The Quince: A Quaint Fruit in Eclogue 2

    In Eclogue 2 the main mention of food is in the middle of the speech Corydon flings at the countryside. In lines 51 – 53, Corydon says, “Ipse ego cana legam tenera lanugine mala, / castaneasque nuces, mea quas Amaryllis amabat; / addam cerea pruna: honos erit huic quoque pomo; (I myself will pick quinces with white, soft down, and chestnuts, which my Amaryllis used to love; I will add waxen plums: this fruit too will be honored).”  The words I would like to draw attention to are mala and pomo. Here are the Lewis and Short definitions for both:

malum, -i, n.: an apple, i. e. any tree-fruit fleshy on the outside, and having a kernel within (opp. nux); hence, applied also to quinces, pomegranates, peaches, oranges, lemons, etc.)

            pomum, -i n.: fruit of any kind (apples, cherries, nuts, berries, figs, dates, etc.)

Malum and pomum cover a lot of ground (not unlike strawberry plants) in the world of Latin fruit terminology: the former meaning a large category of fruits and the latter meaning fruit in general. Malum, in particular, piqued my interest since in this context it means “quince” a fruit with which I am not familiar. According to my Wegmans app, quinces taste like a cross between an apple and a pear (with an “astringent, tart flavor”). They are dry with hard, yellowish-white flesh, better when cooked, and 2 for $4.00 (at least at the Alberta Drive location). I also came across a book by W. W. Meech (the secretary of the Vineland Horticultural Society, and an honorary member of the New Jersey State Horticultural Society) published in 1888, titled, Quince Culture: An Illustrated Hand-Book for the Propagation and Cultivation of the Quince, with Descriptions of its Varieties, Insect Enemies, Diseases and their Remedies. In the preface to his work, Meech states, “The demand for a work on quince culture is urgent, and is shown by many letters of inquiry from all parts of the country. Solicitations have been numerous, asking the author to write this book and give the world the results of his experience” (9). And so, Meech answered the call.

            While Meech’s work is thorough, illuminating, and quite informative, and I hope everyone reads it in its entirety (amateur entomologists would particularly enjoy chapter 19 on the “Insect Enemies of the Quince” (“The insect enemies of the quince exceed [four to six], but are not so numerous as the enemies of the apple”(97)), for our purposes, chapter 1 on the “History of the Quince” is the most relevant. The quince is native to southern Europe and western Asia and it was not the apple in the Garden of Eden myth which tempted Eve, but the quince, a misconception perpetuated no doubt by the popularized use of “apple” as a definition for malum (dare I say this is the tyranny of the apple?). The Greeks called the quince the “Cydonian Apple” after a city on Crete where it grew abundantly and Meech states that the Greeks “found it then, as now, ‘both toothsome and wholesome’” (14) though he does not say which Greeks, past or contemporary, said this. Apparently, the Greeks also dedicated quinces to Venus, and, “according to Plutarch, Solon enacted a law that this fruit should be the invariable feast of each newly-wedded pair before they retired to their nuptial couch,” an association perhaps being put to use in the second Eclogue.

            Indeed, Meech noticed the quince’s appearance in Vergil, and since there is no way I could do justice to Meech’s prose by paraphrasing, allow me to quote him:

From the classic plains of Greece, where it may have formed the sacred shade of Academus, this golden fruit, in genial fellowship with literature and the arts, traveled into Italy, where Virgil, the prince of Latin poets, threw over its own inherent charms the rhythmic spell of his enchanting lays. One of the magic effusions of his genius appears in the beautiful lament of the shepherd Damon, in the VIIIth Eclogue, where he honors the quince by placing it among the select exponents of a higher order of nature, hypothetically conceived to illustrate the irremediable determination of the lover’s despair. (14)    

Forget waxy plums, honos erat huic quoque pomo.

            But though the quince’s poetic uses are numerous (and if I hadn’t just used the phrase “waxy plums”, know that I would have made some joke about waxing poetic here), Corydon was picking the fruit for a more gastronomic purpose. As Professor Malamud explained last class, quinces are best enjoyed not when freshly picked, although according to Meech, the variety of quince that grew in Hebron in the West Bank (and maybe ancient Italy?) was mild enough to eat raw, but when they have been cooked. And cook them we should, since quinces, according to both Meech (they will basically cure your dropsy!) and more recent sources like healthline.com (please consult your doctor before making any changes to your diet) and at least one article in the Journal of the Science of Food and Agriculture, quinces are packed full of all sorts of vitamins and enough antioxidants to take care of all your free radicals. Even if your primary method of quince consumption is through jam, you don’t have to worry about losing any of those antioxidants to the cooking process thanks to research presented in the article titled “Changes in the Antioxidant Properties of Quince Fruit (Cydonia oblonga Miller) during Jam Production at Industrial Scale”. If, however, you prefer marmalade to jam… I don’t have an article about the changes in antioxidant properties during marmalade production. But Meech would want you to know that the Portuguese word for quince is “marmelo” which is where the word marmalade comes from (15-16). I know I for one will be adding quinces to my grocery list (if they ever go on sale because seriously you could get 3lbs of apples for a dollar less than the price of one quince) and perhaps I’ll make Quince Biscuit Pie, described as a “…homey dessert of quince simmered in maple syrup and baked with cornmeal biscuits … made ethereal by clouds of maple whipped cream” or maybe just a simple quince jam. As we have seen, the humble quince is poetic all on its own, even without the etherealizing help of maple whipped cream clouds.     

    I will end this post with a final quotation from Quince Culture that truly encapsulates the not-yet-met potential of the quince and its most quintessential qualities. And so, once more into the Meech: “Let this fruit, for which there is no substitute, be no longer only a luxury within the means of the rich, but become so common and abundant that it may be enjoyed by all. It will greatly increase the true wealth of the nation to provide all classes with all varieties of fruits in their seasons, and so extend the means of health and happiness” (12).