Eve’s and Adam’s “Apple”: Horticulture, Taste, and the Flesh of the Forbidden Fruit in Paradise Lost

Eating with Eve

“…2 2 For more about Milton and eating, see Appelbaum, “Eve's” and Aguecheek's ; Gulden, Low, “Angels”Thomas, Kerrigan, Gigante (ch. 2), and Schoenfeldt (ch.…”

“…12 12 J. Martin Evans has suggested to me that Milton's knowledge of the Italianate style of service might have come from his own gastronomical experiences when he traveled in Italy in 1638‐39. For more information about the “Italianate style,” see Appelbaum, who writes, “[T]he fruits and nuts she serves are not only delectable in themselves, but served, gourmet fashion (in words recalling the discourse of Montaigne's interlocutor, the Italian steward), in an order calculated to maximize pleasure” ( Aguecheek's 190). …”

“…24 24 Only Satan identifies the fruit as an apple and only after the Fall; however, I use the term “apple” here in following Evans's argument that “As soon as she has eaten the forbidden fruit, for example, Eve begins to think and talk exactly like the Devil” ( Milton's 99). In “Eve's,”Appelbaum discusses the identification of the forbidden fruit, elucidating how the apple could mean any fruit tree generally or the apple ( Pyrus Malum ) specifically. He also cites Evans about the differences in how various exegetical traditions interpreted the fruit.…”