As any experienced reenactor will tell
you, once the gates close and the public returns home, the true fun
begins. More often than not this evening entertainment includes
drinking, at times prodigious amounts, of alcohol. What are those of
us who wish to remind in first person to do when the bottle begins to
be passed? Surely we don't want to pass up the option of free booze
and the rare opportunity to sample the home brewed concoctions of our
fellow camp mates, lest of all we come across as a stick in the mud
and not be invited back for the next event. Instead of sacrificing
authenticity or giving up on the dream of 24-7 first person, why not
incorporate those late night alcohol fueled shenanigans into our
first person experience?
Of course, to truly pull off drunken
first person, we must know the proper terminology to describe not
only what we drink, but who we are with & how we feel afterward.
So I give to you, my historically inebriated readers,
The Regency Era
Drunkards Lexicon
or Terms to Turn the Tea-Teetotalers Toes.
Things to drink when you're in the
Regency Era:
Adam's Ale : water, plain & simple.
All nations: the drainings of several
bottles all into one pot.
balderdash: adulterated wine of any
kind.
Bumbo: brandy, water & sugar,
calibogus: rum and spruce beer mixed
Cobblers punch: The frightening
combination of treacle, vinegar, gin & water mixed. Yes,
together.
conny wabble: eggs & brandy beaten
together.
Crank: A classic gin & tonic water,
without the tonic.
Flip: small beer, brandy & sugar
combined & heated with a red hot poker.
Sir Cloudsley: flip with lemon added
named after Admiral of the Fleet Sir
Cloudesley Shovell.
grog: rum and water.
hog wash: a thick, bad beer. Like flat
Pabst Blue Ribbon.
rot gut: small beer
scandal broth: tea-drinking
slip-slops: tea, water-gruel and
anything taken medicinally.
tall boy: The same as it is today, a
two quart pot or bottle.
twist: half tea, half coffee
What to say when you're drinking in
the Regency Era:
We gave the bottle a black eye: drank
it almost up
I'm chapt: thirsty, very very thirsty.
dead men: empty bottles
tipsey: almost drunk
toss pot: a drunkard
wet one's whistle: to drink
chirping merry: exhilarated with liquor
toast: a health said over drinks
How much to drink in the Regency Era:
a bumper: a full
glass
like a beast: only
when thirsty
a dram: a small
measure of spiritous liquors
Bung your eye or
fire a slug: drink a dram
Just a nip of ale:
a half pint of beer
a cup of the
creature: a cup of good liquor
a swig: a hearty
draught of liquor
What NOT to do when you've had too
much to drink in the Regency Era:
cast up ones accounts, cascade, to
shoot the cat, flash the hash : vomit
churl: drink malt liquor immediately
following wine
admiral of the barrow seas: vomit into
the lap of the person sitting opposite due to drunkenness.
Become boosey, flustered, foxed or
groggified : to get drunk
capsize: drink till you fall out of
your chair
become cropsick: sickness in the
stomach arising from drunkeness
guzzle: to drink greedily
List complied from Captain Grose's
Classical Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue, 1811.
Labels: 2012, First Person Interpretation, Recipes
