Chibolles and Chervelles and ripe chiries manye.
Chervil was much used by the French and Dutch “boyled or stewed in a pipkin. De la Quintinye recommends it to give a ‘perfuming rellish’ to the salad, and Evelyn says the ‘_Sweete_ (and as the _French_ call it _Musque_) _Spanish_ Chervile,’ is the best and ought ‘never to be wanting in our sallets,’ for it is ‘exceeding wholesome and charming to the spirits.’... This (as likewise Spinach) is used in tarts and serves alone for divers sauces.”
CIBOULES, CHIBOULES OR CHIBBALS (_Allium Ascalonium_).
_The Gipsies Metamorphosed._--BEN JONSON.
Ciboules are a small kind of onion; De la Quintinye says, “Onions degenerated.” From the reference to them in _Piers Plowman_, they were evidently in common use here in the time of Langlande. The French gardener adds that they are “propagated only by seeds of the bignes of a corn of ordinary gun-powder,” and Mr Britten identifies them with Scallions or Shallot (_A. ascalonium_).
CIVES, OR CHIVES, OR SEIVES (_Allium Schænoprasum_).
Straightways follow’d in A case of small musicians, with a din Of little Hautbois, whereon each one strives To show his skill; they all were made of seives, Excepting one, which puff’d the player’s face, And was a Chibole, serving for the bass.
Cives and Ciboules are often mentioned together, as in this account of King Oberon’s feast. The leaves are green and hollow and look like rushes _en miniature_, and would serve admirably for elfin Hautbois. Miss Amherst[18] says that they are mentioned in a list of herbs (Sloane MS., 1201) found “at the beginning of a book of cookery recipes, fifteenth century.” She also tells us that when Kalm came to England (May 1748) he noticed them among the vegetables most grown in the nursery-gardens round London. They were “esteemed milder than onions,” and of a “quick rellish,” but their fame has declined in the last hundred years. Loudon says that the leaves are occasionally used to flavour soup, salads and omelettes--unlike ciboules, the bulb is not used--but the chief purpose for which I have heard them required is to mix with the food for young guinea-fowls and chickens.
And Coriander last to these succeeds That hangs on slightest threads her trembling seeds.