The Closet of Sir Kenelm Digby Knight Opened by Sir Kenelm Digby (popular books of all time TXT) 📕

ed. Warner. Roxburghe Club, 1877.

p. xxiii 1. 16 "hermit." The portrait of Digby in this guise, painted
by Janssen, in the possession of T. Longueville, Esq., is
reproduced in Mr. Longueville's life of his ancestor. Says Pennant
in his Journey from Chester to London , ed. 1782, "I know of no
persons who are painted in greater variety than this illustrious
pair [Digby and his wife]: probably because they were the finest
subjects of the time."

p. xxv 1. 3 "duel ... with a French lord." See the curious little
pamphlet, Sir Kenelme Digby's Honour Maintained , 1641.

p. xxvi 1. I The Observations on Religio Medici , together with the
correspondence between Browne and Digby, are often reprinted with
the text of R.M.

p. xxvi 1. 5 "glass-making." See Longueville, pp. 255-6

p. xxix 1. 11 Descartes. Des Maizeaux. Viede Saint-Evremond, pp.
80-6.

p. xxxi 1. 8 A Late Discourse made in a Solemne Assembly of Nobles and
Learned Men at Montpellier . By Sir K.D., Kt. Rendered faithfully
into English by R. White. 2nd ed., 1658. The original was in
French. Longueville gives a loathsome receipt for the Sympathetic
Powder from an original in the Ashmolean. "To make a salve yt
healeth though a man be 30 miles off." But vitriol is the only
ingredient Digby mentions; and the receipt given by his steward
Hartman [see Appendix], and sold by him, is more likely to be
Digby's. Of course, there were many claimants to the credit of the
invention of sympathetic powders.

p. xxxiii 1. 4 "house in Covent Garden." For a brief account of this
house, see an article on Hogarth's London in the English Review ,
February, 1910.

p. xxxiv 1. 6 "history of the Digby family." This has disappeared.

p. xxxiv 1. 13 "Catalogue of the combined collection." Bibliotheca
Digbeiana , 1680. See also Edwards's Memoirs of Libraries , II,
118, and Sir K.D. et les Anciens Rapports des Bibliothèques
Françaises avec la Grande Bretagne . L. Delisle. 1892.

p. xxxviii 1. 20 Lloyd's Lives of Excellent Personages that suffered
for ... Allegiance to the Soveraigne in the late Intestine Wars ,
ed. 1668.

p. xliv 1. 10 "remedy for Biting of a Mad Dog." There is a similar
receipt in Arcana Fairfaxiana , ed. G. Waddell, 1890, a
collection of old medical receipts, etc. of the Fairfax and
Cholmely families. "A Cure for the Bite of a Mad Dog Published for
ye Benefit of Mankind in the Newspapers of 1741 by a Person of
Note.... N.B. This Medicine has stood a tryal of 50 years
Experience, and was never known to fail."

p. liii 1. 30 Culpeper's English Physitian , 1653.

p. liii 1. 30 N. Culpeper. Herball.

p. liii 1. 30 John Gerard. The Historie of Plants , 1547.

p. liii 1. 31 Wm. Coles. Adam in Eden and The Art of Simpling. 1657
and 1656.


To the Reader .

p. 3 1. 20 "that old Saw in the Regiment of Health." The Regyment, or
a Dyetary of Helth . By Andrew Borde, 1542. (Reprinted by the Early
English Text Soc.)


Receipts.

p. 5, etc. "Metheglin is esteemed to be a very wholsom Drink; and
doubtless it is so, since all the world consents that Honey is a
precious Substance, being the Choice & Collection which the Bees
make of the most pure, most delectable, & most odoriferous Parts of
Plants, more particularly of their Flowers & Fruits. Metheglin is
therefore esteemed to be an excellent Pectoral, good against
Consumption, Phthisick and Asthma; it is cleansing & diuretick,
good against the Stone & Gravel; it is restorative and
strengthening; it comforts and strengthens the Noble parts, &
affords good Nourishment, being made Use of by the Healthy, as well
as by the Sick.

"My worthy Master, that Incomparable Sir Kenelm Digby, being a great
lover of this Drink, was so curious in his Researches, that he made
a large Collection of the choicest & best Receipts thereof."

Hartman, Select Receipts , p. 1.

Concerning the difference between Mead and Metheglin, Borde ( Regyment
of Helth ) says:-

" Of Meade : Meade is made of honny & water boyled both togyther; yf it
be fyred and pure, it preserveth helth; but it is not good for them
the whiche have the Ilyache or the Colycke.

