SHAKESPEARE'S GARDEN 
23 
Its fruit, roasted, was an ingredient in the spiced 
ale of the Christmas frolics : 
When roasted crabs hiss in the bowl, 
Then nightly sings the staring owl. 
Love's Labour's Lost, V. ih 935. 
And, again, the mischievous Puck : 
And sometimes lurk I in a gossip’s bowl, 
In very likeness of a roasted crab, 
And when she drinks, against her lips I bob. 
Midsummer-Night's Dream, II. i. 47. 
It was used also uncooked, and that not for want of 
better apples. From the juice verjuice was made, 
and the acidity of the crab is often mentioned in the 
poet's metaphors : 
She will taste as like this as a crab does to a crab. 
King Lear, I. v. 18. 
Pet . Nay, come, Kate, come ! you must not look so sour. 
Kath. It is my fashion, when I see a crab. 
Pet. Why, here’s no crab; and therefore look not sour. 
Taming of the Shrew, II. i. 228. 
We may pass quickly by the various garden apples 
to which the poet refers. First comes the apple- 
john—probably, says Ellacombe, the Easter pippin 
of Maund. It is twice mentioned : 
I am withered like an old apple-john. 
1 Henry IV., III. iii. 4. 
Mass! thou sayest true. The prince once set a dish of 
apple-johns before him, and told him there were five more 
Sir Johns, and, putting off his hat, said, “ I will now take my 
leave of these six dry, round, old, withered knights.”—- 
2 Henry IV., II. iv. 4. 
The bitter-sweeting is once mentioned : 
Thy wit is a very bitter-sweeting ; it is a most sharp sauce. 
Romeo and Juliet , II. iv. 83. 
