Natural history in Shakespeare's time : being extracts illustrative of the subject as he knew it / Made by H. W. Seager, M. B., &c. Also pictures thereunto belonging.

  • Seager, H. W. (Herbert West), 1848-
Date:
1896
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Natural history in Shakespeare's time : being extracts illustrative of the subject as he knew it / Made by H. W. Seager, M. B., &c. Also pictures thereunto belonging. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library at Yale University, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library at Yale University.

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    That other manner kind is called metal, and is found in the earth, and is had in price. The third manner is made of the three parts of gold, and of the fourth of silver. And kind Electrum warneth of venom, for if one dip it therein, it maketh a great chirking noise, and changeth oft into divers colours as the rainbow, and that suddenly. Bartholomew {Berthelet), bk. xvi. § 38. The Amber that is brought from these parts [Konigsberg and Kurland] lies in great quantity scattered on the sand of the seaj yet it is as safe as if it were in warehouses, since it is death to take away the least piece thereof. At Dantzic I did see two polished pieces thereof, which were esteemed at a great price, one including a frog with each part clearly to be seen, (for which the King of Poland then being there offered five hundred dollars) the other including a newt, but not so transparent as the former. Fynes Moryson, Itinerary,' pt. iii. bk. ii. ch. 3, p. 81. Any kind of Amber being sodden in the grease of a sow that gives suck to young pigs, is not only thereby the clearer but also much the better. Lupton, bk. i. § 25. Our drink shall be prepared, gold and Amber, Ben Jon5071 s Fox, iii. 7. He must drink his wine With three parts water, and have Amber in that too. Ben Jomon's Magnetic Lady, iii. 2. [Ambergris was a synonym for Amber, and was also used in caudles, cullises, and comfits.] I WONDER most at Sophocles the tragical poet. For he sticketh not to avouch, That beyond India Amber proceedeth from the tears that fall from the eyes of the birds. Holland's Pliny, bk. xxxvii. ch. 2. Amber is found as well in other places as in India. Garcias thinks it to be the nature of the soil, as chalk, bole-ammoniac, etc., and not the seed of the whale, or issuing from some fountain in the sea. Purchas' Pilgrims, p. 508 (ed. 1616).