* * H.

* * * * *


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