[deyartibus, pfranz! Really!]

Jackie (and Helen, too, but especially Jackie),

Purely by coincidence I came across another interesting use of 'caster' last night while reading Othello, this time from that old dog, Iago. In the opening scene to the play, Iago complains that Othello has nominated Cassio--a mathematician and man damn'd in a fair wife--to be his lieutenant. Iago grumbles to Roderigo that the only understanding Cassio has of war is purely as a theoretician. Iago himself believes he would have been a far better choice. Then as Iago continues his bitter complaints, Shakespeare has him work in a few phrases related to math (Cassio's being the mathematician and source of complaint):

[Of Cassio]"But he, sir, had the election: And I, of whom his [Othello's] eyes had seen the proof at Rhodes, at Cyprus and on other grounds Christian and heathen, must be be-lee'd and calm'd by debtor and creditor; this counter-caster, He [Cassio] must his lieutnant be...(emphasis mine)"

This "counter-caster," I learn from the footnotes, is 'one who casts up counters, an old method of accountancy.' I have no idea what it was to cast up counters--wonder whether it was anything like ancient calculus.

Anyway. There is the sugar caster--and here in 'Othello' is the counter-caster.