Medical philology. Part 1. A - El / gathered by L.M. Griffiths.

  • Griffiths, L. M. (Lemuel Matthews)
Date:
1905
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Medical philology. Part 1. A - El / gathered by L.M. Griffiths. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by Royal College of Physicians, London. The original may be consulted at Royal College of Physicians, London.

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    p. 60, we have elf used as equivalent to the classical nymph ■ thus we find 'Onades, munt-^lfen; Dryades, wudu-elfen • Hamadryades, wylde-elfen; Naiades, see-elfen; Castalides, dun- elfen. ^ Pimilus. An elfe or dwarfe.' Si^nhndge, Vocabula. In Leechdoms, Wortcunning, and Starcmft of Early England, edited by the Rev. Oswald Cockayne in the Rolls Series, will be found many recipes to be used for the physical evils wrought by elves. Halliwell and Wright in their additions to Nares's Glossary give Elf-cake as an affection of the side, supposed, no doubt, to be produced by the agency of the fairies, and quote from Lupton's Thousand Notable Things: To help the hardness of the side, call'd the elf-cake—Take the root of gladen, make powder thereof, and give the diseased party half a spoonful to drink in white-wine; or let him eat thereof so much in his potage at a time, and it will help him. Some have thought that a reference to plica polonica lies in the words of Mercutio (Romeo and Juliet, I. iv. go) in which he attributes to Mab the power of producing elf-locks. But, as Nares says, this is not probable. It will be remembered that in Lear (II. iii. 10) Edgar says that part of his disguise is to elf all his hair in knots. 1 [2nd Ed., 189.4, 5- 7. 8, 9.] END OF PART I.