: 'Take an vnce of Soda (which is asshes made
of grasse, whereof
glassemakers
do vse to make their Cristall).
Ben Jonson - The Devil's Association
=4. 4. 32, 3 Soda di leuante, Or your Ferne ashes.= Soda-ash is still
the common trade name of sodium carbonate. In former times soda was
chiefly obtained from natural deposits and from the incineration
of various plants growing by the sea-shore. These sources have
become of little importance since the invention of artificial soda
by Leblanc toward the end of the eighteenth century (see _Soda_
in _CD._). Florio's definition of soda is: 'a kind of Ferne-ashes
whereof they make glasses.' Cf. also W. Warde, Tr. _Alessio's Secr._,
Pt. 1 fol. 78^{m} 1?
: 'Take an vnce of Soda (which is asshes made
of grasse, whereof
glassemakers
do vse to make their Cristall).
'
In Chaucer's _Squire's Tale_ (11. 254 f.) the manufacture of glass
out of 'fern-asshen' is mentioned as a wonder comparable to that of
Canacee's ring.
=4. 4. 33 Beniamin di gotta.= The _Dict. d'Histoire Naturelle_,
Paris, 1843, 2. 509, gives: 'Benjoin. Sa teinture, etendue d'eau,
sert a la toilette sous le nom de _Lait virginal_.' See 4. 4. 52.
