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Illustration of some old proverbs, &c.

(For the Mirror.)

"Ax.”  To ask.  This word which now passes for a mere vulgarism, is the original Saxon form, and used by Chaucer and others.  See “Tyrwhitt’s Glossary.”  We find it also in Bishop Bale’s “God’s Promises.”  “That their synne vengeaunce axed continually.”  Old Plays. i. 18.  Also in the “Four P.’s,” by Heywood, “And axed them thys question than.”  Old Pl. i. 84.  An axing is used by Chaucer for a request.  Ben Jonson introduces it jocularly: 

  “A man out of wax,
   As a lady would ax.”

        Masques, vol. 6, p. 85.

“Between the Cup and the Lip.”  The proverb that many things fall out between the cup and the lip, is a literal version of one in Latin. Multo inter pocula ac libra cadunt.  The origin of which was as follows:—­A king of Thrace had planted a vineyard, when one of his slaves, whom he had much oppressed in that very work, prophesied that he should never taste of the wine produced in it.  The monarch disregarded the prediction, and when at an entertainment he held a glassful of his own wine made from the grape of that vineyard, he sent for the slave, and asked him what he thought of his prophecy now; to which the other replied, “Many things fall out between the cup and the lip,” and he had scarcely delivered this singular response, before news was brought that a monstrous boar was laying waste the favourite vineyard.  The king, in a rage, put down the cup which he held in his hand, and hurried out with his people to attack the boar; but being too eager, the boar rushed upon him and killed him, without having tasted of the wine.  Such is the story related by some of the Greek writers, and though evidently apocryphal, it certainly is productive of a good practical moral.

“In the merry pin.”  This is said of those who have drunk freely and are cheerful in their cups.  Among the ancient northern nations, it was customary to drink out of large horns, in which were placed small pins, like a scale of distances, and he who quaffed most was considered as a toper of the first magnitude, and respected accordingly.  The merry pin was that which stood pretty far from the mouth of the horn, and he who, at a draught, reduced the liquor to that point, was a man of no ordinary prowess in bacchanalian contest.

“Under the Rose be it spoken.”  The rose being dedicated by Cupid to Harpocrates, the god of Silence, to engage him to conceal the amours of Venus, was an emblem of Silence; whence to present it or hold it up to any person in discourse, served instead of an admonition, that it was time for him to hold his peace; and in entertaining rooms it was customary to place a rose above the table, to signify that what was there spoken should be kept private.  This practice is described by the following epigram:—­