Nostalgic Medievalism in the 1642 and 1646 Versions of the Ex-ale-tation of Ale

At some point in the early 1600s, a poem was published in print that later became known as the Ex-ale-tation of Ale. Attributed to Bishop Peter Mews of Bath and Wells (probably erroneously), this composition provides a valuable insight into the mind of a seventeenth-century conservative captivated by an imagined past. The poet sets up unhopped ale as a nationalistic, conservative, and royalist ideal, a foil for hopped beer -- a disturbingly continental innovation, according to the poet. By the early seventeenth century ale drinking had drastically declined in England, so undoubtedly this is a nostalgic production. This essay begins by making a case for the Ex-ale-tation’s oral transmission before analysing the mechanics of the poem’s nostalgia. The Ex-Ale-Tation is, on one level, a commentary on contemporary issues, such as the author's discontent with skilled immigrant beer brewers and their impact on English ale-brewing, and disquiet surrounding the question of what constituted a ‘state’. On the other hand, the poet looks to the past – and ale-drinking culture – as a site for nostalgia, an ideal to be ‘brought back’. Specifically, ale culture is identified as a symbol of a utopian nationalistic past. At the same time, the Ex-ale-tation provides unique testimony to a number of ale and beer myths perpetuated in the early seventeenth century but now largely lost to time.