Tin (Maplet)

This is the entry for tin from Maplet's A Greene Forest

Of Tin.

Tin after his Greeke name, is called a devider and distinguisher of one thing from another, for all adulterous and countefayted Mettals it doth betray, and setteth them severally asunder. It also discerneth Brasse & Lead from Gold & Silver. Tin being rarely powred uppon Brasen Vesslles, maketh their savour more pleasant, and bridleth & kepeth under the poysonous rust. Aristotle sayth, in his fourth booke of Meteores, that it is compound of Quicksilver indifferent good, bad of very base Brimstone, and therefore this kinde of Mettall is nothing proprtionally mixt, but al out of square compound, for the which it looketh raw and hath Silver his verie colour, but not his godnesse. Cardane saith that Tin descrieth and reveleth if any poyson be hid, for both it hisseth and cracketh if it be so, and also sheweth thin stripes in maner like to bow. I have seene it my selfe when as this kinde of Mettall being molten in the pit and but a sponefull of water being cast into, it hath floushed and leapt up to the top of the house: but a whole Potfull of Beere or Ale being cast in, it hath not once moved, but laughed by and by. The cause I may give that, that Cardane doth, applying it to all Mettals onely Golde excepted: for sayth he all other (onely Golde excepted) are fertile and fat. And being thus, laffe at their like and refuse the residue. And thus much of Tin.