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diff --git a/28407.txt b/28407.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..ea88f62 --- /dev/null +++ b/28407.txt @@ -0,0 +1,25712 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of The plant-lore & garden-craft of Shakespeare, by +Henry Nicholson Ellacombe + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The plant-lore & garden-craft of Shakespeare + +Author: Henry Nicholson Ellacombe + +Release Date: March 25, 2009 [EBook #28407] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK PLANT-LORE OF SHAKESPEARE *** + + + + +Produced by Irma Spehar, Michael Zeug, Lisa Reigel, and +the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at +https://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images +generously made available by The Internet Archive/Canadian +Libraries) + + + + + + + +Transcriber's Notes: Some typographical and punctuation errors have been +corrected. A complete list follows the text. Variations in spelling and +hyphenation have been left as in the original. Words in Greek in the +original are transliterated and placed between +plus signs+. Words +italicized in the original are surrounded by _underscores_. Words in +bold in the original are surrounded by =equal signs=. Characters +superscripted in the original are inclosed in {} brackets. + +There are diacritic accents in the original. In this text, they are +represented as follows: + + [=a] = "a" with a macron + [=e] = "e" with a macron + [=i] = "i" with a macron + [=o] = "o" with a macron + [=u] = "u" with a macron + [=w] = "w" with a macron + + + + +_THE PLANT-LORE AND GARDEN-CRAFT OF SHAKESPEARE._ + + + + +PRESS NOTICES OF FIRST EDITION. + + +"It would be hard to name a better commonplace book for summer +lawns. . . . The lover of poetry, the lover of gardening, and the lover +of quaint, out-of-the-way knowledge will each find something to please +him. . . . It is a delightful example of gardening literature."--_Pall +Mall Gazette._ + +"Mr. Ellacombe, with a double enthusiasm for Shakespeare and for his +garden, has produced a very readable and graceful volume on the +Plant-Lore of Shakespeare."--_Saturday Review._ + +"Mr. Ellacombe brings to his task an enthusiastic love of horticulture, +wedded to no inconsiderable practical and theoretical knowledge of it; a +mind cultivated by considerable acquaintance with the Greek and Latin +classics, and trained for this special subject by a course of extensive +reading among the contemporaries of his author: and a capacity for +patient and unwearied research, which he has shown by the stores of +learning he has drawn from a class of books rarely dipped into by the +student--Saxon and Early English herbals and books of leechcraft; the +result is a work which is entitled from its worth to a place in every +Shakesperian library."--_Spectator._ + +"The work has fallen into the hands of one who knows not only the +plants themselves, but also their literary history; and it may be +said that Shakespeare's flowers now for the first time find an +historian."--_Field._ + +"A delightful book has been compiled, and it is as accurate as it is +delightful."--_Gardener's Chronicle._ + +"Mr. Ellacombe's book well deserves a place on the shelves of both the +student of Shakespeare and the lover of plant lore."--_Journal of +Botany._ + +"By patient industry, systematically bestowed, Mr. Ellacombe has +produced a book of considerable interest; . . . full of facts, grouped +on principles of common sense about quotations from our great +poet."--_Guardian._ + +"Mr. Ellacombe is an old and faithful labourer in this field of +criticism. His 'Plant-lore and Garden-craft of Shakespeare' . . . is the +fullest and best book on the subject."--_The Literary World (American)._ + + + + + THE + + PLANT-LORE & GARDEN-CRAFT + + OF + + SHAKESPEARE. + + + BY + + REV. HENRY N. ELLACOMBE, M.A., + + OF ORIEL COLLEGE, OXFORD, + VICAR OF BITTON, GLOUCESTERSHIRE, AND HON. CANON OF BRISTOL. + + + SECOND EDITION. + + + PRINTED FOR + W. SATCHELL AND CO., + AND SOLD BY, + SIMPKIN, MARSHALL, AND CO., + LONDON. + + 1884. + + + + + "My Herbale booke in Folio I unfold. + I pipe of plants, I sing of somer flowers." + + CUTWODE, _Caltha Poetarum_, st. 1. + + + + +TO THE READER. + + +"Faultes escaped in the Printing, correcte with your pennes; omitted by +my neglygence, overslippe with patience; committed by ignorance, remit +with favour." + + LILY, _Euphues and his England_, Address to the + gentlemen Readers. + + + + +CONTENTS. + + + INTRODUCTION 1 + + PLANT-LORE OF SHAKESPEARE 7 + + GARDEN-CRAFT OF SHAKESPEARE 333 + + APPENDIX-- + + I. THE DAISY 359 + + II. THE SEASONS OF SHAKESPEARE'S PLAYS 379 + + III. NAMES OF PLANTS 391 + + INDEX OF PLAYS 421 + + GENERAL INDEX 431 + + + + +PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION. + + +Since the publication of the First Edition I have received many kind +criticisms both from the public critics and from private friends. For +these criticisms I am very thankful, and they have enabled me to correct +some errors and to make some additions, which I hope will make the book +more acceptable and useful. + +For convenience of reference I have added the line numbers to the +passages quoted, taking both the quotations and the line numbers from +the Globe Shakespeare. In a few instances I have not kept exactly to the +text of the Globe Edition, but these are noted; and I have added the +"Two Noble Kinsmen," which is not in that Edition. + +In other respects this Second Edition is substantially the same as the +First. + + H. N. E. + + BITTON VICARAGE, GLOUCESTERSHIRE, + _February, 1884_. + + + + +PREFACE TO FIRST EDITION. + + +The following Notes on the "Plant-lore and Garden-craft of Shakespeare" +were published in "The Garden" from March to September, 1877. + +They are now republished with additions and with such corrections as the +altered form of publication required or allowed. + +As the Papers appeared from week to week, I had to thank many +correspondents (mostly complete strangers to myself) for useful +suggestions and inquiries; and I would again invite any further +suggestions or remarks, especially in the way of correction of any +mistakes or omissions that I may have made, and I should feel thankful +to any one that would kindly do me this favour. + +In republishing the Papers, I have been very doubtful whether I ought +not to have rejected the cultural remarks on several of the plants, +which I had added with a special reference to the horticultural +character of "The Garden" newspaper. But I decided to retain them, on +finding that they interested some readers, by whom the literary and +Shakespearean notices were less valued. + +The weekly preparation of the Papers was a very pleasant study to +myself, and introduced me to much literary and horticultural information +of which I was previously ignorant. In republishing them I hope that +some of my readers may meet with equal pleasure, and with some little +information that may be new to them. + + H. N. E. + + BITTON VICARAGE, GLOUCESTERSHIRE, + _May, 1878_. + + + + +INTRODUCTION. + + +All the commentators on Shakespeare are agreed upon one point, that he +was the most wonderfully many-sided writer that the world has yet seen. +Every art and science are more or less noticed by him, so far as they +were known in his day; every business and profession are more or less +accurately described; and so it has come to pass that, though the main +circumstances of his life are pretty well known, yet the students of +every art and science, and the members of every business and profession, +have delighted to claim him as their fellow-labourer. Books have been +written at various times by various writers, which have proved (to the +complete satisfaction of the writers) that he was a soldier,[1:1] a +sailor, a lawyer,[1:2] an astronomer, a physician,[1:3] a divine,[1:4] a +printer,[1:5] an actor, a courtier, a sportsman, an angler,[2:1] and I +know not what else besides. + +I also propose to claim him as a fellow-labourer. A lover of flowers and +gardening myself, I claim Shakespeare as equally a lover of flowers and +gardening; and this I propose to prove by showing how, in all his +writings, he exhibits his strong love for flowers, and a very fair, +though not perhaps a very deep, knowledge of plants; but I do not intend +to go further. That he was a lover of plants I shall have no difficulty +in showing; but I do not, therefore, believe that he was a professed +gardener, and I am quite sure he can in no sense be claimed as a +botanist, in the scientific sense of the term. His knowledge of plants +was simply the knowledge that every man may have who goes through the +world with his eyes open to the many beauties of Nature that surround +him, and who does not content himself with simply looking, and then +passing on, but tries to find out something of the inner meaning of the +beauties he sees, and to carry away with him some of the lessons which +they were doubtless meant to teach. But Shakespeare was able to go +further than this. He had the great gift of being able to describe what +he saw in a way that few others have arrived at; he could communicate to +others the pleasure that he felt himself, not by long descriptions, but +by a few simple words, a few natural touches, and a few well-chosen +epithets, which bring the plants and flowers before us in the freshest, +and often in a most touching way. + +For this reason the study of the Plant-lore of Shakespeare is a very +pleasant study, and there are other things which add to this pleasure. +One especial pleasure arises from the thoroughly English character of +his descriptions. It has often been observed that wherever the scenes of +his plays are laid, and whatever foreign characters he introduces, yet +they really are all Englishmen of the time of Elizabeth, and the scenes +are all drawn from the England of his day. This is certainly true of the +plants and flowers we meet with in the plays; they are thoroughly +English plants that (with very few exceptions) he saw in the hedgerows +and woods of Warwickshire,[2:2] or in his own or his friends' gardens. +The descriptions are thus thoroughly fresh and real; they tell of the +country and of the outdoor life he loved, and they never smell of the +study lamp. In this respect he differs largely from Milton, whose +descriptions (with very few exceptions) recall the classic and Italian +writers. He differs, too, from his contemporary Spenser, who has +certainly some very sweet descriptions of flowers, which show that he +knew and loved them, but are chiefly allusions to classical flowers, +which he names in such a way as to show that he often did not fully know +what they were, but named them because it was the right thing for a +classical poet so to do. Shakespeare never names a flower or plant +unnecessarily; they all come before us, when they do come, in the most +natural way, as if the particular flower named was the only one that +could be named on that occasion. We have nothing in his writings, for +instance, like the long list of trees described (and in the most +interesting way) in the first canto of the First Book of the "Faerie +Queene," and indeed he is curiously distinct from all his +contemporaries. Chaucer, before him, spoke much of flowers and plants, +and drew them as from the life. In the century after him Herrick may be +named as another who sung of flowers as he saw them; but the real +contemporaries of Shakespeare are, with few exceptions,[3:1] very silent +on the subject. One instance will suffice. Sir Thomas Wyatt's poems are +all professedly about the country--they abound in woods and vales, +shepherds and swains--yet in all his poems there is scarcely a single +allusion to a flower in a really natural way. And because Shakespeare +only introduces flowers in their right place, and in the most purely +natural way, there is one necessary result. I shall show that the number +of flowers he introduces is large, but the number he omits, and which he +must have known, is also very large, and well worth noting.[4:1] He has +no notice, under any name, of such common flowers as the Snowdrop, the +Forget-me-Not, the Foxglove, the Lily of the Valley,[4:2] and many +others which he must have known, but which he has not named; because +when he names a plant or flower, he does so not to show his own +knowledge, but because the particular flower or plant is wanted in the +particular place in which he uses it. + +Another point of interest in the Plant-lore of Shakespeare is the wide +range of his observation. He gathers flowers for us from all sorts of +places--from the "turfy mountains" and the "flat meads;" from the "bosky +acres" and the "unshrubbed down;" from "rose-banks" and "hedges +even-pleached." But he is equally at home in the gardens of the country +gentlemen with their "pleached bowers" and "leafy orchards." Nor is he a +stranger to gardens of a much higher pretension, for he will pick us +famous Strawberries from the garden of my Lord of Ely in Holborn; he +will pick us White and Red Roses from the garden of the Temple; and he +will pick us "Apricocks" from the royal garden of Richard the Second's +sad queen. I propose to follow Shakespeare into these many pleasant +spots, and to pick each flower and note each plant which he has thought +worthy of notice. I do not propose to make a selection of his plants, +for that would not give a proper idea of the extent of his knowledge, +but to note every tree, and plant, and flower that he has noted. And as +I pick each flower, I shall let Shakespeare first tell us all he has to +say about it; in other words, I shall quote every passage in which he +names the plant or flower; for here, again, it would not do to make a +selection from the passages, my object not being to give "floral +extracts," but to let him say all he can in his own choice words. There +is not much difficulty in this, but there is difficulty in determining +how much or how little to quote. On the one hand, it often seems cruel +to cut short a noble passage in the midst of which some favourite flower +is placed; but, on the other hand, to quote at too great a length would +extend the book beyond reasonable limits. The rule, therefore, must be +to confine the quotations within as small a space as possible, only +taking care that the space is not so small as entirely to spoil the +beauty of the description. Then, having listened to all that Shakespeare +has to say on each flower, I shall follow with illustrations (few and +short) from contemporary writers; then with any observations that may +present themselves in the identification of Shakespeare's plant with +their modern representatives, finishing each with anything in the +history or modern uses or cultivation of the plant that I think will +interest readers. + +For the identification of the plants, we have an excellent and +trustworthy guide in John Gerard, who was almost an exact contemporary +of Shakespeare. Gerard's life ranged from 1545 to 1612, and +Shakespeare's from 1564 to 1616. Whether they were acquainted or not we +do not know, but it is certainly not improbable that they were; I should +think it almost certain that they must have known each other's published +works.[5:1] + +My subject naturally divides itself into two parts-- + + First, The actual plants and flowers named by Shakespeare; + Second, His knowledge of gardens and gardening. + +I now go at once to the first division, naming each plant in its +alphabetical order. + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[1:1] "Was Shakespeare ever a Soldier?" by W. J. Thoms, F.S.A., 1865, +8vo. + +[1:2] "Shakespeare's legal acquirements considered in a letter to J. P. +Collier," by John, Lord Campbell, 1859, 12mo. "Shakespeare a Lawyer," by +W. L. Rushton, 1858, 12mo. + +[1:3] "Remarks on the Medical Knowledge of Shakespeare," by J. C. +Bucknill, 1860, 8vo. + +[1:4] Eaton's "Shakespeare and the Bible," 1858, 8vo. + +[1:5] "Shakespere and Typography; being an attempt to show Shakespere's +personal connection with, and technical knowledge of, the Art of +Printing," by William Blades, 1872, 8vo. + +[2:1] "Was Shakespeare an Angler," by H. N. Ellacombe, 1883, 12mo. + +[2:2] "The country around Stratford presents the perfection of quiet +English scenery; it is remarkable for its wealth of lovely wild flowers, +for its deep meadows on each side of the tranquil Avon, and for its +rich, sweet woodlands."--E. DOWDEN'S _Shakespeare in Literature +Primers_, 1877. + +[3:1] The two chief exceptions are Ben Jonson (1574-1637) and William +Browne (1590-1645). Jonson, though born in London, and living there the +greatest part of his life, was evidently a real lover of flowers, and +frequently shows a practical knowledge of them. Browne was also a keen +observer of nature, and I have made several quotations from his +"Britannia's Pastorals." + +[4:1] Perhaps the most noteworthy plant omitted is Tobacco--Shakespeare +must have been well acquainted with it, not only as every one in his day +knew of it, but as a friend and companion of Ben Jonson, he must often +have been in the company of smokers. Ben Jonson has frequent allusions +to it, and almost all the sixteenth-century writers have something to +say about it; but Shakespeare never names the herb, or alludes to it in +any way whatever. + +[4:2] It seems probable that the Lily of the Valley was not recognized +as a British plant in Shakespeare's time, and was very little grown even +in gardens. Turner says, "Ephemer[=u] is called in duch meyblumle, in +french Muguet. It groweth plentuously in Germany, but not in England +that ever I coulde see, savinge in my Lordes gardine at Syon. The +Poticaries in Germany do name it Lilium C[=o]vallium, it may be called +in englishe May Lilies."--_Names of Herbes_, 1548. Coghan in 1596 says +much the same: "I say nothing of them because they are not usuall in +gardens."--_Haven of Health._ + +[5:1] I may mention the following works as more or less illustrating the +Plant-lore of Shakespeare:-- + + 1.--"Shakspere's Garden," by Sidney Beisly, 1864. I have to + thank this author for information on a few points, but on the + whole it is not a satisfactory account of the plants of + Shakespeare, and I have not found it of much use. + + 2.--"Flowers from Stratford-on-Avon," and + + 3.--"Girard's Flowers of Shakespeare and of Milton," 2 vols. + These two works are pretty drawing-room books, and do not + profess to be more. + + 4.--"Natural History of Shakespeare, being Selections of + Flowers, Fruits, and Animals," arranged by Bessie Mayou, 1877. + This gives the greater number of the passages in which flowers + are named, without any note or comment. + + 5.--"Shakespeare's Bouquet--the Flowers and Plants of + Shakespeare," Paisley, 1872. This is only a small pamphlet. + + 6.--"The Rural Life of Shakespeare, as illustrated by his + Works," by J. C. Roach Smith, 8vo, London, 1870. A pleasant + but short pamphlet. + + 7.--"A Brief Guide to the Gardens of Shakespeare," 1863, 12mo, + 12 pages, and + + 8.--"Shakespeare's Home and Rural Life," by James Walter, with + Illustrations. 1874, folio. These two works are rather + topographical guides than accounts of the flowers of + Shakespeare. + + 9.--"The Flowers of Shakespeare," depicted by Viola, coloured + plates, 4to, 1882. A drawing-room book of little merit. + + 10.--"The Shakspere Flora," by Leo H. Grindon, 12mo, 1883. A + collection of very pleasant essays on the poetry of + Shakespeare, and his knowledge of flowers. + + + + +PART I. + +_THE PLANT-LORE OF SHAKESPEARE._ + + + _Perdita._ Here's flowers for you. + + _Winter's Tale_, act iv, sc. 4. + + + _Duke._ Away before me to sweet beds of flowers. + + _Twelfth Night_, act i, sc. 1. + + + + +ACONITUM. + + + _K. Henry._ + + The united vessel of their blood, + Mingled with venom of suggestion-- + As, force perforce, the age will pour it in-- + Shall never leak, though it do work as strong + As Aconitum or rash gunpowder. + + _2nd King Henry IV_, act iv, sc. 4 (44). + +There is another place in which it is probable that Shakespeare alludes +to the Aconite; he does not name it, but he compares the effects of the +poison to gunpowder, as in the passage above. + + _Romeo._ + + Let me have + A dram of poison, such soon-speeding gear + As will disperse itself through all the veins, + That the life-weary taker may fall dead + And that the trunk may be discharged of breath + As violently as hasty powder fired + Doth hurry from the fatal cannon's womb. + + _Romeo and Juliet_, act v, sc. 1 (59). + +The plant here named as being as powerful in its action as gunpowder is +the Aconitum Napellus (the Wolf's bane or Monk's-hood). It is a member +of a large family, all of which are more or less poisonous, and the +common Monk's-hood as much so as any. Two species are found in America, +but, for the most part, the family is confined to the northern portion +of the Eastern Hemisphere, ranging from the Himalaya through Europe to +Great Britain. It is now found wild in a few parts of England, but it is +certainly not indigenous; it was, however, very early introduced into +England, being found in all the English vocabularies of plants from the +tenth century downwards, and frequently mentioned in the early English +medical recipes. + +Its names are all interesting. In the Anglo-Saxon Vocabularies it is +called _thung_, which, however, seems to have been a general name for +any very poisonous plant;[10:1] it was then called Aconite, as the +English form of its Greek and Latin name, but this name is now seldom +used, being, by a curious perversion, solely given to the pretty little +early-flowering Winter Aconite (_Eranthis hyemalis_), which is not a +true Aconite, though closely allied; it then got the name of +Wolf's-bane, as the direct translation of the Greek _lycoctonum_, a name +which it had from the idea that arrows tipped with the juice, or baits +anointed with it, would kill wolves and other vermin; and, lastly, it +got the expressive names of Monk's-hood[10:2] and the Helmet-flower, +from the curious shape of the upper sepal overtopping the rest of the +flower. + +As to its poisonous qualities, all authors agree that every species of +the family is very poisonous, the A. ferox of the Himalaya being +probably the most so. Every part of the plant, from the root to the +pollen dust, seems to be equally powerful, and it has the special bad +quality of being, to inexperienced eyes, so like some harmless plant, +that the poison has been often taken by mistake with deadly results. +This charge against the plant is of long standing, dating certainly from +the time of Virgil--_miseros fallunt aconita legentes_--and, no doubt, +from much before his time. As it was a common belief that poisons were +antidotes against other poisons, the Aconite was supposed to be an +antidote against the most deadly one-- + + "I have heard that Aconite + Being timely taken hath a healing might + Against the scorpion's stroke." + + BEN JONSON, _Sejanus_, act iii, sc. 3. + +Yet, in spite of its poisonous qualities, the plant has always held, and +deservedly, a place among the ornamental plants of our gardens; its +stately habit and its handsome leaves and flowers make it a favourite. +Nearly all the species are worth growing, the best, perhaps, being A. +Napellus, both white and blue, A. paniculatum, A. japonicum, and A. +autumnale. All the species grow well in shade and under trees. In +Shakespeare's time Gerard grew in his London garden four species--A. +lycoctonum, A. variegatum, A. Napellus, and A. Pyrenaicum. + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[10:1] "_Aconita_, thung." AElfric's "Vocabulary," 10th century. + +"_Aconitum_, thung." Anglo-Saxon Vocabulary, 11th century. + +"_Aconita_, thung." "Durham Glossary of the names of Worts," 11th +century. + +The ancient Vocabularies and Glossaries, to which I shall frequently +refer, are printed in + +I. Wright's "Volume of Vocabularies," 1857. + +II. "Leechdoms, Wortcunning, and Starcraft of Early England," by Rev. O. +Cockayne, published under the direction of the Master of the Rolls, 3 +vols., 1866. + +III. "Promptorium Parvulorum," edited by Albert Way, and published by +the Camden Society, 3 vols., 1843-65. + +IV. "Catholicon Anglicum," edited by S. J. Hertage, and published by the +Early English Text Society, 1881, and by the Camden Society, 1882. + +[10:2] This was certainly its name in Shakespeare's time-- + + "And with the Flower Monk's-hood makes a coole." + + CUTWODE, _Caltha Poetarum_, 1599 (st. 117). + + + + +ACORN, _see_ OAK. + + + + +ALMOND. + + + _Thersites._ + + The parrot will not do more for an Almond. + + _Troilus and Cressida_, act v, sc. 2 (193). + +"An Almond for a parrot" seems to have been a proverb for the greatest +temptation that could be put before a man. The Almond tree is a native +of Asia and North Africa, but it was very early introduced into England, +probably by the Romans. It occurs in the Anglo-Saxon lists of plants, +and in the "Durham Glossary" (11th century) it has the name of the +"Easterne nutte-beam." The tree was always a favourite both for the +beauty of its flowers, which come very early in the year, and for its +Biblical associations, so that in Shakespeare's time the trees were "in +our London gardens and orchards in great plenty" (Gerard). Before +Shakespeare's time, Spenser had sung its praises thus-- + + "Like to an Almond tree ymounted hye + On top of greene Selinis all alone + With blossoms brave bedecked daintily; + Whose tender locks do tremble every one + At everie little breath that under Heaven is blowne." + + _F. Q._, i. 7, 32. + +The older English name seems to have been Almande-- + + "And Almandres gret plente," + + _Romaunt of the Rose_; + + + "Noyz de l'almande, nux Phyllidis," + + ALEXANDER NECKAM; + +and both this old name and its more modern form of Almond came to us +through the French _amande_ (Provencal, _amondala_), from the Greek and +Latin _amygdalus_. What this word meant is not very clear, but the +native Hebrew name of the plant (_shaked_) is most expressive. The word +signifies "awakening," and so is a most fitting name for a tree whose +beautiful flowers, appearing in Palestine in January, show the wakening +up of Creation. The fruit also has always been a special favourite, and +though it is strongly imbued with prussic acid, it is considered a +wholesome fruit. By the old writers many wonderful virtues were +attributed to the fruit, but I am afraid it was chiefly valued for its +supposed virtue, that "five or six being taken fasting do keepe a man +from being drunke" (Gerard).[12:1] This popular error is not yet +extinct. + +As an ornamental tree the Almond should be in every shrubbery, and, as +in Gerard's time, it may still be planted in town gardens with +advantage. There are several varieties of the common Almond, differing +slightly in the colour and size of the flowers; and there is one little +shrub (Amygdalus nana) of the family that is very pretty in the front +row of a shrubbery. All the species are deciduous. + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[12:1] "Plutarch mentions a great drinker of wine who, by the use of +bitter almonds, used to escape being intoxicated."--_Flora Domestica_, +p. 6. + + + + +ALOES. + + + And sweetens, in the suffering pangs it bears, + The Aloes of all forces, shocks, and fears. + + _A Lover's Complaint_, st. 39. + +Aloes have the peculiarity that they are the emblems of the most intense +bitterness and of the richest and most costly fragrance. In the Bible +Aloes are mentioned five times, and always with reference to their +excellence and costliness.[13:1] Juvenal speaks of it only as a bitter-- + + "Animo corrupta superbo + Plus Aloes quam mellis habet" (vi. 180). + +Pliny describes it very minutely, and says, "Strong it is to smell unto, +and bitter to taste" (xxvii. 4, Holland's translation). Our old English +writers spoke of it under both aspects. It occurs in several recipes of +the Anglo-Saxon Leechdoms, as a strong and bitter purgative. Chaucer +notices its bitterness only-- + + "The woful teres that they leten falle + As bittre weren, out of teres kynde, + For peyne, as is ligne Aloes or galle." + + _Troilus and Cryseide_, st. 159. + +But the author of the "Remedie of Love," formerly attributed to Chaucer, +says-- + + "My chambre is strowed with myrrhe and incense + With sote savouring Aloes and sinnamone, + Breathing an aromaticke redolence." + +Shakespeare only mentions the bitter quality. + +The two qualities are derived from two very different plants. The +fragrant ointment is the product of an Indian shrub, Aquilaria +agallochum; and the bitter purgative is from the true Aloes, A. +Socotrina, A. vulgaris, and others. These plants were well known in +Shakespeare's time, and were grown in England. Turner and Gerard +describe them as the Sea Houseleek; and Gerard tells us that they were +grown as vegetable curiosities, for "the herbe is alwaies greene, and +likewise sendeth forth branches, though it remaine out of the earth, +especially if the root be covered with lome, and now and then watered; +for so being hanged on the seelings and upper posts of dining-roomes, it +will not onely continue a long time greene, but it also groweth and +bringeth forth new leaves."[14:1] + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[13:1] Numbers xxiv. 6; Psalms xlv. 8; Proverbs vii. 17; Canticles iv. +14; John xix. 39. + +[14:1] In the emblems of Camerarius (No. 92) is a picture of a room with +an Aloe suspended. + + + + +ANEMONE. + + + By this, the boy that by her side lay kill'd + Was melted like a vapour from her sight, + And in his blood that on the ground lay spill'd, + A purple flower sprung up chequer'd with white. + Resembling well his pale cheeks, and the blood + Which in round drops upon their whiteness stood. + + _Venus and Adonis_ (1165). + +Shakespeare does not actually name the Anemone, and I place this passage +under that name with some doubt, but I do not know any other flower to +which he could be referring. + +The original legend of the Anemone as given by Bion was that it sprung +from the tears of Venus, while the Rose sprung from Adonis' blood-- + + +aima rodon tiktei, ta de dakrya tan anemonan.+ + + _Bion Idyll_, i, 66. + + + "Wide as her lover's torrent blood appears + So copious flowed the fountain of her tears; + The Rose starts blushing from the sanguine dyes, + And from her tears Anemones arise." + + POLWHELE'S _Translation_, 1786. + +But this legend was not followed by the other classical writers, who +made the Anemone to be the flower of Adonis. Theocritus compares the +Dog-rose (so called also in his day, +kynosbatos+) and the Anemone with +the Rose, and the Scholia comment on the passage thus--"Anemone, a +scentless flower, which they report to have sprung from the blood of +Adonis; and again Nicander says that the Anemone sprung from the blood +of Adonis." + +The storehouse of our ancestors' pagan mythology was in Ovid, and his +well-known lines are-- + + "Cum flos e sanguine concolor ortus + Qualem, quae; lento celant sub cortice granum + Punica ferre solent; brevis est tamen usus in illis, + Namque male haerentem, et nimia brevitate caducum + Excutiunt idem qui praestant nomina, venti,"-- + +Thus translated by Golding in 1567, from whom it is very probable that +Shakespeare obtained his information-- + + "Of all one colour with the bloud, a flower she there did find, + Even like the flower of that same tree, whose fruit in tender rind + Have pleasant graines enclosede--howbeit the use of them is short, + For why, the leaves do hang so loose through lightnesse in such + sort, + As that the windes that all things pierce[15:1] with everie little + blast + Do shake them off and shed them so as long they cannot last."[15:2] + +I feel sure that Shakespeare had some particular flower in view. Spenser +only speaks of it as a flower, and gives no description-- + + "In which with cunning hand was pourtrahed + The love of Venus and her Paramoure, + The fayre Adonis, turned to a flowre." + + _F. Q._, iii, 1, 34. + + + "When she saw no help might him restore + Him to a dainty flowre she did transmew." + + _F. Q._, iii, 1, 38. + +Ben Jonson similarly speaks of it as "Adonis' flower" (Pan's +Anniversary), but with Shakespeare it is different; he describes the +flower minutely, and as if it were a well-known flower, "purple +chequered with white," and considering that in his day Anemone was +supposed to be Adonis' flower (as it was described in 1647 by Alexander +Ross in his "Mystagogus Poeticus," who says that Adonis "was by Venus +turned into a red flower called Anemone"), and as I wish, if possible, +to link the description to some special flower, I conclude that the +evidence is in favour of the Anemone. Gerard's Anemone was certainly the +same as ours, and the "purple" colour is no objection, for "purple" in +Shakespeare's time had a very wide signification, meaning almost any +bright colour, just as _purpureus_ had in Latin,[16:1] which had so wide +a range that it was used on the one hand as the epithet of the blood and +the poppy, and on the other as the epithet of the swan ("purpureis ales +oloribus," Horace) and of a woman's white arms ("brachia purpurea +candidiora nive," Albinovanus). Nor was "chequered" confined to square +divisions, as it usually is now, but included spots of any size or +shape. + +We have transferred the Greek name of Anemone to the English language, +and we have further kept the Greek idea in the English form of +"wind-flower." The name is explained by Pliny: "The flower hath the +propertie to open but when the wind doth blow, wherefore it took the +name Anemone in Greeke" ("Nat. Hist." xxi. 11, Holland's translation). +This, however, is not the character of the Anemone as grown in English +gardens; and so it is probable that the name has been transferred to a +different plant than the classical one, and I think no suggestion more +probable than Dr. Prior's that the classical Anemone was the Cistus, a +shrub that is very abundant in the South of Europe; that certainly opens +its flowers at other times than when the wind blows, and so will not +well answer to Pliny's description, but of which the flowers are +bright-coloured and most fugacious, and so will answer to Ovid's +description. This fugacious character of the Anemone is perpetuated in +Sir William Jones' lines ("Poet. Works," i, 254, ed. 1810)-- + + "Youth, like a thin Anemone, displays + His silken leaf, and in a morn decays;" + +but the lines, though classical, are not true of the Anemone, though +they would well apply to the Cistus.[17:1] + +Our English Anemones belong to a large family inhabiting cold and +temperate regions, and numbering seventy species, of which three are +British.[17:2] These are A. Nemorosa, the common wood Anemone, the +brightest spring ornament of our woods; A. Apennina, abundant in the +South of Europe, and a doubtful British plant; and A. pulsatilla, the +Passe, or Pasque flower, _i.e._, the flower of Easter, one of the most +beautiful of our British flowers, but only to be found on the chalk +formation. + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[15:1] Golding evidently adopted the reading "qui perflant omnia," +instead of the reading now generally received, "qui praestant nomina." + +[15:2] Gerard thought that Ovid's Anemone was the Venice +Mallow--_Hibiscus trionum_--a handsome annual from the South of Europe. + +[16:1] In the "Nineteenth Century" for October, 1877, is an interesting +article by Mr. Gladstone on the "colour-sense" in Homer, proving that +Homer, and all nations in the earlier stages of their existence, have a +very limited perception of colour, and a very limited and loosely +applied nomenclature of colours. The same remark would certainly apply +to the early English writers, not excluding Shakespeare. + +[17:1] Mr. Leo Grindon also identifies the classical Anemone with the +Cistus. See a good account of it in "Gardener's Chronicle," June 3, +1876. + +[17:2] The small yellow A. ranunculoides has been sometimes included +among the British Anemones, but is now excluded. It is a rare plant, and +an alien. + + + + +APPLE. + + + (1) _Sebastian._ + + I think he will carry this island home and give it his son for + an Apple. + + _Tempest_, act ii, sc. 1 (91). + + + (2) _Malvolio._ + + Not yet old enough for a man, nor young enough for a boy; as a + Squash is before 'tis a Peascod, or a Codling when 'tis + almost an Apple. + + _Twelfth Night_, act i, sc. 5 (165). + + + (3) _Antonio._ + + An Apple, cleft in two, is not more twin + Than these two creatures. + + _Ibid._, act 5, sc. 1 (230). + + + (4) _Antonio._ + + An evil soul producing holy witness + Is like a villain with a smiling cheek, + A goodly Apple rotten at the heart. + + _Merchant of Venice_, act i, sc. 3 (100). + + + (5) _Tranio._ + + He in countenance somewhat doth resemble you. + + _Biondello._ + + As much as an Apple doth an oyster, and all one. + + _Taming of the Shrew_, act iv, sc. 2 (100). + + + (6) _Orleans._ + + Foolish curs, that run winking into the mouth of a Russian + bear, and have their heads crushed like rotten Apples. + + _Henry V_, act iii, sc. 7 (153). + + + (7) _Hortensio._ + + Faith, as you say, there's small choice in rotten Apples. + + _Taming of the Shrew_, act i, sc. 1 (138). + + + (8) _Porter._ + + These are the youths that thunder at a playhouse, and fight + for bitten Apples. + + _Henry VIII_, act v, sc. 4 (63). + + + (9) _Song of Winter._ + + When roasted Crabs hiss in the bowl, + Then nightly sings the staring owl. + + _Love's Labour's Lost_, act v, sc. 2 (935). + + + (10) _Puck._ + + And sometime lurk I in a gossip's bowl + In very likeness of a roasted Crab; + And when she drinks, against her lips I bob, + And on her wither'd dewlap pour the ale. + + _Midsummer Night's Dream_, act ii, sc. 1 (47). + + + (11) _Fool._ + + Shal't see thy other daughter will use thee kindly; for though + she's as like this as a Crab's like an Apple, yet I can tell + what I can tell. + + _Lear._ + + Why, what can'st thou tell, my boy? + + _Fool._ + + She will taste as like this as a Crab does to a Crab. + + _King Lear_, act i, sc. 5 (14). + + + (12) _Caliban._ + + I prithee, let me bring thee where Crabs grow. + + _Tempest_, act ii, sc. 2 (171). + + + (13) _Petruchio._ + + Nay, come, Kate, come, you must not look so sour. + + _Katherine._ + + It is my fashion, when I see a Crab. + + _Petruchio._ + + Why, here's no Crab, and therefore look not sour. + + _Taming of the Shrew_, act ii, sc. 1 (229). + + + (14) _Menonius._ + + We have some old Crab-trees here at home that will not + Be grafted to your relish. + + _Coriolanus_, act ii, sc. 1 (205). + + + (15) _Suffolk._ + + Noble stock + Was graft with Crab-tree slip. + + _2nd Henry VI_, act iii, sc. 2 (213). + + + (16) _Porter._ + + Fetch me a dozen Crab-tree staves, and strong ones. + + _Henry VIII_, act v, sc. 4 (7). + + + (17) _Falstaff._ + + My skin hangs about me like an old lady's loose gown; I am + withered like an old Apple-john. + + _1st Henry IV_, act iii, sc. 3 (3). + + + (18) _1st Drawer._ + + What the devil hast thou brought there? Apple-johns? Thou + knowest Sir John cannot endure an Apple-john. + + _2nd Drawer._ + + Mass! thou sayest true; the prince once set a dish of + Apple-johns before him, and told him there were five more + Sir Johns; and putting off his hat, said, I will now take my + leave of these six dry, round, old, withered knights. + + _2nd Henry IV_, act ii, sc. 4 (1). + + + (19) _Shallow._ + + Nay, you shall see my orchard, where, in an arbour, we will + eat a last year's Pippin of my own graffing, with a dish of + Caraways, and so forth. + + * * * * * + + _Davey._ + + There's a dish of Leather-coats for you. + + _Ibid._, act v, sc. 3 (1, 44). + + + (20) _Evans._ + + I pray you be gone; I will make an end of my dinner. There's + Pippins and cheese to come. + + _Merry Wives of Windsor_, act i, sc. 2 (11). + + + (21) _Holofernes._ + + The deer was, as you know, _sanguis_, in blood; ripe as the + Pomewater, who now hangeth like a jewel in the ear of + _coelo_--the sky, the welkin, the heaven; and anon falleth + like a Crab on the face of _terra_--the soil, the land, the + earth. + + _Love's Labour's Lost_, act iv, sc. 2 (3). + + + (22) _Mercutio._ + + Thy wit is a very Bitter Sweeting; it is a most sharp sauce. + + _Romeo._ + + And is it not well served in to a sweet goose? + + _Romeo and Juliet_, act ii, sc. 4 (83). + + + (23) _Petruchio._ + + What's this? A sleeve? 'Tis like a demi-cannon. + What! up and down, carved like an Apple-tart? + + _Taming of the Shrew_, act iv, sc. 3 (88). + + + (24) + + How like Eve's Apple doth thy beauty grow, + If thy sweet virtue answer not thy show! + + _Sonnet_ xciii. + +Here Shakespeare names the Apple, the Crab, the Pippin, the Pomewater, +the Apple-john, the Codling, the Caraway, the Leathercoat, and the +Bitter-Sweeting. Of the Apple generally I need say nothing, except to +notice that the name was not originally confined to the fruit now so +called, but was a generic name applied to any fruit, as we still speak +of the Love-apple, the Pine-apple,[20:1] &c. The Anglo-Saxon name for +the Blackberry was the Bramble-apple; and Sir John Mandeville, in +describing the Cedars of Lebanon, says: "And upon the hills growen Trees +of Cedre, that ben fulle hye, and they beren longe Apples, and als grete +as a man's heved"[20:2] (cap. ix.). In the English Bible it is the same. +The Apple is mentioned in a few places, but it is almost certain that it +never means the Pyrus malus, but is either the Orange, Citron, or +Quince, or is a general name for a tree fruit. So that when Shakespeare +(24) and the other old writers speak of Eve's Apple, they do not +necessarily assert that the fruit of the temptation was our Apple, but +simply that it was some fruit that grew in Eden. The Apple (_pomum_) has +left its mark in the language in the word "pomatum," which, originally +an ointment made of Apples, is now an ointment in which Apples have no +part. + +The Crab was held in far more esteem in the sixteenth century than it is +with us. The roasted fruit served with hot ale (9 and 10) was a +favourite Christmas dish, and even without ale the roasted Crab was a +favourite, and this not for want of better fruit, for Gerard tells us +that in his time "the stocke or kindred of Apples was infinite," but +because they were considered pleasant food.[20:3] Another curious use of +Crabs is told in the description of Crab-wake, or "Crabbing the Parson," +at Halesowen, Salop, on St. Kenelm's Day (July 17), in Brand's "Popular +Antiquities" (vol. i. p. 342, Bohn's edition). Nor may we now despise +the Crab tree, though we do not eat its fruit. Among our native trees +there is none more beautiful than the Crab tree, both in flower and in +fruit. An old Crab tree in full flower is a sight that will delight any +artist, nor is it altogether useless; its wood is very hard and very +lasting, and from its fruit verjuice is made, not, however, much in +England, as I believe nearly all the verjuice now used is made in +France. + +The Pippin, from being originally a general name for any Apple raised +from pips and not from grafts, is now, and probably was in Shakespeare's +time, confined to the bright-coloured, long-keeping Apples (Justice +Shallow's was "last year's Pippin"), of which the Golden Pippin ("the +Pippin burnished o'er with gold," Phillips) is the type. + +The Bitter-Sweeting (22) was an old and apparently a favourite Apple. It +is frequently mentioned in the old writers, as by Gower, "Conf. Aman." +viii. 174-- + + "For all such time of love is lore, + And like unto the Bitter-swete,[21:1] + For though it think a man fyrst swete + He shall well felen at laste + That it is sower." + +By Chaucer-- + + "Yet of that art they conne nought wexe sadde, + For unto hem it is a Bitter Swete." + + _Prologue of the Chanoune's Yeman._ + +And by Ben Jonson-- + + "That love's a Bitter-sweet I ne'er conceive + Till the sour minute comes of taking leave, + And then I taste it."[21:2] + + _Underwoods._ + +Parkinson names it in his list of Apples, but soon dismisses it--"Twenty +sorts of Sweetings, and none good." The name is now given to an Apple of +no great value as a table fruit, but good as a cider apple, and for use +in silk dyeing. + +It is not easy to identify the Pomewater (21). It was highly esteemed +both by Shakespeare ("it hangeth like a jewel in the ear of _coelo_") +and many other writers. In Gerard's figure it looks like a Codling, and +its Latin name is _Malus carbonaria_, which probably refers to its good +qualities as a roasting Apple. The name Pomewater (or Water Apple) makes +us expect a juicy but not a rich Apple, and with this agrees Parkinson's +description: "The Pomewater is an excellent, good, and great whitish +Apple, full of sap or moisture, somewhat pleasant sharp, but a little +bitter withall; it will not last long, the winter frosts soon causing it +to rot and perish." It must have been very like the modern Lord Suffield +Apple, and though Parkinson says it will not last long, yet it is +mentioned as lasting till the New Year in a tract entitled "Vox +Graculi," 1623. Speaking of New Year's Day, the author says: "This day +shall be given many more gifts than shall be asked for; and apples, +egges, and oranges shall be lifted to a lofty rate; when a Pomewater +bestuck with a few rotten cloves shall be worth more than the honesty of +a hypocrite" (quoted by Brand, vol. i. 17, Bohn's edition). + +We have no such difficulty with the "dish of Apple-johns" (17 and 18). +Hakluyt recommends "the Apple John that dureth two years to make show of +our fruit" to be carried by voyagers.[22:1] "The Deusan (_deux ans_) or +Apple-john," says Parkinson, "is a delicate fine fruit, well rellished +when it beginneth to be fit to be eaten, and endureth good longer than +any other Apple." With this description there is no difficulty in +identifying the Apple-john with an Apple that goes under many names, and +is figured by Maund as the Easter Pippin. When first picked it is of a +deep green colour, and very hard. In this state it remains all the +winter, and in April or May it becomes yellow and highly perfumed, and +remains good either for cooking or dessert for many months. + +The Codling (2) is not the Apple now so called, but is the general name +of a young unripe Apple. + +The "Leathercoats" (19) are the Brown Russets; and though the "dish of +Caraways" in the same passage may refer to the Caraway or Caraway-russet +Apple, an excellent little apple, that seems to be a variety of the +Nonpareil, and has long been cultivated in England, yet it is almost +certain that it means a dish of Caraway Seeds. (_See_ CARRAWAYS.) + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[20:1] See PINE, p. 208. + +[20:2] "A peche appulle." "The appulys of a peche tre."--_Porkington +MSS. in Early English Miscellany._ (Published by Warton Club.) + +[20:3] "As for Wildings and Crabs . . . their tast is well enough liked, +and they carrie with them a quicke and a sharp smell; howbeit this gift +they have for their harsh sournesse, that they have many a foule word +and shrewd curse given them."--PHILEMON HOLLAND'S _Pliny_, book xv. c. +14. + +[21:1] "Amor et melle et felle est fecundissimus."--PLAUTUS. + +[21:2] Juliet describes leave-taking in almost the same words--"Parting +is such _sweet sorrow_." + +[22:1] "Voyages," 1580, p. 466. + + + + +APRICOTS. + + + (1) _Titania._ + + Be kind and courteous to this gentleman; + Hop in his walks, and gambol in his eyes; + Feed him with Apricocks and Dewberries, + With purple Grapes, green Figs, and Mulberries. + + _Midsummer Night's Dream_, act iii, sc. 1 (167). + + + (2) _Gardener._ + + Go, bind thou up yon dangling Apricocks, + Which, like unruly children, make their sire + Stoop with oppression of their prodigal weight. + + _Richard II_, act iii, sc. 4 (29). + + + (3) _Palamon._ + + Would I were, + For all the fortunes of my life hereafter, + Yon little tree, yon blooming Apricocke; + How I would spread and fling my wanton armes + In at her window! I would bring her fruit + Fit for the gods to feed on. + + _Two Noble Kinsmen_, act ii, sc. 2 (291). + +Shakespeare's spelling of the word "Apricocks" takes us at once to its +derivation. It is derived undoubtedly from the Latin _praecox or +praecoquus_, under which name it is referred to by Pliny and Martial; +but, before it became the English Apricot it was much changed by +Italians, Spaniards, French, and Arabians. The history of the name is +very curious and interesting, but too long to give fully here; a very +good account of it may be found in Miller and in "Notes and Queries," +vol. ii. p. 420 (1850). It will be sufficient to say here that it +acquired its name of "the precocious tree," because it flowered and +fruited earlier than the Peach, as explained in Lyte's "Herbal," 1578: +"There be two kinds of Peaches, whereof the one kinde is late ripe, +. . . the other kinds are soner ripe, wherefore they be called Abrecox +or Aprecox." Of its introduction into England we have no very certain +account. It was certainly grown in England before Turner's time (1548), +though he says, "We have very few of these trees as yet;"[23:1] but the +only account of its introduction is by Hakluyt, who states that it was +brought from Italy by one Wolf, gardener to King Henry the Eighth. If +that be its true history, Shakespeare was in error in putting it into +the garden of the queen of Richard the Second, nearly a hundred years +before its introduction.[24:1] + +In Shakespeare's time the Apricot seems to have been grown as a +standard; I gather this from the description in Nos. 2 (see the entire +passage s.v. "Pruning" in Part II.) and 3, and from the following in +Browne's "Britannia's Pastorals"-- + + "Or if from where he is[24:2] he do espy + Some Apricot upon a bough thereby + Which overhangs the tree on which he stands, + Climbs up, and strives to take them with his hands." + + Book ii. Song 4. + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[23:1] "Names of Herbes," s.v. Malus Armeniaca. + +[24:1] The Apricot has usually been supposed to have come from Armenia, +but there is now little doubt that its original country is the Himalaya +(M. Lavaillee). + +[24:2] On a Cherry tree in an orchard. + + + + +ASH. + + + _Aufidius._ + + Let me twine + Mine arms about that body, where against + My grained Ash an hundred times hath broke, + And starr'd the moon with splinters. + + _Coriolanus_, act iv, sc. 5 (112). + +Warwickshire is more celebrated for its Oaks and Elms than for its Ash +trees. Yet considering how common a tree the Ash is, and in what high +estimation it was held by our ancestors, it is strange that it is only +mentioned in this one passage. Spenser spoke of it as "the Ash for +nothing ill;" it was "the husbandman's tree," from which he got the wood +for his agricultural implements; and there was connected with it a great +amount of mystic folk-lore, which was carried to its extreme limit in +the Yggdrasil, or legendary Ash of Scandinavia, which was almost looked +upon as the parent of Creation: a full account of this may be found in +Mallet's "Northern Antiquities" and other works on Scandinavia. It is an +English native tree,[24:3] and it adds much to the beauty of any +English landscape in which it is allowed to grow. It gives its name to +many places, especially in the South, as Ashdown, Ashstead, Ashford, +&c.; but to see it in its full beauty it must be seen in our northern +counties, though the finest in England is said to be at Woburn. + + "The Oak, the Ash, and the Ivy tree, + O, they flourished best at hame, in the north countrie." + + _Old Ballad._ + +In the dales of Yorkshire it is especially beautiful, and any one who +sees the fine old trees in Wharfdale and Wensleydale will confess that, +though it may not have the rich luxuriance of the Oaks and Elms of the +southern and midland counties, yet it has a grace and beauty that are +all its own, so that we scarcely wonder that Gilpin called it "the Venus +of the woods." + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[24:3] It is called in the "Promptorium Parvulorum" "Esche," and the +seed vessels "Esche key." + + + + +ASPEN. + + + (1) _Marcus._ + + O, had the monster seen those lily hands + Tremble, like Aspen leaves, upon a lute. + + _Titus Andronicus_, act 2, sc. 4 (44). + + + (2) _Hostess._ + + Feel, masters, how I shake. . . . . Yea, in very truth do I an + 'twere an Aspen leaf. + + _2nd Henry IV_, act ii, sc. 4 (114). + +The Aspen or Aspe[25:1] (_Populus tremula_) is one of our three native +Poplars, and has ever been the emblem of enforced restlessness, on +account of which it had in Anglo-Saxon times the expressive name of +quick-beam. How this perpetual motion in the "light quivering Aspen" is +produced has not been quite satisfactorily explained; and the mediaeval +legend that it supplied the wood of the Cross, and has never since +ceased to tremble, is still told as a sufficient reason both in Scotland +and England. + + "Oh! a cause more deep, + More solemn far the rustic doth assign, + To the strange restlessness of those wan leaves; + The cross, he deems, the blessed cross, whereon + The meek Redeemer bowed His head to death, + Was formed of Aspen wood; and since that hour + Through all its race the pale tree hath sent down + A thrilling consciousness, a secret awe, + Making them tremulous, when not a breeze + Disturbs the airy thistle-down, or shakes + The light lines of the shining gossamer." + + MRS. HEMANS. + +The Aspen has an interesting botanical history, as being undoubtedly, +like the Scotch fir, one of the primaeval trees of Europe; while its grey +bark and leaves and its pleasant rustling sound make the tree acceptable +in our hedgerows, but otherwise it is not a tree of much use. In +Spenser's time it was considered "good for staves;" and before his time +the tree must have been more valued than it is now, for in the reign of +Henry V. an Act of Parliament was passed (4 Henry V. c. 3) to prevent +the consumption of Aspe, otherwise than for the making of arrows, with a +penalty of an Hundred Shillings if used for making pattens or clogs. +This Act remained in force till the reign of James I., when it was +repealed. In our own time the wood is valued for internal panelling of +rooms, and is used in the manufacture of gunpowder. + +By the older writers the Aspen was the favourite simile for female +loquacity. The rude libel is given at full length in "The Schoole-house +of Women" (511-545), concluding thus-- + + "The Aspin lefe hanging where it be, + With little winde or none it shaketh; + A woman's tung in like wise taketh + Little ease and little rest; + For if it should the hart would brest." + + HAZLITT'S _Popular English Poetry_, vol. iv, p. 126. + +And to the same effect Gerard concludes his account of the tree thus: +"In English Aspe and Aspen tree, and may also be called Tremble, after +the French name, considering it is the matter whereof women's tongues +were made (as the poets and some others report), which seldom cease +wagging." + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[25:1] "Espe" in "Promptorium Parvulorum." "Aspen" is the case-ending of +"Aspe." + + + + +BACHELOR'S BUTTON. + + + _Hostess._ + + What say you to young Master Fenton? he capers, he dances, he + has eyes of youth, he writes verses, he speaks holiday, he + smells April and May; he will carry't, he will carry't; 'tis + in his Buttons; he will carry't. + + _Merry Wives_, act iii, sc. 2 (67). + +"Though the Bachelor's Button is not exactly named by Shakespeare, it is +believed to be alluded to in this passage; and the supposed allusion is +to a rustic divination by means of the flowers, carried in the pocket by +men and under the apron by women, as it was supposed to retain or lose +its freshness according to the good or bad success of the bearer's +amatory prospects."[27:1] + +The true Bachelor's Button of the present day is the double Ranunculus +acris, but the name is applied very loosely to almost any small double +globular flowers. In Shakespeare's time it was probably applied still +more loosely to any flowers in bud (according to the derivation from the +French _bouton_). Button is frequently so applied by the old writers-- + + "The more desire had I to goo + Unto the roser where that grewe + The freshe Bothum so bright of hewe. + + * * * * * + + But o thing lyked me right welle; + I was so nygh, I myght fele + Of the Bothom the swote odour + And also see the fresshe colour; + And that right gretly liked me." + + _Romaunt of the Rose._ + +And by Shakespeare-- + + The canker galls the infants of the Spring + Too oft before their Buttons be disclosed. + + _Hamlet_, act i, sc. 3 (54). + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[27:1] Mr. J. Fitchett Marsh, of Hardwicke House, Chepstow, in "The +Garden." I have to thank Mr. Marsh for much information kindly given +both in "The Garden" and by letter. + + + + +BALM, BALSAM, OR BALSAMUM. + + + (1) _K. Richard._ + + Not all the water in the rough rude sea + Can wash the Balm from an anointed king. + + _Richard II_, act iii, sc. 2 (54). + + + (2) _K. Richard._ + + With mine own tears I wash away my Balm. + + _Ibid._, act iv, sc. 1 (207). + + + (3) _K. Henry._ + + 'Tis not the Balm, the sceptre, and the ball. + + _Henry V_, act iv, sc. 1 (277). + + + (4) _K. Henry._ + + Thy place is fill'd, thy sceptre wrung from thee, + Thy Balm wash'd off, wherewith thou wast anointed. + + _3rd Henry VI_, act iii, sc. 1 (16). + + + (5) _K. Henry._ + + My pity hath been Balm to heal their wounds. + + _Ibid._, act iv, sc. 8 (41). + + + (6) _Lady Anne._ + + I pour the helpless Balm of my poor eyes. + + _Richard III_, act i, sc. 2 (13). + + + (7) _Troilus._ + + But, saying thus, instead of oil and Balm, + Thou lay'st in every gash that love hath given me + The knife that made it. + + _Troilus and Cressida_, act i, sc. 1 (61). + + + (8) _1st Senator._ + + We sent to thee, to give thy rages Balm. + + _Timon of Athens_, act v, sc. 4 (16). + + + (9) _France._ + + Balm of your age, + Most best, most dearest. + + _King Lear_, act i, sc. 1 (218). + + + (10) _K. Henry._ + + Let all the tears that should bedew my hearse + Be drops of Balm to sanctify thy head. + + _2nd Henry IV_, act iv, sc. 5 (114). + + + (11) _Mowbray._ + + I am disgraced, impeach'd, and baffled here: + Pierced to the soul with slander's venom'd spear; + The which no Balm can cure, but his heart-blood + Which breathed this poison. + + _Richard II_, act i, sc. 1 (170). + + + (12) _Dromio of Syracuse._ + + Our fraughtage, Sir, + I have conveyed aboard, and I have bought + The oil, the Balsamum, and aqua vitae. + + _Comedy of Errors_, act iv, sc. 1 (187). + + + (13) _Alcibiades._ + + Is this the Balsam that the usuring Senate + Pours into captains' wounds? + + _Timon of Athens_, act iii, sc. 5 (110). + + + (14) _Macbeth._ + + Sleep that knits up the ravell'd sleave of care, + The death of each day's life, sore labour's bath, + Balm of hurt minds, great Nature's second course, + Chief nourisher in life's feast. + + _Macbeth_, act ii, sc. 2 (37). + + + (15) _Quickly._ + + The several chairs of order look you scour + With juice of Balm and every precious flower. + + _Merry Wives_, act v, sc. 5 (65). + + + (16) _Cleopatra._ + + As sweet as Balm, as soft as air, as gentle. + + _Antony and Cleopatra_, act v, sc. 2 (314). + + + (17) + + And trembling in her passion, calls it Balm, + Earth's sovereign salve to do a goddess good. + + _Venus and Adonis_ (27). + + + (18) + + And drop sweet Balm in Priam's painted wound. + + _Lucrece_ (1466). + + + (19) + + With the drops of this most balmy time + My love looks fresh. + + _Sonnet_ cvii. + +In all these passages, except the two last, the reference is to the Balm +or Balsam which was imported from the East, from very early times, and +was highly valued for its curative properties. The origin of Balsam was +for a long time a secret, but it is now known to have been the produce +of several gum-bearing trees, especially the Pistacia lentiscus and the +Balsamodendron Gileadense; and now, as then, the name is not strictly +confined to the produce of any one plant. But in Nos. 15 and 16 the +reference is no doubt to the Sweet Balm of the English gardens (_Melissa +officinalis_), a plant highly prized by our ancestors for its medicinal +qualities (now known to be of little value), and still valued for its +pleasant scent and its high value as a bee plant, which is shown by its +old Greek and Latin names, Melissa, Mellissophyllum, and Apiastrum. The +Bastard Balm (_Melittis melissophyllum_) is a handsome native plant, +found sparingly in Devonshire, Hampshire, and a few other places, and is +well worth growing wherever it can be induced to grow; but it is a very +capricious plant, and is apparently not fond of garden cultivation. +"Tres jolie plante, mais d'une culture difficile" (Vilmorin). It +probably would thrive best in the shade, as it is found in copses. + + + + +BARLEY. + + + (1) _Iris._ + + Ceres, most bounteous lady, thy rich leas + Of Wheat, Rye, Barley, Vetches, Oats, and Pease. + + _Tempest_, act iv, sc. 1 (60). + + + (2) _Constable._ + + Can sodden water, + A drench for surrein'd jades, their Barley broth, + Decoct their cold blood to such valiant heat? + + _Henry V_, act iii, sc. 5 (18).[30:1] + +These two passages require little note. The Barley (_Hordeum vulgare_) +of Shakespeare's time and our own is the same. We may note, however, +that the Barley broth (2) of which the French Constable spoke so +contemptuously as the food of English soldiers was probably beer, which +long before the time of Henry V. was so celebrated that it gave its name +to the plant (Barley being simply the Beer-plant), and in Shakespeare's +time, "though strangers never heard of such a word or such a thing, by +reason it is not everyewhere made," yet "our London Beere-Brewers would +scorne to learne to make beere of either French or Dutch" (Gerard). + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[30:1] "Vires ordea prestant."--_Modus Cenandi_, 176. ("Babee's Book.") + + + + +BARNACLES. + + + _Caliban._ + + We shall lose our time + And all be turn'd to Barnacles. + + _Tempest_, act iv, sc. 1 (248). + +It may seem absurd to include Barnacles among plants; but in the time of +Shakespeare the Barnacle tree was firmly believed in, and Gerard gives a +plate of "the Goose tree, Barnacle tree, or the tree bearing Geese," and +says that he declares "what our eies have seene, and our hands have +touched." + +A full account of the fable will be found in Harting's "Ornithology of +Shakespeare," p. 247, and an excellent account in Lee's "Sea Fables +Explained" (Fisheries Exhibition handbooks), p. 98. But neither of these +writers have quoted the testimony of Sir John Mandeville, which is, +however, well worth notice. When he was told in "Caldilhe" of a tree +that bore "a lytylle Best in Flessche in Bon and Blode as though it were +a lytylle Lomb, withouten Wolle," he did not refuse to believe them, for +he says, "I tolde hem of als gret a marveylle to hem that is amonges us; +and that was of the Bernakes. For I tolde hem, that in our Contree weren +Trees, that beren a Fruyt, that becomen Briddes fleeynge; and tho that +fallen in the Water lyven, and thei that fallen on the Erthe dyen anon; +and thei ben right gode to mannes mete. And here of had thei als gret +marvaylle that sume of hem trowed, it were an impossible thing to be" +("Voiage and Travaille," c. xxvi.). + + + + +BAY TREES. + + + (1) _Captain._ + + 'Tis thought the King is dead; we will not stay. + The Bay-trees in our country are all wither'd. + + _Richard II_, act ii, sc. 4 (7). + + + (2) _Bawd._ + + Marry come up, my dish of chastity with Rosemary and Bays! + + _Pericles_, act iv, sc. 6 (159). + + + (3) + + _The Vision_--Enter, solemnly tripping one after another, + six personages, clad in white robes, wearing on their + heads garlands of Bays, and golden vizards on their faces, + branches of Bays or Palms in their hands. + + _Henry VIII_, act iv, sc. 2 + +It is not easy to determine what tree is meant in these passages. In the +first there is little doubt that Shakespeare copied from some Italian +source the superstition that the Bay trees in a country withered and +died when any great calamity was approaching. We have no proof that such +an idea ever prevailed in England. In the second passage reference is +made to the decking of the chief dish at high feasts with garlands of +flowers and evergreens. But the Bay tree had been too recently +introduced from the South of Europe in Shakespeare's time to be so used +to any great extent, though the tree was known long before, for it is +mentioned in the Anglo-Saxon Vocabularies by the name of Beay-beam, +that is, the Coronet tree;[32:1] but whether the Beay-beam meant our Bay +tree is very uncertain. We are not much helped in the inquiry by the +notice of the "flourishing green Bay tree" in the Psalms, for it seems +very certain that the Bay tree there mentioned is either the Oleander or +the Cedar, certainly not the Laurus nobilis. + +The true Bay is probably mentioned by Spenser in the following lines-- + + "The Bay, quoth she, is of the victours born, + Yielded them by the vanquisht as theyr meeds, + And they therewith doe Poetes heads adorne + To sing the glory of their famous deeds." + + _Amoretti_--Sonnet xxix. + +And in the following passage (written in the lifetime of Shakespeare) +the Laurel and the Bay are both named as the same tree-- + + "And when from Daphne's tree he plucks more Baies + His shepherd's pipe may chant more heavenly lays." + + _Christopher Brooke_--_Introd. verses + to_ BROWNE'S _Pastorals._ + +In the present day no garden of shrubs can be considered complete +without the Bay tree, both the common one and especially the Californian +Bay (_Oreodaphne Californica_), which, with its bright green lanceolate +foliage and powerful aromatic scent (to some too pungent), deserves a +place everywhere, and it is not so liable to be cut by the spring winds +as the European Bay.[32:2] Parkinson's high praise of the Bay tree +(forty years after Shakespeare's death) is too long for insertion, but +two short sentences may be quoted: "The Bay leaves are of as necessary +use as any other in the garden or orchard, for they serve both for +pleasure and profit, both for ornament and for use, both for honest +civil uses and for physic, yea, both for the sick and for the sound, +both for the living and for the dead; . . . so that from the cradle to +the grave we have still use of it, we have still need of it." + +The Bay tree gives us a curious instance of the capriciousness of +English plant names. Though a true Laurel it does not bear the +name, which yet is given to two trees, the common (and Portugal) +Laurel, and the Laurestinus, neither of which are Laurels--the one +being a Cherry or Plum (_Prunus_ or _Cerasus_), the other a Guelder Rose +(_Viburnum_).[33:1] + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[32:1] "The Anglo-Saxon Beay was not a ring only, or an armlet: it was +also a coronet or diadem. . . . The Bays, then, of our Poets and the Bay +tree were in reality the Coronet and the Coronet tree."--COCKAYNE, +_Spoon and Sparrow_, p. 21. + +[32:2] The Californian Bay has not been established in England long +enough to form a timber tree, but in America it is highly prized as one +of the very best trees for cabinet work, especially for the ornamental +parts of pianos. + +[33:1] For an interesting account of the Bay and the Laurels, giving the +history of the names, &c., see two papers by Mr. H. Evershed in +"Gardener's Chronicle," September, 1876. + + + + +BEANS. + + + (1) _Puck._ + + When I a fat and Bean-fed horse beguile. + + _Midsummer Night's Dream_, act ii, sc. 1 (45). + + + (2) _Carrier._ + + Peas and Beans are as dank here as a dog; and that is the next + way to give poor jades the bots. + + _1st Henry IV_, act ii, sc. 1 (9). + +The Bean (_Faba vulgaris_), though an Eastern plant, was very early +introduced into England as an article of food both for men and horses. +As an article of human food opinions were divided, as now. By some it +was highly esteemed-- + + "Corpus alit Faba; stringit cum cortice ventrem, + Desiccat fleuma, stomacum lumenque relidit"-- + +is the description of the Bean in the "Modus Cenandi," l. 182 ("Babee's +Book," ii, 48). While H. Vaughan describes it as-- + + "The Bean + By curious pallats never sought;" + +and it was very generally used as a proverb of contempt-- + + "None other lif, sayd he, is worth a Bene."[34:1] + + "But natheles I reche not a Bene."[34:2] + +It is not apparently a romantic plant, and yet there is no plant round +which so much curious folk lore has gathered. This may be seen at full +length in Phillips' "History of Cultivated Vegetables." It will be +enough here to say that the Bean was considered as a sacred plant both +by the Greeks and Romans, while by the Egyptian priests it was +considered too unclean to be even looked upon; that it was used both for +its convenient shape and for its sacred associations in all elections by +ballot; that this custom lasted in England and in most Europeans +countries to a very recent date in the election of the kings and queens +at Twelfth Night and other feasts; and that it was of great repute in +all popular divinations and love charms. I find in Miller another use of +Beans, which we are thankful to note among the obsolete uses: "They are +bought up in great quantities at Bristol for Guinea ships, as food for +the negroes on their passage from Africa to the West Indies." + +As an ornamental garden plant the Bean has never received the attention +it seems to deserve. A plant of Broad Beans grown singly is quite a +stately plant, and the rich scent is an additional attraction to many, +though to many others it is too strong, and it has a bad +character--"Sleep in a Bean-field all night if you want to have awful +dreams or go crazy," is a Leicestershire proverb:[34:3] and the Scarlet +Runner (which is also a Bean) is one of the most beautiful climbers we +have. In England we seldom grow it for ornament, but in France I have +seen it used with excellent effect to cover a trellis-screen, mixed with +the large blue Convolvulus major. + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[34:1] Chaucer, "The Marchandes Tale," 19. + +[34:2] Ibid., "The Man of Lawes Tale," prologue. + +[34:3] Copied from the mediaeval proverb: "Cum faba florescit, stultorum +copia crescit." + + + + +BILBERRY. + + + _Pistol._ + + Where fires thou find'st unraked and hearths unswept, + There pinch the maids as blue as Bilberry-- + Our radiant Queen hates sluts and sluttery. + + _Merry Wives_, act v, sc. 5 (48). + +The Bilberry is a common British shrub found on all mossy heaths, and +very pretty both in flower and in fruit. Its older English name was +Heathberry, and its botanical name is Vaccinium myrtillus. We have in +Britain four species of Vaccinium: the Whortleberry or Bilberry (_V. +myrtillus_), the Large Bilberry (_V. uliginosum_), the Crowberry (_V. +vitis idaea_), and the Cranberry (_V. oxycoccos_). These British species, +as well as the North American species (of which there are several), are +all beautiful little shrubs in cultivation, but they are very difficult +to grow; they require a heathy soil, moisture, and partial shade. + + + + +BIRCH. + + + _Duke._ + + Fond fathers, + Having bound up the threatening twigs of Birch, + Only to stick it in their children's sight + For terror, not to use, in time the rod + Becomes more mock'd than fear'd. + + _Measure for Measure_, act i, sc. 3 (23). + +Shakespeare only mentions this one unpleasant use of the Birch tree, the +manufacture of Birch rods; and for such it seems to have been chiefly +valued in his day. "I have not red of any vertue it hath in physick," +says Turner; "howbeit, it serveth for many good uses, and for none +better than for betynge of stubborn boys, that either lye or will not +learn." Yet the Birch is not without interest. The word "Birch" is the +same as "bark," meaning first the rind of a tree and then a barque or +boat (from which we also get our word "barge"), and so the very name +carries us to those early times when the Birch was considered one of +the most useful of trees, as it still is in most northern countries, +where it grows at a higher degree of latitude than any other tree. Its +bark was especially useful, being useful for cordage, and matting, and +roofing, while the tree itself formed the early British canoes, as it +still forms the canoes of the North American Indians, for which it is +well suited, from its lightness and ease in working. + +In Northern Europe it is the most universal and the most useful of +trees. It is "the superlative tree in respect of the ground it covers, +and in the variety of purposes to which it is converted in Lapland, +where the natives sit in birchen huts on birchen chairs, wearing birchen +boots and breeches, with caps and capes of the same material, warming +themselves by fires of birchwood charcoal, reading books bound in birch, +and eating herrings from a birchen platter, pickled in a birchen cask. +Their baskets, boats, harness, and utensils are all of Birch; in short, +from cradle to coffin, the Birch forms the peculiar environment of the +Laplander."[36:1] In England we still admire its graceful beauty, +whether it grows in our woods or our gardens, and we welcome its +pleasant odour on our Russia leather bound books; but we have ceased to +make beer from its young shoots,[36:2] and we hold it in almost as low +repute (from the utilitarian point of view) as Turner and Shakespeare +seem to have held it. + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[36:1] "Gardener's Chronicle." + +[36:2] "Although beer is now seldom made from birchen twigs, yet it is +by no means an uncommon practice in some country districts to tap the +white trunks of Birches, and collect the sweet sap which exudes from +them for wine-making purposes. In some parts of Leicestershire this sap +is collected in large quantities every spring, and birch wine, when well +made, is a wholesome and by no means an unpleasant beverage."--B. in +_The Garden_, April, 1877. "The Finlanders substitute the leaves of +Birch for those of the tea-plant; the Swedes extract a syrup from the +sap, from which they make a spirituous liquor. In London they make +champagne of it. The most virtuous uses to which it is applied are +brooms and wooden shoes."--_A Tour Round My Garden_, Letter xix. + + + + +BITTER-SWEET, _see_ APPLE (22). + + + + +BLACKBERRIES. + + + (1) _Falstaff._ + + Give you a reason on compulsion!--if reasons were as plentiful + as Blackberries, I would give no man a reason upon + compulsion, I.