L---- Rectory, Somerset, July 8. 1850.
_Eating Snakes a Charm for growing young._--I send you the following
illustrations of this curious receipt for growing young. Perhaps some of
your correspondents will furnish me with some others, and some
additional light on the subject. Fuller says,--
"A gentlewoman told an ancient batchelour, who looked _very
young_, that she thought _he had eaten a snake_: 'No, mistris,'
(said he), 'it is because I never {131} meddled with any snakes
which maketh me look so young.'"--_Holy State_, 1642, p. 36.
He hath left off o' late to _feed on snakes_;
His beard's turned white again.
_Massinger, Old Law_, Act v. Sc. 1.
"He is your loving brother, sir, and will tell nobody
But all he meets, that you have eat a _snake_,
And are grown young, gamesome, and rampant."
_Ibid, Elder Brother_, Act iv. Sc. 4.