Chapter Glasse to Glory of G by Brewer's Readers Handbook

Glasse to Glory

Glasse (Mrs.), author of a cookery-book, immortalized by the saying, “First catch [skin] your hare, then cook it.” Mrs. Glasse is the assumed name of Dr. John Hill (1716–1775).

A great variety of learned dainties which Mrs. Glasse herself would not disdain to add to her high-flavoured catalogue.—Edinburgh Review.

I know it all, from a lark to a loin of beef; and in the economy of the table, wouldn’t hold a candle to Hannah Glasse herself.—Cumberland: First Love, ii. 1 (1796).

Glastonbury, in Arthurian romance, was the burial-place of king Arthur. Selden, in his Illustrations of Drayton, gives an account of Arthur’s tomb “betwixt two pillars,” and says that “Henry II. gave command to Henry de Bois (then abbot of Glastonbury) to make great search for the body of the British king, which was found in a wooden coffin some 16 foote deepe, and afterwards they found a stone on whose lower side was fixed a leaden cross with the name inscribed.”

Glastonbury Thorn. The legend is that Joseph of Arimathea stuck his staff into the ground in “the sacred isle of Glastonbury,” and that this thorn blossoms “on Christmas Day” every year. St. Joseph was buried at Glastonbury.

Not great Arthur’s tomb, nor holy Joseph’s grave,
From sacrilege had power their sacred bones to save…
[Here] trees in winter bloom and bear their summer’s
green.
   —Drayton: Polyolbion, iii. (1612).

Glatisant, the questing beast. It had the head of a serpent, the body of a libbard, buttocks of a lion, foot of a hart, and in its body “there was a noise like that of thirty couple of hounds questing” (i.e. in full cry). Sir Palomidês the Saracen was for ever following this beast.—Sir T. Malory: History of prince Arthur, ii. 52, 53, 149 (1470).

Glauce, nurse of the princess Britomart. She tried by charms t o “undo” her lady’s love for sir Artegal, “but love that is in gentle heart begun, no idle charm can remove.” Finding her sorcery useless, she took the princess to consult Merlin, and Merlin told her that by marrying Artegal she would found a race of kings from which would arise “a royal virgin that shall shake the power of Spain.” The two now started in quest of the knight, but in time got separated. Glaucê became “the ‘squire” cf sir Scudamore, but reappears: (bk. iii. 12) after the combat between Britomart and Artegal, reconciles the combatants, and the princess consents “to be the love of Artegal, and to take him for her lord” (bk. iv. 5, 6).—Spenser: Faërie Queene (1590, 1596).

GLAUCUS, a fisherman of Bœotia. He observed that all the fish which he laid on the grass received fresh vigour, and immediately leaped into the sea. This grass had been planted by Kronos, and when Glaucus tasted it, he also leaped into the sea, and became a prophetic marine deity. Once a year he visited all the coasts of Greece, to utter his predictions. Glaucus is the sailors’ patron deity.

[By] old soothsaying Glaucus’ spell.
   —Milton: Comus, 874 (1634).

As Glaucus, when he tasted of the herb
That made him peer among the ocean gods.
   —Dante: Paradise, i. (1311).

Glaucus, son of Hippolytus. Being smothered in a tub of honey, he was restored to life by [a] dragon given him by Esculapios (probably a medicine so called).—Apollodorus: Bibliotheca, 23.

Glaucus, in lord Lytton’s Last Days of Pompeii (1834).

Glaucus, of Chios, inventor of the art of soldering metal.—Pausanias: Itinerary of Greece.

Glaucus (A Second), one who ruins himself by horses. This refers to Glaucus, son of Sisyphos, who was killed by his horses. Some say he was trampled to death by them, and some that he was eaten by them.