Nonpareil, and has long been cultivated in England, yet it is almost
certain that it means a dish of Caraway Seeds. (_See_ CARRAWAYS.)

FOOTNOTES:

[20:1] See PINE, p. 208.

[20:2] "A peche appulle." "The appulys of a peche tre."--_Porkington
MSS. in Early English Miscellany._ (Published by Warton Club.)

[20:3] "As for Wildings and Crabs . . . their tast is well enough liked,
and they carrie with them a quicke and a sharp smell; howbeit this gift
they have for their harsh sournesse, that they have many a foule word
and shrewd curse given them."--PHILEMON HOLLAND'S _Pliny_, book xv. c.
14.

[21:1] "Amor et melle et felle est fecundissimus."--PLAUTUS.

[21:2] Juliet describes leave-taking in almost the same words--"Parting
is such _sweet sorrow_."

[22:1] "Voyages," 1580, p. 466.

APRICOTS.

(1) _Titania._

Be kind and courteous to this gentleman;
Hop in his walks, and gambol in his eyes;
Feed him with Apricocks and Dewberries,
With purple Grapes, green Figs, and Mulberries.

_Midsummer Night's Dream_, act iii, sc. 1 (167).

(2) _Gardener._

Go, bind thou up yon dangling Apricocks,
Which, like unruly children, make their sire
Stoop with oppression of their prodigal weight.

_Richard II_, act iii, sc. 4 (29).

(3) _Palamon._

Would I were,
For all the fortunes of my life hereafter,
Yon little tree, yon blooming Apricocke;
How I would spread and fling my wanton armes
In at her window! I would bring her fruit
Fit for the gods to feed on.

_Two Noble Kinsmen_, act ii, sc. 2 (291).

Shakespeare's spelling of the word "Apricocks" takes us at once to its
derivation. It is derived undoubtedly from the Latin _praecox or
praecoquus_, under which name it is referred to by Pliny and Martial;
but, before it became the English Apricot it was much changed by
Italians, Spaniards, French, and Arabians. The history of the name is
very curious and interesting, but too long to give fully here; a very
good account of it may be found in Miller and in "Notes and Queries,"
vol. ii. p. 420 (1850). It will be sufficient to say here that it
acquired its name of "the precocious tree," because it flowered and
fruited earlier than the Peach, as explained in Lyte's "Herbal," 1578:
"There be two kinds of Peaches, whereof the one kinde is late r