[37:1] + + _1st Henry IV_, act ii, sc. 4 (263). + + + (2) _Falstaff._ + + Shall the blessed sun of heaven prove a micher and eat + Blackberries? + + _Ibid._ (450). + + + (3) _Thersites._ + + That same dog-fox Ulysses is not proved worth a Blackberry. + + _Troilus and Cressida_, act v, sc. 4 (12). + + + (4) _Rosalind._ + + There is a man . . . . hangs odes upon Hawthorns and elegies + on Brambles. + + _As You Like it_, act iii, sc. 2 (379). + + + (5) + + The thorny Brambles and embracing bushes, + As fearful of him, part, through whom he rushes. + + _Venus and Adonis_ (629). + +I here join together the tree and the fruit, the Bramble (_Rubus +fruticosus_) and the Blackberry. There is not much to be said for a +plant that is the proverbial type of a barren country or untidy +cultivation, yet the Bramble and the Blackberry have their charms, and +we could ill afford to lose them from our hedgerows. The name Bramble +originally meant anything thorny, and Chaucer applied it to the Dog +Rose-- + + "He was chaste and no lechour, + And sweet as is the Bramble flower + That bereth the red hepe." + +But in Shakespeare's time it was evidently confined to the +Blackberry-bearing Bramble. + +There is a quaint legend of the origin of the plant which is worth +repeating. It is thus pleasantly told by Waterton: "The cormorant was +once a wool merchant. He entered into partnership with the Bramble and +the bat, and they freighted a large ship with wool; she was wrecked, and +the firm became bankrupt. Since that disaster the bat skulks about till +midnight to avoid his creditors, the cormorant is for ever diving into +the deep to discover its foundered vessel, while the Bramble seizes +hold of every passing sheep to make up his loss by stealing the wool." + +As a garden plant, the common Bramble had better be kept out of the +garden, but there are double pink and white-blossomed varieties, and +others with variegated leaves, that are handsome plants on rough +rockwork. The little Rubus saxatilis is a small British Bramble that is +pretty on rockwork, and among the foreign Brambles there are some that +should on no account be omitted where ornamental shrubs are grown. Such +are the R. leucodermis from Nepaul, with its bright silvery bark and +amber-coloured fruit; R. Nootkanus, with very handsome foliage, and pure +white rose-like flowers; R. Arcticus, an excellent rockwork plant from +Northern Europe, with very pleasant fruit, but difficult to establish; +R. Australis (from New Zealand), a most quaint plant, with leaves so +depauperated that it is apparently leafless, and hardy in the South of +England; and R. deliciosus, a very handsome plant from the Rocky +Mountains. There are several others well worth growing, but I mention +these few to show that the Bramble is not altogether such a villainous +and useless weed as it is proverbially supposed to be. + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[37:1] _See_ RAISINS, p. 238. + + + + +BOX. + + + _Maria._ Get ye all three into the Box tree. + + _Twelfth Night_, act ii, sc. 5 (18). + +The Box is a native British tree, and in the sixteenth century was +probably much more abundant as a wild tree than it is now. Chaucer notes +it as a dismal tree. He describes Palamon in his misery as-- + + "Like was he to byholde, + The Boxe tree or the Asschen deed and colde." + + _The Knightes Tale._ + +Spenser noted it as "The Box yet mindful of his olde offence," and in +Shakespeare's time there were probably more woods of Box in England than +the two which still remain at Box Hill, in Surrey, and Boxwell, in +Gloucestershire. The name remains, though the trees are gone, in Box in +Wilts, Boxgrove, Boxley, Boxmoor, Boxted, and Boxworth.[39:1] From its +wild quarters the Box tree was very early brought into gardens, and was +especially valued, not only for its rich evergreen colour, but because, +with the Yew, it could be cut and tortured into all the ungainly shapes +which so delighted our ancestors in Shakespeare's time, though one of +the most illustrious of them, Lord Bacon, entered his protest against +such barbarisms: "I, for my part, do not like images cut out in Juniper +or other garden stuff; they be for children" ("Essay of Gardens"). + +The chief use of the Box now is for blocks for wood-carving, for which +its close grain makes it the most suitable of all woods.[39:2] + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[39:1] In Boxford, and perhaps in some of the other names, the word has +no connection with the tree, but marks the presence of water or a +stream. + +[39:2] In some parts of Europe almost a sacred character is given to the +Box. For a curious record of blessing the Box, and of a sermon on the +lessons taught by the Box, see "Gardener's Chronicle," April 19, 1873. + + + + +BRAMBLE, _see_ BLACKBERRIES. + + + + +BRIER. + + + (1) _Ariel._ + + So I charm'd their ears, + That calf-like they my lowing follow'd through + Tooth'd Briers, sharp Furzes, pricking Goss, and Thorns. + + _Tempest_, act iv, sc. 1 (178). + + + (2) _Fairy._ + + Over hill, over dale, + Thorough Bush, thorough Brier. + + _Midsummer Night's Dream_, act ii, sc. 1 (2). + + + (3) _Thisbe._ + + Of colour like the red Rose on triumphant Brier. + + _Ibid._, act iii, sc. 1 (90). + + + (4) _Puck._ + + I'll lead you about a round, + Through bog, through bush, through Brake, through Brier. + + _Midsummer Night's Dream_, act iii, sc. 1 (10). + + + (5) _Puck._ + + For Briers and Thorns at their apparel snatch. + + _Ibid._, act iii, sc. 2 (29). + + + (6) _Hermia._ + + Never so weary, never so in woe, + Bedabbled with the dew and torn with Briers. + + _Ibid._, act iii, sc. 2 (443). + + + (7) _Oberon._ + + Every elf and fairy sprite + Hop as light as bird from Brier. + + _Ibid._, act v, sc. 1 (400). + + + (8) _Adriana._ + + If aught possess thee from me, it is dross, + Usurping Ivy, Brier, or idle Moss. + + _Comedy of Errors_, act ii, sc. 2 (179). + + + (9) _Plantagenet._ + + From off this Brier pluck a white Rose with me. + + _1st Henry IV_, act ii, sc. 4 (30). + + + (10) _Rosalind._ + + O! how full of Briers is this working-day world! + + _As You Like It_, act i, sc. 3 (12). + + + (11) _Helena._ + + The time will bring on summer, + When Briers shall have leaves as well as Thorns, + And be as sweet as sharp. + + _All's Well_, act iv, sc. 4 (32). + + + (12) _Polyxenes._ + + I'll have thy beauty scratched with Briers. + + _Winter's Tale_, act iv, sc. 4 (436). + + + (13) _Timon._ + + The Oaks bear mast, the Briers scarlet hips. + + _Timon of Athens_, act iv, sc. 3 (422). + + + (14) _Coriolanus._ + + Scratches with Briers, + Scars to move laughter only. + + _Coriolanus_, act iii, sc. 3 (51). + + + (15) _Quintus._ + + What subtle hole is this, + Whose mouth is cover'd with rude-growing Briers? + + _Titus Andronicus_, act iii, sc. 3 (198). + +In Shakespeare's time the "Brier" was not restricted to the Sweet Briar, +as it usually is now; but it meant any sort of wild Rose, and even it +would seem from No. 9 that it was applied to the cultivated Rose, for +there the scene is laid in the Temple Gardens. In some of the passages +it probably does not allude to any Rose, but simply to any wild thorny +plant. That this was its common use then, we know from many examples. In +"Le Morte Arthur," the Earl of Ascolot's daughter is described-- + + "Hyr Rode was rede as blossom or Brere + Or floure that springith in the felde" (179). + +And in "A Pleasant New Court Song," in the Roxburghe Ballads-- + + "I stept me close aside + Under a Hawthorn Bryer." + +It bears the same meaning in our Bibles, where "Thorns," "Brambles," and +"Briers," stand for any thorny and useless plant, the soil of Palestine +being especially productive of thorny plants of many kinds. Wickliffe's +translation of Matthew vii. 16, is--"Whether men gaderen grapis of +thornes; or figis of Breris?" and Tyndale's translation is much the +same--"Do men gaddre grapes of thornes, or figges of Bryeres?"[41:1] + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[41:1] "Brere--Carduus, tribulus, vepres, veprecula."--_Catholicon +Anglicum._ + + + + +BROOM. + + + (1) _Iris._ + + And thy Broom groves, + Whose shadow the dismissed bachelor loves, + Being lass-lorn. + + _Tempest_, act iv, sc. 1 (66). + + + (2) _Puck._ + + I am sent with Broom before + To sweep the dust behind the door. + + _Midsummer Night's Dream_, act v, sc. 1 (396). + + + (3) _Man._ + + I made good my place; at length they came to the Broomstaff + with me. + + _Henry VIII_, act v, sc. 4 (56). + +The Broom was one of the most popular plants of the Middle Ages. Its +modern Latin name is _Cytisus scoparius_, but under its then Latin name +of _Planta genista_ it gave its name to the Plantagenet family, either +in the time of Henry II., as generally reported, or probably still +earlier. As the favourite badge of the family it appears on their +monuments and portraits, and was embroidered on their clothes and +imitated in their jewels. Nor was it only in England that the plant was +held in such high favour; it was the special flower of the Scotch, and +it was highly esteemed in many countries on the Continent, especially in +Brittany. Yet, in spite of all this, there are only these three notices +of the plant in Shakespeare, and of those three, two (2 and 3) refer to +its uses when dead; and the third (1), though it speaks of it as living, +yet has nothing to say of the remarkable beauties of this favourite +British flower. Yet it has great beauties which cannot easily be +overlooked. Its large, yellow flowers, its graceful habit of growth, and +its fragrance-- + + "Sweet is the Broome-flowre, but yet sowre enough"-- + + SPENSER, _Sonnet_ xxvi. + +at once arrest the attention of the most careless observer of Nature. We +are almost driven to the conclusion that Shakespeare could not have had +much real acquaintance with the Broom, or he would not have sent his +"dismissed bachelor" to "Broom-groves."[42:1] I should very much doubt +that the Broom could ever attain to the dimensions of a grove, though +Steevens has a note on the passage that "near Gamlingay, in +Cambridgeshire, it grows high enough to conceal the tallest cattle as +they pass through it; and in places where it is cultivated still +higher." Chaucer speaks of the Broom, but does not make it so much of a +tree-- + + "Amid the Broom he basked in the sun." + +And other poets have spoken of the Broom in the same way--thus Collins-- + + "When Dan Sol to slope his wheels began + Amid the Broom he basked him on the ground." + + _Castle of Indolence_, canto i. + +And a Russian poet speaks of the Broom as a tree-- + + "See there upon the Broom tree's bough + The young grey eagle flapping now." + + _Flora Domestica_, p. 68. + +As a garden plant it is perhaps seen to best advantage when mixed with +other shrubs, as when grown quite by itself it often has an untidy look. +There is a pure white variety which is very beautiful, but it is very +liable to flower so abundantly as to flower itself to death. There are a +few other sorts, but none more beautiful than the British. + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[42:1] Yet Bromsgrove must be a corruption of Broom-grove, and there are +other places in England named from the Broom. + + + + +BULRUSH. + + + _Wooer._ + + Her careless tresses + A wreake of Bulrush rounded. + + _Two Noble Kinsmen_, act iv, sc. 1 (104). + +_See_ RUSH, p. 262. + + + + +BURDOCK AND BURS. + + + (1) _Celia._ + + They are but Burs, cousin, thrown upon thee in holiday + foolery; if we walk not in the trodden paths our very + petticoats will catch them. + + _Rosalind._ + + I could shake them off my coat; these Burs are in my heart. + + _As You Like It_, act i, sc. 3 (13). + + + (2) _Lucio._ + + Nay, friar, I am a kind of Bur; I shall stick. + + _Measure for Measure_, act iv, sc. 3 (149). + + + (3) _Lysander._ + + Hang oft, thou cat, thou Burr. + + _Midsummer Night's Dream_, act iii, sc. 2 (260). + + + (4) _Pandarus._ + + They are Burs, I can tell you; they'll stick where + they are thrown. + + _Troilus and Cressida_, act iii, sc. 2 (118). + + + (5) _Burgundy._ + + And nothing teems + But hateful Docks, rough Thistles, Kecksies, Burs. + + _Henry V_, act v, sc. 2 (51). + + + (6) _Cordelia._ + + Crown'd with rank Fumiter and Furrow-weeds, + With Burdocks, Hemlock, Nettles, Cuckoo-flowers. + + _King Lear_, act iv, sc. 4 (3). + +The Burs are the unopened flowers of the Burdock (_Arctium lappa_), and +their clinging quality very early obtained for them expressive names, +such as _amor folia_, love leaves, and philantropium. This clinging +quality arises from the bracts of the involucrum being long and stiff, +and with hooked tips which attach themselves to every passing object. +The Burdock is a very handsome plant when seen in its native habitat by +the side of a brook, its broad leaves being most picturesque, but it is +not a plant to introduce into a garden.[44:1] There is another tribe of +plants, however, which are sufficiently ornamental to merit a place in +the garden, and whose Burs are even more clinging than those of the +Burdock. These are the Acaenas; they are mostly natives of America and +New Zealand, and some of them (especially A. sarmentosa and A. +microphylla) form excellent carpet plants, but their points being +furnished with double hooks, like a double-barbed arrow, they have +double powers of clinging. + + + + +BURNET. + + + _Burgundy._ + + The even mead, that erst brought sweetly forth + The freckled Cowslip, Burnet, and green Clover. + + _Henry V._ act v, sc. 2 (48). + +The Burnet (_Poterium sanguisorba_) is a native plant of no great beauty +or horticultural interest, but it was valued as a good salad plant, the +leaves tasting of Cucumber, and Lord Bacon (contemporary with +Shakespeare) seems to have been especially fond of it. He says ("Essay +of Gardens"): + +"Those flowers which perfume the air most delightfully, not passed by +as the rest, but being trodden upon and crushed, are three--that is, +Burnet, Wild Thyme, and Water Mints; therefore you are to set whole +alleys of them, to have the pleasure when you walk or tread." Drayton +had the same affection for it-- + + "The Burnet shall bear up with this, + Whose leaf I greatly fancy." + + _Nymphal V._ + +It also was, and still is, valued as a forage plant that will grow and +keep fresh all the winter in dry barren pastures, thus often giving food +for sheep when other food was scarce. It has occasionally been +cultivated, but the result has not been very satisfactory, except on +very poor land, though, according to the Woburn experiments, as reported +by Sinclair, it contains a larger amount of nutritive matter in the +spring than most of the Grasses. It has brown flowers, from which it is +supposed to derive its name (Brunetto).[45:1] + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[44:1] + + "A Clote-leef he had under his hood + For swoot, and to keep his heed from hete." + + CHAUCER, _Prologue of the Chanounes Yeman_ (25). + +This Clote leaf is by many considered to be the Burdock leaf, but it was +more probably the name of the Water-lily. + +[45:1] "Burnet colowre, Burnetum, burnetus."--_Promptorium Parvulorum._ + + + + +CABBAGE. + + + _Evans._ + + _Pauca verba_, Sir John; good worts. + + _Falstaff._ + + Good worts! good Cabbage. + + _Merry Wives_, act i, sc. 1 (123). + +The history of the name is rather curious. It comes to us from the +French _Chou cabus_, which is the French corruption of _Caulis +capitatus_, the name by which Pliny described it. + +The Cabbage of Shakespeare's time was essentially the same as ours, and +from the contemporary accounts it seems that the sorts cultivated were +as good and as numerous as they are now. The cultivated Cabbage is the +same specifically as the wild Cabbage of our sea-shores (_Brassica +oleracea_) improved by cultivation. Within the last few years the +Cabbage has been brought from the kitchen garden into the flower garden +on account of the beautiful variegation of its leaves. This, however, is +no novelty, for Parkinson said of the many sorts of Cabbage in his day: +"There is greater diversity in the form and colour of the leaves of +this plant than there is in any other that I know groweth on the +ground. . . . Many of them being of no use with us for the table, but +for delight to behold the wonderful variety of the works of God herein." + + + + +CAMOMILE. + + + _Falstaff._ + + Though the Camomile, the more it is trodden on the faster it + grows, yet youth, the more it is wasted the sooner it wears. + + _1st Henry IV_, act ii, sc. 4 (443). + +The low-growing Camomile, the emblem of the sweetness of humility, has +the lofty names of Camomile (_Chamaemelum_, _i.e._, Apple of the Earth) +and Anthemis nobilis. Its fine aromatic scent and bitter flavour +suggested that it must be possessed of much medicinal virtue, while its +low growth made it suitable for planting on the edges of flower-beds and +paths, its scent being brought out as it was walked upon. For this +purpose it was much used in Elizabethan gardens; "large walks, broad and +long, close and open, like the Tempe groves in Thessaly, raised with +gravel and sand, having seats and banks of Camomile; all this delights +the mind, and brings health to the body."[46:1] As a garden flower it is +now little used, though its bright starry flower and fine scent might +recommend it; but it is still to be found in herb gardens, and is still, +though not so much as formerly, used as a medicine. + +Like many other low plants, the Camomile is improved by being pressed +into the earth by rolling or otherwise, and there are many allusions to +this in the old writers: thus Lily in his "Euphues" says: "The Camomile +the more it is trodden and pressed down, the more it spreadeth;" and in +the play, "The More the Merrier" (1608), we have-- + + "The Camomile shall teach thee patience + Which riseth best when trodden most upon." + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[46:1] Lawson, "New Orchard," p. 54. + + + + +CARDUUS, _see_ HOLY THISTLE. + + + + +CARNATIONS. + + + (1) _Perdita._ + + The fairest flowers o' the season + Are our Carnations and streak'd Gillyvors, + Which some call Nature's bastards. + + _Winter's Tale_, act iv, sc. 4 (81). + + + (2) _Polyxenes._ + + Then make your garden rich in Gillyvors, + And do not call them bastards. + + _Ibid._ (98). + +There are two other places in which Carnation is mentioned, but they +refer to carnation colour--_i.e._, to pure flesh colour. + + (3) _Quickly._ + + 'A could never abide Carnation; 'twas a colour he never liked. + + _Henry V_, act ii, sc. 3 (35). + + + (4) _Costard._ + + Pray you, sir, how much Carnation riband may a man buy for a + remuneration? + + _Love's Labour's Lost_, act iii, sc. 1 (146). + +Dr. Johnson and others have supposed that the flower is so named from +the colour, but that this is a mistake is made very clear by Dr. Prior. +He quotes Spenser's "Shepherd's Calendar"-- + + "Bring Coronations and Sops-in-Wine + Worn of Paramours." + +and so it is spelled in Lyte's "Herbal," 1578, coronations or +cornations. This takes us at once to the origin of the name. The plant +was one of those used in garlands (_coronae_), and was probably one of +the most favourite plants used for that purpose, for which it was well +suited by its shape and beauty. Pliny gives a long list of garland +flowers (_Coronamentorum genera_) used by the Romans and Athenians, and +Nicander gives similar lists of Greek garland plants (+stephanomatika +anthe+), in which the Carnation holds so high a place that it was called +by the name it still has--Dianthus, or Flower of Jove. + +Its second specific name, Caryophyllus--_i.e._, Nut-leaved--seems at +first very inappropriate for a grassy leaved plant, but the name was +first given to the Indian Clove-tree, and from it transferred to the +Carnation, on account of its fine clove-like scent. Its popularity as an +English plant is shown by its many names--Pink, Carnation, +Gilliflower[48:1] (an easily-traced and well-ascertained corruption from +Caryophyllus), Clove, Picotee,[48:2] and Sops-in-Wine, from the flowers +being used to flavour wine and beer.[48:3] There is an historical +interest also in the flowers. All our Carnations, Picotees, and Cloves +come originally from the single Dianthus caryophyllus; this is not a +true British plant, but it holds a place in the English flora, being +naturalized on Rochester and other castles. It is abundant in Normandy, +and I found it (in 1874) covering the old castle of Falaise in which +William the Conqueror was born. Since that I have found that it grows on +the old castles of Dover, Deal, and Cardiff, all of them of Norman +construction, as was Rochester, which was built by Gundulf, the special +friend of William. Its occurrence on these several Norman castles make +it very possible that it was introduced by the Norman builders, perhaps +as a pleasant memory of their Norman homes, though it may have been +accidentally introduced with the Normandy (Caen) stone, of which parts +of the castles are built. How soon it became a florist's flower we do +not know, but it must have been early, as in Shakespeare's time the +sorts of Cloves, Carnations, and Pinks were so many that Gerard says: "A +great and large volume would not suffice to write of every one at large +in particular, considering how infinite they are, and how every yeare, +every clymate and countrey, bringeth forth new sorts, and such as have +not heretofore bin written of;" and so we may certainly say now--the +description of the many kinds of Carnations and Picotees, with +directions for their culture, would fill a volume. + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[48:1] This is the more modern way of spelling it. In the first folio it +is "Gillyvor." "Chaucer writes it Gylofre, but by associating it with +the the Nutmeg and other spices, appears to mean the Clove Tree, which +is, in fact, the proper signification."--_Flora Domestica._ In the +"Digby Mysteries" (Mary Magdalene, l. 1363) the Virgin Mary is addressed +as "the Jentyll Jelopher." + +[48:2] Picotee is from the French word _picote_ marked with little +pricks round the edge, like the "picots," on lace, _picot_ being the +technical term in France for the small twirls which in England are +called "purl" or "pearl." + +[48:3] Wine thus flavoured was evidently a very favourite beverage. +"Bartholemeus Peytevyn tenet duas Caracutas terrae in Stony-Aston in Com. +Somerset de Domino Rege in capite per servitium unius[48:a] Sextarii +vini Gariophilati reddendi Domino Regi per annum ad Natale Domini. Et +valet dicta terra per ann. _xl._" + + [48:a] "A Sextary of July-flower wine, and a Sextary contained + about a pint and a half, sometimes more."--BLOUNT'S _Antient + Tenures_. + + + + +CARRAWAYS. + + + _Shallow._ + + Nay, you shall see my orchard, where, in an arbour we will eat + a last year's Pippin of my own graffing, with a dish of + Caraways and so forth. + + _2nd Henry IV_, act v, sc. 3 (1). + +Carraways are the fruit of Carum carui, an umbelliferous plant of a +large geographical range, cultivated in the eastern counties, and +apparently wild in other parts of England, but not considered a true +native. In Shakespeare's time the seed was very popular, and was much +more freely used than in our day. "The seed," says Parkinson, "is much +used to be put among baked fruit, or into bread, cakes, &c., to give +them a rellish. It is also made into comfits and put into Trageas or (as +we call them in English) Dredges, that are taken for cold or wind in the +body, as also are served to the table with fruit." + +Carraways are frequently mentioned in the old writers as an +accompaniment to Apples. In a very interesting bill of fare of 1626, +extracted from the account book of Sir Edward Dering, is the following-- + + "Carowaye and comfites, 6d. + + A Warden py that the cooke + Made--we fining y{e} Wardens. 2s. 4d. + + Second Course. + + A cold Warden pie. + + Complement. + Apples and Carrawayes."--_Notes and Queries_, i, 99. + +So in Russell's "Book of Nurture:" "After mete . . . pepyns Careaway in +comfyte," line 78, and the same in line 714; and in Wynkyn de Worde's +"Boke of Kervynge" ("Babee's Book," p. 266 and 271), and in F. Seager's +"Schoole of Vertue" ("Babee's Book," p. 343)-- + + "Then cheese with fruite On the table set, + With Bisketes or Carowayes As you may get." + +The custom of serving roast Apples with a little saucerful of Carraway +is still kept up at Trinity College, Cambridge, and, I believe, at some +of the London Livery dinners. + + + + +CARROT. + + + _Evans._ + + Remember, William, focative is _caret_, + + _Quickly._ + + And that's a good root. + + _Merry Wives_, act iv, sc. 1 (55). + +Dame Quickly's pun gives us our Carrot, a plant which, originally +derived from our wild Carrot (_Daucus Carota_), was introduced as a +useful vegetable by the Flemings in the time of Elizabeth, and has +probably been very little altered or improved since the time of its +introduction. In Shakespeare's time the name was applied to the "Yellow +Carrot" or Parsnep, as well as to the Red one. The name of Carrot comes +directly from its Latin or rather Greek name, Daucus Carota, but it +once had a prettier name. The Anglo-Saxons called it "bird's-nest," and +Gerard gives us the reason, and it is a reason that shows they were more +observant of the habits of plants than we generally give them credit +for: "The whole tuft (of flowers) is drawn together when the seed is +ripe, resembling a bird's nest; whereupon it hath been named of some +Bird's-nest." + + + + +CEDAR. + + + (1) _Prospero._ + + And by the spurs pluck'd up + The Pine and Cedar. + + _Tempest_, act v, sc. 1 (47). + + + (2) _Dumain._ + + As upright as the Cedar. + + _Love's Labour's Lost_, act iv, sc. 3 (89). + + + (3) _Warwick._ + + As on a mountain top the Cedar shows, + That keeps his leaves in spite of any storm. + + _2nd Henry VI_, act v, sc. 1 (205). + + + (4) _Warwick._ + + Thus yields the Cedar to the axe's edge, + Whose arms gave shelter to the princely eagle, + Under whose shade the ramping lion slept, + Whose top-branch o'erpeered Jove's spreading tree, + And kept low shrubs from winter's powerful wind. + + _3rd Henry VI_, act v, sc. 2 (11). + + + (5) _Cranmer._ + + He shall flourish, + And, like a mountain Cedar, reach his branches + To all the plains about him. + + _Henry VIII_, act v, sc. 5 (215). + + + (6) _Posthumus._ + + When from a stately Cedar shall be lopped branches, which, + being dead many years, shall after revive. + + _Cymbeline_, act v, sc. 4 (140); and act v, sc. 5 (457). + + + (7) _Soothsayer._ + + The lofty Cedar, royal Cymbeline, + Personates thee. Thy lopp'd branches + . . . . . are now revived, + To the majestic Cedar join'd. + + _Ibid._, act v, sc. 5 (453). + + + (8) _Gloucester._ + + But I was born so high, + Our aery buildeth in the Cedar's top, + And dallies with the wind and scorns the sun. + + _Richard III_, act i, sc. 3 (263). + + + (9) _Coriolanus._ + + Let the mutinous winds + Strike the proud Cedars 'gainst the fiery sun. + + _Coriolanus_, act v, sc. 3 (59). + + + (10) _Titus._ + + Marcus, we are but shrubs, no Cedars we. + + _Titus Andronicus_, act iv, sc. 3 (45). + + + (11) _Daughter._ + + I have sent him where a Cedar, + Higher than all the rest, spreads like a Plane + Fast by a brook. + + _Two Noble Kinsmen_, act ii, sc. 6 (4). + + + (12) + + The sun ariseth in his majesty; + Who doth the world so gloriously behold + That Cedar-tops and hills seem burnished gold. + + _Venus and Adonis_ (856). + + + (13) + + The Cedar stoops not to the base shrub's foot, + But low shrubs wither at the Cedar's root. + + _Lucrece_ (664). + +The Cedar is the classical type of majesty and grandeur, and superiority +to everything that is petty and mean. So Shakespeare uses it, and only +in this way; for it is very certain he never saw a living specimen of +the Cedar of Lebanon. But many travellers in the East had seen it and +minutely described it, and from their descriptions he derived his +knowledge of the tree; but not only, and probably not chiefly from +travellers, for he was well acquainted with his Bible, and there he +would meet with many a passage that dwelt on the glories of the Cedar, +and told how it was the king of trees, so that "the Fir trees were not +like his boughs, and the Chestnut trees were not like his branches, nor +any tree in the garden of God was like unto him in his beauty, fair by +the multitude of his branches, so that all the trees of Eden that were +in the garden of God envied him" (Ezekiel xxxi. 8, 9). It was such +descriptions as these that supplied Shakespeare with his imagery, and +which made our ancestors try to introduce the tree into England. But +there seems to have been much difficulty in establishing it. Evelyn +tried to introduce it, but did not succeed at first, and the tree is not +mentioned in his "Sylva" of 1664. It was, however, certainly introduced +in 1676, when it appears, from the gardeners' accounts, to have been +planted at Bretby Park, Derbyshire ("Gardener's Chronicle," January, +1877). I believe this is the oldest certain record of the planting of +the Cedar in England, the next oldest being the trees in Chelsea Botanic +Gardens, which were certainly planted in 1683. Since that time the tree +has proved so suitable to the English soil that it is grown everywhere, +and everywhere asserts itself as the king of evergreen trees, whether +grown as a single tree on a lawn, or mixed in large numbers with other +trees, as at Highclere Park, in Hampshire (Lord Carnarvon's). Among +English Cedar trees there are probably none that surpass the fine +specimens at Warwick Castle, which owe, however, much of their beauty to +their position on the narrow strip of land between the Castle and the +river. I mention these to call attention to the pleasant coincidence +(for it is nothing more) that the most striking descriptions of the +Cedar are given by Shakespeare to the then owner of the princely Castle +of Warwick (Nos. 3 and 4). + +The mediaeval belief about the Cedar was that its wood was imperishable. +"Haec Cedrus, A{e} sydyretre, et est talis nature quod nunquam putrescet +in aqua nec in terra" (English Vocabulary--15th cent.); but as a timber +tree the English-grown Cedar has not answered to its old reputation, so +that Dr. Lindley called it "the worthless though magnificent Cedar of +Lebanon." + + + + +CHERRY. + + + (1) _Helena._ + + So we grew together, + Like to a double Cherry, seeming parted, + But yet a union in partition; + Two lovely berries moulded on one stem. + + _Midsummer Night's Dream_, act iii, sc. 2 (208). + + + (2) _Demetrius._ + + O, how ripe in show + Thy lips, those kissing Cherries, tempting grow! + + _Ibid._, act iii, sc. 2 (139). + + + (3) _Constance._ + + And it' grandam will + Give it a Plum, a Cherry, and a Fig. + + _King John_, act ii, sc. 1 (161). + + + (4) _Lady._ + + 'Tis as like you + As Cherry is to Cherry. + + _Henry VIII_, act v, sc. 1 (170). + + + (5) _Gower._ + + She with her neeld composes + Nature's own shape of bud, bird, branch, or berry; + That even her art sisters the natural Roses, + Her inkle, silk, twin with the rubied Cherry. + + _Pericles_, act v, chorus (5). + + + (6) _Dromio of Syracuse._ + + Some devils ask but the paring of one's nail, + A Rush, a hair, a drop of blood, a pin, + A Nut, a Cherry-stone. + + _Comedy of Errors_, act iv, sc. 3 (72). + + + (7) _Queen._ + + Oh, when + The twyning Cherries shall their sweetness fall + Upon thy tasteful lips. + + _Two Noble Kinsmen_, act i, sc. 1 (198). + + + (8) + + When he was by, the birds such pleasure took, + That some would sing, some other in their bills + Would bring him Mulberries and ripe-red Cherries. + He fed them with his sight, they him with berries. + + _Venus and Adonis_ (1101). + +Besides these, there is mention of "cherry lips"[54:1] and +"cherry-nose,"[54:2] and the game of "cherry-pit."[54:3] We have the +authority of Pliny that the Cherry (_Prunus Cerasus_) was introduced +into Italy from Pontus, and by the Romans was introduced into Britain. +It is not, then, a true native, but it has now become completely +naturalized in our woods and hedgerows, while the cultivated trees are +everywhere favourites for the beauty of their flowers, and their rich +and handsome fruit. In Shakespeare's time there were almost as many, and +probably as good varieties, as there are now. + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[54:1] _Midsummer Night's Dream_, act v, sc. 1; _Richard III_, act i, +sc. 1; _Two Noble Kinsmen_, act iv, sc. 1. + +[54:2] _Midsummer Night's Dream_, act v, sc. 1. + +[54:3] _Twelfth Night_, act iii, sc. 4. + + + + +CHESTNUTS. + + + (1) _Witch._ + + A sailor's wife had Chestnuts in her lap, + And munch'd, and munch'd, and munch'd. + + _Macbeth_, act i, sc. 3 (4). + + + (2) _Petruchio._ + + And do you tell me of a woman's tongue + That gives not half so great a blow to hear + As will a Chestnut in farmer's fire? + + _Taming of the Shrew_, act i, sc. 2 (208). + + + (3) _Rosalind._ + + I' faith, his hair is of a good colour. + + _Celia._ + + An excellent colour; your Chestnut was ever the only colour. + + _As You Like It_, act iii, sc. 4 (11). + +This is the Spanish or Sweet Chestnut, a fruit which seems to have been +held in high esteem in Shakespeare's time, for Lyte, in 1578, says of +it, "Amongst all kindes of wilde fruites the Chestnut is best and +meetest for to be eaten." The tree cannot be regarded as a true native, +but it has been so long introduced, probably by the Romans, that grand +specimens are to be found in all parts of England; the oldest known +specimen being at Tortworth, in Gloucestershire, which was spoken of as +an old tree in the time of King Stephen; while the tree that is said to +be the oldest and the largest in Europe is the Spanish Chestnut tree on +Mount Etna, the famous Castagni du Centu Cavalli, which measures near +the root 160 feet in circumference. It is one of our handsomest trees, +and very useful for timber, and at one time it was supposed that many of +our oldest buildings were roofed with Chestnut. This was the current +report of the grand roof at Westminster Hall, but it is now discovered +to be of Oak, and it is very doubtful whether the Chestnut timber is as +lasting as it has long been supposed to be. + +The Horse Chestnut was probably unknown to Shakespeare. It is an Eastern +tree, and in no way related to the true Chestnut, and though the name +has probably no connection with horses or their food, yet it is curious +that the petiole has (especially when dry) a marked resemblance to a +horse's leg and foot, and that both on the parent stem and the petiole +may be found a very correct representation of a horseshoe with its +nails.[55:1] + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[55:1] For an excellent description of the great differences between the +Spanish and Horse Chestnut, see "Gardener's Chronicle," Oct. 29, 1881. + + + + +CLOVER. + + + (1) _Burgundy._ + + The even mead, that erst brought sweetly forth + The freckled Cowslip, Burnet, and green Clover. + + _Henry V_, act v, sc. 2 (48). + + + (2) _Tamora._ + + I will enchant the old Andronicus + With words more sweet, and yet more dangerous, + Than baits to fish, or Honey-stalks to sheep, + When, as the one is wounded with the bait, + The other rotted with delicious food. + + _Titus Andronicus_, act iv, sc. 4 (89). + +"Honey-stalks" are supposed to be the flower of the Clover. This seems +very probable, but I believe the name is no longer applied. Of the +Clover there are two points of interest that are worth notice. The +Clover is one of the plants that claim to be the Shamrock of St. +Patrick. This is not a settled point, and at the present day the +Woodsorrel is supposed to have the better claim to the honour. But it is +certain that the Clover is the "clubs" of the pack of cards. "Clover" is +a corruption of "Clava," a club. In England we paint the Clover on our +cards and call it "clubs," while in France they have the same figure, +but call it "trefle." + + + + +CLOVES. + + + _Biron._ + + A Lemon. + + _Longaville._ + + Stuck with Cloves. + + _Love's Labour's Lost_, act v, sc. 2 (633).[56:1] + +As a mention of a vegetable product, I could not omit this passage, but +the reference is only to the imported spice and not to the tree from +which then, as now, the Clove was gathered. The Clove of commerce is the +unexpanded flower of the Caryophyllus aromaticus, and the history of its +discovery and cultivation by the Dutch in Amboyna, with the vain +attempts they made to keep the monopoly of the profitable spice, is +perhaps the saddest chapter in all the history of commerce. See a full +account with description and plate of the plant in "Bot. Mag.," vol. 54, +No. 2749. + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[56:1] "But then 'tis as full of drollery as ever it can hold; 'tis like +an orange stuck with Cloves as for conceipt."--_The Rehearsal_, 1671, +act iii, sc. 1. + + + +COCKLE. + + + (1) _Biron._ + + Allons! allons! sowed Cockle reap'd no Corn. + + _Love's Labour's Lost_, act iv, sc. 3 (383). + + + (2) _Coriolanus._ + + We nourish 'gainst our senate + The Cockle of rebellion, insolence, sedition, + Which we ourselves have plough'd for, sow'd, and scatter'd, + By mingling them with us. + + _Coriolanus_, act iii, sc. 1 (69). + +In Shakespeare's time the word "Cockle" was becoming restricted to the +Corn-cockle (_Lychnis githago_), but both in his time, and certainly in +that of the writers before him, it was used generally for any noxious +weed that grew in corn-fields, and was usually connected with the Darnel +and Tares.[57:1] So Gower-- + + "To sowe Cockel with the Corn + So that the tilthe is nigh forlorn, + Which Crist sew first his owne hond-- + Now stant the Cockel in the lond + Where stood whilom the gode greine, + For the prelats now, as men sain, + For slouthen that they shoulden tille." + + _Confessio Amantis_, lib. quintus (2-190, Paulli). + +Latimer has exactly the same idea: "Oh, that our prelates would bee as +diligent to sowe the corne of goode doctrine as Sathan is to sow Cockel +and Darnel." . . . "There was never such a preacher in England as he +(the devil) is. Who is able to tel his dylygent preaching? which every +daye and every houre laboreth to sowe Cockel and Darnel" (Latimer's +Fourth Sermon). And to the same effect Spenser-- + + "And thus of all my harvest-hope I have + Nought reaped but a weedie crop of care, + Which when I thought have thresht in swelling sheave, + Cockle for corn, and chaff for barley bare." + +The Cockle or Campion is said to do mischief among the Wheat, not only, +as the Poppy and other weeds, by occupying room meant for the better +plant, but because the seed gets mixed with the corn, and then "what +hurt it doth among corne, the spoyle unto bread, as well in colour, +taste, and unwholsomness is better known than desired." So says Gerard, +but I do not know how far modern experience confirms him. It is a pity +the plant has so bad a character, for it is a very handsome weed, with a +fine blue flower, and the seeds are very curious objects under the +microscope, being described as exactly like a hedgehog rolled up.[58:1] + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[57:1] "Cokylle--quaedam aborigo, zazannia."--_Catholicon Anglicum._ + +[58:1] In Dorsetshire the Cockle is the bur of the Burdock. Barnes' +Glossary of Dorset. + + + + +COLOQUINTIDA. + + + _Iago._ + + The food that to him now is as luscious as Locusts, shall be + to him shortly as bitter as Coloquintida. + + _Othello_, act i, sc. 3 (354). + +The Coloquintida, or Colocynth, is the dried fleshy part of the fruit of +the Cucumis or Citrullus colocynthis. As a drug it was imported in +Shakespeare's time and long before, but he may also have known the +plant. Gerard seems to have grown it, though from his describing it as a +native of the sandy shores of the Mediterranean, he perhaps confused it +with the Squirting Cucumber (_Momordica elaterium_). It is a native of +Turkey, but has been found also in Japan. It is also found in the East, +and we read of it in the history of Elisha: "One went out into the field +to gather herbs, and found a wild Vine, and gathered thereof wild +Gourds, his lap full."[59:1] It is not quite certain what species of +Gourd is here meant, but all the old commentators considered it to be +the Colocynth,[59:2] the word "vine" meaning any climbing plant, a +meaning that is still in common use in America. + +All the tribe of Cucumbers are handsome foliaged plants, but they +require room. On the Continent they are much more frequently grown in +gardens than in England, but the hardy perennial Cucumber (_Cucumis +perennis_) makes a very handsome carpet where the space can be spared, +and the Squirting Cucumber (also hardy and perennial) is worth growing +for its curious fruit. (_See also_ PUMPION.) + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[59:1] 2 Kings iv. 39. + +[59:2] "Invenitque quasi vitem sylvestrem, et collegit ex ea +Colocynthidas agri."--_Vulgate._ + + + + +COLUMBINE. + + + (1) _Armado._ + + I am that flower, + + _Dumain._ + + That Mint. + + _Longaville._ + + That Columbine. + + _Love's Labour's Lost_, act v, sc. 2 (661). + + + (2) _Ophelia._ + + There's Fennel for you and Columbines. + + _Hamlet_, act iv, sc. 5 (189). + +This brings us to one of the most favourite of our old-fashioned English +flowers. It is very doubtful whether it is a true native, but from early +times it has been "carefully nursed up in our gardens for the delight +both of its forme and colours" (Parkinson); yet it had a bad character, +as we see from two passages quoted by Steevens-- + + "What's that--a Columbine? + No! that thankless flower grows not in my garden." + + _All Fools_, by CHAPMAN, 1605. + +and again in the 15th Song of Drayton's "Polyolbion"-- + + "The Columbine amongst they sparingly do set." + +Spenser gave it a better character. Among his "gardyn of sweet floures, +that dainty odours from them threw around," he places-- + + "Her neck lyke to a bounch of Cullambynes." + +And, still earlier, Skelton (1463-1529) spoke of it with high praise-- + + "She is the Vyolet, + The Daysy delectable, + The Columbine commendable, + The Ielofer amyable."--_Phyllip Sparrow._ + +Both the English and the Latin names are descriptive of the plant. +Columbine, or the Dove-plant, calls our attention to the "resemblance of +its nectaries to the heads of pigeons in a ring round a dish, a +favourite device of ancient artists" (Dr. Prior); or to "the figure of a +hovering dove with expanded wings, which we obtain by pulling off a +single petal with its attached sepals" (Lady Wilkinson); though it may +also have had some reference to the colour, as the word is used by +Chaucer-- + + "Come forth now with thin eyghen Columbine." + + _The Marchaundes Tale_ (190). + +The Latin name, _Aquilegia_, is generally supposed to come from +_aquilegus_, a water-collector, alluding to the water-holding powers of +the flower; it may, however, be derived from _aquila_, an eagle, but +this seems more doubtful. + +As a favourite garden flower, the Columbine found its way into heraldic +blazonry. "It occurs in the crest of the old Barons Grey of Vitten, as +may be seen in the garter coat of William Grey of Vitten" (Camden +Society 1847), and is thus described in the Painter's bill for the +ceremonial of the funeral of William Lord Grey of Vitten (MS. Coll. of +Arms, i, 13, fol. 35a): "Item, his creste with the favron, or, sette on +a leftehande glove, argent, out thereof issuyinge, caste over threade, a +braunch of Collobyns, blue, the stalk vert." Old Gwillim also enumerates +the Columbine among his "Coronary Herbs," as follows: "He beareth +argent, a chevron sable between three Columbines slipped proper, by the +name of Hall of Coventry. The Columbine is pleasing to the eye, as well +in respect of the seemly (and not vulgar) shape as in regard of the +azury colour thereof, and is holden to be very medicinable for the +dissolving of imposthumations or swellings in the throat." + +As a garden plant the Columbine still holds a favourite place. Hardy, +handsome, and easy of cultivation, it commends itself to the most +ornamental as well as to the cottage garden, and there are so many +different sorts (both species and varieties) that all tastes may be +suited. Of the common species (A. vulgaris) there are double and single, +blue, white, and red; there is the beautiful dwarf A. Pyrenaica, never +exceeding six inches in height, but of a very rich deep blue; there are +the red and yellow ones (A. Skinneri and A. formosa) from North America; +and, to mention no more, there are the lovely A. coerulea and the +grand A. chrysantha from the Rocky Mountains, certainly two of the most +desirable acquisitions to our hardy flowers that we have had in late +years. + + + + +CORK. + + + (1) _Rosalind._ + + I prythee take the Cork out of thy mouth, that I may hear thy + tidings. + + _As You Like It_, act iii, sc. 2 (213). + + + (2) _Clown._ + + As you'ld thrust a Cork into a hogshead. + + _Winter's Tale_, act iii, sc. 3 (95). + + + (3) _Cornwall._ + + Bind fast his Corky arms. + + _King Lear_, act iii, sc. 7 (28). + +It is most probable that Shakespeare had no further acquaintance with +the Cork tree than his use of Corks. The living tree was not introduced +into England till the latter part of the seventeenth century, yet is +very fairly described both by Gerard and Parkinson. The Cork, however, +was largely imported, and was especially used for shoes. Not only did +"shoemakers put it in shoes and pantofles for warmness sake," but for +its lightness it was used for the high-heeled shoes of the fashionable +ladies. I suppose from the following lines that these shoes were a +distinguishing part of a bride's trousseau-- + + "Strip off my bride's array, + My Cork-shoes from my feet, + And, gentle mother, be not coy + To bring my winding sheet." + + _The Bride's Burial_--Roxburghe Ballads. + +The Cork tree is a necessary element in all botanic gardens, but as an +ornamental tree it is not sufficiently distinct from the Ilex. Though a +native of the South of Europe it is hardy in England. + + + + +CORN. + + + (1) _Gonzalo._ + + No use of metal, Corn, or wine, or oil. + + _Tempest_, act ii, sc. 1 (154). + + + (2) _Duke._ + + Our Corn's to reap, for yet our tithe's to sow. + + _Measure for Measure_, act iv, sc. 1 (76). + + + (3) _Titania._ + + Playing on pipes of Corn, (67) + + * * * * * + + The green Corn + Hath rotted ere his youth attained a beard. + + _Midsummer Night's Dream_, act ii, sc. 1 (94). + + + (4) _K. Edward._ + + What valiant foemen, like to autumn's Corn, + Have we mowed down in tops of all their pride! + + _3rd Henry VI_, act v, sc. 7 (3). + + + (5) _Pucelle._ + + Talk like the vulgar sort of market men + That come to gather money for their Corn. + + _1st Henry VI_, act iii, sc. 2 (4). + + + Poor market folks that come to sell their Corn. + + _Ibid._ (14). + + + Good morrow, gallants! want ye Corn for bread? + + _Ibid._ (41). + + + _Burgundy._ + + I trust, ere long, to choke thee with thine own, + And make thee curse the harvest of that Corn. + + _Ibid._ (46). + + + (6) _Duchess._ + + Why droops my lord like over-ripened Corn + Hanging the head at Ceres' plenteous load? + + _2nd Henry VI_, act i, sc. 2. (1). + + + (7) _Warwick._ + + His well-proportioned beard made rough and ragged + Like to the summer's Corn by tempest lodged. + + _2nd Henry VI_, act iii, sc. 2 (175). + + + (8) _Mowbray._ + + We shall be winnow'd with so rough a wind + That even our Corn shall seem as light as chaff. + + _2nd Henry IV_, act iv, sc. 1 (194). + + + (9) _Macbeth._ + + Though bladed Corn be lodged and trees blown down. + + _Macbeth_, act iv, sc. 1 (55). + + + (10) _Longaville._ + + He weeds the Corn, and still lets grow the weeding. + + _Love's Labour's Lost_, act i, sc. 1 (96). + + + (11) _Biron._ + + Allons! allons! sowed Cockle reap'd no Corn. + + _Ibid._, act iv, sc 3 (383). + + + (12) _Edgar._ + + Sleepest or wakest thou, jolly shepherd? + Thy sheep be in the Corn. + + _King Lear_, act iii, sc. 6 (43). + + + (13) _Cordelia._ + + All the idle weeds that grow + In our sustaining Corn. + + _Ibid._, act iv, sc. 4 (6). + + + (14) _Demetrius._ + + First thrash the Corn, then after burn the straw. + + _Titus Andronicus_, act ii, sc. 3 (123). + + + (15) _Marcus._ + + O, let me teach you how to knit again + This scattered Corn into one mutual sheaf. + + _Ibid._, act v, sc. 3 (70). + + + (16) _Pericles._ + + Our ships are stored with Corn to make your needy bread. + + _Pericles_, act i, sc. 4 (95). + + + (17) _Cleon._ + + Your grace that fed my country with your Corn. + + _Ibid._, act iii, sc. 3 (18). + + + (18) _Menenius._ + + For Corn at their own rates. + + _Coriolanus_, act i, sc. 1 (193). + + + _Marcus._ + + The gods sent not Corn for the rich men only. + + _Ibid._ (211). + + + _Marcus._ + + The Volsces have much Corn. + + _Ibid._ (253). + + + _Citizen._ + + We stood up about the Corn. + + _Ibid._, act ii, sc. 3 (16). + + + _Brutus._ + + Corn was given them gratis. + + _Ibid._, act iii, sc. 1 (43). + + + _Coriolanus._ + + Tell me of Corn! + + _Ibid._ (61). + + + The Corn of the storehouse gratis. + + _Ibid._ (125). + + + The Corn was not our recompense. + + _Ibid._ (120). + + + This kind of service + Did not deserve Corn gratis. + + _Coriolanus_, act iii, sc. 1 (124). + + + (19) _Cranmer._ + + I am right glad to catch this good occasion + Most thoroughly to be winnow'd, where my chaff + And Corn shall fly asunder. + + _Henry VIII_, act v, sc. 1 (110). + + + (20) _Cranmer._ + + Her foes shake like a field of beaten Corn + And hang their heads with sorrow. + + _Ibid._, act v, sc. 4 (32). + + + (21) _K. Richard._ + + We'll make foul weather with despised tears; + Our sighs and they shall lodge the summer Corn. + + _Richard II_, act iii, sc. 3 (161). + + + (22) _Arcite._ + + And run + Swifter then winde upon a field of Corne + (Curling the wealthy eares) never flew. + + _Two Noble Kinsmen_, act ii, sc. 3 (91). + + + (23) + + As Corn o'ergrown by weeds, so heedful fear + Is almost choked by unresisted lust. + + _Lucrece_ (281). + +I have made these quotations as short as possible. They could not be +omitted, but they require no comment. + + + + +COWSLIP. + + + (1) _Burgundy._ + + The even mead that erst brought sweetly forth + The freckled Cowslip, Burnet, and green Clover. + + _Henry V_, act v, sc. 2 (48). + + + (2) _Queen._ + + The Violets, Cowslips, and the Primroses, + Bear to my closet. + + _Cymbeline_, act i, sc. 5 (83). + + + (3) _Iachimo._ + + On her left breast + A mole, cinque-spotted, like the crimson drops + I' the bottom of a Cowslip. + + _Ibid._, act ii, sc. 2 (37). + + + (4) _Ariel._ + + Where the bee sucks there suck I, + In a Cowslip's bell I lie. + + _Tempest_, act v, sc. 1 (88). + + + (5) _Thisbe._ + + Those yellow Cowslip cheeks. + + _Midsummer Night's Dream_, act v, sc. 1 (339). + + + (6) _Fairy._ + + The Cowslips tall her pensioners be; + In their gold coats spots you see; + Those be rubies, fairy favours, + In those freckles live their savours; + I must go seek some dewdrops here, + And hang a pearl in every Cowslip's ear. + + _Midsummer Night's Dream_, act ii, sc. 1 (10).[65:1] + +"Cowslips! how the children love them, and go out into the fields on the +sunny April mornings to collect them in their little baskets, and then +come home and pick the pips to make sweet unintoxicating wine, +preserving at the same time untouched a bunch of the goodliest flowers +as a harvest-sheaf of beauty! and then the white soft husks are gathered +into balls and tossed from hand to hand till they drop to pieces, to be +trodden upon and forgotten. And so at last, when each sense has had its +fill of the flower, and they are thoroughly tired of their play, the +children rest from their celebration of the Cowslip. Blessed are such +flowers that appeal to every sense." So wrote Dr. Forbes Watson in his +very pretty and Ruskinesque little work "Flowers and Gardens," and the +passage well expresses one of the chief charms of the Cowslip. It is the +most favourite wild flower with children. It must have been also a +favourite with Shakespeare, for his descriptions show that he had +studied it with affection. The minute description in (6) should be +noticed. The upright golden Cowslip is compared to one of Queen +Elizabeth's Pensioners, who were splendidly dressed, and are frequently +noticed in the literature of the day. With Mrs. Quickly they were the +_ne plus ultra_ of grandeur--"And yet there has been earls, nay, which +is more, pensioners" ("Merry Wives," act ii, sc. 2). Milton, too, sings +in its praise-- + + "Now the bright morning star, day's harbinger, + Comes dancing from the East, and leads with her + The flowering May, who from her green lap throws + The yellow Cowslip and the pale Primrose." + + _Song on May Morning._ + + "Whilst from off the waters fleet, + Then I set my printless feet + O'er the Cowslip's velvet head + That bends not as I tread." + + _Sabrina's Song in Comus._ + +But in "Lycidas" he associates it with more melancholy ideas-- + + "With Cowslips wan that hang the pensive head, + And every flower that sad embroidery wears." + +This association of sadness with the Cowslip is copied by Mrs. Hemans, +who speaks of "Pale Cowslips, meet for maiden's early bier;" but these +are exceptions. All the other poets who have written of the Cowslip (and +they are very numerous) tell of its joyousness, and brightness, and +tender beauty, and its "bland, yet luscious, meadow-breathing scent." + +The names of the plant are a puzzle; botanically it is a Primrose, but +it is never so called. It has many names, but its most common are Paigle +and Cowslip. Paigle has never been satisfactorily explained, nor has +Cowslip. Our great etymologists, Cockayne and Dr. Prior and Wedgwood, +are all at variance on the name; and Dr. Prior assures us that it has +nothing to do with either "cows" or "lips," though the derivation, if +untrue, is at least as old as Ben Jonson, who speaks of "Bright +Dayes-eyes and the lips of Cowes." But we all believe it has, and, +without inquiring too closely into the etymology, we connect the flower +with the rich pastures and meadows of which it forms so pretty a spring +ornament, while its fine scent recalls the sweet breath of the +cow--"just such a sweet, healthy odour is what we find in cows; an odour +which breathes around them as they sit at rest on the pasture, and is +believed by many, perhaps with truth, to be actually curative of +disease" (Forbes Watson). + +Botanically, the Cowslip is a very interesting plant. In all essential +points the Primrose, Cowslip, and Oxlip are identical; the Primrose, +however, choosing woods and copses and the shelter of the hedgerows, the +Cowslip choosing the open meadows, while the Oxlip is found in either. +The garden "Polyanthus of unnumbered dyes" (Thomson's "Seasons:" Spring) +is only another form produced by cultivation, and is one of the most +favourite plants in cottage gardens. It may, however, well be grown in +gardens of more pretension; it is neat in growth, handsome in flower, of +endless variety, and easy cultivation. There are also many varieties of +the Cowslip, of different colours, double and single, which are very +useful in the spring garden. + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[65:1] Drayton also allotted the Cowslip as the special +Fairies' flower-- + + "For the queene a fitting bower, + (Quoth he) is that tall Cowslip flower."--_Nymphidia._ + + + + +CRABS, _see_ APPLE. + + + + +CROCUS, _see_ SAFFRON. + + + + +CROW-FLOWERS. + + + _Queen._ + + There with fantastic garlands did she come + Of Crow-flowers, Nettles, Daisies, and Long Purples. + + _Hamlet_, act iv, sc. 7 (169). + +The Crow-flower is now the Buttercup,[67:1] but in Shakespeare's time it +was applied to the Ragged Robin (_Lychnis flos-cuculi_), and I should +think that this was the flower that poor Ophelia wove into her garland. +Gerard says, "They are not used either in medicine or in nourishment; +but they serve for garlands and crowns, and to deck up gardens." We do +not now use the Ragged Robin for the decking of our gardens, not that we +despise it, for it is a flower that all admire in the hedgerows, but +because we have other members of the same family as easy to grow and +more handsome, such as the double variety of the wild plant, L. +Chalcedonica, L. Lagascae, L. fulgens, L. Haagena, &c. In Shakespeare's +time the name was also given to the Wild Hyacinth, which is so named by +Turner and Lyte; but this could scarcely have been the flower of +Ophelia's garland, which was composed of the flowers of early summer, +and not of spring. (See Appendix, p. 388.) + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[67:1] In Scotland the Wild Hyacinth is still called the Crow-flower-- + + "Sweet the Crow-flower's early bell + Decks Gleniffer's dewy dell, + Blooming like thy bonny sel, + My young, my artless dearie, O." + + TANNAHILL, _Gloomy Winter_. + + + + +CROWN IMPERIAL. + + + _Perdita._ + + Bold Oxlips, and + The Crown Imperial. + + _Winter's Tale_, act iv, sc. 4 (125). + +The Crown Imperial is a Fritillary (_F. imperialis_). It is a native of +Persia, Afghanistan, and Cashmere, but it was very early introduced into +England from Constantinople, and at once became a favourite. Chapman, in +1595, spoke of it as-- + + "Fair Crown Imperial, Emperor of Flowers." + + OVID'S _Banquet of Sense_. + +Gerard had it plentifully in his garden, and Parkinson gave it the +foremost place in his "Paradisus Terrestris." "The Crown Imperial," he +says, "for its stately beautifulnesse deserveth the first place in this +our garden of delight, to be here entreated of before all other +Lillies." George Herbert evidently admired it much-- + + "Then went I to a garden, and did spy + A gallant flower, + The Crown Imperial." + + _Peace_ (13). + +And if not in Shakespeare's time, yet certainly very soon after, there +were as many varieties as there are now. The plant, as a florist's +flower, has stood still in a very remarkable way. Though it is +apparently a plant that invites the attention of the hybridizing +gardener, yet we still have but the two colours, the red and the yellow +(a pure white would be a great acquisition), with single and double +flowers, flowers in tiers, and with variegated leaves. And all these +varieties have existed for more than two hundred years. + +As a stately garden plant it should be in every garden. It flowers +early, and then dies down. But it should be planted rather in the +background, as the whole plant has an evil smell, especially in +sunshine. Yet it should have a close attention, if only to study and +admire the beautiful interior of the flower. I know of no other flower +that is similarly formed, and it cannot be better described than in +Gerard's words: "In the bottome of each of the bells there is placed six +drops of most cleere shining sweet water, in taste like sugar, +resembling in shew faire Orient pearles, the which drops if you take +away, there do immediately appeare the like; notwithstanding, if they +may be suffered to stand still in the floure according to his owne +nature, they wil never fall away, no, not if you strike the plant untill +it be broken." How these drops are formed, and what service they perform +in the economy of the flower, has not been explained, as far as I am +aware; but there is a pretty German legend which tells how the flower +was originally white and erect, and grew in its full beauty in the +garden of Gethsemane, where it was often noticed and admired by our +Lord; but in the night of the agony, as our Lord passed through the +garden, all the other flowers bowed their head in sorrowful adoration, +the Crown Imperial alone remaining with its head unbowed, but not for +long--sorrow and shame took the place of pride, she bent her proud[69:1] +head, and blushes of shame, and tears of sorrow soon followed, and so +she has ever continued, with bent head, blushing colour, and +ever-flowing tears. It is a pretty legend, and may be found at full +length in "Good Words for the Young," August, 1870. + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[69:1] The bent head of the Crown Imperial could not well escape +notice-- + + "The Polyanthus, and with prudent head, + The Crown Imperial, ever bent on earth, + Favouring her secret rites, and pearly sweets."--FORSTER. + + + + +CUCKOO-BUDS AND FLOWERS. + + + (1) _Song of Spring._ + + When Daisies pied, and Violets blue, + And Lady-smocks all silver-white, + And Cuckoo-buds of yellow hue, + Do paint the meadows with delight. + + _Love's Labour's Lost_, act v, sc. 2 (904). + + + (2) _Cordelia._ + + He was met even now + As mad as the vex'd sea; singing aloud; + Crown'd with rank Fumiter and Furrow-weeds, + With Burdocks, Hemlock, Nettles, Cuckoo-flowers, + Darnel, and all the idle weeds that grow + In our sustaining Corn. + + _King Lear_, act iv, sc. 4 (1). + +There is a difficulty in deciding what flower Shakespeare meant by +Cuckoo-buds. We now always give the name to the Meadow Cress (_Cardamine +pratensis_), but it cannot be that in either of these passages, because +that flower is mentioned under its other name of Lady-smocks in the +previous line (No. 1), nor is it "of yellow hue;" nor does it grow among +Corn, as described in No. 2. Many plants have been suggested, and the +choice seems to me to lie between two. Mr. Swinfen Jervis[70:1] decides +without hesitation in favour of Cowslips, and the yellow hue painting +the meadows in spring time gives much force to the decision; Schmidt +gives the same interpretation; but I think the Buttercup, as suggested +by Dr. Prior, will still better meet the requirements. + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[70:1] "Dictionary of the Language of Shakespeare," 1868. + + + + +CUPID'S FLOWER, _see_ PANSIES. + + + + +CURRANTS. + + + (1) _Clown._ + + What am I to buy for our sheep-shearing feast? Three pound of + Sugar, five pound of Currants. + + _Winter's Tale_, act iv, sc. 3 (39). + + + (2) _Theseus._ + + I stamp this kisse upon thy Currant lippe. + + _Two Noble Kinsmen_, act i, sc. 1 (241). + +The Currants of (1) are the Currants of commerce, the fruit of the Vitis +Corinthiaca, whence the fruit has derived its name of Corans, or +Currants. + +The English Currants are of an entirely different family; and are +closely allied to the Gooseberry. The Currants--black, white, and +red--are natives of the northern parts of Europe, and are probably wild +in Britain. They do not seem to have been much grown as garden fruit +till the early part of the sixteenth century, and are not mentioned by +the earlier writers; but that they were known in Shakespeare's time we +have the authority of Gerard, who, speaking of Gooseberries, says: "We +have also in our London gardens another sort altogether without prickes, +whose fruit is very small, lesser by muche than the common kinde, but of +a perfect red colour." This "perfect red colour" explains the "currant +lip" of No. 2. + + + + +CYME, _see_ SENNA. + + + + +CYPRESS.[71:1] + + + (1) _Suffolk._ + + Their sweetest shade, a grove of Cypress trees! + + _2nd Henry VI_, act iii, sc. 2 (322). + + + (2) _Aufidius._ + + I am attended at the Cypress grove. + + _Coriolanus_, act i, sc. 10 (30). + + + (3) _Gremio._ + + In ivory coffers I have stuff'd my crowns, + In Cypress chests my arras counterpoints. + + _Taming of the Shrew_, act ii, sc. 1 (351). + +The Cypress (_Cupressus sempervirens_), originally a native of Mount +Taurus, is found abundantly through all the South of Europe, and is said +to derive its name from the Island of Cyprus. It was introduced into +England many years before Shakespeare's time, but is always associated +in the old authors with funerals and churchyards; so that Spenser calls +it the "Cypress funereal," which epithet he may have taken from Pliny's +description of the Cypress: "Natu morosa, fructu supervacua, baccis +torva, foliis amara, odore violenta, ac ne umbra quidem gratiosa--Diti +sacra, et ideo funebri signo ad domos posita" ("Nat. Hist.," xvi. 32). + +Sir John Mandeville mentions the Cypress in a very curious way: "The +Cristene men, that dwellen beyond the See, in Grece, seyn that the tree +of the Cros, that we callen Cypresse, was of that tree that Adam ete the +Appule of; and that fynde thei writen" ("Voiage," &c., cap. 2). And the +old poem of the "Squyr of lowe degre," gives the tree a sacred +pre-eminence-- + + "The tre it was of Cypresse, + The fyrst tre that Iesu chese." + + RITSON'S _Ear. Eng. Met. Romances_, viii. (31). + +"In the Arundel MS. 42 may be found an alphabet of plants. . . . The +author mentions his garden 'by Stebenhythe by syde London,' and relates +that he brought a bough of Cypress with its Apples from Bristol 'into +Estbritzlond,' fresh in September, to show that it might be propagated +by slips."--_Promptorium Parvulorum_, app. 67. + +The Cypress is an ornamental evergreen, but stiff in its growth till it +becomes of a good age; and for garden purposes the European plant is +becoming replaced by the richer forms from Asia and North America, such +as C. Lawsoniana, macrocarpa, Lambertiana, and others. + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[71:1] Cypress, or Cyprus (for the word is spelt differently in the +different editions), is also mentioned by Shakespeare in the following-- + + (1) _Clown._ + + In sad Cypress let me be laid. + + _Twelfth Night_, act ii, sc. 4. + + + (2) _Olivia._ + + To one of your receiving + Enough is shown; and Cyprus, not a bosom, + Hides my poor heart. + + _Ibid._, act iii, sc. 1. + + + (3) _Autolycus._ + + Lawn as white as driven snow, + Cyprus, black as e'er was crow. + + _Winter's Tale_, act iv, sc. 3. + +But in all these cases the Cypress is not the name of the plant, but is +the fabric which we now call crape, the "sable stole of Cypre's lawn" of +Milton's "Penseroso." + + + + +DAFFODILS.[73:1] + + + (1) _Autolycus._ + + When Daffodils begin to peer, + With heigh! the doxy o'er the dale, + Why, then comes in the sweet o' the year. + + _Winter's Tale_, act iv, sc. 3 (1). + + + (2) _Perdita._ + + Daffodils + That come before the swallow dares, and take + The winds of March with beauty. + + _Ibid._, act iv, sc. 4 (118). + + + (3) _Wooer._ + + With chaplets on their heads of Daffodillies. + + _Two Noble Kinsmen_, act iv, sc. 1 (94). + +_See also_ NARCISSUS, p. 175. + +Of all English plants there have been none in such constant favour as +the Daffodil, whether known by its classical name of Narcissus, or by +its more popular names of Daffodil, or Daffadowndilly, and Jonquil. The +name of Narcissus it gets from being supposed to be the same as the +plant so named by the Greeks first and the Romans afterwards. It is a +question whether the plants are the same, and I believe most authors +think they are not; but I have never been able to see very good reasons +for their doubts. The name Jonquil comes corrupted through the French, +from _juncifolius_ or "rush-leaf," and is properly restricted to those +species of the family which have rushy leaves. "Daffodil" is commonly +said to be a corruption of Asphodel ("Daffodil is +Asphodelon+, and has +capped itself with a letter which eight hundred years ago did not belong +to it."--COCKAYNE, _Spoon and Sparrow_, 19), with which plant it was +confused (as it is in Lyte's "Herbal"), but Lady Wilkinson says very +positively that "it is simply the old English word 'affodyle,'[73:2] +which signifies 'that which cometh early.'" "Daffadowndilly," again is +supposed to be but a playful corruption of "Daffodil," but Dr. Prior +argues (and he is a very safe authority) that it is rather a corruption +of "Saffron Lily." Daffadowndilly is not used by Shakespeare, but it is +used by his contemporaries, as by Spenser frequently, and by H. +Constable, who died in 1604-- + + "Diaphenia, like the Daffadowndilly, + White as the sun, fair as the Lilly, + Heigh, ho! how I do love thee!" + +But however it derived its pretty names, it was the favourite flower of +our ancestors as a garden flower, and especially as the flower for +making garlands, a custom very much more common then than it is now. It +was the favourite of all English poets. Gower describes the Narcissus-- + + "For in the winter fresh and faire + The flowres ben, which is contraire + To kind, and so was the folie + Which fell of his surquedrie"--_i.e._, of Narcissus. + + _Confes. Aman._ lib. prim. (1. 121 Paulli). + +Shakespeare must have had a special affection for it, for in all his +descriptions there is none prettier or more suggestive than Perdita's +short but charming description of the Daffodil (No. 2). A small volume +might be filled with the many poetical descriptions of this "delectable +and sweet-smelling flower," but there are some which are almost +classical, and which can never be omitted, and which will bear +repetition, however well we know them. Milton says, "The Daffodillies +fill their cups with tears."[74:1] There are Herrick's well-known +lines-- + + "Fair Daffodils, we weep to see + You haste away so soon, + As yet the early-rising sun + Has not attained his noon; + Stay, stay, + Until the hastening day + Has run + But to the even-song; + And having prayed together, we + Will go with you along. + + We have short time to stay as you, + We have as short a spring, + As quick a growth to meet decay, + As you or anything. + We die, + As your hours do, and dry + Away, + Like to the summer's rain, + Or as the pearls of morning dew, + Ne'er to be found again." + +And there are Keats' and Shelley's well-known and beautiful lines which +bring down the praises of the Daffodil to our own day. Keats says-- + + "A thing of beauty is a joy for ever, + Its loveliness increases, it will never + Pass into nothingness. . . . . . + . . . . . In spite of all + Some shape of beauty moves away the pale + From our dark spirits. Such the sun, the moon, + Trees old and young, sprouting a shady boon + For simple sheep; and such are Daffodils + With the green world they live in." + +Shelley is still warmer in his praise-- + + "Narcissus, the fairest among them all, + Who gaze on their eyes in the stream's recess, + Till they die of their own dear loveliness." + + _The Sensitive Plant_, p. 1. + +Nor must Wordsworth be left out when speaking of the poetry of +Daffodils. His stanzas are well known, while his sister's prose +description of them is the most poetical of all: "They grew among the +mossy stones; . . . some rested their heads on these stones as on a +pillow, the rest tossed and reeled and danced, and seemed as if they +verily laughed with the wind, they looked so gay and glancing."[76:1] + +But it is time to come to prose. The Daffodil of Shakespeare is the Wild +Daffodil (_Narcissus pseudo-Narcissus_) that is found in abundance in +many parts of England. This is the true English Daffodil, and there is +only one other species that is truly native--the N. biflorus, chiefly +found in Devonshire. But long before Shakespeare's time a vast number +had been introduced from different parts of Europe, so that Gerard was +able to describe twenty-four different species, and had "them all and +every of them in our London gardens in great abundance." The family, as +at present arranged by Mr. J. G. Baker, of the Kew Herbarium, consists +of twenty-one species, with several sub-species and varieties; all of +which should be grown. They are all, with the exception of the Algerian +species, which almost defy cultivation in England, most easy of +cultivation--"Magna cura non indigent Narcissi." They only require after +the first planting to be let alone, and then they will give us their +graceful flowers in varied beauty from February to May. The first will +usually be the grand N. maximus, which may be called the King of +Daffodils, though some authors have given to it a still more illustrious +name. The "Rose of Sharon" was the large yellow Narcissus, common in +Palestine and the East generally, of which Mahomet said: "He that has +two cakes of bread, let him sell one of them for some flower of the +Narcissus, for bread is the food of the body, but Narcissus is the food +of the soul." From these grand leaders of the tribe we shall be led +through the Hoop-petticoats, the many-flowered Tazettas, and the sweet +Jonquils, till we end the Narcissus season with the Poets' Narcissus +(Ben Jonson's "chequ'd and purple-ringed Daffodilly"), certainly one of +the most graceful flowers that grows, and of a peculiar fragrance that +no other flower has; so beautiful is it, that even Dr. Forbes Watson's +description of it is scarcely too glowing: "In its general expression +the Poets' Narcissus seems a type of maiden purity and beauty, yet +warmed by a love-breathing fragrance; and yet what innocence in the +large soft eye, which few can rival amongst the whole tribe of flowers. +The narrow, yet vivid fringe of red, so clearly seen amidst the +whiteness, suggests again the idea of purity, gushing passion--purity +with a heart which can kindle into fire." + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[73:1] This account of the Daffodil, and the accounts of some other +flowers, I have taken from a paper by myself on the common English names +of plants read to the Bath Field Club in 1870, and published in the +"Transactions" of the Club, and afterwards privately printed.--H. N. E. + +[73:2] + + "Herbe orijam and Thyme and Violette + Eke Affodyle and savery thereby sette." + + _Palladius on Husbandrie_, book i, 1014. + (E. E. Text Soc.) + +[74:1] "The cup in the centre of the flower is supposed to contain the +tears of Narcissus, to which Milton alludes; . . . and Virgil in the +following-- + + 'Pars intra septa domorum + Narcissi lacrymas . . . ponunt.'"--_Flora Domestica_, 268. + +[76:1] The "Quarterly Review," quoting this description, says that "few +poets ever lived who could have written a description so simple and +original, so vivid and descriptive." Yet it is an unconscious imitation +of Homer's account of the Narcissus-- + + "+narkisson th' . . . + thaumaston ganoonta; sebas de te pasin idesthai + athanatois te theois ede thnetois anthropois; + tou kai apo rizes hekaton kara exepephykei; + keodei t' odme pas t' ouranos eurys hyperthen, + gaia te pas; egelasse, kai almyron oidma thalasses.+" + + _Hymn to Demeter_, 8-14. + + + + +DAISIES. + + + (1) _Song of Spring._ + + When Daisies pied, and Violets, &c. + + _Love's Labour's Lost_, act v, sc. 2 (904). + (_See_ CUCKOO-BUDS.) + + + (2) _Lucius._ + + Let us + Find out the prettiest Daisied plot we can, + And make him with our pikes and partizans + A grave. + + _Cymbeline_, act iv, sc. 2 (397). + + + (3) _Ophelia._ + + There's a Daisy. + + _Hamlet_, act iv, sc. 5 (183). + + + (4) _Queen._ + + There with fantastic garlands did she come + Of Crow-flowers, Nettles, Daisies, and Long Purples. + + _Ibid._, act iv, sc. 7 (169). + + + (5) + + Without the bed her other faire hand was + On the green coverlet; whose perfect white + Show'd like an April Daisy on the Grass. + + _Lucrece_ (393). + + + (6) + + Daisies smel-lesse, yet most quaint. + + _Two Noble Kinsmen_, Introd. song. + +_See_ APPENDIX. I., p. 359. + + + + +DAMSONS, _see_ PLUMS. + + + + +DARNEL. + + + (1) _Cordelia._ + + Darnel, and all the idle weeds that grow + In our sustaining Corn. + + _King Lear_, act iv, sc. 4 (5). + (_See_ CUCKOO-FLOWERS.) + + + (2) _Burgundy._ + + Her fallow leas, + The Darnel, Hemlock, and rank Fumitory + Doth root upon. + + _Henry V_, act v, sc. 2 (44). + + + (3) _Pucelle._ + + Good morrow, Gallants! want ye Corn for bread? + I think the Duke of Burgundy will fast, + Before he'll buy again at such a rate; + 'Twas full of Darnel; do you like the taste? + + _1st Henry VI_, act iii, sc. 2 (41). + +Virgil, in his Fifth Eclogue, says-- + + "Grandia saepe quibus mandavimus hordea solcis + Infelix lolium et steriles dominantur avenae." + +Thus translated by Thomas Newton, 1587-- + + "Sometimes there sproutes abundant store + Of baggage, noisome weeds, + Burres, Brembles, Darnel, Cockle, Dawke, + Wild Oates, and choaking seedes." + +And the same is repeated in the first Georgic, and in both places +_lolium_ is always translated Darnel, and so by common consent Darnel is +identified with the Lolium temulentum or wild Rye Grass. But in +Shakespeare's time Darnel, like Cockle (which see), was the general name +for any hurtful weed. In the old translation of the Bible, the Zizania, +which is now translated Tares, was sometime translated Cockle,[78:1] and +Newton, writing in Shakespeare's time, says--"Under the name of Cockle +and Darnel is comprehended all vicious, noisom and unprofitable graine, +encombring and hindring good corne."--_Herball to the Bible._ The Darnel +is not only injurious from choking the corn, but its seeds become mixed +with the true Wheat, and so in Dorsetshire--and perhaps in other +parts--it has the name of "Cheat" (Barnes' Glossary), from its false +likeness to Wheat. It was this false likeness that got for it its bad +character. "Darnell or Juray," says Lyte ("Herball," 1578), "is a +vitious graine that combereth or anoyeth corne, especially Wheat, and in +his knotten straw, blades, or leaves is like unto Wheate." Yet Lindley +says that "the noxious qualities of Darnel or Lolium temulentum seem to +rest upon no certain proof" ("Vegetable Kingdom," p. 116). + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[78:1] "When men were a sleepe, his enemy came and oversowed Cockle +among the wheate, and went his way."