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The plant-lore & garden-craft of Shakespeare

Henry Nicholson Ellacombe

_Taming of the Shrew_, act iv, sc 4 (99). Parsley is the abbreviated form of Apium petroselinum, and is a common name to many umbelliferous plants, but the garden Parsley is the one meant here. This well-known little plant has the curious botanic history that no one can tell what is its native country. In 1548 Turner said, "Perseley groweth nowhere that I knowe, but only in gardens."[198:1] It is found in many countries, but is always considered an escape from cultivation. Probably the plant has been so altered by cultivation as to have lost all likeness to its original self. Our forefathers seem to have eaten the parsley _root_ as well as the leaves-- "Quinces and Peris ciryppe with Parcely rotes Right so bygyn your mele." RUSSELL'S _Boke of Nurture_, 826. "Peres and Quynces in syrupe with Percely rotes." WYNKYN DE WORDE'S _Boke of Kervynge_. FOOTNOTES: [198:1] "Names of Herbes," s.v. Apium. PEACH (1) _Prince Henry._ To take note how many pair of silk stockings thou hast, viz., these, and those that were thy Peach-coloured ones! _2nd Henry IV_, act ii, sc. 2 (17). (2) _Pompey._ Then there is here one Master Caper, at the suit of Master Threepile the mercer, for some four suits of Peach-coloured satin, which now peaches him a beggar. _Measure for Measure_, act iv, sc. 3 (10). The references here are only to the colour of the Peach blossom, yet the Peach tree was a well-known tree in Shakespeare's time, and the fruit was esteemed a great delicacy, and many different varieties were cultivated. Botanically the Peach is closely allied to the Almond, and still more closely to the Apricot and Nectarine; indeed, many writers consider both the Apricot and Nectarine to be only varieties of the Peach. The native country of the Peach is now ascertained to be China, and not Persia, as the name would imply. It probably came to the Romans through Persia, and was by them introduced into England. It occurs in Archbishop's Ælfric's "Vocabulary" in the tenth century, "Persicarius, Perseoctreow;" and John de Garlande grew it in the thirteenth century, "In virgulto Magistri Johannis, pessicus fert pessica." It is named in the "Promptorium Parvulorum" as "Peche, or Peske, frute--Pesca Pomum Persicum;" and in a note the Editor says: "In a role of purchases for the Palace of Westminster preserved amongst the miscellaneous record of the Queen's remembrance, a payment occurs, Will le Gardener, pro iij koygnere, ij pichere iij_s._--pro groseillere iij_d_, pro j peschere vj_d._" A.D. 1275, 4 Edw: 1-- We all know and appreciate the fruit of the Peach, but few seem to know how ornamental a tree is the Peach, quite independent of the fruit. In those parts where the soil and climate are suitable, the Peach may be grown as an ornamental spring flowering bush. When so grown preference is generally given to the double varieties, of which there are several, and which are not by any means the new plants that they are generally supposed to be, as they were cultivated both by Gerard and Parkinson. PEAR. (1) _Falstaff._ I warrant they would whip me with their fine wits till I were as crest-fallen as a dried Pear. _Merry Wives of Windsor_, act iv, sc. 5 (101). (2) _Parolles._ Your virginity, your old virginity, is like one of our French withered Pears, it looks ill, it eats drily; marry, 'tis a withered Pear; it was formerly better; marry, yet 'tis a withered Pear. _All's Well that Ends Well_, act i, sc. 1 (174). (3) _Clown._ I must have Saffron to colour the Warden pies. _Winter's Tale_, act iv, sc. 3 (48). (4) _Mercutio._ O, Romeo . . . thou a Poperin Pear. _Romeo and Juliet_, act ii, sc. 1 (37). If we may judge by these few notices, Shakespeare does not seem to have had much respect for the Pear, all the references to the fruit being more or less absurd or unpleasant. Yet there were good Pears in his day, and so many different kinds that Gerard declined to tell them at length, for "the stocke or kindred of Pears are not to be numbered; every country hath his peculiar fruit, so that to describe them apart were to send an owle to Athens, or to number those things that are without number." Of these many sorts Shakespeare mentions by name but two, the Warden and the Poperin, and it is not possible to identify these with modern varieties with any certainty. The Warden was probably a general name for large keeping and stewing Pears, and the name was said to come from the Anglo-Saxon _wearden_, to keep or preserve, in allusion to its lasting qualities. But this is certainly a mistake. In an interesting paper by Mr. Hudson Turner, "On the State of Horticulture in England in early times, chiefly previous to the fifteenth century," printed in the "Archæological Journal," vol. v. p. 301, it is stated that "the Warden Pear had its origin and its name from the horticultural skill of the Cistercian Monks of Wardon Abbey in Bedfordshire, founded in the twelfth century. Three Warden Pears appeared in the armorial bearings of the Abbey." It was certainly an early name. In the "Catholicon Anglicum" we find: "A Parmayn, volemum, Anglice, a Warden;" and in Parkinson's time the name was still in use, and he mentions two varieties, "The Warden or Lukewards Pear are of two sorts, both white and red, both great and small." (The name of Lukewards seems to point to St. Luke's Day, October 18, as perhaps the time either for picking the fruit or for its ripening.) "The Spanish Warden is greater than either of both the former, and better also." And he further says: "The Red Warden and the Spanish Warden are reckoned amongst the most excellent of Pears, either to bake or to roast, for the sick or for the sound--and indeed the Quince and the Warden are the only two fruits that are permitted to the sick to eat at any time." The Warden pies of Shakespeare's day, coloured with Saffron, have in our day been replaced by stewed Pears coloured with Cochineal.