Now only arch. and Hist. Forms: 3 wæs hæil, wæshail, washayl, washail, wesseyl, 3–4, 7 wassayl, 3, 6–7, 9 arch. wassaile, 5 wassaylle, wessayle, (whatsaile, -saill), 6 wassaill, -ayle, 6–7 wassall, 7–8 wassal, (7 vassaile, Hist. was-haile, washeall, waes heal, 9 waisall, waissel, arch. was-hael), 5–9 wassel(l, 3– wassail. (ME. wæs hæil etc., a. ON. ves (= later ver) heill, corresp. to OE. wes hál lit. ‘be in good health’ or ‘be fortunate’: see BE v. A. 3 and WHOLE a.
As an ordinary salutation (= ‘hail’ or ‘farewell’) the phrase, or an approximation to it, occurs both in OE. (hál wes pú, and in pl. wesað hále: see BE v. A. 3) and in ON. (pl. verið heilir). But neither in OE. nor in ON., nor indeed in any Teut. lang., has any trace been found of the use as drinking formulas, of the phrases represented by wassail and drinkhail. It seems probable that this use arose among the Danish-speaking inhabitants of England, and became more or less common among the native population; in the 12th c. it was regarded by the Normans as markedly characteristic of Englishmen. The earliest known occurrence of the phrases is in Geoffrey of Monmouth VI. xii. (c. 1140), in the well-known story of Rowena (wes heil … drinc heil: v.r. was heil, printed edd. corruptly wacht heil). Geoffrey’s attribution of the phrases to the 5th century is an anachronism; the original story as told by Nennius contains nothing corresponding to them. In Wace’s Brut (c. 1180), which is a metrical version of Geoffrey, various MSS. have weshel, waisseil, gasel; drinkel, drincheheil, drechehel. That Wace’s acquaintance with the ‘English’ phrases was not wholly derived from the passage in Geoffrey is shown by his reference to them in the Roman de Rou, where it is said that the night before the battle of Hastings was spent by the English in revelry, with cries of weissel (v.rr. wesse heil, welseil, weseil) and drincheheil (v.rr. drinceseil, drinqueheil, drinkeil). In the Speculum Stultorum of Nigellus Wireker (c. 1190) the English students at the university of Paris are praised for generosity and other virtues, but are said to be too much addicted to wessail and dringail. The earliest example of the phrases in an English context is in Layamon’s translation of Wace.
In drinkhail the second element is, as in wassail, the ON. adj. heill used as complement. Although the phrase drekk heill is not recorded in ON., it has an exact syntactical parallel in sit heill, ‘sit in health.’ Whether the form of the first element in drinkhail is due to OE. influence or is archaic Scandinavian is doubtful; the form drechehel in one MS. of Wace is noteworthy from its resemblance to the ON. of the literary period.]
1. A salutation used when presenting a cup of wine to a guest, or drinking the health of a person, the reply being DRINK-HAIL.
c. 1205. Lay., 14309. Reowen … bar an hir honde ane guldene bolle i-uulled mid wine … & þus ærest sæide in Ænglene londe Lauerd king wæs hæil [c. 1275 wassayl]. Ibid., 14332 [see DRINK-HAIL]. Ibid., 14970. Heo fulde hir scale of wine … & þus hailede him on … Lauerd king wæshail [c. 1275 wassail].
13[?]. E. E. Allit. P., B. 1503. Weȝe wyn in þis won ‘wassay!!’ he cryes.
c. 1400. Brut, 52. Ronewenne … come wiþ a coupe of golde … and knelede bifore þe kyng, and saide to him ‘Whatsaile!’… þat was þe ferst tyme þat ‘whatsaile’ and ‘drynkehaile’ come vp into þis lande; and fram þat tyme into this tyme it Haþ bene wel vsede.
1568. Grafton, Chron., II. 116. I trust this wassall shall make all England glad. And with that he dranke a great draught, the king pledging him.
1832. Motherwell, Poems, Battle-Flag of Sigurd, i. Then lift the can to bearded lip,… Wassaile! to every dark-ribbed ship, To every battle-field!
