P O P - U P N O T E S

F O R A T I S S U E W E B E S S A Y O N

“Clarity”

#1 (of 9)

“A perspective Ring” — This piece of jewelry, designed for cheating at cards, was at the time Platt wrote still exclusively a French technology, of which English workmen were not yet capable. Platt describes the optics hidden in the French gambler’s ring, which functioned like a mirror, as follows: “A Christall stone or Glasse of the bignesse of a two pennie peece of silver, or thereaboute, beeing the just halfe of a rounde Baall or Globe, and cutte hollow within, having a good foyle sweetlie conveyed within the concave superficies thereof, and the stone it selfe neatly polished within and without, will give a livelie representation to the eye of him that weareth it, of all such Cardes as his companions which are nexte him doe holde in their handes, especiallie if the owner thereof doe take the upper ende of the Table for his place, and leaning nowe and then on his elbowe, or stretching out his arme, doe applie his Ring aptlie for the purpose. I have discovered this secret rather to discorage yong Novesses from Card-play, who by one experiment may easily ghesse, how manie sleights & cousonages, are dayly practised in our dicing and gaming houses....” (Sir Hugh Platt, The Jewell House of Art and Nature 6)

#2 (of 9)

“Dickson the Scot” — Platt here refers to the Elizabethan philosopher, propagandist, and spy, Alexander Dicsone (bap. 1558, d. 1603/4), whose “figurative and obscure treatise,” De Umbra Rationis & Judicii, sive, De Memoriae Virtute Prosopopæia (On the Shadow of Reason and Judgement), published at London in 1584, was based on the mnemonic theories of his friend, the Italian hermetic philosopher and cosmologist Giordano Bruno (1548?–1600). Dicsone taught his art of memory in England during the 1580s, charging 20 shillings per student. In this age before personal digital assistants, and even hand-written, paper-based to-do lists, Dicsone’s art of memory was, according to Platt, “verie sufficient to procure an assured and speedie remembra[n]ce of any 10. 20. 30. or 40. principall thinges more or lesse, that we shall take in charge to perfourme, and therfore verie necessarie for him that is charged with many errandes, and would discharge them all in such order as they are delivered unto him, as also for the remembrance of all such pleasant tales and histories as shall passe in table talke, from conceipted wits. In which two especial uses, I have often exercised this Art for the better helpe of mine owne memorie, and the same as yet hath never failed mee.” Dicsone’s art of memory also proved useful for cheating at cards. Platt reports ruefully that “I have heard of some of Maister Dickson his schollers, that have proved such cunning Card-players heereby, that they could tell the whole course of all the Cardes, and what every gamester had in his hande. So readie are we to turne an honest and commendable invention into meere craft and cousenage.” (Sir Hugh Platt, The Jewell House of Art and Nature 85)

#3 (of 9)

“Most recently” — i.e., September 2007, when I posted the first draft of this webessay.

#4 (of 9)

“Parvam” — This is a printer’s error. Later editions consistently use “Yarvam.” The booksellers’ Hannah Woolley, author of The Accomplish’d Lady’s Delight (1st edn., 1675) also used “contra Yarvam” in her recipe, by which was meant the Contrayerva root imported from Peru (and known as Lapis Contrayerva when made into a fine powder). The root-stock and scaly rhizome of species of Dorstenia (D. Contrayerva and D. braziliensis, family Urticaceæ) was used in Peru as an antidote for arrows poisoned with juices from the Yerva (white Hellebore), from which use it derived its Spanish name. Lapis Contrayerva was thought to be “of great efficacy in the Small Pox, Measles, Fevers, and all Cases where either a Diaphoresis or Perspiration is requir’d,” being “one of the best Anti-epidemicks yet known,” and reportedly successful even against the dreaded plague. (Chambers, Cyclopaedia, 1728, s.v. Contra-Yerva)

#5 (of 9)

“Trochises” — i.e., troche or trochisk, “A flat round tablet or lozenge, made of some medicinal substance powdered, worked into a paste with mucilage or the like, and dried.” (Oxford English Dictionary) By the early 18th century, this was considered an out-moded format. Quincy reports that “of those few [troches] the [Royal] College [of Physicians of London] retain [in their Pharmacopoeia Londinensis], half are not now in use, or ever made. The main Design of this Form seems to have been to preserve in readiness for present Use, Substances which stood in need of some Preparation, and took up time to reduce into Powder, and which by lying in a dry Powder would likewise be subject to decay sooner than in this Form. Many of these also are contrived for the Manner of taking them, which is gradually dissolving in the mouth, as most of the Balsamick and Pectoral kind; and few else are now in use, besides those commonly call’d Lozenges.” (Quincy, 1718, pp. 415–416)

#6 (of 9)

“Oriental Bezar” — i.e., Lapis bezoar orientale or Oriental bezoar-stone. This refers to a concretion found in the stomach or intestines of wild goats “call’d Pazan” native to the region then known as Persia. The gastric “stone” is formed of concentric layers of animal matter deposited round some foreign substance (the stone of a fruit, straws, hair, marcasites, pebbles, talc, sand, etc.) which serves as a nucleus. Oriental Bezoar was imported to England from Hyderabad, India (the capital city of the state of Andhra Pradesh) and the city of Cannanore (Kannur district in the Indian state of Kerala). “The true oriental bezoars were, about eighty years ago [the 1670s], so common in Cononor, that those of the bigness of a pigeon’s egg were frequently brought to market at six or seven reals a piece, and those of the bigness of a hen’s egg at twelve reals.” During the first decades of the 18th century, “A Stone of one Ounce is sold in the Indies for 100 Franks, and one of four Ounces for 2000 Livres.” Because of its expense and exotic origins, several types of bezoar-stone, natural and artificial, and of varying quality, were marketed in England. Chambers gives 3 tests which anyone capable of making the Countess of Kent’s Powder could easily perform to guarantee that the Oriental bezoar they were using was genuine. (Chambers, Cyclopaedia, 1728 and 1753 Supplement, s.v. Bezoar)

#7 (of 9)

“jelly of Hartshorn” — This, too, needed to be made by the enterprising 17th-century housewife. A recipe for hartshorn jelly is given by M. B. in his The Ladies Cabinet Enlarged and Opened ... whereunto is added, Sundry Experiments, and Choice Extractions of Waters, Oyls, &c. Collected and Practised, by ... Lord Ruthven ..., and reads: “Take two ounces of Harts-horne, filed (not scraped) very fine, steep it in a quart of faire water, and let it stand so all night upon hot embers, stirring it when you go to bed, and covering it: In the morning put four pints of water more to it, then boil it a good space on the fire, till it wil jellie, and when the liquor is almost three quarters boyled in, then strain it, and put to it a little Sugar, and as much juyce of Lemmons as will make it sharpe, and a little Ambergreece: Then let it stand and coole, and so put it up for your use. It is Excellent good for those that are brought low with burning Agues, giving them three or foure spoonfuls fasting, morning and evening, and about nine in the forenoone, and three in the afternoone.” (1654, Part 2, Sect. 1, No. 152, p. 111)

#8 (of 9)

“Aubrey’s ‘Life of Mr Thomas Hobbes of Malmesburie’” — An MS. precipitated by the death of Aubrey’s great friend Hobbes in December 1679, although Aubrey had been assembling material for it before that, having promised Hobbes that he would write his biography as early as 1667.

#9 (of 9)

“8o” — Common 17th-century abbreviation for octavo, a size of book traditionally produced by folding a standard printing sheet three times to form a section of eight leaves. Books with pages of this size were cheaper to produce, and appealed to a more popular audience.