250 SHAKESPEARE'S [PORCUPINE. 



POPPY and mandragora. Hortus Sanitatis, bk. i. 328. 



COMMONLY sown it is with coleworts, purslane, rocket 



and lettuce. Holland^ Pliny, bk. xix. ch. viii. 



Porcupine, Porpentine. 



HAMLET, 'i. 5, 20. 



ITS anger is most quick to revenge, so that very often 

 it looses its spines from its back, and wounds dogs or 

 men that are near it. Hortus Sanitatis, bk. ii. 73. 



THE Porcupines come out of India and Africa ; a kind 

 of urchin or hedge-hog they be ; armed with pricks they 

 be both, but the Porcupine hath the longer sharp-pointed 

 quills, and those when he stretcheth his skin, he sendeth 

 and shooteth from him. Holland's Pliny, bk. viii. ch. xxxv. 



THE pilgrims that come yearly from St. James of Com- 

 postella in Spain do bring back generally one of these 

 quills in their caps. The pace of this beast is very slow 

 and troublesome unto it. It is a filthy beast, smelling 

 rank because it liveth so much in the earth ; being wild 

 it never drinketh, and I think it eateth apples, roots and 

 rinds of trees, and peradventure snails and such reptile 

 creatures. If men scrape their teeth with their quills, they 

 will never be loose. Tqsell, "Four-footed Beasts," pp. 457-8. 



Potato. 



MERRY WIVES OF WINDSOR, v. 5. 21. 



[Potatoes were held to be incentives to venery (vide Collins* 

 long note at the end of " Troilus and Cressida " in M alone and 

 Steevens* Shakespeare, vol. xi. ed. 1793). 



Potato-pies are mentioned in Ben Jonsoris " Every Man out 

 of his Humour," Hey wood's " The English Traveller," and 

 Dekker's " Gull's Hornbook," etc. In the " Good Huswife's 

 Jewel " is a recipe for a " potato-tart " ; " potatoes marrovved " 

 \K Mas singer's "Guardian," ii. 2). 



Potatoes were sometimes cheap, so " Histrio - mastix,'* 

 ii. i, 76: 



Merchant's Wife: Ha' ye any Potatoes? 



Seller : The abundance will not quit-cost the bringing.] 



