Text Authorship:
- by Anonymous / Unidentified Author, "Potatores exquisiti"
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Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]
This text was added to the website: 2010-04-04
Line count: 47
Word count: 151
To you, consummate drinkers,
Though little be your drought,
Good speed be to your tankards,
And send the wine about.
Let not the full decanter
Sleep on its round,
And may unheard-of banter
In wit abound.
If any cannot carry
His liquor as he should,
Let him no longer tarry,
No place here for the prude.
No room among the happy
For modesty.
A fashion only fit for clowns,
Sobriety.
If such by chance are lurking
Let them be shown the door ;
He who good wine is shirking,
Is one of us no more.
A death's head is his face to us,
If he abide.
Who cannot keep the pace with us,
As well he died.
...
But between god and goddess,
Let there no marriage be,
For he whose name is Liber
Exults in liberty.
Let none his single virtue
Adulterate,
Wine that is wed with water is
Emasculate.
Queen of the sea we grant her,
Goddess without demur,
But to be bride to Bacchus
Is not for the like of her.
For Bacchus drinking water
Hath no man seen;
Nor ever hath his godship
Baptized been.
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Composition:
- Set to music by Gustav Holst (1874 - 1934), "Drinking song", op. 52 no. 5, H. 186 no. 5 (1931-2), stanzas 1-3,5-6 [ male voices and strings ], from Six Choruses for male voices and string orchestra, no. 5
Text Authorship:
- by Helen Jane Waddell (1889 - 1965), "To you, consummate drinkers", appears in Medieval Latin Lyrics, first published 1929
Based on:
- a text in Latin by Anonymous/Unidentified Artist , "Potatores exquisiti"
Go to the general single-text view
Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]
This text was added to the website: 2010-04-04
Line count: 48
Word count: 223