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Shakespeare Descants
on letter "B" Foods

Barley

Henry V, III, 5:
CONSTABLE: Dieu de batailles! where have they this mettle? Is not their climate foggy, raw and dull, On whom, as in despite, the sun looks pale, Killing their fruit with frowns? Can sodden water, A drench for sur-rein'd jades, their barley-broth, Decoct their cold blood to such valiant heat?

The Tempest, IV, 1:
IRIS: Ceres, most bounteous lady, thy rich leas Of wheat, rye, barley, vetches, oats and pease; Thy turfy mountains, where live nibbling sheep, And flat meads thatch'd with stover, them to keep; Thy banks with pioned and twilled brims, Which spongy April at thy hest betrims, To make cold nymphs chaste crowns; and thy broom-groves, Whose shadow the dismissed bachelor loves, Being lass-lorn: thy pole-clipt vineyard; And thy sea-marge, sterile and rocky-hard, Where thou thyself dost air;--the queen o' the sky, Whose watery arch and messenger am I, Bids thee leave these, and with her sovereign grace, Here on this grass-plot, in this very place, To come and sport: her peacocks fly amain: Approach, rich Ceres, her to entertain.

Bay

King Henry VI, part 3, IV, 6:
CLARENCE: No, Warwick, thou art worthy of the sway, To whom the heavens in thy nativity Adjudged an olive branch and laurel crown, As likely to be blest in peace and war; And therefore I yield thee my free consent.

Richard II, II, 4:
CAPTAIN: 'Tis thought the king is dead; we will not stay. The bay-trees in our country are all wither'd And meteors fright the fixed stars of heaven; The pale-faced moon looks bloody on the earth And lean-look'd prophets whisper fearful change....

Pericles, IV, 6:
BAWD: She conjures: away with her! Would she had never come within my doors! Marry, hang you! She's born to undo us. Will you not go the way of women-kind? Marry, come up, my dish of chastity with rosemary and bays!

Beans

Henry IV, part I, II, 1: SECOND CARRIER: Peas and beans are as dank here as a dog, and that is the next way to give poor jades the bots: this house is turned upside down since Robin Ostler died.

Beef

Henry IV, part I, III, 3:
PRINCE HAL: "O! my sweet beef, I must still be good angel to thee.

Henry V, III, 7:
CONSTABLE: Give them great meals of beef and iron and steel, they will eat like wolves and fight like devils.

Twelfth Night, I, 3:
SIR ANDREW AGUECHEEK: Methinks sometimes I have no more wit than a Christian or an ordinary man has; but I am a great eater of beef, and I believe that does harm to my wit.

Berries

The Tempest, II, 2:
CALIBAN: "I'll shew thee the best springs; I'll pluck thee berries.

Richard III, III, 4:
GLOUCESTER (later RICHARD III): My Lord of Ely, when I was last in Holborn,
I saw good strawberries in your garden there;
I do beseech you send for some of them.

Henry IV, Part I, II, 4, 265: FALSTAFF (to Prince Hal): Give you a reason on compulsion! If reasons were as plentiful as blackberries, I would give no man a reason upon compulsion, I.

Butter

Henry IV, part I, I, 2:
FALSTAFF: No, by my troth, not so much as will serve to prologue to an egg and butter.

The Merry Wives of Windsor, II, 2:
MASTER FORD: I will rather trust a Fleming with my butter...than my wife with herself.