In my last post I wrote about apricots in The Duchess of Malfi and how they were used to ascertain the Duchess's suspected pregnancy. Once the pregnancy - and the Duchess's marriage to her steward Antonio, her social inferior - were confirmed, the Duchess's villainous brothers set out to destroy her and her family (see http://pagetoplate.blogspot.co.uk/2014/05/apricots.html).
The idea that food, rather than being a form of celebration or sustenance, can have a more malevolent side to it, seems to be a popular idea in the early 17th century Jacobean revenge drama. At times it is used metaphorically, particularly in relation to sex. In Thomas Middleton's play, The Changeling (c. 1622), the villainous servant, De Flores, afflicted with a facial deformity, considers the possibility that he may be able to persuade his mistress, Beatrice-Joanna, to sleep with him in return for his killing her unwanted suitor, Alonzo.
