| Biondello. | I knew a wench married in an afternoon as she went to the garden for Parsley to stuff a rabbit. | | Taming of the Shrew, act iv, sc 4 (99). | Parsley is the abbreviated form of Apium petroselinum, and is a common name to many umbelliferous plants, but the garden Parsley is the one meant here. This well-known little plant has the curious botanic history that no one can tell what is its native country. In 1548 Turner said, "Perseley groweth nowhere that I knowe, but only in gardens."[198:1] It is found in many countries, but is always considered an escape from cultivation. Probably the plant has been so altered by cultivation as to have lost all likeness to its original self. Our forefathers seem to have eaten the parsley root as well as the leaves— "Quinces and Peris ciryppe with Parcely rotes
Right so bygyn your mele."
Russell's Boke of Nurture, 826. "Peres and Quynces in syrupe with Percely rotes."
Wynkyn de Worde's Boke of Kervynge.
FOOTNOTES:
|
|
