66 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[No. 91. 



Discussion on this point has occupied some 

 paragraphs in " Notes and Queries." Mr. 

 SisGER, in his first paper (Vol. ii., p. 241.), asserts 

 that " to drink up was commonlv used for simply 

 to drink.'''' IMr. Hickson, too (Xo. 51.), affirms 

 that " drink up is synonymous with drink off, 

 drink to the di-egs" and observes that " a child 

 taking medicine is ursed to drink it up." But 

 H. K. S. C, or Mr. H. K. S. Causto>-, as he after- 

 wards signs himself, denies that drink up can be 

 used of et/sell, or any other liquid, unless a definite 

 quantity of it be signified ; that is, you may say to 

 any one, if you please, in allusion to a definite 

 quantity of vinegar, "Drink it up;" but if you 

 allude to vinegar in general, without limitation of 

 quantity, you will say merely, " Drink vinegar." 

 So if you would ask your friend whether he drinks 

 wine or water, you would say, " Do you drink 

 wine or water ?" not " Do you drink up wine or 

 water?" which would be to ask him whether he 

 drinks up all the wine or water in the world, or at 

 least all the definite quantities of either that come 

 within his reach. Mr. Singer professes not to 

 understand this doctrine, and refers Mr. Causton 

 to the nursery rhyme : 



" Eat vp your cake, Jenny, 

 Drink up your wine," 



" which," he says, " may perhaps afford him 

 further apt illustration ;" but which supplies, Mr. 

 Caustox rejoins, only another example that drink 

 up is applied to definite quantity ; a quantity 

 which, in this case, is " neither more nor less than 

 the identical glass of wine which Jenny had stand- 

 ing before her." The line in Shakspeare's 114tii 

 Sonnet is, Mr. Cacstox adds, " a parallel passage." 

 To drink up, therefore, he concludes, must be used 

 of " a noun implying absolute entirety, which might 

 be a river, but could not be grammatically applied 

 to any unexpressed quantity." In these remarks 

 there seems to be great justness of reasoning. 

 SIk. Causton might also have instanced the lines : 

 " Freely welcome to my cup, 

 Couldst thou sip, and sip it up :" 



that is, " couldst thou go on sipping till thou hast 

 tipped up, or entirely exhausted, the whole definite 

 quantity in the cup." 



IJ. But Mr. Singer in 1850, differing so much 

 from Mr. Singer in 1826 (who thought that a river 

 was signified), supposes that though a sort of drink 

 is intended, it is not vinegar, but icormiuood-wine. 

 To this purpose he cites the lines of Shakspeare'-> 

 II 1th Sonnet, which we have already transcribed : 

 " Whilst like a wiHing patient I will drink 

 Potions o( ei/sell 'gainst my strong infection; 

 No bitturness that I will bitter think, 

 Nor double penance to correct correction." 



" Here we see," he observes, " that it was a 

 bitter potion which it was a penance to drink." 

 This does not seem to be clearly apparent from the 



passage ; for it is not absolutely certain that the 

 bitterness in the third line refers to the eysell in 

 the second. But he adds another quotation from 

 the Troy Boke of Lydgate : 



" Of bitter eysell, and of eager wine." 



After which he subjoins : 



" Numerous passages in our old dramatic writers 

 shew that it was a fashion with the gallants of the time 

 to do some extravagant feat, as a proof of their love, in 

 lionour of their mistresses; and, among others, the 

 swallowing some nauseous potion was one of the most 

 frequent ; but vinegar would hardly have been con- 

 sidered in this li^ht. wormwood might. In Thomas's 

 Italian Diclionari/, 1562, we have * Assentio, Et/sell ; ' 

 and Florio renders that word [Assentio] by Wormwood. 

 What is meant, however, is absinlhites, or wormwood 

 wine, a nauseously bitter medicament then much in 

 use; and this being e\'ident\y the bitter potion of eysell 

 in the poet's sonnet, "as certainly the nauseous 

 draught proposed to be taken by Hamlet, among the 

 other extravagant feats as tokens of love." 



The reader will judge with what justice the 

 words "evidently" and "certainly" are used. 

 Mr. Singer then cites Junius, but to little pur- 

 pose ; Hutton's Dictionary, to prove that absinthites 

 meant "wormwood-wine;" and Stuckius's Anti- 

 quitates Convivales to show that absinthites was a 

 propoma ; but Stuckius, be it observed, mentions 

 this propoma only as a stomachic, qiwd vim habet 

 stomachum corrohorandi et exteiatandi. 



It is not surprising, therefore, that Lord Bray- 

 BRooKE (Vol. ii., p. 286.) should quote against 

 Mr. Singer's theory the following paragraph : 



" If, as Mil. Singer supposes, ' Eisell was absin- 

 thites, or wormwood-wine, a nauseously bitter medica- 

 ment then mu^,h in u.se,' Pepys's friends must have had 

 a very singular taste, for he records on the 24th of 

 November, 1660 : 



' Creed, and Shepley, and I, to the Rhenish wine- 

 house, and there I did give them two quarts of worm- 

 wood wine,' 



" Perhaps the beverage was doctored for the English 

 market, and rendered more palatable than it had been 

 in the days of Stuckius." 



Two Other correspondents of the " Xotes and 

 Queries" also, C. H. (Vol. iii., p. 508.) and Gomer 

 (ibid.), assert that eysell, if it means any potion 

 at all, must mean vinegar; C. H. referring to a 

 MS. at Cambridge (Dd. i, fol. 7.), date about 

 1350, in which occurs, — 



"\>e iewis herde Hs word wel alle, 

 And anon eysel )>ei mengid wijj galle: " 



and Gomer relying on the support of the Welsh 

 word Aesell, which implies verjuice or vinegar. 

 D. Rock, too, adduces the "Festival" in the ser- 

 mon fur St. Michael's day : 



" And other angellis with In (St. Michael) shall 

 bring all the Instrumetis of our lordis passyon ; the 

 crosse ; the crowne ; .spere ; naylcs ; hamcr ; sponge ; 

 eyseel ; gall, &c." 



