68 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[No. 91. 



"make Ossa like a wart." The drinking up a 

 river is certainly more in unison with these extra- 

 vagant proposals than a defiance " to swallow 

 down (as Theobald has it) large draughts of 

 vinegar ;" or, as Malone gives it, " to drink a po- 

 tion of vinegar." Such a proposition, Theobald 

 admits, "is not very grand;" "a challenge to 

 hazard a fit of the heartburn or the colic, is," says 

 Steevens, " not very magnificent." But it is not 

 only far from " grand " and " magnificent," but, 

 what is worse, it is utterly tame and spiritless, in 

 a place where anything but lameness is wanted, 

 and where it is quite out of keeping with the rest 

 of the speech. Mr. Hickson, it is true, says 

 (Vol. ii., p. 329.), that " the notion of drinking up 

 a river would be quite unmeaning and out of 

 place;" but this assertion is as groundless as 

 Tlieobald's, and is somewhat surprising from a 

 gentleman who exhorts those who would be critics 

 "to master the grammatical construction of a 

 passage, deducing therefrom its general sense," 

 and, we may presume, its general drift, " before 

 they attempt to fix the meaning of a doubtful 

 word." Had Mr. Hickson looked to the general 

 drift of this passage, before he attempted to fix 

 the meaning ot'eisell, or to concur with Mr. Singer 

 of 1850 in his attempt to fix it, he would, we may 

 suppose, have been less ready to pronounce the 

 notion of diinking up a river out of place. It 

 would have been better for him to have adhered 

 to the judgment of Archdeacon Nares, as cited by 

 Mr. Singer (Vol. ii., p. 241.) : — "The challenge 

 to drink vinegar, in such a rant," says the Arch- 

 deacon, " is so inconsistent, and even ridiculous, 

 that we must decide for the river, whether its 

 name be exactly found or not. To drink up a 

 river, and eat a crocodile with his impenetrable 

 scales, are two things equally impossible. There 

 is no kind of comparison between the others." 



15. Though examples of similar rant are quite 

 unnecessary to support this opinion, let us never- 

 theless conclude by noticing those which the 

 critics have adduced on this passage : 



" This sort of hyperbole," says Malone, in his second 

 edition, " was common among jur ancient poets. So, 

 in Eastward Hoe, 1609 : 

 ' Come drink up Rhine, Thames, and Meander, dry.' 



" So also in Greene's Orlando Furioso, 1599: 



' Else would I set my mouth to Tigris' streames. 

 And drink up overflowing Euphrates.' 



" Again, in Marlowe's Jew of Malta : 



' As sooner slialt thou drink the ocean dry, 

 Than conquer Malta.'" 



To which Boswell adds : 



" Our author has a similar exaggeration in Troilus 

 and Cressida, Act III. Scene 2.: 



' When we (i. e. lovers) vow to weep seas, live in fire, 

 eat rocks, tame tigers,' &c. 



" In Chaucer's liomannt of the Rose, we find the 

 following lines : 



' He underfongeth a grete palne, 

 That undertaketh to drink up Seine.'" 



Steevens notices King Iticliard II., Act II. 

 Scene 2. : 



" The task he undertakes, 

 Is numb'ring sands, and drinking oceans dry." 



But enough. The majority of readers, like the 

 majority of critics, will surely be for the river, in 

 the proportion of at least six to two. Verhurn non 

 amplius addam. J. S. W. 



Stockwell. 



I^isel — Wormxvood — Scurvy Ale. — Such of 

 your readers who have not yet made up their 

 minds whether " eisell" and "wormwood" are iden- 

 tical, will not object to be reminded that Taylor, 

 the Water Poet, in liis Pennyless Pilgrimage, de- 

 scribing his hospitable reception at Manchester, 

 when speaking of the liquid cheer supplied to him, 

 says : — 



"... Eight several sorts of ale we had. 

 All able to make one stark drunk, or mad. 



We had at one time set upon the table 



Good ale of hyssop ('twas no jEsop fable) ; 



Then had we ale of sage, and ale of malt. 



And ale of wornuvood that could make one halt ; 



With ale of rosemary, and of bettony. 



And two ales more, or else I needs must lie. 



But to conclude this drinking aley tale, 



We had a sort of ale called scurvy ale." 



It would seem that in most of these drinks, the 

 chief object was to impart an exciting but not 

 disagreeable bitterness to the beverage, groping 

 as it were, by instinct, after that enduring and 

 gratifying bitter now universally derived from the 

 hop. Wormwood, hyssop, rosemary, sage, bet- 

 tony, each furnished its peculiar temptation to the 

 Manchester drinkers, who some two centuries ago 

 wanted an " excuse for the glass." Can any of 

 your correspondents state what were the compo- 

 nents of the scurvy ale spoken of by Taylor ? This 

 was, perhaps, a really medicated drink. 



It may not be generally known, that even at 

 this (lay, in some of the gin shops and taverns of 

 London, gin, in which the hei'b rue is infused, is a 

 constant article of sale ; and many, who assume a 

 most respectable blueness of physiognomy at the 

 bare mention of "old Tom" in his undisguised 

 state, scruple not to indulge in copious libations 

 of the same popular spirit, provided it be poured 

 from a bottle in which a few sprigs of rue are 

 floating. But what was scurvy ale ? 



Henry Campkin. 



