NUTMEG & MACE

2nd January 2024

Photo Credit: Michael VIARD & ValentynVolkov (Getty Images), CANVA

DAUPHIN: I will not change my horse with any that treads but on four pasterns

…

When I bestride him I soar; I am a hawk; he trots the air.

The earth sings when he touches it. The basest horn of his

hoof is more musical than the pipes of Hermes.

ORLEANS: He’s of the colour of the nutmeg.

DAUPHIN & ORLEANS: Henry V, Act 3, Scene 7

NUTMEG (Myristica fragrans)

Nutmeg is the pit of the fruit of the Nutmeg Tree. Nutmegs are native to the Maluka Islands in Indonesia. It has been a highly valued and highly expensive spice for hundreds of year. The Dutch East India Company took over the Islands in 1600 to gain control of this part of the spice trade. The red covering of the pit is called Mace and is also used as a spice.

Nutmeg only occurs a few times in Shakespeare, as the colour of a valuable horse, in a list of expensive gifts and plants in Loves Labours Lost and in the list of spices that Perdita buys for the Sheep Shearing Feast in a Winters Tale.

More Information

Kew Plants of the World Online: Nutmeg

Kew: Christmas Spices