ij_s._--pro groseillere iij_d_, pro j peschere
vj_d._" A.D. 1275, 4 Edw: 1--

We all know and appreciate the fruit of the Peach, but few seem to know
how ornamental a tree is the Peach, quite independent of the fruit. In
those parts where the soil and climate are suitable, the Peach may be
grown as an ornamental spring flowering bush. When so grown preference
is generally given to the double varieties, of which there are several,
and which are not by any means the new plants that they are generally
supposed to be, as they were cultivated both by Gerard and Parkinson.

PEAR.

(1) _Falstaff._

I warrant they would whip me with their fine wits till I were
as crest-fallen as a dried Pear.

_Merry Wives of Windsor_, act iv, sc. 5 (101).

(2) _Parolles._

Your virginity, your old virginity, is like one of our French
withered Pears, it looks ill, it eats drily; marry, 'tis a
withered Pear; it was formerly better; marry, yet 'tis a
withered Pear.

_All's Well that Ends Well_, act i, sc. 1 (174).

(3) _Clown._

I must have Saffron to colour the Warden pies.

_Winter's Tale_, act iv, sc. 3 (48).

(4) _Mercutio._

O, Romeo . . . thou a Poperin Pear.

_Romeo and Juliet_, act ii, sc. 1 (37).

If we may judge by these few notices, Shakespeare does not seem to have
had much respect for the Pear, all the references to the fruit being
more or less absurd or unpleasant. Yet there were good Pears in his day,
and so many different kinds that Gerard declined to tell them at length,
for "the stocke or kindred of Pears are not to be numbered; every
country hath his peculiar fruit, so that to describe them apart were to
send an owle to Athens, or to number those things that are without
number."

Of these many sorts Shakespeare mentions by name but two, the Warden and
the Poperin, and it is not possible to identify these with modern
varieties with any certainty. The Warden was probably a general name for
large keeping and stewing Pears, and the name was said to come from the
Anglo-Saxon _wearden_, to keep or preserve, in allusion to its lasting
qualities. But this is certainly a mistake. In an interesting paper by
Mr. Hudson Turner, "On the State of Horticulture in England in early
times, chiefly previous to the fifteenth century," printed in the
"Archae