Mar. 15. 1851.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



211 



and in this catejrory, on the rule exponed, since it 

 cannot positively appertain to tlie other, must, 

 I think, be phiced the line of Hamlet, — 



" Woo't drink vp eisell ?" 

 as a noun implying absolute entirety ; which 

 might be a river,' hut could not be grammatically 

 applied to any unexpressed quantity. 



Now what is the amount and value of Mk. 

 Singer's proposition ? He says : 



" In Thomas's Italian Dictionary, 1562, we have 

 ' AssENZio, Epseir* ; and Florio renders that word 

 [AssENZio, not Et/se!l?] by 'wormwood.' What is 

 meant, however, is wormwood wine, a nauseously bitter 

 medicament then much in use." 



When pressed by Lord Bratbrooke ("ISroTES 

 ASD Queries," Vol. ii., p. 286.), who proved, by an 

 extract from Pepijss Diary, that wormwood wine, 

 so far from bearing out Mr. Singer's description, 

 was, in fact, a fashionable luxury, probably not 

 more nauseous than the pale ale so much in repute 

 at the present day, Mr. Singer very adroitly 

 produced a " corroborative note" i'rom " old Lang- 

 ham" (" Notes AND Queries," Vol. ii., p. 315.), 

 which, curiously enough, is castrated of all that 

 Langham wrote pertaining to the question in 

 issue. Treating of the many virtues of the pre- 

 vailing tonic as an appetiser, and restorer " of 

 a good color" to them that be "leaiie and evil 

 colored," Langham says : 



[" Make wormwood wine thus : take aqua vitce and 

 malmsey, of each like much, put it in a glasse or bot- 

 tell with a few leaves of dried xcormivood, and let it stand 

 certain days,] and strein out a little spoonfiill, and 

 driuk it with a draught of ale or wine : [it may be 

 long preserved.] " f 



Thus it will be seen that the reason for "streining 

 out a little spoonfull " as a restorative for a weak 

 stomach was less on account of the infusion being 

 so "atrociously unpalatable," than of the alcohol 

 used in its preparation. 



Dr. Venner also recommends as an excellent 

 stomachic, 



" To drink mornings fasting, and sometimes also 

 before dinner, a drane/Jit of wormwood-wine or beer:" 



and we may gather the " atrocious bitterness " of 

 the restorative, by the substitute he proposes : " or, 

 for want of them," he continues : 



" white wine or stale beer, wlicrcin a few branches of 

 wormwood have, for certain hours, been infused." f 



• Tills deduction is not warranted by tlio Vocah. 

 della Cnisca, or any other Ital. Die. to which I have 

 had opportunity of reference : and Summ-r and Lye are 

 quite distinct on the A. -.Sax. words, H-'ermod and Eisell. 



I Gurdi'ii of Ihakli, 4 to. London, 16.33. 'i'he por- 

 tions within the brackets were omitted by ]Mk. Singer. 



^ yia Recta ad Vitam Longam, by Tliomas Venner, 

 M.D. 4to. Lotidon, 1660. 



Dr. Parr, quoting Bergius, describes Ahsintlmim 

 as "a grateful stomachic;" and Ahsinthites as "a 

 pleasant form of the wormwood." * 



Is this therefore the article that Hamlet pro- 

 posed to drink UP with his ci'ocodile ? So far from 

 thinking so, I have ventured to coincide with 

 Archdeacon Nares in favour of Steevens ; for 

 whether it be Malone's vinegar, or ]Mr. Singer's 

 more comfortable stomachic, the challenge to drink 

 either " in such a rant, is so inconsistent, and even 

 ridiculous, that we must decide for the river, 

 whether its name be exactly found or not." f 



I am quite unconscious of any purport in my re- 

 marks, other than they appear on paper ; and I 

 should be sorry indeed to accuse Mr. Singer of 

 being " ignorant" of anything; but I venture to 

 suggest that those young gentlemen of surpassing 

 spirit, who ate crocodiles, drank up eisell, and com- 

 mitted other anomalies against nature in honor of 

 their mistresses, belonged decidedly to a period of 

 time anterior to that of Shakspeare, and went 

 quite out with the age of chivalry, of which 

 Shakspeare saw scarcely even the fag end. Your 

 lover of Shakspeare's time was cjuite another 

 animal. He had begun to talce beer. He had 

 become much more subtle and self-satisfied. He 

 did sometimes pen sonnets to his mistress's 

 eye-brow, and sing soft nothings to the gentle 

 sishinsr of his " Lewte." He sometimes indeed 

 looked " j)ale and wan;" but, rather than for 

 love, it was more than probably from his im- 

 moderate indulgence in the " newe weede," which 

 he drank |, though I never discovered that it was 

 drank vp by him. He generally wore a doublet 

 and breeches of satin, slashed and lined with 

 coloured taffata ; and walked about with a gilli- 

 flower in one hand, and his gloves in the other. 

 His veritable portrait is extant, and is engraved in 

 Mr. Knight's Pictoi-ial Shakspeare.^ 



It will be lime enough to decide which of us 

 has run his head against "a stumbling-block of his 

 own making," when SIr. Singer shall have found 

 a probable solution of his difficulty " by a parallel- 

 ism in the poet's pages." 



H. K. Staple Causton. 



Vassal! Road, Brixton, Feb. 21. 1S51. 



* Med. Diet. 



-j- A description of the rivers Yssel will be found in 

 Diet. Gcorjraph. de la Martinierc, v. ix. fo. \1S9. 



\ As the verb " to drink " was not limited to the 

 act of bibitlon, but for ]Mii. IIickson's decision against 

 drinking uj) tlie " sea-serpent," it might yet become a 

 question whether Hamlet's eisell had not been a mis- 

 print for eosul (asinu.s). 



§ Merchant of Venice, Introduction. 



