boiled lollies

[cking]

When were boiled lollies first made?

[RevShirls]

You can read a little about the history of lollipops (including boiled lollipops) here:

http://www.candyfavorites.com/shop/catalog_lollipop_history.asp

Basically, It seems that people started making boiled sweets in the middle ages and then in the 17th century they began making lollipops so that they would be easier to eat.

[Romeo]

I once read a modern translation of Chaucer's Canterbury Tales (14th century).  In 'The Miller's Tale', a young lady was described as a 'lollipop'.  I wondered about this.  Did they have such things in those days?  So I checked out the original, written in mediaeval Middle English, and she is actually called a 'piggis knye' (pig's knee), meaning a sugared or candied meat.  These were more common in the days when sugar was a luxury, before the colonisation of the West Indies and sugar plantations.