813. _argoile_, crude cream of tartar deposited as a hard crust on
wine-casks. Called _argoil_ in Anglo-French; Liber Albus, i. 225, 231.
814. _resalgar_, realgar, red orpiment, or the red sulphuret of arsenic;
symbol (As S_2); found native in some parts of Europe, and of a brilliant
red colour. _Resalgar_ is adapted from the old Latin name, _risigallum_.
The word is explained by Thynne in his Animadversions, ed. Furnivall, p.
36--'This _resalgar_ is that whiche by some is called Ratesbane, a kynde of
poysone named Arsenicke.'
_enbibing_, imbibition; see this term used in The Alchemist, ii. 1. It
means absorption; cf. Theat. Chem. iii. 132, l. 27.
816. _citrinacioun._ This also is explained by Thynne, who says (p.
38)--'Citrinatione is bothe a coolor [colour] and parte of the philophers
stoone.' He then proceeds to quote from a Tractatus Avicennae, cap. 7, and
from Arnoldus de Nova Villa, lib. i. cap. 5. It was supposed that when the
materials for making the philosopher's stone had been brought into a state
very favourable to the ultimate success of the experiment, they would
assume the colour of a citron; or, as Thynne says, Arnold speaks of 'this
citrinatione, perfecte digestione, or the coolor provinge the philosophers
stoone broughte almoste to the heighte of his perfectione'; see
_Citrinacio_ in Ducange. So in the Alchemist, iii. 2:--
'How's the moon now? eight, nine, ten days hence
He will be silver potate; then three days
Before he _citronise_. Some fifteen days,
The magisterium will be perfected.'
817. _fermentacioun_, fermentation. This term is also noticed by Thynne (p.
33), who says--'fermentacione ys a peculier terme of Alchymye, deduced from
the bakers fermente or levyne'; &c. See Theat. Chem. ii. 115, 175.
820. _foure spirites._ Chaucer enumerates these below. I have already
mentioned them in the note to l. 778; see also note to l. 798. Tyrwhitt
refers us to Gower's Confessio Amantis, bk. iv., where we find a passage
very much to the point. See Pauli's edition, ii. 84.
Gower enumerates the seven bodies and the four spirits; and further
explains that gold and silver are the two 'extremities,' and the other
metals agree with one or other of them more or less, so as to be capable of
transmutation into one of them. For this purpose, the [427] alchemist must
go through the processes of distillation, congelation, solution,
descension, sublimation, calcination, and fixation, after which he will
obtain the perfect elixir of the philosopher's stone. He adds that there
are really three philosopher's stones, one vegetable, capable of healing
diseases; another animal, capable of assisting each of the five senses of
man; and the third mineral, capable of transforming the baser metals into
silver and gold.
It is easy to see how the various metals were made to answer to the seven
planets. _Gold_, the chief of metals and yellow, of course answered to the
_sun_; and similarly _silver_, to the paler moon. _Mercury_, the swiftest
planet, must be the shifty _quicksilver_; Saturn, the slowest, of cold and
dull influence, must be _lead_. The etymology of _copper_ suggested the
connexion with the _Cyprian_ Venus. This left but two metals, iron and tin,
to be adjusted; iron was suggestive of Mars, the god of war, leaving tin to
Jupiter. The notion of thus naming the metals is attributed to Geber; see
Thomson, Hist. of Chemistry, i. 117. In the Book of Quinte Essence, ed.
Furnivall, p. 8, we find: 'a plate of _venus_ or _Iubiter_,' i. e. of
copper or tin.
Quicksilver, be it observed, is still called _mercury_; and nitrate of
_silver_ is still _lunar_ caustic. Gold and silver are constantly termed
_sol_ and _luna_ in the old treatises on alchemy. See further allusions in
Chaucer's House of Fame, 1431-1487, as pointed out in the notes to ll.
1431, 1450, 1457, 1487 of that poem.