Mickleham, Sept. 30. 1850.
_Eisell_ (Vol. ii., p. 242.).--The attempt of your very learned
correspondent, MR. SINGER, to show that "eisell" was _wormwood_, is, I
fear, more ingenious than satisfactory. It is quite true that wormwood
wine and beer were ordinary beverages, as wormwood bitters are now; but
Hamlet would have done little in challenging Laertes to a draught of
wormwood. As to "eisell," we have the following account of it in the
"Via Recta ad Vitam longam, or a Plaine Philosophical Discourse of the
Nature, Faculties, and Effects of all such Things as by way of
Nourishments, and Dieteticale Observations make for the Preservation of
Health, &c. &c. By Jo. Venner, Doctor of Physicke at Bathe in the Spring
and Fall, and at other Times in the Burrough of North-Petherton, neere
to the Ancient Haven Towne of Bridgewater in Somersetshire. London,
1620."
"Eisell, or the vinegar which is made of cyder, is also a good
sauce, it is of a very penetrating nature and is like to
verjuice in operation, but it is not so astringent, nor
altogether so cold," p. 97.