The origin of the word “mum” is somewhat disputed, but the best derivation seems to be from the name of Christopher Mummer, who is said to have been the first to brew it. Others assign to the word an origin from mummeln, to mutter, and this seems to have been Pope’s idea when he wrote the lines:—
The clamorous crowd is hushed with mugs of mum, Till all, turned equal, send a general hum.
Others, again, find the derivation in the word mum, meaning silence.
Brunswick is always given as its birthplace, and it was certainly known as early as the sixteenth century, for in an old work, De generibus ebriosorum et ebrietate vitanda (1515), “mommom sive mommum Brunsvigen” is mentioned as one of the drinks of Germany.
An old book, England’s Improvement by Sea and Land (1677), contains a remarkable proposition for bringing over the mum trade from Brunswick, and establishing it at Stratford-on-Avon.
The old writer, from whom the receipt before-quoted is taken, lays considerable stress on the fact that “the ingredients in its composition are very rare and choice simples, there being scarcely any disease in nature against which some of them is not a sure specific,” the implication apparently being that the combination of these ingredients would largely increase their healing power.
In one of the 400 letters addressed by Sir Richard Steele to his wife we find him writing under date December 6th, 1717:—“I went to bed last night after taking only a little broth; and all the day before a little tea and bread and butter, with two glasses of mum and a piece of bread. {174} at the House of Commons. Temperance and your company, as agreeable as you can make it, will make life tolerable if not easy, even with the gout.”
A particular variety of this beverage was known as Hamburgh mum, and a catch in its praise of the early part of last century mentions it as hailing from that city:—
There’s an odd sort of liquor New come from Hamborough, ’Twill stick a whole wapentake Thorough and thorough; ’Tis yellow, and likewise As bitter as gall, And as strong as six horses, Coach and all. As I told you ’twill make you, As drunk as a drum; You’d fain know the name on’t, But for that my friend, mum.
Readers of Sir Walter Scott will remember that Mr. Oldbuck is described at breakfast as despising the modern slops of tea and coffee and substantially regaling himself “more majorum, with cold roast beef and mum.”