--_Rheims Trans._, 1582. For further +early references to Cockle or Darnel see note on "Darnelle" in the +"Catholicon Anglicum," p. 90, and Britten's "English Plant Names," p. +143. + + + + +DATES. + + + (1) _Clown._ + + I must have Saffron to colour the Warden pies--Mace--Dates? + none; that's out of my note. + + _Winter's Tale_, act iv, sc. 3 (48). + + + (2) _Nurse._ + + They call for Dates and Quinces in the pastry. + + _Romeo and Juliet_, act iv, sc. 4 (2). + + + (3) _Parolles._ + + Your Date is better in your pie and your porridge than in your + cheek. + + _All's Well that Ends Well_, act i, sc. 1 (172). + + + (4) _Pandarus._ + + Do you know what a man is? Is not birth, beauty, good shape, + discourse, manhood, learning, gentleness, virtue, youth, + liberality, and such like, the spice and salt that season a + man? + + _Cressida._ + + Ay, a minced man; and then to be baked with no Date in the + pye; for then the man's date's out. + + _Troilus and Cressida_, act i, sc. 2 (274). + +The Date is the well-known fruit of the Date Palm (_Phoenix +dactylifera_), the most northern of the Palms. The Date Palm grows over +the whole of Southern Europe, North Africa, and South-eastern Asia; but +it is not probable that Shakespeare ever saw the tree, though Neckam +speaks of it in the twelfth century, and Lyte describes it, and Gerard +made many efforts to grow it; he tried to grow plants from the seed, +"the which I have planted many times in my garden, and have grown to the +height of three foot, but the first frost hath nipped them in such sort +that they perished, notwithstanding mine industrie by covering them, or +what else I could do for their succour." The fruit, however, was +imported into England in very early times, and was called by the +Anglo-Saxons Finger-Apples, a curious name, but easily explained as the +translation of the Greek name for the fruit, +daktyloi+ which was also +the origin of the word date, of which the olden form was dactylle.[80:1] + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[80:1] "A dactylle frute dactilis."--_Catholicon Anglicum._ + + + + +DEAD MEN'S FINGERS. + + + _Queen._ + + Our cold maids do Dead Men's Fingers call them. + + _Hamlet_, act iv, sc. 7 (172). + +_See_ LONG PURPLES, p. 148. + + + + +DEWBERRIES. + + + _Titania._ + + Feed him with Apricocks and Dewberries. + + _Midsummer Night's Dream_, act iii, sc. 1 (169). + +The Dewberry (_Rubus caesius_) is a handsome fruit, very like the +Blackberry, but coming earlier. It has a peculiar sub-acid flavour, +which is much admired by some, as it must have been by Titania, who +joins it with such fruits as Apricots, Grapes, Figs, and Mulberries. It +may be readily distinguished from the Blackberry by the fruit being +composed of a few larger drupes, and being covered with a glaucous +bloom. + + + + +DIAN'S BUD. + + + _Oberon._ + + Be, as thou wast wont to be + (touching her eyes with an herb), + See, as thou wast wont to see; + Dian's Bud o'er Cupid's flower + Hath such force and blessed power. + + _Midsummer Night's Dream_, act iv, sc. 1 (76). + +The same herb is mentioned in act iii, sc. 2 (366)-- + + Then crush this herb into Lysander's eye, + Whose liquor hath this virtuous property, + To take from thence all error, with his might, + And make his eyeballs roll with wonted sight. + +But except in these two passages I believe the herb is not mentioned by +any author. It can be nothing but Shakespeare's translation of +Artemisia, the herb of Artemis or Diana, a herb of wonderful virtue +according to the writers before Shakespeare's day. (_See_ WORMWOOD.) + + + + +DOCKS. + + + (1) _Burgundy._ + + And nothing teems + But hateful Docks, rough Thistles, Kecksies, Burs. + + _Henry V_, act v, sc. 2 (51). + + + (2) _Antonio._ + + He'd sow it with Nettle seed, + + _Sebastian._ + + Or Docks, or Mallows. + + _Tempest_, act ii, sc. 1 (145). + +The Dock may be dismissed with little note or comment, merely remarking +that the name is an old one, and is variously spelled as dokke, dokar, +doken, &c. An old name for the plant was "Patience;" the "bitter +patience" of Spenser, which is supposed by Dr. Prior to be a corruption +of Passions. + + + + +DOGBERRY. + + +(_Dramatis personae_ in _Much Ado About Nothing._) + +The Dogberry is the fruit either of the Cornus sanguinea or of the +Euonymus Europaeus. Parkinson limits the name to the Cornus, and says: +"We for the most part call it the _Dogge berry tree_, because the +berries are not fit to be eaten, or to be given to a dogge." The plant +is only named by Shakespeare as a man's name, but it could scarcely be +omitted, as I agree with Mr. Milner that it was "probable that our +dramatist had the tree in his mind when he gave a name to that fine +fellow for a 'sixth and lastly,' Constable, Dogberry of the Watch" +("Country Pleasures," p. 229). + + + + +EBONY. + + + (1) _King._ + + The Ebon-coloured ink. + + _Love's Labour's Lost_, act i, sc. 1 (245). + + + (2) _King._ + + By heaven, thy love is black as Ebony. + + _Biron._ + + Is Ebony like her? O wood divine! + A wife of such wood were felicity. + + _Ibid._, act iv, sc. 3 (247). + + + (3) _Clown._ + + The clearstores towards the south north are as lustrous as + Ebony. + + _Twelfth Night_, act iv, sc. 2 (41). + + + (4) _Pistol._ + + Rouse up revenge from Ebon den. + + _2nd Henry IV_, act v, sc. 5 (39). + + + (5) Death's Ebon dart, to strike him dead. + + _Venus and Adonis_ (948). + +The Ebony as a tree was unknown in England in the time of Shakespeare. +The wood was introduced, and was the typical emblem of darkness. The +timber is the produce of more than one species, but comes chiefly from +Diospyros Ebenum, Ebenaster, Melanoxylon, Mabola, &c. (Lindley), all +natives of the East. + + + + +EGLANTINE. + + + (1) _Oberon._ + + I know a bank where the wild Thyme blows, + Where Oxlips and the nodding Violet grows; + Quite over-canopied with luscious Woodbine, + With sweet Musk-Roses and with Eglantine. + + _Midsummer Night's Dream_, act ii, sc. 1 (249). + + + (2) _Arviragus._ + + Thou shalt not lack + The flower that's like thy face, pale Primrose, nor + The azured Harebell, like thy veins, no, nor + The leaf of Eglantine, whom not to slander, + Out-sweeten'd not thy breath. + + _Cymbeline_, act iv, sc. 2 (220). + +If Shakespeare had only written these two passages they would +sufficiently have told of his love for simple flowers. None but a dear +lover of such flowers could have written these lines. There can be no +doubt that the Eglantine in his time was the Sweet Brier--his notice of +the sweet leaf makes this certain. Gerard so calls it, but makes some +confusion--which it is not easy to explain--by saying that the flowers +are white, whereas the flowers of the true Sweet Brier are pink. In the +earlier poets the name seems to have been given to any wild Rose, and +Milton certainly did not consider the Eglantine and the Sweet Brier to +be identical. He says ("L'Allegro")-- + + "Through the Sweet Briar or the Vine, + Or the twisted Eglantine." + +But Milton's knowledge of flowers was very limited. Herrick has some +pretty lines on the flower, in which it seems most probable that he was +referring to the Sweet Brier-- + + "From this bleeding hand of mine + Take this sprig of Eglantine, + Which, though sweet unto your smell, + Yet the fretful Briar will tell, + He who plucks the sweets shall prove + Many Thorns to be in love." + +It was thus the emblem of pleasure mixed with pain-- + + "Sweet is the Eglantine, but pricketh nere." + + SPENSER, _Sonnet_ xxvi. + +And so its names pronounced it to be; it was either the Sweet Brier, or +it was Eglantine, the thorny plant (Fr., _aiglentier_). There was also +an older name for the plant, of which I can give no explanation. It was +called Bedagar. "Bedagar dicitur gallice aiglentier" (John de +Gerlande). "_Bedagrage_, spina alba, wit-thorn" (Harl. MS., No. 978 in +"Reliquiae Antiquae," i, 36).[84:1] The name still exists, though not in +common use; but only as the name of a drug made from "the excrescences +on the branches of the Rose, and particularly on those of the wild +varieties" (Parsons on the Rose). + +It is a native of Britain, but not very common, being chiefly confined +to the South of England. I have found it on Maidenhead Thicket. As a +garden plant it is desirable for the extremely delicate scent of its +leaves, but the flower is not equal to others of the family. There is, +however, a double-flowered variety, which is handsome. The fruit of the +single flowered tree is large, and of a deep red colour, and is said to +be sometimes made into a preserve. In modern times this is seldom done, +but it may have been common in Shakespeare's time, for Gerard says +quaintly: "The fruit when it is ripe maketh most pleasant meats and +banqueting dishes, as tarts and such like, the making whereof I commit +to the cunning cooke, and teeth to eat them in the rich man's mouth." +And Drayton says-- + + "They'll fetch you conserve from the hip, + And lay it softly on your lip." + + _Nymphal II._ + +Eglantine has a further interest in being one of the many thorny trees +from which the sacred crown of thorns was supposed to be made--"And +afterwards he was led into a garden of Cayphas, and there he was crowned +with Eglantine" (Sir John Mandeville). + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[84:1] "Est et cynosrodos, rosa camina, ung eglantier, folia myrti +habens, sed paulo majora; recta assurgens in mediam altitudinem inter +arborem et fruticem; fert spongiolas, quibus utuntur medici, ad malefica +capitis ulcera, la malle tigne, vocatur antem vulgo in officinis +pharmacopolarum, bedegar."--_Stephani de re Hortensi Libellus_, p. 17, +1536. + + + + +ELDER. + + + (1) _Arviragus._ + + And let the stinking Elder, grief, untwine + His perishing root with the increasing Vine! + + _Cymbeline_, act iv, sc. 2 (59). + + + (2) _Host._ + + What says my AEsculapius? my Galen? my heart of Elder? + + _Merry Wives_, act ii, sc. 3 (29). + + + (3) _Saturninus._ + + Look for thy reward + Among the Nettles at the Elder tree, + + * * * * * + + This is the pit and this the Elder tree. + + _Titus Andronicus_, act ii, sc. 3 (271). + + + (4) _Williams._ + + That's a perilous shot out of an Elder gun, that a poor and + private displeasure can do against a monarch. + + _Henry V_, act iv, sc. 1 (200). + + + (5) _Holofernes._ + + Begin, sir, you are my Elder. + + _Biron._ + + Well followed; Judas was hanged on an Elder. + + _Love's Labour's Lost_, act v, sc. 2 (608). + +There is, perhaps, no tree round which so much of contradictory +folk-lore has gathered as the Elder tree.[85:1] With many it was simply +"the stinking Elder," of which nothing but evil could be spoken. Biron +(No. 5) only spoke the common mediaeval notion that "Judas was hanged on +an Elder;" and so firm was this belief that Sir John Mandeville was +shown the identical tree at Jerusalem, "and faste by is zit, the Tree of +Eldre that Judas henge himself upon, for despeyr that he hadde, when he +solde and betrayed oure Lord." This was enough to give the tree a bad +fame, which other things helped to confirm--the evil smell of its +leaves, the heavy narcotic smell of its flowers, its hard and heartless +wood,[85:2] and the ugly drooping black fungus that is almost +exclusively found on it (though it occurs also on the Elm), which was +vulgarly called the Ear of Judas (_Hirneola auricula Judae_). This was +the bad character; but, on the other hand, there were many who could +tell of its many virtues, so that in 1644 appeared a book entirely +devoted to its praises. This was "The Anatomie of the Elder, translated +from the Latin of Dr. Martin Blockwich by C. de Iryngio" (_i.e._, +Christ. Irvine), a book that, in its Latin and English form, went +through several editions. And this favourable estimate of the tree is +still very common in several parts of the Continent. In the South of +Germany it is believed to drive away evil spirits, and the name +"'Holderstock' (Elder Stock) is a term of endearment given by a lover to +his beloved, and is connected with Hulda, the old goddess of love, to +whom the Elder tree was considered sacred." In Denmark and Norway it is +held in like esteem, and in the Tyrol an "Elder bush, trained into the +form of a cross, is planted on the new-made grave, and if it blossoms +the soul of the person lying beneath it is happy." And this use of the +Elder for funeral purposes was, perhaps, also an old English custom; for +Spenser, speaking of Death, says-- + + "The Muses that were wont greene Baies to weare, + Now bringen bittre Eldre braunches seare." + + _Shepherd's Calendar--November._ + +Nor must we pass by the high value that was placed on the wood both by +the Jews and Greeks. It was the wood chiefly used for musical +instruments, so that the name Sambuke was applied to several very +different instruments, from the fact that they were all made of Elder +wood. The "sackbut," "dulcimer," and "pipe" of Daniel iii. are all +connected together in this manner. + +As a garden plant the common Elder is not admissible, though it forms a +striking ornament in the wild hedgerows and copses, while its flowers +yield the highly perfumed Elder-flower water, and its fruits give the +Elder wine; but the tree runs into many varieties, several of which are +very ornamental, the leaves being often very finely divided and jagged, +and variegated both with golden and silver blotches. There is a handsome +species from Canada (Sambucus Canadensis), which is worth growing in +shrubberies, as it produces its pure white flowers in autumn. + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[85:1] Called also Eldern in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, +and still earlier, Eller or Ellyr ("Catholicon Anglicum"). "The Ellern +is a tree with long bowes, ful sounde and sad wythout, and ful holowe +within, and ful of certayne nesshe pyth."--_Clanvil de prop._ + +[85:2] From the facility with which the hard wood can be hollowed out, +the tree was from very ancient times called the Bore-tree. See +"Catholicon Anglicum," s.v. Bur-tre. + + + + +ELM. + + + (1) _Adriana._ + + Thou art an Elm, my husband, I a Vine, + Whose weakness married to thy stronger state + Makes me with thy strength to communicate. + + _Comedy of Errors_, act ii, sc. 2 (176). + + + (2) _Titania._ + + The female Ivy so + Enrings the barky fingers of the Elm. + + _Midsummer Night's Dream_, act iv, sc. 1 (48). + + + (3) _Poins._ + + Answer, thou dead Elm, answer![87:1] + + _2nd Henry IV_, act ii, sc, 4 (358). + +Though Vineyards were more common in England in the sixteenth century +than now, yet I can nowhere find that the Vines were ever trained, in +the Italian fashion, to Elms or Poplars. Yet Shakespeare does not stand +alone in thus speaking of the Elm in its connection with the Vine. +Spenser speaks of "the Vine-prop Elme," and Milton-- + + "They led the Vine + To wed her Elm; she spoused, about him twines + Her marriageable arms, and with her brings + Her dower, the adopted clusters, to adorn + His barren leaves." + +And Browne-- + + "She, whose inclination + Bent all her course to him-wards, let him know + He was the Elm, whereby her Vine did grow." + + _Britannia's Pastorals_, book i, song 1. + + + "An Elm embraced by a Vine, + Clipping so strictly that they seemed to be + One in their growth, one shade, one fruit, one tree; + Her boughs his arms; his leaves so mixed with hers, + That with no wind he moved, but straight she stirs." + + _Ibid._, ii, 4. + +But I should think that neither Shakespeare, nor Browne, nor Milton ever +saw an English Vine trained to an Elm; they were simply copying from the +classical writers. + +The Wych Elm is probably a true native, but the more common Elm of our +hedgerows is a tree of Southern Europe and North Africa, and is of such +modern introduction into England that in Evelyn's time it was rarely +seen north of Stamford. It was probably introduced into Southern England +by the Romans. + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[87:1] Why Falstaff should be called a dead Elm is not very apparent; +but the Elm was associated with death as producing the wood for coffins. +Thus Chaucer speaks of it as "the piler Elme, the cofre unto careyne," +_i.e._, carrion ("Parliament of Fowles," 177). + + + + +ERINGOES. + + + _Falstaff._ + + Let the sky rain Potatoes; let it thunder to the tune of Green + Sleeves, hail kissing-comfits, and snow Eringoes. + + _Merry Wives_, act v, sc. 5 (20). + +Gerard tells us that Eringoes are the candied roots of the Sea Holly +(_Eryngium maritimum_), and he gives the recipe for candying them. I am +not aware that the Sea Holly is ever now so used, but it is a very +handsome plant as it is seen growing on the sea shore, and its fine +foliage makes it an ornamental plant for a garden. But as used by +Falstaff I am inclined to think that the vegetable he wished for was the +Globe Artichoke, which is a near ally of the Eryngium, was a favourite +diet in Shakespeare's time, and was reputed to have certain special +virtues which are not attributed to the Sea Holly, but which would more +accord with Falstaff's character.[88:1] I cannot, however, anywhere find +that the Artichoke was called Eringoes. + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[88:1] For these supposed virtues of the Artichoke see Bullein's "Book +of Simples." + + + + +FENNEL. + + + (1) _Ophelia._ + + There's Fennel for you and Columbines. + + _Hamlet_, act iv, sc 5 (189). + + + (2) _Falstaff._ + + And a' plays at quoits well, and eats conger and Fennel. + + _2nd Henry IV_, act ii, sc. 4 (266). + +The Fennel was always a plant of high reputation. The Plain of Marathon +was so named from the abundance of Fennel (+marathron+) growing on +it.[89:1] And like all strongly scented plants, it was supposed by the +medical writers to abound in "virtues." Gower, describing the star +Pleiades, says-- + + "Eke his herbe in speciall + The vertuous Fenel it is." + + _Conf. Aman._, lib. sept. (3, 129. Paulli.) + +These virtues cannot be told more pleasantly than by Longfellow-- + + "Above the lowly plants it towers, + The Fennel with its yellow flowers, + And in an earlier age than ours + Was gifted with the wondrous powers-- + Lost vision to restore. + It gave men strength and fearless mood, + And gladiators fierce and rude + Mingled it with their daily food: + And he who battled and subdued + A wreath of Fennel wore." + +"Yet the virtues of Fennel, as thus enumerated by Longfellow, do not +comprise either of those attributes of the plant which illustrate the +two passages from Shakespeare. The first alludes to it as an emblem of +flattery, for which ample authority has been found by the +commentators.[89:2] Florio is quoted for the phrase 'Dare finocchio,' +_to give fennel_, as meaning _to flatter_. In the second quotation the +allusion is to the reputation of Fennel as an inflammatory herb with +much the same virtues as are attributed to Eringoes."--Mr. J. F. MARSH +in _The Garden_. + +The English name was directly derived from its Latin name +_Foeniculum_, which may have been given it from its hay-like smell +(_foenum_), but this is not certain. We have another English word +derived from the Giant Fennel of the South of Europe (_ferula_); this is +the ferule, an instrument of punishment for small boys, also adopted +from the Latin, the Roman schoolmaster using the stalks of the Fennel +for the same purpose as the modern schoolmaster uses the cane. + +The early poets looked on the Fennel as an emblem of the early summer-- + + "Hyt befell yn the month of June + When the Fenell hangeth yn toun." + + _Libaeus Diaconus._(1225). + +As a useful plant, the chief use is as a garnishing and sauce for fish. +Large quantities of the seed are said to be imported to flavour gin, but +this can scarcely be called useful. As ornamental plants, the large +Fennels (F. Tingitana, F. campestris, F. glauca, &c.) are very desirable +where they can have the necessary room. + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[89:1] "Fennelle or Fenkelle, feniculum maratrum."--_Catholicon +Anglicum._ + +[89:2] + + "_Christophers._ + + No, my _good lord_. + + _Count._ + + Your _good lord_! O, how this smells of Fennel." + + BEN JONSON, _The Case Altered_, act ii, sc. 2. + + + + +FERN. + + + _Gadshill._ + + We have the receipt of Fern-seed--we walk invisible. + + _Chamberlain._ + + Now, by my faith, I think you are more beholding to the night + than to Fern-seed for your walking invisible. + + _1st Henry IV_, act ii, sc. 1 (95). + +There is a fashion in plants as in most other things, and in none is +this more curiously shown than in the estimation in which Ferns are and +have been held. Now-a-days it is the fashion to admire Ferns, and few +would be found bold enough to profess an indifference to them. But it +was not always so. Theocritus seems to have admired the Fern-- + + "Like Fern my tresses o'er my temples streamed." + + _Idyll_ xx. (_Calverley._) + + + "Come here and trample dainty Fern and Poppy blossom." + + _Idyll_ v. (_Calverley._) + +But Virgil gives it a bad character, speaking of it as "filicem +invisam." Horace is still more severe, "neglectis urenda filix +innascitur agris." The Anglo-Saxon translation of Boethius spoke +contemptuously of the "Thorns, and the Furzes, and the Fern, and all the +weeds" (Cockayne). And so it was in Shakespeare's time. Butler spoke of +it as the-- + + "Fern, that vile, unuseful weed, + That grows equivocably without seed." + +Cowley spoke the opinion of his day as if the plant had neither use nor +beauty-- + + "Nec caulem natura mihi, nec Floris honorem, + Nec mihi vel semen dura Noverca dedit-- + Nec me sole fovet, nec cultis crescere in hortis + Concessum, et Foliis gratia nulla meis-- + Herba invisa Deis poteram coeloque videri, + Et spurio Terrae nata puerperio." + + _Plantarum_, lib. i. + +And later still Gilpin, who wrote so much on the beauties of country +scenery at the close of the last century, has nothing better to say for +Ferns than that they are noxious weeds, to be classed with "Thorns and +Briers, and other ditch trumpery." The fact, no doubt, is that Ferns +were considered something "uncanny and eerie;" our ancestors could not +understand a plant which seemed to them to have neither flower nor seed, +and so they boldly asserted it had neither. "This kinde of Ferne," says +Lyte in 1587, "beareth neither flowers nor sede, except we shall take +for sede the black spots growing on the backsides of the leaves, the +whiche some do gather thinking to worke wonders, but to say the trueth +it is nothing els but trumperie and superstition." A plant so strange +must needs have strange qualities, but the peculiar power attributed to +it of making persons invisible arose thus:--It was the age in which the +doctrine of signatures was fully believed in; according to which +doctrine Nature, in giving particular shapes to leaves and flowers, had +thereby plainly taught for what diseases they were specially +useful.[91:1] Thus a heart-shaped leaf was for heart disease, a +liver-shaped for the liver, a bright-eyed flower was for the eyes, a +foot-shaped flower or leaf would certainly cure the gout, and so on; and +then when they found a plant which certainly grew and increased, but of +which the organs of fructification were invisible, it was a clear +conclusion that properly used the plant would confer the gift of +invisibility. Whether the people really believed this or not we cannot +say,[92:1] but they were quite ready to believe any wonder connected +with the plant, and so it was a constant advertisement with the quacks. +Even in Addison's time "it was impossible to walk the streets without +having an advertisement thrust into your hand of a doctor who had +arrived at the knowledge of the Green and Red Dragon, and had discovered +the female Fern-seed. Nobody ever knew what this meant" ("Tatler," No. +240). But to name all the superstitions connected with the Fern would +take too much space. + +The name is expressive; it is a contraction of the Anglo-Saxon _fepern_, +and so shows that some of our ancestors marked its feathery form; and +its history as a garden plant is worth a few lines. So little has it +been esteemed as a garden plant that Mr. J. Smith, the ex-Curator of the +Kew Gardens, tells us that in the year 1822 the collection of Ferns at +Kew was so extremely poor that "he could not estimate the entire Kew +collection of exotic Ferns at that period at more than forty species" +(Smith's "Ferns, British and Exotic," introduction). Since that time the +steadily increasing admiration of Ferns has caused collectors to send +them from all parts of the world, so that in 1866 Mr. Smith was enabled +to describe about a thousand species, and now the number must be much +larger; and the closer search for Ferns has further brought into notice +a very large number of most curious varieties and monstrosities, which +it is still more curious to observe are, with very few exceptions, +confined to the British species. + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[91:1] See Brown's "Religio Medici," p. ii. 2. + +[92:1] It probably was the real belief, as we find it so often mentioned +as a positive fact; thus Browne-- + + "Poor silly fool! thou striv'st in vain to know + If I enjoy or love where thou lov'st so; + Since my affection ever secret tried + Blooms like the Fern, and seeds still unespied." + + _Poems_, p. 26 (Sir E. Brydges' edit. 1815). + + + + +FIGS. + + + (1) _Titania._ + + Feed him with Apricocks and Dewberries, + With purple Grapes, green Figs, and Mulberries. + + _Midsummer Night's Dream_, act iii, sc. 1 (169). + + + (2) _Constance._ + + And its grandam will + Give it a Plum, a Cherry, and a Fig. + + _King John_, act ii, sc. 1 (161). + + + (3) _Guard._ + + Here is a rural fellow + That will not be denied your Highness's presence, + He brings you Figs. + + _Antony and Cleopatra_, act v, sc. 2 (233). + + + (4) _1st Guard._ + + A simple countryman that brought her Figs. + + _Ibid._ (342). + + + _Ditto._ + + These Fig-leaves + Have slime upon them. + + _Ibid._, act v, sc. 2 (354). + + + (5) _Pistol._ + + When Pistol lies, do this; and Fig me, like + The bragging Spaniard. + + _2nd Henry IV_, act v, sc. 3 (123). + + + (6) _Pistol._ + + Die and be damned, and Figo for thy friendship. + + _Fluellen._ + + It is well. + + _Pistol._ + + The Fig of Spain. + + _Henry V_, act iii, sc. 6 (60). + + + (7) _Pistol._ + + The Figo for thee, then. + + _Ibid._, act iv, sc. 1 (60). + + + (8) _Iago._ + + Virtue! a Fig! + + _Othello_, act i, sc. 3 (322). + + + (9) _Iago._ + + Blessed Fig's end! + + _Ibid._, act ii, sc. 1 (256). + + + (10) _Horner._ + + I'll pledge you all, and a Fig for Peter. + + _2nd Henry IV_, act ii, sc. 3 (66). + + + (11) _Pistol._ + + "Convey," the wise it call; "steal!" foh! a Fico + for the phrase! + + _Merry Wives_, act i, sc. 3 (32). + + + (12) _Charmian._ + + O excellent! I love long life better than Figs. + + _Antony and Cleopatra_, act i, sc. 2 (32). + +In some of these passages (as 5, 6, 7, and perhaps in more) the +reference is to a grossly insulting and indecent gesture called "making +the fig." It was a most unpleasant custom, which largely prevailed +throughout Europe in Shakespeare's time, and on which I need not dwell. +It is fully described in Douce's "Illustrations of Shakespeare," i, 492. + +In some of the other quotations the reference is simply to the +proverbial likeness of a Fig to a matter of the least importance.[94:1] +But in the others the dainty fruit, the green Fig, is noticed. + +The Fig tree, celebrated from the earliest times for the beauty of its +foliage and for its "sweetness and good fruit" (Judges ix. 11), is said +to have been introduced into England by the Romans; but the more +reliable accounts attribute its introduction to Cardinal Pole, who is +said to have planted the Fig tree still living at Lambeth Palace. +Botanically, the Fig is of especial interest. The Fig, as we eat it, is +neither fruit nor flower, though partaking of both, being really the +hollow, fleshy receptacle enclosing a multitude of flowers, which never +see the light, yet come to full perfection and ripen their seed. The Fig +stands alone in this peculiar arrangement of its flowers, but there are +other plants of which we eat the unopened or undeveloped flowers, as the +Artichoke, the Cauliflower, the Caper, the Clove, and the Pine Apple. + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[94:1] This proverbial worthlessness of the Fig is of ancient date. +Theocritus speaks of +sykinoi andres+, useless men; Horace, "Olim +truncus eram ficulnus, inutile lignum;" and Juvenal, "Sterilis mala +robora ficus." + + + + +FILBERTS. + + + _Caliban._ + + I'll bring thee to clustering Filberds. + + _Tempest_, act ii, sc. 2(174). + (_See_ HAZEL.) + + + + +FLAGS. + + + _Caesar._ + + This common body + Like to a vagabond Flag upon the stream + Goes to and back, lackeying the varying tide, + To rot itself with motion. + + _Antony and Cleopatra_, act i, sc. 4 (44). + +We now commonly call the Iris a Flag, and in Shakespeare's time the Iris +pseudoacorus was called the Water Flag, and so this passage might, +perhaps, have been placed under Flower-de-luce. But I do not think that +the Flower-de-luce proper was ever called a Flag at that time, whereas +we know that many plants, especially the Reeds and Bulrushes, were +called in a general way Flags. This is the case in the Bible, the +language of which is always a safe guide in the interpretation of +contemporary literature. The mother of Moses having placed the infant in +the ark of Bulrushes, "laid it in the Flags by the river's brink," and +the daughter of Pharaoh "saw the ark among the Flags." Job asks, "Can +the Flag grow without water?" and Isaiah draws the picture of desolation +when "the brooks of defence shall be emptied and dried up, and the Reeds +and the Flags shall wither." But in these passages, not only is the +original word very loosely translated, but the original word itself was +so loosely used that long ago Jerome had said it might mean any marsh +plant, _quidquid in palude virens nascitur_. And in the same way I +conclude that when Shakespeare named the Flag he meant any long-leaved +waterside plant that is swayed to and fro by the stream, and that +therefore this passage might very properly have been placed under +Rushes. + + + + +FLAX. + + + (1) _Ford._ + + What, a hodge-pudding? a bag of Flax? + + _Merry Wives_, act v, sc. 5 (159). + + + (2) _Clifford._ + + Beauty that the tyrant oft reclaims + Shall to my flaming wrath be oil and Flax. + + _2nd Henry VI_, act v, sc. 2 (54). + + + (3) _Sir Toby._ + + Excellent; it hangs like Flax in a distaff. + + _Twelfth Night_, act i, sc. 3 (108). + + + (4) _3rd Servant._ + + Go thou: I'll fetch some Flax and white of eggs + To apply to his bleeding face.[95:1] + + _King Lear_, act iii, sc. 7 (106). + + + (5) _Ophelia._ + + His beard was as white as snow, + All Flaxen was his poll. + + _Hamlet_, act iv, sc. 5 (195). + + + (6) _Leontes._ + + My wife deserves a name + As rank as any Flax-wench. + + _Winter's Tale_, act i, sc. 2 (276). + + + (7) _Emilia._ + + It could + No more be hid in him, than fire in Flax. + + _Two Noble Kinsmen_, act v, sc. 3 (113). + +The Flax of commerce (_Linum usitatissimum_) is not a true native, +though Turner said: "I have seen flax or lynt growyng wilde in Sommerset +shyre" ("Herbal," part ii. p. 39); but it takes kindly to the soil, and +soon becomes naturalized in the neighbourhood of any Flax field or mill. +We have, however, three native Flaxes in England, of which the smallest, +the Fairy Flax (_L. catharticum_), is one of the most graceful ornaments +of our higher downs and hills.[96:1] The Flax of commerce, which is the +plant referred to by Shakespeare, is supposed to be a native of Egypt, +and we have early notice of it in the Book of Exodus; and the microscope +has shown that the cere-cloths of the most ancient Egyptian mummies are +made of linen. It was very early introduced into England, and the +spinning of Flax was the regular occupation of the women of every +household, from the mistress downwards, so that even queens are +represented in the old illuminations in the act of spinning, and "the +spinning-wheel was a necessary implement in every household, from the +palace to the cottage."--WRIGHT, _Domestic Manners_. The occupation is +now almost gone, driven out by machinery, but it has left its mark on +our language, at least on our legal language, which acknowledges as the +only designation of an unmarried woman that she is "a spinster." + +A crop of Flax is one of the most beautiful, from the rich colour of the +flowers resting on their dainty stalks. But it is also most useful; from +it we get linen, linseed oil, oilcake, and linseed-meal; nor do its +virtues end there, for "Sir John Herschel tells us the surprising fact +that old linen rags will, when treated with sulphuric acid, yield more +than their own weight of sugar. It is something even to have lived in +days when our worn-out napkins may possibly reappear on our tables in +the form of sugar."--LADY WILKINSON. + +As garden plants the Flaxes are all ornamental. There are about eighty +species, some herbaceous and some shrubby, and of almost all colours, +and in most of the species the colours are remarkably bright and clear. +There is no finer blue than in L. usitatissimum, no finer yellow than in +L. trigynum, or finer scarlet than in L. grandiflorum. + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[95:1] "_Juniper._ Go get white of egg and a little Flax, and close the +breach of the head; it is the most conducible thing that can be."--BEN +JONSON, _The Case Altered_, act ii, sc. 4. + +[96:1] "From the abundant harvests of this elegant weed on the upland +pastures, prepared and manufactured by supernatural skill, 'the good +people' were wont, in the olden time, to procure the necessary supplies +of linen!"--JOHNSTON. + + + + +FLOWER-DE-LUCE. + + + (1) _Perdita._ + + Lilies of all kinds, + The Flower-de-luce being one. + + _Winters Tale_, act iv, sc. 4 (126). + + + (2) _K. Henry._ + + What sayest thou, my fair Flower-de-luce? + + _Henry V_, act v, sc. 2 (323). + + + (3) _Messenger._ + + Cropped are the Flower-de-luces in your arms; + Of England's coat one half is cut away. + + _1st Henry VI_, act i, sc. 1 (80). + + + (4) _Pucelle._ + + I am prepared; here is my keen-edged sword + Deck'd with five Flower-de-luces on each side. + + _Ibid._, act i, sc. 2 (98). + + + (5) _York._ + + A sceptre shall it have, have I a soul, + On which I'll toss the Flower-de-luce of France. + + _2nd Henry VI_, act v, sc. 1 (10). + +Out of these five passages four relate to the Fleur-de-luce as the +cognizance of France, and much learned ink has been spilled in the +endeavour to find out what flower, if any, was intended to be +represented, so that Mr. Planche says that "next to the origin of +heraldry itself, perhaps nothing connected with it has given rise to so +much controversy as the origin of this celebrated charge." It has been +at various times asserted to be an Iris, a Lily, a sword-hilt, a +spearhead, and a toad, or to be simply the Fleur de St. Louis. _Adhuc +sub judice lis est_--and it is never likely to be satisfactorily +settled. I need not therefore dwell on it, especially as my present +business is to settle not what the Fleur-de-luce meant in the arms of +France, but what it meant in Shakespeare's writings. But here the same +difficulty at once meets us, some writers affirming stoutly that it is a +Lily, others as stoutly that it is an Iris. For the Lily theory there +are the facts that Shakespeare calls it one of the Lilies, and that the +other way of spelling it is Fleur-de-lys. I find also a strong +confirmation of this in the writings of St. Francis de Sales +(contemporary with Shakespeare). "Charity," he says, "comprehends the +seven gifts of the Holy Ghost, and resembles a beautiful Flower-de-luce, +which has six leaves whiter than snow, and in the middle the pretty +little golden hammers" ("Philo," book xi., Mulholland's translation). +This description will in no way fit the Iris, but it may very well be +applied to the White Lily. Chaucer, too, seems to connect the +Fleur-de-luce with the Lily-- + + "Her nekke was white as the Flour de Lis." + +These are certainly strong authorities for saying that the +Flower-de-luce is the Lily. But there are as strong or stronger on the +other side. Spenser separates the Lilies from the Flower-de-luces in his +pretty lines-- + + "Strow mee the grounde with Daffadown-Dillies, + And Cowslips, and Kingcups, and loved Lillies; + The Pretty Pawnce + And the Chevisaunce + Shall match with the fayre Floure Delice." + + _Shepherd's Calendar._ + +Ben Jonson separates them in the same way-- + + "Bring rich Carnations, Flower-de-luces, Lillies." + +Lord Bacon also separates them: "In April follow the double White +Violet, the Wall-flower, the Stock-Gilliflower, the Cowslip, the +Flower-de-luces, and Lilies of all Natures;" and so does Drayton-- + + "The Lily and the Flower de Lis + For colours much contenting." + + _Nymphal V._ + +In heraldry also the Fleur-de-lis and the Lily are two distinct +bearings. Then, from the time of Turner in 1568, through Gerard and +Parkinson to Miller, all the botanical writers identify the Iris as the +plant named, and with this judgment most of our modern writers +agree.[99:1] We may, therefore, assume that Shakespeare meant the Iris +as the flower given by Perdita, and we need not be surprised at his +classing it among the Lilies. Botanical classification was not very +accurate in his day, and long after his time two such celebrated men as +Redoute and De Candolle did not hesitate to include in the "Liliacae," +not only Irises, but Daffodils, Tulips, Fritillaries, and even Orchids. + +What Iris Shakespeare especially alluded to it is useless to inquire. We +have two in England that are indigenous--one the rich golden-yellow (_I. +pseudacorus_), which in some favourable positions, with its roots in the +water of a brook, is one of the very handsomest of the tribe; the other +the Gladwyn (_I. foetidissima_), with dull flowers and strong-smelling +leaves, but with most handsome scarlet fruit, which remain on the plant +and show themselves boldly all through the winter and early spring. Of +other sorts there is a large number, so that the whole family, according +to the latest account by Mr. Baker, of Kew, contains ninety-six distinct +species besides varieties. They come from all parts of the world, from +the Arctic Circle to the South of China; they are of all colours, from +the pure white Iris Florentina to the almost black I. Susiana; and of +all sizes, from a few inches to four feet or more. They are mostly easy +of cultivation and increase readily, so that there are few plants better +suited for the hardy garden or more ornamental. + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[99:1] G. Fletcher's Flower-de-luce was certainly the Iris-- + + "The Flower-de-Luce and the round specks of dew + That hung upon the azure leaves did shew + Like twinkling stars that sparkle in the evening blue." + +The "leaves" here must be the petals. + + + + +FUMITER, FUMITORY. + + + (1) _Cordelia._ + + Crown'd with rank Fumiter and Furrow-weeds. + + _King Lear_, act iv, sc. 4 (3). + (_See_ CUCKOO-FLOWERS.) + + + (2) _Burgundy._ + + Her fallow leas + The Darnel, Hemlock, and rank Fumitory + Doth root upon. + + _Henry V_, act v, sc. 2 (44). + +Of Fumitories we have five species in England, all of them weeds in +cultivated grounds and in hedgerows. None of them can be considered +garden plants, but they are closely allied to the Corydalis, of which +there are several pretty species, and to the very handsome Dielytras, of +which one species--D. spectabilis--ranks among the very handsomest of +our hardy herbaceous plants. How the plant acquired its name of +Fumitory--_fume-terre_, earth-smoke--is not very satisfactorily +explained, though many explanations have been given; but that the name +was an ancient one we know from the interesting Stockholm manuscript of +the eleventh century published by Mr. J. Pettigrew, and of which a few +lines are worth quoting. (The poem is published in the "Archaeologia," +vol. xxx.)-- + + "Fumiter is erbe, I say, + Yt spryngyth [=i] April et in May, + In feld, in town, in yard, et gate, + Yer lond is fat and good in state, + Dun red is his flour + Ye erbe smek lik in colowur." + + + + +FURZE. + + + (1) _Ariel._ + + So I charm'd their ears, + That calf-like they my lowing follow'd through + Tooth'd Briers, sharp Furzes, pricking Goss, and Thorns. + + _Tempest_, act iv, sc. 1 (178). + + + (2) _Gonzalo._ + + Now would I give a thousand furlongs of sea for an acre of + barren ground, long Heath, brown Furze, anything. + + _Ibid._, act i, sc. 1 (70). + +We now call the Ulex Europaeus either Gorse, or Furze, or Whin; but in +the sixteenth century I think that the Furze and Gorse were +distinguished (_see_ GORSE), and that the brown Furze was the Ulex. It +is a most beautiful plant, and with its golden blossoms and richly +scented flowers is the glory of our wilder hill-sides. It is especially +a British plant, for though it is found in other parts of Europe, and +even in the Azores and Canaries, yet I believe it is nowhere found in +such abundance or in such beauty as in England. Gerard says, "The +greatest and highest that I did ever see do grow about Excester, in the +West Parts of England;" and those that have seen it in Devonshire will +agree with him. It seems to luxuriate in the damp, mild climate of +Devonshire, and to see it in full flower as it covers the low hills that +abut upon the Channel between Ilfracombe and Clovelly is a sight to be +long remembered. It is, indeed, a plant that we may well be proud of. +Linnaeus could only grow it in a greenhouse, and there is a well-known +story of Dillenius that when he first saw the Furze in blossom in +England he fell on his knees and thanked God for sparing his life to see +so beautiful a part of His creation. The story may be apocryphal, but we +have a later testimony from another celebrated traveller who had seen +the glories of tropical scenery, and yet was faithful to the beauties of +the wild scenery of England. Mr. Wallace bears this testimony: "I have +never seen in the tropics such brilliant masses of colour as even +England can show in her Furze-clad commons, her glades of Wild +Hyacinths, her fields of Poppies, her meadows of Buttercups and +Orchises, carpets of yellow, purple, azure blue, and fiery crimson, +which the tropics can rarely exhibit. We have smaller masses of colour +in our Hawthorns and Crab trees, our Holly and Mountain Ash, our Broom, +Foxgloves, Primroses, and purple Vetches, which clothe with gay colours +the length and breadth of our land" ("Malayan Archipelago," ii. 296). + +As a garden shrub the Furze may be grown either as a single lawn shrub +or in the hedge or shrubbery. Everywhere it will be handsome both in its +single and double varieties, and as it bears the knife well, it can be +kept within limits. The upright Irish form also makes an elegant shrub, +but does not flower so freely as the typical plant. + + + + +GARLICK. + + + (1) _Bottom._ + + And, most clear actors, eat no Onions nor Garlic, for we are + to utter sweet breath. + + _Midsummer Night's Dream_, act iv, sc. 2 (42). + + + (2) _Lucio._ + + He would mouth with a beggar, though she smelt brown bread and + Garlic. + + _Measure for Measure_, act iii, sc. 2 (193). + + + (3) _Hotspur._ + + I had rather live + With cheese and Garlic in a windmill. + + _1st Henry IV_, act iii, sc. 1 (161). + + + (4) _Menenius._ + + You that stood so much + Upon the voice of occupation, and + The breath of Garlic-eaters. + + _Coriolanus_, act iv, sc. 6 (96). + + + (5) _Dorcas._ + + Mopsa must be your mistress; marry, Garlic to mend her kissing + with. + + _Winter's Tale_, act iv, sc. 4 (162). + +There is something almost mysterious in the Garlick that it should be so +thoroughly acceptable, almost indispensable, to many thousands, while to +others it is so horribly offensive as to be unbearable. The Garlick of +Egypt was one of the delicacies that the Israelites looked back to with +fond regret, and we know from Herodotus that it was the daily food of +the Egyptian labourer; yet, in later times, the Mohammedan legend +recorded that "when Satan stepped out from the Garden of Eden after the +fall of man, Garlick sprung up from the spot where he placed his left +foot, and Onions from that which his right foot touched, on which +account, perhaps, Mohammed habitually fainted at the sight of either." +It was the common food also of the Roman labourer, but Horace could only +wonder at the "dura messorum illia" that could digest the plant "cicutis +allium nocentius." It was, and is the same with its medical virtues. +According to some it was possessed of every virtue,[102:1] so that it +had the name of Poor Man's Treacle (the word treacle not having its +present meaning, but being the Anglicised form of theriake, or +heal-all[103:1]); while, on the other hand, Gerard affirmed "it yieldeth +to the body no nourishment at all; it ingendreth naughty and sharpe +bloud." + +Bullein describes it quaintly: "It is a grosse kinde of medicine, verye +unpleasant for fayre Ladies and tender Lilly Rose colloured damsels +which often time profereth sweet breathes before gentle wordes, but both +would do very well" ("Book of Simples"). Yet if we could only divest it +of its evil smell, the wild Wood Garlick would rank among the most +beautiful of our British plants. Its wide leaves are very similar to +those of the Lily of the Valley, and its starry flowers are of the very +purest white. But it defies picking, and where it grows it generally +takes full possession, so that I have known several woods--especially on +the Cotswold Hills--that are to be avoided when the plant is in flower. +The woods are closely carpeted with them, and every step you take brings +out their foetid odour. There are many species grown in the gardens, +some of which are even very sweet smelling (as A. odorum and A. +fragrans); but these are the exceptions, and even these have the Garlick +scent in their leaves and roots. Of the rest many are very pretty and +worth growing, but they are all more or less tainted with the evil +habits of the family. + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[102:1] "You (_i.e._, citizens) are still sending to the apothecaries, +and still crying out to 'fetch Master Doctor to me;' but our (_i.e._, +countrymen's) apothecary's shop is our garden full of pot herbs, and our +doctor is a good clove of Garlic."--_The Great Frost of January, 1608._ + +[103:1] + + "Crist, which that is to every harm triacle." + + CHAUCER, _Man of Lawes Tale_. + + + "Treacle was there anone forthe brought." + + _Le Morte Arthur_, 864. + + + + +GILLIFLOWERS, _see_ CARNATIONS. + + + + +GINGER. + + + (1) _Clown._ + + I must have Saffron to colour the Warden pies--Mace--Dates? + none, that's out of my note; Nutmegs, seven--a race or two + of Ginger, but that I may beg. + + _Winter's Tale_, act iv, sc. 3 (48). + + + (2) _Sir Toby._ + + Dost thou think, because thou art virtuous, there shall be no + more cakes and ale. + + _Clown._ + + Yes, by St. Anne, and Ginger shall be hot i' the mouth too. + + _Twelfth Night_, act ii, sc. 3 (123). + + + (3) _Pompey._ + + First, here's Young Master Rash, he's in for a commodity of + brown paper and old Ginger, nine score and seventeen pounds, + of which he made five marks ready money; marry, then, Ginger + was not much in request, for the old women were all dead. + + _Measure for Measure_, act iv, sc. 3 (4). + + + (4) _Salanio._ + + I would she were as lying a gossip in that as ever knapped + Ginger. + + _Merchant of Venice_, act iii, sc. 1 (9). + + + (5) _2nd Carrier._ + + I have a gammon of bacon and two razes of Ginger to be + delivered as far as Charing Cross. + + _1st Henry IV_, act ii, sc. 1 (26). + + + (6) _Orleans._ + + He's of the colour of the Nutmeg. + + _Dauphin._ + + And of the heat of the Ginger. + + _Henry V_, act iii, sc. 7 (20). + + + (7) _Julia._ + + What is't you took up so Gingerly? + + _Two Gentlemen of Verona_, act i, sc. 2 (70). + + + (8) _Costard._ + + An I had but one penny in the world, thou should'st have it to + buy Ginger-bread. + + _Love's Labour's Lost_, act v, sc. 1 (74). + + + (9) _Hotspur._ + + Swear me, Kate, like a lady as thou art, + A good mouth-filling oath, and leave "in sooth," + And such protest of pepper Ginger-bread + To velvet-guards and Sunday-citizens. + + _1st Henry IV_, act iii, sc. 1 (258). + +Ginger was well known both to the Greeks and Romans. It was imported +from Arabia, together with its name, Zingiberri, which it has retained, +with little variation, in all languages. + +When it was first imported into England is not known, but probably by +the Romans, for it occurs as a common ingredient in many of the +Anglo-Saxon medical recipes. Russell, in the "Boke of Nurture," mentions +several kinds of Ginger; as green and white, "colombyne, valadyne, and +Maydelyn." In Shakespeare's time it was evidently very common and cheap. + +It is produced from the roots of Zingiber officinale, a member of the +large and handsome family of the Ginger-worts. The family contains some +of the most beautiful of our greenhouse plants, as the Hedychiums, +Alpinias, and Mantisias; and, though entirely tropical, most of the +species are of easy cultivation in England. Ginger is very easily reared +in hotbeds, and I should think it very probable that it may have been so +grown in Shakespeare's time. Gerard attempted to grow it, but he +naturally failed, by trying to grow it in the open ground as a hardy +plant; yet "it sprouted and budded forth greene leaves in my garden in +the heate of somer;" and he tells us that plants were sent him by "an +honest and expert apothecarie, William Dries, of Antwerp," and "that the +same had budded and grown in the said Dries' garden." + + + + +GOOSEBERRIES. + + + _Falstaff._ + + All the other gifts appertinent to man, as the malice of this + age shapes them, are not worth a Gooseberry. + + _2nd Henry IV_, act i, sc. 2 (194). + +The Gooseberry is probably a native of the North of England, but Turner +said (s.v. _uva crispa_) "it groweth onely that I have sene in England, +in gardines, but I have sene it in Germany abrode in the fieldes amonge +other busshes." + +The name has nothing to do with the goose. Dr. Prior has satisfactorily +shown that the word is a corruption of "Crossberry." By the writers of +Shakespeare's time, and even later, it was called Feaberry (Gerard, +Lawson, and others), and in one of the many books on the Plague +published in the sixteenth century, the patient is recommended to eat +"thepes, or goseberries" ("A Counsell against the Sweate," fol. 23). + + + + +GORSE OR GOSS. + + + _Ariel._ + + Tooth'd Briers, sharp Furzes, pricking Goss, and Thorns. + + _Tempest_, act iv, sc. 1 (180). + +In speaking of the Furze (which see), I said that in Shakespeare's time +the Furze and Gorse were probably distinguished, though now the two +names are applied to the same plant. "In the 15th Henry VI. (1436), +license was given to Humfrey, Duke of Gloucester, to inclose 200 acres +of land--pasture, wode, hethe, vrises,[106:1] and gorste (_bruere, et +jampnorum_), and to form thereof a Park at Greenwich."--_Rot. Parl._ iv. +498.[106:2] This proves that the "Gorst" was different from the "Vrise," +and it may very likely have been the Petty Whin. "Pricking Goss," +however, may be only a generic term, like Bramble and Brier, for any +wild prickly plant. + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[106:1] There is a hill near Lansdown (Bath) now called Frizen or +Freezing Hill. Within memory of man it was covered with Gorse. This was +probably the origin of the name, "Vrisen Hill." + +[106:2] "Promptorium Parvulorum," p. 162, note. + + + + +GOURD. + + + _Pistol._ + + For Gourd and fullam holds. + + _Merry Wives_, act i, sc. 3 (94). + +I merely mention this to point out that "Gourd," though probably +originally derived from the fruit, is not the fruit here, but is an +instrument of gambling. The fruit, however, was well known in +Shakespeare's time, and was used as the type of intense greenness-- + + "Whose coerule stream, rombling in pebble-stone, + Crept under Moss, as green as any Gourd." + + SPENSER, _Virgil's Gnat_. + + + + +GRACE, _see_ RUE. + + + + +GRAPES, _see_ VINES. + + + + +GRASSES. + + + (1) _Gonzalo._ + + How lush and lusty the Grass looks! how green! + + _Tempest_, act ii, sc. 1 (52). + + + (2) _Iris._ + + Here, on this Grass-plot, in this very place + To come and sport. + + _Ibid._, act iv, sc. 1 (73). + + + (3) _Ceres._ + + Why hath thy Queen + Summon'd me hither to this short-grass'd green? + + _Ibid._ (82). + + + (4) _Lysander._ + + When Phoebe doth behold + Her silver visage in the watery glass, + Decking with liquid pearl the bladed Grass. + + _Midsummer Night's Dream_, act i, sc. 1 (209). + + + (5) _King._ + + Say to her, we have measured many miles + To tread a measure with her on this Grass. + + _Boyet._ + + They say, that they have measured many miles + To tread a measure with her on the Grass. + + _Love's Labour's Lost_, act v, sc. 2 (184). + + + (6) _Clown._ + + I am no great Nebuchadnezzar, sir, I have not much skill in + Grass. + + _All's Well that Ends Well_, act iv, sc. 5 (21). + + + (7) _Luciana._ + + If thou art changed to aught, 'tis to an ass. + + _Dromio of Syracuse._ + + 'Tis true; she rides me, and I long for Grass. + + _Comedy of Errors_, act ii, sc. 2 (201). + + + (8) _Bolingbroke._ + + Here we march + Upon the Grassy carpet of the plain. + + _Richard II_, act iii, sc. 3 (49). + + + (9) _King Richard._ + + And bedew + Her pasture's Grass with faithful English blood. + + _Ibid._ (100). + + + (10) _Ely._ + + Grew like the summer Grass, fastest by night, + Unseen, yet crescive in his faculty. + + _Henry V_, act i, sc. 1 (65). + + + (11) _King Henry._ + + Mowing like Grass + Your fresh-fair virgins and your flowering infants. + + _Ibid._, act iii, sc. 3 (13). + + + (12) _Grandpre._ + + And in their pale dull mouths the gimmal bit + Lies foul with chew'd Grass, still and motionless. + + _Henry V_, act iv, sc. 2 (49). + + + (13) _Suffolk._ + + Though standing naked on a mountain top + Where biting cold would never let Grass grow. + + _2nd Henry VI_, act iii, sc. 2 (336). + + + (14) _Cade._ + + All the realm shall be in common; and in Cheapside shall my + palfrey go to Grass. + + _Ibid._, act iv, sc. 2 (74). + + + (15) _Cade._ + + Wherefore on a brick wall have I climbed into this garden, to + see if I can eat Grass or pick a Sallet another while, which + is not amiss to cool a man's stomach this hot weather. + + _Ibid._, act iv, sc. 10 (7). + + + (16) _Cade._ + + If I do not leave you all as dead as a door-nail, I pray God I + may never eat Grass more. + + _Ibid._ (42). + + + (17) _1st Bandit._ + + We cannot live on Grass, on berries, water, + As beasts and birds and fishes. + + _Timon of Athens_, act iv, sc. 3 (425). + + + (18) _Saturninus._ + + These tidings nip me, and I hang the head + As Flowers with frost or Grass beat down with storms. + + _Titus Andronicus_, act iv, sc. 4 (70). + + + (19) _Hamlet._ + + Ay but, sir, "while the Grass grows"--the proverb is something + musty. + + _Hamlet_, act iii, sc. 2 (358). + + + (20) _Ophelia._ + + He is dead and gone, lady, + He is dead and gone; + At his head a Grass-green turf, + At his heels a stone. + + _Ibid._, act iv, sc. 5 (29). + + + (21) _Salarino._ + + I should be still + Plucking the Grass to know where sits the wind. + + _Merchant of Venice_, act i, sc. 1 (17). + +In and before Shakespeare's time Grass was used as a general term for +all plants. Thus Chaucer-- + + "And every grass that groweth upon roote + Sche schal eek know, to whom it will do boote + Al be his woundes never so deep and wyde." + + _The Squyeres Tale._ + +It is used in the same general way in the Bible, "the Grass of the +field." + +In the whole range of botanical studies the accurate study of the +Grasses is, perhaps, the most difficult as the genus is the most +extensive, for Grasses are said to "constitute, perhaps, a twelfth part +of the described species of flowering plants, and at least nine-tenths +of the number of individuals comprising the vegetation of the world" +(Lindley), so that a full study of the Grasses may almost be said to be +the work of a lifetime. But Shakespeare was certainly no such student of +Grasses: in all these passages Grass is only mentioned in a generic +manner, without any reference to any particular Grass. The passages in +which hay is mentioned, I have not thought necessary to quote. + + + + +HAREBELL. + + + _Arviragus._ + + Thou shalt not lack + The flower that's like thy face, pale Primrose, nor + The azured Harebell, like thy veins. + + _Cymbeline_, act iv, sc. 2 (220). + (_See_ EGLANTINE.) + +The Harebell of Shakespeare is undoubtedly the Wild Hyacinth (_Scilla +nutans_), the "sanguine flower inscribed with woe" of Milton's +"Lycidas," though we must bear in mind that the name is applied +differently in various parts of the island; thus "the Harebell of Scotch +writers is the Campanula, and the Bluebell, so celebrated in Scottish +song, is the Wild Hyacinth or Scilla; while in England the same names +are used conversely, the Campanula being the Bluebell and the Wild +Hyacinth the Harebell" ("Poets' Pleasaunce")--but this will only apply +in poetry; in ordinary language, at least in the South of England, the +Wild Hyacinth is the Bluebell, and is the plant referred to by +Shakespeare as the Harebell. + +It is one of the chief ornaments of our woods,[109:1] growing in +profusion wherever it establishes itself, and being found of various +colours--pink, white, and blue. As a garden flower it may well be +introduced into shrubberies, but as a border plant it cannot compete +with its rival relation, the Hyacinthus orientalis, which is the parent +of all the fine double and many coloured Hyacinths in which the florists +have delighted for the last two centuries. + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[109:1] "'Dust of sapphire,' writes my friend Dr. John Brown to me of +the wood Hyacinths of Scotland in the spring; yes, that is so--each bud +more beautiful itself than perfectest jewel."--RUSKIN, _Proserpina_, p. +73. + + + + +HARLOCKS. + + + _Cordelia._ + + Crown'd with rank Fumiter and Furrow-weeds, + With Harlocks, Hemlock, Nettles, Cuckoo-flowers. + + _King Lear_, act iv, sc. 4 (3). + (_See_ CUCKOO-FLOWERS.) + +I cannot do better than follow Dr. Prior on this word: "Harlock, as +usually printed in 'King Lear' and in Drayton, ecl. 4-- + + 'The Honeysuckle, the Harlocke, + The Lily and the Lady-smocke,' + +is a word that does not occur in the Herbals, and which the commentators +have supposed to be a misprint for Charlock. There can be little doubt +that Hardock is the correct reading, and that the plant meant is the one +now called Burdock." Schmidt also adopts Burdock as the right +interpretation. + + + + +HAWTHORNS. + + + + (1) _Rosalind._ + + There's a man hangs odes upon Hawthorns and elegies on + Brambles. + + _As You Like It_, act iii, sc. 2 (379). + + + (2) _Quince._ + + This green plot shall be our stage, this Hawthorn-brake our + tiring house. + + _Midsummer Night's Dream_, act iii, sc. 1 (3). + + + (3) _Helena._ + + Your tongue's sweet air, + More tuneable than lark to shepherd's ear, + When Wheat is green, when Hawthorn-buds appear. + + _Ibid._, act i, sc. 1 (183). + + + (4) _Falstaff._ + + I cannot cog and say thou art this and that, like a many of + these lisping Hawthorn-buds. + + _Merry Wives_, act iii, sc. 3 (76). + + + (5) _K. Henry._ + + Gives not the Hawthorn-bush a sweeter shade + To shepherds looking on their silly sheep, + Than doth a rich embroider'd canopy + To kings that fear their subjects' treachery? + O yes, it doth; a thousand-fold it doth. + + _3rd Henry VI_, act ii, sc. 5 (42). + + + (6) _Edgar._ + + Through the sharp Hawthorn blows the cold wind (_bis_). + + _King Lear_, act iii, sc. 4 (47 and 102). + + + (7) _Arcite._ + + Againe betake you to yon Hawthorne house. + + _Two Noble Kinsmen_, act iii, sc. 1 (90). + +Under its many names of Albespeine, Whitethorn, Haythorn or Hawthorn, +May, and Quickset, this tree has ever been a favourite with all lovers +of the country. + + "Among the many buds proclaiming May, + Decking the field in holiday array, + Striving who shall surpass in braverie, + Mark the faire blooming of the Hawthorn tree, + Who, finely cloathed in a robe of white, + Fills full the wanton eye with May's delight. + Yet for the braverie that she is in + Doth neither handle card nor wheel to spin, + Nor changeth robes but twice; is never seen + In other colours but in white or green." + +such is Browne's advice in his "Britannia's Pastorals" (ii. 2). He, like +the other early poets, clearly loved the tree for its beauty; and in +picturesque beauty the Hawthorn yields to none, when it can be seen in +some sheltered valley growing with others of its kind, and allowed to +grow unpruned, for then in the early summer it is literally a sheet of +white, yet beautifully relieved by the tender green of the young leaves, +and by the bright crimson of the anthers, and loaded with a scent that +is most delicate and refreshing. But not only for its beauty is the +Hawthorn a favourite tree, but also for its many pleasant +associations--it is essentially the May tree, the tree that tells that +winter is really past, and that summer has fairly begun. Hear Spenser-- + + "Thilke same season, when all is yclade + With pleasaunce; the ground with Grasse, the woods + With greene leaves, the bushes with blooming buds, + Youngthes folke now flocken in everywhere + To gather May-baskets and smelling Brere; + And home they hasten the postes to dight, + And all the kirk-pillours eare day-light, + With Hawthorne-buds, and sweet Eglantine, + And girlondes of Roses, and soppes-in-wine." + + _Shepherd's Calendar--May._ + +Yet in spite of its pretty name, and in spite of the poets, the Hawthorn +now seldom flowers till June, and I should suppose it is never in flower +on May Day, except perhaps in Devonshire and Cornwall; and it is very +doubtful if it ever were so found, except in these southern counties, +though some fancy that the times of flowering of several of our flowers +are changed, and in some instances largely changed. But "it was an old +custom in Suffolk, in most of the farmhouses, that any servant who could +bring in a branch of Hawthorn in full blossom on the 1st of May was +entitled to a dish of cream for breakfast. This custom is now disused, +not so much from the reluctance of the masters to give the reward, as +from the inability of the servants to find the Whitethorn in +flower."--BRAND'S _Antiquities_.[112:1] Even those who might not see the +beauty of an old Thorn tree, have found its uses as one of the very few +trees that will grow thick in the most exposed places, and so give +pleasant shade and shelter in places where otherwise but little shade +and shelter could be found. + + "Every shepherd tells his tale + Under the Hawthorn in the dale."--MILTON. + +And "at Hesket, in Cumberland, yearly on St. Barnabas' Day, by the +highway side under a Thorn tree is kept the court for the whole forest +of Englewood."--_History of Westmoreland._ + +The Thorn may well be admitted as a garden shrub either in its ordinary +state, or in its beautiful double white, red, and pink varieties, and +those who like to grow curious trees should not omit the Glastonbury +Thorn, which flowers at the ordinary time, and bears fruit, but also +buds and flowers again in winter, showing at the same time the new +flowers and the older fruit. + +Nor must we omit to mention that the Whitethorn is one of the trees that +claims to have been used for the sacred Crown of Thorns. It is most +improbable that it was so, in fact almost certain that it was not; but +it was a mediaeval belief, as Sir John Mandeville witnesses: "Then was +our Lord yled into a gardyn, and there the Jewes scorned hym, and maden +hym a crowne of the branches of the Albiespyne, that is Whitethorn, that +grew in the same gardyn, and setten yt upon hys heved. And therefore +hath the Whitethorn many virtues. For he that beareth a branch on hym +thereof, no thundre, ne no maner of tempest may dere hym, ne in the +howse that it is ynne may non evil ghost enter." + +And we may finish the Hawthorn with a short account of its name, which +is interesting:--"Haw," or "hay," is the same word as "hedge" ("sepes, +id est, _haies_," John de Garlande), and so shows the great antiquity of +this plant as used for English hedges. In the north, "haws" are still +called "haigs;" but whether Hawthorn was first applied to the fruit or +the hedge, whether the hedge was so called because it was made of the +Thorn tree that bears the haws, or whether the fruit was so named +because it was borne on the hedge tree, is a point on which etymologists +differ. + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[112:1] "Gilbert White in his 'Naturalists' Calendar' as the result of +observations taken from 1768 to 1793 puts down the flowering of the +Hawthorn as occurring in different years upon dates so widely apart as +the twentieth of April and the eleventh of June."--MILNER'S _Country +Pleasures_, p. 83. + + + + +HAZEL. + + + (1) _Mercutio._ + + Her [Queen Mab's] chariot is an empty Hazel-nut + Made by the joiner squirrel or old grub, + Time out o' mind the fairies' coachmakers. + + _Romeo and Juliet_, act i, sc. 4 (67). + + + (2) _Petruchio._ + + Kate like the Hazel twig + Is straight and slender and as brown in hue + As Hazel-nuts and sweeter than the kernels. + + _Taming of the Shrew_, act ii, sc. 1 (255). + + + (3) _Caliban._ + + I'll bring thee to clustering Filberts. + + _Tempest_, act ii, sc. 2 (174). + + + (4) _Touchstone._ + + Sweetest Nut hath sourest rind, + Such a Nut is Rosalind. + + _As You Like It_, act iii, sc. 2 (115). + + + (5) _Celia._ + + For his verity in love I do think him as concave as a covered + goblet or a worm-eaten Nut. + + _Ibid._, act iii, sc. 4 (25). + + + (6) _Lafeu._ + + Believe this of me, there can be no kernel in this light Nut. + + _All's Well that Ends Well_, act ii, sc. 5 (46). + + + (7) _Mercutio._ + + Thou wilt quarrel with a man for cracking Nuts, having no + other reason but because thou hast Hazel eyes. + + _Romeo and Juliet_, act iii, sc. 1 (20). + + + (8) _Thersites._ + + Hector shall have a great catch, if he knock out either of + your brains; a' were as good crack a fusty Nut with no + kernel. + + _Troilus and Cressida_, act ii, sc. 1 (109). + + + (9) _Gonzalo._ + + I'll warrant him for drowning; though the ship were no + stronger than a Nut-shell. + + _Tempest_, act i, sc. 1 (49). + + + (10) _Titania._ + + I have a venturous fairy that shall seek + The squirrel's hoard, and fetch thee new Nuts. + + _Midsummer Night's Dream_, act iv, sc. 1 (40). + + + (11) _Hamlet._ + + O God, I could be bounded in a Nut-shell and count myself a + king of infinite space, were it not that I have bad dreams. + + _Hamlet_, act ii, sc. 2 (260). + + + (12) _Dromio of Syracuse._ + + Some devils ask but the parings of one's nail, + A Rush, a hair, a drop of blood, a pin, + A Nut, a Cherry-stone. + + _Comedy of Errors_, act iv, sc. 3 (72). + +Dr. Prior has decided that "'Filbert' is a barbarous compound of +_phillon_ or _feuille_, a leaf, and _beard_, to denote its +distinguishing peculiarity, the leafy involucre projecting beyond the +nut." But in the times before Shakespeare the name was more poetically +said to be derived from the nymph Phyllis. Nux Phyllidos is its name in +the old vocabularies, and Gower ("Confessio Amantis") tells us why-- + + "Phyllis in the same throwe + Was shape into a Nutte-tree, + That alle men it might see; + And after Phyllis philliberde, + This tre was cleped in the yerde" + + (Lib. quart.), + +and so Spenser spoke of it as "'Phillis' philbert" (Elegy 17).[115:1] + +The Nut, the Filbert, and the Cobnut, are all botanically the same, and +the two last were cultivated in England long before Shakespeare's time, +not only for the fruit, but also, and more especially, for the oil. + +There is a peculiarity in the growth of the Nut that is worth the notice +of the botanical student. The male blossoms, or catkins (anciently +called "agglettes or blowinges"), are mostly produced at the ends of the +year's shoots, while the pretty little crimson female blossoms are +produced close to the branch; they are completely sessile or unstalked. +Now in most fruit trees, when a flower is fertilized, the fruit is +produced exactly in the same place, with respect to the main tree, that +the flower occupied; a Peach or Apricot, for instance, rests upon the +branch which bore the flower. But in the Nut a different arrangement +prevails. As soon as the flower is fertilized it starts away from the +parent branch; a fresh branch is produced, bearing leaves and the Nut or +Nuts at the end, so that the Nut is produced several inches away from +the spot on which the flower originally was. I know of no other tree +that produces its fruit in this way, nor do I know what special benefit +to the plant arises from this arrangement. + +Much folk-lore has gathered round the Hazel tree and the Nuts. The +cracking of Nuts, with much fortune-telling connected therewith, was +the favourite amusement on All Hallow's Eve (Oct. 31), so that the +Eve was called Nutcrack Night. I believe the custom still exists; it +certainly has not been very long abolished, for the Vicar of Wakefield +and his neighbours "religiously cracked Nuts on All Hallow's Eve." +And in many places "an ancient custom prevailed of going a Nutting +on Holy Rood Day (Sept. 14), which it was esteemed quite unlucky to +omit."--FORSTER.[116:1] + +A greater mystery connected with the Hazel is the divining rod, for the +discovery of water and metals. This has always by preference been a +forked Hazel-rod, though sometimes other rods are substituted. The +belief in its power dates from a very early period, and is by no means +extinct. The divining-rod is said to be still used in Cornwall, and +firmly believed in; nor has this belief been confined to the uneducated. +Even Linnaeus confessed himself to be half a convert to it, and learned +treatises have been written accepting the facts, and accounting for them +by electricity or some other subtle natural agency. Most of us, however, +will rather agree with Evelyn's cautious verdict, that the virtues +attributed to the forked stick "made out so solemnly by the attestation +of magistrates, and divers other learned and credible persons, who have +critically examined matters of fact, is certainly next to a miracle, and +requires a strong faith." + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[115:1] "Hic fullus--a fylberd-tre."--_Nominale_, 15th cent. + +"Fylberde, notte--Fillum." + +"Filberde, tre--Phillis."--_Promptorium Parvulorum._ + +"The Filbyrdes hangyng to the ground."--_Squyr of Lowe Degre_ (37). + +[116:1] See a long account of the connection of nuts with All Hallow's +Eve in Hanson, "Med. aevi Calend." i. 363. + + + + +HEATH. + + + _Gonzalo._ + + Now would I give a thousand furlongs of sea for an acre of + barren ground, long Heath, brown Furze, anything. + + _Tempest_, act i, sc. 1 (70). + +There are other passages in which the word Heath occurs in Shakespeare, +but in none else is the flower referred to; the other references are to +an open heath or common. And in this place no special Heath can be +selected, unless by "long Heath" we suppose him to have meant the Ling +(_Calluna vulgaris_). And this is most probable, for so Lyte calls it. +"There is in this countrie two kindes of Heath, one which beareth the +flowres alongst the stemmes, and is called Long Heath." But it is +supposed by some that the correct reading is "Ling, Heath," &c., and in +that case Heath will be a generic word, meaning any of the British +species (_see_ LING). Of British species there are five, and wherever +they exist they are dearly prized as forming a rich element of beauty in +our landscapes. They are found all over the British Islands, and they +seem to be quite indifferent as to the place of their growth. They are +equally beautiful in the extreme Highlands of Scotland, or on the +Quantock and Exmoor Hills of the South--everywhere they clothe the +hill-sides with a rich garment of purple that is wonderfully beautiful, +whether seen under the full influence of the brightest sunshine, or +under the dark shadows of the blackest thundercloud. And the botanical +geography of the Heath tribe is very remarkable; it is found over the +whole of Europe, in Northern Asia, and in Northern Africa. Then the +tribe takes a curious leap, being found in immense abundance, both of +species and individuals, in Southern Africa, while it is entirely absent +from North and South America. Not a single species has been found in the +New World. A few plants of Calluna vulgaris have been found in +Newfoundland and Massachusetts, but that is not a true Heath. + +As a garden plant the Heath has been strangely neglected. Many of the +species are completely hardy, and will make pretty evergreen bushes of +from 2ft. to 4ft. high, but they are better if kept close-grown by +constant clipping. The species best suited for this treatment are E. +Mediterranea, E. arborea, and E. codonoides. Of the more humble-growing +species, E. vagans (the Cornish Heath) will grow easily in most gardens, +though in its native habitat it is confined to the serpentine formation; +nor must we omit E. herbacea, which also will grow anywhere, and, if +clipped yearly after flowering, will make a most beautiful border to any +flower-bed; or it may be used more extensively, as it is at Doddington +Park, in Gloucestershire (Sir Gerald Codrington's), where there is a +large space in front of the house, several yards square, entirely filled +with E. herbacea. When this is in flower (and it is so for nearly two +months, or sometimes more) the effect, as seen from above, is of the +richest Turkey carpet, but of such a colour and harmony as no Turkey +carpet ever attained. + +Several of the South-European Heaths were cultivated in England in +Shakespeare's time. + + + + +HEBENON OR HEBONA.[118:1] + + + _Ghost._ + + Upon my secure hour thy uncle stole, + With juice of cursed Hebenon in a vial, + And in the porches of my ear did pour + The leperous distilment; whose effect + Holds such an enmity with blood of man + That swift as quicksilver it courses through + The natural gates and alleys of the body, + And with a sudden vigour it doth posset + And curd, like eager droppings into milk, + The thin and wholesome blood; so did it mine; + And a most instant tetter bark'd about, + Most lazar-like, with vile and loathsome crust, + All my smooth body. + + _Hamlet_, act i, sc. 5 (61). + +Before and in the time of Shakespeare other writers had spoken of the +narcotic and poisonous effects of Heben, Hebenon, or Hebona. Gower +says-- + + "Ful of delite, + Slepe hath his hous, and of his couche, + Within his chambre if I shall touche, + Of Hebenus that slepy tre + The bordes all aboute be." + + _Conf. Aman._, lib. quart. (ii. 103, Paulli). + +Spenser says-- + + "Faire Venus sonne, . . . + Lay now thy deadly Heben bow apart." + + _F. Q._, introd., st. 3. + + + "There (in Mammon's garden) Cypresse grew in greatest store, + And trees of bitter gall and Heben sad." + + _F. Q._, book ii, c. viij, st. 17. + +And he speaks of a "speare of Heben wood," and "a Heben launce." +Marlowe, a contemporary and friend of Shakespeare, makes Barabas curse +his daughter with-- + + "In few the blood of Hydra, Lerna's bane, + The juice of Hebon, and Cocytus breath, + And all the poison of the Stygian pool." + + _Jew of Malta_, act iii, st. 4. + +It may be taken for granted that all these authors allude to the same +tree, but what tree is meant has sorely puzzled the commentators. Some +naturally suggested the Ebony, and this view is supported by the +respectable names of Archdeacon Nares, Douce, Schmidt, and Dyce. A +larger number pronounced with little hesitation in favour of Henbane +(_Hyoscyamus niger_), the poisonous qualities of which were familiar to +the contemporaries of Shakespeare, and were supposed by most of the +botanical writers of his day (and on the authority of Pliny) to be +communicated by being poured into the ears. But the Henbane is not a +tree, as Gower's "Hebenus" and Spenser's "Heben" certainly were; and +though it will satisfy some of the requirements of the plant named by +Shakespeare, it will not satisfy all.