THE NUT WEEVIL. 37 



In two passages Shakspeare mentions a nut with 

 no kernel. In the first passage the words are em- 

 ployed figurativelJ^ to denote the absence of real 

 worth in the character of Parolles — 



" There can be no kernel in this light nut." 



AWs Well that Ends Well, Act II. So. V. 



In the other they are used to imply a want of under- 

 standing. 



" Thersites. Hector shall have a great catch if he knock out 

 either of your brains : 'a were as good crack a fusty nut with no 

 kernel." — Troilus and Cressida, Act II. Sc. I. 



There is nothing in those extracts to indicate that 

 Shakspeare was cognizant of 



" The red-capped worm that's shut 

 Within the concave of a nut ;" — {UerricWs Hesperides.*) 



but that he was so, is apparent from the phrase in 

 As You Like It, " as concave as a worm-eaten nut," 

 (Act III. Sc. IV.), and also from the passage in which 

 he describes the equipage of Queen Mab — 



" Her chariot is an empty hazel nut, 

 Made by the joiner squirrel, or old grub, 

 Time out of mind the fairies' coachmaker." 



Romeo and Juliet, Act I. Sc. IV. 



The " old grub " here mentioned by the poet as caus- 

 ing the vacuity in the shell, is the larva of a wee^*il 



* Quoted by Kirby and Spence, vol. i. p. 309. 



