E. Cobham Brewer 1810–1897. Dictionary of Phrase and Fable. 1898.
Gryll.
Let Gryll be Gryll, and keep his hoggish mind. Don’t attempt to wash a blackamoor white; the leopard will never change his spots. Gryll is from the Greek gru (the grunting of a hog). When Sir Guyon disenchanted the forms in the Bower of Bliss some were exceedingly angry, and one in particular, named Gryll, who had been metamorphosed by Acra’sia into a hog, abused him most roundly. “Come,” says the palmer to Sir Guyon,
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“Let Gryll be Gryll, and have his hoggish mind.
But let us hence depart while weather serves, and wind.”
