Literary notes about Concoct (AI summary)
The word "concoct" in literature has often been employed to evoke the process of mixing or fabricating, whether in the literal sense of preparing food or in the figurative sense of assembling ideas. In early Renaissance texts like Rabelais's work [1], as well as Ben Jonson’s plays [2][3], the term appears hand-in-hand with words such as "digest" and "assimilate," emphasizing a transformation akin to culinary preparation—a metaphor for the blending and processing of information or substance. Later, in Anne Brontë’s narrative [4], "concoct" shifts slightly to denote the ad hoc preparation of a speech, suggesting the spontaneous fabrication of words in response to circumstance. Meanwhile, Lucretius’s poetic exploration [5][6] extends the term to the realm of ideas and dreams, where concocting becomes a metaphor for devising schemes or narratives that influence one’s fate. Across these examples, the evolution of "concoct" reflects its versatile metaphorical use in depicting how elements—be they food, words, or dreams—can be artfully assembled into a coherent whole.
- Which to concoct and digest the more easily, vinegar is multiplied.
— from Gargantua and Pantagruel by François Rabelais - CONCOCT, assimilate, digest.
— from Every Man in His Humor by Ben Jonson - CONCOCT, assimilate, digest.
— from The Alchemist by Ben Jonson - It was useless waiting for an opportunity, and useless trying to concoct a speech for the occasion.
— from The Tenant of Wildfell Hall by Anne Brontë - Ah, many a dream even now Can they concoct to rout thy plans of life, And trouble all thy fortunes with base fears.
— from On the Nature of Things by Titus Lucretius Carus - And that 'tis sacrilege to assault by words And overtopple all from base to beam,— Memmius, such notions to concoct and pile, Is verily—to dote.
— from On the Nature of Things by Titus Lucretius Carus
