5 2 SHAKESPEARE'S [CAPER. 



Caper. 



SIR AND. Faith, I can cut a caper. 



SIR TOBY. And I can cut the mutton to 't. 



TWELFTH NIGHT, i. 3, 129. 



THEY stir up an appetite to meat. They are eaten 

 boiled (the salt first washed off) with oil and vinegar as 

 other salads be, and sometimes are boiled with meat. They 

 be rather a sauce and medicine than a meat. 



Gerard's " Herbal," s.v. 



THEY say that those who eat them daily are in no 

 danger of paralysis. They should not be eaten without 



coriander. Hortus Sanitatis, bk. i. ch. xcvii. 



Capon. 



Item, A capon, . 2s. id. 



i. KING HENRY IV., ii. 4, 584. 



He steps me to her trencher, and steals her capon's leg. 



Two GENTLEMEN OF VERONA, iv. 4, 10. 



THE Capon sitteth on brood upon eggs that be not his 

 own, as it were an hen, and companieth with hens, and 

 eateth with them of their meat, but he feedeth them not ; 

 he is fatted with them but he fatteth not them. And 

 sometime his feet are broken to compel him to sit on 

 brood upon eggs. When he is fat, his feet be bound 

 together, and his head hangeth down towards the ground, 

 and is borne by the feet to fairs and to markets. And 

 their brain is better and more profitable than the brains ot 

 Other fowls. Bartholomew (Bertkelet], bk. xii. 17. 



A CAPON if he be well beaten with nettles will lead its 

 chickens about like a hen, which as they say, he does not 

 for the good of the chickens, but for his own good, that 

 by the warmth of the chickens he may make the poison 

 of the nettle to evaporate. Hortus Sanitatis, bk. Hi. ch. liv. 



ALLECTORIA [or Electorius], is a stone that is found in 

 the maws of Capons, and is like dim crystal. And 

 witches tell, it is supposed that in battle-fighting, this ston< 



