The word 'swinish' collocates with 'wassail' and 'perform'
in the two famous passages in which it occurs. Hamlet complains about the bad
reputation the Danes had for drunkenness:
8 The King doth wake to-night and takes his rouse,
9 Keeps wassail, and the swagg'ring up-spring reels;
. . . . . . . . .
19 They clip us drunkards, and with swinish phrase
20 Soil our addition, and indeed it takes
21 From our achievements, though perform'd at height,
22 The pith and marrow of our attribute.
(Ham.1.4.8-22)
Lady Macbeth suggests to her husband a scenario for the assassination of Duncan:
When Duncan is asleep
62 (Whereto the rather shall his day's hard journey
63 Soundly invite him), his two chamberlains
64 Will I with wine and wassail so convince,
65 That memory, the warder of the brain,
66 Shall be a fume, and the receipt of reason
67 A limbeck only. When in swinish sleep
68 Their drenched natures lies as in a death,
69 What cannot you and I perform upon
70 Th' unguarded Duncan? (Mac.1.7.61-70)
Although 'perform' is quite a common word (89 occurrences in 31 plays), the triple collocation is unusual, and it raises the question whether the two passages are in the orbit of the porter's pronouncement
29 Lechery, sir, it provokes, and unprovokes: it provokes
30 the desire, but it takes away the performance.
(Mac.2.3.29-30)
and its pre-echo in Poins' question "Is it not strange that desire should so many years outlive performance?" (2H4.2.4.260-261).
19 September 1999