vnslekked lyne orpyment

Ingredients

otestraw askes, iuys of yuyleues, holmen barkes, vnslekked lyne, orpyment, welle water, leuys of wodebynde, vynegre, amtys eroun, blode of a remows, gumme of yuy, aysel, vnslekked lyme, nettel seed, moure eroyne, oille, galle of a goot

Preparation Steps

Original Recipe Text

To remove hair (To don her to go awey): 1. Wash head with sediment of burnt oat straw ashes. 2. Apply juice of ivy leaves after pulling hair. 3. Alternatively, use ashes of evergreen oak bark mixed with unslaked lime (calcium oxide) and orpiment (arsenic trisulphide) with well water. 4. Another method involves woodbine leaves stamped and tempered with vinegar. 5. A more complex mixture includes pupae of ants, bat blood, ivy gum, orpiment, and vinegar (aysel) stamped together with unslaked lime; this is described as effective but 'violent'. 6. Nettle seed stamped with vinegar applied after high heat. 7. Pupae of ants boiled with hedgehog oil. 8. Bat blood mixed with goat gall (p. 87).

Evidence

"tak þe askes of holmen barkes and vnslekked lyne orpyment and welle water and do þer on // Anoer tak amtys eroun and þe blode of a remows at is to say of a bakke and þe gumme of yuy orpyment and aysel and stamp hem wel togeder wiþ vnslekked lyme frote þe place ofte erwi is is good but it is violent."

Remarks

The recipe lists orpiment and lime as active ingredients for caustic hair removal. The presence of 'gumme of yuy' (ivy gum) may have served as a binder for the paste (p. 87). The text highlights the 'compulsion to keep adding and connecting recipes' in 15th-century collections (p. 87).