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Shakespeare Descants
on letter "N" Foods
Nettles (greens, also used to make beer)
King Henry V, I, 1:
ELY: The strawberry grows underneath the nettle And wholesome berries thrive and ripen best Neighbour'd by fruit of baser quality: And so the prince obscured his contemplation Under the veil of wildness; which, no doubt, Grew like the summer grass, fastest by night, Unseen, yet crescive in his faculty.
Nutmeg
King Henry V, III, 7:
ORLEANS: He's of the colour of the nutmeg.
Love's Labour's Lost, V, 2:
DUMAIN: A gilt nutmeg.
Nuts
The Comedy of Errors, IV, 3:
DROMIO OF SYRACUSE: Some devils ask but the parings of one's nail, A rush, a hair, a drop of blood, a pin, A nut, a cherry-stone; But she, more covetous, would have a chain. Master, be wise: an if you give it her, The devil will shake her chain and fright us with it.
As You Like It, III, 2:
TOUCHSTONE: Sweetest nut hath sourest rind, Such a nut is Rosalind. He that sweetest rose will find Must find love's prick and Rosalind. This is the very false gallop of verses: why do you infect yourself with them?
CELIA: Yes; I think he is not a pick-purse nor a horse-stealer, but for his verity in love, I do think him as concave as a covered goblet or a worm-eaten nut. (III, 4)
Troilus and Cressida, II, 1:
THERSITES: E'en so; a great deal of your wit, too, lies in your sinews, or else there be liars. Hector have a great catch, if he knock out either of your brains: a' were as good crack a fusty nut with no kernel.
All's Well That Ends Well, II, 5:
LAFEU: And shall do so ever, though I took him at 's prayers. Fare you well, my lord; and believe this of me, there can be no kernel in this light nut; the soul of this man is his clothes. Trust him not in matter of heavy consequence; I have kept of them tame, and know their natures. Farewell, monsieur: I have spoken better of you than you have or will to deserve at my hand; but we must do good against evil.
Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, II, 2:
HAMLET: O God, I could be bounded in a nut shell and count myself a king of infinite space, were it not that I have bad dreams.
A Midsummer Night's Dream, IV, 1:
TITANIA: I have a venturous fairy that shall seek The squirrel's hoard, and fetch thee new nuts.
Romeo and Juliet, III, 1:
MERCUTIO: Nay, an there were two such, we should have none shortly, for one would kill the other. Thou! why, thou wilt quarrel with a man that hath a hair more, or a hair less, in his beard, than thou hast: thou wilt quarrel with a man for cracking nuts, having no other reason but because thou hast hazel eyes: what eye but such an eye would spy out such a quarrel? Thy head is as fun of quarrels as an egg is full of meat, and yet thy head hath been beaten as addle as an egg for quarrelling
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