"Big Apple" prostitution etymology, pt. 2

[Jonathon Green]

This is really for Larry Horn, but other might be interested. This is the
relevant section of Gordon Williams' magiasterial entry on 'apple', which,
as you wil,. noyte,. is big on the 'apples of the Hesperides'. However,
whatever Theo. Vennemann may have discovered, these 17C/18C quotes still see
the image as primarily feminine:

apple:
variously woman or her virginity, meanings frequently shading into one
another. Browne, Pseudodoxia (1646; 11.488) VI I.i draws various
associations together: 'we read in Pierius, that an Apple was the
Hieroglyphick of Love, and that the Statua of Venus was made with one in her
hand. So the little Cupids in the figures of Philostratus do play with
apples in a garden; and there want not some who have symbolized the Apple of
Paradise unto such constructions'. This Eden fruit is often confused with
the grapes of Sodom (Deuteronomy 32:32). In Webster, White Devil (1609-12)
III.ii.67, a whore is likened to 'those apples travellers report To grow
where Sodom and Gomorra stood, I will but touch her and . . . Sheele fall to
soote and ashes'. Brathwait, Strappado (1615) 48 describes whores as
'painted Sodom-apples faire to th'eye, But being tutcht they perish
instantly'; and he is manifestly plundered in Dialogue between Mistris
Macquerella (1650) 2: 'we, the Citizens of Sodome, are like those Apples
said to grow near that lake occasioned by a showre of Brimstone, a childs
touch will moulder us into powder'. (Whiston's Josephus IV.viii.4 relates
how the fruits growing in the ashes of Sodom 'have a colour as if they were
fit to be eaten, but if you pluck them with your hands, they dissolve into
smoke and ashes'.) Stretser, Arbor Vitae (1732; Cabinet of Love 204)
suggests that the phallic Tree of Life 'should be call'd, The Tree of Good
and Evil Quahty: For that this very self same Tree Sprung up in Eden
formerly'. But the 1741 edn associates it with 'the celebrated Hesperian
Trees . . . and the very Name of Poma Veneris, the Venereal-Apples,
frequently given by Authors to the Fruits of this Tree, is a sufficient
Proof these were really theApples for which three Goddesses contended in so
warm a Manner'. Rowley, All's Lost by Lust (c.1619) I.i.135 takes up the
destructive implications: the Spanish king decides that if persuasion will
not serve, 'by rapines force, Wee'le plucke this apple from th' Hesperides';
he may have given Antonio the lines in Middleton, Changeling (1622)
III.iii.i83, 'shall I alone Walk through the orchard of th' Hesperides, And,
cowardly, not dare to pull an apple?'. In Shakespeare, Pericles (t6o6-8)
I.i.28, Antiochus calls his daughter 'this fair Hesperides, With golden
fruit, but dangerous to be touch'd'. Marlowe, Hero and Leander (1593) 11.297
describes the lovers' consummation: 'Leander now, like Theban Hercules,
Enter'd the orchard ofth'Hesperides, Whose fruit none rightly can describe
but he That pulls or shakes it from the golden tree'. This is one of the
myths used by Herrick, 'Descripcion of a Woman' (mid-C17; 405) to evoke the
sexual parts: 'A milky high waye that direction yeilds Vnto the port mouth
of th'Elisian feuds A place desir'd of all but got by theis whome bue
admitts to this Hesperides Heres golden fruit that farre exceeds all price
growing in this louc garded paradice'. The traditional guardian is a dragon;
in Crowne, Married Beau (1694) II, it is the lady's pride: 'you will find a
dragon in her pride, Will guard her golden fruit'; and in Davys,
Accomplished Rake (1727; McBurney 363), a brother casting himself as dragon
is told: 'You will have need of one ... to guard your golden pippin'. A
jealous husband in Jonson, Every Man in his Humour (1598) III.i.19 reflects:
'what earthy spirit but will attempt To taste the fruite of beauties golden
tree, When leaden sleepe seales up the dragons eyes'. In Swetnam (1615-19)
II.ii.35, an unwelcome lover becomes 'The old Dragon Nicanor, that watches
the fruit of your Hesperides'. Shirley, Example (1634) IV.i uses the trope
of a willing cuckold: 'It shall be happiness for me, to watch The
Hesperides, but in no dragon's shape, That you may rifle with security The
golden orchard'. In his Imposture (1640) IV.ii, it is not the orchard but
one of its apples which represents the woman or her sexuality: 'I was one o'
the cavaliers went with the general Into the orchard of the Hesperides, To
fetch the golden dragon', boasts Bertoldi; and his companion corrects him:
'Golden apple, You mean, the princess Fioretta, signior'. Fletcher,
Valentinian (1610-14) II.iv eschews the mythic trappings in a song
describing the lips as 'Cherries kissing as they grow; And inviting men to
taste, Apples even ripe below'. Howell, Letters (1623; 196) 1.3.32 neatly
describes a royal rape, the victim writing 'to her Father in Barbart under
this Allegory, That there was a fair green Apple upon the Table, and the
King's Poniard fell upon't and clefi it in two'; cf the phrase for enjoying
a virgin, 'taking a Bite of a green Apple', in Histort of the Human Heart (i
769) 55. Dick of Devonshire (1626; Bullen, Collection 11.34) II.ii applies
the figure to rape: 'Since y'are a Tree reservd for me, what now should
hinder me from climbing? All your apples I know are ripe allready'; but
rorkshire Tragedy (I 6o~-8; Brooke) i.5 deals with windfalls: 'apples
hanging longer on the tree then when they are ripe makes so many fallings;
viz., Madde wenches, because they are not gathered in time are fame to drop
of them selues, and then tis Common you know for euery man to take em Vp'.
Faschinetti, in Johnson Love in a Chest (1710) III.ii, scorns to share a
woman: 'if you have a mind for the Lady, I'll give you a Bill of Sale ofher
for a Ducat; but I'll have no returns hereafter: I'll not take my Apple
again when you have scoop'd it'.


Jonathon Green