1843. Lytton, Last Bar., I. v. Fair mistress Sybill, your dainty lips will not, I trow, refuse me the waisall. [Another ed. reads waissel.]
1860. Longf., Wayside Inn, K. Olaf, XII. xiii. The Berserks drank ‘Was-hael! to the Lord!’
† b. As a mere salutation. quasi-arch.
a. 1643. Cartwright, Ordinary, IV. ii. Ha. What? who goes there? Moth. Waes heal thou gentle Knight.
¶ c. ironically. A ‘salute,’ smart attack. Obs.
c. 1400. Laud Troy-bk., 9020. Odemoun … Toke Menelaus In that swyng, And him bare ouer his hors tayl: He ȝaff him there suche a wassail, That he lay longe In colde swot.
2. The liquor in which healths were drunk; esp. the spiced ale used in Twelfth-night and Christmas-eve celebrations.
Wine and wassail (now arch., echoing Shaks.): vaguely, strong drink in abundance (cf. sense 4).
c. 1300. Havelok, 1246. Wyn and ale deden he fete, And made[n] hem glade and bliþe, Wesseyl ledden he fele siþe.
1494. in Househ. Ord. (1790), 121. When the steward cometh in at the hall doore with the wassell, he must crie three tymes, Wassell, wassell, wassell.
a. 1548. Hall, Chron., Hen. VIII., 9. Then was the wassaill or banket brought in, and so brake vp Christmas.
1601. Holland, Pliny, XXV. viii. II. 224. And even at this day [in Spain] in their great feasts … they have a certaine Wassaile or Bragat, which goeth round about the table, made of honied wine or sweet mead, with … hearbes in it.
1605. Shaks., Macb., I. vii. 64. His two Chamberlaines Will I with Wine, and Wassell, so conuince, That Memorie … shall be a Fume.
1616. B. Jonson, Forest, iii. The jolly wassall walkes the often round, And in their cups, their cares are drown’d. Ibid. (1616), Masque of Christmas, 2. Enter … Wassal, Like a neat Sempster, and Songster; her Page bearing a browne bowle, drest with Ribbands.
1661. New Carolls for Christmas, For Twelfth-day, iii. The Wassell well spiced, about shall go round.
1742–50. R. O. Cambridge, Archimage, xiii. Wks. (1803), 39. ’Bove all things else he Wassel priz’d and ale.
1808. Scott, Marmion, VI. Introd. 64. On Christmas eve … The wassel round, in good brown bowls Garnish’d with ribbons, blithely trowls. Ibid. (1816), Old Mort., ix. Women, wine, and wassail, all to be had for little but the asking.
1824. W. Irving, T. Trav., I. 7. The wine and the wassail of mine host began to operate upon bodies already a little jaded by the chase.
1836. Dickens, Pickw., xxviii. They sat down … to a substantial supper, and a mighty bowl of wassail,… in which the hot apples were hissing and bubbling.
1850. Tennyson, In Mem., cv. v. And strangely falls our Christmas-eve…. But let no footstep beat the floor, Nor bowl of wassail mantle warm.
1851. Longf., Gold. Leg., I. Court-yard of Castle, 17. No song, no laugh, no jovial din Of drinking wassail to the pin.
1857. G. A. Lawrence, Guy Livingstone, iv. Two hundred gownsmen, wild with wrath and wassail, come leaping to the rescue.
1898. J. B. Crozier, My Inner Life, v. 43. He was much addicted to wine and wassail, too, as his blood-red face sufficiently attested.
† 3. A custom formerly observed on Twelfth-night and New-Year’s eve of drinking healths from the wassail-bowl. † Also, ? the person invited to drink from the wassail-bowl. Obs.
1598. E. Guilpin, Skial. (1878), 25. A wassaile on twelfe night.
1612. Selden, Illustr. Drayton’s Poly-olb., IX. 153. I see a custome in some parts among vs,… I meane the yearely washaile in the country on the vigil of the New-yeare. Ibid. (a. 1654), Table-Talk (1689), 42. The Pope in sending Rellicks to Princes, does as Wenches do by their Wassels at New-years-tide, they present you with a Cup, and you must drink of a slabby stuff; but the meaning is, you must give them Moneys.
