(Cherry) Bounce

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   This was addressed to the ADS-L webmaster and somehow bounced its way to me:

> From: "almower at pop.earthlink.net" <almower at pop.earthlink.net>
> Date: Fri Feb 7, 2003  4:59:33 PM America/New_York
> To: gbarrett at americandialect.org
> Subject: Research / Oxford U. Press / Cherry bounce
> Reply-To: rmower at aya.yale.edu
>
> Dear Sir or Madam,
>
> I am researching the alcoholic beverage called cherry bounce for an
> entry
> in the
> forthcoming Oxford University Press Encyclopedia of American Food and
> Drink. I
> have a long-shot question: would anyone in your society happen to be
> particularly
> knowledgeable about American terms for alcoholic beverages drunk in the
> 17th-19th
> centuries?
>
> I am trying to track down the earliest instance and definition of the
> term
> "bounce,"
> since it is unclear whether it is an Americanism (which may
> subsequently
> traveled
> back to England) or imported from England. The drink cherry bounce is
> virtually
> identical to cherry brandy in some variants, although other liquors
> were
> used as well.
>
> ***
> Oxford English Dictionary 2ed ed. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1989. vol.
> 3,
> refers to
> R.G. Latham’s Dictionary of the English Language:
>
> cherry-bounce. 1. Colloq. for Cherry-brandy [said by Latham to be a
> term
> coined in
> order to sell the spirit without paying duty, but he gives no
> authority.]
> OED also indicates William Robertson’s Phraseologia Generalis, in
> 1693, for
> the
> earliest instance of the term.


  Literature Online has this.  It's from 1700, but Fletcher died in 1625.   "Sue me, I'll drink up all. Bounce I say once more."  It looks like a drink, pilgrim.


Author: Fletcher, John, 1579-1625.
Title: The pilgrim a comedy as it is acted at the Theatre-Royal in Drury-Lane / written originally by Mr. Fletcher and now very much alter'd with several additions ; likewise a prologue, epilogue, dialogue and masque written by the late great poet Mr. Dryden just before his death, being the last of his works.
Publication date: 1700.
Search results: 5 matches in full text
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THE PILGRIM, &c. > ACT III.
• ... 1 Keep. If any of the Madmen get her, they'l Pepper her, they'l Bounce her, l' Faith. / Fool. Will you walk into the Cole- ...
THE PILGRIM, &c. > ACT IV.
• ...  Enter English Madman, Scholar and Priest.Eng. Bounce. Clap her o'th' Starboard. Bounce. Top the Can. / Schol.  ...
• ... and Priest.Eng. Bounce. Clap her o'th' Starboard. Bounce. Top the Can. / Schol. Dead, ye Dog, dead! D'ye qua ...
• ... d! D'ye quarrel in my Kingdom? Give me my Trident. / Eng. Bounce!—'Twixt Wind and Water! Laden with Mackerel!— Oh brave Meat! /  ...
• ...  give me the tenth Pot. / Eng. Sue me, I'll drink up all. Bounce I say once more— O-ho! hav I split y ...