[119:1] + +It might have been supposed that the difficulty would at once have been +cleared up by reference to the accounts of the death of Hamlet's father, +as given by Saxo Grammaticus, and the old "Hystorie of Hamblet," but +neither of these writers attribute his death to poison.[119:2] + +The question has lately been very much narrowed and satisfactorily +settled (for the present, certainly, and probably altogether) by Dr. +Nicholson and the Rev. W. A. Harrison. These gentlemen have decided that +the true reading is Hebona, and that Hebona is the Yew. Their views are +stated at full length in two exhaustive papers contributed to the New +Shakespeare Society, and published in their "Transactions."[119:3] The +full argument is too long for insertion here, and my readers will thank +me for referring them to the papers in the "Transactions." The main +arguments are based on three facts: 1. That in nearly all the northern +nations (including, of course, Denmark) the name of the Yew is more or +less like Heben. 2. That all the effects attributed by Shakespeare to +the action of Hebona are described as arising from Yew-poisoning by +different medical writers, some of them contemporary with him, and some +writing with later experiences. 3. That the _post mortem_ appearances +after Yew-poisoning and after snake-poisoning are very similar, and it +was "given out, that sleeping in my orchard, a serpent stung me." + +But it may well be asked, How could Shakespeare have known of all these +effects, which (as far as our present search has discovered) are not +named by any one writer of his time, and some of which have only been +made public from the results of Yew-poisoning since his day? I think the +question can be answered in a very simple way. The effects are described +with such marked minuteness that it seems to me not only very probable, +but almost certain, that Shakespeare must have been an eye-witness of a +case of Yew-poisoning, and that what he saw had been so photographed on +his mind that he took the first opportunity that presented itself to +reproduce the picture. With his usual grand contempt for perfect +accuracy he did not hesitate to sweep aside at once the strict +historical records of the old king's death, and in its place to paint +for us a cold-blooded murder carried out by means which he knew from his +personal experience to be possible, and which he felt himself able to +describe with a minuteness which his knowledge of his audiences assured +him would not be out of place even in that great tragedy. + +The objection to the Yew theory of Hebona, that the Yew is named by +Shakespeare under its more usual name, is no real objection. On the same +ground Ebony and Henbane must be excluded; together with Gilliflowers, +which he elsewhere speaks of as Carnations; and Woodbine, because he +also speaks of Honeysuckle. + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[118:1] Hebona is the reading of the First Quarto (1603) and of the +Second Quarto (1604), and is decided by the critics to be the true +reading. + +[119:1] Mr. Beisley suggests Enoron, _i.e._, Nightshade, which Mr. Dyce +describes as "a villainous conjecture." In my first edition I expressed +my belief that Hebenon was either Henbane or a general term for a deadly +poisonous plant; but I had not then seen Dr. Nicholson's and Mr. +Harrison's papers. + +[119:2] Saxo Grammaticus: "Ubi datus parricidio locus, cruenta manu +mentis libidinem satiavit; trucidati quoque fratris uxore potitus, +incestum parricidio adjecit."--_Historiae Danorum_, lib. iii, fol. xxvii, +Ed. 1514. + +"The Historye of Hamblet, Prince of Denmark:" Fergon "having secretly +assembled certain men and perceiving himself strong enough to execute +his enterprise, Horvendile, his brother, being at a banquet with his +friends, sodainely set upon him, where he slewe him as treacherously, as +cunningly he purged himselfe of so detestable a murder to his +subjects."--COLLIER'S _Shakespeare's Library_. + +[119:3] "Hamlet's Cursed Hebenon," by Dr. R. B. Nicholson, M.D. (read +Nov. 14, 1879). "Hamlet's Juice of Cursed Hebona," by Rev. W. A. +Harrison, M.A. (read May 12, 1882). Both the papers are published in the +"Transactions" of the Society. + + + + +HEMLOCK. + + + (1) _Burgundy._ + + Her fallow leas + The Darnel, Hemlock, and rank Fumitory + Doth root upon. + + _Henry V_, act v, sc. 2 (44). + + + (2) _3rd Witch._ + + Root of Hemlock digg'd i' the dark. + + _Macbeth_, act iv, sc. 1 (25). + + + (3) _Cordelia._ + + Crown'd with rank Fumiter and Furrow-weeds, + With Burdocks, Hemlock, Nettles, Cuckoo-flowers. + + _King Lear_, act iv, sc. 4 (3). + +One of the most poisonous of a suspicious family (the Umbelliferae), "the +great Hemlocke doubtlesse is not possessed of any one good facultie, as +appeareth by his lothsome smell and other apparent signes," and with +this evil character the Hemlock was considered to be only fit for an +ingredient of witches' broth-- + + "I ha' been plucking (plants among) + Hemlock, Henbane, Adder's Tongue, + Nightshade, Moonwort, Leppard's-bane." + + BEN JONSON, _Witches' Song in the Masque of the Queens_. + +Yet the Hemlock adds largely to the beauty of our hedgerows; its spotted +tall stems and its finely cut leaves make it a handsome weed, and the +dead stems and dried umbels are marked features in the winter appearance +of the hedges. As a poison it has an evil notoriety, being supposed to +be the poison by which Socrates was put to death, though this is not +quite certain. It is not, however, altogether a useless plant--"It is a +valuable medicinal plant, and in autumn the ripened stem is cut into +pieces to make reeds for worsted thread."--JOHNSTON. + + + + +HEMP. + + + (1) _Pistol._ + + Let gallows gape for dog; let man go free, + And let not Hemp his windpipe suffocate. + + _Henry V_, act iii, sc. 6 (45). + + + (2) _Chorus._ + + And in them behold + Upon the Hempen tackle ship-boys climbing. + + _Henry V_, act iii, chorus (7). + + + (3) _Puck._ + + What Hempen homespuns have we swaggering here? + + _Midsummer Night's Dream_, act iii, sc. 1 (79). + + + (4) _Cade._ + + Ye shall have a Hempen caudle then, and the pap of a hatchet. + + _2nd Henry VI_, act iv, sc. 7 (95). + + + (5) _Hostess._ + + Thou Hemp-seed. + + _2nd Henry IV_, act ii, sc. 1 (64). + +In all these passages, except the last, the reference is to rope made +from Hemp, and not to the Hemp plant, and it is very probable that +Shakespeare never saw the plant. It was introduced into England long +before his time, and largely cultivated, but only in few parts of +England, and chiefly in the eastern counties. I do not find that it was +cultivated in gardens in his time, but it is a plant well deserving a +place in any garden, and is especially suitable from its height and +regular growth, for the central plant of a flower-bed. It is supposed to +be a native of India, and seems capable of cultivation in almost any +climate.[122:1] + +The name has a curious history. "The Greek +kannabis+, and Latin +_cannabis_, are both identical with the Sanscrit _kanam_, as well as +with the German _hanf_, and the English _hemp_. More directly from +_cannabis_ comes canvas, made up of hemp or flax, and canvass, to +discuss: _i.e._, sift a question; metaphorically from the use of hempen +sieves or sifters."--BIRDWOOD'S _Handbook to the Indian Court_, p. 23. + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[122:1] In Shakespeare's time the vulgar name for Hemp was Neckweed, and +there is a curious account of it under that name by William Bullein, in +"The Booke of Compounds," f. 68. + + + + +HERB OF GRACE, _see_ RUE. + + + + +HOLLY. + + + _Song._ + + Heigh-ho! sing, heigh-ho! unto the green Holly: + Most friendship is feigning, most loving mere folly: + Then, heigh-ho, the Holly! + This life is most jolly. + + _As You Like It_, act ii, sc. 7 (180). + +From this single notice of the Holly in Shakespeare, and from the +slight account of it in Gerard, we might conclude that the plant was not +the favourite in the sixteenth century that it is in the nineteenth; but +this would be a mistake. The Holly entered largely into the old +Christmas carols. + + "Christmastide + Comes in like a bride, + With Holly and Ivy clad"-- + +and it was from the earliest times used for the decoration of houses and +churches at Christmas. It does not, however, derive its name from this +circumstance, though it was anciently spelt "holy," or called the "holy +tree," for the name comes from a very different source, and is identical +with "holm," which, indeed, was its name in the time of Gerard and +Parkinson, and is still its name in some parts of England, though it has +almost lost its other old name of Hulver,[123:1] except in the eastern +counties, where the word is still in use. But as an ornamental tree it +does not seem to have been much valued, though in the next century +Evelyn is loud in the praises of this "incomparable tree," and admired +it both for its beauty and its use. It is certainly the handsomest of +our native evergreens, and is said to be finer in England than in any +other country; and as seen growing in its wild habitats in our forests, +as it may be seen in the New Forest and the Forest of Dean, it stands +without a rival, equally beautiful in summer and in winter; in summer +its bright glossy leaves shining out distinctly in the midst of any +surrounding greenery, while as "the Holly that outdares cold winter's +ire" (Browne), it is the very emblem of bright cheerfulness, with its +foliage uninjured in the most severe weather, and its rich coral +berries, sometimes borne in the greatest profusion, delighting us with +their brilliancy and beauty. And as a garden shrub, the Holly still +holds its own, after all the fine exotic shrubs that have been +introduced into our gardens during the present century. It can be grown +as a single shrub, or it may be clipped, and will then form the best and +the most impregnable hedge that can be grown. No other plant will +compare with it as a hedge plant, if it be only properly attended to, +and we can understand Evelyn's pride in his "glorious and refreshing +object," a Holly hedge 160ft. in length, 7ft. in height, and 5ft. in +diameter, which he could show in his "poor gardens at any time of the +year, glittering with its armed and vernished leaves," and "blushing +with their natural corale." Nor need we be confined to plain green in +such a hedge. The Holly runs into a great many varieties, with the +leaves of all shapes and sizes, and blotched and variegated in different +fashions and colours. All of these seem to be comparatively modern. In +the time of Gerard and Parkinson there seems to have been only the one +typical species, and perhaps the Hedgehog Holly. + +I may finish the notice of the Holly by quoting two most remarkable uses +of the tree mentioned by Parkinson: "With the flowers of Holly, saith +Pliny from Pythagoras, water is made ice; and againe, a staffe of the +tree throwne at any beast, although it fall short by his defect that +threw it, will flye to him, as he lyeth still, by the speciall property +of the tree." He may well add--"This I here relate that you may +understand the fond and vain conceit of those times, which I would to +God we were not in these dayes tainted withal." + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[123:1] "_Hulwur_-tre (huluyr), hulmus, hulcus aut huscus."--_Promptorium +Parvulorum._ + + + + +HOLY THISTLE. + + + _Margaret._ + + Get you some of this distilled Carduus Benedictus, and lay it + to your heart; it is the only thing for a qualm. + + _Hero._ + + There thou prickest her with a Thistle. + + _Beatrice._ + + Benedictus! Why Benedictus? You have some moral in this + Benedictus. + + _Margaret._ + + Moral! No, by my troth, I have no moral meaning: I meant plain + Holy Thistle. + + _Much Ado About Nothing_, act iii, sc. 4 (73). + +The _Carduus benedictus_, or Blessed Thistle, is a handsome annual from +the South of Europe, and obtained its name from its high reputation as a +heal-all, being supposed even to cure the plague, which was the highest +praise that could be given to a medicine in those days. It is mentioned +in all the treatises on the Plague, and especially by Thomas Brasbridge, +who, in 1578, published his "Poore Mans Jewell, that is to say, a +Treatise of the Pestilence: vnto which is annexed a declaration of the +vertues of the Hearbes Carduus Benedictus and Angelica." This little +book Shakespeare may have seen; it speaks of the virtues of the +"distilled" leaves: it says, "it helpeth the hart," "expelleth all +poyson taken in at the mouth and other corruption that doth hurt and +annoye the hart," and that "the juyce of it is outwardly applied to the +bodie" ("lay it to your heart"), and concludes, "therefore I counsell +all them that have Gardens to nourish it, that they may have it always +to their own use, and the use of their neighbours that lacke it." The +plant has long lost this high character. + + + + +HONEYSTALKS, _see_ CLOVER. + + + + +HONEYSUCKLE. + + + (1) _Hero._ + + And bid her steal into the pleached bower + Where Honeysuckles, ripen'd by the sun, + Forbid the sun to enter. + + _Much Ado About Nothing_, act iii, sc. 1 (7). + + + (2) _Ursula._ + + So angle we for Beatrice; who even now + Is couched in the Woodbine coverture. + + _Ibid._ (29). + + + (3) _Titania._ + + Sleep thou, and I will wind thee in my arms. + So doth the Woodbine the sweet Honeysuckle + Gently entwist; the Female Ivy so + Enrings the barky fingers of the Elm. + + _Midsummer Night's Dream_, act iv, sc. 1 (47). + + + (4) _Hostess._ + + O thou Honeysuckle villain. + + _2nd Henry IV_, act ii, sc. 1 (52). + + + (5) _Oberon._ + + I know a bank where the wild Thyme blows, + Where Oxlips and the nodding Violet grows, + Quite over-canopied with luscious Woodbine. + + _Midsummer Night's Dream_, act ii, sc. 1 (249). + +I have joined together here the Woodbine and the Honeysuckle, because +there can be little doubt that in Shakespeare's time the two names +belonged to the same plant,[126:1] and that the Woodbine was (where the +two names were at all discriminated, as in No. 3), applied to the plant +generally, and Honeysuckle to the flower. This seems very clear by +comparing together Nos. 1 and 2. In earlier writings the name was +applied very loosely to almost any creeping or climbing plant. In an +Anglo-Saxon Vocabulary of the eleventh century it is applied to the Wild +Clematis ("Viticella--Weoden-binde"); while in Archbishop AElfric's +"Vocabulary" of the tenth century it is applied to the Hedera nigra, +which may be either the Common or the Ground Ivy ("Hedera +nigra--Wude-binde"); and in the Herbarium and Leechdom books of the +twelfth century it is applied to the Capparis or Caper-plant, by which, +however (as Mr. Cockayne considers), the Convolvulus Sepium is meant. +After Shakespeare's time again the words began to be used confusedly. +Milton does not seem to have been very clear in the matter. In "Paradise +Lost" he makes our first parents "wind the Woodbine round this arbour" +(perhaps he had Shakespeare's arbour in his mind); and in "Comus" he +tells us of-- + + "A bank + With ivy-canopied, and interwove + With flaunting Honeysuckle."[126:2] + +While in "Lycidas" he tells of-- + + "The Musk Rose and the well-attired Woodbine." + +And we can scarcely suppose that he would apply two such contrary +epithets as "flaunting" and "well-attired" to the same plant. And now +the name, as of old, is used with great uncertainty, and I have heard it +applied to many plants, and especially to the small sweet-scented +Clematis (_C. flammula_). + +But with the Honeysuckle there is no such difficulty. The name is an old +one, and in its earliest use was no doubt indifferently applied to many +sweet-scented flowers (the Primrose amongst them); but it was soon +attached exclusively to our own sweet Honeysuckle of the woods and +hedges. We have two native species (Lonicera periclymenum and L. +xylosteum), and there are about eighty exotic species, but none of them +sweeter or prettier than our own, which, besides its fragrant flowers, +has pretty, fleshy, red fruit. + +The Honeysuckle has ever been the emblem of firm and fast affection--as +it climbs round any tree or bush, that is near it, not only clinging to +it faster than Ivy, but keeping its hold so tight as to leave its mark +in deep furrows on the tree that has supported it. The old writers are +fond of alluding to this. Bullein in "The Book of Simples," 1562, says +very prettily, "Oh, how swete and pleasant is Wood-binde, in woodes or +arbours, after a tender, soft rain: and how friendly doe this herbe, if +I maie so name it, imbrace the bodies, armes, and branches of trees, +with his long winding stalkes, and tender leaves, openyng or spreading +forthe his swete Lillis, like ladie's fingers, em[=o]g the thornes or +bushes," and there is no doubt from the context that he is here +referring to the Honeysuckle. Chaucer gives the crown of Woodbine to +those who were constant in love-- + + "And tho that weare chaplets on their hede + Of fresh Woodbine, be such as never were + To love untrue in word, thought, ne dede, + But aye stedfast; ne for pleasaunce ne fere, + Though that they should their hertes al to-tere, + Would never flit, but ever were stedfast + Till that there lives there asunder brast." + + _The Flower and the Leaf._ + +The two last lines well describe the fast union between the Honeysuckle +and its mated tree. + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[126:1] + + "Woodbines of sweet honey full." + + BEAUMONT AND FLETCHER, _Tragedy of Valentinian_. + +[126:2] Milton probably took the idea from Theocritus-- + + "Ivy reaches up and climbs, + Gilded with blossom-dust about its lip; + Round which a Woodbine wreathes itself, and flaunts + Her saffron fruitage."--_Idyll_ i. (_Calverley_). + + + + +HYSSOP. + + + _Iago._ + + 'Tis in ourselves that we are thus or thus. Our bodies are our + gardens, to the which our wills are gardeners; so that if + we will plant Nettles or sow Lettuce, set Hyssop, and weed + up Thyme, supply it with one gender of herbs or distract + it with many, either to have it sterile with idleness, + or maimed with industry, why, the power and corrigible + authority of this lies in our wills. + + _Othello_, act i, sc. 3 (322). + +We should scarcely expect such a lesson of wisdom drawn from the simple +herb-garden in the mouth of the greatest knave and villain in the whole +range of Shakespeare's writings. It was the preaching of a deep +hypocrite, and while we hate the preacher we thank him for his +lesson.[128:1] + +The Hyssop (_Hyssopus officinalis_) is not a British plant, but it was +held in high esteem in Shakespeare's time. Spenser spoke of it as-- + + "Sharp Isope good for green wounds remedies"-- + +and Gerard grew in his garden five or six different species or +varieties. He does not tell us where his plants came from, and perhaps +he did not know. It comes chiefly from Austria and Siberia; yet Greene +in his "Philomela," 1615, speaks of "the Hyssop growing in America, that +is liked of strangers for the smell, and hated of the inhabitants for +the operation, being as prejudicial to the one as delightsome to the +other." It is now very little cultivated, for it is not a plant of much +beauty, and its medicinal properties are not much esteemed; yet it is a +plant that must always have an interest to readers of the Bible; for +there it comes before us as the plant of purification, as the plant of +which the study was not beneath the wisdom of Solomon, and especially +as the plant that added to the cruelties of the Crucifixion. Whether +the Hyssop of Scripture is the Hyssopus officinalis is still a question, +but at the present time the most modern research has decided that it is. + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[128:1] It seems likely from the following passage from Lily's "Euphues, +the anatomy of wit," 1617, that the plants were not named at random by +Iago, but that there was some connection between them. "Good gardeners, +in their curious knots, mixe Isope with Time, as aiders the one with the +others; the one being dry, the other moist." The gardeners of the +sixteenth century had a firm belief in the sympathies and antipathies of +plants. + + + + +INSANE ROOT. + + + _Banquo._ + + Were such things here as we do speak about? + Or have we eaten on the Insane Root + That takes the reason prisoner? + + _Macbeth_, act i, sc. 3 (83). + +It is very possible that Shakespeare had no particular plant in view, +but simply referred to any of the many narcotic plants which, when given +in excess, would "take the reason prisoner." The critics have suggested +many plants--the Hemlock, the Henbane, the Belladonna, the Mandrake, +&c., each one strengthening his opinion from coeval writers. In this +uncertainty I should incline to the Henbane from the following +description by Gerard and Lyte. "This herbe is called . . . of +Apuleia-Mania" (Lyte). "Henbane is called . . . of Pythagoras, +Zoroaster, and Apuleius, Insana" (Gerard). + + + + +IVY. + + + (1) _Titania._ + + The female Ivy so + Enrings the barky fingers of the Elm. + + _Midsummer Night's Dream_, act iv, sc. 1 (48). + + + (2) _Prospero._ + + That now he was + The Ivy which had hid my princely trunk + And suck'd my verdure out on't. + + _Tempest_, act i, sc. 2 (85). + + + (3) _Adriana._ + + If ought possess thee from me, it is dross, + Usurping Ivy, Brier, or idle Moss. + + _Comedy of Errors_, act ii, sc. 2 (179). + + + (4) _Shepherd._ + + They have scared away two of my best sheep, which I fear the + wolf will sooner find than the master; if anywhere I have + them 'tis by the seaside browsing of Ivy.[130:1] + + _Winter's Tale_, act iii, sc. 3 (66). + + + (5) _Perithores._ + + His head's yellow, + Hard hayr'd, and curl'd, thicke twin'd like Ivy tops, + Not to undoe with thunder. + + _Two Noble Kinsmen_, act iv, sc. 2 (115). + +The rich evergreen of "the Ivy never sear" (Milton) recommended it to +the Romans to be joined with the Bay in the chaplets of poets-- + + "Hanc sine tempora circum + Inter victrices Hederam tibi serpere lauros."--VIRGIL. + + + "Seu condis amabile carmen + Prima feres Hederae victricis praemia."--HORACE. + +And in mediaeval times it was used with Holly for Christmas decorations, +so that Bullein called it "the womens Christmas Herbe." But the old +writers always assumed a curious rivalry between the two-- + + "Holly and Ivy made a great party + Who should have the mastery + In lands where they go." + +And there is a well-known carol of the time of Henry VI., which tells of +the contest between the two, and of the mastery of the Holly; it is in +eight stanzas, of which I extract the last four-- + + "Holly he hath berries as red as any Rose, + The foresters, the hunters, keep them from the does; + Ivy she hath berries as black as any Sloe, + There come the owls and eat them as they go; + Holly he hath birds, a full fair flock, + The nightingale, the popinjay, the gentle laverock; + Good Ivy, say to us, what birds hast thou? + None but the owlet that cries 'How, how!'" + +Thus the Ivy was not allowed the same honour inside the houses of our +ancestors as the Holly, but it held its place outside the houses as a +sign of good cheer to be had within. The custom is now extinct, but +formerly an Ivy bush (called a tod of Ivy) was universally hung out in +front of taverns in England, as it still is in Brittany and Normandy. +Hence arose two proverbs--"Good wine needs no bush," _i.e._, the +reputation is sufficiently good without further advertisement; and "An +owl in an Ivy bush," as "perhaps denoting originally the union of wisdom +or prudence with conviviality, as 'Be merry and wise.'"--NARES. + +The Ivy was a plant as much admired by our grandfathers of the fifteenth +and sixteenth centuries as it is now by us. Spenser was evidently fond +of it-- + + "And nigh thereto a little chappel stoode + Which being all with Yvy overspread + Deckt all the roofe, and shadowing the rode + Seem'd like a grove faire branched over hed." + + _F. Q._, vi, v, 25. + +In another place he speaks of it as-- + + "Wanton Yvie, flouring fayre."--_F. Q._, ii, v, 29. + +And in another place-- + + "Amongst the rest the clambering Ivie grew + Knitting his wanton armes with grasping hold, + Least that the Poplar happely should rew + Her brother's strokes, whose boughs she doth enfold + With her lythe twigs till they the top survew, + And paint with pallid greene her buds of gold." + + VIRGIL'S _Gnat_. + +Chaucer describes it as-- + + "The erbe Ivie that groweth in our yard that mery is." + +And in the same poem he prettily describes it as-- + + "The pallid Ivie building his own bowre." + +As a wild plant, the Ivy is found in Europe, Asia, and Africa, but not +in America, and wherever it is found it loves to cover old walls and +buildings, and trees of every sort, with its close and rich drapery and +clusters of black fruit,[132:1] and where it once establishes itself it +is always beautiful, but not always harmless. Both on trees and +buildings it requires very close watching. It will very soon destroy +soft-wooded trees, such as the Poplar and the Ash, by its tight embrace, +not by sucking out the sap, but by preventing the outward growth of the +shoots, and checking--and at length preventing--the flow of sap; and in +buildings it is no doubt beneficial as long as it is closely watched and +kept in place, but if allowed to drive its roots into joints, or to grow +under roofs, the swelling roots and branches will soon displace any +masonry, and cause immense mischief. + +We have only one species of Ivy in England, and there are only two real +species recognized by present botanists, but there are infinite +varieties, and many of them very beautiful. These variegated Ivies were +known to the Greeks and Romans, and were highly prized by them, one +especially with white fruit (at present not known) was the type of +beauty. No higher praise could be given to a beauty than that she was +"Hedera formosior alba." These varieties are scarcely mentioned by +Gerard and Parkinson, and probably were not much valued; they are now in +greater repute, and nothing will surpass them for rapidly and +effectually covering any bare spaces. + +I need scarcely add that the Ivy is so completely hardy that it will +grow in any aspect and in any soil; that its flowers are the staple food +of bees in the late autumn; and that all the varieties grow easily from +cuttings at almost any time of the year. + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[130:1] Sheep feeding on Ivy-- + + "My sheep have Honeysuckle bloom for pasture; Ivy grows + In multitudes around them, and blossoms like the Rose." + + THEOCRITUS, _Idyll_ v. (_Calverley_). + +[132:1] + + "The Ivy-mesh + Shading the Ethiop berries."--KEATS, _Endymion_. + + + + +KECKSIES. + + + _Burgundy._ + + And nothing teems + But hateful Docks, rough Thistles, Kecksies, Burs, + Losing both beauty and utility. + + _Henry V_, act v, sc. 2 (51). + +Kecksies or Kecks are the dried and withered stems of the Hemlock, and +the name is occasionally applied to the living plant. It seems also to +have been used for any dry weeds-- + + "All the wyves of Tottenham came to se that syght, + With Wyspes, and Kexis, and ryschys ther lyght, + To fech hom ther husbandes, that wer tham trouth plyght." + + "The Tournament of Tottenham," in + RITSON'S _Ancient Songs and Ballads_. + + + + +KNOT-GRASS. + + + _Lysander._ + + Get you gone, you dwarf; + You minimus, of hindering Knot-grass made; + You bead, you Acorn. + + _Midsummer Night's Dream_, act iii, sc. 2 (328). + +The Knot-grass is the Polygonum aviculare, a British weed, low, +straggling, and many-jointed, hence its name of Knot-grass. There is no +doubt that this is the plant meant, and its connection with a dwarf is +explained by the belief, probably derived from some unrecorded character +detected by the "doctrine of signatures," that the growth of children +could be stopped by a diet of Knot-grass. Steevens quotes Beaumont and +Fletcher to this effect, and this will probably explain the epithet +"hindering." But there may be another explanation. Johnston tells us +that in the north, "being difficult to cut in the harvest time, or to +pull in the process of weeding, it has obtained the sobriquet of the +Deil's-lingels." From this it may well be called "hindering," just as +the Ononis, from the same habit of catching the plough and harrow, has +obtained the prettier name of "Rest-harrow." + +But though Shakespeare's Knot-grass is undoubtedly the Polygonum, yet +the name was also given to another plant, for this cannot be the plant +mentioned by Milton-- + + "The chewing flocks + Had ta'en their supper on the savoury herb + Of Knot-grass dew-besprent."--_Comus._ + +In this case it must be one of the pasture Grasses, and may be Agrostis +stolonifera, as it is said to be in Aubrey's "Natural History of Wilts" +(Dr. Prior). + + + + +LADY-SMOCKS. + + + _Song of Spring._ + + And Lady-smocks all silver-white, + And Cuckoo-buds of yellow hue, + Do paint the meadows with delight. + + _Love's Labour's Lost_, act v, sc. 2 (905). + +Lady-smocks are the flowers of Cardamine pratensis, the pretty early +meadow flower of which children are so fond, and of which the popularity +is shown by its many names: Lady-smocks, Cuckoo-flower,[134:1] Meadow +Cress, Pinks, Spinks, Bog-spinks, and May-flower, and "in Northfolke, +Canterbury Bells." The origin of the name is not very clear. It is +generally explained from the resemblance of the flowers to smocks hung +out to dry, but the resemblance seems to me rather far-fetched. +According to another explanation, "the Lady-smock, a corruption of Our +Lady's-smock, is so called from its first flowering about Lady-tide. It +is a pretty purplish white, tetradynamous plant, which blows from +Lady-tide till the end of May, and which during the latter end of April +covers the moist meadows with its silvery-white, which looks at a +distance like a white sheet spread over the fields."--_Circle of the +Seasons._ Those who adopt this view called the plant Our Lady's-smock, +but I cannot find that name in any old writers. Drayton, coeval with +Shakespeare, says-- + + "Some to grace the show, + Of Lady-smocks most white do rob each neighbouring mead, + Wherewith their loose locks most curiously they braid." + +And Isaac Walton, in the next century, drew that pleasant picture of +himself sitting quietly by the waterside--"looking down the meadows I +could see here a boy gathering Lilies and Lady-smocks, and there a girl +cropping Culverkeys and Cowslips."[134:2] + +There is a double variety of the Lady-smock which makes a handsome +garden plant, and there is a remarkable botanical curiosity connected +with the plant which should be noticed. The plant often produces in the +autumn small plants upon the leaves, and by the means of these little +parasites the plant is increased, and even if the leaves are detached +from the plant, and laid upon moist congenial soil, young plants will be +produced. This is a process that is well known to gardeners in the +propagation of Begonias, and it is familiar to us in the proliferous +Ferns, where young plants are produced on the surface or tips of the +fronds; and Dr. Masters records "the same condition as a teratological +occurrence in the leaves of Hyacinthus Pouzolsii, Drosera intermedia, +Arabis pumila, Chelidonum majus, Chirita Sinensis, Epicia bicolor, +Zamia, &c."--_Vegetable Teratology_, p. 170. + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[134:1] "Ladies-smock.--A kind of water cresses, of whose virtue it +partakes; and it is otherwise called Cuckoo-flower."--PHILLIPS, _World +of Words_, 1696. + +[134:2] Culverkeys is mentioned in Dennis' "Secrets of Angling" as a +meadow flower: "pale Ganderglas, and azor Culverkayes." It is also +mentioned by Aubrey, in his "Natural History of Wilts;" but the name is +found in no other writer, and is now extinct. It is difficult to say +what plant is meant; many have been suggested: the Columbine, the Meadow +Orchis, the Bluebell, &c. I think it must be the Meadow Geranium, which +is certainly "azor" almost beyond any other British plant. "Culver" is a +dove or pigeon, and "keyes" or "kayes" are the seeds of a plant, and the +seeds of the Geranium were all likened to the claws of birds, so that +our British species is called G. columbinum. + + + + +LARK'S HEELS. + + + Larks heels trim. + + _Two Noble Kinsmen_, Introd. song. + +Lark's heels is one of the many names of the Garden Delphinium, +otherwise called Larkspur, Larksclaw, Larkstoes. + + + + +LAUREL. + + + (1) _Clarence._ + + To whom the heavens in thy nativity + Adjudged an Olive branch and Laurel crown + As likely to be blest in peace and war. + + _3rd Henry VI_, act iv, sc. 6 (33). + + + (2) _Titus._ + + Cometh Andronicus bound with Laurel boughs. + + _Titus Andronicus_, act i, sc. 1 (74). + + + (3) _Cleopatra._ + + Upon your sword + Sit Laurel victory. + + _Antony and Cleopatra_, act i, sc. 3 (99). + + + (4) _Ulysses._ + + Prerogative of age, crowns, sceptres, Laurels. + + _Troilus and Cressida_, act i, sc. 3 (107). + +This is one of the plants which Shakespeare borrowed from the classical +writers; it is not the Laurel of our day, which was not introduced till +after his death,[136:1] but the Laurea Apollinis, the Laurea Delphica-- + + "The Laurel meed of mightie conquerors + And poet's sage,"--SPENSER; + +that is, the Bay. This is the tree mentioned by Gower-- + + "This Daphne into a Lorer tre + Was turned, whiche is ever grene, + In token, as yet it may be sene, + That she shalle dwelle a maiden stille." + + _Conf. Aman._ lib. terc. + +There can be little doubt that the Laurel of Chaucer also was the Bay, +the-- + + "Fresh grene Laurer tree + That gave so passing a delicious smelle + According to the Eglantere ful welle." + +He also spoke of it as the emblem of enduring freshness-- + + "Myn herte and al my lymes be as grene + As Laurer, through the yeer is for to seene." + + _The Marchaundes Tale._ + +The Laurel in Lyte's "Herbal" (the Lauriel or Lourye) seems to be the +Daphne Laureola. But unconsciously Chaucer and Shakespeare spoke with +more botanical accuracy than we do, the Bay being a true Laurel, while +the Laurel is a Cherry (_see_ BAY). + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[136:1] The first Laurel grown in Europe was grown by Clusius in 1576. + + + + +LAVENDER. + + + _Perdita._ + + Here's flowers for you; + Hot Lavender, Mints, Savory, Marjoram. + + _Winter's Tale_, act iv, sc. 4 (103). + +The mention of Lavender always recalls Walton's pleasant picture of "an +honest ale-house, where we shall find a cleanly room, Lavender in the +windows, and twenty ballads stuck against the wall, and my hostess, I +may tell you, is both cleanly and handsome and civil." Whether it is +from this familiar, old-fashioned picture, or from some inherent charm +in the plant, it is hard to say, but it is certain that the smell of +Lavender is always associated with cleanliness and freshness.[137:1] + +It is not a British plant, but is a native of the South of Europe in dry +and barren places, and it was introduced into England in the sixteenth +century, but it probably was not a common plant in Shakespeare's time, +for though it is mentioned by Spenser as "the Lavender still gray" +("Muiopotmos"), and by Gerard as growing in his garden, it is not +mentioned by Bacon in his list of sweet-smelling plants. The fine +aromatic smell is found in all parts of the shrub, but the essential oil +is only produced from the flowers. As a garden plant it is found in +every garden, but its growth as an extensive field crop is chiefly +confined to the neighbourhood of Mitcham and Carshalton in Surrey; and +there at the time of the picking of the flowers, and still more in the +later autumn when the old woody plants are burned, the air for a long +distance is strongly and most pleasantly impregnated with the delicate +perfume. + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[137:1] The very name suggests this association. Lavender is the English +form of the Latin name, Lavendula; "lavendula autem dicta quoniam magnum +vectigal Genevensibus mercatoribus praebet quotannis in Africam eam +ferentibus, ubi lavandis fovendisque corporibus Lybes ea utuntur, nec +nisi decocto ejus abluti, mane domo egrediuntur."--_Stephani Libellus de +re Hortensi_, 1536, p. 54. The old form of our "laundress" was "a +Lavendre." + + + + +LEATHERCOAT, _see_ APPLE. + + + + +LEEK. + + + (1) _Thisbe._ + + His eyes were green as Leeks. + + _Midsummer Night's Dream_, act v, sc. 1 (342). + + + (2) _Pistol._ + + Tell him I'll knock his Leek about his pate upon Saint Davy's + Day. + + _Henry V_, act iv, sc. 1 (54). + + + (3) _Fluellen._ + + If your majesties is remembered of it, the Welshmen did good + service in a garden where Leeks did grow, wearing Leeks in + their Monmouth caps; which your majesty knows to this hour + is an honourable badge of the service; and I do believe your + majesty takes no scorn to wear the Leek upon Saint Tavy's + Day. + + _Ibid._, act iv, sc. 7 (101). + + + (4) + + In act v, sc. 1, is the encounter between Fluellen and Pistol, + when he makes the bully eat the Leek; this causes such + frequent mention of the Leek that it would be necessary to + extract the whole scene, which, therefore, I will simply + refer to in this way. + +We can scarcely understand the very high value that was placed on Leeks +in olden times. By the Egyptians the plant was almost considered sacred, +"Porrum et caepe nefas violare et frangere morsu" (Juvenal); we know how +Leeks were relished in Egypt by the Israelites; and among the Greeks +they "appear to have constituted so important a part in ancient gardens, +that the term +prasia+, or a bed, derived its name from +prason+, the +Greek word for Onion," or Leek[138:1] (Daubeny); while among the +Anglo-Saxons it was very much the same. The name is pure Anglo-Saxon, +and originally meant any vegetable; then it was restricted to any +bulbous vegetable, before it was finally further restricted to our Leek; +and "its importance was considered so much above that of any other +vegetable, that _leac-tun_, the Leek-garden, became the common name of +the kitchen garden, and _leac-ward_, the Leek-keeper, was used to +designate the gardener" (Wright). The plant in those days gave its name +to the Broad Leek which is our present Leek, the Yne Leek or Onion, the +Garleek (Garlick), and others of the same tribe, while it was applied to +other plants of very different families, as the Hollow Leek (_Corydalis +cava_), and the House Leek (_Sempervivum tectorum_). + +It seems to have been considered the hardiest of all flowers. In the +account of the Great Frost of 1608, "this one infallible token" is given +in proof of its severity. "The Leek whose courage hath ever been so +undaunted that he hath borne up his lusty head in all storms, and could +never be compelled to shrink for hail, snow, frost, or showers, is now +by the violence and cruelty of this weather beaten unto the earth, being +rotted, dead, disgraced, and trod upon." + +Its popularity still continues among the Welsh, by whom it is still, I +believe, very largely cultivated; but it does not seem to have been much +valued in England in Shakespeare's time, for Gerard has but little to +say of its virtues, but much of its "hurts." "It hateth the body, +ingendreth naughty blood, causeth troublesome and terrible dreames, +offendeth the eyes, dulleth the sight, &c." Nor does Parkinson give a +much more favourable account. "Our dainty eye now refuseth them wholly, +in all sorts except the poorest; they are used with us sometimes in Lent +to make pottage, and is a great and generall feeding in Wales with the +vulgar gentlemen." It was even used as the proverbial expression of +worthlessness, as in the "Roumaunt of the Rose," where the author says, +speaking of "Phiciciens and Advocates"-- + + "For by her wille, without leese, + Everi man shulde be seke, + And though they die, they settle not a Leke." + +And by Chaucer-- + + "And other suche, deare ynough a Leeke." + + _Prologue of the Chanoune's Tale._ + + + "The beste song that ever was made + Ys not worth a Leky's blade, + But men will tend ther tille." + + _The Child of Bristowe._ + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[138:1] For a testimony of the high value placed on the Leek by the +Greeks see a poem on +Moly+, in "Anonymi Carmen de Herbis" in the "Poetae +Bucolici et didactici." + + + + +LEMON. + + + _Biron._ + + A Lemon. + + _Longaville._ + + Stuck with Cloves. + + _Love's Labour's Lost_, act v, sc. 2 (654). + +_See_ ORANGE AND CLOVES. + + + + +LETTUCE. + + + _Iago._ + + If we will plant Nettles or sow Lettuce. (_See_ HYSSOP.) + + _Othello_, act i, sc. 3 (324). + +This excellent vegetable with its Latin name probably came to us from +the Romans. + + "Letuce of lac derivyed is perchaunce; + For milk it hath or yeveth abundaunce." + + _Palladius on Husbandrie_, ii, 216 (15th cent.) + E. E. Text Soc. + +It was cultivated by the Anglo-Saxons, who showed their knowledge of its +narcotic qualities by giving it the name of Sleepwort; it is mentioned +by Spenser as "cold Lettuce" ("Muiopotmos"). And in Shakespeare's time +the sorts cultivated were very similar to, and probably as good as, +ours. + + + + +LILY. + + + (1) _Iris._ + + Thy banks with Pioned and Lilied[140:1] brims. + + _Tempest_, act iv, sc. 1 (64). + + + (2) _Launce._ + + Look you, she is as white as a Lily and as small as a wand. + + _Two Gentlemen of Verona_, act ii, sc. 3 (22). + + + (3) _Julia._ + + The air hath starved the Roses in her cheeks, + And pinch'd the Lily-tincture of her face. + + _Ibid._, act iv, sc. 4 (160). + + + (4) _Flute._ + + Most radiant Pyramus, most Lily-white of hue. + + _Midsummer Night's Dream_, act iii, sc. 1 (94). + + + (5) _Thisbe._ + + These Lily lips. + + _Ibid._, act v, sc. 1 (337). + + + (6) _Perdita._ + + Lilies of all kinds, + The Flower-de-luce being one! + + _Winter's Tale_, act iv, sc. 4 (126). + + + (7) _Princess._ + + Now by my maiden honour, yet as pure + As the unsullied Lily. + + _Love's Labour's Lost_, act v, sc. 2 (351). + + + (8) _Queen Katharine._ + + Like the Lily + That once was mistress of the field and flourish'd, + I'll hang my head, and perish. + + _Henry VIII_, act iii, sc. 1 (151). + + + (9) _Cranmer._ + + Yet a virgin, + A most unspotted Lily shall she pass + To the ground. + + _Ibid._, act v, sc. 5 (61). + + + (10) _Troilus._ + + Give me swift transportance to those fields, + Where I may wallow in the Lily beds + Proposed for the deserver. + + _Troilus and Cressida_, act iii, sc. 2 (12). + + + (11) _Marcus._ + + O, had the monster seen those Lily hands + Tremble, like Aspen leaves, upon a lute. + + _Titus Andronicus_, act ii, sc. 4 (44). + + + (12) _Titus._ + + Fresh tears + Stood on her cheeks as doth the honey-dew + Upon a gather'd Lily almost wither'd. + + _Ibid._, act iii, sc. 1 (111). + + + (13) _Iachimo._ + + How bravely thou becomest thy bed, fresh Lily! + + _Cymbeline_, act ii, sc. 2 (15). + + + (14) _Guiderius._ + + O sweetest, fairest Lily! + My brother wears thee not the one half so well, + As when thou grew'st thyself. + + _Ibid._, act iv, sc. 2 (201). + + + (15) _Constance._ + + Of Nature's gifts thou may'st with Lilies boast, + And with the half-blown Rose. + + _King John_, act iii, sc. 1 (53). + + + (16) _Salisbury._ + + To gild refined gold, to paint the Lily, + To throw a perfume on the Violet, + + * * * * * + + Is wasteful and ridiculous excess. + + _Ibid._, act iv, sc. 2 (11). + + + (17) _Kent._ + + A Lily-livered, action-taking knave. + + _King Lear_, act ii, sc. 2 (18). + + + (18) _Macbeth_ + + Thou Lily-liver'd boy. + + _Macbeth_, act v, sc. 3 (15). + + + (19) + + For sweetest things turn sourest by their deeds; + Lilies that fester smell far worse than weeds. + + _Sonnet_ xciv. + + + (20) + + Nor did I wonder at the Lily's white, + Nor praise the deep vermilion of the Rose. + + _Ibid._ xcviii. + + + (21) + + The Lily I condemned for thy hand. + + _Ibid._ xcix. + + + (22) + + Their silent war of Lilies and of Roses + Which Tarquin view'd in her fair face's field. + + _Lucrece_ (71). + + + (23) + + Her Lily hand her rosy cheek lies under, + Cozening the pillow of a lawful kiss. + + _Ibid._ (386). + + + (24) + + The colour in thy face + That even for anger makes the Lily pale, + And the red Rose blush at her own disgrace. + + _Ibid._ (477). + + + (25) + + A Lily pale with damask die to grace her. + + _Passionate Pilgrim_ (89). + + + (26) + + Full gently now she takes him by the hand, + A Lily prison'd in a jail of snow. + + _Venus and Adonis_ (361). + + + (27) + + She locks her Lily fingers one in one. + + _Ibid._ (228). + + + (28) + + Whose wonted Lily white + With purple tears, that his wound wept, was drench'd. + + _Ibid._ (1053). + +Which is the queen of flowers? There are two rival candidates for the +honour--the Lily and the Rose; and as we look on the one or the other, +our allegiance is divided, and we vote the crown first to one and then +to the other. We should have no difficulty "were t'other fair charmer +away," but with two such candidates, both equally worthy of the honour, +we vote for a diarchy instead of a monarchy, and crown them both.[142:1] +Yet there are many that would at once choose the Lily for the queen, +and that without hesitation, and they would have good authority for +their choice. "O Lord, that bearest rule," says Esdras, "of the whole +world, Thou hast chosen Thee of all the flowers thereof one Lily." +Spenser addresses the Lily as-- + + "The Lily, lady of the flow'ring field"--_F. Q._, ii, 6, 16, + +which is the same as Shakespeare's "mistress of the field," (8), and +many a poet since his time has given the same vote in many a pretty +verse, which, however, it would take too much space to quote at length; +so that I will content myself with these few lines by Alexander +Montgomery (coeval with Shakespeare)-- + + "I love the Lily as the first of flowers + Whose stately stalk so straight up is and stay; + To whom th' lave ay lowly louts and cowers + As bound so brave a beauty to obey." + +Montgomery here has clearly in his mind's eye the Lily now so called; +but the name was not so restricted in the earlier writers. "Lilium, +cojus vox generali et licentiosa usurpatione adscribitur omni flori +commendabili" (Laurembergius, 1632). This was certainly the case with +the Greek and Roman writers, and it is so in our English Bible in most +of the cases where the word is used, but perhaps not universally so. It +is so used by Gower, describing Tarquin cutting off the tall flowers, by +some said to be Poppies and by others Lilies-- + + "And in the garden as they gone, + The Lilie croppes one and one, + Where that they were sprongen out, + He smote off, as they stood about." + + _Conf. Ama._ lib. sept. + +It is used in the same way by Bullein when, speaking of the flower of +the Honeysuckle (_see_ HONEYSUCKLE), and it must have been used in the +same sense by Isaak Walton, when he saw a boy gathering "Lilies and +Lady-smocks" in the meadows. + +We have still many records of this loose way of speaking of the Lily, in +the Water Lily, the Lily of the Valley, the Lent Lily, St. Bruno's +Lily, the Scarborough Lily, the Belladonna Lily, and several others, +none of which are true Lilies. + +But it is time to come to Shakespeare's Lilies. In all the twenty-eight +passages the greater portion simply recall the Lily as the type of +elegance and beauty, without any special reference to the flower, and in +many the word is only used to express a colour, Lily-white. But in the +others he doubtless had some special plant in view, and there are two +species which, from contemporary writers, seem to have been most +celebrated in his day. The one is the pure White Lily (_Lilium +candidum_), a plant of which the native country is not yet quite +accurately ascertained. It is reported to grow wild in abundance in +Lebanon, and it probably came to England from the East in very early +times. It was certainly largely grown in Europe in the Middle Ages, and +was universally acknowledged by artists, sculptors, and architects, as +the emblem of female elegance and purity, and none of us would dispute +its claim to such a position. There is no other Lily which can surpass +it, when well grown, in stateliness and elegance, with sweet-scented +flowers of the purest white and the most graceful shape, and crowning +the top of the long leafy stem with such a coronal as no other plant can +show. On the rare beauties and excellences of the White Lily it would be +easy to fill a volume merely with extracts from old writers, and such a +volume would be far from uninteresting. Those who wish for some such +account may refer to the "Monographie Historique et Litteraire des Lis," +par Fr. de Cannart d'Hamale, 1870. There they will find more than fifty +pages of the botany, literary history, poetry, and medical uses of the +plant, together with its application to religious emblems, numismatics, +heraldry, painting, &c. Two short extracts will suffice here:--"Le lis +blanc, surnomme la fleur des fleurs, les delices de Venus, la Rose de +Junon, qu'Anguillara designa sous le nom d'Ambrosia, probablement a +cause de son parfum suivant, et pent etre aussi de sa soidisante divine +origine, se place tout naturellement a le tete de ce groupe splendide." +"C'est le Lis classique, par excellence, et en meme temps le plus beau +du genre." + +The other is the large Scarlet or Chalcedonian Lily; and this also is +one of the very handsomest, though its beauty is of a very different +kind to the White Lily. The habit of the plant is equally stately, and +is indeed very grand, but the colours are of the brightest and clearest +red. These two plants were abundantly grown in Shakespeare's time, but +besides these there do not seem to have been more than about +half-a-dozen species in cultivation. There are now forty-six recognized +species, besides varieties in great number. + +The Lily has a very wide geographical range, spreading from Central +Europe to the Philippines, and species are found in all quarters of the +globe, though the chief homes of the family seem to be in California and +Japan. Yet we have no wild Lily in England. Both the Martagon and the +Pyrenean Lily have been found, but there is no doubt they are garden +escapes. + +As a garden plant it may safely be said that no garden can make any +pretence to the name that cannot show a good display of Lilies, many or +few. Yet the Lily is a most capricious plant; while in one garden almost +any sort will grow luxuriantly, in a neighbouring garden it is found +difficult to grow any in a satisfactory manner. Within the last few +years their culture has been much studied, and by the practical +knowledge of such great growers of the family as G. F. Wilson, H. J. +Elwes, and other kindred liliophilists, we shall probably in a few years +have many difficulties cleared up both in the botanical history and the +cultivation of this lovely tribe. + +But we cannot dismiss the Lily without a few words of notice of its +sacred character. It is the flower specially dedicated to the Virgin +Mary, and which is so familiar to us in the old paintings of the +Annunciation. But it has, of course, a still higher character as a +sacred plant from the high honour placed on it by our Lord in the Sermon +on the Mount. After all that has been written on "the Lilies of the +field," critics have not yet decided whether any, and, if so, what +particular plant was meant. Each Eastern traveller seems to have +selected the flower that he most admired in Palestine, and then to +pronounce that that must be the Lily referred to. Thus, at various times +it has been decided to be the Rose, the Crown Imperial, the White Lily, +the Chalcedonian Lily, the Oleander, the Wild Artichoke, the +Sternbergia, the Tulip, and many others, but the most generally received +opinion now is, that if a true Lily at all, the evidence runs most +strongly in favour of the L. Chalcedonicum; but that Dean Stanley's view +is more probably the correct one, that the term "Lily" is generic, +alluding to the many beautiful flowers, both of the Lily family and +others, which abound in Palestine. The question, though deeply +interesting, is not one for which we need to be over-curious as to the +true answer. All of us, and gardeners especially, may be thankful for +the words which have thrown a never dying charm over our favourites, and +have effectually stopped any foolish objections that may be brought +against the deepest study of flowers, as a petty study, with no great +results. To any such silly objections (and we often hear them) the +answer is a very short and simple one--that we have been bidden by the +very highest authority to "consider the Lilies." + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[140:1] This is a modern reading, the older and more correct reading is +"twilled." + +[142:1] + + "Within the garden's peaceful scene + Appeared two lovely foes, + Aspiring to the rank of Queen, + The Lily and the Rose. + + * * * * * + + Yours is, she said, the noblest hue, + And yours the statelier mien, + And till a third surpasses you + Let each be deemed a Queen."--COWPER. + + + + +LIME. + + + (1) _Ariel._ + + All prisoners, sir, + In the Line-grove which weather-fends your cell. + + _Tempest_, act v, sc. 1 (9). + + + (2) _Prospero._ + + Come, hang them on this Line. + + _Ibid._, act iv, sc. 1 (193). + + + (3) _Stephano._ + + Mistress Line, is not this my jerkin? + + _Ibid._, act iv, sc. 1 (235). + +It is only in comparatively modern times that the old name of Line or +Linden, or Lind,[146:1] has given place to Lime. The tree is a doubtful +native, but has been long introduced, perhaps by the Romans. It is a +very handsome tree when allowed room, but it bears clipping well, and so +is very often tortured into the most unnatural shapes. It was a very +favourite tree with our forefathers to plant in avenues, not only for +its rapid growth, but also for the delicious scent of its flowers; but +the large secretions of honey-dew which load the leaves, and the fact +that it comes late into leaf and sheds its leaves very early, have +rather thrown it out of favour of late years. As a useful tree it does +not rank very high, except for wood-carvers, who highly prize its light, +easily-cut wood, that keeps its shape, and is very little liable to +crack or split either in the working or afterwards. Nearly all Grinling +Gibbons' delicate carving is in Lime wood. To gardeners the Lime is +further useful as furnishing the material for bast or bazen mats,[147:1] +which are made from its bark, and interesting as being the origin of the +name of Linnaeus. + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[146:1] "Be ay of chier as light as lyf on Lynde."--CHAUCER, _The +Clerkes Tale_, _l'envoi_. + +[147:1] "Between the barke and the woode of this tree, there bee thin +pellicles or skins lying in many folds together, whereof are made bands +and cords called Bazen ropes."--PHILEMON HOLLAND'S _Pliny's Nat. Hist._ +xvi. 14. The chapter is headed "Of the Line or Linden Tree." + + + + +LING. + + + _Gonzalo._ + + Now would I give a thousand furlongs of sea for an acre of + barren ground, Ling, Heath, brown Furze, anything. + + _Tempest_, act i, sc. 1 (70). + +If this be the correct reading (and not Long Heath) the reference is to +the Heather or Common Ling (_Calluna vulgaris_). This is the plant that +is generally called Ling in the South of England, but in the North of +England the name is given to the Cotton Grass (_Eriophorum_). It is very +probable, however, that no particular plant is intended, but that it +means any rough, wild vegetation, especially of open moors and heaths. + + + + +LOCUSTS. + + + _Iago._ + + The food that to him now is as luscious as Locusts, shall be + to him shortly as bitter as Coloquintida. + + _Othello_, act i, sc. 3 (354). + +The Locust is the fruit of the Carob tree (_Ceratonia siliqua_), a tree +that grows naturally in many parts of the South of Europe, the Levant, +and Syria, and is largely cultivated for its fruit.[148:1] These are +like Beans, full of sweet pulp, and are given in Spain and other +southern countries to horses, pigs, and cattle, and they are +occasionally imported into England for the same purpose. The Carob was +cultivated in England before Shakespeare's time. "They grow not in this +countrie," says Lyte, "yet, for all that, they be sometimes in the +gardens of some diligent Herboristes, but they be so small shrubbes that +they can neither bring forth flowers nor fruite." It was also grown by +Gerard, and Shakespeare may have seen it; but it is now very seldom seen +in any collection, though the name is preserved among us, as the +jeweller's carat weight is said to have derived its name from the Carob +Beans, which were used for weighing small objects. + +The origin of the tree being called Locust is a little curious. Readers +of the New Testament, ignorant of Eastern customs, could not understand +that St. John could feed on the insect locust, which, however, is now +known to be a common and acceptable article of food, so they looked +about for some solution of their difficulty, and decided that the +Locusts were the tender shoots of the Carob tree, and that the wild +honey was the luscious juice of the Carob fruit. Having got so far it +was easy to go farther, and so the Carob soon got the names of St. +John's Bread and St. John's Beans, and the monks of the desert showed +the very trees by which St. John's life was supported. But though the +Carob tree did not produce the locusts on which St. John fed, there is +little or no doubt that "the husks which the swine did eat," and which +the Prodigal Son longed for, were the produce of the Carob tree. + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[148:1] Pods of the Carob tree were found in a house at Pompeii. For an +account of the use of the Locust as an article of food, both in ancient +and modern times, see Hogg's "Classical Plants of Sicily," p. 114. + + + + +LONG PURPLES. + + + _Queen._ + + There with fantastic garlands did she come + Of Crow-flowers, Nettles, Daisies, and Long Purples, + That liberal shepherds give a grosser name, + But our cold maids do Dead Men's Fingers call them. + + _Hamlet_, act iv, sc. 7 (169). + +In "Flowers from Stratford-on-Avon" (a pretty book published a few +years ago with plates of twelve of Shakespeare's flowers) it is said +that "there can be no doubt that the Wild Arum is the plant alluded to +by Shakespeare as forming part of the nosegay of the crazed Ophelia;" +but the authoress gives no authority for this statement, and I believe +that there can be no reasonable doubt that the Long Purples and Dead +Men's Fingers are the common purple Orchises of the woods and meadows +(Orchis morio, O. mascula, and O. maculata). The name of Dead Men's +Fingers was given to them from the pale palmate roots of some of the +species (O. latifolia, O. maculata, and Gymnadenia conopsea), and this +seems to have been its more common name. + + "Then round the meddowes did she walke, + Catching each flower by the stalke, + Such as within the meddowes grew, + As Dead Man's Thumb and Harebell blew; + And as she pluckt them, still cried she, + Alas! there's none 'ere loved like me." + + _Roxburghe Ballads._ + +As to the other names to which the Queen alludes, we need not inquire +too curiously; they are given in all their "liberality" and "grossness" +in the old Herbals, but as common names they are, fortunately, extinct. +The name of Dead Men's Fingers still lingers in a few places, but Long +Purples has been transferred to a very different plant. It is named by +Clare and Tennyson-- + + "Gay Long-purples with its tufty spike; + She'd wade o'er shoes to reach it in the dyke." + + CLARE'S _Village Minstrel_, ii, 90. + + + "Round thee blow, self-pleached deep, + Bramble Roses, faint and pale, + And Long Purples of the dale." + + _A Dirge_, TENNYSON. + +But in both these passages the plant intended is the Lythrum salicaria, +or Purple Loosestrife. + +The meadow Orchis, though so common, is thus without any common English +name; for though I have often asked country people for its name, I have +never obtained one; and so it is another of those curious instances +which are so hard to explain, where an old and common English word has +been replaced by a Greek or Latin word, which must be entirely without +meaning to nine-tenths of those who use it.[150:1] There are similar +instances in Crocus, Cyclamen, Hyacinth, Narcissus, Anemone, Beet, +Lichen, Polyanthus, Polypody, Asparagus, and others. + +The Orchid family is certainly the most curious in the vegetable +kingdom, as it is almost the most extensive, except the Grasses. Growing +all over the world, in any climate, and in all kinds of situations, it +numbers 3000 species, of which we have thirty-seven native species in +England; and with their curious irregular flowers, often of very +beautiful colours, and of wonderful quaintness and variety of shape, +they are everywhere so distinct that the merest tyro in botany can +separate them from any other flower, and the deepest student can find +endless puzzles in them, and increasing interest. + +Though the most beautiful are exotics, and are the chief ornaments of +our stoves and hothouses, yet our native species are full of interest +and beauty. Of their botanical interest we have a most convincing proof +in Darwin's "Fertilization of Orchids," a book that is almost entirely +confined to the British Orchids, and which, in its wonderfully clear +statements, and its laborious collection of many little facts all +leading up to his scientific conclusions, is certainly not the least to +be admired among his other learned and careful books. And as to their +horticultural interest, it is most surprising that so few gardeners make +the use of them that they might. They were not so despised in +Shakespeare's time, for Gerard grew a large number in his garden. It is +true that some of them are very impatient of garden cultivation, +especially those of the Ophrys section (such as the Bee, Fly, and Spider +Orchises), and the rare O. hircina, which will seldom remain in the +garden above two or three years, except under very careful and peculiar +cultivation. But, on the other hand, there are many that rejoice in +being transferred to a garden, especially O. maculata, O. mascula, O. +pyramidalis, and the Butterfly Orchis of both kinds (Habenaria bifolia +and chlorantha). These, if left undisturbed, increase in size and beauty +every year, their flowers become larger, and their leaves (in O. +maculata and O. mascula) become most beautifully spotted. They may be +placed anywhere, but their best place seems to be among low shrubs, or +on the rockwork. Nor must the hardy Orchid grower omit the beautiful +American species, especially the Cypripedia (C. spectabile, C. +pubescens, C. acaule, and others). They are among the most beautiful of +low hardy plants, and they succeed perfectly in any peat border that is +not too much exposed to the sun. The only caution required is to leave +them undisturbed; they resent removal and broken roots; and though I +hold it to be one of the first rules of good gardening to give away to +others as much as possible, yet I would caution any one against dividing +his good clumps of Cypripedia. The probability is that both giver and +receiver will lose the plants. If, however, a plant must be divided, the +whole plant should be carefully lifted, and most gently pulled to pieces +with the help of water. + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[150:1] Though country people generally have no common name for the +Orchis morio, yet it is called in works on English Botany the Fool +Orchis; and it has the local names of "Crake-feet" in Yorkshire; of +"giddy-gander" in Dorset; and "Keatlegs and Neatlegs" in Kent. Dr. Prior +also gives the names "Goose and goslings" and "Gander-gooses" for Orchis +morio, and "Standerwort" for Orchis mascula. This last is the +Anglo-Saxon name for the flower, but it is now, I believe, quite +extinct. + + + + +LOVE-IN-IDLENESS, _see_ PANSY. + + + + +MACE. + + + _Clown._ + + I must have Saffron to colour the warden-pies--Mace--Dates? + none. + + _Winter's Tale_, act iv, sc. 3 (48). + +The Mace is the pretty inner rind that surrounds the Nutmeg, when ripe. +It was no doubt imported with the Nutmeg in Shakespeare's time. (_See_ +NUTMEG.) + + + + +MALLOWS. + + + _Antonio._ + + He'ld sow't with Nettle seed. + + _Sebastian._ + + Or Docks, or Mallows. + + _Tempest_, act ii, sc. 1 (145). + +The Mallow is the common roadside weed (_Malva sylvestris_), which is +not altogether useless in medicine, though the Marsh Mallow far +surpasses it in this respect. Ben Jonson speaks of it as an article of +food-- + + "The thresher . . . feeds on Mallows and such bitter herbs." + + _The Fox_, act i, sc. 1. + +It is not easy to believe that our common Wild Mallow was so used, and +Jonson probably took the idea from Horace-- + + "Me pascant olivae, + Me chichorea, levesque malvae." + +But the common Mallow is a dear favourite with children, who have ever +loved to collect, and string, and even eat its "cheeses:" and these +cheeses are a delight to others besides children. Dr. Lindley, certainly +one of the most scientific of botanists, can scarcely find words to +express his admiration of them. "Only compare a vegetable cheese," he +says, "with all that is exquisite in marking and beautiful in +arrangement in the works of man, and how poor and contemptible do the +latter appear. . . . Nor is it alone externally that this inimitable +beauty is to be discovered; cut the cheese across, and every slice +brings to view cells and partitions, and seeds and embryos, arranged +with an unvarying regularity, which would be past belief if we did not +know from experience, how far beyond all that the mind can conceive, is +the symmetry with which the works of Nature are constructed." + +As a garden plant of course the Wild Mallow has no place, though the +fine-cut leaves and faint scent of the Musk Mallow (_M. moschata_) might +demand a place for it in those parts where it is not wild, and +especially the white variety, which is of the purest white, and very +ornamental. But our common Mallow is closely allied to some of the +handsomest plants known. The Hollyhock is one very near relation, the +beautiful Hibiscus is another, and the very handsome Fremontia +Californica is a third that has only been added to our gardens during +the last few years. Nor is it only allied to beauty, for it also claims +as a very near relation a plant which to many would be considered the +most commercially useful plant in the world, the Cotton-plant. + + + + +MANDRAGORA, OR MANDRAKES. + + + (1) _Cleopatra._ + + Give me to drink Mandragora. + + _Charmian._ + + Why, madam? + + _Cleopatra._ + + That I might sleep out this great gap of time, + My Antony is away. + + _Antony and Cleopatra_, act i, sc. 5 (4). + + + (2) _Iago._ + + Not Poppy, nor Mandragora, + Nor all the drowsy syrups of the world + Shall ever medicine thee to that sweet sleep + Which thou owedst yesterday. + + _Othello_, act iii, sc. 3 (330). + + + (3) _Falstaff._ + + Thou Mandrake. + + _2nd Henry IV_, act i, sc. 2 (16). + + + (4) _Ditto._ + + They called him Mandrake. + + _Ibid._, act iii, sc. 2 (338). + + + (5) _Suffolk._ + + Would curses kill, as doth the Mandrake's groan. + + _2nd Henry VI_, act iii, sc. 2 (310). + + + (6) _Juliet._ + + And shrieks like Mandrakes' torn out of the earth + That living mortals, hearing them, run mad. + + _Romeo and Juliet_, act iv, sc. 3 (47). + +There is, perhaps, no plant on which so many books and treatises +(containing for the most part much sad nonsense) have been written as +the Mandrake, and there is certainly no plant round which so much +superstition has gathered, all of which is more or less silly and +foolish, and a great deal that is worse than silly. This, no doubt, +arose from its first mention in connection with Leah and Rachel, and +then in the Canticles, which, perhaps, shows that even in those days +some strange qualities were attributed to the plant; but how from that +beginning such, and such wide-spread, superstitions could have arisen, +it is hard to say. I can scarcely tell these superstitious fables in +better words than Gerard described them: "There hath been many +ridiculous tales brought up of this plant, whether of old wives or some +runagate surgeons or physicke-mongers I know not. . . . They adde that +it is never or very seldome to be found growing naturally but under a +gallowes, where the matter that has fallen from a dead body hath given +it the shape of a man, and the matter of a woman the substance of a +female plant, with many other such doltish dreams. They fable further +and affirme that he who would take up a plant thereof must tie a dog +thereunto to pull it up, which will give a great shreeke at the digging +up, otherwise, if a man should do it, he should surely die in a short +space after." This, with the addition that the plant is decidedly +narcotic, will sufficiently explain all Shakespeare's references. +Gerard, however, omits to notice one thing which, in justice to our +forefathers, should not be omitted. These fables on the Mandrake are by +no means English mediaeval fables, but they were of foreign extraction, +and of very ancient date. Josephus tells the same story as held by the +Jews in his time and before his time. Columella even spoke of the plant +as "semi-homo;" and Pythagoras called it "Anthropomorphus;" and Dr. +Daubeny has published in his "Roman Husbandry" a most curious drawing +from the Vienna MS. of Dioscorides in the fifth century, "representing +the Goddess of Discovery presenting to Dioscorides the root of this +Mandrake" (of thoroughly human shape) "which she had just pulled up, +while the unfortunate dog which had been employed for that purpose is +depicted in the agonies of death."[154:1] All these beliefs have long, I +should hope, been extinct among us; yet even now artists who draw the +plant are tempted to fancy a resemblance to the human figure, and in the +"Flora Graeca," where, for the most part, the figures of the plants are +most beautifully accurate, the figure of the Mandrake is painfully +human.[154:2] + +As a garden plant, the Mandrake is often grown, but more for its +curiosity than its beauty; the leaves appear early in the spring, +followed very soon by its dull and almost inconspicuous flowers, and +then by its Apple-like fruit. This is the Spring Mandrake (_Mandragora +vernalis_), but the Autumn Mandrake (_M. autumnalis_ or _microcarpa_) +may be grown as an ornamental plant. The leaves appear in the autumn, +and are succeeded by a multitude of pale-blue flowers about the size of +and very much resembling the Anemone pulsatilla (see Sweet's "Flower +Garden," vol. vii. No. 325). These remain in flower a long time. In my +own garden they have been in flower from the beginning of November till +May. I need only add that the Mandrake is a native of the South of +Europe and other countries bordering on the Mediterranean, but it was +very early introduced into England. It is named in Archbishop AElfric's +"Vocabulary" in the tenth century with the very expressive name of +"Earth-apple;" it is again named in an Anglo-Saxon Vocabulary of the +eleventh century (in the British Museum), but without any English +equivalent; and Gerard cultivated both sorts in his garden. + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[154:1] In the "Bestiary of Philip de Thaun" (12 cent.), published in +Wright's Popular Treatises on Science written during the Middle Ages, +the male and female Mandrake are actually reckoned among living beasts +(p. 101). + +[154:2] For some curious early English notices of the Mandrake, see +"Promptorium Parvulorum," p. 324, note. See also Brown's "Vulgar +Errors," book ii. c. 6, and Dr. M. C. Cooke's "Freaks of Plant Life." + + + + +MARIGOLD. + + + (1) _Perdita._ + + The Marigold that goes to bed wi' the sun, + And with him rises weeping; these are flowers + Of middle summer. + + _Winter's Tale_, act iv, sc. 4 (105). + + + (2) _Marina._ + + The purple Violets and Marigolds + Shall, as a carpet, hang upon thy grave + While summer-days do last. + + _Pericles_, act iv, sc. 1 (16). + + + (3) _Song._ + + And winking Mary-buds begin + To ope their golden eyes. + + _Cymbeline_, act ii, sc. 3 (25). + + + (4) + + Marigolds on death-beds blowing. + + _Two Noble Kinsmen_, Introd. song. + + + (5) + + Great princes' favourites their fair leaves spread + But as the Marigolds at the sun's eye. + + _Sonnet_ xxv. + + + (6) + + Her eyes, like Marigolds, had sheathed their light, + And canopied in darkness sweetly lay, + Till they might open to adorn the day. + + _Lucrece_ (397). + +There are at least three plants which claim to be the old Marigold. 1. +The Marsh Marigold (_Caltha palustris_). This is a well-known golden +flower-- + + "The wild Marsh Marigold shines like fire in swamps and hollows + gray." + + TENNYSON. + +And there is this in favour of its being the flower meant, that the name +signifies the golden blossom of the marish or marsh; but, on the other +hand, the Caltha does not fulfil the conditions of Shakespeare's +Marigold--it does not open and close its flowers with the sun. 2. The +Corn Marigold (_Chrysanthemum segetum_), a very handsome but mischievous +weed in Corn-fields, not very common in England and said not to be a +true native, but more common in Scotland, where it is called Goulands. I +do not think this is the flower, because there is no proof, as far as I +know, that it was called Marigold in Shakespeare's time. 3. The Garden +Marigold or Ruddes (_Calendula officinalis_). I have little doubt this +is the flower meant; it was always a great favourite in our forefathers' +gardens, and it is hard to give any reason why it should not be so in +ours. Yet it has been almost completely banished, and is now seldom +found but in the gardens of cottages and old farmhouses, where it is +still prized for its bright and almost everlasting flowers (looking very +like a Gazania) and evergreen tuft of leaves, while the careful +housewife still picks and carefully stores the petals of the flowers, +and uses them in broths and soups, believing them to be of great +efficacy, as Gerard said they were, "to strengthen and comfort the +heart;" though scarcely perhaps rating them as high as Fuller: "we all +know the many and sovereign vertues . . . in your leaves, the Herb +Generall in all pottage" ("Antheologie," 1655, p. 52). + +The two properties of the Marigold--that it was always in flower, and +that it turned its flowers to the sun and followed his guidance in their +opening and shutting--made it a very favourite flower with the poets and +emblem writers. T. Forster, in the "Circle of the Seasons," 1828, says +that "this plant received the name of Calendula, because it was in +flower on the calends of nearly every month. It has been called Marigold +for a similar reason, being more or less in blow at the times of all the +festivals of the Blessed Virgin Mary, the word gold having reference to +its golden rays, likened to the rays of light around the head of the +Blessed Virgin." This is ingenious, and, as he adds, "thus say the old +writers," it is worth quoting, though he does not say what old writer +gave this derivation, which I am very sure is not the true one. The old +name is simply _goldes_. Gower, describing the burning of Leucothoe, +says-- + + "She sprong up out of the molde + Into a flour, was named Golde, + Which stant governed of the Sonne." + + _Conf. Aman._, lib. quint. + +Chaucer spoke of the "yellow Goldes;"[157:1] in the "Promptorium +Parvulorum" we have "Goolde, herbe, solsequium, quia sequitur solem, +elitropium, calendula;" and Spenser says-- + + "And if I her like ought on earth might read + I would her liken to a crowne of Lillies, + Upon a virgin brydes adorned head, + With Roses dight and Goolds and Daffodillies." + + _Colin Clout._ + +But it was its other quality of opening or shutting its flowers at the +sun's bidding that made the Marigold such a favourite with the old +writers, especially those who wrote on religious emblems. It was to them +the emblem of constancy in affection,[157:2] and sympathy in joy and +sorrow, though it was also the emblem of the fawning courtier, who can +only shine when everything is bright. As the emblem of constancy, it was +to the old writers what the Sunflower was to Moore-- + + "The Sunflower turns on her god when he sets + The same look which she did when he rose." + +It was the Heliotrope or Solsequium or Turnesol of our forefathers, and +is the flower often alluded to under that name.