1658. Phillips, Wassail,… an ancient Ceremonious custome, still used upon twelf day at night, of going about with a great bowl of Ale, drinking of healths.
1661. New Carolls for Christmas, For Twelfth-day, ii. For a King of our Wassell this night we must chuse.
4. A carousal; riotous festivity, revelling.
1602. Shaks., Ham., I. iv. 9. The King doth wake to night, and takes his rouse, Keepes wassels. Ibid. (1606), Ant. & Cl., I. iv. 56. Anthony, Leaue thy lasciuious Vassailes.
1614. R. Tailor, Hog hath lost Pearl, G 3. I sweare,… by Cresus name and by his castle, Where winter nights he keepeth wassell.
1805. Scott, Last Minstrel, V. viii. The blithesome signs of wassel gay Decay’d not with the dying day.
1820. Byron, Juan, III. lxi. Meantime the lady and her lover sate At wassail in their beauty and their pride.
1820. W. Irving, Sketch Bk. (1849), 148. I at length arrived in merry Eastcheap, that ancient region of wit and wassail.
1848. Lytton, Harold, IV. ii. A board was spread and a wassail was blithe around me.
1878. H. Phillips, Jr. Poems fr. Sp. & German, 72. Two kings held wassail in Orkadàl.
1903. R. S. Hawker, Footpr. in Far Cornw., 28. Now there was signal made of banquet in the halls of Stowe, of wassail and dance.
† 5. A carol or song sung by wassailers; a wassailing or health-drinking song. Obs.
In quot. 1607 ironical or jocular.
1607. Beaum. & Fl., Woman-Hater, III. i. Have you done your wassayl? ’tis a handsome drowsie dittie I’ll assure ye, now I had as leave hear a Cat cry.
c. 1650. New Christmas Carols, Carrol for Wassel-Bowl, 7. Good Dame here at your Door Our Wassel we begin.
6. attrib. and Comb., as (sense 3), wassail-candle, -day, -singer, -singing; (sense 4), wassail-bout, -revelry, roar, -rout, -season, -song; also wassail-cup = WASSAIL-BOWL.
A spurious compound wassail-bread, given in many Dicts., is due to a misinterpretation of wastell-bread: see WASTEL. For a similar figment, wassail-cake, see quot. 1686–7 s.v. WASSAIL v. 2.
1840. Longf., Skeleton in Armour, vii. Many a *wassail-bout Wore the long Winter out.
1597. Shaks., 2 Hen. IV., I. ii. 179. Iu. What? you are as a candle, the better part burnt out. Fal. A *Wassell-Candle, my Lord; all Tallow.
1634. Brereton, Trav. (Chetham Soc.), 6. Such as they met gave them money … to buy a *wassail-cup, a carouse.
1600. Holland, Livy, XXVI. xiii. 593. The same wassaile cup [L. poculum idem] that first will be presented to me, shall go round about to you all.
1853. C. Brontë, Villette, xxv. Let us haue a Christmas wassail-cup and toast Old England here, on the hearth.
1742. Shenstone, Schoolmistr., xiii. o *wassel days! O customs meet and well!
1814. Scott, Lord of Isles, VI. xix. But now, from England’s host, the cry Thou hear’st of *wassail revelry. Ibid. (1808), Marmion, I. xxx. This was the sign the feast was o’er; It hush’d the merry *wassel roar. Ibid., III. Introd. 187. Of forayers, who,… home returning, fill’d the hall With revel, *wassel-rout, and brawl.
1767. Mickle, Concub., I. xxix. Now fly the *wassal Seasons wingd with Glee.
a. 1825. Forby, Voc. E. Anglia, *Wassail-singers.
1895. ’Q’ [Quiller-Couch], Wandering Heath, 182. December and January, with the courants and geesy-dancing, and carols and *wassail-singing.
1829. Scott, Anne of G., xxiii. The chorus of a *wassel-song, which some reveller was trolling over in his sleep.
1854. Grace Greenwood, Haps & Mishaps, 88. A hall of the old castle, which had rung to the clang of rude armour, and the wassail songs of Erin’s princes and knights.