[200:1] I can find no guide to the identification of the Poperin Pear, beyond Parkinson's description: "The summer Popperin and the winter Popperin, both of them very good, firm, dry Pears, somewhat spotted and brownish on the outside. The green Popperin is a winter fruit of equal goodnesse with the former." It was probably a Flemish Pear, and may have been introduced by the antiquary Leland, who was made Rector of Popering by Henry VIII. The place is further known to us as mentioned by Chaucer-- "A knyght was fair and gent In batail and in tornament, His name was Sir Thopas. Alone he was in fer contre, In Flaundres, all beyonde the se, At Popering in the place." As a garden tree the Pear is not only to be grown for its fruit, but as a most ornamental tree. Though the individual flowers are not, perhaps, so handsome as the Apple blossoms, yet the growth of the tree is far more elegant; and an old Pear tree, with its curiously roughened bark, its upright, tall, pyramidal shape, and its sheet of snow-white blossoms, is a lovely ornament in the old gardens and lawns of many of our country houses. It is by some considered a British tree, but it is probably only a naturalized foreigner, originally introduced by the Romans. FOOTNOTES: [200:1] The Warden was sometimes spoken of as different from Pears. Sir Hugh Platt speaks of "Wardens _or_ Pears." PEAS. (1) _Iris._ Ceres, most bounteous lady, thy rich leas Of Wheat, Rye, Barley, Vetches, Oats, and Pease. _Tempest_, act iv, sc. 1 (60). (2) _Carrier._ Peas and Beans are as dank here as a dog. _1st Henry IV_, act ii, sc. 1 (9). (_See_ BEANS.) (3) _Biron._ This fellow picks up wit, as pigeons Pease. _Love's Labour's Lost_, act v, sc. 2 (315). (4) _Bottom._ I had rather have a handful or two of dried Peas. _Midsummer Night's Dream_, act iv, sc. 1 (41). (5) _Fool._ That a shealed Peascod? _King Lear_, act i, sc. 4 (219). (6) _Touchstone._ I remember the wooing of a Peascod instead of her. _As You Like It_, act ii, sc. 4 (51). (7) _Malvolio._ Not yet old enough to be 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). (8) _Hostess._ Well, fare thee well! I have known thee these twenty-nine years come Peascod time. _2nd Henry IV_, act ii, sc. 4 (412). (9) _Leontes._ How like, methought, I then was to this kernel, This Squash, this gentleman. _Winter's Tale_, act i, sc. 2 (159). (10) _Peascod, Pease-Blossom, and Squash_--Dramatis personæ in _Midsummer Night's Dream_. There is no need to say much of Peas, but it may be worth a note in passing that in old English we seldom meet with the word Pea. Peas or Pease (the Anglicised form of Pisum) is the singular, of which the plural is Peason. "Pisum is called in Englishe a Pease;" says Turner-- "Alle that for me thei doo pray, Helpeth me not to the uttermost day The value of a Pese." _The Child of Bristowe_, p. 570. And the word was so used in and after Shakespeare's time, as by Ben Jonson-- "A pill as small as a pease."--_Magnetic Lady._ The Squash is the young Pea, before the Peas are formed in it, and the Peascod is the ripe shell of the Pea before it is shelled.[202:1] The garden Pea (_Pisum sativum_) is the cultivated form of a plant found in the South of Europe, but very much altered by cultivation. It was probably not introduced into England as a garden vegetable long before Shakespeare's time. It is not mentioned in the old lists of plants before the sixteenth century, and Fuller tells us that in Queen Elizabeth's time they were brought from Holland, and were "fit dainties for ladies, they came so far and cost so dear." The beautiful ornamental Peas (Sweet Peas, Everlasting Peas, &c.) are of different family (Lathyrus, not Pisum), but very closely allied. There is a curious amount of folklore connected with Peas, and in every case the Peas and Peascods are connected with wooing the lasses. This explains Touchstone's speech (No. 6). Brand gives several instances of this, from which one stanza from Browne's "Pastorals" may be quoted-- "The Peascod greene, oft with no little toyle, He'd seek for in the fattest, fertil'st soile, And rend it from the stalke to bring it to her, And in her bosom for acceptance wooe her." Book ii, song 3. FOOTNOTES: [202:1] The original meaning of Peascod is a bag of peas. Cod is bag as Matt. x. 10--"ne codd, ne hlaf, ne feo on heora gyrdlum--'not a bag, not a loaf, not (fee) money in their girdles.'"--COCKAYNE, _Spoon and Sparrow_, p. 518. PEONY, _see_ PIONY. PEPPER. (1) _Hotspur._ Such protest of Pepper-gingerbread. _1st Henry IV_, act iii, sc. 1 (260).