Tag: sex

Food and Seduction

Food and sex have always been linked: from romantic meals to the alleged aphrodisiac qualities of certain foods – according to an article in The Independent these include asparagus, celery and pomegranate: see here  

And it is the same in literature.  One of the most famous examples comes in Henry Fielding’s 1749 novel, Tom Jones, in which the protagonist and Mrs Waters, an older woman whom he has saved from the clutches of a villain, sit down to eat dinner in an inn.  Whilst Mrs Waters has only eyes for Tom and tries her utmost to seduce him, Tom is hungry and needs to eat before he will succumb.  The humour is increased by the mock-epic language Fielding uses, presenting the seduction as a battle: Continue reading “Food and Seduction”

The Corrupting Effects of Food

In my last post I wrote about apricots in The Duchess of Malfi and how they are used to ascertain the Duchess’s suspected pregnancy.  Once the pregnancy – and the Duchess’s marriage to her steward Antonio, her social inferior – are confirmed, the Duchess’s villainous brothers set out to destroy her and her family (see http://frompagetoplate.com/2014/05/25/apricots/)

The idea that food, rather than being a form of celebration or sustenance, can have a more malevolent side to it, is a popular idea in early 17th century Jacobean revenge drama.   Continue reading “The Corrupting Effects of Food”

Apricots

As we bid farewell – for the time being – to Shakespeare, and move on a few years into gory Jacobean revenge drama, we say hello to the apricot. It has been speculated that the apricot originated in either Armenia – about 50 different varieties of the fruit are grown there nowadays – India or China. By Roman times apricots had spread into the Mediterranean region, and they have been known in England since the 16th century; one story says that Henry VIII’s gardener introduced apricots to England from Italy in 1542. Continue reading “Apricots”