Wednesday, July 8, 2009

Food Metaphors in Shakespeare

There are any number, of course.

First up, the classic on alcohol and sex from Macbeth on what drink provokes:

Marry, sir, nose-painting, sleep, and urine.
Lechery, sir, it provokes, and unprovokes; it provokes
the desire, but it takes away the performance.

A brief admonition from A Midsummer Night's Dream that the CC emphatically does not agree with:

And, most dear actors, eat no onions
nor garlic, for we are to utter sweet breath; and I
do not doubt but to hear them say, it is a sweet
comedy. No more words: away! go, away!

Finally, the classic opening of Twelfth Night that tickles the CC in two different ways by combining his favorite two objects in one coherent metaphor:

If music be the food of love, play on.
Give me excess of it, that, surfeiting,
The appetite may sicken, and so die.

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