= Catapuce is one of the laxatives that Dame
Pertelote recommended to
Chauntecleer
in Chaucer's _Nonne Preestes
Tale_, l.
Ben Jonson - The Devil's Association
John French, _Art
Distill._. Bk. 5. p. 135 (1651): 'This salt being set in a cold
cellar on a marble stone, and dissolved into an oil, is as good as
any _Lac virginis_ to clear, and smooth the face.' _Lac Virginis_ is
spoken of twice in the _Alchemist_, Act 2, but probably in neither
case is the cosmetic referred to. See Hathaway's edition, p. 293.
Nash speaks of the cosmetic in _Pierce Pennilesse_, _Wks._ 2. 44:
'She should haue noynted your face ouer night with _Lac virginis_.'
=4. 4. 55 Cataputia.
= Catapuce is one of the laxatives that Dame
Pertelote recommended to
Chauntecleer
in Chaucer's _Nonne Preestes
Tale_, l.
145.
=4. 4. 63 Doe not you dwindle.= The use of _dwindle_ in this sense
is very rare. _NED._ thinks it is 'probably a misuse owing to two
senses of _shrink_.' It gives only a single example, _Alch._, _Wks._
4. 163: 'Did you not hear the coil about the door? _Sub._ Yes, and I
dwindled with it.' Besides the two instances in Jonson I have noticed
only one other, in Ford, _Fancies chaste and noble_, _Wks._ 2.
