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 propomatum hodie apud Christianos quoque maximus est et frequentissimus usus, quibus potatores maximi ceu proemiis quibusdam atque præludiis utuntur, ad dirum illud suum propinandi certamen. Ae maxime quidem commune est proponia absynthites, quod vim habet stomachum corroborandi et extenuandi, expellendique excrementa quæ in eo continentur. Hoc fere propomate potatores hodie maxime ab initio coenæ utuntur ceu pharmaco cum hesternæ, atque præteritæ, tum futuræ ebrietatis, atque crapulæ.... amarissimæ sunt potiones medicatæ, quibus tandem stomachi cruditates immoderato cibo potuque collectas expurgundi cause uti coguntur."—Stuckius, Antiquitatæ Corviralium. Tiguri, 1582, fol. 327.
Of the two latest editors, Mr. Knight decides for the river, and Mr. Collier does not decide at all. Our northern neighbours think us almost as much deficient in philological illustration as in enlarged philosophical criticism on the poet, in which they claim to have shown us the way.
S.W. SINGER.
Mickleham, Aug. 1850.
AUTHORS OF THE ROLLIAD.
To the list of subjects and authors in this unrivalled volume, communicated by LORD BRAYBROOKE (Vol. ii., p. 194.), I would add that No. XXI. Probationary Odes (which is unmarked in the Sunning-hill Park copy) was written by Dr. Laurence: so also were Nos. XIII. and XIV., of which LORD BRAYBROOKE speaks doubtfully. My authority is the note in the correspondence of Burke and Laurence published in 1827, page 21. The other names all agree with my own copy, marked by the late Mr. A. Chalmers.
In order to render the account of the work complete, I would add the following list of writers of the Political Miscellanies. Those marked with an asterisk are said "not to be from the club:"—