Green’s Dictionary of Slang

drunk; also as v. bemuse.

1735		Pope Prologue to the Satires 15: A parson much be-mus’d in beer [F&H].
1854		G.J. Whyte-Melville General Bounce (1891) 112: A fat little man, primed with port, but who, when not thus bemused, is an influential member of his committee.
1860		Hotten Dict. of Modern Sl. etc. (2nd edn) 95: BEMUSE, to fuddle one’s self with drink.
1863		Story of a Lancashire Thief 12: I never heard of him [...] getting bemused on Saint Monday.
1864, 1867, 1870		Hotten Sl. Dict. [as cit. 1860].
1880		J. M’Carthy Short Hist. of Our Own Times xxx III 2: A Prussian was regarded in England as a dull, beer-bemused creature [F&H].
1914		Newcastle Jrnl 14 July 3/5: The Government are asleep, or mad, or bemused, or have fallen from the box.