"_Tuch._"--In "The Synagogue," attached to Herbert's _Poems_, but written
by Chr. Harvie, M.A., is a piece entitled "The Communion Table," one verse
of which is as follows:
"And for the matter whereof it is made,
The matter is not much,
Although it be of _tuch_,
Or wood, or mettal, what will last, or fade;
So vanitie
And superstition avoided be."
S. T. Coleridge, in a note on this passage, printed in Mr. Pickering's
edition of Herbert, 1850 (fcap. 8vo.), says:
"_Tuch_ rhyming to _much_, from the German _tuch_, cloth: I never met
with it before as an English word. So I find _platt_, for foliage, in
Stanley's _Hist. of Philosophy_, p. 22."
Whether Coleridge rightly appreciated Stanley's use of the word _platt_, I
shall not determine; but with regard to _touch_, it is evident that he went
(it was the tendency of his mind) to Germany for error, when truth might
have been discovered nearer home. The context shows that _cloth_ could not
have been intended, for who ever heard of a table or altar made of cloth?
The truth is that the poet meant _touchstone_, which the author of the
_Glossary of Architecture_ (3rd edit., text and appendix) rightly explains
to be "the dark-coloured stone or marble, anciently used for tombstones. A
musical sound" (it is added) "may be produced by touching it sharply with a
stick." And this is in fact the reason for its name. The author of the
_Glossary of Architecture_ cites _Ben Jonson_ by Gifford, viii. 251., and
_Archæol._, xvi. 84.