210 SHAKESPEARE'S [MUSHROOM. 



Eggs and Muscadine were supposed to be restorative of the 

 vital powers (" Tamer Tamed," i. I ; " Cupid's Revenge," i. I ; 

 and many other plays of Massinger, Middleton, Brome, etc.). 



Muscadines were also compounds to sweeten the breath 

 (Warded " Treatise of Alexis of Piedmont's Secrets," 1562).] 



MUSCADINES of Candia whereof and especially of red 

 Muscadine there is great plenty in this island, wherewith 

 England for the most part is served. 



Fynes Moryson, "Itinerary," part i. p. 256. 



Mushroom. 



TEMPEST, v. i, 39. 



[Gerard describes not very clearly various kinds of edible 

 and poisonous fungi, but thinks Mushrooms poor food.] 



V. Toad-stool. 



ITALIAN delicate oiled Mushrooms. 

 Massinger^ " Guardian," ii. 2 ; so Ben Jonson, " Alchemist," ii. 2. 



Two small casks one of blue figs, the other of pickled 

 Mushrooms. Jasper Mayne, "The City Match," v. 4. 



Musk, Musk-cat. 



MERRY WIVES OF WINDSOR, ii. 2, 68. 

 ALL'S WELL THAT ENDS WELL, v. 2, 21. 



IN the mountains of Ind be some Caprioli [deer] that 

 eateth herbs with good smell and savour, and in their feet 

 be certain hollowness, in the which certain humours be 

 gathered, and breedeth posthumes [i.e., imposthumes, ab- 

 scesses], the which posthumes first be ripened, and then 

 broken with moving and with froting [/'.*., rubbing], and 

 thrown out of the body with small hairy leaves. And the 

 substance, that is contained within the skin, is best of 

 smelling, and most precious among spicery, and most 

 profitable and virtuous in medicine, and that we call 

 commonly Musk. Bartholomew (Bertbelet], bk. xviii. 23. 



IN the flank of the Musk -cat grows an imposthume 

 from collected humours, and when this is ripe, the beast 

 bruises and rubs it against a tree, and so it is broken, and 

 the matter runs out, and thickens and hardens there, and 

 the substance of the humour is called Musk. The whole 





