Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. wine.

c.1570		Pride and Loveliness n.p.: The creature [wine] of the proper kind Was good, though use offenden therewithal [F&H].
1638		Penkethman Artachthos K3: The moderate use of the Creature, and sparing Dyet, which is very little practised.
1654		Mercurius Fumigosus 5 28 June 36: A She-Toper in Sheer-street [...] having lately swallowed too much of the Creature.
1664		R. Howard The Committee IV i: Who wou’d have believ’d that we Shou’d have liv’d to have seen Obadiah overcome with the Creature?
1684		Tongue Combatants 10: While Country Gossips Oyl their Tongues with Ale, / Dull liquors serving for a homely tale; / We Citizens with Sack our pallets liquor.
1699		N. Ward London Spy IV 75: The Sober Fraternity, who are allow’d of late to be as good Judges of the Comfortable Creature, as [...] a Latitudinarian Fuddle-Cap.
1709		N. Ward Rambling Fuddle-Caps 14: Why shou’d not I love a Cup of the Creature, As well as my Father.
1753		Smollett Ferdinand Count Fathom I 72: The German [...] never went to bed without a full dose of the creature, which added to his constitutional drowsiness.
1829		Vidocq Memoirs (trans. W. McGinn) III 106: Under the guise of friendship, she handed over the cup of consolation; nay, even the creature on tick, if the unemployed cracksman was likely soon to be flush.

2. porter.

c.1597		Shakespeare Henry IV Pt 2 II ii: My appetite was not princely got; for, by my troth, I do now remember the poor creature, small beer.
1823		‘Jon Bee’ Dict. of the Turf, the Ring, the Chase, etc. 8: Beer — a common name for Ale or Porter [...] In Ireland, when good, ’tis [i.e. porter] ‘the creature’.

3. (also craiter, craither, crater, crathur, cratur, crature, craychur, crayter, craythur, craytur, creater, creather, creatur, creetur, cretur, ould creature) whisky, esp. Irish whisky.

