Medlar - in Literature

In Literature

  • Common medlar, the fruit of Mespilus germanica, has been used as a metaphor
    • for age, particularly premature age
    • in British plays from the 16th and 17th centuries, references to the fruit are associated with a bawdy name for it: "open-arses"
  • Giovanni Verga's novel of Sicilian peasant life is called "I Malavoglia: The House by the Medlar Tree"

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