[Sca-cooks] Lemons in Middle English

[Robin Carroll-Mann]

Chris Stanifer wrote:

>Here are a few Middle English quotes which contain the poor, misunderstood lemon...
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>Early English versions of the Gesta Romanorum / edited by Sidney J.H. Herrtage 
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[snip]

>yenst him, she kytte of al the longe her of hir hede, and cladde hir in precious clothing like to a man; and yede to the palys þere as hir lemon was to be demyd, and saluyd þe Iustice; and al they trowid þat she had be a knite. And þe Iuge Enquerid 
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This is indeed a misunderstood lemon.  The word here is an alternate 
spelling of "leman", a Middle English term for a lover.

>Treatises of fistula in ano : haemorrhoids, and clysters / by John Arderne 
>NOTES.
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>te and unripe, so they want colour. The stone laid whole to the forehead stays the bleeding at the nose. You may dissolve it in juice of Lemons or Spirit of Vinegar and so use it; drunk in wine it helps against the stinging of scorpions. You may a 
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>John Arderne was an English surgeon who lived during the 1300's in England, and his prescription of lemons proves, at the very least, that they were known in medicinal circles in England, even if they do not appear in Middle English cookery books.
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The quote above is not from the text of "fistula in ano", but from the 
footnotes of the 1910 EETS edition.  In the text, Arderne mentions the 
use of sapphire, red coral and ruby.  The footnote explains the 
historical beliefs about these stones.  The bit about sapphires is in 
quotes.  I suspect it's from Salmon's 1678 "The New London Dispensory", 
which is much cited in other footnotes.  In any case, the English in the 
footnote quote is much more modern than the Middle English of the main text:

http://www.hti.umich.edu/cgi/c/cme/cme-idx?type=HTML&rgn=DIV2&byte=15278198
http://www.hti.umich.edu/cgi/c/cme/cme-idx?type=HTML&rgn=DIV1&byte=15381097#n66.3

No one is questioning that lemons were known in medicinal circles in 
medieval England  (Whether they were used in English medicine is another 
question.).

>William de Grandfort
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Lady Brighid ni Chiarain
Barony of Settmour Swamp, East Kingdom
Robin Carroll-Mann *** rcmann4 at earthlink.net