O Fruit of that Forbidden Tree whose Mortal Taste Brought All Our Woe . . .

     . . . or did they misunderstand

 and neither heard the rattle 

of a serpentine warning

when Eve thrust the apple 

into Adam’s hand?

The Fall of Man
(1592, detail)
by Cornelis van Haarlem
(1562–1638)  

(Newspaper report, 17 October 2019)         The true way for testing a ripe Cox’s Orange Pippin apple is to shake it. The pips should rattle in the core.

See also: 
Et vocavit Adam nomen uxoris suæ, Eva . . . de ligno autem scientiæ boni et mali ne comedas. 
https://catherineeisnerfrance.blogspot.com/2019/09/et-vocavit-adam-nomen-uxoris-su-heva-de.html
and
That space the Evil One abstracted . . . and attention gained with forked tongue . . .
https://catherineeisnerfrance.blogspot.com/2018/05/that-space-evil-one-abstracted-and.html