tic Lady._

The Squash is the young Pea, before the Peas are formed in it, and the
Peascod is the ripe shell of the Pea before it is shelled.[202:1] The
garden Pea (_Pisum sativum_) is the cultivated form of a plant found in
the South of Europe, but very much altered by cultivation. It was
probably not introduced into England as a garden vegetable long before
Shakespeare's time. It is not mentioned in the old lists of plants
before the sixteenth century, and Fuller tells us that in Queen
Elizabeth's time they were brought from Holland, and were "fit dainties
for ladies, they came so far and cost so dear."

The beautiful ornamental Peas (Sweet Peas, Everlasting Peas, &c.) are of
different family (Lathyrus, not Pisum), but very closely allied. There
is a curious amount of folklore connected with Peas, and in every case
the Peas and Peascods are connected with wooing the lasses. This
explains Touchstone's speech (No. 6). Brand gives several instances of
this, from which one stanza from Browne's "Pastorals" may be quoted--

"The Peascod greene, oft with no little toyle,
He'd seek for in the fattest, fertil'st soile,
And rend it from the stalke to bring it to her,
And in her bosom for acceptance wooe her."

Book ii, song 3.

FOOTNOTES:

[202:1] The original meaning of Peascod is a bag of peas. Cod is bag as
Matt. x. 10--"ne codd, ne hlaf, ne feo on heora gyrdlum--'not a bag, not
a loaf, not (fee) money in their girdles.'"--COCKAYNE, _Spoon and
Sparrow_, p. 518.

PEONY, _see_ PIONY.

PEPPER.

(1) _Hotspur._

Such protest of Pepper-gingerbread.

_1st Henry IV_, act iii, sc. 1 (260).
(_See_ GINGER, 9.)

(2) _Falstaff._

An I have not forgotten what the inside of a church is made
of, I am a Pepper-corn, a brewer's horse.

_Ibid._, act iii, sc. 3 (8).

(3) _Poins._

Pray God, you have not murdered some of them.

_Falstaff._

Nay, that's past praying for, for I have Peppered two of them.

_Ibid._, act ii, sc. 4 (210).

(4) _Falstaff._

I have led my ragamuffins, where they are Peppered.

_Ibid._, act v, sc. 3 (36).

(5) _Mercutio._

I am Peppered, I warrant