[We are warned by several correspondents that this subject is becoming
as bitter as wormwood to them. Before we dismiss it, however, we must
record in our pages the opinion of one of the most distinguished
commentators of the day, Mr. Hunter, who in his _New Illustrations_,
vol. ii. p. 263., after quoting "potions of eysell" from the sonnet,
says, "This shows it was not any river so called, but some desperate
drink. The word occurs often in a sense in which _acetum_ is the best
representative, associated with verjuice and vinegar. It is the term
used for one ingredient of the bitter potion given to our Saviour on
the cross, about the composition of which the commentators are greatly
divided. Thus the eighth prayer of the Fifteen Oos in the _Salisbury
Primer_, 1555, begins thus: 'O Blessed Jesu, sweetness of heart and
ghostly pleasure of souls, I beseech thee for the bitterness of the
_aysell_ and gall that thou tasted and suffered for me in thy passion,'
&c."
Since the above was written, we have received a communication from _An
English Mother_ with the words and _music_ of the nursery song, showing
that the music does not admit the expressions "eat _up_," and "drink
_up_;" quoting from Haldorson's _Icelandic Lexicon_, Eysill, m.
Haustrum en Ose allsa; and asking what if Shakspeare meant either a
pump or a bucket? We have also received a Note from G. F. G. showing
that _eisel_ in Dutch, German, and Anglo-Saxon, &c., meant _vinegar_,
and stating, that during his residence in Florence in 1817, 1818, and
1819, he had often met with wormwood wine at the table of the Italians,
a weak white wine of Tuscany, in which wormwood had been infused, which
was handed round by the servants immediately after the soup, and was
believed to promote digestion.]
_Saxon Coin struck at Derby._--In the reign of Athelstan there was a royal
mint at Derby, and a coinage was struck, having on the obverse merely the
name of the town, Deoraby, and on the other side the legend "HEGENREDES MO
. ON . DEORABY." What is the meaning of this inscription?