[158:1] "All yellow +flowers," says St. Francis de Sales, "and, above all, those that the +Greeks call Heliotrope, and we call Sunflower, not only rejoice at the +sight of the sun, but follow with loving fidelity the attraction of its +rays, gazing at the sun, and turning towards it from its rising to its +setting" ("Divine Love," Mulholland's translation). + +Of this higher and more religious use of the emblematic flower there are +frequent examples. I will only give one from G. Withers, a contemporary +of Shakespeare's later life-- + + "When with a serious musing I behold + The grateful and obsequious Marigold, + How duly every morning she displays + Her open breast when Phoebus spreads his rays; + How she observes him in his daily walk, + Still bending towards him her small slender stalk; + How when he down declines she droops and mourns, + Bedewed, as 'twere, with tears till he returns; + And how she veils her flowers when he is gone. + When this I meditate, methinks the flowers + Have spirits far more generous than ours, + And give us fair examples to despise + The servile fawnings and idolatries + Wherewith we court these earthly things below, + Which merit not the service we bestow." + +From the time of Withers the poets treated the Marigold very much as the +gardeners did--they passed it by altogether as beneath their notice. + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[157:1] + + "That werud of yolo Guldes a garland." + + _The Knightes Tale._ + +[157:2] + + "You the Sun to her must play, + She to you the Marigold, + To none but you her leaves unfold." + + MIDDLETON AND ROWLEY, _The Spanish Gipsy_. + +See also Thynne's "Emblems," No. 18; and Cutwode's "Caltha Poetarum," +1599, st. 18, 19. + +[158:1] "Solsequium vel heliotropium; Solsece vel sigel-hwerfe" (_i.e._, +sun-seeker or sun-turner).--AELFRIC'S _Vocabulary_. + +"Marigolde; solsequium, sponsa solis."--_Catholicon Anglicum._ + +In a note Mr. Herttage says, "the oldest name for the plant was +_ymbglidegold_, that which moves round with the sun." + + + + +MARJORAM. + + + (1) _Perdita._ + + Here's flowers for you; + Hot Lavender, Mints, Savory, Marjoram. + + _Winter's Tale_, act iv, sc. 4 (103). + + + (2) _Lear._ + + Give the word. + + _Edgar._ + + Sweet Marjoram. + + _Lear._ + Pass. + + _King Lear_, act iv, sc. 6 (93). + + + (3) + + The Lily I condemned for thy hand, + And buds of Marjoram had stolen thy hair. + + _Sonnet_ xcix. + + + (4) _Clown._ + + Indeed, sir, she was the sweet Marjoram of the Salad, or + rather the Herb-of-grace. + + _All's Well that Ends Well_, act iv, sc. 5 (17). + +In Shakespeare's time several species of Marjoram were grown, especially +the Common Marjoram (_Origanum vulgare_), a British plant, the Sweet +Marjoram (_O. Marjorana_), a plant of the South of Europe, from which +the English name comes,[159:1] and the Winter Marjoram (_O. +Horacleoticum_). They were all favourite pot herbs, so that Lyte calls +the common one "a delicate and tender herb," "a noble and odoriferous +plant;" but, like so many of the old herbs, they have now fallen into +disrepute. The comparison of a man's hair to the buds of Marjoram is not +very intelligible, but probably it was a way of saying that the hair was +golden. + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[159:1] See "Catholicon Anglicum," s.v. Marioron and note. + + + + +MARYBUDS, _see_ MARIGOLD. + + + + +MAST. + + + _Timon._ + + The Oaks bear Mast, the Briers scarlet hips. + + _Timon of Athens_, act iv, sc. 3 (174). + +We still call the fruit of beech, beech-masts, but do not apply the name +to the acorn. It originally meant food used for fatting, especially for +fatting swine. See note in "Promptorium Parvulorum," p. 329, giving +several instances of this use, and Strattmann, s.v. Maest. + + + + +MEDLAR. + + + (1) _Apemantus._ + + There's a Medlar for thee, eat it. + + _Timon._ + + On what I hate I feed not. + + _Apemantus._ + + Dost hate a Medlar? + + _Timon._ + + Ay, though it looks like thee. + + _Apemantus._ + + An thou hadst hated Meddlers sooner, thou shouldst have loved + thyself better now. + + _Timon of Athens_, act iv, sc. 3 (305). + + + (2) _Lucio._ + + They would have married me to the rotten Medlar. + + _Measure for Measure_, act iv, sc. 3 (183). + + + (3) _Touchstone._ + + Truly the tree yields bad fruit. + + _Rosalind._ + + I'll graff it with you, and then I shall graff it with a + Medlar; then it will be the earliest fruit in the country, + for you'll be rotten ere you be half ripe, and that's the + right virtue of the Medlar. + + _As You Like It_, act iii, sc. 2 (122). + + + (4) _Mercutio._ + + Now will he sit under a Medlar tree. + And wish his mistress were that kind of fruit + As maids call Medlars when they laugh alone. + + _Romeo and Juliet_, act ii, sc. 1 (80).[160:1] + +The Medlar is an European tree, but not a native of England; it has, +however, been so long introduced as to be now completely naturalized, +and is admitted into the English flora. It is mentioned in the early +vocabularies, and Chaucer gives it a very prominent place in his +description of a beautiful garden-- + + "I was aware of the fairest Medler tree + That ever yet in alle my life I sie, + As ful of blossomes as it might be; + Therein a goldfinch leaping pretile + Fro' bough to bough, and as him list, he eet + Here and there of buddes and floweres sweet." + + _The Flower and the Leaf_ (240). + +And certainly a fine Medlar tree "ful of blossomes" is a handsome +ornament on any lawn. There are few deciduous trees that make better +lawn trees. There is nothing stiff about the growth even from its early +youth; it forms a low, irregular, picturesque tree, excellent for +shade, with very handsome white flowers, followed by the curious fruit; +it will not, however, do well in the North of England or Scotland. + +It does not seem to have been a favourite fruit with our forefathers. +Bullein says "the fruite called the Medler is used for a medicine and +not for meate;" and Shakespeare only used the common language of his +time when he described the Medlar as only fit to be eaten when rotten. +Chaucer said just the same-- + + "That ilke fruyt is ever lenger the wers + Till it be rote in mullok or in stree-- + We olde men, I drede, so fare we, + Till we be roten, can we not be rype." + + _The Reeves Tale._ + +And many others writers to the same effect. But, in fact, the Medlar +when fit to be eaten is no more rotten than a ripe Peach, Pear, or +Strawberry, or any other fruit which we do not eat till it has reached a +certain stage of softness. There is a vast difference between a ripe and +a rotten Medlar, though it would puzzle many of us to say when a fruit +(not a Medlar only) is ripe, that is, fit to be eaten. These things are +matters of taste and fashion, and it is rather surprising to find that +we are accused, and by good judges, of eating Peaches when rotten rather +than ripe. "The Japanese always eat their Peaches in an unripe state. In +the 'Gartenflora' Dr. Regel says, in some remarks on Japanese fruit +trees, that the Japanese regard a ripe Peach as rotten." + +There are a few varieties of the Medlar, differing in the size and +flavour of the fruits, which were also cultivated in Shakespeare's time. + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[160:1] So Chester speaks of it as "the Young Man's Medlar" ("Love's +Martyr," p. 96, New Sh. Soc.). + + + + +MINTS. + + + (1) _Perdita._ + + Here's flowers for you; + Hot Lavender, Mints, Savory, Marjoram. + + _Winter's Tale_, act iv, sc. 4 (103). + + + (2) _Armado._ + + I am that flower, + + _Dumain._ + + That Mint. + + _Longaville._ + + That Columbine. + + _Love's Labour's Lost_, act v, sc. 2 (661). + +The Mints are a large family of highly-perfumed, strong-flavoured +plants, of which there are many British species, but too well known to +call for any further description. + + + + +MISTLETOE. + + + _Tamora._ + + The trees, though summer, yet forlorn and lean, + O'ercome with Moss and baleful Mistletoe. + + _Titus Andronicus_, act ii, sc. 3 (94). + +The Mistletoe was a sore puzzle to our ancestors, almost as great a +mystery as the Fern. While they admired its fresh, evergreen branches, +and pretty transparent fruit, and used it largely in the decoration of +their houses at Christmas, they looked on the plant with a certain awe. +Something of this, no doubt, arose from its traditional connection with +the Druids, which invested the plant with a semi-sacred character, as a +plant that could drive away evil spirits; yet it was also looked upon +with some suspicion, perhaps also arising from its use by our heathen +ancestors, so that, though admitted into houses, it was not (or very +seldom) admitted into churches. And this character so far still attaches +to the Mistletoe, that it is never allowed with the Holly and Ivy and +Box to decorate the churches, and Gay's lines were certainly written in +error-- + + "Now with bright Holly all the temples strow, + With Laurel green and sacred Mistletoe." + +The mystery attaching to the Mistletoe arose from the ignorance as to +its production. It was supposed not to grow from its seeds, and how it +was produced was a fit subject for speculation and fable. Virgil tells +the story thus-- + + "Quale solet sylvis brumali frigore viscum + Fronde virere nova, quod non sua seminat arbos, + Et croceo foetu teretes circumdare truncos." + + _AEneid_, vi, 205. + +In this way Virgil elegantly veils his ignorance, but his commentator in +the eighteenth century (Delphic Classics) tells the tale without any +doubts as to its truth. "Non nascitur e semine proprio arboris, at neque +ex insidentum volucrum fimo, ut putavere veteres, sed ex ipso arborum +vitali excremento." This was the opinion of the great Lord Bacon; he +ridiculed the idea that the Mistletoe was propagated by the operation of +a bird as an idle tradition, saying that the sap which produces the +plant is such as "the tree doth excerne and cannot assimilate," and +Browne ("Vulgar Errors") was of the same opinion. But the opposite +opinion was perpetuated in the very name ("Mistel: fimus, muck," +Cockayne),[163:1] and was held without any doubt by most of the writers +in Shakespeare's time-- + + "Upon the oak, the plumb-tree and the holme, + The stock-dove and the blackbird should not come, + Whose mooting on the trees does make to grow + Rots-curing hyphear, and the Mistletoe." + + BROWNE, _Brit. Past._ i, 1. + +So that we need not blame Gerard when he boldly said that "this +excrescence hath not any roote, neither doth encrease himselfe of his +seed, as some have supposed, but it rather commethe of a certaine +moisture gathered together upon the boughes and joints of the trees, +through the barke whereof this vaporous moisture proceeding bringeth +forth the Misseltoe." We now know that it is produced exclusively from +the seeds probably lodged by the birds, and that it is easily grown and +cultivated. It will grow and has been found on almost any deciduous +tree, preferring those with soft bark, and growing very seldom on the +Oak.[163:2] Those who wish for full information upon the proportionate +distribution of the Mistletoe on different British trees will find a +good summary in "Notes and Queries," vol. iii. p. 226. + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[163:1] "_Mistel_ est a _mist_ stercus, quod ex stercore avium +pronascitur, nec aliter pronasci potest."--WACHTER, _Glossary_ (quoted +in "Notes and Queries," 3rd series, vii. 157. In the same volume are +several papers on the origin of the word). Dr. Prior derives it from +_mistl_ (different), and _tan_ (twig), being so unlike the tree it grows +upon. + +[163:2] Mistletoe growing on an oak had a special legendary value. Its +rarity probably gave it value in the eyes of the Druids, and much later +it had its mystic lore. "By sitting upon a hill late in a evening, near +a Wood, in a few nights a fire drake will appeare, mark where it +lighteth, and then you shall find an oake with Mistletoe thereon, at the +Root whereof there is a Misle-childe, whereof many strange things are +conceived. _Beati qui non crediderunt._"--PLAT., _Garden of Eden_, 1659, +No. 68. + + + + +MOSS. + + + (1) _Adriana._ + + If ought possess thee from me, it is dross, + Usurping Ivy, Brier, or idle Moss. + + _Comedy of Errors_, act ii, sc. 2 (179). + + + (2) _Tamora._ + + The trees, though summer, yet forlorn and lean, + O'ercome with Moss and baleful Mistletoe. + + _Titus Andronicus_, act ii, sc. 3 (94). + + + (3) _Apemantus._ + + These Moss'd trees + That have outlived the eagle. + + _Timon of Athens_, act iv, sc. 3 (223). + + + (4) _Hotspur._ + + Steeples and Moss-grown towers. + + _1st Henry IV_, act iii, sc. 1 (33). + + + (5) _Oliver._ + + Under an Oak whose boughs were Moss'd with age, + And high top bald with dry antiquity. + + _As You Like It_, act iv, sc. 3 (105). + + + (6) _Arviragus._ + + The ruddock would, + With charitable bill, + + * * * * * + + bring thee all this; + Yea, and furr'd Moss besides, when flowers are none, + To winter-ground thy corse. + + _Cymbeline_, act iv, sc. 2 (224).[164:1] + +If it were not for the pretty notice of Moss in the last passage (6), we +should be inclined to say that Shakespeare had as little regard for +"idle Moss" as for the "baleful Mistletoe." In his day Moss included all +the low-growing and apparently flowerless carpet plants which are now +divided into the many families of Mosses, Lichens, Club Mosses, +Hepaticae, Jungermanniae, &c., &c. And these plants, though holding no +rank in the eyes of a florist, are yet deeply interesting, perhaps no +family of plants more so, to those who have time and patience to study +them. The Club Mosses, indeed, may claim a place in the garden if they +can only be induced to grow, but that is a difficult task, and the +tenderer Lycopodiums are always favourites when well grown among +greenhouse Ferns; but for the most part, the Mosses must be studied in +their native haunts, and when so studied, they are found to be full of +beauty and of wonderful construction. Nor are they without use, and it +is rather strange that Shakespeare should have so markedly called them +"idle," or useless, considering that in his day many medical virtues +were attributed to them. This reputation for medical virtues they have +now all lost, except the Iceland Moss, which is still in use for +invalids; but the Mosses have other uses. The Reindeer Moss (_Cladonia +rangiferina_) and Roch-hair (_Alectoria jubata_) are indispensable to +the Laplander as food for his reindeer, and Usnea florida is used in +North America as food for cattle; the Iceland Moss (_Cetraria +Islandica_) is equally indispensable as an article of food to all the +inhabitants of the extreme North; and the Tripe de la Roche (_Gyrophora +cylindrica_) has furnished food to the Arctic explorers when no other +food could be obtained; while many dyes are produced from the Lichens, +especially the Cudbear (a most discordant corruption of the name of the +discoverer, Mr. Cuthbert), which is the produce of the Rock Moss +(_Lecanora tartarea_). So that even to us the Mosses have their uses, +even if they do not reach the uses that they have in North Sweden, +where, according to Miss Bremer, "the forest, which is the countryman's +workshop, is his storehouse, too. With the various Lichens that grow +upon the trees and rocks, he cures the virulent diseases with which he +is sometimes afflicted, dyes the articles of clothes which he wears, and +poisons the noxious and dangerous animals which annoy him." + +As to the beauty of Mosses and Lichens we have only to ask any +artist or go into any exhibition of pictures. Their great beauty +has been so lovingly described by Ruskin ("Modern Painters"), that +no one can venture to do more than quote his description. It is well +known to many, but none will regret having it called to their +remembrance--"placuit semel--decies repetita placebit"--space, however, +will oblige me somewhat to curtail it. "Meek creatures! the first mercy +of the earth, veiling with hushed softness its dentless rocks: creatures +full of pity, covering with strange and tender honour the sacred +disgrace of ruin, laying quiet fingers on the trembling stones to teach +them rest. No words that I know of will say what these Mosses are; none +are delicate enough, none perfect enough, none rich enough.. . . . They +will not be gathered like the flowers for chaplet or love token; but of +these the wild bird will make its nest and the wearied child its pillow, +and as the earth's first mercy so they are its last gift to us. When all +other service is vain from plant and tree, the soft Mosses and grey +Lichens take up their watch by the headstone. The woods, the blossoms, +the gift-bearing Grasses have done their parts for a time, but these do +service for ever. Trees for the builder's yard, flowers for the bride's +chamber, Corn for the granary, Moss for the grave." + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[164:1] There may be special appropriateness in the selection of the +"furr'd Moss" to "winter-ground thy corse." "The final duty of Mosses is +to die; the main work of other leaves is in their life, but these have +to form the earth, out of which other leaves are to grow."--RUSKIN, +_Proserpina_, p. 20. + + + + +MULBERRIES. + + + (1) _Titania._ + + Feed him with Apricocks and Dewberries, + With purple Grapes, green Figs, and Mulberries. + + _Midsummer Night's Dream_, act iii, sc. 1 (169). + + + (2) _Volumnia._ + + Thy stout heart, + Now humble as the ripest Mulberry + That will not bear the handling. + + _Coriolanus_, act iii, sc. 2 (78). + + + (3) _Prologue._ + + Thisby tarrying in Mulberry shade. + + _Midsummer Night's Dream_, act v, sc. 1 (149). + + + (4) _Wooer._ + + Palamon is gone + Is gone to the wood to gather Mulberries. + + _Two Noble Kinsmen_, act iv, sc. 1 (87). + + + (5) + + The birds would bring him Mulberries and ripe-red Cherries. + + _Venus and Adonis_ (1103). + (_See_ CHERRIES.) + +We do not know when the Mulberry, which is an Eastern tree, was +introduced into England, but probably very early. We find in Archbishop +AElfric's "Vocabulary," "morus vel rubus, mor-beam," but it is doubtful +whether that applies to the Mulberry or Blackberry, as in the same +catalogue Blackberries are mentioned as "flavi vel mori, blace-berian." +There is no doubt that Morum was a Blackberry as well as a Mulberry in +classical times. Our Mulberry is probably the fruit mentioned by +Horace-- + + "Ille salubres + AEstates peraget, qui nigris prandia Moris + Finiet ante gravem quae legerit arbore solem." + + _Sat._ ii, 4, 24. + +And it certainly is the fruit mentioned by Ovid-- + + "In duris haerentia mora rubetis." + + _Metam._, i, 105. + +In the Dictionarius of John de Garlande (thirteenth century)[167:1] we +find, "Hec sunt nomina silvestrium arborum, qui sunt in luco magistri +Johannis; quercus cum fago, pinus cum lauro, celsus gerens celsa;" and +Mr. Wright translates "celsa" by "Mulberries," without, however, giving +his authority for this translation.[167:2] But whenever introduced, it +had been long established in England in Shakespeare's time. + +It must have been a common tree even in Anglo-Saxon times, for the +favourite drink, Morat, was a compound of honey flavoured with +Mulberries (Turner's "Anglo-Saxons").[167:3] Spenser spoke of it-- + + "With love juice stained the Mulberie, + The fruit that dewes the poet's braine." + + _Elegy_, 18. + +Gerard describes it as "high and full of boughes," and growing in sundry +gardens in England, and he grew in his own London garden both the Black +and the White Mulberry. Lyte also, before Gerard, describes it and says: +"It is called in the fayning of Poetes the wisest of all other trees, +for this tree only among all others bringeth forth his leaves after the +cold frostes be past;" and the Mulberry Garden, often mentioned by the +old dramatists, "occupied the site of the present Buckingham Palace and +Gardens, and derived its name from a garden of Mulberry trees planted by +King James I. in 1609, in which year 935_l._ was expended by the king in +the planting of Mulberry trees near the Palace of Westminster."[168:1] + +As an ornamental tree for any garden, the Mulberry needs no +recommendation, being equally handsome in shape, in foliage, and in +fruit. It is a much prized ornament in all old gardens, so that it has +been well said that an old Mulberry tree on the lawn is a patent of +nobility to any garden; and it is most easy of cultivation; it will bear +removal when of a considerable size, and so easily can it be propagated +from cuttings that a story is told of Mr. Payne Knight that he cut large +branches from a Mulberry tree to make standards for his clothes-lines, +and that each standard took root, and became a flourishing Mulberry +tree. + +Though most of us only know of the common White or Black Mulberry, yet, +where it is grown for silk culture (as it is now proposed to grow it in +England, with a promised profit of from L70 to L100 per acre for the +silk, and an additional profit of from L100 to L500 per acre from the +grain (eggs)!!), great attention is paid to the different varieties; so +that M. de Quatrefuges briefly describes six kinds cultivated in one +valley in France, and Royle remarks, "so many varieties have been +produced by cultivation that it is difficult to ascertain whether they +all belong to one species; they are," as he adds, "nearly as numerous as +those of the silkworm" (Darwin). + +We have good proof of Shakespeare's admiration of the Mulberry in the +celebrated Shakespeare Mulberry growing in his garden at New Place at +Stratford-on-Avon. "That Shakespeare planted this tree is as well +authenticated as anything of that nature can be, . . . and till this was +planted there was no Mulberry tree in the neighbourhood. The tree was +celebrated in many a poem, one especially by Dibdin, but about 1752, +the then owner of New Place, the Rev. Mr. Gastrell, bought and pulled +down the house, and wishing, as it should seem, to be 'damned to +everlasting fame,' he had some time before cut down Shakespeare's +celebrated Mulberry tree, to save himself the trouble of showing it to +those whose admiration of our great poet led them to visit the poetick +ground on which it stood."--MALONE. The pieces were made into many +snuff-boxes[169:1] and other mementoes of the tree. + + "The Mulberry tree was hung with blooming wreaths; + The Mulberry tree stood centre of the dance; + The Mulberry tree was hymn'd with dulcet strains; + And from his touchwood trunk the Mulberry tree + Supplied such relics as devotion holds + Still sacred, and preserves with pious care." + + COWPER, _Task_, book vi. + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[167:1] The Dictionarius of John de Garlande is published in Wright's +"Vocabularies." His garden was probably in the neighbourhood of Paris, +but he was a thorough Englishman, and there is little doubt that his +description of a garden was drawn as much from his English as from his +French experience. + +[167:2] The authority may be in the "Promptorium Parvulorum:" "Mulberry, +Morum (selsus)." + +[167:3] "Moratum potionis genus, f. ex vino et moris dilutis +confectae."--_Glossarium Adelung._ + +[168:1] Cunningham's "Handbook of London," p. 346, with many quotations +from the old dramatists. + +[169:1] Some of these snuff-boxes were inscribed with the punning motto +"Memento Mori." + + + + +MUSHROOMS. + + + (1) _Prospero._ + + You demi-puppets, that + By moonshine do the greensour ringlets make, + Whereof the ewe not bites, and you whose pastime + Is to make midnight Mushrooms. + + _Tempest_, act v, sc. 1 (36). + + + (2) _Fairy._ + + I do wander everywhere. + Swifter than the moon's sphere; + And I serve the fairy queen, + To dew her orbs upon the green. + + _Midsummer Night's Dream_, act ii, sc. 1 (6). + + + (3) _Quickly._ + + And nightly, meadow-fairies, look you sing, + Like to the Garter's compass, in a ring: + The expressure that it bears, green let it be, + More fertile-fresh than all the field to see. + + _Merry Wives_, act v, sc. 5 (69). + + + (4) _Ajax._ + + Toadstool, learn me the proclamation. + + _Troilus and Cressida_, act ii, sc. 1 (22). + +The three first passages, besides the notice of the Mushroom, contain +also the notice of the fairy-rings, which are formed by fungi, though +probably Shakespeare knew little of this. No. 4 names the Toadstool, and +the four passages together contain the whole of Shakespeare's fungology, +and it is little to be wondered at that he has not more to say on these +curious plants. In his time "Mushrumes or Toadstooles" (they were all +classed together) were looked on with very suspicious eyes, though they +were so much eaten that we frequently find in the old herbals certain +remedies against "a surfeit of Mushrooms." Why they should have been +connected with toads has never been explained, but it was always so-- + + "The grieslie Todestoole growne there mought I see, + And loathed paddocks lording on the same."--SPENSER. + +They were associated with other loathsome objects besides toads, for +"Poisonous Mushrooms groweth where old rusty iron lieth, or rotten +clouts, or neere to serpent's dens or rootes of trees that bring forth +venomous fruit.[170:1]. . . Few of them are good to be eaten, and most +of them do suffocate and strangle the eater. Therefore, I give my advice +unto those that love such strange and new-fangled meates to beware of +licking honey among thornes, lest the sweetnesse of one do not +counteracte the sharpnesse and pricking of the other." This was Gerard's +prudent advice on the eating of "Mushrumes and Toadstooles," but +nowadays we know better. The fungologists tell us that those who refuse +to eat any fungus but the Mushroom (_Agaricus campestris_) are not only +foolish in rejecting most delicate luxuries, but also very wrong in +wasting most excellent and nutritious food. Fungologists are great +enthusiasts, and it may be well to take their prescription _cum grano +salis_; but we may qualify Gerard's advice by the well-known +enthusiastic description of Dr. Badham, who certainly knew much more of +fungology than Gerard, and did not recommend to others what he had not +personally tried himself. After praising the beauty of an English +autumn, even in comparison with Italy, he thus concludes his pleasant +and useful book, "The Esculent Funguses of England": "I have myself +witnessed whole hundredweights of rich, wholesome diet rotting under +trees, woods teeming with food, and not one hand to gather it. . . . I +have, indeed, grieved when I reflected on the straitened conditions of +the lower orders to see pounds innumerable of extempore beefsteaks +growing on our Oaks in the shape of _Fistula hepatica_; _Ag. fusipes_, +to pickle in clusters under them; _Puffballs_, which some of our friends +have not inaptly compared to sweet-bread for the rich delicacy of their +unassisted flavour; _Hydna_, as good as oysters, which they very much +resemble in taste; _Agaricus deliciosus_, reminding us of tender lamb's +kidneys: the beautiful yellow _Chantarelle_, that _kalon kagathon_ of +diet, growing by the bushel, and no basket but our own to pick up a few +specimens in our way; the sweet nutty-flavoured _Boletus_, in vain +calling himself _edulis_ when there was none to believe him; the dainty +_Orcella_; the _Ag. hetherophyllus_, which tastes like the crawfish when +grilled; the _Ag. ruber_ and _Ag. virescens_, to cook in any way, and +equally good in all." + +As to the fairy rings (Nos. 1, 2, and 3) a great amount of legendary +lore was connected with them. Browne notices them-- + + "A pleasant mead + Where fairies often did their measures tread, + Which in the meadows makes such circles green + As if with garlands it had crowned been." + + _Britannia's Pastorals._ + +Cowley said-- + + "Where once such fairies dance, + No grass does ever grow;" + +and in Shakespeare's time the sheep refused to eat the grass on the +fairy rings (1); I believe they now feed on it, but I have not been able +to ascertain this with certainty. Others, besides the sheep, avoided +them. "When the damsels of old gathered may-dew on the grass, which they +made use of to improve their complexions, they left undisturbed such of +it as they perceived on the fairy rings, apprehensive that the fairies +should in revenge destroy their beauty, nor was it reckoned safe to put +the foot within the rings, lest they should be liable to fairies' +power."--DOUCE'S _Illustrations_, p. 180. + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[170:1] Herrick calls them "brownest Toadstones." + + + + +MUSK ROSES, _see_ ROSE. + + + + +MUSTARD. + + + (1) _Doll._ + + They say Poins has a good wit. + + _Falstaff._ + + He a good wit? hang him, baboon! his wit's as thick as + Tewksbury Mustard; there is no more conceit in him than in a + mallet. + + _2nd Henry IV_, act ii, sc. 4 (260). + + + (2) _Titania._ + + Pease-blossom! Cobweb! Moth! and Mustardseed! + + * * * * * + + _Bottom._ + + Your name, I beseech you, sir? + + _Mustardseed._ + + Mustardseed. + + _Bottom._ + + Good Master Mustardseed, I know your patience well; that same + cowardly giant-like ox-beef hath devoured many a gentleman + of your house: I promise you your kindred hath made my eyes + water ere now. I desire your more acquaintance, good Master + Mustardseed. + + _Midsummer Night's Dream_, act iii, sc. 1 (165, 194). + + + (3) _Bottom._ + + Where's the Mounsieur Mustardseed? + + _Mustardseed._ + + Ready. + + _Bottom._ + + Give me your neaf, Mounsieur Mustardseed. Pray you, leave your + courtesy, good mounsieur. + + _Mustardseed._ + + What's your will? + + _Bottom._ + + Nothing, good mounsieur, but to help Cavalery Cobweb to + scratch. + + _Ibid._, act iv, sc. 1 (18). + + + (4) _Grumio._ + + What say you to a piece of beef and Mustard? + + _Katharine._ + + A dish that I do love to feed upon. + + _Grumio._ + + Ay, but the Mustard is too hot a little. + + _Katharine._ + + Why then, the beef, and let the Mustard rest. + + _Grumio._ + + Nay, then, I will not; you shall have the Mustard, + Or else you get no beef of Grumio. + + _Katharine._ + + Then both, or one, or anything thou wilt. + + _Grumio._ + + Why then, the Mustard without the beef. + + _Taming of the Shrew_, act iv, sc. 3 (23). + + + (5) _Rosalind._ + + Where learned you that oath, fool? + + _Touchstone._ + + Of a certain knight that swore by his honour they were good + pancakes, and swore by his honour the mustard was naught; + now I'll stand to it, the pancakes were naught, and the + Mustard was good, yet was the knight not forsworn. . . . . + You are not forsworn; no more was this knight swearing by + his honour, for he never had any; or if he had, he had sworn + it away before he ever saw those cakes or that Mustard. + + _As You Like It_, act i, sc. 2 (65). + +The following passage from Coles, in 1657, will illustrate No. 1: "In +Gloucestershire about Teuxbury they grind Mustard and make it into balls +which are brought to London and other remote places as being the best +that the world affords." These Mustard balls were the form in which +Mustard was usually sold, until Mrs. Clements, of Durham, in the last +century, invented the method of dressing mustard-flour, like +wheat-flour, and made her fortune with Durham Mustard; and it has been +supposed that this was the only form in which Mustard was sold in +Shakespeare's time, and that it was eaten dry as we eat pepper. But the +following from an Anglo-Saxon Leech-book seems to speak of it as used +exactly in the modern fashion. After mentioning several ingredients in a +recipe for want of appetite for meat, it says: "Triturate all +together--eke out with vinegar as may seem fit to thee, so that it may +be wrought into the form in which Mustard is tempered for flavouring, +put it then into a glass vessel, and then with bread, or with whatever +meat thou choose, lap it with a spoon, that will help" ("Leech Book," +ii. 5, Cockayne's translation). And Parkinson's account is to the same +effect: "The seeds hereof, ground between two stones, fitted for the +purpose, and called a quern, with some good vinegar added to it to make +it liquid and running, is that kind of Mustard that is usually made of +all sorts to serve as sauce both for fish and flesh." And to the same +effect the "Boke of Nurture"-- + + "Yet make moche of Mustard, and put it not away, + For with every dische he is dewest who so lust to assay." + + (L. 853). + + + + +MYRTLE. + + + (1) _Euphronius._ + + I was of late as petty to his ends + As is the morn-dew on the Myrtle-leaf + To his grand sea. + + _Antony and Cleopatra_, act iii, sc. 12 (8). + + + (2) _Isabella._ + + Merciful Heaven, + Thou rather with thy sharp and sulphurous bolt + Split'st the unwedgeable and gnarled Oak + Than the soft Myrtle. + + _Measure for Measure_, act ii, sc. 2 (114). + + + (3) + + Venus, with young Adonis sitting by her, + Under a Myrtle shade began to woo him. + + _Passionate Pilgrim_ (143). + + + (4) + + Then sad she hasteth to a Myrtle grove. + + _Venus and Adonis_ (865). + +Myrtle is of course the English form of _myrtus_; but the older English +name was Gale, a name which is still applied to the bog-myrtle.[174:1] +Though a most abundant shrub in the South of Europe, and probably +introduced into England before the time of Shakespeare, the myrtle was +only grown in a very few places, and was kept alive with difficulty, so +that it was looked upon not only as a delicate and an elegant rarity, +but as the established emblem of refined beauty. In the Bible it is +always associated with visions and representations of peacefulness and +plenty, and Milton most fitly uses it in the description of our first +parents' "blissful bower"-- + + "The roofe + Of thickest covert was inwoven shade, + Laurel and Mirtle, and what higher grew + Of firm and fragrant leaf." + + _Paradise Lost_, iv. + +In heathen times the Myrtle was dedicated to Venus, and from this arose +the custom in mediaeval times of using the flowers for bridal garlands, +which thus took the place of Orange blossoms in our time. + + "The lover with the Myrtle sprays + Adorns his crisped cresses." + + DRAYTON, _Muse's Elysium_. + + + "And I will make thee beds of Roses, + And a thousand fragrant posies, + A cap of flowers, and a kirtle + Embroidered o'er with leaves of Myrtle." + + _Roxburghe Ballads._ + +As a garden shrub every one will grow the Myrtle that can induce it to +grow. There is no difficulty in its cultivation, provided only that the +climate suits it, and the climate that suits it best is the +neighbourhood of the sea. Virgil describes the Myrtles as "amantes +littora myrtos," and those who have seen the Myrtle as it grows on the +Devonshire and Cornish coasts will recognise the truth of his +description. + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[174:1] "Gayle; mirtus."--_Catholicon Anglicum_, p. 147, with note. + + + + +NARCISSUS. + + + _Emilia._ + + This garden has a world of pleasures in't, + What flowre is this? + + _Servant._ + + 'Tis called Narcissus, madam. + + _Emilia._ + + That was a faire boy certaine, but a foole, + To love himselfe; were there not maides enough? + + _Two Noble Kinsmen_, act ii, sc. 2 (130). + +_See_ DAFFODILS, p. 73. + + + + +NETTLES. + + + (1) _Cordelia._ + + Crown'd with rank Fumiter and Furrow-weeds, + With Burdocks, Hemlock, Nettles, Cuckoo-flowers. + + _King Lear_, act iv, sc. 4. (3). + + + (2) _Queen._ + + Crow-flowers, Nettles, Daisies, and Long Purples. + + _Hamlet_, act iv, sc. 7 (170). + (_See_ CROW-FLOWERS.) + + + (3) _Antonio._ + + He'd sow't with Nettle-seed. + + _Tempest_, act ii, sc. 1 (145). + + + (4) _Saturninus._ + + Look for thy reward + Among the Nettles at the Elder Tree. + + _Titus Andronicus_, act ii, sc. 3 (271). + + + (5) _Sir Toby._ + + How now, my Nettle of India? + + _Twelfth Night_, act ii, sc. 5 (17).[176:1] + + + (6) _King Richard._ + + Yield stinging Nettles to my enemies. + + _Richard II_, act iii, sc. 2 (18). + + + (7) _Hotspur._ + + I tell you, my lord fool, out of this Nettle, danger, we pluck + this flower, safety. + + _1st Henry IV_, act ii, sc. 3 (8). + + + (8) _Ely._ + + The Strawberry grows underneath the Nettle. + + _Henry V_, act i, sc. 1 (60). + + + (9) _Cressida._ + + I'll spring up in his tears, an 'twere a Nettle against May. + + _Troilus and Cressida_, act i, sc. 2 (190). + + + (10) _Menenius._ + + We call a Nettle but a Nettle, and + The fault of fools but folly. + + _Coriolanus_, act ii, sc. 1 (207). + + + (11) _Laertes._ + + Goads, Thorns, Nettles, tails of wasps. + + _Winter's Tale_, act i, sc. 2 (329). + + + (12) _Iago._ + + If we will plant Nettles or sow Lettuce. + + _Othello_, act i, sc. 3 (324). + (_See_ HYSSOP.) + + + (13) _Palamon._ + + Who do bear thy yoke + As 'twer a wreath of roses, yet is heavier + Than lead itselfe, stings more than Nettles. + + _Two Noble Kinsmen_, act v, sc. 1 (101). + +The Nettle needs no introduction; we are all too well acquainted with +it, yet it is not altogether a weed to be despised. We have two native +species (Urtica urens and U. dioica) with sufficiently strong qualities, +but we have a third (U. pilulifera) very curious in its manner of +bearing its female flowers in clusters of compact little balls, which is +far more virulent than either of our native species, and is said by +Camden to have been introduced by the Romans to chafe their bodies when +frozen by the cold of Britain. The story is probably quite apocryphal, +but the plant is an alien, and only grows in a few places. + +Both the Latin and English names of the plant record its qualities. +Urtica is from _uro_, to burn; and Nettle is (etymologically) the same +word as needle, and the plant is so named, not for its stinging +qualities, but because at one time the Nettle supplied the chief +instrument of sewing; not the instrument which holds the thread, and to +which we now confine the word needle, but the thread itself, and very +good thread it made. The poet Campbell says in one of his letters--"I +have slept in Nettle sheets, and dined off a Nettle table-cloth, and I +have heard my mother say that she thought Nettle cloth more durable than +any other linen." It has also been used for making paper, and for both +these purposes, as well as for rope-making, the Rhea fibre of the +Himalaya, which is simply a gigantic Nettle (_Urtica_ or _Boehmeria +nivea_), is very largely cultivated. Nor is the Nettle to be despised as +an article of food.[177:1] In many parts of England the young shoots are +boiled and much relished. In 1596 Coghan wrote of it: "I will speak +somewhat of the Nettle that Gardeners may understand what wrong they do +in plucking it for the weede, seeing it is so profitable to many +purposes. . . . Cunning cookes at the spring of the yeare, when Nettles +first bud forth, can make good pottage with them, especially with red +Nettles" ("Haven of Health," p. 86). In February, 1661, Pepys made the +entry in his diary--"We did eat some Nettle porridge, which was made on +purpose to-day for some of their coming, and was very good." Andrew +Fairservice said of himself--"Nae doubt I should understand my trade of +horticulture, seeing I was bred in the Parish of Dreepdaily, where they +raise lang Kale under glass, and force the early Nettles for their +spring Kale" ("Rob Roy," c. 7). Gipsies are said to cook it as an +excellent vegetable, and M. Soyer tried hard, but almost in vain, to +recommend it as a most dainty dish. Having so many uses, we are not +surprised to find that it has at times been regularly cultivated as a +garden crop, so that I have somewhere seen an account of tithe of +Nettles being taken; and in the old churchwardens' account of St. +Michael's, Bath, is the entry in the year 1400, "Pro Urticis venditis ad +Lawrencium Bebbe, 2d." + +Nettles are much used in the neighbourhood of London to pack plums and +other fruit with bloom on them, so that in some market gardens they are +not only not destroyed, but encouraged, and even cultivated. And this +is an old practice; Lawson's advice in 1683 was--"For the gathering of +all other stone-fruit, as Nectarines, Apricots, Peaches, Pear-plums, +Damsons, Bullas, and such like, . . . in the bottom of your large sives +where you put them, you shall lay Nettles, and likewise in the top, for +that will ripen those that are most unready" ("New Orchard," p. 96). + +The "Nettle of India" (No. 5) has puzzled the commentators. It is +probably not the true reading; if the true reading, it may only mean a +Nettle of extra-stinging quality; but it may also mean an Eastern plant +that was used to produce cowage, or cow-itch. "The hairs of the pods of +Mucuna pruriens, &c., constitute the substance called cow-itch, a +mechanical Anthelmintic."--LINDLEY. This plant is said to have been +called the Nettle of India, but I do not find it so named in +Shakespeare's time. + +In other points the Nettle is a most interesting plant. Microscopists +find in it most beautiful objects for the microscope; entomologists +value it, for it is such a favourite of butterflies and other insects, +that in Britain alone upwards of thirty insects feed solely on the +Nettle plant, and it is one of those curious plants which mark the +progress of civilization by following man wherever he goes.[178:1] + +But as a garden plant the only advice to be given is to keep it out of +the garden by every means. In good cultivated ground it becomes a sad +weed if once allowed a settlement. The Himalayan Boehmerias, however, are +handsome, but only for their foliage; and though we cannot, perhaps, +admit our roadside Dead Nettles, which however are much handsomer than +many foreign flowers which we carefully tend and prize, yet the Austrian +Dead Nettle (_Lamium orvala_, "Bot. Mag.," v. 172) may be well admitted +as a handsome garden plant. + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[176:1] This a modern reading; the correct reading is "metal." + +[177:1] + + "Si forte in medio positorum abstemius herbis + Vivis et Urtica."--HORACE, _Ep._ i, 10, 8. + + + "Mihi festa luce coquatar Urtica."--PERSIUS vi, 68. + +[178:1] "L'ortie s'etablit partout dans les contrees temperees a la +suite de l'homme pour disparaitre bientot si le lieu on elle s'est ainsi +implantee cesse d'etre habite."--M. LAVAILLEE, _Sur les Arbres_, &c., +1878. + + + + +NUT, _see_ HAZEL. + + + + +NUTMEG. + + + (1) _Dauphin._ + + He's [the horse] of the colour of the Nutmeg. + + _Henry V_, act iii, sc. 7 (20). + + + (2) _Clown._ + + I must have . . . Nutmegs Seven. + + _Winter's Tale_, act iv, sc. 3 (50). + + + (3) _Armado._ + + The omnipotent Mars, of lances the almighty, + Gave Hector a gift-- + + _Dumain._ + + A gilt Nutmeg. + + _Love's Labour's Lost_, act v, sc. 2 (650). + +Gerard gives a very fair description of the Nutmeg tree under the names +of Nux moschata or Myristica; but it is certain that he had not any +personal knowledge of the tree, which was not introduced into England or +Europe for nearly 200 years after. Shakespeare could only have known the +imported Nut and the Mace which covers the Nut inside the shell, and +they were imported long before his time. Chaucer speaks of it as-- + + "Notemygge to put in ale + Whether it be moist or stale, + Or for to lay in cofre."--_Sir Thopas._ + +And in another poem we have-- + + "And trees ther were gret foisoun, + That beren notes in her sesoun. + Such as men Notemygges calle + That swote of savour ben withalle." + + _Romaunt of the Rose._ + +The Nutmeg tree (_Myrista officinalis_) "is a native of the Molucca or +Spice Islands, principally confined to that group denominated the +Islands of Banda, lying in lat. 4 deg. 30' south; and there it bears both +blossom and fruit at all seasons of the year" ("Bot. Mag.," 2756, with a +full history of the spice, and plates of the tree and fruit). + + + + +OAK. + + + (1) _Prospero._ + + If thou more murmur'st, I will rend an Oak, + And peg thee in his knotty entrails, + + _Tempest_, act i, sc. 2 (294). + + + (2) _Prospero._ + + To the dread rattling thunder + Have I given fire, and rifted Jove's stout Oak + With his own bolt. + + _Ibid._, act v, sc. 1 (44). + + + (3) _Quince._ + + At the Duke's Oak we meet. + + _Midsummer Night's Dream_, act i, sc. 2 (113). + + + (4) _Benedick._ + + An Oak with but one green leaf on it would have answered her. + + _Much Ado About Nothing_, act ii, sc. 1 (247). + + + (5) _Isabella._ + + Thou split'st the unwedgeable and gnarled Oak. + + _Measure for Measure_, act ii, sc. 2 (114). + (_See_ MYRTLE.) + + + (6) _1st Lord._ + + He lay along + Under an Oak, whose antique root peeps out + Upon the brook that brawls along this wood. + + _As You Like It_, act ii, sc. 1 (30). + + + (7) _Oliver._ + + Under an Oak, whose boughs were Mossed with age, + And high top bald with dry antiquity. + + _Ibid._, act iv, sc. 3 (156). + + + (8) _Paulina._ + + As ever Oak or stone was sound. + + _Winter's Tale_, act ii, sc. 3 (89). + + + (9) _Messenger._ + + And many strokes, though with a little axe, + Hew down and fell the hardest-timber'd Oak. + + _3rd Henry VI_, act ii, sc. 1 (54). + + + (10) _Mrs. Page._ + + There is an old tale goes that Herne the Hunter, + Sometime a keeper here in Windsor Forest, + Doth all the winter time at still midnight + Walk round about an Oak, with great ragg'd horns. + + * * * * * + + _Page._ + + Why yet there want not many that do fear + In deep of night to walk by this Herne's Oak. + + * * * * * + + _Mrs. Ford._ + + That Falstaff at that Oak shall meet with us. + + _Merry Wives of Windsor_, act iv, sc. 4 (28). + + + _Fenton._ + + To night at Herne's Oak. + + _Merry Wives of Windsor_, act iv, sc. 6 (19). + + + _Falstaff._ + + Be you in the park about midnight at Herne's Oak, and you + shall see wonders. + + _Ibid._, act v, sc. 1 (11). + + + _Mrs. Page._ + + They are all couched in a pit hard by Herne's Oak. + + * * * * * + + _Mrs. Ford._ + + The hour draws on. To the Oak, to the Oak! + + _Ibid._, act v, sc. 3 (14). + + + _Quickly._ + + Till 'tis one o'clock + Our dance of custom round about the Oak + Of Herne the Hunter, let us not forget. + + _Ibid._, act v, sc. 5 (78). + + + (11) _Timon._ + + That numberless upon me stuck as leaves + Do on the Oak, have with one winter's brush + Fell from their boughs, and left me open, bare + For every storm that blows. + + _Timon of Athens_, act iv, sc. 3 (263). + + + (12) _Timon._ + + The Oaks bear mast, the Briers scarlet hips. + + _Ibid._ (422). + + + (13) _Montano._ + + What ribs of Oak, when mountains melt on them, + Can hold the mortise? + + _Othello_, act ii, sc. 1 (7). + + + (14) _Iago._ + + She that so young could give out such a seeming + To seel her father's eyes up close as Oak. + + _Ibid._, act iii, sc. 3 (209). + + + (15) _Marcius._ + + He that depends + Upon your favours swims with fins of lead + And hews down Oaks with rushes. + + _Coriolanus_, act i, sc. 1 (183). + + + (16) _Arviragus._ + + To thee the Reed is as the Oak. + + _Cymbeline_, act iv, sc. 2 (267). + + + (17) _Lear._ + + Oak-cleaving thunderbolts. + + _King Lear_, act iii, sc. 2 (5). + + + (18) _Nathaniel._ + + Though to myself forsworn, to thee I'll faithful prove; + Those thoughts to me were Oaks, to thee like Osiers bow'd. + + _Love's Labour's Lost_, act iv, sc. 2 (111). + + [The same lines in the "Passionate Pilgrim."] + + + (19) _Nestor._ + + When the splitting wind + Makes flexible the knees of knotted Oaks. + + _Troilus and Cressida_, act i, sc. 3 (49). + + + (20) _Volumnia._ + + To a cruel war I sent him, from whence he returned, his brows + bound with Oak. + + _Coriolanus_, act i, sc. 3 (14). + + + _Volumnia._ + + He comes the third time home with the Oaken garland. + + _Ibid._, act ii, sc. 1 (137). + + + _Cominius._ + + He proved best man i' the field, and for his meed + Was brow-bound with the Oak. + + _Ibid._, act ii, sc. 2 (101). + + + _2nd Senator._ + + The worthy fellow is our general; he's the rock, the Oak, not + to be wind-shaken. + + _Ibid._, act v, sc. 2 (116). + + + _Volumnia._ + + To charge thy sulphur with a bolt + That should but rive an Oak. + + _Ibid._, act v, sc. 3 (152). + + + (21) _Casca._ + + I have seen tempests when the scolding winds + Have rived the knotty Oaks. + + _Julius Caesar_, act i, sc. 3 (5). + + + (22) _Celia._ + + I found him under a tree like a dropped Acorn. + + _Rosalind._ + + It may well be called Jove's tree, when it drops forth such + fruit. + + _As You Like It_, act iii, sc. 2 (248). + + + (23) _Prospero._ + + Thy food shall be + The fresh-brook muscles, wither'd roots, and husks + Wherein the Acorn cradled. + + _Tempest_, act i, sc. 2 (462). + + + (24) _Puck._ + + All their elves for fear + Creep into Acorn-cups, and hide them there. + + _Midsummer Night's Dream_, act ii, sc. 1 (30). + + + (25) _Lysander._ + + Get you gone, you dwarf--you beed--you Acorn! + + _Ibid._, act iii, sc. 2 (328). + + + (26) _Posthumus._ + + Like a full-Acorned boar--a German one. + + _Cymbeline_, act ii, sc. 5 (16). + + + (27) _Messenger._ + + About his head he weares the winner's Oke. + + _Two Noble Kinsmen_, act iv, sc. 2 (154). + + + (28) + + Time's glory is . . . . + To dry the old Oak's sap. + + _Lucrece_ (950). + +Here are several very pleasant pictures, and there is so much of +historical and legendary lore gathered round the Oaks of England that it +is very tempting to dwell upon them. There are the historical Oaks +connected with the names of William Rufus, Queen Elizabeth, and Charles +II.; there are the wonderful Oaks of Wistman's Wood (certainly the most +weird and most curious wood in England, if not in Europe); there are the +many passages in which our old English writers have loved to descant on +the Oaks of England as the very emblems of unbroken strength and +unflinching constancy; there is all the national interest which has +linked the glories of the British navy with the steady and enduring +growth of her Oaks; there is the wonderful picturesqueness of the great +Oak plantations of the New Forest, the Forest of Dean, and other royal +forests; and the equally, if not greater, picturesqueness of the English +Oak as the chief ornament of our great English parks; there is the +scientific interest which suggested the growth of the Oak for the plan +of our lighthouses, and many other interesting points. It is very +tempting to stop on each and all of these, but the space is too limited, +and they can all be found ably treated of and at full length in any of +the books that have been written on the English forest trees. + + + + +OATS. + + + (1) _Iris._ + + Ceres, most bounteous lady, thy rich leas + Of Wheat, Rye, Barley, Vetches, Oats, and Pease. + + _Tempest_, act iv, sc. 1 (60). + + + (2) _Spring Song._ + + When shepherds pipe on Oaten straws. + + _Love's Labour's Lost_, act v, sc. 2 (913). + + + (3) _Bottom._ + + Truly a peck of provender; I could munch your good dry Oats. + + _Midsummer Night's Dream_, act iv, sc. 1 (35). + + + (4) _Grumio._ + + Ay, sir, they be ready; the Oats have eaten the horses. + + _Taming of the Shrew_, act iii, sc. 2 (207). + + + (5) _First Carrier._ + + Poor fellow, never joyed since the price of Oats rose--it was + the death of him. + + _1st Henry IV_, act ii, sc. 1 (13). + + + (6) _Captain._ + + I cannot draw a cart, nor eat dried Oats, + If it be man's work, I'll do it. + + _King Lear_, act v, sc. 3 (38). + +Shakespeare's Oats need no comment, except to note that the older +English name for Oats was Haver (_see_ "Promptorium Parvulorum," p. 372; +and "Catholicon Anglicum," p. 178, with the notes). The word was in use +in Shakespeare's time, and still survives in the northern parts of +England. + + + + +OLIVE. + + + (1) _Clarence._ + + To whom the heavens in thy nativity + Adjudged an Olive branch. + + _3rd Henry VI_, act iv, sc. 6 (33). + (_See_ LAUREL.) + + + (2) _Alcibiades._ + + Bring me into your city, + And I will use the Olive with my sword. + + _Timon of Athens_, act v, sc. 4 (81). + + + (3) _Caesar._ + + Prove this a prosperous day, the three-nook'd world + Shall bear the Olive freely. + + _Antony and Cleopatra_, act iv, sc. 6 (5). + + + (4) _Rosalind._ + + If you will know my house + 'Tis at the tuft of Olives here hard by. + + _As You Like It_, act iii, sc. 5 (74). + + + (5) _Oliver._ + + Where, in the purlieus of this forest stands + A sheepcote fenced about with Olive trees? + + _Ibid._, act iv, sc. 3 (77). + + + (6) _Viola._ + + I bring no overture of war, no taxation of homage; I hold the + Olive in my hand; my words are as full of peace as matter. + + _Twelfth Night_, act i, sc. 5 (224). + + + (7) _Westmoreland._ + + There is not now a rebel's sword unsheath'd, + But peace puts forth her Olive everywhere. + + _2nd Henry IV_, act iv, sc. 4 (86). + + + (8) + + And peace proclaims Olives of endless age. + + _Sonnet_ cvii. + +There is no certain record by which we can determine when the Olive +tree was first introduced into England. Miller gives 1648 as the +earliest date he could discover, at which time it was grown in the +Oxford Botanic Garden. But I have no doubt it was cultivated long before +that. Parkinson knew it as an English tree in 1640, for he says: "It +flowereth in the beginning of summer in the warmer countries, but very +late _with us_; the fruite ripeneth in autumne in Spain, &c., but +seldome _with us_" ("Herball," 1640). Gerard had an Oleaster in his +garden in 1596, which Mr. Jackson considers to have been the Olea +Europea, and with good reason, as in his account of the Olive in the +"Herbal" he gives Oleaster as one of the synonyms of Olea sylvestris, +the wild Olive tree. But I think its introduction is of a still earlier +date. In the Anglo-Saxon "Leech Book," of the tenth century, published +under the direction of the Master of the Rolls, I find this +prescription: "Pound Lovage and Elder rind and Oleaster, that is, wild +Olive tree, mix them with some clear ale and give to drink" (book i. c. +37, Cockayne's translation). As I have never heard that the bark of the +Olive tree was imported, it is only reasonable to suppose that the +leeches of the day had access to the living tree. If this be so, the +tree was probably imported by the Romans, which they are very likely to +have done. But it seems very certain that it was in cultivation in +England in Shakespeare's time and he may have seen it growing. + +But in most of the eight passages in which he names the Olive, the +reference to it is mainly as the recognized emblem of peace; and it is +in that aspect, and with thoughts of its touching Biblical associations +that we must always think of the Olive. It is _the_ special plant of +honour in the Bible, by "whose fatness they honour God and man," linked +with the rescue of the one family in the ark, and with the rescue of the +whole family of man in the Mount of Olives. Every passage in which it is +named in the Bible tells the uniform tale of its usefulness, and the +emblematical lessons it was employed to teach; but I must not dwell on +them. Nor need I say how it was equally honoured by Greeks and Romans. +As a plant which produced an abundant and necessary crop of fruit with +little or no labour (+phyteum' acheiroton autopoion+, Sophocles; "non +ulla est oleis cultura," Virgil), it was looked upon with special pride, +as one of the most blessed gifts of the gods, and under the constant +protection of Minerva, to whom it was thankfully dedicated.[186:1] + +We seldom see the Olive in English gardens, yet it is a good evergreen +tree to cover a south wall, and having grown it for many years, I can +say that there is no plant--except, perhaps, the Christ's Thorn--which +gives such universal interest to all who see it. It is quite hardy, +though the winter will often destroy the young shoots; but not even the +winter of 1860 did any serious mischief, and fine old trees may +occasionally be seen which attest its hardiness. There is one at Hanham +Hall, near Bristol, which must be of great age. It is at least 30ft. +high, against a south wall, and has a trunk of large girth; but I never +saw it fruit or flower in England until this year (1877), when the Olive +in my own garden flowered, but did not bear fruit. Miller records trees +at Campden House, Kensington, which, in 1719, produced a good number of +fruit large enough for pickling, and other instances have been recorded +lately. Perhaps if more attention were paid to the grafting, fruit would +follow. The Olive has the curious property that it seems to be a matter +of indifference whether, as with other fruit, the cultivated sort is +grafted on the wild one, or the wild on the cultivated one; the latter +plan was certainly sometimes the custom among the Greeks and Romans, as +we know from St. Paul (Romans xi. 16-25) and other writers, and it is +sometimes the custom now. There are a great number of varieties of the +cultivated Olive, as of other cultivated fruit. + +One reason why the Olive is not more grown as a garden tree is that it +is a tree very little admired by most travellers. Yet this is entirely a +matter of taste, and some of the greatest authorities are loud in its +praises as a picturesque tree. One short extract from Ruskin's account +of the tree will suffice, though the whole description is well worth +reading. "The Olive," he says, "is one of the most characteristic and +beautiful features of all southern scenery. . . . What the Elm and the +Oak are to England, the Olive is to Italy. . . . It had been well for +painters to have felt and seen the Olive tree, to have loved it for +Christ's sake; . . . to have loved it even to the hoary dimness of its +delicate foliage, subdued and faint of hue, as if the ashes of the +Gethsemane agony had been cast upon it for ever; and to have traced line +by line the gnarled writhing of its intricate branches, and the pointed +fretwork of its light and narrow leaves, inlaid on the blue field of the +sky, and the small, rosy-white stars of its spring blossoming, and the +heads of sable fruit scattered by autumn along its topmost boughs--the +right, in Israel, of the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow--and, +more than all, the softness of the mantle, silver-grey, and tender, like +the down on a bird's breast, with which far away it veils the undulation +of the mountains."--_Stones of Venice_, vol. iii. p. 176. + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[186:1] _See_ Spenser's account of the first introduction of the Olive +in "Muiopotmos." + + + + +ONIONS. + + + (1) _Bottom._ + + And, most dear actors, eat no Onions nor + Garlic, for we are to utter sweet breath. + + _Midsummer Night's Dream_, act iv, sc. 2 (42). + + + (2) _Lafeu._ + + Mine eyes smell Onions, I shall weep anon: + Good Tom Drum, lend me a handkercher. + + _All's Well that Ends Well_, act v, sc. 3 (321). + + + (3) _Enobarbus._ + + Indeed the tears live in Onion that should water this Sorrow. + + _Antony and Cleopatra_, act i, sc. 2 (176). + + + (4) _Enobarbus._ + + Look, they weep, + And I, an ass, am Onion-eyed. + + _Ibid._, act iv, sc. 2 (34). + + + (5) _Lord._ + + And if the boy have not a woman's gift + To rain a shower of commanded tears, + An Onion will do well for such a shift, + Which in a napkin being close conveyed + Shall in despite enforce a watery eye. + + _Taming of the Shrew_, Induction, sc. 1 (124). + +There is no need to say much of the Onion in addition to what I have +already said on the Garlick and Leek, except to note that Onions seem +always to have been considered more refined food than Leek and Garlick. +Homer makes Onions an important part of the elegant little repast which +Hecamede set before Nestor and Machaon-- + + "Before them first a table fair she spread, + Well polished and with feet of solid bronze; + On this a brazen canister she placed, + And Onions as a relish to the wine, + And pale clear honey and pure Barley meal." + + _Iliad_, book xi. (Lord Derby's translation). + +But in the time of Shakespeare they were not held in such esteem. +Coghan, writing in 1596, says of them: "Being eaten raw, they engender +all humourous and corruptible putrifactions in the stomacke, and cause +fearful dreames, and if they be much used they snarre the memory and +trouble the understanding" ("Haven of Health," p. 58). + +The name comes directly from the French _oignon_, a bulb, being the bulb +_par excellence_, the French name coming from the Latin _unio_, which +was the name given to some species of Onion, probably from the bulb +growing singly. It may be noted, however, that the older English name +for the Onion was Ine, of which we may perhaps still have the +remembrance in the common "Inions." The use of the Onion to promote +artificial crying is of very old date, Columella speaking of "lacrymosa +caepe," and Pliny of "caepis odor lacrymosus." There are frequent +references to the same use in the old English writers. + +The Onion has been for so many centuries in cultivation that its native +home has been much disputed, but it has now "according to Dr. Regel +('Gartenflora,' 1877, p. 264) been definitely determined to be the +mountains of Central Asia. It has also been found in a wild state in the +Himalaya Mountains."--_Gardener's Chronicle._ + + + + +ORANGE. + + + (1) _Beatrice._ + + The count is neither sad nor sick, nor merry nor well; but + civil count, civil as an Orange, and something of that + jealous complexion. + + _Much Ado About Nothing_, act ii, sc. 1 (303). + + + (2) _Claudio._ + + Give not this rotten Orange to your friend. + + _Much Ado About Nothing_, act iv, sc. 1 (33). + + + (3) _Bottom._ + + I will discharge it either in your straw-coloured beard, your + Orange-tawny beard. + + _Midsummer Night's Dream_, act i, sc. 2 (95). + + + (4) _Bottom._ + + The ousel cock so black of hue + With Orange-tawny bill. + + _Ibid._, act iii, sc. 1 (128). + + + (5) _Menenius._ + + You wear out a good wholesome forenoon in hearing a cause + between an Orange-wife and a fosset-seller. + + _Coriolanus_, act ii, sc. 1 (77). + +I should think it very probable that Shakespeare may have seen both +Orange and Lemon trees growing in England. The Orange is a native of the +East Indies, and no certain date can be given for its introduction into +Europe. Under the name of the Median Apple a tree is described first by +Theophrastus, and then by Virgil and Palladius, which is supposed by +some to be the Orange; but as they all describe it as unfit for food, it +is with good reason supposed that the tree referred to is either the +Lemon or Citron. Virgil describes it very exactly-- + + "Ipsa ingens arbor, faciemque simillima lauro + Et si non alium late jactaret odorem + Laurus erat; folia hand ullis labentia ventis + Flos ad prima tenax."--_Georgic_ ii, 131. + +Dr. Daubeny, who very carefully studied the plants of classical writers, +decides that the fruit here named is the Lemon, and says that it "is +noticed only as a foreign fruit, nor does it appear that it was +cultivated at that time in Italy, for Pliny says it will only grow in +Media and Assyria, though Palladius in the fourth century seems to have +been familiar with it, and it was known in Greece at the time of +Theophrastus." But if Oranges were grown in Italy or Greece in the time +of Pliny and Palladius, they did not continue in cultivation. Europe +owes the introduction or reintroduction to the Portuguese, who brought +them from the East, and they were grown in Spain in the eleventh +century. The first notice of them in Italy was in the year 1200, when a +tree was planted by St. Dominic at Rome. The first grown in France is +said to have been the old tree which lived at the Orangery at +Versailles till November, 1876, and was called the Grand Bourbon. "In +1421 the Queen of Navarre gave the gardener the seed from Pampeluna; +hence sprang the plant, which was subsequently transported to Chantilly. +In 1532 the Orange tree was sent to Fontainebleau, whence, in 1684, +Louis XIV. transferred it to Versailles, where it remained the largest, +finest, and most fertile member of the Orangery, its head being 17yds. +round." It is not likely that a tree of such beauty should be growing so +near England without the English gardeners doing their utmost to +establish it here. But the first certain record is generally said to be +in 1595, when (on the authority of Bishop Gibson) Orange trees were +planted at Beddington, in Surrey, the plants being raised from seeds +brought into England by Sir Walter Raleigh. The date, however, may be +placed earlier, for in Lyte's "Herbal" (1578) it is stated that "In this +countrie the Herboristes do set and plant the Orange trees in there +gardens, but they beare no fruite without they be wel kept and defended +from cold, and yet for all that they beare very seldome." There are no +Oranges in Gerard's catalogue of 1596, and though he describes the trees +in his "Herbal," he does not say that he then grew them or had seen them +growing. But by 1599 he had obtained them, for they occur in his +catalogue of that date under the name of "Malus orantia, the Arange or +Orange tree," so that it is certainly very probable that Shakespeare may +have seen the Orange as a living tree. + +As to the beauty of the Orange tree, there is but one opinion. Andrew +Marvel described it as-- + + "The Orange bright, + Like golden lamps in a green night." + + _Bermudas._ + +George Herbert drew a lesson from its power of constant fruiting-- + + "Oh that I were an Orenge tree, + That busie plant; + Then should I ever laden be, + And never want + Some fruit for him that dressed me." + + _Employment._ + +And its handsome evergreen foliage, its deliciously scented flowers, +and its golden fruit-- + + "A fruit of pure Hesperian gold + That smelled ambrosially"-- + + TENNYSON. + +at once demand the admiration of all. It only fails in one point to make +it a plant for every garden: it is not fully hardy in England. It is +very surprising to read of those first trees at Beddington, that "they +were planted in the open ground, under a movable covert during the +winter months; that they always bore fruit in great plenty and +perfection; that they grew on the south side of a wall, not nailed +against it, but at full liberty to spread; that they were 14ft. high, +the girth of the stem 29in., and the spreading of the branches one way +9ft., and 12ft. another; and that they so lived till they were entirely +killed by the great frost in 1739-40."--MILLER.[191:1] These trees must +have been of a hardy variety, for certainly Orange trees, even with such +protection, do not now so grow in England, except in a few favoured +places on the south coast. There is one species which is fairly hardy, +the Citrus trifoliata, from Japan,[191:2] forming a pretty bush with +sweet flowers, and small but useless fruit (seldom, I believe, produced +out-of-doors); it is often used as a stock on which to graft the better +kinds, but perhaps it might be useful for crossing, so as to give its +hardiness to a variety with better flower and fruit. + +Commercially the Orange holds a high place, more than 20,000 good fruit +having been picked from one tree, and England alone importing about +2,000,000 bushels annually. These are almost entirely used as a dessert +fruit and for marmalade, but it is curious that they do not seem to have +been so used when first imported. Parkinson makes no mention of their +being eaten raw, but says they "are used as sauce for many sorts of +meats, in respect of the sweet sourness giving a relish and delight +whereinsoever they are used;" and he mentions another curious use, no +longer in fashion, I believe, but which might be worth a trial: "The +seeds being cast into the grounde in the spring time will quickly grow +up, and when they are a finger's length high, being pluckt up and put +among Sallats, will give them a marvellous fine aromatick or spicy tast, +very acceptable."[192:1] + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[191:1] In an "Account of Gardens Round London in 1691," published in +the "Archaeologia," vol. xii., these Orange trees are described as if +always under glass. + +[191:2] "Bot. Mag.," 6513. + +[192:1] For an account of the early importation of the fruit see +"Promptorium Parvulorum," p. 371, note. + + + + +OSIER, _see_ WILLOW. + + + + +OXLIPS. + + + (1) _Perdita._ + + Bold Oxlips, and + The Crown Imperial. + + _Winter's Tale_, act iv, sc. 4 (125). + + + (2) _Oberon._ + + I know a bank where the wild Thyme blows, + Where Oxlips and the nodding Violet grows. + + _Midsummer Night's Dream_, act ii, sc. 1 (249). + + + (3) + + Oxlips in their cradles growing. + + _Two Noble Kinsmen_, Intro. song. + +The true Oxlip (_Primula eliator_) is so like both the Primrose and +Cowslip that it has been by many supposed to be a hybrid between the +two. Sir Joseph Hooker, however, considers it a true species. It is a +handsome plant, but it is probably not the "bold Oxlip" of Shakespeare, +or the plant which is such a favourite in cottage gardens. The true +Oxlip (P. elatior of Jacquin) is an eastern counties' plant; while the +common forms of the Oxlip are hybrids between the Cowslip and Primrose. +(_See_ COWSLIP and PRIMROSE.) + + + + +PALM TREE. + + + (1) _Rosalind._ + + Look here what I found on a Palm tree. + + _As You Like It_, act iii, sc. 2 (185). + + + (2) _Hamlet._ + + As love between them like the Palm might flourish. + + _Hamlet_, act v, sc. 2 (40). + + + (3) _Volumnia._ + + And bear the Palm for having bravely shed + Thy wife and children's blood. + + _Coriolanus_, act v, sc. 3 (117). + + + (4) _Cassius._ + + And bear the Palm alone. + + _Julius Caesar_, act i, sc. 2 (131). + + + (5) _Painter._ + + You shall see him a Palm in Athens again, and flourish with + the highest. + + _Timon of Athens_, act v, sc. 1 (12). + + + (6) + + _The Vision._--Enter, solemnly tripping one after another, + six personages, clad in white robes, wearing on their + heads garlands of Bays, and golden vizards on their faces, + branches of Bays or Palm in their hands. + + _Henry VIII_, act iv, sc. 2. + +To these passages may be added the following, in which the Palm tree is +certainly alluded to though it is not mentioned by name-- + + _Sebastian._ + + That in Arabia + There is one tree, the Phoenix' throne; one Phoenix + At this hour reigning there. + + _Tempest_, act iii, sc. 3 (22).[193:1] + +And from the poem by Shakespeare, published in Chester's "Love's +Martyr," 1601. + + "Let the bird of loudest lay + On the sole Arabian tree + Herald sad and Trumpet be, + To whose sound chaste wings obey." + +Two very distinct trees are named in these passages. In the last five +the reference is to the true Palm of Biblical and classical fame, as the +emblem of victory, and the typical representation of life and beauty in +the midst of barren waste and deserts. And we are not surprised at the +veneration in which the tree was held, when we consider either the +wonderful grace of the tree, or its many uses in its native countries, +so many, that Pliny says that the Orientals reckoned 360 uses to which +the Palm tree could be applied. Turner, in 1548, said: "I never saw any +perfit Date tree yet, but onely a little one that never came to +perfection;"[194:1] and whether Shakespeare ever saw a living Palm tree +is doubtful, but he may have done so. (_See_ DATE.) Now there are a +great number grown in the large houses of botanic and other gardens, the +Palm-house at Kew showing more and better specimens than can be seen in +any other collection in Europe: even the open garden can now boast of a +few species that will endure our winters without protection. Chamaerops +humilis and Fortunei seem to be perfectly hardy, and good specimens may +be seen in several gardens; Corypha australis is also said to be quite +hardy, and there is little doubt but that the Date Palm (_Phoenix +dactylifera_), which has long been naturalized in the South of Europe, +would live in Devonshire and Cornwall, and that of the thousand species +of Palms growing in so many different parts of the world, some will yet +be found that may grow well in the open air in England. + +But the Palm tree in No. 1 is a totally different tree, and much as +Shakespeare has been laughed at for placing a Palm tree in the Forest of +Arden, the laugh is easily turned against those who raise such an +objection. The Palm tree of the Forest of Arden is the + + "Satin-shining Palm + On Sallows in the windy gleams of March"-- + + _Idylls of the King_--Vivien. + +that is, the Early Willow (_Salix caprea_) and I believe it is so called +all over England, as it is in Northern Germany, and probably in other +northern countries. There is little doubt that the name arose from the +custom of using the Willow branches with the pretty golden catkins on +Palm Sunday as a substitute for Palm branches. + + "In Rome upon Palm Sunday they bear true Palms, + The Cardinals bow reverently and sing old Psalms; + Elsewhere those Psalms are sung 'mid Olive branches, + The Holly branch supplies the place among the avalanches; + More northern climes must be content with the sad Willow." + + GOETHE (quoted by Seeman). + +But besides Willow branches, Yew branches are sometimes used for the +same purpose, and so we find Yews called Palms. Evelyn says they were so +called in Kent; they are still so called in Ireland, and in the +churchwarden's accounts of Woodbury, Devonshire, is the following entry: +"Memorandum, 1775. That a Yew or Palm tree was planted in the +churchyard, ye south side of the church, in the same place where one was +blown down by the wind a few days ago, this 25th of November."[195:1] + +How Willow or Yew branches could ever have been substituted for such a +very different branch as a Palm it is hard to say, but in lack of a +better explanation, I think it not unlikely that it might have arisen +from the direction for the Feast of Tabernacles in Leviticus xxiii. 