778. Here the 'ascension of spirits' refers to the rising of gases or
vapours from certain substances; and the 'matters that lie all fix adown'
are the materials that lie at the bottom in a fixed (i. e. in a solid)
state. There were four substances in particular which were technically
termed 'spirits'; viz. sulphur, sal ammoniac, quicksilver, and arsenic, or
(as some said) orpiment. See Theatrum Chemicum, iii. 81, 129; ii. 430; iii.
276.
782. Here _a_ = in; being short for _an_, a variant of _on_, used in the
old sense of 'in.' The expression signifies, literally, in the way to (or
of) twenty devils; see note to A. 3713.
790. _bole armoniak._ The latter word should rather be _Armeniak_, i. e.
Armenian, but we have _armoniak_ again below, in l. 798; see note to that
line.
'_Bole_, a kind of fine, compact, or earthy clay, often highly coloured
with iron, and varying in shades of colour from white to yellowish, [424]
reddish, blueish, and brownish. Fr. _bol_, Lat. _bolus_, Gk. [Greek:
bôlos], a clod or lump of earth'; Webster's Dict., ed. Goodrich and Porter.
Cotgrave has--'_Bol_, m. the astringent and medicinable red earth or
minerall called _Bolearmenie_ ... _Bol Oriental_, et _Bol Armenien
Oriental_, Oriental Bolearmenie; the best and truest kind of Bolearmenie,
ministred with good effect against all poisons, and in pestilent diseases;
and more red than the ordinary one, which should rather be tearmed Sinopian
red earth than Bolearmeny.' And see _Bole_ in the New E. Dict.
Mr. Paget Toynbee has lately shewn (in The Academy, Sept. 16, 1893) that
_verdegrees_ is from the O. Fr. _verd de Grece_, lit. 'green of Greece.'
Cotgrave has the curious form _verderis_, which probably represents the
Latin _viride aeris_, the green of brass. This term (_viride aeris_) is the
common one in the old Latin treatises on alchemy. See the chapter in
Albertus Magnus--'Quomodo viride aeris fit, et quomodo rubificatur, et
super omnia valet ad artem istam'; Theatrum Chemicum, ii. 436. It is the
bibasic acetate of copper.
792, 794. Perhaps Chaucer had read the following lines:
'Par _alambics_ et _descensoires_,
_Cucurbites_, distillatoires.'
Les Remonstrances de Nature, par J. de Meung, ll. 39,40.
794. _Cucurbites_, vessels supposed to bear some resemblance to a gourd,
whence the name (Lat. _cucurbita_, a gourd). 'Cucurbita est uas quod debet
stare in aqua, usque ad juncturam firmatum in caldario, ut non moueatur';
Theatrum Chemicum, ii. 452.
795. _dere y-nough a leek_, dear enough at the price of a leek. Cf. Clerkes
Tale, E. 999.
797. _Watres rubifying_, reddening waters. This is well illustrated by a
long passage in The Boke of Quinte Essence, ed. Furnivall, p. 13, where
instructions are given for extracting the quintessence out of the four
elements. After various processes, we are directed to put the vessel into
'the fier of flawme right strong, and the _reed water_ schal ascende'; and
again--'thanne yn the stillatorie, to the fier of bath, cleer water schall
asende; and in the botum shall remayne the _reed water_, that is, the
element of fier.' A long and unintelligible passage about 'rubrificatio'
and 'aqua spiritualis rubea' occurs in the Theatrum Chemicum, iii. 41. See
also 'modus rubrificandi' and the recipe for 'aqua rubea'; id. iii. 110.
