"As peascods once I pluck'd, I chanc'd to see, One that was closely fill'd with three times three, Which when I cropp'd I safely home convey'd, And o'er my door the spell in secret laid."
[541] The cod was what we now call the pod.
We may quote, as a further illustration, the following stanza from Browne's "Pastorals" (bk. ii. song 3):
"The peascod greene, oft with no little toyle, He'd seek for in the fattest, fertil'st soile, And rende it from the stalke to bring it to her, And in her bosom for acceptance wooe her."[542]
[542] See Brand's "Pop. Antiq.," 1849, vol. ii. p. 99.
_Plantain._ The leaves of this plant were carefully valued by our forefathers for their supposed efficacy in healing wounds, etc. It was also considered as a preventive of poison; and to this supposed virtue we find an allusion in "Romeo and Juliet" (i. 2):
"_Benvolio._ Take thou some new infection to thy eye, And the rank poison of the old will die.
_Romeo._ Your plantain leaf is excellent for that.
[543] See "Love's Labour's Lost," iii. 1.
In the "Two Noble Kinsmen" (i. 2) Palamon says:
"These poor slight sores Need not a plantain."
_Poppy._ The plant referred to by Shakespeare in "Othello" (iii. 3) is the opium poppy, well known in his day for its deadly qualities. It is described by Spenser in the "Fairy Queen" (ii. 7, 52) as the "dead-sleeping poppy," and Drayton ("Nymphidia," v.) enumerates it among the flowers that procure "deadly sleeping."
_Potato._ It is curious enough, says Nares,[544] to find that excellent root, which now forms a regular portion of the daily nutriment of every individual, and is the chief or entire support of multitudes in Ireland, spoken of continually as having some powerful effect upon the human frame, in exciting the desires and passions; yet this is the case in all the writings contemporary with Shakespeare. Thus Falstaff, in "Merry Wives of Windsor" (v. 5), says: "Let the sky rain potatoes; let it thunder to the tune of 'Green Sleeves,' hail kissing comfits," etc. In "Troilus and Cressida" (v. 2), Thersites adds: "How the devil luxury, with his fat rump and potato finger, tickles these together."[545] It appears, too, that the medical writers of the times countenanced this fancy. Mr. Ellacombe[546] observes that the above passages are of peculiar interest, inasmuch as they contain almost the earliest notice of potatoes after their introduction into England.