S. Worthen | Weblog

You may remember that good cheese has six qualities, according to Le Menagier de Paris. To continue ennumerating things having to do with food in the fourteenth or fifteenth centuries, here's John Lydgate to tell you about the nine properties of wine.

The ix. properties of wyne per Iohanem Lidgate.

Wyne of nature hathe properties nyne,
Comfortythe coragis, clarifiethe the syght,
Gladdeth the herte this lycor most devyne,
Hetythe the stomake of his natural myght,
Sharpithe wittis, gevith hardines in fight,
Clensyth wounds, engendrithe gentyll blode;
Licor of licor, at festis makyth men lyght,
Scoureth þe palat, through fyne þe color good.

From MS. B.M. Adds. 29729, leaf 16. Many thanks to suffisaunce for pointing it out.