798. _Arsenic_ was by some considered as one of the 'four spirits'; see
note to l. 778. For a long passage 'de arsenico,' see Theatrum Chemicum,
iii. 177; also p. 110, and ii. 238. _Sal armoniacum_ was another of them
(see l. 824) and is constantly mentioned in the old treatises; see
'praeparatio salis Armoniaci secundum Rasim'; Theat. Chem. iii. 179; also
pp. 89, 94, 102; ii. 445. In vol. ii. p. 138 of the same work, it is twice
called '_sal armeniacum_.' See the account of _sal ammoniac_ in Thomson,
Hist. of Chemistry, i. 124. _Brimstoon_ was also a 'spirit' (see l. 824);
it is only another name for sulphur. [425]
800. _egrimoine_, common agrimony, _Ægrimonia officinalis_; valerian,
_Valeriana officinalis_; _lunarie_, a kind of fern called in English
moonwort, _Botrychium lunaria_. The belief in the virtue of herbs was very
strong; cf. Spenser, (F. Q. i. 2. 10). The root of valerian yields
valerianic acid. The following quotation is from the English Encyclopaedia,
s. v. _Botrychium_:--
'In former times the ferns had a great reputation in medicine, not so
much on account of their obvious as their supposed virtues. The lunate
shape of the pinnæ of this fern (_B. lunaria_) gave it its common name,
and was the origin of much of the superstitious veneration with which
it was regarded. When used it was gathered by the light of the moon.
Gerarde says--"it is singular [i. e. sovereign] to heal green and fresh
wounds. It hath been used among the _alchymists and witches_ to do
wonders withall."'
In Ashmole's Theatrum Chemicum, p. 348, is a full description of
'lunayrie,' with an engraving of it. It is there also called _asterion_,
and we are told that its root is black, its stalk red, and its leaves
round; and moreover, that the leaves _wax and wane with the moon_, and on
each of them is a mark of the breadth of a penny. See also pp. 315, 318 of
the same work.
805. _albificacioun_, i. e. the rendering the water of a white colour, as
distinguishing from the reddening of it, mentioned in l. 797. In a long
chapter printed in the Theatrum Chemicum (iii. 634-648) much is said about
red and white colours. Compare the Alchemist, ii. 1:--
'_Mammon._ Of _white oil_?
_Subtle._ No, sir, of _red_.'
No doubt, too, _water_ is here used in the sense of the Lat. _aqua_, to
denote any substance that is in a liquid state.
808. _Cered pokets._ Tyrwhitt reads _Sered pokettes_, and includes this
phrase in his short 'List of Phrases not understood'; and indeed, it has
never been explained. But there is little difficulty about it. _Poket_ is
the diminutive of _poke_, a bag, and means a little bag. _Cered_ (Lat.
_ceratus_) means waxed. Thus Cotgrave has--'_Ciré_, m. _-ée_, f. waxed,
_seared_; dressed, covered, closed, or mingled, with wax.' In many MSS. the
word is spelt _sered_, but this makes no difference, since Cotgrave has
'seared' in this very place. So we find both 'cere-cloth' and 'sear-cloth.'
It is obvious that bags or cases prepared or closed with wax would be
useful for many of the alchemist's purposes; see Theat. Chem. iii. 13.
_sal peter_, Lat. _sal petrae_, or rock-salt, also called _nitre_, is
nitrate of potassa. A recipe for preparing it is given in Theat. Chem. iii.
195.
_vitriole_, i. e. sulphuric acid. See 'vitrioli praeparatio'; Theat. Chem.
iii. 95.
810. _Sal tartre_, salt of tartar, i. e. carbonate of potash; so called
from its having been formerly prepared from cream of tartar.
_sal preparat_, common salt prepared in a certain manner. See the [426]
section--'quod ualeat sal commune, et quomodo praeparetur'; Theat. Chem.
ii. 433, 435.
812. _maad_, i. e. prepared, mixed. _oile of tartre_, oil of tartar, cream
of tartar; see Prol. 630. See the section--'quomodo praeparatur tartarum,
ut oleum fiat ex illo, quo calces soluuntur'; Theat. Chem. ii. 436; and
again--'ad faciendum oleum de Tartaro'; id. iii. 303. To scan l. 813,
remember to pronounce _tartre_ as in French, and to accent _alum_ on the
latter syllable.