brynston

Ingredients

brynston, sope

Preparation Steps

Original Recipe Text

The text provides 'A good medycyn for sor eyen' for a man that is almost blind. The patient must go bareheaded all day against the wind until sunset, then at evening wrap in a cloak in a house full of smoke with every hole shut. When the eyes begin to 'rope', they are filled with brimstone (brynston) and soap (p. 293).

Evidence

"fyll hem full of brynston and sope"

Remarks

This is described as an inverted remedy found in a late fifteenth-century compendium of carols. The author of the study identifies it as obviously parodic because the advice would harm rather than heal (p. 293). The inclusion of brimstone (sulfur) and soap suggests a painful and destructive treatment, serving as a satirical critique of genuine remedies that utilized hyperbole (p. 293).