The plant-lore & garden-craft of Shakespeare - LightNovelsOnl.com
You're reading novel online at LightNovelsOnl.com. Please use the follow button to get notifications about your favorite novels and its latest chapters so you can come back anytime and won't miss anything.
Feed him with Apric.o.c.ks and Dewberries, With purple Grapes, green Figs, and Mulberries.
_Midsummer Night's Dream_, act iii, sc. 1 (169).
(2) _Constance._
And its grandam will Give it a Plum, a Cherry, and a Fig.
_King John_, act ii, sc. 1 (161).
(3) _Guard._
Here is a rural fellow That will not be denied your Highness's presence, He brings you Figs.
_Antony and Cleopatra_, act v, sc. 2 (233).
(4) _1st Guard._
A simple countryman that brought her Figs.
_Ibid._ (342).
_Ditto._
These Fig-leaves Have slime upon them.
_Ibid._, act v, sc. 2 (354).
(5) _Pistol._
When Pistol lies, do this; and Fig me, like The bragging Spaniard.
_2nd Henry IV_, act v, sc. 3 (123).
(6) _Pistol._
Die and be d.a.m.ned, and Figo for thy friends.h.i.+p.
_Fluellen._
It is well.
_Pistol._
The Fig of Spain.
_Henry V_, act iii, sc. 6 (60).
(7) _Pistol._
The Figo for thee, then.
_Ibid._, act iv, sc. 1 (60).
(8) _Iago._
Virtue! a Fig!
_Oth.e.l.lo_, act i, sc. 3 (322).
(9) _Iago._
Blessed Fig's end!
_Ibid._, act ii, sc. 1 (256).
(10) _Horner._
I'll pledge you all, and a Fig for Peter.
_2nd Henry IV_, act ii, sc. 3 (66).
(11) _Pistol._
"Convey," the wise it call; "steal!" foh! a Fico for the phrase!
_Merry Wives_, act i, sc. 3 (32).
(12) _Charmian._
O excellent! I love long life better than Figs.
_Antony and Cleopatra_, act i, sc. 2 (32).
In some of these pa.s.sages (as 5, 6, 7, and perhaps in more) the reference is to a grossly insulting and indecent gesture called "making the fig." It was a most unpleasant custom, which largely prevailed throughout Europe in Shakespeare's time, and on which I need not dwell.
It is fully described in Douce's "Ill.u.s.trations of Shakespeare," i, 492.
