Make Your Wassail a Swinger: Carouse with Lambs-wool to Your Guests' Health.

A later engraving of Father Christmas at the wassail bowl. 
By T. Hollis from the early 19th century.
Photographed by the Wellcome Collection.

We will continue looking at edible and quaffable elements in Robert Herrick’s holiday poems, leading into the fundamental moral and political ideal of hospitality. Returning to his “Twelfe night, or King and Queene,” we find that after the plum-filled cake is used to make known the king and queen for the evening, it is used to dip in, or is soused with, drink. Herrick writes:

“Which known, let us make

Joy-sops with the cake,”

“Joy-sops" is just a more poetic way of saying the poetic phrase “sops of joy.” What the cake is being sopped in is interesting. The ultimate goal is “To make the wassail a swinger;” what precedes this are, in other words, instructions to make a great drink.

But let us see those directions or a basic recipe again:

Next crown the bowl full

With gentle lambs-wool;

Add sugar, nutmeg and ginger,

With store of ale too.

And thus ye must do...

The initial royal flourish aside, the only thing a bit different is “lambs-wool.” This is not as strange as it seems; it is a drink, still known some places today, and a period synonym for wassail, in fact. There was a later seventeenth century book called The Academy of Armory, part of which functioned as a kind of dictionary for scienctific pursuits and what we would call today, the trades. 

In the section, “The Names of Several Dish-Meats and Cooks Terms Alphabetically,” between “Umble Pie, is a Pie made of the Intrals of a Deer, as Heart, Liver, &c.” and “Whipt Cream, it is beaten thick with a Whisk, then eaten with Cream and Sugar” is the definition of interest:

“Wassell, is a drink of Ale, toasted Apples, Sugar and Cinnamon mixt. Of some called Lambs-Wool.”

This even more basic recipe has a few minor differences but there are some shared, basic ingredients – sugar, apples and ale.

Why was it called lambswool? (What wassail means we will get to later as well). Some writers think that the fuzzy head on it reminded the drinkers of the small animal’s covering. General Charles Vallancey, a British army surveyor sent to Ireland disagreed. He stayed in Ireland after his service and became a writer on Irish history and customs. In Volume III of his Collectanea de Rebus Hibernicis [Collection of Irish Affairs], published in 1786, he says:

“The first day of November was dedicated to the angel presiding over fruits, seeds, & c. and was therefore named LA MAS UBHAL, that is, the day of the apple fruit, and being pronounced LAMASOOL, the English have corrupted the name to LAMBSWOOL, a name they give to a composition made on this eve, of roasted apples, sugar and ale.”

So, we know from many sources how to make a swinging wassail. Interesting that Robert Herrick was using “swinging” as a positive adjective well before the 60s or even Jazz Age.

The poet recounts the use of this drink in celebration elsewhere in his collection Hesperides. In verses talking about the good old days with a friend, he says they should relive various celebratory times. One instance being:

Then next I’ll cause my hopeful Lad

(If a wild Apple can be had)

To crown the Hearth,

(Lar thus conspiring with our mirth)

Then to infuse

Our browner Ale into the cruse:

Which sweetly spiced, we'll first carouse

Unto the Genius of the house.

A “lar” is a Roman household god or spirit; in the English context it was a fairy-like being which was often a guardian of the hearth and therefore good conspirators in this context. Once the lambswool or wassail is put together, essentially what is a toast is made to the lar: the speaker and his guests “first carouse / Unto the Genius of the house.” When it first came into English from Latin, “genius” meant an attendant household spirit. 

That act also points to another word meaning: any “wassail” is a toast in and of itself. The Middle English predecessor to the word was the phrase wæs hæil - “be in good health.” This in turn came from the Old Norse ves heill with a similar meaning. The proper response to wæs hæil, if you are wondering, is drinkhail - “drink good health.” Important to remember.

While there are still many cocktail recipes online for lambswool, I will be trying a basic kid-friendly one over the next couple days and will report back. Also, tomorrow will be more about Herrick, both food and our more serious obligations for holiday hospitality.