Note E220 — 39.
Reading edition
"Tanzie," Fr. athanasie, contracted to tanacée and tanaisie. Lyte says, p. 18, that it was sold in the shops under the name of Athanasia, the Greek word for immortality, and that it was so called, "quod non cito flos inarexat." A cake used to be made in which tansy was one of the ingredients, and which was called Tansay-Cake. The following recipe for it is given in MS. Sloane 1986, f. 100:
"Breke egges in bassyn, and swynge hem sone, Do powder of peper therto anone, Then grynde tansay, tho juse owte wrynge, To blynde with tho egges, withowte lesynge. In pan or skelet thou shalt hit frye, In buttur well skymm et wyturly, Or white grece thou may take therto, Geder hit on acake, thenne hase thou do, With platere of tre, and frye hit browne, On brodeleches serve hit thou schalle, With fraunche-mele* or other metis withalle."
* A dish composed chiefly of eggs and sheeps' fat.
In Halliwell's Dict. is also given a recipe for a dish called Tansie. Cogan, in his Haven of Health, p. 65, says: "It is much vsed among vs in England about Easter, with fried egs, not without good cause, to purge away the fleame engendred of fish in Lent season, whereof wormes are soone bred in them that be thereto disposed, though the common people vnderstand not the cause, why Tansies are more vsed after Lent, than at any other time of the yeare." "To prevent being Bug-bitten. Put a sprig or two of Tansy at the bed head, or as near the pillow as the smell may be agreeable."—T. Cosnett's Footman's Directory, p. 292. "For to dystroy a Wrang Nayle, othewyse callyd a Corne. Take wylde tansey, and grynde yt, and make yt neshe, and ley it therto, and it wyl bryng yt owght."—Lambeth MS. 306, f. 65, quoted in Political, Relig. and Love Poems (E. E. Text Soc. ed. Furnivall), p. 36.
The wild tansey is not Tusser's plant.—Note by Mr. J. Britten, F.L.S.