" Of Metheglyn : Metheglyn is made of honny and water, & herbes, boyled
and sodden togyther: yf it be fyred and stale, it is better in the
regyment of helth than meade."

But the distinction seems to have been forgotten in the hundred odd
years between the publication of Borde's book and Digby's.


GLOSSARY


Ana , of each.

Apple-Johns , or John Apples , apples considered best when
shrivelled, so called because they are ripe about St. John's Day.

Aume, aam, awm , a liquid measure used for wine and oil. A Dutch aume
of wine equalled about 41 English gallons.

Balneum , a vessel filled with water or sand, in which another vessel
is placed to be heated.

Beatilies, beatilia, battalia , tit-bits (e.g. cockscombs or
sweet-breads) in a pie.

Bragot , ale boiled with honey.

Bunt , the cavity or baggy part of a napkin when folded or tied as a
bag.

Burthen , a quantity, here signifying no certain amount.

Call , a wedge.

Calvered , cut in thin slices when "fresh," and pickled.

Canicular days , dog days.

Cock's tread , "The opaque speck or germinal vesicle in the surface of
the yolk in an impregnated egg." M.

Coddle , to boil gently, to stew.

Coffin , a mould of paste for a pie.

Cucurbite , a gourd-shaped vessel; also a shallow vessel with a wide
mouth, used for distillation.

Demistier demi setier, a measure of quarter-pint capacity.

Electuary , a medical conserve or paste of powder mixed with honey,
syrup, etc.

Fæces , dregs.

Fearced , forced, stuffed.

Florenden , florentine , a kind of pie, of minced meats, currants,
spices, etc., baked in a dish with a cover of paste.

Gambon , gammon , a smoked ham.

Garavanzas , chick-peas.

Gelt , castrated.

Ginet-moils , gennet-moil , a kind of apple ripe before others.

Hippocras , hypocras bag , a bag used in making hippocras, a
medicinal drink consisting of spiced wines.

Humble-pie , a pie made of umbles or numbles (the heart, liver,
kidneys, etc.) of the deer.

Kiver , kive , keever , a large vessel for fermenting liquors; a
mashing tub.

Lardons , strips of bacon or salt pork used for larding.

Laton , latton , latten , a utensil made of thin brass, or mixed
metal.

Lith , smooth, thick.

Lute , to close v., to adhere.

Magma , grounds.

Manchet , roll, or small loaf of fine white bread.

Marinate , to salt or pickle, and then preserve in oil or vinegar.

Medullos , medullose , having the texture of pith.

Mittoner , Fr. Mitonner .

Mother of wine , lees.

Must , new wine.

Pearmains , a variety of apple, perhaps from permagnus .

Poix-chiches , chick-peas.

Posnet , possnet , possenet , a porringer.

Pottle , a measure of two quarts.

Pugil , a pinch.

Pun , to beat, to pound as in a mortar.

Race , a root.

Ranch-sieve , perhaps a sieve mounted on a stand, from rance ,
ranse a prop.

Rand , a strip or slice of meat cut from the margin of a part, or from
between two joints.

Resty , reasty , rancid.

Rouelle , a rolled piece [of veal].

Rundlet , runlet , a small barrel.

Runnet , rennet.

Searse , searce , a fine sieve.

Souce-drink , pickle sauce.

Stroakings , the last milk drawn from a cow; strippings.

Stubble-goose , the grayling goose.

Tansy , see recipe. The dish has been traced to the Jewish custom of
eating cakes with bitter herbs.

Tourtière , a pie-dish.

Tyffany , tyffany bag , bag made of thin silk or gauze.

Torcular , a press used in making wine.

Trivet , a tripod.

Walm , a bubble in boiling; a boiling-up.

Wardens , winter pears.

Wort , an infusion of malt which after fermentation becomes beer.


INDEX OF RECEIPTS

Ale with Honey, 104
Scotch, from my Lady Holmbey, 98
Small, for the stone, 105
To make Ale drink quick, 100
and Bragot, Master Webbe's, 107
Cock, 147

Apple drink with Sugar, Honey, etc., 106

Apples, A very pleasant drink of, 100
in Gelly, 234
To stew, 201
Sweet Meat of, 238
Syrup of, 253


Bacon for Gambons, and to keep, 212

Barley Cream, The Queen's, 139
Pap, 135

Beef, To bake, 208
or Venison, To boil, 209