The plant-lore & garden-craft of Shakespeare Part 77

_King John_, act ii, sc. 1 (161).

(2) _Hamlet._

The satirical rogue says here that old men have grey beards, that their faces are wrinkled, their eyes purging thick amber and Plum-tree gum.

_Hamlet_, act ii, sc. 2 (198).

(3) _Simpc.o.x._

A fall off a tree.

_Wife._

A Plum-tree, master.

_Gloucester._

Ma.s.s, thou lovedst Plums well that wouldst venture so.

_Simpc.o.x._

Alas! good master, my wife desired some Damsons, And made me climb with danger of my life.

_2nd Henry VI_, act ii, sc. 1 (196).

(4) _Evans._

I will dance and eat Plums at your wedding.

_Merry Wives of Windsor_, act v, sc. 5.[217:1]

(5)

The mellow Plum doth fall, the green sticks fast, Or, being early pluck'd, is sour to taste.

_Venus and Adonis_ (527).

(6)

Like a green Plum that hangs upon a tree, And falls, through wind, before the fall should be.

_Pa.s.sionate Pilgrim_ (135).

(7) _Slender._

Three veneys for a dish of stewed Prunes.

_Merry Wives of Windsor_, act i, sc. 1 (295).

(8) _Falstaff._

There's no more faith in thee than in a stewed Prune.

_1st Henry IV_, act iii, sc. 3 (127).

(9) _Pompey._

Longing (saving your honour's presence) for stewed Prunes.

And longing, as I said, for Prunes.

You being then, if you he remembered, cracking the stones of the foresaid Prunes.

_Measure for Measure_, act ii, sc. 1 (92).

(10) _Clown._

Four pounds of Prunes, and as many of Raisins of the sun.

_Winters Tale_, act iv, sc. 3 (51).

(11) _Falstaff._

Hang him, rogue; he lives upon mouldy stewed Prunes and dried cakes.

_2nd Henry IV_, act ii, sc. 4 (158).

Plums, Damsons, and Prunes may conveniently be joined together, Plums and Damsons being often used synonymously (as in No. 3), and Prunes being the dried Plums. The Damsons were originally, no doubt, a good variety from the East, and nominally from Damascus.[217:2] They seem to have been considered great delicacies, as in a curious allegorical drama of the fifteenth century, called "La Nef de Sante," of which an account is given by Mr. Wright: "Bonne-Compagnie, to begin the day, orders a collation, at which, among other things, are served Damsons (_Prunes de Damas_), which appear at this time to have been considered as delicacies. There is here a marginal direction to the purport that if the morality should be performed in the season when real Damsons could not be had, the performers must have some made of wax to look like real ones" ("History of Domestic Manners," &c.).

The garden Plums are a good cultivated variety of our own wild Sloe, but a variety that did not originate in England, and may very probably have been introduced by the Romans. The Sloe and Bullace are, speaking botanically, two sub-species of Prunus communis, while the Plum is a third sub-species (P. communis domestica). The garden Plum is occasionally found wild in England, but is certainly not indigenous. It is somewhat strange that our wild plant is not mentioned by Shakespeare under any of its well-known names of Sloe, Bullace, and Blackthorn. Not only is it a shrub of very marked appearance in our hedgerows in early spring, when it is covered with its pure white blossoms, but Blackthorn staves were indispensable in the rough game of quarterstaff, and the Sloe gave point to more than one English proverb: "as black as a Sloe,"

was a very common comparison, and "as useless as a Sloe," or "not worth a Sloe," was as common.

"Sir Amys answered, 'Tho'