Shakespeare Electronic Conference, Vol. 5, No. 0068.  Friday, 28 January 1994.
 
(1)     From:   Jon Enriquez <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>
        Date:   Thursday, 27 Jan 1994 18:16:47 -0500 (EST)
        Subj:   Beer, ale, potables
 
(2)     From:   Terence Hawkes <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>
        Date:   Friday, 28 Jan 94 10:03 BST
        Subj:   RE: SHK 5.0063 Re: Beer and Ale
 
 
(1)----------------------------------------------------------------------------
From:           Jon Enriquez <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>
Date:           Thursday, 27 Jan 1994 18:16:47 -0500 (EST)
Subject:        Beer, ale, potables
 
Because I have a textual fetish, I ran to the library to look up references to
beer and other beverages in the Harvard Concordance. I found six references to
beer, and all of them used "small beer," literally meaning 'weak beer' and
figuratively meaning 'trifles, items of no consequence.'  I suppose that to
Shakespeare's characters, anyway, beer was small beer...
 
There are many references to sack, most of them in the Falstaff plays.  In
sheer numbers, there are almost as many references to sack as to wine.  I don't
remember what I found about ale (I did this three days ago), but I don't have
any notes on it.
 
Beer was discovered thousands of years ago by the old Sumerians. They treated
it as a staple, and some believe that in Sumerian culture it antedates bread.
It was certainly used as bread was, i.e. as a major source of carbohydrates and
nutrients.  Of course, their recipes are considerably different from ours;
apparently Sumerian beer included honey, raisins, and other things that are
totally alien to the brewers of Jax, Falstaff, Rainier, Iron City, and
Narragansett.
 
On a marginally related note:  Does anyone know whether the Harvard
concordance, or any other, is available on gopher?
 
Jon Enriquez
The Graduate School
Georgetown University
ENRIQUEZJ@guvax     (Bitnet)
This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.     (Internet)
 
(2)----------------------------------------------------------------------------
From:           Terence Hawkes <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>
Date:           Friday, 28 Jan 94 10:03 BST
Subject: 5.0063 Re: Beer and Ale
Comment:        RE: SHK 5.0063 Re: Beer and Ale
 
In Britain the only drink is Real Ale (join the Campaign for Real Ale, or
CAMRA!). Most of the rest is Euro-fizz and rots the socks.
 
T. Hawkes

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