Green’s Dictionary of Slang

brandy; see also cold nantz under cold adj. and cool nantz under cool adj.

1674		Hogan-Moganides 48: Twelve Pipes of Nants She draind between her, and her Aunts.
1682		A. Radcliffe ‘Upon a Bowl of Punch’ Poems 43: I’d not give a Fart for your Punch without Nants.
1687		‘Julian’s Farewell’ in Wilson Court Satires of the Restoration (1976) 202: That day after which my thirsty soul pants, / And turn all my Bordeaux to champagne and Nantes.
1698		N. Ward London Spy II 30: There’s nothing like a Dram of true Nantz.
1698		N. Ward ‘A Satyr upon Derby-Ale’ in Writings (1704) 35: Wounds thou’rt a Booby to a Cup of Nantes.
1700		‘Celia’s Rundlet of Brandy’ Wit’s Cabinet 156: A rundlet of right Nantzy.
a.1701		N. Ward Revels of the Gods 12: Then Bacchus being Leaky, he pis’d into France, / Inriching their Grapes with the Spirit of Nants.
1707		Humours of a Coffee-House 30 July 27: Chear up thy Soul with Noble Claret, / Or right good Nantz.
1719		in D’Urfey Pills to Purge Melancholy II 138: To my Grief then I must see, / Strong Ale and Nantz my Rivals be. [Ibid.] 343: And drink his Health — / With shoals of pickled Herrings, in a Sea of nants.
1728		T. Walker The Quaker’s Opera I i: Qu.: What hast thou got? Poor.: Sir, you may have what you please, Wind or right Nantz or South-Sea.
1733		Laugh and Be Fat 117: I do not give a Fart for your Punch without Nantz.
1742		Fielding Joseph Andrews (1954) I 62: A little silver bottle [...] held some of the best Nantes he had ever tasted.
1749		Sappho-An 12: Nectar, poetic lofty Name, perchance / ’Tis what we mortals here below call Nantz.
1757		Garrick Male-Coquette II ii: My Lord has got to plain Nantz now every Morning.
1764		K. O’Hara Midas III ii: I always chuck a priming at the tap, or / A cogue of Nantzy, just to oil my clapper.
c.1780		‘They all Do It’ in Holloway & Black I (1975) 262: And when she wants a dram of Nants, / Slips into her Closet.
1792		C. Dibdin ‘A Bacchanalian’ Buck’s Delight 9: ’Till for right Nantz we pawn’d to France / Our dearest reputation.
c.1817		Keats A Portrait n.p.: He sipped no olden Tom or ruin blue, or nantz or cherry brandy [F&H].
1837		‘Two Butlers’ Bentley’s Misc. Mar. 310: The same valet [...] in a few moments produced a bottle of Nantz.
1847		Thackeray Punch’s Prize Novelists: George de Barnwell in Burlesques (1903) 154: Ho! Jemmy, another flask of Nantz.
1856		‘A Harrassing Painsworth’ in Yates & Brough (eds) Our Miscellany 17: Here’s a drop of right Nantz drink, ’twill revive you.
1880		Henley & Stevenson Deacon Brodie I tab.I vii: We give Nunky Lawson a good deal of brandy—C.S. and Co.’s celebrated Nantz.