, for this world.

_Romeo and Juliet_, act iii, sc. 1 (102).

(6) _Ford._

He cannot 'scape me, 'tis impossible he should; he cannot
creep into a halfpenny purse or into a Pepper-box.

_Merry Wives_, act iii, sc. 5 (147).

(7) _Sir Andrew._

Here's the challenge, read it; I warrant there's vinegar and
Pepper in't.

_Twelfth Night_, act iii, sc. 4 (157).

Pepper is the seed of Piper nigrum, "whose drupes form the black Pepper
of the shops when dried with the skin upon them, and white Pepper when
that flesh is removed by washing."--LINDLEY. It is, like all the
pepperworts, a native of the Tropics, but was well known both to the
Greeks and Romans. By the Greeks it was probably not much used, but in
Rome it seems to have been very common, if we may judge by Horace's
lines--

"Deferar in vicum, vendentem thus et odores,
Et piper, et quidquid chartis amicitur ineptis."

_Epistolae_ ii, 1-270.

And in another place he mentions "Pipere albo" as an ingredient in
cooking. Juvenal mentions it as an article of commerce, "piperis coemti"
(Sat. xiv. 293). Persius speaks of it in more than one passage, and
Pliny describes it so minutely that he evidently not only knew the
imported spice, but also had seen the living plant. By the Romans it was
probably introduced into England, being frequently met with in the
Anglo-Saxon Leech-books. It is mentioned by Chaucer--

"And in an erthen pot how put is al,
And salt y-put in and also Paupere."

_Prologue of the Chanoune's Yeman._

It was apparently, like Ginger, a very common condiment in Shakespeare's
time, and its early introduction into England as an article of commerce
is shown by passages in our old law writers, who speak of the
reservation of rent, not only in money, but in "pepper, cummim, and
wheat;" whence arose the familiar reservation of a single peppercorn as
a rent so nominal as to have no appreciable pecuniary value.[204:1]

The red or Cayenne Pepper is made from the ground seeds of the
Capsicum, but I do not find that it was used to known in the sixteenth
century.

FOOTNOTES:

[204:1] Littleton does not mention Pepper when speaking of rents
reserved otherwise than in money, but specifies as instances, "un
chival, ou un esperon dor, ou un cloveg