CRAB-APPLE

MENENIUS

We have some old CRAB-TREES here at home

that will not be grafted to your relish.

—Coriolanus [Act II, sc. 1]

SUFFOLK

And noble stock

Was graft with CRAB-TREE slip,

whose fruit thou art . . .

—Henry VI, Pt. 2 [Act III, sc. 2]

PUCK

And sometime lurk I in a gossip’s bowl

In very likeness of a roasted CRAB,

And when she drinks, against her lips I bob,

And on her wither’d dewlap pour the ale.

—A Midsummer Night’s Dream [Act II, sc. 1]

SONG OF WINTER

When roasted CRABS hiss in the bowl,

Then nightly sings the starting owl.

—Love’s Labour’s Lost [Act V, sc. 2]

FOOL

Shal’t see thy other daughter will use thee kindly;

for though she’s as like this as a CRAB’S like

an APPLE, yet I can tell what I can tell.

LEAR

Why, what can’st thou tell me what I can tell.

FOOL

She will taste as like this

as a CRAB does to a CRAB.

—King Lear [Act I, sc. 5]

CALIBAN

I prithee, let me bring thee where CRABS grow.

—Tempest [Act II, sc. 2]

PORTER

Fetch me a dozen CRAB-TREE staves,

and strong ones.

—Henry VIII [Act V, sc. 4]

PETRUCHIO

Nay, come, Kate, come, you must not look so sour.

KATHERINE

It is my fashion, when I see a CRAB.

PETRUCHIO

Why, here’s no CRAB, and therefore

look not sour.

——Taming of the Shrew [Act II, sc. 1]

HOLOFERNES/PEDANT

And anon falleth

like a CRAB on the face of terra—

the soil, the land, the earth.

—Love’s Labour’s Lost [Act IV, sc. 2]