The plant-lore & garden-craft of Shakespear by Henry Nicholson Ellacombe (top 20 books to read txt) 📖

[17:2] The small yellow A. ranunculoides has been sometimes included among the British Anemones, but is now excluded. It is a rare plant, and an alien.

APPLE. (1) Sebastian. I think he will carry this island home and give it his son for an Apple. Tempest, act ii, sc. 1 (91).   (2) Malvolio. Not yet old enough for a man, nor young enough for a boy; as a Squash is before 'tis a Peascod, or a Codling when 'tis almost an Apple. Twelfth Night, act i, sc. 5 (165).   (3) Antonio. An Apple, cleft in two, is not more twin
Than these two creatures. Ibid., act 5, sc. 1 (230).   (4) Antonio. An evil soul producing holy witness
Is like a villain with a smiling cheek,
A goodly Apple rotten at the heart. Merchant of Venice, act i, sc. 3 (100).   (5) Tranio. He in countenance somewhat doth resemble you.   Biondello. As much as an Apple doth an oyster, and all one. Taming of the Shrew, act iv, sc. 2 (100).   (6) Orleans. Foolish curs, that run winking into the mouth of a Russian bear, and have their heads crushed like rotten Apples. Henry V, act iii, sc. 7 (153).   (7) Hortensio. Faith, as you say, there's small choice in rotten Apples. Taming of the Shrew, act i, sc. 1 (138).   (8) Porter. These are the youths that thunder at a playhouse, and fight for bitten Apples. Henry VIII, act v, sc. 4 (63).   (9) Song of Winter. When roasted Crabs hiss in the bowl,
Then nightly sings the staring owl. Love's Labour's Lost, act v, sc. 2 (935).   (10) Puck. And sometime lurk I in a gossip's bowl
In very likeness of a roasted Crab;
And when she drinks, against her lips I bob,
And on her wither'd dewlap pour the ale. Midsummer Night's Dream, act ii, sc. 1 (47).   (11) Fool. Shal't see thy other daughter will use thee kindly; for though she's as like this as a Crab's like an Apple, yet I can tell what I can tell.   Lear. Why, what can'st thou tell, my boy?   Fool. She will taste as like this as a Crab does to a Crab. King Lear, act i, sc. 5 (14).   (12) Caliban. I prithee, let me bring thee where Crabs grow. Tempest, act ii, sc. 2 (171).   (13) Petruchio. Nay, come, Kate, come, you must not look so sour.   Katherine. It is my fashion, when I see a Crab.   Petruchio. Why, here's no Crab, and therefore look not sour. Taming of the Shrew, act ii, sc. 1 (229).   (14) Menonius. We have some old Crab-trees here at home that will not
Be grafted to your relish. Coriolanus, act ii, sc. 1 (205).   (15) Suffolk. Noble stock
Was graft with Crab-tree slip. 2nd Henry VI, act iii, sc. 2 (213).   (16) Porter. Fetch me a dozen Crab-tree staves, and strong ones. Henry VIII, act v, sc. 4 (7).   (17) Falstaff. My skin hangs about me like an old lady's loose gown; I am withered like an old Apple-john. 1st Henry IV, act iii, sc. 3 (3).   (18) 1st Drawer. What the devil hast thou brought there? Apple-johns? Thou knowest Sir John cannot endure an Apple-john.   2nd Drawer. Mass! thou sayest true; the prince once set a dish of Apple-johns before him, and told him there were five more Sir Johns; and putting off his hat, said, I will now take my leave of these six dry, round, old, withered knights. 2nd Henry IV, act ii, sc. 4 (1).   (19) Shallow. Nay, you shall see my orchard, where, in an arbour, we will eat a last year's Pippin of my own graffing, with a dish of Caraways, and so forth.   *       *       *       *       *   Davey. There's a dish of Leather-coats for you. Ibid., act v, sc. 3 (1, 44).   (20) Evans. I pray you be gone; I will make an end of my dinner. There's Pippins and cheese to come. Merry Wives of Windsor, act i, sc. 2 (11).   (21) Holofernes. The deer was, as you know, sanguis, in blood; ripe as the Pomewater, who now hangeth like a jewel in the ear of cœlo—the sky, the welkin, the heaven; and anon falleth like a Crab on the face of terra—the soil, the land, the earth. Love's Labour's Lost, act iv, sc. 2 (3).   (22) Mercutio. Thy wit is a very Bitter Sweeting; it is a most sharp sauce.   Romeo. And is it not well served in to a sweet goose? Romeo and Juliet, act ii, sc. 4 (83).   (23) Petruchio. What's this? A sleeve? 'Tis like a demi-cannon.
What! up and down, carved like an Apple-tart? Taming of the Shrew, act iv, sc. 3 (88).   (24)   How like Eve's Apple doth thy beauty grow,
If thy sweet virtue answer not thy show! Sonnet xciii.

Here Shakespeare names the Apple, the Crab, the Pippin, the Pomewater, the Apple-john, the Codling, the Caraway, the Leathercoat, and the Bitter-Sweeting. Of the Apple generally I need say nothing, except to notice that the name was not originally confined to the fruit now so called, but was a generic name applied to any fruit, as we still speak of the Love-apple, the Pine-apple,[20:1] &c. The Anglo-Saxon name for the Blackberry was the Bramble-apple; and Sir John Mandeville, in describing the Cedars of Lebanon, says: "And upon the hills growen Trees of Cedre, that ben fulle hye, and they beren longe Apples, and als grete as a man's heved"[20:2] (cap. ix.). In the English Bible it is the same. The Apple is mentioned in a few places, but it is almost certain that it never means the Pyrus malus, but is either the Orange, Citron, or Quince, or is a general name for a tree fruit. So that when Shakespeare (24) and the other old writers speak of Eve's Apple, they do not necessarily assert that the fruit of the temptation was our Apple, but simply that it was some fruit that grew in Eden. The Apple (pomum) has left its mark in the language in the word "pomatum," which, originally an ointment made of Apples, is now an ointment in which Apples have no part.

The Crab was held in far more esteem in the sixteenth century than it is with us. The roasted fruit served with hot ale (9 and 10) was a favourite Christmas dish, and even without ale the roasted Crab was a favourite, and this not for want of better fruit, for Gerard tells us that in his time "the stocke or kindred of Apples was infinite," but because they were considered pleasant food.[20:3] Another curious use of Crabs is told in the description of Crab-wake, or "Crabbing the Parson," at Halesowen, Salop, on St. Kenelm's Day (July 17), in Brand's "Popular Antiquities" (vol. i. p. 342, Bohn's edition). Nor may we now despise the Crab tree, though we do not eat its fruit. Among our native trees there is none more beautiful than the Crab tree, both in flower and in fruit. An old Crab tree in full flower is a sight that will delight any artist, nor is it altogether useless; its wood is very hard and very lasting, and from its fruit verjuice is made, not, however, much in England, as I believe nearly all the verjuice now used is made in France.

The Pippin, from being originally a general name for any Apple raised from pips and not from grafts, is now, and probably was in Shakespeare's time, confined to the bright-coloured, long-keeping Apples (Justice Shallow's was "last year's Pippin"), of which the Golden Pippin ("the Pippin burnished o'er with gold," Phillips) is the type.

The Bitter-Sweeting (22) was an old and apparently a favourite Apple. It is frequently mentioned in the old writers, as by Gower, "Conf. Aman." viii. 174—