1737		B. Franklin ‘Drinkers Dictionary’ in Pennsylvania Gazette 6 Jan. in AS XII:2 90: They come to be well understood to signify plainly that A MAN IS DRUNK. [...] He’s been too free with the Creature.
1773		‘Geoffrey Wildgoose’ Spiritual Quixote II Bk vii 111: He seems to like a bit of the good cretur as well as other folks.
1794		Proc. Old Bailey 17 Sept. 980/1: By Jasus, says he, let us have a drop of the creature first, I afterwards asked him what the creature was? and he said, sure man alive it is good whisky.
1801		C. Dibdin Yngr Song Smith 105: Och! call for the crater, and push it about [...] To the boys of the ocean we’ll swig it away.
1809		‘A Sup of good Whisky’ Jovial Songster 135: A sup of good whisky will make you glad; / Too much of the creature will make you mad.
1812		Spirit of Irish Wit 29: ‘May I never touch another drop of the creature’.
1818		Salisbury & Winchester Jrnl 8 June 3: I’ve taken a drop too much of the good cretur, and got sickish or so.
1824		J. Wight Mornings in Bow St. 262: Mr. Nathan Nathan came into the hall, ‘brim-full of the cratur’.
1828		‘A Flat Enlightened’ Life in the West I 308: ‘[A] little drop of the craiter’.
1829		Australian (Sydney) 12 May 4/1: James Day, another ‘boy’ well disposed to enjoy a drop of the ‘krathur’.
1829		Belfast News-Letter 2 Jan. 4/2: Cursecowl swashed the rest of the raw creature into the tankard.
1834		D. Crockett Narrative of the Life of D.C. (1934) 27: So I took ‘leetle of the creater,’ – that warmer of the cold, and cooler of the hot.
1834		‘Jack Downing’ Andrew Jackson 121: The Arrah Nows, with their fly-traps open, wou’d toss in a plum [with] a touch of the creather tu wash it down.
1838		Paul Pry 30 Sept. 181/2: Why—Sewell, the livery stable keeper, 'don't toss his wife in a blanket,' when she takes too much of the ‘Cratur?’.
1840		London Mag. Feb. 44: [T]he Prince has promised for to sind a [...] full kevotten, imparial mizzur, av the pure craytur, to iviry mother's son avus.
1842		S. Lover Handy Andy 301: Instead of displaying that alacrity so universal in Ireland of sharing the ‘creature’ with a new comer, the men only pointed to the bottle.
1842		Proc. Old Bailey 22 Aug. 765: They tell me you love a drop of the cratur?
1843		R.S. Surtees Handley Cross (1854) 340: You ’aven’t a drop o’ the cretur with ye, ’ave ye?
1844		J.W. Kaye Peregrine Pultuney I 41: [A] young import from the Emerald Isle who made a mystical allustion to potheen, and apostrophized some favourite animal, which he called [...] ‘the creetur’.
1845		D. Corcoran Pickings from N.O. Picayune (1847) 138: Jerry, having divers and sundry times in his life been magnetized by the crathur.
1848		Bell’s Life in Sydney 18 Nov. 1/5: I’ll give you a dhrop of the crater, to comfort your bowels.
1849		Sam Sly 20 Jan. 3/2: He advises that man who creeps about the Dark House, New- gate-market [...] not take so many drops of the ould creature.
1850		G.G. Foster Clelio 95: In our profession much drink don’t do [...] There isn’t a man in the band, now, that takes too much of the cratur.
1851		‘A Modest Irishman!’ in T.A. Burke Polly Peablossom’s Wedding 160: He had a touch or two of the ‘craythur’.
1852		Bell’s Life in Sydney 3 July 3/3: Mister Heley being a gintleman who is rather fond of a drop of the crature [...] drinking a few tumblers of Irish whiskey.
1863		‘Mulvaney & O’Flanagan’ Donnybrook-Fair Comic Songster 55: May he and his whole dirty band / Be choked when they next drink the ‘cratur!’.
1870		Mercury (Hubart) 23 Apr. 2/5: [from the Stranraer Free Press] [...] drop o’ the cratur .
1874		‘Old Calabar’ Won in a Canter I 157: [T]he poteen, mother of Moses! sure it’s grand entirely [...] there's not such a drap of the cratur in all Tipperary.
1882		Sportsman (Melbourne) 8 Feb. 2/5: ‘This whisky is aa hot as lava,’ said the immature stranger [...] ‘What else did ye expect? [...] didn’t you ask for a drop of tlie crater’.
1882		Bristol Magpie 22 June 3/2: Bigworded Cockney Employer to Highland gamekeeper addicted to a drop o’ the cratur).
1886		Manchester Courier 5 June 10/3: Another howls to Mike somebody to come and a drop of the ‘crater’.
1890		H. Nisbet ‘Bail Up!’ 215: Devil fly away wid the smoke that a glass of good crater doesn’t improve.
1891		Birmingham Dly Post 31 Mar. 3/4: He had been on the spree for a week, and wvas dying for a drink to quench his raging thirst, without having the wherewithal to pay for a single drop of the crathur.
1894		Mirror of Life 20 Jan. 6/4: [M]any times when he has been seen to enter public-houses to indulge in a little of the ‘Ould craythur’.
1895		Mirror of Life 6 Apr. 11/3: Biddy O’Brien was very fond of a drop of the cratur.
1899		Boy’s Own Paper 13 May 522: Sure, ye’ll excuse me, sorr, but I niver taste the craytur.
1901		G. Fitzmaurice ‘The Disappearance of Mrs. Mulreany’ in Weekly Freeman 16 Nov. (1970) 73: Blow me! ’twas a pity I didn’t think of bringin’ a sup of the crathur wid me.
1904		Sun. Times (Perth) 2 Oct. 4/7: As dacent a dhrop av the cratur as iver an exciseman niver clapped his papers on in Ould Oireland, be cripes.
1908		C. Tomalin Venturesome Tom 54: What with the drubbing he had received and too much of ‘the crathur,’ poor Dinny lay dead drunk.
1909		J. Ware Passing Eng. of the Victorian Era 97/2: Craythur, Craytur, or Craychur (Irish). Whiskey ; e.g., ‘Oh, for the love o’ God giv me now a taste o’ the craythur.’.
1933		‘William Juniper’ True Drunkard’s Delight 229: Irish whisky being otherwise known as [...] the crater, cratur or creature.
1978		J. McGuffin In Praise of Poteen 142: Muldoon settles down, mug of punch in hand, to tell you of ‘the good old days’ when he made the ‘cratur’.

4. brandy.

1748		Spy on Mother Midnight I 24: Let’s all take a Sup of the Creature. [...] A Dram of right Nantz is an excellent Cordial.
1816		W. Scott Old Mortality in Waverley II (1855) 385: The comfortable creature, which the carnal do denominate brandy.
1833		M. Scott Tom Cringle’s Log (1862) 325: He produced two bottles of brandy [...] and a small silver drinking cup, with him, so we passed the crature round.

5. gin; may be a misinterpretation by Bee; but Mayhew cit. goes on to cite gin specifically.

1823		‘Jon Bee’ Dict. of the Turf, the Ring, the Chase, etc. 59: Creature — another name for gin, or other strong drink.
1832		Satirist (London) 9 Dec. 394/2: ‘[T]wo dacent people, who comes in and axes politely for the right sort of cratur’.
1861		(con. 1840s–50s) H. Mayhew London Labour and London Poor IV 233/1: When she got the money [...] I took it all, and laid it out for her, but never a drop of the crater passed down Chaney Emm’s lips.