A Shakespearean Botanical

by Margaret Willes

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Book cover for A Shakespearean Botanical

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When Falstaff calls upon the sky to rain potatoes in The Merry Wives of Windsor, he is highlighting the late sixteenth-century belief that the exotic vegetable, recently introduced to England from the Americas, was an aphrodisiac. In Romeo and Juliet, Lady Capulet calls for quinces to make pies for the marriage feast of her daughter. This fruit was traditionally connected with weddings and fertility, as echoed by John Gerard in his herbal where he also explained that eating quinces would ‘bring forth wise children, and of good understanding’.



Taking fifty quotations centring on flowers, herbs,...Read more
  • ISBN10 1851244379
  • ISBN13 9781851244379
  • Publish Date 2 October 2015
  • Publish Status Active
  • Publish Country GB
  • Imprint Bodleian Library
  • Format Hardcover
  • Pages 208
  • Language English