latable, that to _drink it
up_, as Hamlet challenged Laertes to do, would have been as
strong an argumentum ad stomachum as to digest a crocodile, even
when appetised by a slice of the loaf."

It is evident, therefore, that but small doses of this nauseously bitter
medicament were taken at once, and to take a large draught, _to drink
up_ a quantity, "would be an extreme pass of amorous demonstration
sufficient, one would think, to have satisfied even Hamlet." Our
ancestors seem to have been partial to medicated wines; and it is most
probable that the wormwood wine Pepys gave his friends had only a slight
infusion of the bitter principle; for we can hardly conceive that such
"pottle draughts" as two quarts could be taken as a treat, of such a
nostrum as the _Absinthites_, or wormwood wine, mentioned by Stuckius,
or that prescribed by the worthy Langham.

S.W. SINGER.

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.

J.R.N.

* * * * *

REPLIES TO MINOR QUERIES.

_Feltham's Works_ (Vol. ii., p. 133.).--In addition to the works
enumerated by E.N.W., Feltham wrote _A Discourse upon Ecclesiastes_ ii.
11.; _A Discourse upon St. Luke_ xiv. 20.; and _A Form of Prayer
composed for the Family of the Right Honourable the Countess of
Thomond_. These two lists, I believe, comprise the whole of his
writings. The meaning of the passage in his _Remarks on