Quatrain 64
Quatrain 64 of 75
“Said one—"Folks of a surly Tapster tell,
And daub his Visage with the Smoke of Hell;
They talk of some strict Testing of us—Pish!
He's a Good Fellow, and 'twill all be well."”
Reflection · Summer
The pot who dismisses the strict testing and the surly tapster is the summer pot at its most confident. The good fellow has been dispensing wine all season. The cups have been filled. Pish! — FitzGerald's perfect word, the dismissal of the pompous and the overly concerned. In summer the Pish! is backed by the evidence of the season: the wine is good, the tapster is generous.
'Twill all be well — the summer version of this confidence is earned by the season. Not naive. Just summer. The evidence available in Mordad argues for the good fellow tapster.