40: +"Ye shall take you on the first day the boughs of goodly trees, the +branches of Palm trees, and the boughs of thick trees, and Willows of +the brook." But from whatever cause the name and the custom was derived, +the Willow was so named in very early times, and in Shakespeare's time +the name was very common. Here is one instance among many-- + + "Lambs frisk and play, the shepherds pipe all day, + The Palms and May make country houses gay, + And we hear aye birds tune this merry lay-- + Cuckoo, jug-jug, pee-we, to-witta-woo." + + T. NASH. 1567-1601. + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[193:1] I do not include among "Palms" the passage in _Hamlet_, act i, +sc. 1: "In the most high and palmy state of Rome," because I bow to +Archdeacon Nares' judgment that "palmy" here means "grown to full +height, in allusion to the palms of the stag's horns, when they have +attained to their utmost growth." He does not, however, decide this with +certainty, and the question may be still an open one. + +[194:1] "Names of Herbes," s.v. Palma. + +[195:1] In connection with this, Turner's account of the Palm in 1538 is +worth quoting: "Palm[=a] arborem in anglia nunq' me vidisse memini. +Indie tamen ramis palmar[=u] (ut illi loq[=u]ntur) soepius sacerdot[=e] +dicent[=e] andivi. Bendic eti[=a] et hos palmar[=u] ramos, qu[=u] +proeter salignas frondes nihil omnino vider[=e] ego, quid alii viderint +nescio. Si nobis palmarum frondes non suppeterent; proestaret me judice +mutare lectionem et dicere. Benedic hos salic[=u] ramos q' falso et +mendaciter salicum frondes palmarum frondes vocare."--LIBELLUS, _De re +Herbaria_, s.v. Palma. + + + + +PANSIES. + + + (1) _Ophelia._ + + And there is Pansies--that's for thoughts. + + _Hamlet_, act iv, sc. 5 (176). + + + (2) _Lucentio._ + + But see, while idly I stood looking on, + I found the effect of Love-in-idleness. + + _Taming of the Shrew_, act i, sc. 1 (155). + + + (3) _Oberon._ + + Yet mark'd I where the bolt of Cupid fell: + It fell upon a little western flower, + Before milk-white, now purple with love's wound, + And maidens call it Love-in-idleness. + Fetch me that flower; the herb I show'd thee once; + The juice of it on sleeping eye-lids laid + Will make or man or woman madly dote + Upon the next live creature that it sees. + + _Midsummer Night's Dream_, act ii, sc. 1 (165). + + + (4) _Oberon._ + + Dian's Bud o'er Cupid's flower + Hath such free and blessed power. + + _Ibid._, act iv, sc. 1 (78). + +The Pansy is one of the oldest favourites in English gardens, and the +affection for it is shown in the many names that were given to it. The +Anglo-Saxon name was Banwort or Bonewort, though why such a name was +given to it we cannot now say. Nor can we satisfactorily explain its +common names of Pansy or Pawnce (from the French, _pensees_--"that is, +for thoughts," says Ophelia), or Heart's-ease,[196:1] which name was +originally given to the Wallflower. The name Cupid's flower seems to be +peculiar to Shakespeare, but the other name, Love-in-idle, or idleness, +is said to be still in use in Warwickshire, and signifies love in vain, +or to no purpose, as in Chaucer: "The prophet David saith; If God ne +kepe not the citee, in ydel waketh he that keptit it."[196:2] And in +Tyndale's translation of the New Testament, "I have prechid to you, if +ye holden, if ye hav not bileved ideli" (1 Cor. xv. 2). "Beynge +plenteuous in werk of the Lord evermore, witynge that youre traveil is +not idel in the Lord" (1 Cor. xv. 58). + +But beside these more common names, Dr. Prior mentions the following: +"Herb Trinity, Three faces under a hood, Fancy, Flamy,[197:1] Kiss me, +Cull me or Cuddle me to you, Tickle my fancy, Kiss me ere I rise, Jump +up and kiss me, Kiss me at the garden gate, Pink of my John, and several +more of the same amatory character." + +Spenser gives the flower a place in his "Royal aray" for Elisa-- + + "Strowe me the grounde with Daffadowndillies, + And Cowslips, and Kingcups, and loved Lillies, + The pretie Pawnce, + And the Chevisaunce + Shall match with the fayre Flower Delice." + +And in another place he speaks of the "Paunces trim"--_F. Q._, iii. 1. +Milton places it in Eve's couch-- + + "Flowers were the couch, + Pansies, and Violets, and Asphodel, + And Hyacinth, earth's freshest, softest lap." + +He names it also as part of the wreath of Sabrina-- + + "Pansies, Pinks, and gaudy Daffadils;" + +and as one of the flowers to strew the hearse of Lycidas-- + + "The White Pink and the Pansie streaked with jet, + The glowing Violet." + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[196:1] "The Pansie Heart's ease Maiden's call."--DRAYTON _Ed._, ix. + +[196:2] And again-- + + "The other heste of hym is this, + Take not in ydel my name or amys." + + _Pardeners Tale._ + + + "Eterne God, that through thy purveance + Ledest this world by certein governance, + In idel, as men sein, ye nothinge make." + + _The Frankelynes Tale._ + +[197:1] "Flamy, because its colours are seen in the flame of +wood."--_Flora Domestica_, 166. + + + + +PARSLEY. + + + _Biondello._ + + I knew a wench married in an afternoon as she went to the + garden for Parsley to stuff a rabbit. + + _Taming of the Shrew_, act iv, sc 4 (99). + +Parsley is the abbreviated form of Apium petroselinum, and is a common +name to many umbelliferous plants, but the garden Parsley is the one +meant here. This well-known little plant has the curious botanic history +that no one can tell what is its native country. In 1548 Turner said, +"Perseley groweth nowhere that I knowe, but only in gardens."[198:1] It +is found in many countries, but is always considered an escape from +cultivation. Probably the plant has been so altered by cultivation as to +have lost all likeness to its original self. + +Our forefathers seem to have eaten the parsley _root_ as well as the +leaves-- + + "Quinces and Peris ciryppe with Parcely rotes + Right so bygyn your mele." + + RUSSELL'S _Boke of Nurture_, 826. + + + "Peres and Quynces in syrupe with Percely rotes." + + WYNKYN DE WORDE'S _Boke of Kervynge_. + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[198:1] "Names of Herbes," s.v. Apium. + + + + +PEACH + + + (1) _Prince Henry._ + + To take note how many pair of silk stockings thou hast, viz., + these, and those that were thy Peach-coloured ones! + + _2nd Henry IV_, act ii, sc. 2 (17). + + + (2) _Pompey._ + + Then there is here one Master Caper, at the suit of Master + Threepile the mercer, for some four suits of Peach-coloured + satin, which now peaches him a beggar. + + _Measure for Measure_, act iv, sc. 3 (10). + +The references here are only to the colour of the Peach blossom, yet the +Peach tree was a well-known tree in Shakespeare's time, and the fruit +was esteemed a great delicacy, and many different varieties were +cultivated. Botanically the Peach is closely allied to the Almond, and +still more closely to the Apricot and Nectarine; indeed, many writers +consider both the Apricot and Nectarine to be only varieties of the +Peach. + +The native country of the Peach is now ascertained to be China, and +not Persia, as the name would imply. It probably came to the Romans +through Persia, and was by them introduced into England. It occurs in +Archbishop's AElfric's "Vocabulary" in the tenth century, "Persicarius, +Perseoctreow;" and John de Garlande grew it in the thirteenth century, +"In virgulto Magistri Johannis, pessicus fert pessica." It is named in +the "Promptorium Parvulorum" as "Peche, or Peske, frute--Pesca Pomum +Persicum;" and in a note the Editor says: "In a role of purchases for +the Palace of Westminster preserved amongst the miscellaneous record of +the Queen's remembrance, a payment occurs, Will le Gardener, pro iij +koygnere, ij pichere iij_s._--pro groseillere iij_d_, pro j peschere +vj_d._" A.D. 1275, 4 Edw: 1-- + +We all know and appreciate the fruit of the Peach, but few seem to know +how ornamental a tree is the Peach, quite independent of the fruit. In +those parts where the soil and climate are suitable, the Peach may be +grown as an ornamental spring flowering bush. When so grown preference +is generally given to the double varieties, of which there are several, +and which are not by any means the new plants that they are generally +supposed to be, as they were cultivated both by Gerard and Parkinson. + + + + +PEAR. + + + (1) _Falstaff._ + + I warrant they would whip me with their fine wits till I were + as crest-fallen as a dried Pear. + + _Merry Wives of Windsor_, act iv, sc. 5 (101). + + + (2) _Parolles._ + + Your virginity, your old virginity, is like one of our French + withered Pears, it looks ill, it eats drily; marry, 'tis a + withered Pear; it was formerly better; marry, yet 'tis a + withered Pear. + + _All's Well that Ends Well_, act i, sc. 1 (174). + + + (3) _Clown._ + + I must have Saffron to colour the Warden pies. + + _Winter's Tale_, act iv, sc. 3 (48). + + + (4) _Mercutio._ + + O, Romeo . . . thou a Poperin Pear. + + _Romeo and Juliet_, act ii, sc. 1 (37). + +If we may judge by these few notices, Shakespeare does not seem to have +had much respect for the Pear, all the references to the fruit being +more or less absurd or unpleasant. Yet there were good Pears in his day, +and so many different kinds that Gerard declined to tell them at length, +for "the stocke or kindred of Pears are not to be numbered; every +country hath his peculiar fruit, so that to describe them apart were to +send an owle to Athens, or to number those things that are without +number." + +Of these many sorts Shakespeare mentions by name but two, the Warden and +the Poperin, and it is not possible to identify these with modern +varieties with any certainty. The Warden was probably a general name for +large keeping and stewing Pears, and the name was said to come from the +Anglo-Saxon _wearden_, to keep or preserve, in allusion to its lasting +qualities. But this is certainly a mistake. In an interesting paper by +Mr. Hudson Turner, "On the State of Horticulture in England in early +times, chiefly previous to the fifteenth century," printed in the +"Archaeological Journal," vol. v. p. 301, it is stated that "the Warden +Pear had its origin and its name from the horticultural skill of the +Cistercian Monks of Wardon Abbey in Bedfordshire, founded in the twelfth +century. Three Warden Pears appeared in the armorial bearings of the +Abbey." + +It was certainly an early name. In the "Catholicon Anglicum" we find: "A +Parmayn, volemum, Anglice, a Warden;" and in Parkinson's time the name +was still in use, and he mentions two varieties, "The Warden or +Lukewards Pear are of two sorts, both white and red, both great and +small." (The name of Lukewards seems to point to St. Luke's Day, October +18, as perhaps the time either for picking the fruit or for its +ripening.) "The Spanish Warden is greater than either of both the +former, and better also." And he further says: "The Red Warden and the +Spanish Warden are reckoned amongst the most excellent of Pears, either +to bake or to roast, for the sick or for the sound--and indeed the +Quince and the Warden are the only two fruits that are permitted to the +sick to eat at any time." The Warden pies of Shakespeare's day, coloured +with Saffron, have in our day been replaced by stewed Pears coloured +with Cochineal.[200:1] + +I can find no guide to the identification of the Poperin Pear, beyond +Parkinson's description: "The summer Popperin and the winter Popperin, +both of them very good, firm, dry Pears, somewhat spotted and brownish +on the outside. The green Popperin is a winter fruit of equal goodnesse +with the former." It was probably a Flemish Pear, and may have been +introduced by the antiquary Leland, who was made Rector of Popering by +Henry VIII. The place is further known to us as mentioned by Chaucer-- + + "A knyght was fair and gent + In batail and in tornament, + His name was Sir Thopas. + Alone he was in fer contre, + In Flaundres, all beyonde the se, + At Popering in the place." + +As a garden tree the Pear is not only to be grown for its fruit, but as +a most ornamental tree. Though the individual flowers are not, perhaps, +so handsome as the Apple blossoms, yet the growth of the tree is far +more elegant; and an old Pear tree, with its curiously roughened bark, +its upright, tall, pyramidal shape, and its sheet of snow-white +blossoms, is a lovely ornament in the old gardens and lawns of many of +our country houses. It is by some considered a British tree, but it is +probably only a naturalized foreigner, originally introduced by the +Romans. + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[200:1] The Warden was sometimes spoken of as different from Pears. Sir +Hugh Platt speaks of "Wardens _or_ Pears." + + + + +PEAS. + + + (1) _Iris._ + + Ceres, most bounteous lady, thy rich leas + Of Wheat, Rye, Barley, Vetches, Oats, and Pease. + + _Tempest_, act iv, sc. 1 (60). + + + (2) _Carrier._ + + Peas and Beans are as dank here as a dog. + + _1st Henry IV_, act ii, sc. 1 (9). + (_See_ BEANS.) + + + (3) _Biron._ + + This fellow picks up wit, as pigeons Pease. + + _Love's Labour's Lost_, act v, sc. 2 (315). + + + (4) _Bottom._ + + I had rather have a handful or two of dried Peas. + + _Midsummer Night's Dream_, act iv, sc. 1 (41). + + + (5) _Fool._ + + That a shealed Peascod? + + _King Lear_, act i, sc. 4 (219). + + + (6) _Touchstone._ + + I remember the wooing of a Peascod instead of her. + + _As You Like It_, act ii, sc. 4 (51). + + + (7) _Malvolio._ + + Not yet old enough to be a man, nor young enough for a boy; as + a Squash is before 'tis a Peascod, or a Codling when 'tis + almost an Apple. + + _Twelfth Night_, act i, sc. 5 (165). + + + (8) _Hostess._ + + Well, fare thee well! I have known thee these twenty-nine + years come Peascod time. + + _2nd Henry IV_, act ii, sc. 4 (412). + + + (9) _Leontes._ + + How like, methought, I then was to this kernel, + This Squash, this gentleman. + + _Winter's Tale_, act i, sc. 2 (159). + + + (10) + + _Peascod, Pease-Blossom, and Squash_--Dramatis personae in + _Midsummer Night's Dream_. + +There is no need to say much of Peas, but it may be worth a note in +passing that in old English we seldom meet with the word Pea. Peas or +Pease (the Anglicised form of Pisum) is the singular, of which the +plural is Peason. "Pisum is called in Englishe a Pease;" says Turner-- + + "Alle that for me thei doo pray, + Helpeth me not to the uttermost day + The value of a Pese." + + _The Child of Bristowe_, p. 570. + +And the word was so used in and after Shakespeare's time, as by Ben +Jonson-- + + "A pill as small as a pease."--_Magnetic Lady._ + +The Squash is the young Pea, before the Peas are formed in it, and the +Peascod is the ripe shell of the Pea before it is shelled.[202:1] The +garden Pea (_Pisum sativum_) is the cultivated form of a plant found in +the South of Europe, but very much altered by cultivation. It was +probably not introduced into England as a garden vegetable long before +Shakespeare's time. It is not mentioned in the old lists of plants +before the sixteenth century, and Fuller tells us that in Queen +Elizabeth's time they were brought from Holland, and were "fit dainties +for ladies, they came so far and cost so dear." + +The beautiful ornamental Peas (Sweet Peas, Everlasting Peas, &c.) are of +different family (Lathyrus, not Pisum), but very closely allied. There +is a curious amount of folklore connected with Peas, and in every case +the Peas and Peascods are connected with wooing the lasses. This +explains Touchstone's speech (No. 6). Brand gives several instances of +this, from which one stanza from Browne's "Pastorals" may be quoted-- + + "The Peascod greene, oft with no little toyle, + He'd seek for in the fattest, fertil'st soile, + And rend it from the stalke to bring it to her, + And in her bosom for acceptance wooe her." + + Book ii, song 3. + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[202:1] The original meaning of Peascod is a bag of peas. Cod is bag as +Matt. x. 10--"ne codd, ne hlaf, ne feo on heora gyrdlum--'not a bag, not +a loaf, not (fee) money in their girdles.'"--COCKAYNE, _Spoon and +Sparrow_, p. 518. + + + + +PEONY, _see_ PIONY. + + + + +PEPPER. + + + (1) _Hotspur._ + + Such protest of Pepper-gingerbread. + + _1st Henry IV_, act iii, sc. 1 (260). + (_See_ GINGER, 9.) + + + (2) _Falstaff._ + + An I have not forgotten what the inside of a church is made + of, I am a Pepper-corn, a brewer's horse. + + _Ibid._, act iii, sc. 3 (8). + + + (3) _Poins._ + + Pray God, you have not murdered some of them. + + _Falstaff._ + + Nay, that's past praying for, for I have Peppered two of them. + + _Ibid._, act ii, sc. 4 (210). + + + (4) _Falstaff._ + + I have led my ragamuffins, where they are Peppered. + + _Ibid._, act v, sc. 3 (36). + + + (5) _Mercutio._ + + I am Peppered, I warrant, for this world. + + _Romeo and Juliet_, act iii, sc. 1 (102). + + + (6) _Ford._ + + He cannot 'scape me, 'tis impossible he should; he cannot + creep into a halfpenny purse or into a Pepper-box. + + _Merry Wives_, act iii, sc. 5 (147). + + + (7) _Sir Andrew._ + + Here's the challenge, read it; I warrant there's vinegar and + Pepper in't. + + _Twelfth Night_, act iii, sc. 4 (157). + +Pepper is the seed of Piper nigrum, "whose drupes form the black Pepper +of the shops when dried with the skin upon them, and white Pepper when +that flesh is removed by washing."--LINDLEY. It is, like all the +pepperworts, a native of the Tropics, but was well known both to the +Greeks and Romans. By the Greeks it was probably not much used, but in +Rome it seems to have been very common, if we may judge by Horace's +lines-- + + "Deferar in vicum, vendentem thus et odores, + Et piper, et quidquid chartis amicitur ineptis." + + _Epistolae_ ii, 1-270. + +And in another place he mentions "Pipere albo" as an ingredient in +cooking. Juvenal mentions it as an article of commerce, "piperis coemti" +(Sat. xiv. 293). Persius speaks of it in more than one passage, and +Pliny describes it so minutely that he evidently not only knew the +imported spice, but also had seen the living plant. By the Romans it was +probably introduced into England, being frequently met with in the +Anglo-Saxon Leech-books. It is mentioned by Chaucer-- + + "And in an erthen pot how put is al, + And salt y-put in and also Paupere." + + _Prologue of the Chanoune's Yeman._ + +It was apparently, like Ginger, a very common condiment in Shakespeare's +time, and its early introduction into England as an article of commerce +is shown by passages in our old law writers, who speak of the +reservation of rent, not only in money, but in "pepper, cummim, and +wheat;" whence arose the familiar reservation of a single peppercorn as +a rent so nominal as to have no appreciable pecuniary value.[204:1] + +The red or Cayenne Pepper is made from the ground seeds of the +Capsicum, but I do not find that it was used to known in the sixteenth +century. + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[204:1] Littleton does not mention Pepper when speaking of rents +reserved otherwise than in money, but specifies as instances, "un +chival, ou un esperon dor, ou un clovegylofer"--a horse, a golden spur, +or a clove gilliflower. + + + + +PIG-NUTS. + + + _Caliban._ + + I prythee let me bring thee where Crabs grow; + And I with my long nails will dig thee Pig-nuts. + + _Tempest_, act ii, sc. 2 (171). + +Pig-nuts or Earth-nuts are the tuberous roots of Conopodium denudatum +(_Bunium flexuosum_), a common weed in old upland pastures; it is found +also in woods. This root is really of a pleasant flavour when first +eaten, but leaves an unpleasant taste in the mouth. It is said to be +much improved by roasting, and to be then quite equal to Chestnuts. Yet +it is not much prized in England except by pigs and children, who do not +mind the trouble of digging for it. But the root lies deep, and the +stalk above it is very brittle, and "when the little 'howker' breaks the +white shank he at once desists from his attempt to reach the root, for +he believes that it will elude his search by sinking deeper and deeper +into the ground" (Johnston). I have never heard of its being cultivated +in England, but it is cultivated in some European countries, and much +prized as a wholesome and palatable root. + + + + +PINE. + + + (1) _Prospero._ + + She did confine thee, + + * * * * * + + Into a cloven Pine; + + * * * * * + + It was mine art, + When I arrived and heard thee, that made gape + The Pine and let thee out. + + _Tempest_, act i, sc. 2 (273). + + + (2) _Suffolk._ + + Thus droops this lofty Pine and hangs his sprays. + + _2nd Henry VI_, act ii, sc. 3 (45). + + + (3) _Prospero._ + + And by the spurs plucked up + The Pine and Cedar. + + _Tempest_, act v, sc. 1 (47). + + + (4) _Agamemnon._ + + As knots, by the conflux of meeting sap, + Infect the sound Pine and divert his grain + Tortive and errant from his course of growth. + + _Troilus and Cressida_, act i, sc. 3 (7). + + + (5) _Antony._ + + Where yonder Pine does stand + I shall discover all. + + * * * * * + + This Pine is bark'd + That overtopped them all. + + _Antony and Cleopatra_, act iv, sc. 12 (23). + + + (6) _Belarius._ + + As the rudest wind + That by the top doth take the mountain Pine, + And make him stoop to the vale. + + _Cymbeline_, act iv, sc. 2 (174). + + + (7) _1st Lord._ + + Behind the tuft of Pines I met them. + + _Winter's Tale_, act ii, sc. 1 (33). + + + (8) _Richard._ + + But when from under this terrestrial ball + He fires the proud top of the eastern Pines. + + _Richard II_, act iii, sc. 2 (41). + + + (9) _Antonio._ + + You may as well forbid the mountain Pines + To wag their high tops and to make no noise, + When they are fretten with the gusts of heaven. + + _Merchant of Venice_, act iv, sc. 1 (75). + + + (10) + + Ay me! the bark peel'd from the lofty Pine, + His leaves will wither, and his sap decay; + So must my soul, her bark being peel'd away. + + _Lucrece_ (1167). + +In No. 8 is one of those delicate touches which show Shakespeare's keen +observation of nature, in the effect of the rising sun upon a group of +Pine trees. Mr. Ruskin says that with the one exception of Wordsworth no +other English poet has noticed this. Wordsworth's lines occur in one of +his minor poems on leaving Italy-- + + "My thoughts become bright like yon edging of Pines + On the steep's lofty verge--how it blackened the air! + But touched from behind by the sun, it now shines + With threads that seem part of its own silver hair." + +While Mr. Ruskin's account of it is this: "When the sun rises behind a +ridge of Pines, and those Pines are seen from a distance of a mile or +two against his light, the whole form of the tree, trunk, branches and +all, becomes one frost-work of intensely brilliant silver, which is +relieved against the clear sky like a burning fringe, for some distance +on either side of the sun."--_Stones of Venice_, i. 240. + +The Pine is the established emblem of everything that is "high and +lifted up," but always with a suggestion of dreariness and solitude. So +it is used by Shakespeare and by Milton, who always associated the Pine +with mountains; and so it has always been used by the poets, even down +to our own day. Thus Tennyson-- + + "They came, they cut away my tallest Pines-- + My dark tall Pines, that plumed the craggy ledge-- + High o'er the blue gorge, and all between + The snowy peak and snow-white cataract + Fostered the callow eaglet; from beneath + Whose thick mysterious boughs in the dark morn + The panther's roar came muffled while I sat + Down in the valley." + + _Complaint of AEnone._ + +Sir Walter Scott similarly describes the tree in the pretty and +well-known lines-- + + "Aloft the Ash and warrior Oak + Cast anchor in the rifted rock; + And higher yet the Pine tree hung + His shattered trunk, and frequent flung, + Where seemed the cliffs to meet on high, + His boughs athwart the narrow sky." + +Yet the Pine which was best known to Shakespeare, and perhaps the only +Pine he knew, was the Pinus sylvestris, or Scotch fir, and this, though +flourishing on the highest hills where nothing else will flourish, +certainly attains its fullest beauty in sheltered lowland districts. +There are probably much finer Scotch firs in Devonshire than can be +found in Scotland. This is the only indigenous Fir, though the Pinus +pinaster claims to be a native of Ireland, some cones having been +supposed to be found in the bogs, but the claim is not generally allowed +(there is no proof of the discovery of the cones); and yet it has become +so completely naturalized on the coast of Dorsetshire, especially about +Bournemouth, that it has been admitted into the last edition of +Sowerby's "English Botany." + +But though the Scotch Fir is a true native, and was probably much more +abundant in England formerly than it is now, the tree has no genuine +English name, and apparently never had. Pine comes directly and without +change from the Latin, _Pinus_, as one of the chief products, pitch, +comes directly from the Latin, _pix_. In the early vocabularies it is +called "Pin-treow," and the cones are "Pin-nuttes." They were also +called "Pine apples," and the tree was called the Pine-Apple +Tree.[208:1] This name was transferred to the rich West Indian +fruit[208:2] from its similarity to a fir-cone, and so was lost to the +fruit of the fir-tree, which had to borrow a new name from the Greek; +but it was still in use in Shakespeare's day-- + + "Sweete smelling Firre that frankensence provokes, + And Pine Apples from whence sweet juyce doth come." + + CHESTER'S _Love's Martyr_. + +And Gerard describing the fruit of the Pine Tree, says: "This Apple is +called in . . . Low Dutch, Pyn Appel, and in English, Pine-apple, clog, +and cones." We also find "Fyre-tree," which is a true English word +meaning the "fire-tree;" but I believe that "Fir" was originally +confined to the timber, from its large use for torches, and was not till +later years applied to the living tree. + +The sweetness of the Pine seeds, joined to the difficulty of extracting +them, and the length of time necessary for their ripening, did not +escape the notice of the emblem-writers of the sixteenth and seventeenth +centuries. With them it was the favourite emblem of the happy results of +persevering labour. Camerarius, a contemporary of Shakespeare and a +great botanist, gives a pretty plate of a man holding a Fir-cone, with +this moral: "Sic ad virtutem et honestatem et laudabiles actiones non +nisi per labores ac varias difficultates perveniri potest, at postea +sequuntur suavissimi fructus." He acknowledges his obligation for this +moral to the proverb of Plautus: "Qui e nuce nucleum esse vult, frangat +nucem" ("Symbolorum," &c., 1590). + +In Shakespeare's time a few of the European Conifers were grown in +England, including the Larch, but only as curiosities. The very large +number of species which now ornament our gardens and Pineta from America +and Japan were quite unknown. The many uses of the Pine--for its timber, +production of pitch, tar, resin, and turpentine--were well known and +valued. Shakespeare mentions both pitch and tar. + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[208:1] For many examples see "Catholicon Anglicum," s.v. Pyne-Tree, +with note. + +[208:2] The West Indian Pine Apple is described by Gerard as "Ananas, +the Pinea, or Pine Thistle." + + + + +PINKS. + + + (1) _Romeo._ + + A most courteous exposition. + + _Mercutio._ + + Nay, I am the very Pink of courtesy. + + _Romeo._ + + Pink for flower. + + _Mercutio._ + + Right. + + _Romeo._ + + Why, then is my pump well flowered. + + _Romeo and Juliet_, act ii, sc. 4 (60). + + + (2) _Maiden._ + + Pinks of odour faint. + + _Two Noble Kinsmen_, Introd. song. + +To these may perhaps be added the following, from the second verse sung +by Mariana in "Measure for Measure," act iv, sc. 1 (337)-- + + Hide, oh hide, those hills of snow + Which thy frozen bosom bears! + On whose tops the Pinks that grow + Are of those that April wears. + +The authority is doubtful, but it is attributed to Shakespeare in some +editions of his poems. + +The Pink or Pincke was, as now, the name of the smaller sorts of +Carnations, and was generally applied to the single sorts. It must have +been a very favourite flower, as we may gather from the phrase "Pink of +courtesy," which means courtesy carried to its highest point; and from +Spenser's pretty comparison-- + + "Her lovely eyes like Pincks but newly spred." + + _Amoretti_, Sonnet 64. + +The name has a curious history. It is not, as most of us would suppose, +derived from the colour, but the colour gets its name from the plant. +The name (according to Dr. Prior) comes through _Pinksten_ (German), +from Pentecost, and so was originally applied to one species--the +Whitsuntide Gilliflower. From this it was applied to other species of +the same family. It is certainly "a curious accident," as Dr. Prior +observes, "that a word that originally meant 'fiftieth' should come to +be successively the name of a festival of the Church, of a flower, of an +ornament in muslin called _pinking_, of a colour, and of a sword stab." +Shakespeare uses the word in three of its senses. First, as applied to a +colour-- + + Come, thou monarch of the Vine, + Plumpy Bacchus with Pink eyne. + + _Antony and Cleopatra_, act ii, sc. 7.[210:1] + +Second, as applied to an ornament of dress in Romeo's person-- + + Then is my pump well flowered; + + _Romeo and Juliet_, act ii, sc. 4. + +_i.e._, well pinked. And in Grumio's excuses to Petruchio for the +non-attendance of the servants-- + + Nathaniel's coat, Sir, was not fully made, + And Gabriel's pumps were all unpinked + I' the heel. + + _Taming of the Shrew_, act iv, sc. 1. + +And thirdly, as the pinked ornament in muslin-- + + There's a haberdasher's wife of small wit near him, that + railed upon me till her Pink'd porringer fell off her head. + + _Henry VIII_, act v, sc. 3. + +And as applied to the flower in the passage quoted above. He also uses +it in another sense-- + + This Pink is one of Cupid's carriers; + Clap on more sail--pursue! + + _Merry Wives of Windsor_, act ii, sc. 7. + +where pink means a small country vessel often mentioned under that name +by writers of the sixteenth century. + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[210:1] It is very probable that this does not refer to the +colour--"Pink = winking, half-shut."--SCHMIDT. And see Nares, s.v. Pinke +eyne. + + + + +PIONY. + + + _Iris._ + + Thy banks with Pioned and twilled brims, + Which spongy April at thy best betrims, + To make cold nymphs chaste crowns. + + _Tempest_, act iv, sc. 1 (65). + +There is much dispute about this passage, the dispute turning on the +question whether "Pioned" has reference to the Peony flower or not. The +word by some is supposed to mean only "digged," and it doubtless often +had this meaning,[211:1] though the word is now obsolete, and only +survives with us in "pioneer," which, in Shakespeare's time, meant +"digger" only, and not as now, "one who goes before to prepare the +way"--thus Hamlet-- + + Well said, old mole! cans't work i' the earth so fast? + A worthy pioner? + + _Hamlet_, act i, sc. 5 (161). + +and again-- + + There might you see the labouring pioner + Begrim'd with sweat, and smeared all with dust. + + _Lucrece_ (1380). + +But this reading seems very tame, tame in itself, and doubly tame when +taken in connection with the context, and "Certainly savours more of the +commentators' prose than of Shakespeare's poetry" ("Edinburgh Review," +1872, p. 363). I shall assume, therefore, that the flower is meant, +spelt in the form of "Piony," instead of Peony or Paeony.[211:2] + +The Paeony (_P. corallina_) is sometimes allowed a place in the British +flora, having been found apparently wild at the Steep Holmes in the +Bristol Channel and a few other places, but it is now considered +certain that in all these places it is a garden escape. Gerard gave one +such habitat: "The male Peionie groweth wilde upon a Coneyberry in +Betsome, being in the parish of Southfleet, in Kent, two miles from +Gravesend, and in the ground sometimes belonging to a farmer there, +called John Bradley;" but on this his editor adds the damaging note: "I +have been told that our author himselfe planted that Peionee there, and +afterwards seemed to find it there by accident; and I do believe it was +so, because none before or since have ever seen or heard of it growing +wild since in any part of this kingdome." + +But though not a native plant, it had been cultivated in England long +before Shakespeare's and Gerard's time. It occurs in most of the old +vocabularies from the tenth century downwards, and in Shakespeare's time +the English gardens had most of the European species that are now grown, +including also the handsome double-red and white varieties. Since his +time the number of species and varieties has been largely increased by +the addition of the Chinese and Japanese species, and by the labours of +the French nurserymen, who have paid more attention to the flower than +the English. + +In the hardy flower garden there is no more showy family than the Paeony. +They have flowers of many colours, from almost pure white and pale +yellow to the richest crimson; and they vary very much in their foliage, +most of them having large fleshy leaves, "not much unlike the leaves of +the Walnut tree," but some of them having their leaves finely cut and +divided almost like the leaves of Fennel (_P. tenuifolia_). They further +vary in that some are herbaceous, disappearing entirely in winter, while +others, Moutan or Tree Paeonies, are shrubs; and in favourable seasons, +when the shrub is not injured by spring frosts, there is no grander +shrub than an old Tree Paeony in full flower. + +Of the many different species the best are the Moutans, which, according +to Chinese tradition, have been grown in China for 1500 years, and which +are now produced in great variety of colour; P. corallina, for the +beauty of its coral-like seeds; P. Cretica, for its earliness in +flowering; P. tenuifolia, single and double, for its elegant foliage; P. +Whitmaniana, for its pale yellow but very fleeting flowers, which, +before they are fully expanded, have all the appearance of immense +Globe-flowers (_trollius_); P. lobata, for the wonderful richness of its +bright crimson flowers; and P. Whitleji, a very old and very double form +of P. edulis, of great size, and most delicate pink and white colour. + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[211:1] + + "Which to outbarre, with painful pyonings, + From sea to sea, he heapt a mighty mound!" + + SPENSER, _F. Q._, ii, 10, 46. + +[211:2] The name was variously spelt, _e.g._-- + + "And other trees there was mane one + The Pyany, the Poplar, and the Plane." + + _The Squyr of Lowe Degre_, 39. + + + "The pretie Pinke and purple Pianet." + + CUTWODE, _Caltha Poetarum_, 1599, st. 24. + + + "A Pyon (Pyion A.) dionia, herba est."--_Catholicon Anglicum._ + + + + +PIPPIN, _see_ APPLE. + + + + +PLANE. + + + _Daughter._ + + I have sent him where a Cedar, + Higher than all the rest, spreads like a Plane + Fast by a brook. + + _Two Noble Kinsmen_, act ii, sc. 6 (4). + +There is no certain record how long the Plane has been introduced into +England; it is certainly not a native tree, nor even an European tree, +but came from the East, and was largely planted and much admired both by +the Greeks and Romans. We know from Pliny that it was growing in France +in his day on the part opposite Britain, and the name occurs in the old +vocabularies. But from Turner's evidence in 1548 it must have been a +very scarce tree in the sixteenth century. He says: "I never saw any +Plaine tree in Englande, saving once in Northumberlande besyde Morpeth, +and an other at Barnwell Abbey besyde Cambryge." And more than a hundred +years later Evelyn records a special visit to Lee to inspect one as a +great curiosity. The Plane is not only a very handsome tree, and a fast +grower, but from the fact that it yearly sheds its bark it has become +one of the most useful trees for growing in towns. The wood is of very +little value. To the emblem writers the Plane was an example of +something good to the eye, but of no real use. Camerarius so moralizes +it (Pl. xix.), and, quoting Virgil's "steriles platanos," he says of it, +"umbram non fructum platanus dat." + + + + +PLANTAIN. + + + (1) _Costard._ + + O sir, Plantain, a plain Plantain! no l'envoy, no l'envoy; no + salve, sir, but a Plantain. + + * * * * * + + _Moth._ + + By saying that a costard was broken in a shin. + Then call'd you for the l'envoy. + + _Costard._ + + True! and I for a Plantain. + + _Loves Labour's Lost_, act iii, sc. 1 (76). + + + (2) _Romeo._ + + Your Plantain leaf is excellent for that. + + _Benvolio._ + + For what, I pray thee? + + _Romeo._ + + For your broken shin. + + _Romeo and Juliet_, act i, sc. 2 (52). + + + (3) _Troilus._ + + As true as steel, as Plantage to the moon. + + _Troilus and Cressida_, act iii, sc. 2 (184). + + + (4) _Palamon._ + + These poore slight sores + Neede not a Plantin. + + _Two Noble Kinsmen_, act i, sc. 2 (65). + +The most common old names for the Plantain were Waybroad (corrupted to +Weybread, Wayborn, and Wayforn) and Ribwort. It was also called +Lamb's-tongue and Kemps, while the flower spike with the stalk was +called Cocks and Cockfighters (still so called by children).[214:1] The +old name of Ribwort was derived from the ribbed leaves, while Waybroad +marked its universal appearance, scattered by all roadsides and +pathways, and literally bred by the wayside. It has a similar name in +German, Wegetritt, that is Waytread; and on this account the Swedes name +the plant Wagbredblad, and the Indians of North America Whiteman's Foot, +for it springs up near every new settlement, having sprung up after the +English settlers, not only in America, but also in Australia and New +Zealand-- + + "Whereso'er they move, before them + Swarms the stinging fly, the Ahmo, + Swarms the bee, the honey-maker: + Wheresoe'er they tread, beneath them + Springs a flower unknown among us, + Springs the 'White man's foot' in blossom." + + LONGFELLOW'S _Hiawatha_. + +And "so it is a mistake to say that Plantain is derived from the +likeness of the plant to the sole of the foot, as in Richardson's +Dictionary. Rather say, because the herb grows under the sole of the +foot."--JOHNSTON. How, or when, or why the plant lost its old English +names to take the Latin name of Plantain, it is hard to say. It occurs +in a vocabulary of the names of plants of the middle of the thirteenth +century--"Plantago, Planteine, Weibrode," and apparently came to us from +the French, "Cy est assets de Planteyne, Weybrede."--WALTER DE +BIBLESWORTH (13th cent.) But with the exception of Chaucer[215:1] I +believe Shakespeare is almost the only early writer that uses the name, +though it is very certain that he did not invent it; but "Plantage" (No +3), which is doubtless the same plant, is peculiar to him.[215:2] + +It was as a medical herb that our forefathers chiefly valued the +Plantain, and for medical purposes its reputation was of the very +highest. In a book of recipes (Lacnunga) of the eleventh century, by +AElfric, is an address to the Waybroad, which is worth extracting at +length-- + + "And thou, Waybroad! + Mother of worts, + Open from eastward, + Mighty within; + Over thee carts creaked, + Over thee Queens rode, + Over thee brides bridalled, + Over thee bulls breathed, + All these thou withstood'st + Venom and vile things + And all the loathly ones + That through the land rove." + + COCKAYNE'S _Translation_. + +In another earlier recipe book the Waybroad is prescribed for +twenty-two diseases, one after another; and in another of the same date +we are taught how to apply it: "If a man ache in half his head . . . +delve up Waybroad without iron ere the rising of the sun, bind the roots +about the head with Crosswort by a red fillet, soon he will be well." +But the Plantain did not long sustain its high reputation, which even in +Shakespeare's time had become much diminished. "I find," says Gerard, +"in ancient writers many good-morrowes, which I think not meet to bring +into your memorie againe; as that three roots will cure one griefe, four +another disease, six hanged about the neck are good for another maladie, +&c., all which are but ridiculous toys." Yet the bruised leaves still +have some reputation as a styptic and healing plaster among country +herbalists, and perhaps the alleged virtues are not altogether fanciful. + +As a garden plant the Plantain can only be regarded as a weed and +nuisance, especially on lawns, where it is very difficult to destroy +them. Yet there are some curious varieties which may claim a corner +where botanical curiosities are grown. The Plantain seems to have a +peculiar tendency to run into abnormal forms, many of which will be +found described and figured in Dr. Masters' "Vegetable Teratology," and +among these forms are two which are exactly like a double green Rose, +and have been cultivated as the Rose Plantain for many years. They were +grown by Gerard, who speaks of "the beauty which is in the plant," and +compared it to "a fine double Rose of a hoary or rusty greene colour." +Parkinson also grew it and valued it highly. + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[214:1] Of these names Plantain properly belongs to Plantago major; +Lamb's-tongue to P. media; and Kemps, Cocks, and Ribwort to P. +lanceolata. + +[215:1] + + "His forehead dropped as a stillatorie + Were ful of Plantayn and peritorie." + + _Prologue of the Chanoune's Yeman._ + +[215:2] Nares, and Schmidt from him, consider Plantage = anything +planted. + + + + +PLUMS, WITH DAMSONS AND PRUNES. + + + (1) _Constance._ + + Give grandam kingdom, and it grandam will + Give it a Plum, a Cherry, and a Fig. + + _King John_, act ii, sc. 1 (161). + + + (2) _Hamlet._ + + The satirical rogue says here that old men have grey beards, + that their faces are wrinkled, their eyes purging thick + amber and Plum-tree gum. + + _Hamlet_, act ii, sc. 2 (198). + + + (3) _Simpcox._ + + A fall off a tree. + + _Wife._ + + A Plum-tree, master. + + * * * * * + + _Gloucester._ + + Mass, thou lovedst Plums well that wouldst venture so. + + _Simpcox._ + + Alas! good master, my wife desired some Damsons, + And made me climb with danger of my life. + + _2nd Henry VI_, act ii, sc. 1 (196). + + + (4) _Evans._ + + I will dance and eat Plums at your wedding. + + _Merry Wives of Windsor_, act v, sc. 5.[217:1] + + + (5) + + The mellow Plum doth fall, the green sticks fast, + Or, being early pluck'd, is sour to taste. + + _Venus and Adonis_ (527). + + + (6) + + Like a green Plum that hangs upon a tree, + And falls, through wind, before the fall should be. + + _Passionate Pilgrim_ (135). + + + (7) _Slender._ + + Three veneys for a dish of stewed Prunes. + + _Merry Wives of Windsor_, act i, sc. 1 (295). + + + (8) _Falstaff._ + + There's no more faith in thee than in a stewed Prune. + + _1st Henry IV_, act iii, sc. 3 (127). + + + (9) _Pompey._ + + Longing (saving your honour's presence) for stewed Prunes. + + * * * * * + + And longing, as I said, for Prunes. + + * * * * * + + You being then, if you he remembered, cracking the stones of + the foresaid Prunes. + + _Measure for Measure_, act ii, sc. 1 (92). + + + (10) _Clown._ + + Four pounds of Prunes, and as many of Raisins of the sun. + + _Winters Tale_, act iv, sc. 3 (51). + + + (11) _Falstaff._ + + Hang him, rogue; he lives upon mouldy stewed Prunes and dried + cakes. + + _2nd Henry IV_, act ii, sc. 4 (158). + +Plums, Damsons, and Prunes may conveniently be joined together, Plums +and Damsons being often used synonymously (as in No. 3), and Prunes +being the dried Plums. The Damsons were originally, no doubt, a good +variety from the East, and nominally from Damascus.[217:2] They seem to +have been considered great delicacies, as in a curious allegorical +drama of the fifteenth century, called "La Nef de Sante," of which an +account is given by Mr. Wright: "Bonne-Compagnie, to begin the day, +orders a collation, at which, among other things, are served Damsons +(_Prunes de Damas_), which appear at this time to have been considered +as delicacies. There is here a marginal direction to the purport that if +the morality should be performed in the season when real Damsons could +not be had, the performers must have some made of wax to look like real +ones" ("History of Domestic Manners," &c.). + +The garden Plums are a good cultivated variety of our own wild Sloe, but +a variety that did not originate in England, and may very probably have +been introduced by the Romans. The Sloe and Bullace are, speaking +botanically, two sub-species of Prunus communis, while the Plum is a +third sub-species (P. communis domestica). The garden Plum is +occasionally found wild in England, but is certainly not indigenous. It +is somewhat strange that our wild plant is not mentioned by Shakespeare +under any of its well-known names of Sloe, Bullace, and Blackthorn. Not +only is it a shrub of very marked appearance in our hedgerows in early +spring, when it is covered with its pure white blossoms, but Blackthorn +staves were indispensable in the rough game of quarterstaff, and the +Sloe gave point to more than one English proverb: "as black as a Sloe," +was a very common comparison, and "as useless as a Sloe," or "not worth +a Sloe," was as common. + + "Sir Amys answered, 'Tho' + I give thee thereof not one Sloe! + Do right all that thou may!" + + _Amys and Amylion_--ELLIS'S _Romances_. + + + "The offecial seyde, Thys ys nowth + Be God, that me der bowthe, + Het ys not worthe a Sclo." + + _The Frere and His Boy_--RITSON'S _Ancient Popular Poetry_. + +Though even as a fruit the Sloe had its value, and was not altogether +despised by our ancestors, for thus Tusser advises-- + + "By thend of October go gather up Sloes, + Have thou in readines plentie of thoes, + And keepe them in bed-straw, or still on the bow, + To staie both the flix of thyselfe and thy cow." + +As soon as the garden Plum was introduced, great attention seems to have +been paid to it, and the gardeners of Shakespeare's time could probably +show as good Plums as we can now. "To write of Plums particularly," said +Gerard, "would require a peculiar volume. . . . Every clymate hath his +owne fruite, far different from that of other countries; my selfe have +threescore sorts in my garden, and all strange and rare; there be in +other places many more common, and yet yearly commeth to our hands +others not before knowne." + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[217:1] Omitted in the Globe edition. + +[217:2] Bullein, in his "Government of Health," 1588, calls them +"Damaske Prunes." + + + + +POMEGRANATE. + + + (1) _Lafeu._ + + Go to, sir, you were beaten in Italy for picking a kernel out + of a Pomegranate. + + _All's Well that Ends Well_, act ii, sc. 3 (275). + + + (2) _Juliet._ + + It was the nightingale and not the lark, + That pierced the fearful hollow of thine ear; + Nightly she sings on yon Pomegranate tree.[219:1] + + _Romeo and Juliet_, act iii, sc. 5 (2). + + + (3) _Francis._ + + Anon, anon, sir, Look down into the Pomegarnet, Ralph. + + _1st Henry IV_, act ii, sc. 4 (41). + +There are few trees that surpass the Pomegranate in interest and beauty +combined. "Whoever has seen the Pomegranate in a favourable soil and +climate, whether as a single shrub or grouped many together, has seen +one of the most beautiful of green trees; its spiry shape and +thick-tufted foliage of vigorous green, each growing shoot shaded into +tenderer verdure and bordered with crimson and adorned with the +loveliest flowers; filmy petals of scarlet lustre are put forth from the +solid crimson cup, and the ripe fruit of richest hue and most admirable +shape."--LADY CALCOTT'S _Scripture Herbal_. A simpler but more valued +testimony to the beauty of the Pomegranate is borne in its selection for +the choicest ornaments on the ark of the Tabernacle, on the priest's +vestments, and on the rich capitals of the pillars in the Temple of +Solomon. + +The native home of the Pomegranate is not very certainly known, but the +evidence chiefly points to the North of Africa. It was very early +cultivated in Egypt, and was one of the Egyptian delicacies so fondly +remembered by the Israelites in their desert wanderings, and is +frequently met with in Egyptian sculpture. It was abundant in Palestine, +and is often mentioned in the Bible, and always as an object of beauty +and desire. It was highly appreciated by the Greeks and Romans, but it +was probably not introduced into Italy in very early times, as Pliny is +the first author that certainly mentions it, though some critics have +supposed that the _aurea mala_ and _aurea poma_ of Virgil and Ovid were +Pomegranates. From Italy the tree soon spread into other parts of +Europe, taking with it its Roman name of _Punica malus_ or _Pomum +granatum_. _Punica_ showed the country from which the Romans derived it, +while _granatum_ (full of grains) marked the special characteristic of +the fruit that distinguished it from all other so-called Apples. Gerard +says: "Pomegranates grow in hot countries, towards the south in Italy, +Spaine, and chiefly in the kingdom of Granada, which is thought to be so +named of the great multitude of Pomegranates, which be commonly called +_Granata_."[220:1] This derivation is very doubtful, but was commonly +accepted in Gerard's day.[220:2] The Pomegranate lives and flowers well +in England, but when it was first introduced is not recorded. I do not +find it in the old vocabularies, but a prominent place is given to it in +"that Gardeyn, wele wrought," "the garden that so lyked me;"-- + + "There were, and that I wote fulle well, + Of Pomgarnettys a fulle gret delle, + That is a fruit fulle welle to lyke, + Namely to folk whaune they ben sike." + + _Romaunt of the Rose._ + +Turner describes it in 1548: "Pomegranat trees growe plentuously in +Italy and in Spayne, and there are certayne in my Lorde's gardene at +Syon, but their fruite cometh never with perfection."[221:1] + +Gerard had it in 1596, but from his description it seems that it was a +recent acquisition. "I have recovered," he says, "divers young trees +hereof, by sowing of the seed or grains of the height of three or four +cubits, attending God's leisure for floures and fruit." Three years +later, in 1599, it is noticed for its flowers in Buttes's "Dyet's Dry +Dinner" (as quoted by Brand), where it is asserted that "if one eate +three small Pomegranate flowers (they say) for a whole yeare he shall be +safe from all manner of eyesore;" and Gerard speaks of the "wine which +is pressed forth of the Pomegranate berries named Rhoitas or wine of +Pomegranates," but this may have been imported. But, when introduced, it +at once took kindly to its new home, so that Parkinson was able to +describe its flowers and fruits from personal observation. In all the +southern parts of England it grows very well, and is one of the very +best trees we have to cover a south wall; it also grows well in towns, +as may be seen at Bath, where a great many very fine specimens have been +planted in the areas in front of the houses, and have grown to a +considerable height. When thus planted and properly pruned, the tree +will bear its beautiful flowers from May all through the summer; but +generally the tree is so pruned that it cannot flower. It should be +pruned like a Banksian Rose, and other plants that bear their flowers on +last year's shoots, _i.e._, simply thinned, but not cut back or spurred. +With this treatment the branches may be allowed to grow in their natural +way without being nailed in, and if the single-blossomed species be +grown, the flowers in good summers will bear fruit. In 1876 I counted on +a tree in Bath more than sixty fruit; the fruits will perhaps seldom be +worth eating, but they are curious and handsome. The sorts usually grown +are the pure scarlet (double and single), and a very double variety with +the flowers somewhat variegated. These are the most desirable, but there +are a few other species and varieties, including a very beautiful dwarf +one from the East Indies that is too tender for our climate +out-of-doors, but is largely grown on the Continent as a window plant. + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[219:1] In illustration of Juliet's speech Mr. Knight very aptly quotes +a similar remark from Russell's "History of Aleppo," adding that a +"friend whose observations as a traveller are as accurate as his +descriptions are graphic and forcible, informs us that throughout his +journeys in the East he never heard such a choir of nightingales as in a +row of Pomegranate trees that skirt the road from Smyrna to Bondjia." + +[220:1] In a Bill of Medicines furnished for the use of Edward I. +1306-7, is-- + + "Item pro malis granatis vi. lx s. + Item pro vino malorum granatorun xx lb., lx s." + + _Archaeological Journal_, xiv, 27. + +[220:2] See Prescott's "Ferdinand and Isabella," vol. iii. p. 346, note +(Ed. 1849)--the arms of the city are a split Pomegranate. + +[221:1] "Names of Herbes," s.v. Malus Punica. + + + + +POMEWATER, _see_ APPLE. + + + + +POPERING, _see_ PEAR. + + + + +POPPY. + + + _Iago._ + + Not Poppy or Mandragora, + Nor all the drowsy syrups of the world, + Shall ever medicine thee to that sweet sleep + Which thou ownedst yesterday. + + _Othello_, act iii, sc. 3 (330). + +The Poppy had of old a few other names, such as Corn-rose and +Cheese-bowls (a very old name for the flower), and being "of great +beautie, although of evil smell, our gentlewomen doe call it Jone +Silverpin." This name is difficult of explanation, even with Parkinson's +help, who says it meanes "faire without and foule within," but it +probably alludes to its gaudy colour and worthlessness. But these names +are scarcely the common names of the plant, but rather nicknames; the +usual name is, and always has been, Poppy, which is an easily traced +corruption from the Latin _papaver_, the Saxon and Early English names +being variously spelt, _popig_ and _papig_, _popi_ and _papy_; so that +the Poppy is another instance of a very common and conspicuous English +plant known only or chiefly by its Latin name Anglicised. + +Our common English Poppy, "being of a beautiful and gallant red colour," +is certainly one of the handsomest of our wild flowers, and a Wheat +field with a rich undergrowth of scarlet Poppies is a sight very dear to +the artist,[223:1] while the weed is not supposed to do much harm to the +farmer. But this is not the Poppy mentioned by Iago, for its narcotic +qualities are very small; the Poppy that he alludes to is the Opium +Poppy (_P. somniferum_). This Poppy was well known and cultivated in +England long before Shakespeare's day, but only as a garden ornament; +the Opium was then, as now, imported from the East. Its deadly qualities +were well known. Gower describes it-- + + "There is growend upon the ground + Popy that bereth the sede of slepe." + + _Conf. Aman._, lib. quint. (2, 102 Paulli). + +Spenser speaks of the plant as the "dull Poppy," and describing the +Garden of Proserpina, he says-- + + "There mournful Cypress grew in greatest store, + And trees of bitter gall, and Heben sad, + Dead-sleeping Poppy, and black Hellebore, + Cold Coloquintida." + + _F. Q._, ii, 7, 52. + +And Drayton similarly describes it-- + + "Here Henbane, Poppy, Hemlock here, + Procuring deadly sleeping." + + _Nymphal_ v. + +The name of opium does not seem to have been in general use, except +among the apothecaries. Chaucer, however, uses it-- + + "A claire made of a certayn wyn, + With necotykes, and opye of Thebes fyn." + + _The Knightes Tale._ + +And so does Milton-- + + "Which no cooling herb + Or medicinal liquor can asswage, + Nor breath of vernal air from Snowy Alp; + Sleep hath forsook and given me o'er + To death's benumming opium as my only cure." + + _Samson Agonistes._ + +Many of the Poppies are very ornamental garden plants. The pretty yellow +Welsh Poppy (_Meconopsis Cambrica_), abundant at Cheddar Cliffs, is an +excellent plant for the rockwork where, when once established, it will +grow freely and sow itself; and for the same place the little Papaver +Alpinum, with its varieties, is equally well suited. For the open border +the larger Poppies are very suitable, especially the great Oriental +Poppy (_P. orientale_) and the grand scarlet Siberian Poppy (_P. +bracteatum_), perhaps the most gorgeous of hardy plants: while among the +rarer species of the tribe we must reckon the Meconopses of the +Himalayas (_M. Wallichi_ and _M. Nepalensis_), plants of singular beauty +and elegance, but very difficult to grow, and still more difficult to +keep, even if once established; for though perfectly hardy, they are +little more than biennials. Besides these Poppies, the large double +garden Poppies are very showy and of great variety in colour, but they +are only annuals. + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[223:1] "We usually think of the Poppy as a coarse flower; but it is the +most transparent and delicate of all the blossoms of the field. The +rest, nearly all of them, depend on the texture of their surface for +colour. But the Poppy is painted _glass_; it never glows so brightly as +when the sun shines through it. Wherever it is seen, against the light +or with the light, always it is a flame, and warms the wind like a blown +ruby."--RUSKIN, _Proserpina_, p. 86. + + + + +POTATO. + + + (1) _Thersites._ + + How the devil Luxury, with his fat rump and Potato-finger, + tickles these together. + + _Troilus and Cressida_, act v, sc. 2 (55). + + + (2) _Falstaff._ + + Let the sky rain Potatoes; let it thunder to the tune of Green + Sleeves, hail kissing-comfits, and snow Eringoes. + + _Merry Wives of Windsor_, act v, sc. 5 (20). + +The chief interest in these two passages is that they contain almost the +earliest notice of Potatoes after their introduction into England. The +generally received account is that they were introduced into Ireland in +1584 by Sir Walter Raleigh, and from thence brought into England; but +the year of their first planting in England is not recorded. They are +not mentioned by Lyte in 1586. Gerard grew them in 1597, but only as +curiosities, under the name of Virginian Potatoes (_Battata +Virginianorum_ and _Pappas_), to distinguish them from the Spanish +Potato, or Convolvulus Battatas, which had been long grown in Europe, +and in the first edition of his "Herbal" is his portrait, showing him +holding a Potato in his hand. They seem to have grown into favour very +slowly, for half a century after their introduction, Waller still spoke +of them as one of the tropical luxuries of the Bermudas-- + + "With candy'd Plantains and the juicy Pine, + On choicest Melons and sweet Grapes they dine, + And with Potatoes fat their wanton swine." + + _The Battel of the Summer Islands._ + +Potato is a corruption of Batatas or Patatas. + +As soon as the Potato arrived in England, it was at once invested with +wonderful restorative powers, and in a long exhaustive note in Steevens' +Shakespeare, Mr. Collins has given all the passages in the early writers +in which the Potato is mentioned, and in every case they have reference +to these supposed virtues. These passages, which are chiefly from the +old dramatists, are curious and interesting in the early history of the +Potato, and as throwing light on the manners of our ancestors; but as in +every instance they are all more or less indelicate, I refrain from +quoting them here. + +As a garden plant, we now restrict the Potato to the kitchen garden and +the field, but it belongs to a very large family, the Solanaceae or +Nightshades, of which many members are very ornamental, though as they +chiefly come from the tropical regions, there are very few that can be +treated as entirely hardy plants. One, however, is a very beautiful +climber--the Solanum jasminoides from South America--and quite hardy in +the South of England. Trained against a wall it will soon cover it, and +when once established will bear its handsome trusses of white flowers +with yellow anthers in great profusion during the whole summer. A better +known member of the family is the Petunia, very handsome, but little +better than an annual. The pretty Winter Cherry (_Physalis alkekengi_) +is another member of the family, and so is the Mandrake (_see_ +MANDRAKE). The whole tribe is poisonous, or at least to be suspected, +yet it contains a large number of most useful plants, as the Potato, +Tomato, Tobacco, Datura, and Cayenne Pepper. + + + + +PRIMROSE. + + + (1) _Queen._ + + The Violets, Cowslips, and the Primroses, + Bear to my closet. + + _Cymbeline_, act i, sc. 5 (83). + + + (2) _Queen._ + + I would be blind with weeping, sick with groans, + Look pale as Primrose with blood-drinking sighs, + And all to have the noble duke alive. + + _2nd Henry VI_, act iii, sc. 2 (62). + + + (3) _Arviragus._ + + Thou shalt not lack + The flower that's like thy face, pale Primrose. + + _Cymbeline_, act iv, sc. 2 (220). + + + (4) _Hermia._ + + In the wood where often you and I + Upon faint Primrose-beds were wont to lie. + + _Midsummer Night's Dream_, act i, sc. 1 (214). + + + (5) _Perdita._ + + Pale Primroses, + That die unmarried, ere they can behold + Bright Phoebus in his strength. + + _Winter's Tale_, act iv, sc. 4 (122). + + + (6) _Ophelia._ + + Like a puff'd and reckless libertine, + Himself the Primrose path of dalliance treads + And recks not his own rede. + + _Hamlet_, act i, sc. 3 (49). + + + (7) _Porter._ + + I had thought to have let in some of all professions that go + the Primrose way to the everlasting bonfire. + + _Macbeth_, act ii, sc. 3 (20). + + + (8) + + Primrose, first-born child of Ver + Merry spring-time's harbinger, + With her bells dim. + + _Two Noble Kinsmen_, Introd. song. + + + (9) + + Witness this Primrose bank whereon I lie. + + _Venus and Adonis_ (151). + +Whenever we speak of spring flowers, the first that comes into our +minds is the Primrose. Both for its simple beauty and for its early +arrival among us we give it the first place over + + "Whatsoever other flowre of worth + And whatso other hearb of lovely hew, + The joyous Spring out of the ground brings forth + To cloath herself in colours fresh and new." + +It is a plant equally dear to children and their elders, so that I +cannot believe that there is any one (except Peter Bell) to whom + + "A Primrose by the river's brim + A yellow Primrose is to him-- + And it is nothing more;" + +rather I should believe that W. Browne's "Wayfaring Man" is a type of +most English countrymen in their simple admiration of the common +flower-- + + "As some wayfaring man passing a wood, + Whose waving top hath long a sea-mark stood, + Goes jogging on and in his mind nought hath, + But how the Primrose finely strews the path, + Or sweetest Violets lay down their heads + At some tree's roots or mossy feather beds." + + _Britannia's Pastorals_, i, 5. + +It is the first flower, except perhaps the Daisy, of which a child +learns the familiar name; and yet it is a plant of unfailing interest to +the botanical student, while its name is one of the greatest puzzles to +the etymologist. The common and easy explanation of the name is that it +means the first Rose of the year, but (like so many explanations that +are derived only from the sound and modern appearance of a a name) this +is not the true account. The full history of the name is too long to +give here, but the short account is this--"The old name was Prime +Rolles--or primerole. Primerole is an abbreviation of Fr., +_primeverole_: It., _primaverola_, diminutive of _prima vera_ from _flor +di prima vera_, the first spring flower. _Primerole_, as an outlandish +unintelligible word, was soon familiarized into _primerolles_, and this +into _primrose_."--DR. PRIOR. The name Primrose was not at first always +applied to the flower, but was an old English word, used to show +excellence-- + + "A fairer nymph yet never saw mine eie, + She is the pride and Primrose of the rest." + + SPENSER, _Colin Clout_. + + + "Was not I [the Briar] planted of thine own hande + To bee the Primrose of all thy lande; + With flow'ring blossomes to furnish the prime + And scarlet berries in sommer time?" + + SPENSER, _Shepherd's Calendar--Februarie_. + +It was also a flower name, but not of our present Primrose, but of a +very different plant. Thus in a Nominale of the fifteenth century we +have "hoc ligustrum, a Primerose;" and in a Pictorial Vocabulary of the +same date we have "hoc ligustrum, A{ce} a Prymrose;" and in the +"Promptorium Parvulorum," "Prymerose, primula, calendula, +ligustrum"--and this name for the Privet lasted with a slight alteration +into Shakespeare's time. Turner in 1538 says, "ligustrum arbor est non +herba ut literator[=u] vulgus credit; nihil que minus est quam a +Prymerose." In Tusser's "Husbandry" we have "set Privie or Prim" +(September Abstract), and-- + + "Now set ye may + The Box and Bay + Hawthorn and Prim + For clothe's trim"--(_January Abstract_). + +And so it is described by Gerard as the Privet or Prim Print (_i.e._, +_prime printemps_), and even in the seventeenth century, Cole says of +ligustrum, "This herbe is called Primrose." When the name was fixed to +our present plant I cannot say, but certainly before Shakespeare's time, +though probably not long before. It is rather remarkable that the +flower, which we now so much admire, seems to have been very much +overlooked by the writers before Shakespeare. In the very old +vocabularies it does not at all appear by its present Latin name, +Primula vulgaris, but that is perhaps not to be wondered at, as nearly +all the old botanists applied that name to the Daisy. But neither is it +much noticed by any English name. I can only find it in two of the +vocabularies. In an English Vocabulary of the fourteenth century is "Haec +pimpinella, A{e} primerolle," but it is very doubtful if this can be our +Primrose, as the Pimpernel of old writers was the Burnet. Gower +mentions it as the flower of the star Canis Minor-- + + "His stone and herbe as saith the scole + Ben Achates and Primerole." + + _Conf. Aman._ lib. sept. (3, 130. Paulli). + +And in the treatise of Walter de Biblesworth (13th century) is-- + + "Primerole et primeveyre (cousloppe) + Sur tere aperunt en tems de veyre." + +I should think there is no doubt this is our Primrose. Then we have +Chaucer's description of a fine lady-- + + "Hir schos were laced on hir legges hyghe + Sche was a Primerole, a piggesneyghe + For any lord have liggyng in his bedde, + Or yet for any gode yeman to wedde." + + _The Milleres Tale._ + +I have dwelt longer than usual on the name of this flower, because it +gives us an excellent example of how much literary interest may be found +even in the names of our common English plants. + +But it is time to come from the name to the flower. The English Primrose +is one of a large family of more than fifty species, represented in +England by the Primrose, the Oxlip, the Cowslip, and the Bird's-eye +Primrose of the North of England and Scotland. All the members of the +family, whether British or exotic, are noted for the simple beauty of +their flowers, but in this special character there is none that +surpasses our own. "It is the very flower of delicacy and refinement; +not that it shrinks from our notice, for few plants are more easily +seen, coming as it does when there is a dearth of flowers, when the +first birds are singing, and the first bees humming, and the earliest +green putting forth in the March and April woods; and it is one of those +plants which dislikes to be looking cheerless, but keeps up a +smouldering fire of blossom from the very opening of the year, if the +weather will permit."--FORBES WATSON. It is this character of +cheerfulness that so much endears the flower to us; as it brightens up +our hedgerows after the dulness of winter, the harbinger of many +brighter perhaps, but not more acceptable, beauties to come, it is the +very emblem of cheerfulness. Yet it is very curious to note what +entirely different ideas it suggested to our forefathers. To them the +Primrose seems always to have brought associations of sadness, or even +worse than sadness, for the "Primrose paths" and "Primrose ways" of Nos. +6 and 7 are meant to be suggestive of pleasures, but sinful pleasures. + +Spenser associates it with death in some beautiful lines, in which a +husband laments the loss of a young and beautiful wife-- + + "Mine was the Primerose in the lowly shade! + + * * * * * + + Oh! that so fair a flower so soon should fade, + And through untimely tempest fade away." + + _Daphnidia_, 232. + +In another place he speaks of it as "the Primrose trew"--_Prothalamion_; +but in another place his only epithet for it is "green," which quite +ignores its brightness-- + + "And Primroses greene + Embellish the sweete Violet." + + _Shepherd's Calendar--April._ + +Shakespeare has no more pleasant epithets for our favourite flower than +"pale," "faint," "that die unmarried;" and Milton follows in the same +strain yet sadder. Once, indeed, he speaks of youth as "Brisk as the +April buds in Primrose season" ("Comus"); but only in three passages +does he speak of the Primrose itself, and in two of these he connects it +with death-- + + "Bring the rathe Primrose that forsaken dies, + + * * * * * + + And every flower that sad embroidery wears."--_Lycidas._ + + + "O fairest flower, no sooner blown but blasted, + Soft silken Primrose fading timelesslie; + Summer's chief honour, if thou hadst outlasted + Bleak winter's force that made thy blossoms drie." + + _On the Death of a Fair Infant._ + +His third account is a little more joyous-- + + "Now the bright morning star, daye's harbinger, + Comes dancing from the East, and leads with her + The flowery May, who from her green lap throws + The yellow Cowslip and the pale Primrose." + + _On May Morning._ + +And nearly all the poets of that time spoke in the same strain, with the +exception of Ben Jonson and the two Fletchers. Jonson spoke of it as +"the glory of the spring" and as "the spring's own spouse." Giles +Fletcher says-- + + "Every bush lays deeply perfumed + With Violets; the wood's late wintry head, + Wide flaming Primroses set all on fire." + +And Phineas Fletcher-- + + "The Primrose lighted new her flame displays, + And frights the neighbour hedge with fiery rays. + And here and there sweet Primrose scattered. + + * * * * * + + Nature seem'd work'd by Art, so lively true, + A little heaven or earth in narrow space she drew." + +I can only refer very shortly to the botanical interest of the Primula, +and that only to direct attention to Mr. Darwin's paper in the "Journal +of the Linnaean Society," 1862, in which he records his very curious and +painstaking inquiries into the dimorphism of the Primula, a peculiarity +in the Primula that gardeners had long recognized in their arrangement +of Primroses as "pin-eyed" and "thrum-eyed." It is perhaps owing to this +dimorphism that the family is able to show a very large number of +natural hybrids. These have been carefully studied by Professor Kerner, +of Innspruck, and it seems not unlikely that a further study will show +that all the European so-called species are natural hybrids from a very +few parents. + +Yet a few words on the Primrose as a garden plant. If the Primrose be +taken from the hedges in November, and planted in beds thickly in the +garden, they make a beautiful display of flowers and foliage from +February till the beds are required for the summer flowers; and there +are few of our wild flowers that run into so many varieties in their +wild state. In Pembrokeshire and Cardiganshire I have seen the wild +Primrose of nearly all shades of colour, from the purest white to an +almost bright red, and these can all be brought into the garden with a +certainty of success and a certainty of rapid increase. There are also +many double varieties, all of which are more often seen in cottage +gardens than elsewhere; yet no gardener need despise them. + +One other British Primrose, the Bird's-eye Primrose, almost defies +garden cultivation, though in its native habitats in the north it grows +in most ungenial places. I have seen places in the neighbourhood of the +bleak hill of Ingleborough, where it almost forms the turf; yet away +from its native habitat it is difficult to keep, except in a greenhouse. +For the cultivation of the other non-English species, I cannot do better +than refer to an excellent paper by Mr. Niven in the "The Garden" for +January 29, 1876, in which he gives an exhaustive account of them. + +I am not aware that Primroses are of any use in medicine or cookery, yet +Tusser names the Primrose among "seeds and herbs for the kitchen," and +Lyte says "the Cowslips, Primroses, and Oxlips are now used dayly +amongst other pot herbes, but in physicke there is no great account made +of them." They occur in heraldy. The arms of the Earls of Rosebery +(Primrose) are three Primroses within a double tressure fleury +counter-fleury, or. + + + + +PRUNES, _see_ PLUMS. + + + +PUMPION. + + + _Mrs. Ford._ + + Go to, then. We'll use this unwholesome humidity, this gross + watery Pumpion. + + _Merry Wives of Windsor_, act iii, sc. 3 (42). + +The old name for the Cucumber (in AElfric's "Vocabulary") is hwer-hwette, +_i.e._, wet ewer, but Pumpion, Pompion, and Pumpkin were general terms +including all the Cucurbitaceae such as Melons, Gourds, Cucumbers, and +Vegetable Marrows. All were largely grown in Shakespeare's days, but I +should think the reference here must be to one of the large useless +Gourds, for Mrs. Ford's comparison is to Falstaff, and Gourds were grown +large enough to bear out even that comparison. "The Gourd groweth into +any forme or fashion you would have it, . . . being suffered to clime +upon an arbour where the fruit may hang; it hath beene seene to be nine +foot long." And the little value placed upon the whole tribe helped to +bear out the comparison. They were chiefly good to "cure copper faces, +red and shining fierce noses (as red as red Roses), with pimples, +pumples, rubies, and such-like precious faces." This was Gerard's +account of the Cucumber, while of the Cucumber Pompion, which was +evidently our Vegetable Marrow, and of which he has described and +figured the variety which we now call the Custard Marrow, he says, "it +maketh a man apt and ready to fall into the disease called the colericke +passion, and of some the felonie." + +Mrs. Ford's comparison of a big loutish man to an overgrown Gourd has +not been lost in the English language, for "bumpkin" is only another +form of "Pumpkin," and Mr. Fox Talbot, in his "English Etymologies," has +a very curious account of the antiquity of the nickname. "The Greeks," +he says, "called a very weak and soft-headed person a Pumpion, whence +the proverb +peponos malakoteros+, softer than a Pumpion; and even one +of Homer's heroes, incensed at the timidity of his soldiers, exclaims +o +pepones+, you Pumpions! So also _cornichon_ (Cucumber) is a term of +derision in French." + +Yet the Pumpion or Gourd had its uses, moral uses. Modern critics have +decided that Jonah's Gourd, "which came up in a night and perished in a +night," was not a Gourd, but the Palma Christi, or Castor-oil tree. But +our forefathers called it a Gourd, and believing that it was so, they +used the Gourd to point many a moral and illustrate many a religious +emblem. Thus viewed it was the standing emblem of the rapid growth and +quick decay of evil-doers and their evil deeds. "Cito nata, cito +pereunt," was the history of the evil deeds, while the doers of them +could only say-- + + "Quasi solstitialis herba fui, + Repente exortus sum, repente occidi." + + PLAUTUS. + + + + +QUINCE. + + + _Nurse._ + + They call for Dates and Quinces in the pastry. + + _Romeo and Juliet_, act iv, sc. 4 (2). + +Quince is also the name of one of the "homespun actors" in "Midsummer +Night's Dream," and is no doubt there used as a ludicrous name. The name +was anciently spelt "coynes"-- + + "And many homely trees ther were + That Peches, Coynes, and Apples bere, + Medlers, Plommes, Perys, Chesteyns, + Cherys, of which many oon fayne is." + + _Romaunt of the Rose._ + +The same name occurs in the old English vocabularies, as in a Nominale +of the fifteenth century, "haec cocianus, a coventre;" in an English +vocabulary of the fourteenth century, "Hoc coccinum, a quoyne," and in +the treatise of Walter de Biblesworth, in the thirteenth century-- + + "Issi troverez en ce verger + Estang un sek Coigner (a Coyn-tre, Quince-tre)." + +And there is little doubt that "Quince" is a corruption of "coynes" +which again is a corruption, not difficult to trace, of Cydonia, one of +the most ancient cities of Crete, where the Quince tree is indigenous, +and whence it derived its name of Pyrus Cydonia, or simply Cydonia. If +not indigenous elsewhere in the East, it was very soon cultivated, and +especially in Palestine. It is not yet a settled point, and probably +never will be, but there is a strong consensus of most of the best +commentators, that the _Tappuach_ of Scripture, always translated Apple, +was the Quince. It is supposed to be the fruit alluded to in the +Canticles, "As the Apple tree among the trees of the wood, so is my +beloved among the sons; I sat down under his shadow with great delight, +and his fruit was sweet to my taste;" and in Proverbs, "A word fitly +spoken is like Apples of gold in pictures of silver;" and the tree is +supposed to have given its name to various places in Palestine, as +Tappuach, Beth-Tappuach, and Aen-Tappuach. + +By the Greeks and Romans the Quince was held in honour as the fruit +especially sacred to Venus, who is often represented as holding a Quince +in her right hand, the gift which she received from Paris. In other +sculptures "the amorous deities pull Quinces in gardens and play with +them. For persons to send Quinces in presents, to throw them at each +other, to eat them together, were all tokens of love; to dream of +Quinces was a sign of successful love" (Rosenmuller). The custom was +handed down to mediaeval times. It was at a wedding feast that "they +called for Dates and Quinces in the pastry;" and Brand quotes a curious +passage from the "Praise of Musicke," 1586 ("Romeo and Juliet" was +published in 1596)--"I come to marriages, wherein as our ancestors did +fondly, and with a kind of doting, maintaine many rites and ceremonies, +some whereof were either shadowes or abodements of a pleasant life to +come, as the eating of a Quince Peare to be a preparative of sweet and +delightful dayes between the married persons." + +To understand this high repute in which the Quince was held, we must +remember that the Quince of hot countries differs somewhat from the +English Quince. With us the fruit is of a fine, handsome shape, and of a +rich golden colour when fully ripe, and of a strong scent, which is very +agreeable to many, though too heavy and overpowering to others. But the +rind is rough and woolly, and the flesh is harsh and unpalatable, and +only fit to be eaten when cooked. In hotter countries the woolly rind is +said to disappear, and the fruit can be eaten raw; and this is the case +not only in Eastern countries, but also in the parts of Tropical America +to which the tree has been introduced from Europe. + +In England the Quince is probably less grown now than it was in +Shakespeare's time--yet it may well be grown as an ornamental shrub even +by those who do not appreciate its fruit. It forms a thick bush, with +large white flowers, followed in the autumn by its handsome fruit, and +requires no care. "They love shadowy, moist places;" "It delighteth to +grow on plaine and even ground and somewhat moist withall." This was +Lyte's and Gerard's experience, and I have never seen handsomer bushes +or finer fruit than I once saw on some neglected bushes that skirted a +horsepond on a farm in Kent; the trees were evidently revelling in their +state of moisture and neglect. The tree has a horticultural value as +giving an excellent stock for Pear-trees, on which it has a very +remarkable effect, for "Cabanis asserts that when certain Pears are +grafted on the Quince, their seeds yield more varieties than do the +seeds of the same variety of Pear when grafted on the wild +Pear."