Part 57 (2/2)

Feed him with Apric.o.c.ks and Dewberries, With purple Grapes, green Figs, and Mulberries.

_Midsummer Night's Dream_, act iii, sc. 1 (169).

(2) _Volumnia._

Thy stout heart, Now humble as the ripest Mulberry That will not bear the handling.

_Coriola.n.u.s_, act iii, sc. 2 (78).

(3) _Prologue._

Thisby tarrying in Mulberry shade.

_Midsummer Night's Dream_, act v, sc. 1 (149).

(4) _Wooer._

Palamon is gone Is gone to the wood to gather Mulberries.

_Two n.o.ble Kinsmen_, act iv, sc. 1 (87).

(5)

The birds would bring him Mulberries and ripe-red Cherries.

_Venus and Adonis_ (1103).

(_See_ CHERRIES.)

We do not know when the Mulberry, which is an Eastern tree, was introduced into England, but probably very early. We find in Archbishop aelfric's ”Vocabulary,” ”morus vel rubus, mor-beam,” but it is doubtful whether that applies to the Mulberry or Blackberry, as in the same catalogue Blackberries are mentioned as ”flavi vel mori, blace-berian.”

There is no doubt that Morum was a Blackberry as well as a Mulberry in cla.s.sical times. Our Mulberry is probably the fruit mentioned by Horace--

”Ille salubres aestates peraget, qui nigris prandia Moris Finiet ante gravem quae legerit arbore solem.”

_Sat._ ii, 4, 24.

And it certainly is the fruit mentioned by Ovid--

”In duris haerentia mora rubetis.”

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