We faren as he that drunk is as a mouse; A drunken man wot well he hath a house, But he ne wot which is the right way thider, And to a drunken man the way is slider. Chaucer.By Saunders, Vol. I. Page 24.
He that is drunken may his mother kill Big with his sister: he hath lost the reins, Is outlawd by himself: all kind of ill Did with his liquor slide into his veins. The drunkard forfeits Man, and doth divest All worldly right, save what he hath by beast. George Herbert.The Temple, Stanza 6.
The axe of intemperance has lopped off his green boughs and left him a withered trunk. Swift.Meditations on a Broomstick. (Roscoes ed. of his life and works; Vol. II. p. 84.)