--DARWIN. Its economic value is considered to be but small, being +chiefly used for Marmalade,[236:1] but in Shakespeare's time, Browne +spoke of it as "the stomach's comforter, the pleasing Quince," and +Parkinson speaks highly of it, for "there is no fruit growing in the +land," he says, "that is of so many excellent uses as this, serving as +well to make many dishes of meat for the table, as for banquets, and +much more for their physical virtues, whereof to write at large is +neither convenient for me nor for this work." + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[236:1] This was a very old use for the Quince. Wynkyn de Worde, in the +"Boke of Kervynge" (p. 266), speaks of "char de Quynce;" and John +Russell, in the "Boke of Nurture" (l. 75), speaks of "chare de Quynces." +This was Quince marmalade. + + + + +RADISH. + + + (1) _Falstaff._ + + When a' was naked, he was, for all the world, like a fork'd + Radish. + + _2nd Henry IV_, act iii, sc. 2 (333). + + + (2) _Falstaff._ + + If I fought not with fifty of them, I am a bunch of Radish. + + _1st Henry IV_, act ii, sc. 4 (205). + +There can be no doubt that the Radish was so named because it was +considered by the Romans, for some reason unknown to us, _the_ root _par +excellence_. It was used by them, as by us, "as a stimulus before meat, +giving an appetite thereunto"-- + + "Acria circum + Rapula, lactucae, Radices, qualia lassum + Pervellunt stomachum."--HORACE. + +But it was cultivated, or allowed to grow, to a much larger size than we +now think desirable. Pliny speaks of Radishes weighing 40lb. each, and +others speak even of 60lb. and 100lb. But in Shakespeare's time the +Radish was very much what it is now, a pleasant salad vegetable, but of +no great value. We read, however, of Radishes being put to strange +uses. Lupton, a writer of Shakespeare's day, says: "If you would kill +snakes and adders strike them with a large Radish, and to handle adders +and snakes without harm, wash your hands in the juice of Radishes and +you may do without harm" ("Notable Things," 1586). + +We read also of great attempts being made to procure oil from the seed, +but to no great effect. Hakluyt, in describing the sufficiency of the +English soil to produce everything necessary in the manufacture of +cloth, says: "So as there wanteth, if colours might be brought in and +made naturall, but onely oile; the want whereof if any man could devise +to supply at the full with anything that might become naturall in this +realme, he, whatsoever he were that might bring it about, might deserve +immortal fame in this our Commonwealth, and such a devise was offered to +Parliament and refused, because they denied to allow him a certain +liberty, some others having obtained the same before that practised to +work that effect by Radish seed, which onely made a trial of small +quantity, and that went no further to make that oile in plenty, and now +he that offered this devise was a merchant, and is dead, and withal the +devise is dead with him" ("Voiages," vol. ii.). + +The Radish is not a native of Britain, but was probably introduced by +the Romans, and was well-known to the Anglo-Saxon gardener under its +present name, but with a closer approach to the Latin, being called +Raedic, or Radiolle.[237:1] + +A curious testimony to the former high reputation of the Radish survives +in the "Annual Radish Feast at Levens Hall, a custom dating from time +immemorial, and supposed by some to be a relic of feudal times, held on +May 12th at Levens Hall, the seat of the Hon. Mrs. Howard, and adjoining +the high road about midway between Kendal and Milnthorpe. Tradition hath +it that the Radish feast arose out of a rivalry between the families of +Levens Hall and Dallam Tower, as to which should entertain the +Corporation with their friends and followers, and in which Levens Hall +eventually carried the palm. The feast is provided on the bowling green +in front of the Hall, where several long tables are plentifully spread +with Radishes and brown bread and butter, the tables being repeatedly +furnished with guests" ("Gardener's Chronicle"). + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[237:1] "Catholicon Anglicum." + + + + +RAISINS. + + + _Clown._ + + Four pounds of Prunes and as many of Raisins o' the sun. + + _Winter's Tale_, act iv, sc. 3 (51). + +Raisins are alluded to, if not actually named, in "1st Henry IV.," act +ii, sc. 4, when Falstaff says: "If reasons were as plentiful as +Blackberries, I would give no man a reason upon compulsion, I----" "It +seems that a pun underlies this, the association of reasons with +Blackberries springing out of the fact that _reasons_ sounded like +_raisins_."--EARLE, _Philology_, &c. + +Bearing in mind that Raisin is a corruption of _racemus_, a bunch of +Grapes, we can understand that the word was not always applied, as it is +now, to the dried fruit, but was sometimes applied to the bunch of +Grapes as it hung ripe on the tree-- + + "For no man at the firste stroke + He may not felle down an Oke; + Nor of the Reisins have the wyne + Till Grapes be ripe and welle afyne." + + _Romaunt of the Rose._ + +The best dried fruit were Raisins of the sun, _i.e._, dried in the sun, +to distinguish them from those which were dried in ovens. They were, of +course, foreign fruit, and were largely imported. The process of drying +in the sun is still the method in use, at least, with "the finer kinds, +such as Muscatels, which are distinguished as much by the mode of drying +as by the variety and soil in which they are grown, the finest being +dried on the Vines before gathering, the stalk being partly cut through +when the fruits are ripe, and the leaves being removed from near the +clusters, so as to allow the full effect of the sun in ripening." + +The Grape thus becomes a Raisin, but it is still further transformed +when it reaches the cook; it then becomes a Plum, for Plum pudding has, +as we all know, Raisins for its chief ingredient and certainly no Plums; +and the Christmas pie into which Jack Horner put in his thumb and pulled +out a Plum must have been a mince-pie, also made of Raisins; but how a +cooked Raisin came to be called a Plum is not recorded. In Devonshire +and Dorsetshire it undergoes a further transformation, for there Raisins +are called Figs, and a Plum pudding is called a Fig pudding. + + + + +REEDS. + + + (1) _2nd Servant._ + + I had as lief have a Reed that will do me no service, as a + partizan I could not heave. + + _Antony and Cleopatra_, act ii, sc. 7 (13). + + + (2) _Arviragus._ + + Fear no more the frown o' the great, + Thou art past the tyrant's stroke; + Care no more to clothe and eat; + To thee the Reed is as the Oak; + The sceptre, learning, physick, must + All follow this, and come to dust. + + _Cymbeline_, act iv, sc. 2 (264). + + + (3) _Ariel._ + + His tears run down his beard, like winter's drops + From eaves of Reeds. + + _Tempest_, act v, sc. 1 (16). + + + (4) _Ariel._ + + With hair up-staring--then like Reeds, not hair-- + + _Ibid._, act i, sc. 2 (213). + + + (5) _Hotspur._ + + Swift Severn's flood; + Who then, affrighted with their bloody looks, + Ran fearfully among the trembling Reeds. + + _1st Henry IV_, act 1, sc. 3 (103). + + + (6) _Portia._ + + And speak between the change of man and boy + With a Reed voice. + + _Merchant of Venice_, act iii, sc. 4 (66). + + + (7) _Wooer._ + + In the great Lake that lies behind the Pallace + From the far shore thick set with Reeds and Sedges. + + * * * * * + + The Rushes and the Reeds + Had so encompast it. + + _Two Noble Kinsmen_, act iv, sc. 1 (71, 80). + + + (8) + + To Simois' Reedy banks the red blood ran. + + _Lucrece_ (1437). + +Reed is a general term for almost any water-loving, grassy plant, and so +it is used by Shakespeare. In the Bible it is perhaps possible to +identify some of the Reeds mentioned, with the Sugar Cane in some +places, with the Papyrus in others, and in others with the Arundo donax. +As a Biblical plant it has a special interest, not only as giving the +emblem of the tenderest mercy that will be careful even of "the bruised +Reed," but also as entering largely into the mockery of the Crucifixion: +"They put a Reed in His right hand," and "they filled a sponge full of +vinegar, and put it upon a Reed and gave Him to drink." The Reed in +these passages was probably the Arundo donax, a very elegant Reed, which +was used for many purposes in Palestine, and is a most graceful plant +for English gardens, being perfectly hardy, and growing every year from +12ft. to 14ft. in height, but very seldom flowering.[240:1] + +But in Shakespeare, as in most writers, the Reed is simply the emblem of +weakness, tossed about by and bending to a superior force, and of little +or no use--"a Reed that will do me no service" (No. 1). It is also the +emblem of the blessedness of submission, and of the power that lies in +humility to outlast its oppressor-- + + "Like as in tempest great, + Where wind doth bear the stroke, + Much safer stands the bowing Reed + Then doth the stubborn Oak." + +Shakespeare mentions but two uses to which the Reed was applied, the +thatching of houses (No. 3), and the making of Pan or Shepherd's pipes +(No. 6). Nor has he anything to say of its beauty, yet the Reeds of our +river sides (_Arundo phragmites_) are most graceful plants, especially +when they have their dark plumes of flowers, and this Milton seems to +have felt-- + + "Forth flourish't thick the flustering Vine, forth crept + The swelling Gourd, up stood the Cornie Reed + Embattled in her field." + + _Paradise Lost_, book vii. + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[240:1] I have only been able to find one record of the flowering of +Arundo donax in England--"Mem: Arundo donax in flower, 15th September, +1762, the first time I ever saw it, but this very hot dry summer has +made many exotics flower. . . . It bears a handsome tassel of +flowers."--P. COLLINSON'S _Hortus Collinsonianus_. + + + + +RHUBARB. + + + _Macbeth._ + + What Rhubarb, Cyme, or what purgative drug + Would scour these English hence? + + _Macbeth_, act v, sc. 3 (55). + +Andrew Boorde writing from Spayne in 1535, to Thomas Cromwell, says, "I +have sent to your Mastershipp the seeds of Reuberbe the whiche come +forth of Barbary in this parte ytt ys had for a grett tresure."[241:1] +But the plant does not seem to have become established and Shakespeare +could only have known the imported drug, for the Rheum was first grown +by Parkinson, though it had been described in an uncertain way both by +Lyte and Gerard. Lyte said: "Rha, as it is thought, hath great broad +leaves;" and then he says: "We have found here in the gardens of +certaine diligent herboristes that strange plant which is thought by +some to be Rha or Rhabarbum;" but from the figure it is very certain +that the plant was not a Rheum. After the time of Parkinson, it was +largely grown for the sake of producing the drug, and it is still grown +in England to some extent for the same purpose, chiefly in the +neighbourhood of Banbury; though it is doubtful whether any of the +species now grown in England are the true species that has long produced +Turkey Rhubarb. The plant is now grown most extensively as a spring +vegetable, though I cannot find when it first began to be so used. +Parkinson evidently tried it and thought well of it. "The leaves have a +fine acid taste; a syrup, therefore, made with the juice and sugar +cannot but be very effectual in dejected appetites." Yet even in 1807 +Professor Martyn, the editor of "Millar's Dictionary," in a long article +on the Rhubarb, makes no mention of its culinary qualities, but in 1822 +Phillips speaks of it as largely cultivated for spring tarts, and forced +for the London markets, "medical men recommending it as one of the most +cooling and wholesome tarts sent to table." + +As a garden plant the Rhubarb is highly ornamental, though it is seldom +seen out of the kitchen garden, but where room can be given to them, +Rheum palmatum or Rheum officinale, will always be admired as some of +the handsomest of foliage plants. The finest species of the family is +the Himalayan Rheum nobile, but it is exceedingly difficult to grow. +Botanically the Rhubarb is allied to the Dock and Sorrel, and all the +species are herbaceous. + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[241:1] Quoted in Furnival's forewords to Boorde's "Introduction to +Knowledge," p. 56. + + + +RICE. + + + _Clown._ + + Let me see; what am I to buy for our sheep-shearing feast? + Three pound of sugar, five pound of Currants, Rice----What + will this sister of mine do with Rice?[242:1] + + _Winter's Tale_, act iv, sc. 3 (38). + +Shakespeare may have had no more acquaintance with Rice than his +knowledge of the imported grain, which seems to have been long ago +introduced into England, for in a Nominale of the fifteenth century we +have "Hoc risi, indeclinabile, Ryse." And in the "Promptorium +Parvulorum," "Ryce, frute. Risia, vel risi, n. indecl. secundum quosdam, +vel risium, vel risorum granum (rizi vel granum Indicum)." Turner was +acquainted with it: "Ryse groweth plentuously in watery myddowes between +Myllane and Pavia."[242:2] And Shakespeare may have seen the plant, for +Gerard grew it in his London garden, though "the floure did not show +itselfe by reason of the injurie of our unseasonable yeare 1596." It is +a native of Africa, and was soon transferred to Europe as a nourishing +and wholesome grain, especially for invalids--"sume hoc ptisanarium +oryzae," says the doctor to his patient in Horace, and it is mentioned +both by Dioscorides and Theophrastus. It has been occasionally grown in +England as a curiosity, but seldom comes to any perfection out-of-doors, +as it requires a mixture of moisture and heat that we cannot easily give +it. There are said to be species in the North of China growing in dry +places, which would perhaps be hardy in England and easier of +cultivation, but I am not aware that they have ever been introduced. + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[242:1] In 1468 the price of rice was 3d. a pound = 3s. of our money +("Babee's Book," xxx.). + +[242:2] "Names of Herbes," s.v. Oryza. + + + + +ROSES. + + + (1) _Titania._ + + Some to kill cankers in the Musk-rose buds. + + _Midsummer Night's Dream_, act ii, sc. 3 (3). + + + (2) _Titania._ + + And stick Musk-Roses in thy sleek, smooth head. + + _Ibid._, act iv, sc. 1 (3). + + + (3) _Julia._ + + The air hath starved the Roses in her cheeks. + + _Two Gentlemen of Verona_, act iv, sc. 4 (159). + + + (4) _Song._ + + There will we make our beds of Roses + And a thousand fragrant posies. + + _Merry Wives of Windsor_, act iii, sc. 1 (19). + + + (5) _Autolycus._ + + Gloves as sweet as Damask Roses. + + _Winter's Tale_, act iv, sc. 3 (222). + + + (6) _Olivia._ + + Caesario, by the Roses of the spring, + By maidhood, honour, truth, and everything, + I love thee so. + + _Twelfth Night_, act iii, sc. 1 (161). + + + (7) _Diana._ + + When you have our Roses, + You barely leave us thorns to prick ourselves + And mock us with our bareness. + + _All's Well that Ends Well_, act iv, sc. 2 (18). + + + (8) _Lord._ + + Let one attend him with a silver basin + Full of Rose-water and bestrew'd with flowers. + + _Taming of the Shrew_, Induction, sc. 1 (55). + + + (9) _Petruchio._ + + I'll say she looks as clear + As morning Roses newly wash'd with dew. + + _Ibid._, act ii, sc. 1 (173). + + + (10) _Tyrrell._ + + Their lips were four red Roses on a stalk, + Which in their summer beauty kiss'd each other. + + _Richard III_, act iv, sc. 3 (12). + + + (11) _Friar._ + + The Roses in thy lips and cheeks shall fade + To paly ashes. + + _Romeo and Juliet_, act iv, sc. 1 (99). + + + (12) _Romeo._ + + Remnants of packthread and old cakes of Roses + Were thinly scatter'd, to make up a show. + + _Ibid._, act v, sc. 1 (47). + + + (13) _Hamlet._ + + With two Provincial Roses on my razed shoes. + + _Hamlet_, act iii, sc. 2 (287). + + + (14) _Laertes._ + + O Rose of May, + Dear maid, kind sister, sweet Ophelia! + + _Ibid._, act iv, sc. 5 (157). + + + (15) _Duke._ + + For women are as Roses, whose fair flower + Being once display'd doth fall that very hour. + + _Twelfth Night_, act ii, sc. 4 (39). + + + (16) _Constance._ + + Of Nature's gifts, thou may'st with Lilies boast, + And with the half-blown Rose. + + _King John_, act iii, sc. 1 (153). + + + (17) _Queen._ + + But soft, but see, or rather do not see, + My fair Rose wither. + + _Richard II_, act v, sc. 1 (7). + + + (18) _Hotspur._ + + To put down Richard, that sweet lovely Rose, + And plant this Thorn, this canker, Bolingbroke. + + _1st Henry IV_, act i, sc. 3 (175). + + + (19) _Hostess._ + + Your colour, I warrant you, is as red as any Rose. + + _2nd Henry IV_, act ii, sc. 4 (27). + + + (20) _York._ + + Then will I raise aloft the milk-white Rose, + With whose sweet smell the air shall be perfumed. + + _2nd Henry VI_, act i, sc. 1 (254). + + + (21) _Don John._ + + I had rather be a canker in a hedge than a Rose in his grace. + + _Much Ado About Nothing_, act i, sc. 3 (27). + + + (22) _Theseus._ + + But earthlier happy is the Rose distill'd + Than that which withering on the virgin Thorn + Grows, lives, and dies in single blessedness.[244:1] + + _Midsummer Night's Dream_, act i, sc. 1 (76). + + + (23) _Lysander._ + + How now, my love! Why is your cheek so pale? + How chance the Roses there do fade so fast? + + _Midsummer Night's Dream_, act i, sc. 1 (128). + + + (24) _Titania._ + + The seasons alter: hoary-headed frosts + Fall in the fresh lap of the crimson Rose. + + _Ibid._, act ii, sc. 1 (107). + + + (25) _Thisbe._ + + Of colour like the red Rose on triumphant Brier. + + _Ibid._, act iii, sc. 1 (95). + + + (26) _Biron._ + + Why should I joy in any abortive mirth? + At Christmas I no more desire a Rose + Than wish a snow in May's new-fangled mirth, + But like of each thing that in season grows.[245:1] + + _Love's Labour's Lost_, act i, sc. 1 (105). + + + (27) _King_ (reads). + + So sweet a kiss the golden sun gives not + To those fresh morning drops upon the Rose. + + _Ibid._, act iv, sc. 3 (26). + + + (28) _Boyet._ + + Blow like sweet Roses in this summer air. + + _Princess._ + + How blow? how blow? Speak to be understood. + + _Boyet._ + + Fair ladies mask'd are Roses in their bud; + Dismask'd, their damask sweet commixture shown, + Are angels veiling clouds, or Roses blown. + + _Ibid._, act v, sc. 2 (293). + + + (29) _Touchstone._ + + He that sweetest Rose will find, + Must find Love's prick and Rosalind. + + _As You Like It_, act iii, sc. 2 (117). + + + (30) _Countess._ + + This Thorn + Doth to our Rose of youth rightly belong. + + _All's Well that Ends Well_, act i, sc. 3 (135). + + + (31) _Bastard._ + + My face so thin, + That in mine ear I durst not stick a Rose. + + _King John_, act i, sc. 1 (141). + + + (32) _Antony._ + + Tell him he wears the Rose + Of youth upon him. + + _Antony and Cleopatra_, act iii, sc. 13 (20). + + + (33) _Cleopatra._ + + Against the blown Rose may they stop their nose + That kneel'd unto the buds. + + _Ibid._ (39). + + + (34) _Boult._ + + For flesh and blood, sir, white and red, you shall see a Rose; + and she were a Rose indeed! + + _Pericles_, act iv, sc. 6 (37). + + + (35) _Gower._ + + Even her art sisters the natural Roses. + + _Ibid._, act v, chorus (7). + (_See_ CHERRY, No. 5.) + + + (36) _Juliet._ + + What's in a name? That which we call a Rose + By any other name would smell as sweet. + + _Romeo and Juliet_, act ii, sc. 2 (43). + + + (37) _Ophelia._ + + The expectancy and Rose of the fair state. + + _Hamlet_, act iii, sc. 1 (160). + + + (38) _Hamlet._ + + Such an act . . . takes off the Rose + From the fair forehead of an innocent love, + And sets a blister there. + + _Ibid._, act iii, sc. 4 (40). + + + (39) _Othello._ + + When I have pluck'd the Rose, + I cannot give it vital growth again, + It needs must wither. I'll smell it on the tree. + + _Othello_, act v, sc. 2 (13). + + + (40) _Timon._ + + Rose-cheeked youth. + + _Timon of Athens_, act iv, sc. 3 (86). + + + (41) _Othello._ + + Thou young and Rose-lipp'd cherubim. + + _Othello_, act iv, sc. 2 (63). + + + (42) + + Roses, their sharp spines being gone, + Not royall in their smells alone + But in their hue. + + _Two Noble Kinsmen_, Introd. song. + + + (43) _Emilia._ + + Of all flowres + Methinks a Rose is best. + + _Woman._ + + Why, gentle madam? + + _Emilia._ + + It is the very Embleme of a maide. + For when the west wind courts her gently, + How modestly she blows, and paints the Sun + With her chaste blushes? When the north winds neere her, + Rude and impatient, then, like Chastity, + Shee locks her beauties in her bud againe, + And leaves him to base Briers. + + _Ibid._, act ii, sc. 2 (160). + + + (44) _Wooer._ + + With cherry lips and cheekes of Damaske Roses. + + _Ibid._, act iv, sc. 2 (95). + + + (45) _See_ NETTLES, No. 13. + + + (46) + + Roses have thorns and silver fountains mud, + And loathsome canker lives in sweetest bud. + + _Sonnet_ xxxv. + + + (47) + + The Rose looks fair, but fairer we it deem + For that sweet odour that doth in it live. + The canker-blooms have full as deep a dye + As the perfumed tincture of the Roses, + Hang on such thorns, and play as wantonly + When summer's breath their masked buds discloses; + But, for their virtue only is their show, + They live unwoo'd and unrespected fade; + Die to themselves--sweet Roses do not so; + Of their sweet deaths are sweetest odours made. + + _Sonnet_ liv. + + + (48) + + Why should poor beauty indirectly seek + Roses of shadow, since his Rose is true? + + _Ibid._ lxvii. + + + (49) + + Shame, like a canker in the fragrant Rose, + Doth spot the beauty of thy budding name. + + _Ibid._ xcv. + + + (50) + + Nor did I wonder at the Lily's white, + Nor praise the deep vermilion of the Rose. + + _Ibid._ xcviii. + + + (51) + + The Roses fearfully in thorns did stand, + One blushing shame, another white despair; + A third, nor red nor white, had stol'n of both + And to his robbery had annex'd thy breath. + + _Ibid._ xcix. + + + (52) + + I have seen Roses damask'd, red and white, + But no such Roses see I in her cheeks. + + _Ibid._ cxxx. + + + (53) + + More white and red than dove and Roses are. + + _Venus and Adonis_ (10). + + + (54) + + What though the Rose has prickles? yet 'tis plucked. + + _Ibid._ (574). + + + (55) + + Who, when he lived, his breath and beauty set + Gloss on the Rose, smell to the Violet. + + _Ibid._ (935). + + + (56) + + Their silent war of Lilies and of Roses. + + _Lucrece_ (71). + + + (57) + + O how her fear did make her colour rise, + First red as Roses that on lawn we lay, + Then white as lawn, the Roses took away. + + _Ibid._ (257). + + + (58) + + That even for anger makes the Lily pale, + And the red Rose blush at her own disgrace. + + _Ibid._ (477). + + + (59) + + I know what Thorns the growing Rose defends. + + _Ibid._ (492). + + + (60) + + Rose-cheeked Adonis hied him to the chase. + + _Venus and Adonis._ (3). + + + (61) + + A sudden pale, + Like lawn being spread upon the blushing Rose, + Usurps her cheek. + + _Ibid._ (589). + + + (62) + + That beauty's Rose might never die. + + _Sonnet_ i. + + + (63) + + Nothing this wide universe I call + Save thou, my Rose; in it thou art my all. + + _Ibid._ cix. + + + (64) + + Rosy lips and cheeks + Within time's bending sickle's compass come. + + _Ibid._ cxvi. + + + (65) + + Sweet Rose, fair flower, untimely pluck'd, soon vaded, + Pluck'd in the bud, and vaded in the spring! + + _The Passionate Pilgrim_ (131). + +In addition to these many passages, there are perhaps thirty more in +which the Rose is mentioned with reference to the Red and White Roses of +the houses of York and Lancaster. To quote these it would be necessary +to extract an entire act, which is very graphic, but too long. I must, +therefore, content myself with the beginning and the end of the chief +scene, and refer the reader who desires to see it _in extenso_ to "1st +Henry VI.," act ii, sc. 4. The scene is in the Temple Gardens, and +Plantagenet and Somerset thus begin the fatal quarrel-- + + _Plantagenet._ + + Let him that is a true-born gentleman + And stands upon the honour of his birth, + If he suppose that I have pleaded truth, + From off this Brier pluck a White Rose with me. + + _Somerset._ + + Let him that is no coward nor no flatterer, + But dare maintain the party of the truth, + Pluck a Red Rose from off this Thorn with me. + +And Warwick's wise conclusion on the whole matter is-- + + This brawl to-day, + Grown to this faction in the Temple Garden, + Shall send, between the Red Rose and the White, + A thousand souls to death and deadly night. + +There are further allusions to the same Red and White Roses in "3rd +Henry VI.," act i, sc. 1 and 2, act ii, sc. 5, and act v, sc. 1; "1st +Henry VI.," act iv, sc. 1; and "Richard III.," act v, sc. 4. + +There is no flower so often mentioned by Shakespeare as the Rose, and he +would probably consider it the queen of flowers, for it was so deemed in +his time. "The Rose doth deserve the cheefest and most principall place +among all flowers whatsoever, being not onely esteemed for his beautie, +vertues, and his fragrant and odoriferous smell, but also because it is +the honore and ornament of our English Scepter."--GERARD. Yet the +kingdom of the Rose even then was not undisputed; the Lily was always +its rival (_see_ LILY), for thus sang Walter de Biblesworth in the +thirteenth century-- + + "En co verger troveroums les flurs + Des queus issunt les doux odours (swote smel) + Les herbes ausi pur medicine + La flur de Rose, la flur de Liz (lilie) + Liz vaut per royne, Rose pur piz." + +But a little later the great Scotch poet Dunbar, who lived from 1460 to +1520, that is, a century before Shakespeare, asserted the dignity of the +Rose as even superior to the Thistle of Scotland. + + "Nor hold none other flower in sic dainty + As the fresh Rose of colour red and white; + For if thou dost, hurt is thine honesty, + Considering that no flower is so perfite, + So full of virtue, pleasaunce, and delight, + So full of blissful angelic beauty, + Imperial birth, honour, and dignity." + +Volumes have been written, and many more may still be written, on the +delights of the Rose, but my present business is only with the Roses of +Shakespeare. In many of the above passages the Rose is simply the emblem +of all that is loveliest and brightest and most beautiful upon earth, +yet always with the underlying sentiment that even the brightest has its +dark side, as the Rose has its thorns; that the worthiest objects of our +earthly love are at the very best but short-lived; that the most +beautiful has on it the doom of decay and death. These were the lessons +which even the heathen writers learned from their favourite Roses, and +which Christian writers of all ages loved to learn also, not from the +heathen writers, but from the beautiful flowers themselves. "The Rose is +a beautiful flower," said St. Basil, "but it always fills me with sorrow +by reminding me of my sins, for which the earth was doomed to bear +thorns." And it would be easy to fill a volume, and it would not be a +cheerless volume, with beautiful and expressive passages from poets, +preachers, and other authors, who have taken the Rose to point the moral +of the fleeting nature of all earthly things. Herrick in four lines +tells the whole-- + + "Gather ye Roses while ye may + Old time is still a-flying, + And the same flower that smiles to-day, + To-morrow will be dying." + +But Shakespeare's notices of the Rose are not all emblematical and +allegorical. He mentions these distinct sorts of Roses--the Red Rose, +the White Rose, the Musk Rose, the Provencal Rose, the Damask Rose, the +Variegated Rose, the Canker Rose, and the Sweet Briar. + +The Canker Rose is the wild Dog Rose, and the name is sometimes applied +to the common Red Poppy. + +The Red Rose and the Provencal Rose (No. 13) are no doubt the same, and +are what we now call R. centifolia, or the Cabbage Rose; a Rose that has +been supposed to be a native of the South of Europe, but Dr. Lindley +preferred "to place its native country in Asia, because it has been +found wild by Bieberstein with double flowers, on the eastern side of +Mount Caucasus, whither it is not likely to have escaped from a +garden."[250:1] We do not know when it was introduced into England, but +it was familiar to Chaucer-- + + "The savour of the Roses swote + Me smote right to the herte rote, + As I hadde alle embawmed be. + + * * * * * + + Of Roses there were grete wone, + So faire were never in Rone." + +_i.e._, in Provence, at the mouth of the Rhone. For beauty in shape and +exquisite fragrance, I consider this Rose to be still unrivalled; but it +is not a fashionable Rose, and is usually found in cottage gardens, or +perhaps in some neglected part of gardens of more pretensions. I believe +it is considered too loose in shape to satisfy the floral critics of +exhibition flowers, and it is only a summer Rose, and so contrasts +unfavourably with the Hybrid Perpetuals. Still, it is a delightful Rose, +delightful to the eye, delightful for its fragrance, and most delightful +from its associations. + +The White Rose of York (No. 20) has never been satisfactorily +identified. It was clearly a cultivated Rose, and by some is supposed to +have been only the wild White Rose (_R. arvensis_) grown in a garden. +But it is very likely to have been the Rosa alba, which was a favourite +in English gardens in Shakespeare's time, and was very probably +introduced long before his time, for it is the double variety of the +wild White Rose, and Gerard says of it: "The double White Rose doth grow +wilde in many hedges of Lancashire in great abundance, even as Briers do +with us in these southerly parts, especially in a place of the countrey +called Leyland, and in a place called Roughford, not far from Latham." +It was, therefore, not a new gardener's plant in his time, as has been +often stated. I have little doubt that this is the White Rose of York; +it is not the R. alba of Dr. Lindley's monograph, but the double variety +of the British R. arvensis. + +The White Rose has a very ancient interest for Englishmen, for "long +before the brawl in the Temple Gardens, the flower had been connected +with one of the most ancient names of our island. The elder Pliny, in +discussing the etymology of the word Albion, suggests that the land may +have been so named from the White Roses which abounded in it--'Albion +insula sic dicta ab albis rupibus, quas mare alluit, vel ob rosas +albas quibus abundat.' Whatever we may think of the etymological +skill displayed in the suggestion . . . we look with almost a new +pleasure on the Roses of our own hedgerows, when regarding them as +descended in a straight line from the 'rosas albas' of those far-off +summers."--_Quarterly Review_, vol. cxiv. + +The Damask Rose (No. 5) remains to us under the same name, telling its +own history. There can be little doubt that the Rose came from Damascus, +probably introduced into Europe by the Crusaders or some of the early +travellers in the East, who speak in glowing terms of the beauties of +the gardens of Damascus. So Sir John Mandeville describes the city--"In +that Cytee of Damasce, there is gret plentee of Welles, and with in the +Cytee and with oute, ben many fayre Gardynes and of dyverse frutes. Non +other Cytee is not lyche in comparison to it, of fayre Gardynes, and of +fayre desportes."--_Voiage and Travaile_, cap. xi. And in our own day +the author of "Eoethen" described the same gardens as he saw them: "High, +high above your head, and on every side all down to the ground, the +thicket is hemmed in and choked up by the interlacing boughs that droop +with the weight of Roses, and load the slow air with their damask +breath. There are no other flowers. The Rose trees which I saw were all +of the kind we call 'damask;' they grow to an immense height and +size."--_Eoethen_, ch. xxvii. It was not till long after the Crusades +that the Damask Rose was introduced into England, for Hakluyt in 1582 +says: "In time of memory many things have been brought in that were not +here before, as the Damaske Rose by Doctour Linaker, King Henry the +Seventh and King Henrie the Eight's Physician."--_Voiages_, vol. +ii.[252:1] + +As an ornamental Rose the Damask Rose is still a favourite, though +probably the real typical Rosa Damascena is very seldom seen--but it has +been the parent of a large number of hybrid Roses, which the most +critical Rosarian does not reject. The whole family are very +sweet-scented, so that "sweet as Damask Roses" was a proverb, and Gerard +describes the common Damaske as "in other respects like the White Rose; +the especiale difference consisteth in the colour and smell of the +floures, for these are of a pale red colour and of a more pleasant +smell, and fitter for meate or medicine." + +The Musk Roses (No. 1) were great favourites with our forefathers. This +Rose (_R. moschata_) is a native of the North of Africa and of Spain, +and has been also found in Nepaul. Hakluyt gives the exact date of its +introduction. "The turkey cockes and hennes," he says, "were brought +about fifty yeres past, the Artichowe in time of King Henry the Eight, +and of later times was procured out of Italy the Muske Rose plant, the +Plumme called the Perdigwena, and two kindes more by the Lord Cromwell +after his travel."--_Voiages_, vol. ii. It is a long straggling Rose, +bearing bunches of single flowers, and is very seldom seen except +against the walls of some old houses. "You remember the great bush at +the corner of the south wall just by the blue drawing-room windows; that +is the old Musk Rose, Shakespeare's Musk Rose, which is dying out +through the kingdom now."--_My Lady Ludlow_, by Mrs. Gaskell. But +wherever it is grown it is highly prized, not so much for the beauty as +for the delicate scent of its flowers. The scent is unlike the scent of +any other Rose, or of any other flower, but it is very pleasant, and not +overpowering; and the plant has the peculiarity that, like the Sweet +Briar, but unlike other Roses, it gives out its scent of its own accord +and unsought, and chiefly in the evening, so that if the window of a +bedroom near which this rose is trained is left open, the scent will +soon be perceived in the room. This peculiarity did not escape the +notice of Lord Bacon. "Because the breath of flowers," he says, "is far +sweeter in the air (when it comes and goes like the warbling of music) +than in the hand, therefore nothing is more fit for that delight than to +know what be the flowers and plants that do best perfume the air. Roses, +damask and red, are fast flowers of their smells, so that you may walk +by a whole row of them, and find nothing of their sweetness, yea, though +it be in a morning's dew. Bays, likewise, yield no smell as they grow, +Rosemary little, nor Sweet Marjoram; that which above all others yields +the sweetest smell in the air is the Violet, especially the white double +Violet which comes twice a year, about the middle of April, and about +Bartholomew-tide; next to that is the Musk-rose."--_Essay of Gardens._ + +The Roses mentioned in Nos. 34, 51, and 52 as a mixture of red and white +must have been the mottled or variegated Roses, commonly called the York +and Lancaster Roses;[253:1] these are old Roses, and very probably +quite as old as the sixteenth century. There are two varieties: in one +each petal is blotched with white and pink; this is the R. versicolor of +Parkinson, and is a variety of R. Damascena; in the other most of the +petals are white, but with a mixture of pink petals; this is the Rosa +mundi or Gloria mundi, and is a variety of R. Gallica. + +These, with the addition of the Eglantine or Sweet Brier (_see_ +EGLANTINE), are the only Roses that Shakespeare directly names, and they +were the chief sorts grown in his time, but not the only sorts; and to +what extent Roses were cultivated in Shakespeare's time we have a +curious proof in the account of the grant of Ely Place, in Holborn, the +property of the Bishops of Ely. "The tenant was Sir Christopher Hatton +(Queen Elizabeth's handsome Lord Chancellor) to whom the greater portion +of the house was let in 1576 for the term of twenty-one years. The rent +was a Red Rose, ten loads of hay, and ten pounds per annum; Bishop Cox, +on whom this hard bargain was forced by the Queen, reserving to himself +and his successors the right of walking in the gardens, and gathering +twenty bushels of Roses yearly."--CUNNINGHAM. We have records also of +the garden cultivation of the Rose in London long before Shakespeare's +time. "In the Earl of Lincoln's garden in Holborn in 24 Edw. I., the +only flowers named are Roses, of which a quantity was sold, producing +three shillings and twopence."--HUDSON TURNER. + +My space forbids me to enter more largely into any account of these old +species, or to say much of the many very interesting points in the +history of the Rose, but two or three points connected with +Shakespeare's Roses must not be passed over. First, its name. He says +through Juliet (No. 36) that the Rose by any other name would smell as +sweet. But the whole world is against him. Rose was its old Latin name +corrupted from its older Greek name, and the same name, with slight and +easily-traced differences, has clung to it in almost all European +countries. + +Shakespeare also mentions its uses in Rose-water and Rose-cakes, and it +was only natural to suppose that a flower so beautiful and so sweet was +meant by Nature to be of great use to man. Accordingly we find that +wonderful virtues were attributed to it,[255:1] and an especial virtue +was attributed to the dewdrops that settled on the full-blown Rose. +Shakespeare alludes to these in Nos. 22 and 27; and from these were made +cosmetics only suited to the most extravagant. + + "The water that did spryng from ground + She would not touch at all, + But washt her hands with dew of Heaven + That on sweet Roses fall." + + _The Lamentable Fall of Queen Ellinor._--Roxburghe Ballads. + +And as with their uses, so it was also with their history. Such a flower +must have a high origin, and what better origin than the pretty mediaeval +legend told to us by Sir John Mandeville?--"At Betheleim is the Felde +_Floridus_, that is to seyne, the _Feld florisched_; for als moche as a +fayre mayden was blamed with wrong and sclaundered, for whiche cause +sche was demed to the Dethe, and to be brent in that place, to the +whiche she was ladd; and as the Fyre began to brent about hire, sche +made hire preyeres to oure Lord, that als wissely as sche was not gylty +of that Synne, that He wolde helpe hire and make it to be knowen to alle +men, of his mercyfulle grace. And when sche hadde thus seyd, sche +entered into the Fuyr; and anon was the Fuyr quenched and oute; and the +Brondes that weren brennynge becomen red Roseres, and the Brondes that +weren not kyndled becomen white Roseres, full of Roses. And these weren +the first Roseres and Roses, both white and rede, that evere ony man +saughe."--_Voiage and Travaile_, cap. vi. + +With this pretty legend I may well conclude the account of Shakespeare's +Roses, commending, however, M. Biron's sensible remarks on unseasonable +flowers (No. 26) to those who estimate the beauty of a flower or +anything else in proportion to its being produced out of its natural +season. + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[244:1] This was a familiar idea with the old writers: "Therefore, +sister Bud, grow wise by my folly, and know it is far greater happinesse +to lose thy virginity in a good hand than to wither on the stalk whereon +thou growest."--THOMAS FULLER, _Antheologia_, p. 32. (See also Chester's +"Cantoes," No. 13, p. 137, New Shak. Soc.) + +[245:1] "Non vivunt contra naturam, qui hieme concupiscunt +rosas?"--SENECA, _Ep._ 122. + +[250:1] We have an old record of the existence of large double Roses in +Asia by Herodotus, who tells us, that in a part of Macedonia were the +so-called gardens of Midas, in which grew native Roses, each one having +sixty petals, and of a scent surpassing all others ("Hist.," viii. 138). + +[252:1] The Damask Rose was imported into England at an earlier date but +probably only as a drug. It is mentioned in a "Bill of Medicynes +furnished for the use of Edward I., 1306-7: 'Item pro aqua rosata de +Damasc,' lb. xl, iiii_li._"--_Archaeological Journal_, vol. xiv. 271. + +[253:1] The York and Lancaster Roses were a frequent subject for the +epigram writers; and gave occasion for one of the happiest of English +epigrams. On presenting a White Rose to a Lancastrian lady-- + + "If this fair Rose offend thy sight, + It in thy bosom wear; + 'Twill blush to find itself less white, + And turn Lancastrian there." + +[255:1] "A Rose beside his beauty is a cure."--G. HERBERT, _Providence_. + + + + +ROSEMARY. + + + (1) _Perdita._ + + Reverend Sirs, + For you there's Rosemary and Rue; these keep + Seeming and savour all the winter long; + Grace and remembrance be to you both.[256:1] + + _Winter's Tale_, act iv, sc. 4 (73). + + + (2) _Bawd._ + + Marry, come up, my dish of chastity with Rosemary and bays. + + _Pericles_, act iv, sc. 6 (159). + + + (3) _Edgar._ + + Bedlam beggars, who, with roaring voices + Strike in their numb'd and mortified bare arms + Pins, wooden pricks, and sprigs of Rosemary. + + _Lear_, act ii, sc. 3 (14). + + + (4) _Ophelia._ + + There's Rosemary, that's for remembrance; pray, love, remember. + + _Hamlet_, act iv, sc. 5 (175). + + + (5) _Nurse._ + + Doth not Rosemary and Romeo begin both with a letter? + + _Romeo._ + + Ay, nurse; what of that? both with an R. + + _Nurse._ + + Ah, mocker! that's the dog's name; R is for the ----. + No; I know it begins with some other + letter:--and she hath the prettiest sententious + of it, of you and Rosemary, that it would do you + good to hear it. + + _Romeo and Juliet_, act ii, sc. 4 (219). + + + (6) _Friar._ + + Dry up your tears, and stick your Rosemary + On this fair corse. + + _Ibid._, act iv, sc. 5 (79). + +The Rosemary is not a native of Britain, but of the sea-coast of the +South of Europe, where it is very abundant. It was very early introduced +into England, and is mentioned in an Anglo-Saxon Herbarium under its +Latin name of Ros marinus, and is there translated by Bothen, _i.e._ +Thyme; also in an Anglo-Saxon Vocabulary of the eleventh century, where +it is translated Feld-madder and Sun-dew. In these places our present +plant may or may not be meant, but there is no doubt that it is the one +referred to in an ancient English poem of the fourteenth century, on the +virtues of herbs, published in Wright and Halliwell's "Reliquiae +Antiquae." The account of "The Gloriouse Rosemaryne" is long, but the +beginning and ending are worth quoting-- + + "This herbe is callit Rosemaryn + Of vertu that is gode and fyne; + But alle the vertues tell I ne cane, + No I trawe no erthely man. + + * * * * * + + Of thys herbe telles Galiene + That in hys contree was a quene, + Gowtus and Crokyt as he hath tolde, + And eke sexty yere olde; + Sor and febyl, where men hyr sey + Scho semyth wel for to dey; + Of Rosmaryn scho toke sex po[=w]de, + And grownde hyt wel in a stownde, + And bathed hir threyes everi day, + Nine mowthes, as I herde say, + And afterwarde anoynitte wel hyr hede + With good bame as I rede; + Away fel alle that olde flessche, + And yo[=w]ge i-sprong tender and nessche; + So fresshe to be scho then began + Scho coveytede couplede be to man." (Vol. i, 196). + +We can now scarcely understand the high favour in which Rosemary was +formerly held; we are accustomed to see it neglected, or only tolerated +in some corner of the kitchen garden, and not often tolerated there. But +it was very different in Shakespeare's time, when it was in high favour +for its evergreen leaves and fine aromatic scent, remaining a long time +after picking, so long, indeed, that both leaves and scent were almost +considered everlasting. This was its great charm, and so Spenser spoke +of it as "the cheerful Rosemarie" and "refreshing Rosemarine," and good +Sir Thomas More had a great affection for it. "As for Rosemarine," he +said, "I lett it run alle over my garden walls, not onlie because my +bees love it, but because tis the herb sacred to remembrance, and +therefore to friendship; whence a sprig of it hath a dumb language that +maketh it the chosen emblem at our funeral wakes and in our buriall +grounds." And Parkinson gives a similar account of its popularity as a +garden plant: "Being in every woman's garden, it were sufficient but to +name it as an ornament among other sweet herbs and flowers in our +gardens. In this our land, where it hath been planted in noblemen's and +great men's gardens against brick walls, and there continued long, it +riseth up in time unto a very great height, with a great and woody stem +of that compasse that, being cloven out into boards, it hath served to +make lutes or such like instruments, and here with us carpenters' rules +and to divers others purposes." It was the favourite evergreen wherever +the occasion required an emblem of constancy and perpetual remembrance, +such especially as weddings and funerals, at both of which it was +largely used; and so says Herrick of "The Rosemarie Branch"-- + + "Grow for two ends, it matters not at all, + Be't for my bridall or my buriall." + +Its use at funerals was very widespread, for Laurembergius records a +pretty custom in use in his day, 1631, at Frankfort: "Is mos apud nos +retinetur, dum cupresso humile, vel rore marino, non solum coronamus +funera jamjam ducenda, sed et iis appendimus ex iisdem herbis litteras +collectas, significatrices nominis ejus quae defuncta est. Nam in +puellarum funeribus haec fere fieri solent" ("Horticulturae," cap. vj.). + +Its use at weddings is pleasantly told in the old ballad of "The Bride's +Good-morrow"-- + + "The house is drest and garnisht for your sake + With flowers gallant and green; + A solemn feast your comely cooks do ready make, + Where all your friends will be seen: + Young men and maids do ready stand + With sweet Rosemary in their hand-- + A perfect token of your virgin's life. + To wait upon you they intend + Unto the church to make an end: + And God make thee a joyfull wedded wife." + + _Roxburghe Ballads_, vol. i. + +It probably is one of the most lasting of evergreens after being +gathered, though we can scarcely credit the statement recorded by +Phillips that "it is the custom in France to put a branch of Rosemary in +the hands of the dead when in the coffin, and we are told by Valmont +Bomare, in his 'Histoire Naturelle,' that when the coffins have been +opened after several years, the plant has been found to have vegetated +so much that the leaves have covered the corpse." These were the +general and popular uses of the Rosemary, but it was of high repute as a +medicine, and still holds a place, though not so high as formerly, in +the "Pharmacopoeia." "Rosemary," says Parkinson, "is almost of as +great use as Bayes, both for inward and outward remedies, and as well +for civill as physicall purposes--inwardly for the head and heart, +outwardly for the sinews and joynts; for civile uses, as all do know, at +weddings, funerals, &c., to bestow among friends; and the physicall are +so many that you might as well be tyred in the reading as I in the +writing, if I should set down all that might be said of it." + +With this high character we may well leave this good, old-fashioned +plant, merely noting that the name is popularly but erroneously supposed +to mean the Rose of Mary. It has no connection with either Rose or Mary, +but is the Ros marinus, or Ros Maris (as in Ovid-- + + "Ros maris, et laurus, nigraque myrtus olent;" + + _De Arte Aman._, iii, 390), + +the plant that delights in the sea-spray; and so the old spelling was +Rosmarin. Gower says of the Star Alpheta-- + + "His herbe proper is Rosmarine;" + + _Conf. Aman._, lib. sept. + +a spelling which Shenstone adopted-- + + "And here trim Rosmarin that whilom crowned + The daintiest garden of the proudest peer." + +It was also sometimes called Guardrobe, being "put into chests and +presses among clothes, to preserve them from mothes and other vermine." + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[256:1] Grace was symbolized by the Rue, or Herb of Grace, and +remembrance by the Rosemary. + + + + +RUE. + + + (1) _Perdita._ + + For you there's Rosemary and Rue. + + _Winter's Tale_, act iv, sc. 4 (74). + (_See_ ROSEMARY, No. 1.) + + + (2) _Gardener._ + + Here did she fall a tear; here in this place + I'll set a bank of Rue, sour Herb of Grace: + Rue, even for ruth, here shortly shall beseen, + In the remembrance of a weeping queen. + + _Richard II_, act iii, sc. 4 (104). + + + (3) _Antony._ + + Grace grow where these drops fall. + + _Antony and Cleopatra_, act iv, sc. 2 (38). + + + (4) _Ophelia._ + + There's Rue for you; and here's some for me: we may call it + Herb-grace o' Sundays: O, you must wear your Rue with a + difference. + + _Hamlet_, act iv, sc. 5 (181). + + + (5) _Clown._ + + Indeed, sir, she was the Sweet Marjoram of the salad, or + rather the Herb of Grace. + + _Lafeu._ + + They are not salad-herbs, you knave, they are nose-herbs. + + _All's Well that Ends Well_, act iv, sc. 5 (17). + +Comparing (2) and (3) together, there is little doubt that the same herb +is alluded to in both; and it is, perhaps, alluded to, though not +exactly named, in the following: + + _Friar Laurence._ + + In man, as well as herbs, grace and rude will. + + _Romeo and Juliet_, act ii, sc. 3 (28). + +Shakespeare thus gives us the two names for the same plant, Rue and Herb +of Grace, and though at first sight there seems to be little or no +connection between the two names, yet really they are so closely +connected, that the one name was derived from, or rather suggested by, +the other. Rue is the English form of the Greek and Latin _ruta_, a word +which has never been explained, and in its earlier English form of +_rude_ came still nearer to the Latin original. But _ruth_ was the +English word for sorrow and remorse, and _to rue_ was to be sorry for +anything, or to have pity;[260:1] we still say a man will rue a +particular action, _i.e._, be sorry for it; and so it was a natural +thing to say that a plant which was so bitter, and had always borne the +name _Rue_ or _Ruth_, must be connected with repentance. It was, +therefore, the Herb of Repentance, and this was soon transformed into +the Herb of Grace (in 1838 Loudon said, "It is to this day called Ave +Grace in Sussex"), repentance being the chief sign of grace; and it is +not unlikely that this idea was strengthened by the connection of Rue +with the bitter herbs of the Bible, though it is only once mentioned, +and then with no special remark, except as a tithable garden herb, +together with Anise and Cummin. + +The Rue, like Lavender and Rosemary, is a native of the more barren +parts of the coasts of the Mediterranean, and has been found on Mount +Tabor, but it was one of the earliest occupants of the English Herb +garden. It is very frequently mentioned in the Saxon Leech Books, and +entered so largely into their prescriptions that it must have been very +extensively grown. Its strong aromatic smell,[261:1] and bitter taste, +with the blistering quality of the leaves, soon established its +character as almost a heal-all. + + "Rew bitter a worthy gres (herb) + Mekyl of myth and vertu is." + + _Stockholm MS._, 1305. + +Even beasts were supposed to have discovered its virtues, so that +weasels were gravely said, and this by such men as Pliny, to eat Rue +when they were preparing themselves for a fight with rats and serpents. +Its especial virtue was an eye-salve, a use which Milton did not +overlook-- + + "To nobler sights + Michael from Adam's eyes the filme removed + Which that false fruit which promised clearer sight + Had bred; then purged with Euphrasie and Rue + The visual nerve, for he had much to see:" + + _Paradise Lost_, book xi.; + +and which was more fully stated in the old lines of the Schola Salerni-- + + "Nobilis est Ruta quia lumina reddit acuta; + Auxilio rutae, vir lippe, videbis acute; + Cruda comesta recens oculos Caligine purgat; + Ruta facit castum, dat lumen, et ingerit astum; + Cocta facit Ruta et de pollicibus loca tuta." + +After reading this high moral and physical character of the herb, it is +rather startling to find that "It is believed that if stolen from a +neighbour's garden it would prosper better." It was, however, an old +belief-- + + "They sayen eke stolen sede is butt the bette." + + _Palladius on Husbandrie_ (c. 1420) iv, 269. + +"It is a common received opinion that Rue will grow the better if it +bee filtched out of another man's garden."--HOLLAND'S _Pliny_, xix. 7. + +As other medicines were introduced the Rue declined in favour, so that +Parkinson spoke of it with qualified praise--"Without doubt it is a most +wholesom herb, although bitter and strong. Some do rip up a bead-rowl of +the virtues of Rue, . . . but beware of the too-frequent or overmuch use +therof." And Dr. Daubeny says of it, "It is a powerful stimulant and +narcotic, but not much used in modern practise." + +As a garden plant, the Rue forms a pretty shrub for a rock-work, if +somewhat attended to, so as to prevent its becoming straggling and +untidy. The delicate green and peculiar shape of the leaves give it a +distinctive character, which forms a good contrast to other plants. + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[260:1] + + "Rewe on my child, that of thyn gentilnesse + Rewest on every sinful in destresse." + + CHAUCER, _The Man of Lawes Tale_. + +[261:1] "Ranke-smelling Rue."--SPENSER, _Muiopotmos_. + + + + +RUSH. + + + (1) _Rosalind._ + + He taught me how to know a man in love; in which cage of + Rushes I am sure you are not prisoner. + + _As You Like It_, act iii, sc. 2 (388). + + + (2) _Phoebe._ + + Lean but on a Rush, + The cicatrice and capable impressure + Thy palm some moment keeps. + + _Ibid._, act iii, sc. 5 (22). + + + (3) _Clown._ + + As fit as Tib's Rush for Tom's forefinger. + + _All's Well that Ends Well_, act ii, sc. 2 (24). + + + (4) _Romeo._ + + Let wantons light of heart + Tickle the senseless Rushes with their heels. + + _Romeo and Juliet_, act i, sc. 4 (35). + + + (5) _Dromio of Syracuse._ + + Some devils ask but the parings of one's nail, + A Rush, a hair, a drop of blood, a pin, + A Nut, a Cherry-stone. + + _Comedy of Errors_, act iv, sc. 3 (72). + + + (6) _Bastard._ + + A Rush will be a beam + To hang thee on. + + _King John_, act iv, sc. 3 (129). + + + (7) _1st Groom._ + + More Rushes, more Rushes. + + _2nd Henry IV_, act v, sc. 5 (1). + + + (8) _Eros._ + + He's walking in the garden--thus; and spurns + The Rush that lies before him. + + _Antony and Cleopatra_, act iii, sc. 5 (17). + + + (9) _Othello._ + + Man but a Rush against Othello's breast, + And he retires. + + _Othello_, act v, sc. 2 (270). + + + (10) _Grumio._ + + Is supper ready, the house trimmed, Rushes strewed, cobwebs + swept? + + _Taming of the Shrew_, act iv, sc. 1 (47). + + + (11) _Katherine._ + + Be it moon or sun, or what you please, + And if you please to call it a Rush-candle, + Henceforth I vow it shall be so for me. + + _Ibid._, act iv, sc. 5 (13). + + + (12) _Glendower._ + + She bids you on the wanton Rushes lay you down, + And rest your gentle head upon her lap. + + _1st Henry IV_, act iii, sc. 1 (214). + + + (13) _Marcius._ + + He that depends + Upon your favours swims with fins of lead + And hews down Oaks with Rushes. + + _Coriolanus_, act i, sc. 1 (183). + + + (14) _Iachimo._ + + Our Tarquin thus + Did softly press the Rushes. + + _Cymbeline_, act ii, sc. 2 (12). + + + (15) _Senator._ + Our gates + Which yet seem shut, we have but pinn'd with Rushes! + They'll open of themselves. + + _Coriolanus_, act i, sc. 4 (16). + + + (16) + + And being lighted, by the light he spies + Lucretia's glove, wherein her needle sticks; + He takes it from the Rushes where it lies. + + _Lucrece_ (316). + + + (17) _See_ REEDS, No. 7. + + + (18) _Wooer._ + + Rings she made + Of Rushes that grew by, and to 'em spoke + The prettiest posies. + + _Two Noble Kinsmen_, act iv, sc. 1 (109). + +_See also_ FLAG, REED, _and_ BULRUSH. + +Like the Reed, the Rush often stands for any water-loving, grassy +plant, and, like the Reed, it was the emblem of yielding weakness and of +uselessness.[264:1] The three principal Rushes referred to by +Shakespeare are the Common Rush (_Juncus communis_), the Bulrush +(_Scirpus lacustris_), and the Sweet Rush (_Acorus calamus_). + +The Common Rush, though the mark of badly cultivated ground, and the +emblem of uselessness, was not without its uses, some of which are +referred to in Nos. 1, 3, and 11. In Nos. 3 and 18 reference is made to +the Rush-ring, a ring, no doubt, originally meant and used for the +purposes of honest betrothal, but afterwards so vilely used for the +purposes of mock marriages, that even as early as 1217 Richard Bishop of +Salisbury had to issue his edict against the use of "annulum de junco." + +The Rush betrothal ring is mentioned by Spenser-- + + "O thou great shepheard, Lobbin, how great is thy griefe! + Where bene the nosegayes that she dight for thee? + The coloured chaplets wrought with a chiefe, + The knotted Rush-ringes and gilt Rosemarie." + + _Shepherd's Calendar--November._ + +And by Quarles-- + + "Love-sick swains + Compose Rush-rings, and Myrtle-berry chains, + And stuck with glorious King-cups in their bonnets, + Adorned with Laurel slip, chant true love sonnets." + +But the uses of the Rush were not all bad. Newton, in 1587, said of the +Rush--"It is a round smooth shoote without joints or knots, having +within it a white substance or pith, which being drawn forth showeth +like long white, soft, gentle, and round thread, and serveth for many +purposes. Heerewith be made manie pretie imagined devises for Bride-ales +and other solemnities, as little baskets, hampers, frames, pitchers, +dishes, combs, brushes, stooles, chaires, purses with strings, girdles, +and manie such other pretie and curious and artificiall conceits, which +at such times many do take the paines to make and hang up in their +houses, as tokens of good will to the new married Bride; and after the +solemnities ended, to bestow abroad for Bride-gifts or presents." It was +this "white substance or pith" from which the Rush candle (No. 11) was +and still is made: a candle which in early days was probably the +universal candle, which, till within a few years, was the night candle +of every sick chamber, in which most of us can recollect it as a most +ghastly object as it used to stand, "stationed in a basin on the floor, +where it glimmered away like a gigantic lighthouse in a particularly +small piece of water" (Pickwick), till expelled by the night-lights, and +which is still made by Welsh labourers, and, I suppose, in Shakespeare's +time was the only candle used by the poor. + + "If your influence be quite damm'd up + With black usurping mists, some gentle taper, + Though a Rush-candle from the wicker hole + Of some clay habitation, visit us + With thy long levell'd rule of streaming light."--_Comus._ + +But the chief use of Rushes in those days was to strew the floors of +houses and churches (Nos. 4, 7, 10, 12, and 14). This custom seems to +have been universal in all houses of any pretence. "William the son of +William of Alesbury holds three roods of land of the Lord the King in +Alesbury in Com. Buck by the service of finding straw for the bed of the +Lord the King, and to strew his chamber, and also of finding for the +King when he comes to Alesbury straw for his bed, and besides this Grass +or Rushes to make his chamber pleasant."--BLUNT'S _Tenures_. The custom +went on even to our own day in Norwich Cathedral, and the "picturesque +custom still lingers in the West of strewing the floors of the churches +on Whit Sunday with Rushes freshly pulled from the meadows. This custom +attains its highest perfection in the church of St. Mary Redcliffe at +Bristol. On 'Rush Sunday' the floor is strewn with Rushes. All the +merchants throw open their conservatories for the vicar to take his +choice of their flowers, and the pulpit, the lectern, the choir, and the +communion rails and table present a scene of great beauty."--_The +Garden_, May, 1877. + +For this purpose the Sweet-scented Rush was always used where it could +be procured, and when first laid down it must have made a pleasant +carpet; but it was a sadly dirty arrangement, and gives us a very poor +idea of the cleanliness of even the best houses, though it probably was +not the custom all through the year, as Newton says, speaking of Sedges, +but evidently confusing the Sedge with the Sweet-scented Rush, "with the +which many in this countrie do use in sommer time to straw their +parlours and churches, as well for cooleness as for pleasant +smell."[266:1] This Rush (_Acorus calamus_) is a British plant, with +broad leaves, which have a strong cinnamon-like smell, which obtained +for the plant the old Saxon name of Beewort. Another (so-called) Rush, +the Flowering Rush (_Butomus umbellatus_), is one of the very handsomest +of the British plants, bearing on a long straight stem a large umbel of +very handsome pink flowers. Wherever there is a pond in a garden, these +fine Rushes should have a place, though they may be grown in the open +border where the ground is not too dry. + +There is a story told by Sir John Mandeville in connection with Rushes +which is not easy to understand. According to his account, our Saviour's +crown of thorns was made of Rushes! "And zif alle it be so that men seyn +that this Croune is of Thornes, zee shall undirstande that it was of +Jonkes of the See, that is to sey, Russhes of the See, that prykken als +scharpely as Thornes. For I have seen and beholden many times that of +Parys and that of Constantynoble, for thei were bothe on, made of +Russches of the See. But men have departed hem in two parties, of the +which on part is at Parys, and the other part is at Constantynoble--and +I have on of the precyouse Thornes, that semethe licke a white Thorn, +and that was zoven to me for great specyaltee. . . . The Jewes setten +him in a chayere and clad him in a mantelle, and then made thei the +Croune of Jonkes of the See."--_Voiage and Travaile,_ c. 2. + +I have no certainty to what Rush the pleasant old traveller can here +refer. I can only guess that as Rushes and Sedges were almost +interchangeable names, he may have meant the Sea Holly, formerly called +the Holly-sedge, of which there is a very appropriate account given in +an old Saxon runelay thus translated by Cockayne: "Hollysedge hath its +dwelling oftenest in a marsh, it waxeth in water, woundeth fearfully, +burneth with blood (_i.e._, draws blood and pains) every one of men who +to it offers any handling."[267:1] + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[264:1] + + "Around the islet at its lowest edge, + Lo, there beneath, where breaks th' encircling wave, + The yielding mud is thick with Rushes crowned. + No other flower with frond or leafy growth + Or hardened fibre there can life sustain, + For none bend safely to the watery shock." + + DANTE, _Purgatorio_, canto i. (Johnston). + +[266:1] "In the South of Europe Juniper branches were used for this +purpose, as they still are in Sweden."--_Flora Domestica_, p. 213. + + "As I have seen upon a bridal day, + Full many maids clad in their best array, + In honour of the bride, come with their flaskets + Filled full of flowers, other in wicker baskets + Bring from the Marish Rushes, to overspread + The ground whereon to Church the lovers tread." + + BROWNE'S _Brit. Past._, i, 2. + +[267:1] I leave this as I first wrote it, but I have to thank Mr. +Britten for the very probable suggestion that Sir John Mandeville was +right. Not only does the _Juncus acutus_ "prykken als scharpely as +Thornes," but "what is shown in Paris at the present day as the crown of +Thorns is certainly, as Sir John says, made of rushes; the curious may +consult M. Rohault de Fleury's sumptuous 'Memoire sur les Instruments de +la Passion,' for a full description of it." + + + + +RYE. + + + (1) _Iris._ + + Ceres, most bounteous lady, thy rich leas + Of Wheat, Rye, Barley, Vetches, Oats, and Pease. + + _Tempest_, act iv, sc. 1 (60). + + + (2) _Iris._ + + You sunburnt sicklemen, of August weary, + Come hither from the furrow and be merry; + Make holiday; your Rye-straw hats put on. + + _Ibid._, act iv, sc. 1 (135). + + + (3) _Song._ + + Between the acres of the Rye + These pretty country folks would lye. + + _As You Like It_, act v, sc. 3 (23). + +The Rye of Shakespeare's time was identical with our own (_Secale +cereale_). It is not a British plant, and its native country is not +exactly known; but it seems probable that both the plant and the name +came from the region of the Caucasus. + +As a food-plant Rye was not in good repute in Shakespeare's time. Gerard +said of it, "It is harder to digest than Wheat, yet to rusticke bodies +that can well digest it, it yields good nourishment." But "recent +investigations by Professor Wanklyn and Mr. Cooper appear to give the +first place to Rye as the most nutritious of all our cereals. Rye +contains more gluten, and is pronounced by them one-third richer than +Wheat. Rye, moreover, is capable of thriving in almost any +soil."--_Gardener's Chronicle_, 1877. + + + + +SAFFRON. + + + (1) _Ceres._ + + Who (_i.e._, Iris), with thy Saffron wings upon my flowers, + Diffusest honeydrops, refreshing showers. + + _Tempest_, act iv, sc. 1 (78). + + + (2) _Antipholus of Ephesus._ + + Did this companion with the Saffron face + Revel and feast it at my house to day? + + _Comedy of Errors_, act iv, sc. 4 (64). + + + (3) _Clown._ + + I must have Saffron to colour the Warden pies. + + _Winter's Tale_, act iv, sc. 3 (48). + + + (4) _Lafeu._ + + No, no, no, your son was misled with a snipt-taffeta fellow + there, whose villanous Saffron would have made all the + unbaked and doughy youth of a nation in his colour. + + _All's Well that Ends Well_, act iv, sc. 5 (1). + +Saffron (from its Arabic name, _al zahafaran_) was not, in Shakespeare's +time, limited to the drug or to the Saffron-bearing Crocus (_C. +sativus_), but it was the general name for all the Croci, and was even +extended to the Colchicums, which were called Meadow Saffrons.[268:1] We +have no Crocus really a native of Britain, but a few species (C. vernus, +C. nudiflorus, C. aureus, and C. biflorus) have been so naturalized in +certain parts as to be admitted, though very doubtfully, into the +British flora; but the Saffron Crocus can in no way be considered a +native, and the history of its introduction into England is very +obscure. It is mentioned several times in the Anglo-Saxon Leech Books: +"When he bathes, let him smear himself with oil; mingle it with +Saffron."--_Tenth Century Leech Book_, ii. 37. "For dimness of eyes, +thus one must heal it: take Celandine one spoonful, and Aloes, and +Crocus (Saffron in French)."--_Schools of Medicine_, tenth century, c. +22. In these instances it may be only the imported drug; but the name +occurs in an English Vocabulary among the Nomina herbarum: "Hic Crocus, +A{e} Safurroun;" and in a Pictorial Vocabulary of the fourteenth +century, "Hic Crocus, An{ce} Safryn;" so that I think the plant must +have been in cultivation in England at that time. The usual statement, +made by one writer after another, is that it was introduced by Sir +Thomas Smith into the neighbourhood of Walden in the time of Edward +III., but the original authority for this statement is unknown. The most +authentic account is that by Hakluyt in 1582, and though it is rather +long, it is worth extracting in full. It occurs in some instructions in +"Remembrances for Master S.," who was going into Turkey, giving him +hints what to observe in his travels: "Saffron, the best of the +universall world, groweth in this realme. . . . It is a spice that is +cordiall, and may be used in meats, and that is excellent in dying of +yellow silks. This commodity of Saffron groweth fifty miles from +Tripoli, in Syria, on an high hyll, called in those parts Gasian, so as +there you may learn at that part of Tripoli the value of the pound, the +goodnesse of it, and the places of the vent. But it is said that from +that hyll there passeth yerely of that commodity fifteen moiles laden, +and that those regions notwithstanding lacke sufficiency of that +commodity. But if a vent might be found, men would in Essex (about +Saffron Walden), and in Cambridgeshire, revive the trade for the benefit +of the setting of the poore on worke. So would they do in Herefordshire +by Wales, where the best of all England is, in which place the soil +yields the wilde Saffron commonly, which showeth the natural inclination +of the same soile to the bearing of the right Saffron, if the soile be +manured and that way employed. . . It is reported at Saffron Walden that +a pilgrim, proposing to do good to his countrey, stole a head of +Saffron, and hid the same in his Palmer's staffe, which he had made +hollow before of purpose, and so he brought the root into this realme +with venture of his life, for if he had bene taken, by the law of the +countrey from whence it came, he had died for the fact."--_English +Voiages, &c._, vol. ii. From this account it seems clear that even in +Hakluyt's time Saffron had been so long introduced that the history of +its introduction was lost; and I think it very probable that, as was +suggested by Coles in his "Adam in Eden" (1657), we are indebted to the +Romans for this, as for so many of our useful plants. But it is not a +Roman or Italian plant. Spenser wrote of it as-- + + "Saffron sought for in Cilician soyle--"[270:1] + +and Browne-- + + "Saffron confected in Cilicia"--_Brit. Past._, i, 2; + +which information they derived from Pliny. It is supposed to be a native +of Asia Minor, but so altered by long cultivation that it never produces +seed either in England or in other parts of Europe.[270:2] This fact led +M. Chappellier, of Paris, who has for many years studied the history of +the plant, to the belief that it was a hybrid; but finding that when +fertilized with the pollen of a Crocus found wild in Greece, and known +as C. sativus var. Graecus (_Orphanidis_), it produces seed abundantly, +he concludes that it is a variety of that species, which it very much +resembles, but altered and rendered sterile by cultivation. It is not +now much cultivated in England, but we have abundant authority from +Tusser, Gerard, Parkinson, Camden, and many other writers, that it was +largely cultivated before and after Shakespeare's time, and that the +quality of the English Saffron was very superior.[271:1] The importance +of the crop is shown by its giving its name to Saffron Walden in +Essex,[271:2] and to Saffron Hill in London, which "was formerly a part +of Ely Gardens" (of which we shall hear again when we come to speak of +Strawberries), "and derives its name from the crops of Saffron which it +bore."--CUNNINGHAM. The plant has in the same way given its name to +Zaffarano, a village in Sicily, near Mount Etna, and to Zafaranboly, +"ville situee pres Inobole en Anatolie, au sud-est de l'ancienne +Heraclee."--CHAPPELLIER. The plant is largely cultivated in many parts +of Europe, but the chief centres of cultivation are in the +arrondissement of Pithiviers in France, and the province of Arragon in +Spain; and the chief consumers are the Germans. It has also been largely +cultivated in China for a great many years, and the bulbs now imported +from China are found to be, in many points, superior to the +European--"l'invasion Tartare aurait porte le Safran en Chine, et de +leur cote les croises l'auraient importe en Europe."--CHAPPELLIER. + +I need scarcely say that the parts of the plant that produce the Saffron +are the sweet-scented stigmata, the "Crocei odores" of Virgil; but the +use of Saffron has now so gone out of fashion, that it may be well to +say something of its uses in the time of Shakespeare, as a medicine, a +dye, and a confection. On all three points its virtues were so many that +there is a complete literature on Crocus. I need not name all the books +on the subject, but the title page of one (a duodecimo of nearly three +hundred pages) may be quoted as an example: "Crocologia seu curiosa +Croci Regis Vegetabilium enucleatio continens Illius etymologiam, +differencias, tempus quo viret et floret, culturam, collectionem, usum +mechanicum, Pharmaceuticum, Chemico medicum, omnibus pene humani +corporis partibus destinatum additis diversis observationibus et +questionibus Crocum concernentibus ad normam et formam S. R. I. Academiae +Naturae curiosorum congesta a Dan: Ferdinando Hertodt, Phys. et Med. +Doc., &c., &c. Jenae. 