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    Notes and Queries, Number 46, September 14, 1850
    Notes and Queries, Number 46, September 14, 1850
    Notes and Queries, Number 46, September 14, 1850
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    Notes and Queries, Number 46, September 14, 1850

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    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherArchive Classics
    Release dateNov 26, 2013
    Notes and Queries, Number 46, September 14, 1850

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      Notes and Queries, Number 46, September 14, 1850 - Archive Classics

      The Project Gutenberg EBook of Notes and Queries, Number 46, Saturday,

      September 14, 1850, by Various

      This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with

      almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or

      re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included

      with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.net

      Title: Notes and Queries, Number 46, Saturday, September 14, 1850

      Author: Various

      Release Date: September 15, 2004 [EBook #13462]

      Language: English

      *** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK NOTES AND QUERIES ***

      Produced by The Internet Library of Early Journals, Jon Ingram, David

      King, and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team

      NOTES AND QUERIES:

      A MEDIUM OF INTER-COMMUNICATION FOR LITERARY MEN, ARTISTS, ANTIQUARIES, GENEALOGISTS, ETC.

      When found, make a note of.—CAPTAIN CUTTLE.

      CONTENTS.

      NOTES.

      THE MEANING OF DRINK UP EISELL IN HAMLET.

      Few passages have been more discussed than this wild challenge of Hamlet to Laertes at the grave of Ophelia:

      "Ham. I lov'd Ophelia! forty thousand brothers

      Could not, with all their quantity of love,

      Make up my sum. What wilt thou do for her?

      —Zounds! show me what thou'lt do?

      Woo't weep? Woo't fight? Woo't fast? Woo't tear

      thyself?

      Woo't drink up Eisell? eat a crocodile?

      I'll do't".

      The sum of what has been said may be given in the words of Archdeacon Nares:

      There is no doubt that eisell meant vinegar, nor even that Shakspeare has used it in that sense; but in this passage it seems that it must be put for the name of a Danish river.... The question was much disputed between Messrs. Steevens and Malone: the former being for the river, the latter for the vinegar; and he endeavored even to get over the drink up, which stood much in his way. But after all, the challenge to drink vinegar, 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. 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.

      I must confess that I was formerly led to adopt this view of the passage, but on more mature investigation I find that it is wrong. I see no necessary connection between eating a crocodile and drinking up eysell; and to drink up was commonly used for simply to drink. Eisell or Eysell certainly signified vinegar, but it was certainly not used in that sense by Shakspeare, who may in this instance be his own expositor; the word occurring again in his CXIth sonnet.

      "Whilst, like a willing patient, I will drink

      Potions of eysell, 'gainst my strong infection;

      No bitterness that I will bitter think,

      Nor double penance, to correct correction."

      Here we see that it was a bitter potion which it was a penance to drink. Thus also in the Troy Book of Lydgate:

      Of bitter eysell, and of eager wine.

      Now numerous passages in our old dramatic writers show that it was a fashion with the gallants of the time to do some extravagant feat, as a proof of their love, in honour of their mistresses; and among others the swallowing some nauseous potion was one of the most frequent; but vinegar would hardly have been considered in this light; wormwood might.

      In Thomas's Italian Dictionary, 1562, we have Assentio, Eysell and Florio renders that word by vinegar. What is meant, however, is Absinthites or Wormwood wine, a nauseously bitter medicament then much in use; and this being evidently the bitter potion of Eysell in the poet's sonnet, was certainly the nauseous draught proposed to be taken by Hamlet among the other extravagant feats as tokens of love. The following extracts will show that in the poet's age this nauseous bitter potion was in frequent use medicinally.

      ABSINTHIUM, [Greek: apsinthion, aspinthion], Comicis, ab insigni amarore quo bibeates illud aversantur.-Junius, Nomenclator ap. Nicot.

      "ABSINTHITES, wormwood wine.—Hutton's Dict.

      "Hujus modi autem

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