(1)	Iris.	Ceres, most bounteous lady, thy rich leas Of Wheat, Rye, Barley, Vetches, Oats, and Pease.
Tempest, act iv, sc. 1 (60).
(2)	Carrier.	Peas and Beans are as dank here as a dog.
1st Henry IV, act ii, sc. 1 (9). (See Beans.)
(3)	Biron.	This fellow picks up wit, as pigeons Pease.
Love's Labour's Lost, act v, sc. 2 (315).
(4)	Bottom.	I had rather have a handful or two of dried Peas.
Midsummer Night's Dream, act iv, sc. 1 (41).
(5)	Fool.	That a shealed Peascod?
King Lear, act i, sc. 4 (219).
(6)	Touchstone.	I remember the wooing of a Peascod instead of her.
As You Like It, act ii, sc. 4 (51).
(7)	Malvolio.	Not yet old enough to be a man, nor young enough for a boy; as a Squash is before 'tis a Peascod, or a Codling when 'tis almost an Apple.
Twelfth Night, act i, sc. 5 (165).
(8)	Hostess.	Well, fare thee well! I have known thee these twenty-nine years come Peascod time.
2nd Henry IV, act ii, sc. 4 (412).
(9)	Leontes.	How like, methought, I then was to this kernel, This Squash, this gentleman.
Winter's Tale, act i, sc. 2 (159).
(10)	Peascod, Pease-Blossom, and Squash—Dramatis personÆ in Midsummer Night's Dream.

There is no need to say much of Peas, but it may be worth a note in passing that in old English we seldom meet with the word Pea. Peas or Pease (the Anglicised form of Pisum) is the singular, of which the plural is Peason. "Pisum is called in Englishe a Pease;" says Turner—

The Child of Bristowe, p. 570.

And the word was so used in and after Shakespeare's time, as by Ben Jonson—

The Squash is the young Pea, before the Peas are formed in it, and the Peascod is the ripe shell of the Pea before it is shelled.[202:1] The garden Pea (Pisum sativum) is the cultivated form of a plant found in the South of Europe, but very much altered by cultivation. It was probably not introduced into England as a garden vegetable long before Shakespeare's time. It is not mentioned in the old lists of plants before the sixteenth century, and Fuller tells us that in Queen Elizabeth's time they were brought from Holland, and were "fit dainties for ladies, they came so far and cost so dear."

The beautiful ornamental Peas (Sweet Peas, Everlasting Peas, &c.) are of different family (Lathyrus, not Pisum), but very closely allied. There is a curious amount of folklore connected with Peas, and in every case the Peas and Peascods are connected with wooing the lasses. This explains Touchstone's speech (No. 6). Brand gives several instances of this, from which one stanza from Browne's "Pastorals" may be quoted—

Book ii, song 3.

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