  | (1) | Prince Henry. | But, sweet Ned—to sweeten which name of Ned, I give thee this pennyworth of Sugar, clapped even now into my hand by an under-skinker. | | ***** | | To drive away the time till Falstaff comes, I prithee, do thou stand in some by-room, while I question my puny drawer to what end he gave me the Sugar. | | ***** | | Nay, but hark you, Francis; for the Sugar thou gavest me, 'twas a pennyworth, was't not? | | 1st Henry IV, act ii, sc. 4 (23, 31, 64). | | | (2) | Biron. | White-handed mistress, one sweet word with thee. | | Princess. | Honey, and Milk, and Sugar, there is three. | | Love's Labour's Lost, act v, sc. 2 (230). | | | (3) | Quickly. | And in such wine and Sugar of the best and the fairest, that would have won any woman's heart. | | Merry Wives, act ii, sc. 2 (70). | | | (4) | Bassanio. | Here are sever'd lips
Parted with Sugar breath; so sweet a bar
Should sunder such sweet friends. | | Merchant of Venice, act iii, sc. 2 (118). | | | (5) | Touchstone. | Honesty coupled to beauty is to have honey a sauce to Sugar. | | As You Like It, act iii, sc. 2 (30). | | | (6) | Northumberland. | Your fair discourse hath been as Sugar,
Making the hard way sweet and delectable. | | Richard II, act ii, sc. 3 (6). | | | (7) | Clown. | Let me see,—what am I to buy for our sheep-shearing feast? Three pound of Sugar, five pound of Currants. | | Winter's Tale, act iv, sc. 3 (39). | | | (8) | K. Henry. | You have witchcraft in your lips, Kate: there is more eloquence in a Sugar touch of them than in the tongues of the French council. | | Henry V, act v, sc. 2 (401). | | | (9) | Queen Margaret. | Poor painted Queen, vain flourish of my fortune!
Why strew'st thou Sugar on that bottled spider,
Whose deadly web ensnareth thee about? | | Richard III, act i, sc. 3 (241). | | | (10) | Gloucester. | Your grace attended to their Sugar'd words,
But look'd not on the poison of their hearts. | | Richard III, act iii, sc. 1 (13). | | | (11) | Polonius. | We are oft to blame in this—
Tis too much proved—that with devotion's visage
And pious actions we do Sugar o'er
The devil himself. | | Hamlet, act iii, sc. 1 (46). | | | (12) | Brabantio. | These sentences, to Sugar, or to gall,
Being strong on both sides, are equivocal. | | Othello, act i, sc. 3 (216). | | | (13) | Timon. | And never learn'd
The icy precepts of respect, but follow'd
The Sugar'd game before thee. | | Timon of Athens, act iv, sc. 3 (257). | | | (14) | Pucelle. | By fair persuasion mix'd with Sugar'd words
We will entice the Duke of Burgundy. | | 1st Henry VI, act iii, sc. 3 (18). | | | (15) | K. Henry. | Hide not thy poison with such Sugar'd words. | | 2nd Henry VI, act iii, sc. 2 (45). | | | (16) | Prince Henry. | One poor pennyworth of Sugar-candy, to make thee long-winded. | | 1st Henry IV, act iii, sc. 3 (180). | | | (17) | | Thy Sugar'd tongue to bitter Wormwood taste. | | Lucrece (893). | As a pure vegetable product, though manufactured, Sugar cannot be passed over in an account of the plants of Shakespeare; but it will not be necessary to say much about it. Yet the history of the migrations of the Sugar-plant is sufficiently interesting to call for a short notice. Its original home seems to have been in the East Indies, whence it was imported in very early times. It is probably the "sweet cane" of the Bible; and among classical writers it is named by Strabo, Lucan, Varro, Seneca, Dioscorides, and Pliny. The plant is said to have been introduced into Europe during the Crusades, and to have been cultivated in the Morea, Rhodes, Malta, Sicily, and Spain.[286:1] By the Spaniards it was taken first to Madeira and the Cape de Verd Islands, and, very soon after the discovery of America, to the West Indies. There it soon grew rapidly, and increased enormously, and became a chief article of commerce, so that though we now almost look upon it as entirely a New World plant, it is in fact but a stranger there, that has found a most congenial home. In 1468 the price of Sugar was sixpence a pound, equal to six shillings of our money,[287:1] but in Shakespeare's time it must have been very common,[287:2] or it could not so largely have worked its way into the common English language and proverbial expressions; and it must also have been very cheap, or it could not so entirely have superseded the use of honey, which in earlier times was the only sweetening material. Shakespeare may have seen the living plant, for it was grown as a curiosity in his day, though Gerard could not succeed with it: "Myself did plant some shootes thereof in my garden, and some in Flanders did the like, but the coldness of our clymate made an end of myne, and I think the Flemmings will have the like profit of their labour." But he bears testimony to the large use of Sugar in his day; "of the juice of the reede is made the most pleasant and profitable sweet called Sugar, whereof is made infinite confections, sirupes, and such like, as also preserving and conserving of sundrie fruits, herbes and flowers, as roses, violets, rosemary flowers and such like."
FOOTNOTES: [286:1] "It is the juice of certain canes or reedes whiche growe most plentifully in the Ilandes of Madera, Sicilia, Cyprus, Rhodus and Candy. It is made by art in boyling of the Canes, much like as they make their white salt in the Witches in Cheshire."—Coghan, Haven of Health, 1596, p. 110.
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