FOOTNOTES:
[200:1] The Warden was sometimes spoken of as different from Pears. Sir Hugh Platt speaks of "Wardens or Pears."
PEAS.
| (1) | Iris. | Ceres, most bounteous lady, thy rich leas Of Wheat, Rye, Barley, Vetches, Oats, and Pease. |
| Tempest, act iv, sc. 1 (60). | ||
| (2) | Carrier. | Peas and Beans are as dank here as a dog. |
| 1st Henry IV, act ii, sc. 1 (9). (See [Beans].) | ||
| (3) | Biron. | This fellow picks up wit, as pigeons Pease. |
| Love's Labour's Lost, act v, sc. 2 (315). | ||
| (4) | Bottom. | I had rather have a handful or two of dried Peas. |
| Midsummer Night's Dream, act iv, sc. 1 (41). | ||
| (5) | Fool. | That a shealed Peascod? |
| King Lear, act i, sc. 4 (219). | ||
| (6) | Touchstone. | I remember the wooing of a Peascod instead of her. |
| As You Like It, act ii, sc. 4 (51). | ||
| (7) | Malvolio. | Not yet old enough to be a man, nor youngenough for a boy; as a Squash is before 'tisa Peascod, or a Codling when 'tis almost anApple. |
| Twelfth Night, act i, sc. 5 (165). | ||
| (8) | Hostess. | Well, fare thee well! I have known thee thesetwenty-nine years come Peascod time. |
| 2nd Henry IV, act ii, sc. 4 (412). | ||
| (9) | Leontes. | How like, methought, I then was to this kernel, This Squash, this gentleman. |
| Winter's Tale, act i, sc. 2 (159). | ||
| (10) | Peascod, Pease-Blossom, and Squash—Dramatis personæ in Midsummer Night's Dream. | |
There is no need to say much of Peas, but it may be worth a note in passing that in old English we seldom meet with the word Pea. Peas or Pease (the Anglicised form of Pisum) is the singular, of which the plural is Peason. "Pisum is called in Englishe a Pease;" says Turner—
"Alle that for me thei doo pray,
Helpeth me not to the uttermost day
The value of a Pese."
The Child of Bristowe, p. 570.
And the word was so used in and after Shakespeare's time, as by Ben Jonson—
"A pill as small as a pease."—Magnetic Lady.