BLACKBERRIES

*Brambles*

FALSTAFF

Give you a reason on compulsion?!

If reasons were as plentiful

as BLACKBERRIES, I would give no man

a reason upon compulsion, I.

—Henry IV, Pt. 1 [Act II, sc. 4]

FALSTAFF

Shall the blessed sun of heaven prove a micher

and eat BLACKBERRIES?

—Henry IV, Pt. 1 [Act II, sc. 4]

THERSITES

That same dog-fox Ulysses

is not proved worth a BLACKBERRY.

—Troilus and Cressida [Act V, sc. 4]

ROSALIND

There is a man haunts the forest, that abuses

our young plants with carving “Rosalind”

on their barks; hangs odes upon hawthorns

and elegies on BRAMBLES . . .

—As You Like It [Act III, sc. 2]

The THORNY BRAMBLES

and embracing bushes,

As fearful of him, part,

through whom he rushes.

—Venus and Adonis