Notes and Queries, Number 46, September 14, 1850

Notes and Queries, Number 46,
September 14, 1850

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Title: Notes and Queries, Number 46, Saturday, September 14, 1850
Author: Various
Release Date: September 15, 2004 [EBook #13462]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
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NOTES AND QUERIES:
A MEDIUM OF INTER-COMMUNICATION FOR LITERARY MEN,
ARTISTS, ANTIQUARIES, GENEALOGISTS, ETC.
* * * * *
"When found, make a note of."--CAPTAIN CUTTLE.

* * * * *
No. 46.] SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 14, 1850 [Price Threepence.
Stamped Edition 4d.
* * * * * {241}
CONTENTS.
NOTES:--Page The Meaning of "Risell" in Hamlet, by S.W. Singer.
241 Authors of the Rolliad. 242 Notes and Queries. 242 The Body of
James II., by Pitman Jones. 243 Folk Lore:--Legend of Sir Richard
Baker--Prophetic Spring at Langley, Kent. 244 Minor Notes:--Poem by
Malherbe--Travels of Two English Pilgrims. 245
QUERIES:-- Quotations in Bishop Andrewes, by Rev. James Bliss. 245
Minor Queries:--Spider and Fly--Lexicon of Types--Montaigue's Select
Essays--Custom of wearing the Breast uncovered--Milton's
Lycidas--Sitting during the Lessons--Blew-Beer--Carpatio--Value of
Money--Bishop Berkeley, and Adventures of Gaudeatio di
Lucca--Cupid and Psyche--Zund-nadel Guns--Bacon
Family--Armorials--Artephius--Sir Robert Howard--Crozier and
Pastoral Staff--Marks of Cadency--Miniature Gibbet. 245
REPLIES:-- Collar of S.S. by Rev. H.T. Ellacombe and J. Gough
Nichols. 248 Sir Gregory Norton. 250 Shakspeare's Word "Delighted,"
by Rev. Dr. Kennedy. 250 Aerostation, by Henry Wilkinson. 251
Replies to Minor Queries:--Long Lonkin--Rowley Powley--Guy's
Armour--Alarm--Prelates of France--Haberdasher--"Rapido contrarius
orbi"--Robertson of Muirtown--"Noli me tangere"--Clergy sold for
Slaves--North Side of Churchyards--Sir John Perrot--Coins of
Constantius II.--She ne'er with treacherous Kiss--California--Bishops
and their Precedence--Elizabeth and Isabel--Bever's Legal
Polity--Rikon Basilike, &c. 251
MISCELLANEOUS:-- Notes on Books, Sales, Catalogues, &c. 255
Notices to Correspondents. 255 Advertisements. 256
* * * * *
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

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