114 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[2''<i S. No 110., Feb. 6. '68. 



With sophistry their sauce they sweeten, 

 Till quite from tail to snout 'tis eaten." 



Well ; this is eating the whole hog, at any rate. 

 But what is going the whole hog ? 



My own impression has long been that, however 

 various the applications of the phrase, it properly 

 and primarily belongs to the language of gamesters. 

 " To go" so much, is to stake, bet, or venture such 

 a sum. Imagine the money ventured to be foreign 

 gold and silver. I have heard amongst English- 

 men abroad such language as this: — "I'll go a 

 dollar;" "I'll go four dollars;" "I'll go eight 

 dollars ; " " I'll go the wJiole dotibloon." 



Yet should any one hear amongst gamesters the 

 expression "Til go the whole hog" by no means let 

 him infer that the play is for swine., whether whole 

 or cut up. " Hog," in vernacular English, was, 

 and is, a piece of money. Once it was a shilling, 

 or sixpence (Halliwell). Now it is a five-shilling 

 piece ; though still a shilling in Ireland, according 

 to one of your correspondents, who gives an amus- 

 ing illustration. Suppose the understood value 

 to be a crown. The gamesters might then say, " I'll 

 go a shilling," "I'll go half-a-crown," " I'll go the 

 whole hog." This I venture to submit as a pri- 

 mary meaning of the phrase, though not by any 

 means to the exclusion of other uses. 



The application, to diflerent coins or sums, of 

 the names of animals, as hog, pony, hull, and, in the 

 West Indies, dog, is one of those modern things 

 which have a very ancient origin. But "hog" has 

 a particular claim to this distinction, hoger being 

 the old Jewish-German name for a ducat. 



Hoger is from the Hebrew IJH (Hagar, the 

 proper name), which is supposed to mean & fugitive 

 or a stranger. I can assign no reason why the 

 German Jews should have conferred this appella- 

 tion on the ducat, unless it was in allusion to 

 Hagar's banishment from the family of Abraham. 

 The golden ducat was long excluded from the 

 currency in Germany, where it was not allowed to 

 circulate till a decree of the empire granted it 

 admission in 1559. The sons of Abraham, dwell- 

 ing of old on German soil, looked at this exclu- 

 sion in their own point of view, missed the ducat 

 as a Hagar cast out from among themselves, and 

 called the exile Hoger. Hence hog, a piece of 

 money ; hence, going the whole hog. 



Thomas Boys. 



I believe that the true origin of this phrase 

 arose from certain coins in the United States simi- 

 lar to our tokens in the latter part of the last and 

 beginning of the present century. These coins 

 bore the figures of various animals, but most com- 

 monly of a hog. " To go the whole hog," there- 

 fore, was to spend or stake the full amount of the 

 piece of money bearing the hog's image. F. C. H. 



MILTON ON HIS BLINDNESS. 



(2°'^ S. iv. 459.) 



" Some few years back the following lines were found 

 among the remains of the poet Milton. They are instinct 

 with the spirit of the great author of Pai-adise Lost, and 

 reveal the inner life of one eminently possessed of the 

 consolations of faith. There is an anecdote told of 

 Charles II., that when urged hy his courtiers to inflict 

 some signal punishment upon Milton, the eloquent and 

 intrepid champion of the Commonwealth, he inquired 

 what was the position of the individual upon whom they 

 invoked his vengeance — was he not old, blind, and des- 

 titute.' On receiving an affirmative repi\-, he said, that 

 he considered that he was sufficiently punished by being 

 reduced to such a condition. It is not improbable that to 

 that circumstance we are indebted for the following beau- 

 tiful and touching lines. They show that his soul was 

 fortified against the shafts of his malicious adversaries, 

 and that he was the subject of consolations which made 

 him rather the object of envy than of pity. 



" I am old and blind ! 

 IMen point at me as smitten by God's frown ; 

 Afflicted and deserted of my kind ; 



Yet I am not cast down. 



" I am weak, yet strong ; 

 I murmur not that I no longer see ; 

 I'oor, old, and helpless, I the more belong, 



Father Supreme! to Thee. 



" merciful One ! 

 When men are farthest, then Thou art most near: 

 When friends pass by, my weakness shun, 



Thy chariot I hear. 



" Thy glorious face 

 Is leaning towards me ; and its holy light 

 Shines in upon my lonely dwelling-place — 



And there is no more night. 



" On my bended knee 

 I recognise Thy purpose, clearly shown : 

 My vision Thou hast dimmed that I may see 



Thyself — Thyself alone. 



" I have nought to fear ; 

 This darkness is the shadow of Thy wing; 

 Beneath it I am almost sacred, here 



Can come no evil thing. 



" Oh ! I seem to stand 

 Trembling, where foot of mortal ne'er hath been, 

 Wrapped in the radiance of Thy sinless Land, 



Which eye hath never seen. 



" Visions come and go ; 

 Shapes of resplendent beauty round me throng ; 

 From angel lips I seem to hear the flow 



Of soft and holy song. 



" It is nothing now, 

 When Heaven is opening on mj^ sightless eyes — 

 When airs from Paradise refresh my brow 



The earth in darkness lies. 



" In a purer clime 

 My being fills with rapture — waves of thought 

 Roll in upon my spirit — strains sublime 



Break over me unsought. 



" Give me now my lyre ! 

 I feel the stirrings of a gift divine ! 

 Within my bosom glows unearthly fire, 



Lit by no skill of mine." 



Of course this was not written by Milton, but 



