ssel bowl; and was the
accompaniment to festivity of every kind throughout the year. Thus
Hamlet (i. 4) says:

"The king doth wake to-night, and takes his rouse,
Keeps wassail."

[698] This was a deep draught to the health of any one, in
which it was customary to empty the glass or vessel.

And in "Love's Labour's Lost" (v. 2), Biron speaks of:

"wakes and wassails, meetings, markets, fairs."

In "Macbeth" (i. 7), it is used by Lady Macbeth in the sense of
intemperance, who, speaking of Duncan's two chamberlains, says:

"Will I with wine and wassail so convince,
That memory, the warder of the brain,
Shall be a fume, and the receipt of reason
A limbeck only."

In "Antony and Cleopatra" (i. 4), Caesar advises Antony to live more
temperately, and to leave his "lascivious wassails."[699]

[699] See Douce's "Illustrations of Shakespeare," 1839, pp. 441-449.

In the same way, a "wassail candle" denoted a large candle lighted up at
a festival, a reference to which occurs in "2 Henry IV." (i. 2):

"_Chief-Justice._ You are as a candle, the better part burnt out.

_Falstaff._ A wassail candle, my lord; all tallow."

A custom which formerly prevailed at Christmas, and has not yet died
out, was for mummers to go from house to house, attired in grotesque
attire, performing all kinds of odd antics.[700] Their performances,
however, were not confined to this season. Thus, in "Coriolanus" (ii. 1)
Menenius speaks of making "faces like mummers."

[700] See "British Popular Customs," pp. 461, 469, 478, 480.

_Cakes and Ale._ It was formerly customary on holidays and saints' days
to make cakes in honor of the day. In "Twelfth Night" (ii. 3), Sir Toby
says: "Dost thou think, because thou art virtuous, there shall be no
more cakes and ale?" To which the Clown replies: "Yes, by Saint Anne;
and ginger shall be hot i' the mouth too."

_Wakes._ In days gone by, the church wake was an important institution,
and was made the occasion for a thorough holiday. Each church, when
consecrated, was dedicated to a saint, and on the anniversary of that
day was kept the wake. In many places there was a second wake on the
birthday of the saint. At such seasons, the floor of the church was
strewed with rushes and flowers, and in the churchyard tents were
erected, to supply cakes and ale for the use of the merrymakers on the
following day, which was kept as a holiday. They are still kept up