition in the Florilegium from when we discussed it before.
Can someone look this up in the OED?
Stefan
--------
THLord Stefan li Rous Barony of Bryn Gwlad Kingdom of Ansteorra
Mark S. Harris Austin, Texas StefanliRous at austin.rr.com
**** See Stefan's Florilegium files at: http://www.florilegium.org ****
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