FIG

9th December 2023

O, excellent!

I love long life better than figs.

CHARMAIN: Antony & Cleopatra, Act 1, Scene 2

FIG (Ficus carica)

Figs turn up relatively frequently in Shakespeare, mainly as a mild insult such as, “The figo for thee then!” (PISTOL: Henry V, 4:1). A basket of Figs is a key element of the plot in Antony and Cleopatra as it hides the Asp which Cleopatra uses to kill herself. Figs, like blackberries and gooseberries are abundant when they are in season and they become a symbol of something common and not high value.

Figs have been grown in England since at least the 1500s. William Turner (1548) tell us that “there are divers Fyg trees in Englande in gardines, but no where els.” In the late 1500s John Gerard tells us that “Fig trees do grow plentifully in Spaine and Italy, and many other countries, as in England; where they bear fruit, but it never commeth to kindly maturity, except the tree be planted under an hot wall, whereto neither North, nor North-east windes can come.” They were eaten fresh, dried and used in a range of medicinal preparations. A Good Huswifes Handmaids (1594) contains recipes for Lent Eel Pie with Figs, and Stewed Herrings with Figs.

Common Fig is native to the Eastern Mediterranean, Central Asia and Afghanistan but it is has been domesticated for thousands of years and it naturalised in many countries. Some types of edible Figs can be pollinated by the Fig Wasp but some edible Figs can also produce fruit without this type of pollination (Woolfe, 2014).

More Information

BSBI Plant Atlas 2020: Fig

Foods of England: A Good Huswifes Handmaide (1594)

John Gerard (first edition 1597): A Herball, or General Historie of Plants (accessed 1636 edition via archive.org)

Kew Plants of the World Online: Ficus carica

William Turner, 1548: The Names of Herbes (accessed via archive.org)

Shannon Woolfe, 2014: Carniverous Figs, the relationship between figs and wasps