1671." After this we may content ourselves with +Gerard's summary of its virtues: "The moderate use of it is good for the +head, and maketh sences more quicke and lively, shaketh off heavy and +drowsie sleep and maketh a man mery." For its use in confections this +will suffice from the "Apparatus Plantarum" of Laurembergius, 1632: "In +re familiari vix ullus est telluris habitatus angulus ubi non sit Croci +quotodiana usurpatio, aspersi vel incocti cibis." And as to its uses as +a dye, its penetrating powers were proverbial, of which Luther's Sermons +will supply an instance: "As the Saffron bag that hath bene ful of +Saffron, or hath had Saffron in it, doth ever after savour and smel of +the swete Saffron that it contayneth; so our blessed Ladye which +conceived and bare Christe in her wombe, dyd ever after resemble the +maners and vertues of that precious babe which she bare" ("Fourth +Sermon," 1548). One of the uses to which Saffron was applied in the +Middle Ages was for the manufacture of the beautiful gold colour used in +the illumination of missals, &c., where the actual gold was not used. +This is the recipe from the work of Theophilus in the eleventh century: +"If ye wish to decorate your work in some manner take tin pure and +finely scraped; melt it and wash it like gold, and apply it with the +same glue upon letters or other places which you wish to ornament with +gold or silver; and when you have polished it with a tooth, take Saffron +with which silk is colored, moistening it with clear of egg without +water, and when it has stood a night, on the following day cover with a +pencil the places which you wish to gild, the rest holding the place of +silver" (Book i, c. 23, Hendrie's translation). + +Though the chief fame of the Saffron Crocus is as a field plant, yet it +is also a very handsome flower; but it is a most capricious one, which +may account for the area of cultivation being so limited. In some places +it entirely refuses to flower, as it does in my own garden, where I have +cultivated it for many years but never saw a flower, while in a +neighbour's garden, under apparently the very same conditions of soil +and climate, it flowers every autumn. But if we cannot succeed with the +Saffron Crocus, there are many other Croci which were known in the time +of Shakespeare, and grown not "for any other use than in regard of +their beautiful flowers of several varieties, as they have been +carefully sought out and preserved by divers to furnish a garden of +dainty curiosity." Gerard had in his garden only six species; Parkinson +had or described thirty-one different sorts, and after his time new +kinds were not so much sought after till Dean Herbert collected and +studied them. His monograph of the Crocus, in 1847, contained the +account of forty-one species, besides many varieties. The latest +arrangement of the family by Mr. George Maw, of Broseley, contains +sixty-eight species, besides varieties; of these all are not yet in +cultivation, but every year sees some fresh addition to the number, +chiefly by the unwearied exertions in finding them in their native +habitats, and the liberal distribution of them when found, of Mr. Maw, +to whom all the lovers of the Crocus are deeply indebted. And the Croci +are so beautiful that we cannot have too many of them; they are, for the +most part, perfectly hardy, though some few require a little protection +in winter; they are of an infinite variety of colour, and some flower in +the spring and some in the autumn. Most of us call the Crocus a spring +flower, yet there are more autumnal than vernal species, but it is as a +spring flower that we most value it. The common yellow Crocus is almost +as much "the first-born of the year's delight" as the Snowdrop. No one +can tell its native country, but it has been the brightest ornament of +our gardens, not only in spring, but even in winter, for many years. It +was probably first introduced during Shakespeare's life. "It hath +floures," says Gerard, "of a most perfect shining yellow colour, seeming +afar off to be a hot glowing coal of fire. That pleasant plant was sent +unto me from Robinus, of Paris, that painful and most curious searcher +of simples." From that beginning perhaps it has found its way into every +garden, for it increases rapidly, is very hardy, and its brightness +commends it to all. It is the "most gladsome of the early flowers. None +gives more glowing welcome to the season, or strikes on our first +glance with a ray of keener pleasure, when, with some bright morning's +warmth, the solitary golden fringes have kindled into knots of +thick-clustered yellow bloom on the borders of the cottage garden. At a +distance the eye is caught by that glowing patch, its warm heart open to +the sun, and dear to the honey-gathering bees which hum around the +chalices."--FORBES WATSON. + +With this pretty picture I may well close the account of the Crocus, but +not because the subject is exhausted, for it is very tempting to go much +further, and to speak of the beauties of the many species, and of the +endless forms and colours of the grand Dutch varieties; and whatever +admiration may be expressed for the common yellow Dutch Crocus, the same +I would also give to almost every member of this lovely and cheerful +family. + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[268:1] Fuller says of the crocodile--"He hath his name of ++chrocho-deilos+, or the Saffron-fearer, knowing himself to be all +poison, and it all antidote."--_Worthies of England_, i, 336, ed. 1811. + +[270:1] "Cilician," or "Corycean," were the established classical +epithets to use when speaking of the Saffron. Cowley quotes-- + + "Corycii pressura Croci"--LUCAN; + + + "Ultima Corycio quae cadit aura Croco"--MARTIAL; + +and adds the note--"Omnes Poetae hoc quasi solenni quodam Epitheto +utuntur. Corycus nomen urbis et montis in Cilicia, ubi laudatissimus +Crocus nascebatur."--_Plantarum_, lib. i, 49. + +[270:2] "Saffron is . . . a native of Cashmere, . . . and the . . . +Saffron Crocus and the Hemp plant have followed their (the Aryans) +migrations together throughout the temperate zone of the +globe."--BIRDWOOD, _Handbook to the Indian Court_, p. 23. + +[271:1] "Our English hony and Safron is better than any that commeth +from any strange or foregn land."--BULLEIN, _Government of Health_, +1588. + +[271:2] The arms of the borough of Saffron Walden are "three Saffron +flowers walled in." + + + + +SAMPHIRE. + + + _Edgar._ + + Half-way down + Hangs one that gathers Samphire, dreadful trade! + Methinks he seems no bigger than his head. + + _King Lear_, act iv, sc. 6 (14). + +Being found only on rocks, the Samphire was naturally associated with +St. Peter, and so it was called in Italian Herba di San Pietro, in +English Sampire and Rock Sampier[274:1]--in other words, Samphire is +simply a corruption of Saint Peter. The plant grows round all the coasts +of Great Britain and Ireland, wherever there are suitable rocks on which +it can grow, and on all the coasts of Europe, except the northern +coasts; and it is a plant very easily recognized, if not by its +pale-green, fleshy leaves, yet certainly by its taste, or its "smell +delightful and pleasant." The leaves form the pickle, "the pleasantest +sauce, most familiar, and best agreeing with man's body," but now much +out of fashion. In Shakespeare's time the gathering of Samphire was a +regular trade, and Steevens quotes from Smith's "History of Waterford" +to show the danger attending the trade: "It is terrible to see how +people gather it, hanging by a rope several fathoms from the top of the +impending rocks, as it were in the air." In our own time the quantity +required could be easily got without much danger, for it grows in places +perfectly accessible in sufficient quantity for the present +requirements, for in some parts it grows away from the cliffs, so that +"the fields about Porth Gwylan, in Carnarvonshire, are covered with +it." It may even be grown in the garden, especially in gardens near the +sea, and makes a pretty plant for rockwork. + +There is a story connected with the Samphire which shows how botanical +knowledge, like all other knowledge, may be of great service, even where +least expected. Many years ago a ship was wrecked on the Sussex coast, +and a small party were left on a rock not far from land. To their horror +they found the sea rising higher and higher, and threatening before long +to cover their place of refuge. Some of them proposed to try and swim +for land, and would have done so, but just as they were preparing for it +an officer saw a plant of Samphire growing on the rock, and told them +they might stay and trust to that little plant that the sea would rise +no further, for that the Samphire, though always growing within the +spray of the sea, never grows where the sea could actually touch it. +They believed him and were saved. + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[274:1] Dr. Prior. + + + + +SAVORY. + + + _Perdita._ + + Here's flowers for you; + Hot Lavender, Mints, Savory, Marjoram. + + _Winter's Tale_, act iv, sc. 4. (103). + +Savory might be supposed to get its name as being a plant of special +savour, but the name comes from its Latin name _Saturcia_, through the +Italian _Savoreggia_. It is a native of the South of Europe, probably +introduced into England by the Romans, for it is mentioned in the +Anglo-Saxon recipes under the imported name of Savorie. It was a very +favourite plant in the old herb gardens, and both kinds, the Winter and +Summer Savory, were reckoned "among the farsing or farseting herbes, as +they call them" (Parkinson), _i.e._, herbs used for stuffing.[275:1] +Both kinds are still grown in herb gardens, but are very little used. + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[275:1] + + "His typet was ay farsud ful of knyfes + And pynnes, for to give fair wyves." + + _Canterbury Tale_, Prologue. + + + "The farced title running before the King." + + _Henry V_, act iv, sc. 1 (431). + +The word still exists as "forced;" _e.g._, "a forced leg of mutton," +"forced meat balls." + + + + +SEDGE. + + + (1) _2nd Servant._ + + And Cytherea all in Sedges hid, + Which seem to move and wanton with her breath, + Even as the waving Sedges play with wind. + + _Taming of the Shrew_, Induction, sc. 2. (53). + + + (2) _Iris._ + + You nymphs, called Naiads, of the winding brooks, + With your Sedged crowns and ever-harmless looks. + + _Tempest_, act iv, sc. 1 (128). + + + (3) _Julia._ + + The current that with gentle murmur glides, + Thou knowest, being stopped, impatiently doth rage; + But when his fair course is not hindered, + He makes sweet music with the enamell'd stones, + Giving a gentle kiss to every Sedge + He overtaketh in his pilgrimage; + And so by many winding nooks he strays + With willing sport to the wild ocean. + + _Two Gentlemen of Verona_, act ii, sc. 7 (25). + + + (4) _Benedick._ + + Alas, poor hurt fowl! now will he creep into Sedges. + + _Much Ado About Nothing_, act ii, sc. 1 (209). + + + (5) _Hotspur._ + + The gentle Severn's Sedgy bank. + + _1st Henry IV_, act i, sc. 3 (98). + + + (6) _See_ REEDS, No. 7. + +Sedge is from the Anglo-Saxon Secg, and meant almost any waterside +plant. Thus we read of the Moor Secg, and the Red Secg, and the Sea +Holly (_Eryngium maritimum_) is called the Holly Sedge. And so it was +doubtless used by Shakespeare. In our day Sedge is confined to the genus +Carex, a family growing in almost all parts of the world, and containing +about 1000 species, of which we have fifty-eight in Great Britain; they +are most graceful ornaments both of our brooks and ditches; and some of +them will make handsome garden plants. One very handsome +species--perhaps the handsomest--is C. pendula, with long tassel-like +flower-spikes hanging down in a very beautiful form, which is not +uncommon as a wild plant, and can easily be grown in the garden, and +the flower-spikes will be found very handsome additions to tall +nosegays. There is another North American species, C. Fraseri, which is +a good plant for the north side of a rock-work: it is a small plant, but +the flower is a spike of the purest white, and is very curious, and +unlike any other flower. + + + + +SENNA. + + + _Macbeth._ + + What Rhubarb, Senna, or what purgative drug + Would scour these English hence?[277:1] + + _Macbeth_, act v, sc. 3 (55). + +Even in the time of Shakespeare several attempts were made to grow the +Senna in England, but without success; so that he probably only knew it +as an important "purgative drug." The Senna of commerce is made from the +leaves of Cassia lanceolata and Cassia Senna, both natives of Africa, +and so unfitted for open-air cultivation in England. The Cassias are a +large family, mostly with handsome yellow flowers, some of which are +very ornamental greenhouse plants; and one from North America, Cassia +Marylandica, may be considered hardy in the South of England. + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[277:1] In this passage the old reading for "Senna" is "Cyme," and this +is the reading of the Globe Shakespeare; but I quote the passage with +"Senna" because it is so printed in many editions. + + + + +SPEARGRASS. + + + _Peto._ + + He persuaded us to do the like. + + _Bardolph._ + + Yea, and to tickle our noses with Speargrass to make them + bleed, and then to beslubber our garments with it and swear + it was the blood of true men. + + _1st Henry IV_, act ii, sc. 4 (339). + +Except in this passage I can only find Speargrass mentioned in Lupton's +"Notable Things," and there without any description, only as part of a +medical recipe: "Whosoever is tormented with sciatica or the hip gout, +let them take an herb called Speargrass, and stamp it and lay a little +thereof upon the grief." The plant is not mentioned by Lyte, Gerard, +Parkinson, or the other old herbalists, and so it is somewhat of a +puzzle. Steevens quotes from an old play, "Victories of Henry the +Fifth": "Every day I went into the field, I would take a straw and +thrust it into my nose, and make my nose bleed;" but a straw was never +called Speargrass. Asparagus was called Speerage, and the young shoots +might have been used for the purpose, but I have never heard of such a +use; Ranunculus flammula was called Spearwort, from its lanceolate +leaves, and so (according to Cockayne) was Carex acuta, still called +Spiesgrass in German. Mr. Beisly suggests the Yarrow or Millfoil; and we +know from several authorities (Lyte, Hollybush, Gerard, Phillip, Cole, +Skinner, and Lindley) that the Yarrow was called Nosebleed; but there +seems no reason to suppose that it was ever called Speargrass, or could +have been called a Grass at all, though the term Grass was often used in +the most general way. Dr. Prior suggests the Common Reed, which is +probable. I have been rather inclined to suppose it to be one of the +Horse-tails (Equiseta).[278:1] They are very sharp and spearlike, and +their rough surfaces would soon draw blood; and as a decoction of +Horse-tail was a remedy for stopping bleeding of the nose, I have +thought it very probable that such a supposed virtue could only have +arisen when remedies were sought for on the principle of "similia +similibus curantur;" so that a plant, which in one form produced +nose-bleeding, would, when otherwise administered, be the natural +remedy. But I now think that all these suggested plants must give way in +favour of the common Couch-grass (_Triticum repens_). In the eastern +counties, this is still called Speargrass; and the sharp underground +stolons might easily draw blood, when the nose is tickled with them. The +old emigrants from the eastern counties took the name with them to +America, but applied it to a Poa (Webster's "Dictionary," s.v. +Speargrass). + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[278:1] "Hippurus Anglice dicitur sharynge gyrs."--TURNER'S _Libellus_, +1538. + + + + +SQUASH, _see_ PEAS. + + + + +STOVER. + + + _Iris._ + + Thy turfy mountains, where live nibbling sheep, + And flat meads thatch'd with Stover, them to keep. + + _Tempest_, act iv, sc. 1 (62). + +In this passage, Stover is probably the bent or dried Grass still +remaining on the land, but it is the common word for hay or straw, or +for "fodder and provision for all sorts of cattle; from _Estovers_, law +term, which is so explained in the law dictionaries. Both are derived +from _Estouvier_ in the old French, defined by Roquefort--'Convenance, +necessite, provision de tout ce qui est necessaire.'"--NARES. The word +is of frequent occurrence in the writers of the time of Shakespeare. One +quotation from Tusser will be sufficient-- + + "Keepe dry thy straw-- + + "If house-roome will serve thee, lay Stover up drie, + And everie sort by it selfe for to lie. + Or stack it for litter if roome be too poore, + And thatch out the residue, noieng thy door." + + + _November's Husbandry._ + + + + +STRAWBERRY. + + + (1) _Iago._ + + Have you not sometimes seen a handkerchief + Spotted with Strawberries in your wife's hand?[279:1] + + _Othello_, act iii, sc. 3 (434). + + + (2) _Ely._ + + The Strawberry grows underneath the Nettle, + And wholesome berries thrive and ripen best + Neighbour'd by fruit of baser quality; + And so the prince obscured his contemplation + Under the veil of wildness. + + _Henry V_, act i, sc. 1 (60). + + + (3) _Gloster._ + + My Lord of Ely, when I was last in Holborn, + I saw good Strawberries in your garden there; + I do beseech you send for some of them. + + _Ely._ + + Marry, and will, my Lord, with all my heart. + + * * * * * + + Where is my lord Protector? I have sent + For these Strawberries. + + _King Richard III_, act iii, sc. 4 (32). + +The Bishop of Ely's garden in Holborn must have been one of the chief +gardens of England in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, for this +is the third time it has been brought under our notice. It was +celebrated for its Roses (_see_ ROSE); it was so celebrated for its +Saffron Crocuses that part of it acquired the name which it still keeps, +Saffron Hill; and now we hear of its "good Strawberries;" while the +remembrance of "the ample garden," and of the handsome Lord Chancellor +to whom it was given when taken from the bishopric, is still kept alive +in its name of Hatton Garden. How very good our forefathers' +Strawberries were, we have a strong proof in old Isaak Walton's happy +words: "Indeed, my good scholar, we may say of angling as Dr. Boteler +said of Strawberries: 'Doubtless God could have made a better berry, but +doubtless God never did;' and so, if I might be judge, God never did +make a more calm, quiet, innocent recreation than angling." I doubt +whether, with our present experience of good Strawberries, we should +join in this high praise of the Strawberries of Shakespeare's or Isaak +Walton's day, for their varieties of Strawberry must have been very +limited in comparison to ours. Their chief Strawberry was the Wild +Strawberry brought straight from the woods, and no doubt much improved +in time by cultivation. Yet we learn from Spenser and from Tusser that +it was the custom to grow it just as it came from the woods. + +Spenser says-- + + "One day as they all three together went + Into the wood to gather Strawberries."--_F. Q._, vi. 34; + +and Tusser-- + + "Wife, into thy garden, and set me a plot + With Strawbery rootes of the best to be got: + Such growing abroade, among Thornes in the wood, + Wel chosen and picked, prove excellent good. + + * * * * * + + The Gooseberry, Respis, and Roses al three + With Strawberies under them trimly agree." + + _September's Husbandry._ + +And even in the next century, Sir Hugh Plat said-- + + "Strawberries which grow in woods prosper best in gardens." + + _Garden of Eden_, i, 20.[281:1] + +Besides the wild one (_Fragaria vesca_), they had the Virginian (_F. +Virginiana_), a native of North America, and the parent of our scarlets; +but they do not seem to have had the Hautbois (_F. elatior_), or the +Chilian, or the Carolinas, from which most of our good varieties have +descended. + +The Strawberry is among fruits what the Primrose and Snowdrop are among +flowers, the harbinger of other good fruits to follow. It is the +earliest of the summer fruits, and there is no need to dwell on its +delicate, sweet-scented freshness, so acceptable to all; but it has also +a charm in autumn, known, however, but to few, and sometimes said to be +only discernible by few. Among "the flowers that yield sweetest smell in +the air," Lord Bacon reckoned Violets, and "next to that is the Musk +Rose, then the Strawberry leaves dying, with a most excellent cordial +smell." In Mrs. Gaskell's pretty tale, "My Lady Ludlow," the dying +Strawberry leaves act an important part. "The great hereditary faculty +on which my lady piqued herself, and with reason, for I never met with +any other person who possessed it, was the power she had of perceiving +the delicious odour arising from a bed of Strawberry leaves in the late +autumn, when the leaves were all fading and dying." The old lady quotes +Lord Bacon, and then says: "'Now the Hanburys can always smell the +excellent cordial odour, and very delicious and refreshing it is. In the +time of Queen Elizabeth the great old families of England were a +distinct race, just as a cart-horse is one creature and very useful in +its place, and Childers or Eclipse is another creature, though both are +of the same species. So the old families have gifts and powers of a +different and higher class to what the other orders have. My dear, +remember that you try and smell the scent of dying Strawberry leaves in +this next autumn, you have some of Ursula Hanbury's blood in you, and +that gives you a chance.' 'But when October came I sniffed, and sniffed, +and all to no purpose; and my lady, who had watched the little +experiment rather anxiously, had to give me up as a hybrid'" ("Household +Words," vol. xviii.). On this I can only say in the words of an old +writer, "A rare and notable thing, if it be true, for I never proved it, +and never tried it; therefore, as it proves so, praise it."[282:1] +Spenser also mentions the scent, but not of the leaves or fruit, but of +the flowers-- + + "Comming to kisse her lyps (such grace I found), + Me seem'd I smelt a garden of sweet flowres + That dainty odours from them threw around: + + * * * * * + + Her goodly bosome, lyke a Strawberry bed, + + * * * * * + + Such fragrant flowres doe give most odorous smell."[282:2] + + _Sonnet_ lxiv. + +There is a considerable interest connected with the name of the plant, +and much popular error. It is supposed to be called Strawberry because +the berries have straw laid under them, or from an old custom of selling +the wild ones strung on straws.[282:3] In Shakespeare's time straw was +used for the protection of Strawberries, but not in the present +fashion-- + + "If frost doe continue, take this for a lawe, + The Strawberies look to be covered with strawe. + Laid ouerly trim upon crotchis and bows, + And after uncovered as weather allows." + + TUSSER, _December's Husbandry_. + +But the name is much more ancient than either of these customs. +Strawberry in different forms, as Strea-berige, Streaberie-wisan, +Streaw-berige, Streaw-berian wisan, Streberilef, Strabery, +Strebere-wise, is its name in the old English Vocabularies, while it +appears first in its present form in a Pictorial Vocabulary of the +fifteenth century, "Hoc ffragrum, A{ce} a Strawbery." What the word +really means is pleasantly told by a writer in Seeman's "Journal of +Botany," 1869: "How well this name indicates the now prevailing practice +of English gardeners laying straw under the berry in order to bring it +to perfection, and prevent it from touching the earth, which without +that precaution it naturally does, and to which it owes its German +_Erdbeere_, making us almost forget that in this instance 'straw' has +nothing to do with the practice alluded to, but is an obsolete +past-participle of 'to strew,' in allusion to the habit of the plant." +This obsolete word is preserved in our English Bibles, "gathering where +thou hast not strawed," "he strawed it upon the water," "straw me with +apples;" and in Shakespeare-- + + The bottom poison, and the top o'erstrawed + With sweets.--_Venus and Adonis._ + +From another point of view there is almost as great a mistake in the +second half of the name, for in strict botanical language the fruit of +the Strawberry is not a berry; it is not even "exactly a fruit, but is +merely a fleshy receptacle bearing fruit, the true fruit being the ripe +carpels, which are scattered over its surface in the form of minute +grains looking like seeds, for which they are usually mistaken, the +seed lying inside of the shell of the carpel." It is exactly the +contrary to the Raspberry, a fruit not named by Shakespeare, though +common in his time under the name of Rasps. "When you gather the +Raspberry you throw away the receptacle under the name of core, never +suspecting that it is the very part you had just before been feasting +upon in the Strawberry. In the one case, the receptacle robs the carpels +of all their juice in order to become gorged and bloated at their +expense; in the other case, the carpels act in the same selfish manner +upon the receptacles."--LINDLEY, _Ladies' Botany_. + +Shakespeare's mention of the Strawberry and the Nettle (No. 2) deserves +a passing note. It was the common opinion in his day that plants were +affected by the neighbourhood of other plants to such an extent that +they imbibed each other's virtues and faults. Thus sweet flowers were +planted near fruit trees, with the idea of improving the flavour of the +fruit, and evil-smelling trees, like the Elder, were carefully cleared +away from fruit trees, lest they should be tainted. But the Strawberry +was supposed to be an exception to the rule, and was supposed to thrive +in the midst of "evil communications" without being corrupted. Preachers +and emblem-writers naturally seized upon this: "In tilling our gardens +we cannot but admire the fresh innocence and purity of the Strawberry, +because although it creeps along the ground, and is continually crushed +by serpents, lizards, and other venomous reptiles, yet it does not +imbibe the slightest impression of poison, or the smallest malignant +quality, a true sign that it has no affinity with poison. And so it is +with human virtues," &c. "In conversation take everything peacefully, no +matter what is said or done. In this manner you may remain innocent +amidst the hissing of serpents, and, as a little Strawberry, you will +not suffer contamination from slimy things creeping near you."--ST. +FRANCIS DE SALES. + +I need only add that the Strawberry need not be confined to the kitchen +garden, as there are some varieties which make very good carpet plants, +such as the variegated Strawberry, which, however, is very capricious in +its variegation; the double Strawberry, which bears pretty white +button-like flowers; and the Fragaria lucida from California, which has +very bright shining leaves, and was, when first introduced, supposed to +be useful in crossing with other species; but I have not heard that this +has been successfully effected. + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[279:1] "Mrs. Somerville made for me a delicate outline sketch of what +is called Othello's house in Venice, and a beautifully coloured copy of +his shield surmounted by the Doge's cap, and bearing three Mulberries +for device--proving the truth of the assertion that the _Otelli del +Moro_ were a noble Venetian folk, who came originally from the Morea, +whose device was the Mulberry, the growth of that country, and showing +how curious a jumble Shakespeare has made both of name and device in +calling him a _Moor_, and embroidering his arms on his handkerchief as +_Strawberries_."--F. KEMBLE'S _Records_, vol. i. 145. + +[281:1] It seems probable that the Romans only knew of the Wild +Strawberry, of which both Virgil and Ovid speak-- + + "Qui legitis flores et humi nascentia fraga."--_Ecl._, ii. + + + "Contentique cibis nullo cogente creatis + Arbuteos foetus montanaque fraga legebant."--_Metam._, i, 105. + +[282:1] "Quae neque confirmare argumentis neque refellere in animo est; +ex ingenio suo quisque demat vel addat fidem."--TACITUS. + +[282:2] The flowers of Fragaria lucida are slightly violet-scented, but +I know of no Strawberry flower that can be said to "give most odorous +smell." + +[282:3] + + "The wood nymphs oftentimes would busied be, + And pluck for him the blushing Strawberry, + Making from them a bracelet on a bent, + Which for a favour to this swain they sent." + + BROWNE'S _Brit. Past._, i, 2. + + + + +SUGAR. + + + (1) _Prince Henry._ + + But, sweet Ned--to sweeten which name of Ned, I give thee this + pennyworth of Sugar, clapped even now into my hand by an + under-skinker. + + * * * * * + + To drive away the time till Falstaff comes, I prithee, do thou + stand in some by-room, while I question my puny drawer to + what end he gave me the Sugar. + + * * * * * + + Nay, but hark you, Francis; for the Sugar thou gavest me, + 'twas a pennyworth, was't not? + + _1st Henry IV_, act ii, sc. 4 (23, 31, 64). + + + (2) _Biron._ + + White-handed mistress, one sweet word with thee. + + _Princess._ + + Honey, and Milk, and Sugar, there is three. + + _Love's Labour's Lost_, act v, sc. 2 (230). + + + (3) _Quickly._ + + And in such wine and Sugar of the best and the fairest, that + would have won any woman's heart. + + _Merry Wives_, act ii, sc. 2 (70). + + + (4) _Bassanio._ + + Here are sever'd lips + Parted with Sugar breath; so sweet a bar + Should sunder such sweet friends. + + _Merchant of Venice_, act iii, sc. 2 (118). + + + (5) _Touchstone._ + + Honesty coupled to beauty is to have honey a sauce to Sugar. + + _As You Like It_, act iii, sc. 2 (30). + + + (6) _Northumberland._ + + Your fair discourse hath been as Sugar, + Making the hard way sweet and delectable. + + _Richard II_, act ii, sc. 3 (6). + + + (7) _Clown._ + + Let me see,--what am I to buy for our sheep-shearing feast? + Three pound of Sugar, five pound of Currants. + + _Winter's Tale_, act iv, sc. 3 (39). + + + (8) _K. Henry._ + + You have witchcraft in your lips, Kate: there is more + eloquence in a Sugar touch of them than in the tongues of + the French council. + + _Henry V_, act v, sc. 2 (401). + + + (9) _Queen Margaret._ + + Poor painted Queen, vain flourish of my fortune! + Why strew'st thou Sugar on that bottled spider, + Whose deadly web ensnareth thee about? + + _Richard III_, act i, sc. 3 (241). + + + (10) _Gloucester._ + + Your grace attended to their Sugar'd words, + But look'd not on the poison of their hearts. + + _Richard III_, act iii, sc. 1 (13). + + + (11) _Polonius._ + + We are oft to blame in this-- + Tis too much proved--that with devotion's visage + And pious actions we do Sugar o'er + The devil himself. + + _Hamlet_, act iii, sc. 1 (46). + + + (12) _Brabantio._ + + These sentences, to Sugar, or to gall, + Being strong on both sides, are equivocal. + + _Othello_, act i, sc. 3 (216). + + + (13) _Timon._ + + And never learn'd + The icy precepts of respect, but follow'd + The Sugar'd game before thee. + + _Timon of Athens_, act iv, sc. 3 (257). + + + (14) _Pucelle._ + + By fair persuasion mix'd with Sugar'd words + We will entice the Duke of Burgundy. + + _1st Henry VI_, act iii, sc. 3 (18). + + + (15) _K. Henry._ + + Hide not thy poison with such Sugar'd words. + + _2nd Henry VI_, act iii, sc. 2 (45). + + + (16) _Prince Henry._ + + One poor pennyworth of Sugar-candy, to make thee long-winded. + + _1st Henry IV_, act iii, sc. 3 (180). + + + (17) + + Thy Sugar'd tongue to bitter Wormwood taste. + + _Lucrece_ (893). + +As a pure vegetable product, though manufactured, Sugar cannot be passed +over in an account of the plants of Shakespeare; but it will not be +necessary to say much about it. Yet the history of the migrations of the +Sugar-plant is sufficiently interesting to call for a short notice. + +Its original home seems to have been in the East Indies, whence it was +imported in very early times. It is probably the "sweet cane" of the +Bible; and among classical writers it is named by Strabo, Lucan, Varro, +Seneca, Dioscorides, and Pliny. The plant is said to have been +introduced into Europe during the Crusades, and to have been cultivated +in the Morea, Rhodes, Malta, Sicily, and Spain.[286:1] By the Spaniards +it was taken first to Madeira and the Cape de Verd Islands, and, very +soon after the discovery of America, to the West Indies. There it soon +grew rapidly, and increased enormously, and became a chief article of +commerce, so that though we now almost look upon it as entirely a New +World plant, it is in fact but a stranger there, that has found a most +congenial home. + +In 1468 the price of Sugar was sixpence a pound, equal to six shillings +of our money,[287:1] but in Shakespeare's time it must have been very +common,[287:2] or it could not so largely have worked its way into the +common English language and proverbial expressions; and it must also +have been very cheap, or it could not so entirely have superseded the +use of honey, which in earlier times was the only sweetening material. + +Shakespeare may have seen the living plant, for it was grown as a +curiosity in his day, though Gerard could not succeed with it: "Myself +did plant some shootes thereof in my garden, and some in Flanders did +the like, but the coldness of our clymate made an end of myne, and I +think the Flemmings will have the like profit of their labour." But he +bears testimony to the large use of Sugar in his day; "of the juice of +the reede is made the most pleasant and profitable sweet called Sugar, +whereof is made infinite confections, sirupes, and such like, as also +preserving and conserving of sundrie fruits, herbes and flowers, as +roses, violets, rosemary flowers and such like." + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[286:1] "It is the juice of certain canes or reedes whiche growe most +plentifully in the Ilandes of Madera, Sicilia, Cyprus, Rhodus and Candy. +It is made by art in boyling of the Canes, much like as they make their +white salt in the Witches in Cheshire."--COGHAN, _Haven of Health_, +1596, p. 110. + +[287:1] "Babee's Book," xxx. + +[287:2] It is mentioned by Chaucer-- + + "Gyngerbred that was so fyn. + And licorys and eek comyn + With Sugre that is trye."--_Tale of Sir Thopas._ + + + + +SWEET MARJORAM, _see_ MARJORAM. + + + + +SYCAMORE. + + + (1) _Desdemona_ (singing). + + The poor soul sat sighing by a Sycamore tree. + + _Othello_, act iv, sc. 3 (41). + + + (2) _Benvolio._ + + Underneath the grove of Sycamore + That westward rooteth from the city's side, + So early walking did I see your son. + + _Romeo and Juliet_, act i, sc. 1 (130). + + + (3) _Boyet._ + + Under the cool shade of a Sycamore + I thought to close mine eyes some half an hour. + + _Love's Labour's Lost_, act v, sc. 2 (89). + +In its botanical relationship, the Sycamore is closely allied to the +Maple, and was often called the Great Maple, and is still so called in +Scotland. It is not indigenous in Great Britain, but it has long been +naturalized among us, and has taken so kindly to our soil and climate +that it is one of our commonest trees. It is one of the best of forest +trees for resisting wind; it "scorns to be biassed in its mode of growth +even by the prevailing wind, but shooting its branches with equal +boldness in every direction, shows no weatherside to the storm, and may +be broken, but never can be bended."-_Old Mortality_, c. i. + +The history of the name is curious. The Sycomore, or Zicamine tree of +the Bible and of Theophrastus and Dioscorides, is the Fig-mulberry, a +large handsome tree indigenous in Africa and Syria, and largely planted, +partly for the sake of its fruit, and especially for the delicious shade +it gives. With this tree the early English writers were not acquainted, +but they found the name in the Bible, and applied it to any shade-giving +tree. Thus in AElfric's Vocabulary in the tenth century it is given to +the Aspen--"Sicomorus vel celsa aeps." Chaucer gives the name to some +hedge shrub, but he probably used it for any thick shrub, without any +very special distinction-- + + "The hedge also that yedde in compas + And closed in all the greene herbere + With Sicamour was set and Eglateere, + Wrethen in fere so well and cunningly + That every branch and leafe grew by measure + Plaine as a bord, of an height by and by." + + _The Flower and the Leaf._ + +Our Sycamore would be very ill suited to make the sides and roof of an +arbour, but before the time of Shakespeare it seems certain that the +name was attached to our present tree, and it is so called by Gerard and +Parkinson. + +The Sycamore is chiefly planted for its rapid growth rather than for +its beauty. It becomes a handsome tree when fully grown, but as a young +tree it is stiff and heavy, and at all times it is so infested with +honeydew as to make it unfit for planting on lawns or near paths. It +grows well in the north, where other trees will not well flourish, and +"we frequently meet with the tree apart in the fields, or unawares in +remote localities amidst the Lammermuirs and the Cheviots, where it is +the surviving witness of the former existence of a hamlet there. Hence +to the botanical rambler it has a more melancholy character than the +Yew. It throws him back on past days, when he who planted the tree was +the owner of the land and of the Hall, and whose name and race are +forgotten even by tradition. . . . And there is reasonable pride in the +ancestry when a grove of old gentlemanly Sycamores still shadows the +Hall."--JOHNSTON. But these old Sycamores were not planted only for +beauty: they were sometimes planted for a very unpleasant use. "They +were used by the most powerful barons in the West of Scotland for +hanging their enemies and refractory vassals on, and for this reason +were called _dool_ or grief trees. Of these there are three yet +standing, the most memorable being one near the fine old castle of +Cassilis, one of the seats of the Marquis of Ailsa, on the banks of the +River Doon. It was used by the family of Kennedy, who were the most +powerful barons of the West of Scotland, for the purpose above +mentioned."--JOHNS. + +The wood of the Sycamore is useful for turning and a few other purposes, +but is not very durable. The sap, as in all the Maples, is full of +sugar, and the pollen is very curious; "it appears globular in the +microscope, but if it be touched with anything moist, the globules burst +open with four valves, and then they appear in the form of a +cross."--MILLER. + + + + +THISTLE (_see also_ HOLY THISTLE). + + + (1) _Burgundy._ + + And nothing teems + But hateful Docks, rough Thistles, Kecksies, Burs. + + _Henry V_, act v, sc. 2 (51). + + + (2) _Bottom._ + + Mounsieur Cobweb, good mounsieur, get you your weapons ready + in your hand, and kill me a red-hipped humble bee on the top + of a Thistle; and, good mounsieur, bring me the honey-bag. + + _Midsummer Night's Dream_, act iv, sc. 1 (10). + +Thistle is the old English name for a large family of plants occurring +chiefly in Europe and Asia, of which we have fourteen species in Great +Britain, arranged under the botanical families of Carlina, Carduus, and +Onopordon. It is the recognized symbol of untidiness and carelessness, +being found not so much in barren ground as in good ground not properly +cared for. So good a proof of a rich soil does the Thistle give, that a +saying is attributed to a blind man who was choosing a piece of +land--"Take me to a Thistle;" and Tusser says-- + + "Much wetnes, hog-rooting, and land out of hart makes Thistles + a number foorthwith to upstart. If Thistles so growing proove + lustie and long, It signifieth land to be hartie and strong." + + _October's Husbandry_ (13). + +If the Thistles were not so common, and if we could get rid of the +associations they suggest, there are probably few of our wild plants +that we should more admire: they are stately in their foliage and habit, +and some of their flowers are rich in colour, and the Thistledown, which +carries the seed far and wide, is very beautiful, and was once +considered useful as a sign of rain, for "if the down flyeth off +Coltsfoot, Dandelyon, or Thistles when there is no winde, it is a signe +of rain."--COLES. + +It had still another use in rustic divination-- + + "Upon the various earth's embroidered gown, + There is a weed upon whose head grows down, + Sow Thistle 'tis y'clept, whose downy wreath + If anyone can blow off at a breath + We deem her for a maid."--BROWNE'S _Brit. Past._, i, 4. + +But it is owing to these pretty Thistledowns that the plant becomes a +most undesirable neighbour, for they carry the seed everywhere, and +wherever it is carried, it soon vegetates, and a fine crop of Thistles +very quickly follows. In this way, if left to themselves, the Thistles +will soon monopolize a large extent of country, to the extinction of +other plants, as they have done in parts of the American prairies, and +as they did in Australia, till a most stringent Act of Parliament was +passed about twenty years ago, imposing heavy penalties upon all who +neglected to destroy the Thistles on their land. For these reasons we +cannot admit the Thistle into the garden, at least not our native +Thistles; but there are some foreigners which may well be admitted. +There are the handsome yellow Thistles of the South of Europe +(_Scolymus_), which besides their beauty have a classical interest. +"Hesiod elegantly describing the time of year, says, + + +emos de skolymos t'anthei+, + +when the Scolymus flowers, _i.e._, in hot weather or summer ("Op. et +dies," 582). This plant crowned with its golden flowers is abundant +throughout Sicily."--HOGG'S _Classical Plants of Sicily_. There is the +Fish-bone Thistle (_Chamaepeuce diacantha_) from Syria, a very handsome +plant, and, like most of the Thistles, a biennial; but if allowed to +flower and go to seed, it will produce plenty of seedlings for a +succession of years. And there is a grand scarlet Thistle from Mexico, +the Erythrolena conspicua ("Sweet," vol. ii. p. 134), which must be +almost the handsomest of the family, and which was grown in England +fifty years ago, but has been long lost. There are many others that may +deserve a place as ornamental plants, but they find little favour, for +"they are only Thistles." + +Any notice of the Thistle would be imperfect without some mention of the +Scotch Thistle. It is the one point in the history of the plant that +protects it from contempt. We dare not despise a plant which is the +honoured badge of our neighbours and relations, the Scotch; which is +ennobled as the symbol of the Order of the Thistle, that claims to be +the most ancient of all our Orders of high honour; and which defies you +to insult it or despise it by its proud mottoes, "Nemo me impune +lacessit," "Ce que Dieu garde, est bien garde." What is the true Scotch +Thistle even the Scotch antiquarians cannot decide, and in the +uncertainty it is perhaps safest to say that no Thistle in particular +can claim the sole honour, but that it extends to every member of the +family that can be found in Scotland.[292:1] + +Shakespeare has noticed the love of the bee for the Thistle, and it +seems that it is for other purposes than honey gathering that he finds +the Thistle useful. For "a beauty has the Thistle, when every delicate +hair arrests a dew-drop on a showery April morning, and when the purple +blossom of a roadside Thistle turns its face to Heaven and welcomes the +wild bee, who lies close upon its flowerets on the approach of some +storm cloud until its shadow be past away. For with unerring instinct +the bee well knows that the darkness is but for a moment, and that the +sun will shine out again ere long."--LADY WILKINSON. + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[292:1] See an interesting and fanciful account of the fitness of the +Thistle as the emblem of Scotland in Ruskin's "Proserpina," pp. 135-139. + + + + +THORNS. + + + (1) _Ariel._ + + Tooth'd Briers, sharp Furzes, pricking Goss, and Thorns, + Which entered their frail skins. + + _Tempest_, act iv, sc. 1 (180). + + + (2) _Quince._ + + One must come in with a bush of Thorns and a lanthorn, and say + he comes in to disfigure, or to present, the person of + Moonshine. + + _Midsummer Night's Dream_, act iii, sc. 1 (60). + + + (3) _Puck._ + + For Briers and Thorns at their apparel snatch. + + _Ibid._, act iii, sc. 2 (29). + + + (4) _Prologue._ + + This man with lanthorn, dog, and bush of Thorn, + Presenteth Moonshine. + + _Ibid._, act v, sc. 1 (136). + + + (5) _Moonshine._ + + All that I have to say, is to tell you that the lanthorn is + the moon; I, the man in the moon; this Thorn-bush, my + Thorn-bush; and this dog, my dog. + + _Ibid._ (261). + + + (6) _Dumain._ + + But, alack, my hand is sworn + Ne'er to pluck thee from thy Thorn. + + _Love's Labour's Lost_, act iv, sc. 3 (111). + + + (7) _Carlisle._ + + The woe's to come; the children yet unborn + Shall feel this day as sharp to them as Thorn. + + _Richard II_, act iv, sc. 1 (322). + + + (8) _King Henry._ + + The care you have of us, + To mow down Thorns that would annoy our foot, + Is worthy praise. + + _2nd Henry VI_, act iii, sc. 1 (66). + + + (9) _Gloucester._ + + And I--like one lost in a Thorny wood, + That rends the Thorns and is rent with the Thorns, + Seeking a way, and straying from the way. + + _3rd Henry VI_, act iii, sc. 2 (174). + + + (10) _K. Edward._ + + Brave followers, yonder stands the Thorny wood. + + _Ibid._, act v, sc. 4 (67). + + + (11) _K. Edward._ + + What! can so young a Thorn begin to prick. + + _Ibid._, act v, sc. 4 (13). + + + (12) _Romeo._ + + Is love a tender thing? It is too rough, + Too rude, too boisterous, and it pricks like Thorn. + + _Romeo and Juliet_, act i, sc. 4 (25). + + + (13) _Boult._ + + A Thornier piece of ground. + + _Pericles_, act iv, sc. 6 (153). + + + (14) _Leontes._ + + Which being spotted + Is goads, Thorns, Nettles, tails of wasps. + + _Winter's Tale_, act i, sc. 2 (328). + + + (15) _Florizel._ + + But O, the Thorns we stand upon! + + _Ibid._, act iv, sc. 4 (596). + + + (16) _Ophelia._ + + Do not, as some ungracious pastors do, + Shew me the steep and Thorny path to Heaven. + + _Hamlet_, act i, sc. 3 (47). + + + (17) _Ghost._ + + Leave her to Heaven, + And to those Thorns that in her bosom lodge, + To prick and sting her. + + _Ibid._, act i, sc. 5 (86). + + + (18) _Bastard._ + + I am amazed, methinks, and lose my way + Among the Thorns and dangers of this world. + + _King John_, act iv, sc. 3 (40). + +_See also_ ROSE, Nos. 7, 18, 22, 30, the scene in the Temple gardens; +and BRIER, No. 11. + +Thorns and Thistles are the typical emblems of desolation and trouble, +and so Shakespeare uses them; and had he spoken of Thorns in this sense +only, I should have been doubtful as to admitting them among his other +plants, but as in some of the passages they stand for the Hawthorn tree +and the Rose bush, I could not pass them by altogether. They might need +no further comment beyond referring for further information about them +to Hawthorn, Briar, Rose, and Bramble; but in speaking of the Bramble I +mentioned the curious legend which tells why the Bramble employs itself +in collecting wool from every stray sheep, and there is another very +curious instance in Blount's "Antient Tenures" of a connection between +Thorns and wool. The original document is given in Latin, and is dated +39th Henry III. It may be thus translated: "Peter de Baldwyn holds in +Combes, in the county of Surrey, by the service to go a wool gathering +for our Lady the Queen among the White Thorns, and if he refuses to +gather it he shall pay into the Treasury of our Lord the King xxs. per +annum." I should almost suspect a false reading, as the editor is +inclined to do, but that many other services, equally curious and +improbable, may easily be found. + + + + +THYME. + + + (1) _Oberon._ + + I know a bank where the wild Thyme blows. + + _Midsummer Night's Dream_, act ii, sc. 1 (249). + + + (2) _Iago._ + + We will plant Nettles or sow Lettuce, set Hyssop and weed up Thyme. + + _Othello_, act i, sc. 3 (324). + (_See_ HYSSOP.) + + + (3) And sweet Time true. + + _Two Noble Kinsmen_, Introd. song. + +It is one of the most curious of the curiosities of English plant names +that the Wild Thyme--a plant so common and so widely distributed, and +that makes itself so easily known by its fine aromatic, pungent scent, +that it is almost impossible to pass it by without notice--has yet no +English name, and seems never to have had one. Thyme is the Anglicised +form of the Greek and Latin _Thymum_, which name it probably got from +its use for incense in sacrifices, while its other name of _serpyllum_ +pointed out its creeping habit. I do not know when the word Thyme was +first introduced into the English language, for it is another curious +point connected with the name, that _thymum_ does not occur in the old +English vocabularies. We have in AElfric's "Vocabulary," "Pollegia, +hyl-wyrt," which may perhaps be the Thyme, though it is generally +supposed to be the Pennyroyal; we have in a Vocabulary of thirteenth +century, "Epitime, epithimum, fordboh," which also may be the Wild +Thyme; we have in a Vocabulary of the fifteenth century, "Hoc sirpillum, +A{ce} petergrys;" and in a Pictorial Vocabulary of the same date, "Hoc +cirpillum, A{ce} a pellek" (which word is probably a misprint, for in +the "Promptorium Parvulorum," c. 1440, it is "Peletyr, herbe, _serpillum +piretrum_"), both of which are almost certainly the Wild Thyme; while in +an Anglo-Saxon Vocabulary of the tenth or eleventh century we have +"serpulum, crop-leac," _i.e._, the Onion, which must certainly be a +mistake of the compiler. So that not even in its Latin form does the +name occur, except in the "Promptorium Parvulorum," where it is "Tyme, +herbe, _Tima_, _Timum_--Tyme, floure, _Timus_;" and in the "Catholicon +Anglicum," when it is "Tyme; _timum epitimum; flos ejus est_." It is +thus a puzzle how it can have got naturalized among us, for in +Shakespeare's time it was completely naturalized. + +I have already quoted Lord Bacon's account of it under BURNET, but I +must quote it again here: "Those flowers which perfume the air most +delightfully, not passed by as the rest, but being trodden upon and +crushed, are three--that is Burnet, Wild Thyme, and Water mints; +therefore you are to set whole alleys of them, to have the pleasure when +you walk or tread;" and again in his pleasant description of the heath +or wild garden, which he would have in every "prince-like garden," and +"framed as much as may be to a natural wildness," he says, "I like also +little heaps, in the nature of mole-hills (such as are in wild heaths) +to be set some with Wild Thyme, some with Pinks, some with Germander." +Yet the name may have been used sometimes as a general name for any +wild, strong-scented plant. It can only be in this sense that Milton +used it-- + + "Thee, shepherd! thee the woods and desert caves, + With Wild Thyme and the gadding Vine o'ergrown, + And all their echoes mourn." + + _Lycidas._ + +for certainly a desert cave is almost the last place in which we should +look for the true Wild Thyme. + +It is as a bee-plant especially that the Thyme has always been +celebrated. Spenser speaks of it as "the bees alluring Tyme," and Ovid +says of it, speaking of Chloris or Flora-- + + "Mella meum munus; volucres ego mella daturos + Ad violam et cytisos, et Thyma cana voco." + + _Fasti_, v. + +so that the Thyme became proverbial as the symbol of sweetness. It was +the highest compliment that the shepherd could pay to his mistress-- + + "Nerine Galatea, Thymo mihi dulcior Hyblae." + + VIRGIL, _Ecl._ vii. + +And it was because of its wild Thyme that Mount Hymettus became so +celebrated for its honey--"Mella Thymi redolentia flore" (Ovid). "Thyme, +for the time it lasteth, yeeldeth most and best honni, and therefore in +old time was accounted chief (Thymus aptissimus ad mellificum--Pastus +gratissimus apibus Thymum est--Plinii, 'His. Nat.') + + 'Dum thymo pascentur apes, dum rore cicadae.' + + VIRGIL, _Georg._ + +Hymettus in Greece and Hybla in Sicily were so famous for Bees and +Honni, because there grew such store of Tyme; propter hoc Siculum mel +fert palmam, quod ibi Thymum bonum et frequens est."--VARRO, _The +Feminine Monarchie_, 1634. + +The Wild Thyme can scarcely be considered a garden plant, except in its +variegated and golden varieties, which are very handsome, but if it +should ever come naturally in the turf, it should be welcomed and +cherished for its sweet scent. The garden Thyme (_T. vulgaris_) must of +course be in every herb garden; and there are a few species which make +good plants for the rockwork, such as T. lanceolatus from Greece, a very +low-growing shrub, with narrow, pointed leaves; T. carnosus, which makes +a pretty little shrub, and others; while the Corsican Thyme (_Mentha +Requieni_) is perhaps the lowest and closest-growing of all herbs, +making a dark-green covering to the soil, and having a very strong +scent, though more resembling Peppermint than Thyme. + + + + +TOADSTOOLS, _see_ MUSHROOMS. + + + + +TURNIPS. + + + _Anne._ + + Alas! I had rather be set quick i' the earth + And boul'd to death with Turnips. + + _Merry Wives of Windsor_, act iii, sc. 4 (89). + +The Turnips of Shakespeare's time were like ours, and probably as good, +though their cultivation seems to have been chiefly confined to gardens. +It is not very certain whether the cultivated Turnip is the wild Turnip +improved in England by cultivation, or whether we are indebted for it to +the Romans, and that the wild one is only the degenerate form of the +cultivated plant; for though the wild Turnip is admitted into the +English flora, yet its right to the admission is very doubtful. But if +we did not get the vegetable from the Romans we got its name. The old +name for it was _noep_, _nep_, or _neps_, which was only the English +form of the Latin _napus_, while Turnip is the corruption of _terrae +napus_, but when the first syllable was added I do not know. There is a +curious perversion in the name, for our Turnip is botanically Brassica +rapa, while the Rape is Brassica napus, so that the English and Latin +have changed places, the Napus becoming a Rape and the Rapa a Nep. + +The present large field cultivation of Turnips is of comparatively a +modern date, though the field Turnip and garden Turnip are only +varieties of the same species, while there are also many varieties both +of the field and garden Turnip. "One field proclaims the Scotch variety, +while the bluer cast tells its hardy Swedish origin; the tankard +proclaims a deep soil, and the lover of boiled mutton, rejoicing, sees +the yellower tint of the Dutch or Stone Turnip, which he desires to meet +with again in the market."--PHILLIPS. + +It is not very easy to speak of the moral qualities of Turnips, or to +make them the symbols of much virtue, yet Gwillim did so: "He beareth +sable, a Turnip proper, a chief or gutte de Larmes. This is a wholesome +root, and yieldeth great relief to the poor, and prospereth best in a +hot sandy ground, and may signifie a person of good disposition, whose +vertuous demeanour flourisheth most prosperously, even in that soil, +where the searching heat of envy most aboundeth. This differeth much in +nature from that whereof it is said, 'And that there should not be among +you any root that bringeth forth gall and wormwood.'"--GWILLIM'S +_Heraldry_, sec. iii. c. 11. + + + + +VETCHES. + + + _Iris._ + + Ceres, most bounteous lady, thy rich leas, + Of Wheat, Rye, Barley, Vetches, Oats, and Pease. + + _Tempest_, act iv, sc. 1 (60). + +The cultivated Vetch (_Vicia sativa_) is probably not a British plant, +and it is not very certain to what country it rightly belongs; but it +was very probably introduced into England by the Romans as an excellent +and easily-grown fodder-plant. There are several Vetches that are true +British plants, and they are among the most beautiful ornaments of our +lanes and hedges. Two especially deserve to take a place in the garden +for their beauty; but they require watching, or they will scramble into +parts where their presence is not desirable; these are V. cracca and V. +sylvatica. V. cracca has a very bright pure blue flower, and may be +allowed to scramble over low bushes; V. sylvatica is a tall climber, and +may be seen in copses and high hedges climbing to the tops of the Hazels +and other tall bushes. It is one of the most graceful of our British +plants, and perhaps quite the most graceful of our climbers; it bears an +abundance of flowers, which are pure white streaked and spotted with +pale blue; it is not a very common plant, but I have often seen it in +Gloucestershire and Somersetshire, and wherever it is found it is +generally in abundance. + +The other name for the Vetch is Tares, which is, no doubt, an old +English word that has never been satisfactorily explained. The word has +an interest from its biblical associations, though modern scholars +decide that the Zizania is wrongly translated Tares, and that it is +rather a bastard Wheat or Darnel. + + + + +VINES. + + + (1) _Titania._ + + Feed him with Apricocks and Dewberries, + With purple Grapes, green Figs, and Mulberries. + + _Midsummer Night's Dream_, act iii, sc. 1 (169). + + + (2) _Menenius._ + + The tartness of his face sours ripe Grapes. + + _Coriolanus_, act v, sc. 4 (18). + + + (3) _Song._ + + Come, thou monarch of the Vine, + Plumpy Bacchus, with pink eyne! + In thy fats our cares be drown'd, + With thy Grapes our hairs be crown'd. + + _Antony and Cleopatra_, act ii, sc. 7 (120). + + + (4) _Cleopatra._ + + Now no more + The juice of Egypt's Grape shall moist this lip. + + _Ibid._, act v, sc. 2 (284). + + + (5) _Timon._ + + Dry up thy Marrows, Vines, and plough-torn leas. + + _Timon of Athens_, act iv, sc. 3 (193). + + + (6) _Timon._ + + Go, suck the subtle blood o' the Grape, + Till the high fever seethe your blood to froth. + + _Ibid._ (432). + + + (7) _Touchstone._ + + The heathen philosopher, when he had a desire to eat a Grape, + would open his lips when he put it into his mouth; meaning + thereby that Grapes were made to eat and lips to open. + + _As You Like It_, act v, sc. 1 (36). + + + (8) _Iago._ + + Blessed Fig's end! the wine she drinks is made of Grapes. + + _Othello_, act ii, sc 1 (250). + + + (9) _Lafeu._ + + O, will you eat no Grapes, my royal fox? + Yes, but you will my noble Grapes, an if + My royal fox could reach them. + + _All's Well that Ends Well_, act ii, sc. 1 (73). + + + (10) _Lafeu._ + + There's one Grape yet. + + _Ibid._, act ii, sc. 1 (105). + + + (11) _Pompey._ + + 'Twas in "The Bunch of Grapes," where, indeed, you have a + delight to sit. + + _Measure for Measure_, act ii, sc. 1 (133). + + + (12) _Constable._ + + Let us quit all + And give our Vineyards to a barbarous people. + + _Henry V_, act iii, sc. 5 (3). + + + (13) _Burgundy._ + + Her Vine, the merry cheerer of the heart, + Unpruned, dies. . . . + . . . . . . + Our Vineyards, fallows, meads, and hedges, + Defective in their natures, grow to wildness. + + _Ibid._, act v, sc. 2 (41, 54). + + + (14) _Mortimer._ + + And pithless arms, like to a wither'd Vine + That droops his sapless branches to the ground. + + _1st Henry VI_, act ii, sc. 5 (11). + + + (15) _Cranmer._ + + In her days every man shall eat in safety, + Under his own Vine, what he plants; and sing + The merry songs of peace to all his neighbours. + + _Henry VIII_, act v, sc. 5 (34). + + + (16) _Cranmer._ + + Peace, plenty, love, truth, terror, + That were the servants to this chosen infant, + Shall then be his, and like a Vine grow to him. + + _Ibid._ (48). + + + (17) _Lear._ + + Now, our joy, + Although the last, not least; to whose young love + The Vines of France and milk of Burgundy + Strive to be interess'd. + + _King Lear_, act i, sc. 1 (84). + + + (18) _Arviragus._ + + And let the stinking Elder, grief, untwine + His perishing root with the increasing Vine! + + _Cymbeline_, act iv, sc. 2 (59). + + + (19) _Adriana._ + + Thou art an Elm, my husband, I a Vine, + Whose weakness married to thy stronger state + Makes me with thy strength to communicate. + + _Comedy of Errors_, act ii, sc. 2 (176). + + + (20) _Gonzalo._ + + Bound of land, tilth, Vineyard, none. + + _Tempest_, act ii, sc. 1 (152). + + + (21) _Iris._ + + Thy pole-clipt Vineyard. + + _Ibid._, act iv, sc. 1 (68). + + + (22) _Ceres._ + + Vines with clustering bunches growing, + Plants with goodly burthen bowing. + + _Ibid._ (112). + + + (23) _Richmond._ + + The usurping boar, + That spoil'd your summer fields and fruitful Vines. + + _Richard III_, act v, sc. 2 (7). + + + (24) _Isabella._ + + He hath a garden circummured with brick, + Whose western side is with a Vineyard back'd; + And to that Vineyard is a planched gate, + That makes his opening with this bigger key: + This other doth command a little door, + Which from the Vineyard to the garden leads. + + _Measure for Measure_, act iv, sc. 1 (28). + + + (25) + + The Vine shall grow, but we shall never see it. + + _Two Noble Kinsmen_, act ii, sc. 2 (47). + + + (26) + + Even as poor birds, deceived with painted Grapes, + Do forfeit by the eye and pine the maw. + + _Venus and Adonis_ (601). + + + (27) + + For one sweet Grape, who will the Vine destroy? + + _Lucrece_ (215). + +Besides these different references to the Grape Vine, some of its +various products are mentioned, as Raisins, wine, aquavitae or brandy, +claret (the "thin potations" forsworn by Falstaff), sherris-sack or +sherry, and malmsey. But none of these passages gives us much insight +into the culture of the Vine in England, the whole history of which is +curious and interesting. + +The Vine is not even a native of Europe, but of the East, whence it was +very early introduced into Europe; so early, indeed, that it has +recently been found "fossil in a tufaceous deposit in the South of +France."--DARWIN. It was no doubt brought into England by the Romans. +Tacitus, describing England in the first century after Christ, says +expressly that the Vine did not, and, as he evidently thought, could not +grow there. "Solum, praeter oleam vitemque et caetera calidioribus terris +oriri sueta, patiens frugum, faecundum." Yet Bede, writing in the eighth +century, describes England as "opima frugibus atque arboribus insula, et +alendis apta pecoribus et jumentis Vineas etiam quibusdam in locis +germinans."[301:1] + +From that time till the time of Shakespeare there is abundant proof not +only of the growth of the Vine as we now grow it in gardens, but in +large Vineyards. In Anglo-Saxon times "a Vineyard" is not unfrequently +mentioned in various documents. "Edgar gives the Vineyard situated at +Wecet, with the Vine-dressers."--TURNER'S _Anglo-Saxons_. "'Domesday +Book' contained thirty-eight entries of valuable Vineyards; one in Essex +consisted of six acres, and yielded twenty hogsheads of wine in a good +year. There was another of the same extent at Ware."--H. EVERSHED, in +_Gardener's Chronicle_. So in the Norman times, "Giraldus Cambrensis, +speaking of the Castle of Manorbeer (his birthplace), near Pembroke, +said that it had under its walls, besides a fishpond, a beautiful +garden, enclosed on one side by a Vineyard and on the other by a wood, +remarkable for the projection of its rocks and the height of its Hazel +trees. In the twelfth century Vineyards were not uncommon in +England."--WRIGHT. Neckam, writing in that century, refers to the +usefulness of the Vine when trained against the wall-front: "Pampinus +latitudine sua excipit aeris insultus, cum res ita desiderat, et fenestra +clementiam caloris solaris admittat."--HUDSON TURNER. + +In the time of Shakespeare I suppose that most of the Vines in England +were grown in Vineyards of more or less extent, trained to poles. These +formed the "pole-clipt Vineyards" of No. 21, and are thus described by +Gerard: "The Vine is held up with poles and frames of wood, and by that +means it spreadeth all about and climbeth aloft; it joyneth itselfe unto +trees, or whatsoever standeth next unto it"--in other words, the Vine +was then chiefly grown as a standard in the open ground. + +There are numberless notices in the records and chronicles of extensive +vineyards in England, which it is needless to quote; but it is worth +noticing that the memory of these Vineyards remains not only in the +chronicles and in the treatises which teach of Vine-culture, but also in +the names of streets, &c., which are occasionally met with. There is +"Vineyard Holm," in the Hampshire Downs, and many other places in +Hampshire; the "Vineyard Hills," at Godalming; the "Vines," at Rochester +and Sevenoaks; the "Vineyards," at Bath and Ludlow; the "Vine Fields," +near the Abbey at Bury St. Edmunds;[302:1] the "Vineyard Walk" in +Clerkenwell; and "near Basingstoke the 'Vine' or 'Vine House,' in a +richly wooded spot, where, as is said, the Romans grew the first Vine in +Britain, the memory of which now only survives in the Vine +Hounds;"[303:1] and probably a closer search among the names of fields +in other parts would bring to light many similar instances.[303:2] + +Among the English Vineyards those of Gloucestershire stood pre-eminent. +William of Malmesbury, writing of Gloucestershire in the twelfth +century, says: "This county is planted thicker with Vineyards than any +other in England, more plentiful in crops, and more pleasant in flavour. +For the wines do not offend the mouth with sharpness, since they do not +yield to the French in sweetness" ("De Gestis Pontif.," book iv.) Of +these Vineyards the tradition still remains in the county. The Cotswold +Hills are in many places curiously marked with a succession of steps or +narrow terraces, called "litchets" or "lynches;" these are traditionally +the sites of the old Vineyards, but the tradition cannot be fully +depended on, and the formation of the terraces has been variously +accounted for. By some they are supposed to be natural formations, but +wherever I have seen them they appear to me too regular and artificial; +nor, as far as I am aware, does the oolite, on which formation these +terraces mostly occur, take the form of a succession of narrow terraces. +It seems certain that the ground was artificially formed into these +terraces with very little labour, and that they were utilized for some +special cultivation, and as likely for Vines as for any other.[303:3] It +is also certain that as the Gloucestershire Vineyards were among the +most ancient and the best in England, so they held their ground till +within a very recent period. I cannot find the exact date, but some time +during the last century there is "satisfactory testimony of the full +success of a plantation in Cromhall Park, from which ten hogsheads of +wine were made in the year. The Vine plantation was discontinued or +destroyed in consequence of a dispute with the Rector on a claim of the +tythes."--RUDGE'S _History of Gloucestershire_. This, however, is not +quite the latest notice I have met with, for Phillips, writing in 1820, +says: "There are several flourishing Vineyards at this time in +Somersetshire; the late Sir William Basset, in that county, annually +made some hogsheads of wine, which was palatable and well-bodied. The +idea that we cannot make good wine from our own Grapes is erroneous; I +have tasted it quite equal to the Grave wines, and in some instances, +when kept for eight or ten years, it has been drunk as hock by the +nicest judges."--_Pomarium Britannicum._ It would have been more +satisfactory if Mr. Phillips had told us the exact locality of any of +these "flourishing Vineyards," for I can nowhere else find any account +of them, except that in a map of five miles round Bath in 1801 a +Vineyard is marked at Claverton, formerly in the possession of the +Bassets, and the Vines are distinctly shown.[304:1] At present the +experiment is again being tried by the Marquis of Bute, at Castle Coch, +near Cardiff, to establish a Vineyard, not to produce fruit for the +market, but to produce wine; and as both soil and climate seem very +suitable, there can be little doubt that wine will be produced of a very +fair character. Whether it will be a commercial success is more +doubtful, but probably that is not of much consequence. + +I have dwelt at some length on the subject of the English Vineyards, +because the cultivation of the Vine in Vineyards, like the cultivation +of the Saffron, is a curious instance of an industry foreign to the soil +introduced, and apparently for many years successful,[304:2] and then +entirely, or almost, given up. The reasons for the cessation of the +English Vineyards are not far to seek. Some have attributed it to a +change in the seasons, and have supposed that our summers were formerly +hotter than they are now, bringing as a proof the Vineyards and +English-made wine of other days. This was Parkinson's idea. "Our yeares +in these times do not fall out to be so kindly and hot to ripen the +Grape to make any good wine as formerly they have done." But this is a +mere assertion, and I believe it not to be true. I have little doubt +that quite as good wine could now be made in England as ever was made, +and wine is still made every year in many old-fashioned farmhouses. But +foreign wines can now be produced much better and much cheaper, and that +has caused the cessation of the English Vineyards. It is true that +French and Spanish wines were introduced into England very early, but it +must have been in limited quantities, and at a high price. When the +quantities increased and the price was lowered, it was well to give up +the cultivation of the Vine for some more certain crop better suited to +the soil and the climate, for it must always have been a capricious and +uncertain crop. Hakluyt was one who was very anxious that England should +supply herself with all the necessaries of life without dependence on +foreign countries, yet, writing in Shakespeare's time, he says: "It is +sayd that since we traded to Zante, that the plant that beareth the +Coren is also broughte into this realme from thence, and although it +bring not fruit to perfection, yet it may serve for pleasure, and for +some use, like as our Vines doe which we cannot well spare, although the +climat so colde will not permit us to have good wines of them" +("Voiages, &c.," vol. ii. p. 166). Parkinson says to the same effect: +"Many have adventured to make Vineyards in England, not only in these +later days but in ancient times, as may well witness the sundry places +in this land, entituled by the name of Vineyards, and I have read that +many monasteries in this kingdom having Vineyards had as much wine made +therefrom as sufficed their convents year by year, but long since they +have been destroyed, and the knowledge how to order a Vineyard is also +utterly perished with them. For although divers both nobles and +gentlemen have in these later times endeavoured to plant and make +Vineyards, and to that purpose have caused Frenchmen, being skilfull in +keeping and dressing Vines, to be brought over to perform it, yet either +their skill faileth them or their Vines were not good, or (the most +likely) the soil was not fitting, for they could never make any wine +that was worth the drinking, being so small and heartlesse, that they +soon gave over their practise." + +There is no need to say anything of the modern culture of the Vine, or +its many excellent varieties. Even in Virgil's time the varieties +cultivated were so many that he said-- + + "Sed neque quam multae species, nec nomina quae sint + Est numerus; neque enim numero comprendere refert; + Quem qui scire velit, Lybici velit aequoris idem + Discere quam multae Zephyro turbentur arenae; + Aut ubi navigiis violentior incidit Eurus + Nosse quot Ionii veniant ad littora fluctus." + + _Georgica_, ii, 103. + +And now the number must far exceed those of Virgil's time. "The +cultivated varieties are extremely numerous; Count Odart says that he +will not deny that there may exist throughout the world 700 or 800, +perhaps even 1,000 varieties; but not a third of these have any +value."--DARWIN. These are the Grapes that are grown in our hothouses; +some also of a fine quality are produced in favourable years +out-of-doors. There are also a few which are grown as ornamental shrubs. +The Parsley-leaved Vine (_Vitis laciniosa_) is one that has been grown +in England, certainly since the time of Shakespeare, for its pretty +foliage, its fruit being small and few; but it makes a pretty covering +to a wall or trellis. The small Variegated Vine (_Vitis_ or _Cissus +heterophyllus variegatus_) is another very pretty Vine, forming a small +bush that may be either trained to a wall or grown as a low rockwork +bush; it bears a few Grapes of no value, and is perfectly hardy. Besides +these there are several North American species, which have handsome +foliage, and are very hardy, of which the Vitis riparia or Vigne des +Battures is a desirable tree, as "the flowers have an exquisitely fine +smell, somewhat resembling that of Mignonnette."--DON. I mention this +particularly, because in all the old authors great stress is laid on the +sweetness of the Vine in all its parts, a point of excellence in it +which is now generally overlooked. Lord Bacon reckons "Vine flowers" +among the "things of beauty in season" in May and June, and reckons +among the most sweet-scented flowers, next to Musk Roses and Strawberry +leaves dying, "the flower of the Vines; it is a little dust, like the +dust of a bent, which grows among the duster in the first coming +forth." And Chaucer says: "Scorners faren like the foul toode, that may +noughte endure the soote smel of the Vine roote when it +flourisheth."--_The Persones Tale._ + +Nor must we dismiss the Vine without a few words respecting its sacred +associations, for it is very much owing to these associations that it +has been so endeared to our forefathers and ourselves. Having its native +home in the East, it enters largely into the history and imagery of the +Bible. There is no plant so often mentioned in the Bible, and always +with honour, till the honour culminates in the great similitude, in +which our Lord chose the Vine as the one only plant to which He +condescended to compare Himself--"I am the true Vine!" No wonder that a +plant so honoured should ever have been the symbol of joy and plenty, of +national peace and domestic happiness. + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[301:1] According to Vopiscus, England is indebted to the Emperor Probus +(A.D. 276-282) for the Vine: "Gallis omnibus et Britannis et Hispanis +hinc permisit ut vites haberent, et Vinum conficerent." + +[302:1] At Stonehouse "there are two arpens of Vineyard."--_Domesday +Book_, quoted by Rudder. Also "the Vineyard" was the residence of the +Abbots of Gloucester. It was at St. Mary de Lode near Gloucester, and +"the Vineyard and Park were given to the Bishopric of Gloucester at its +foundation and again confirmed 6th Edward VI."--RUDDER. + +[303:1] "Edinburgh Review," April, 1860. + +[303:2] See Preface to "Palladius on Husbandrie," p. viii. (Early +English Text Society), for a further account of old English Vineyards. + +[303:3] For a very interesting account of the formation of lynches, and +their connection with the ancient communal cultivation of the soil see +Seebohm's "English Village Community," p. 5. + +[304:1] On this Vineyard Mr. Skrine, the present owner of Claverton, has +kindly informed me that it was sold in 1701 by Mr. Richard Holder for +L21,367, of which L28 was for "four hogsheads of wine of the Vineyards +of Claverton." + +[304:2] Andrew Boorde was evidently a lover of good wine, and his +account is: "This I do say that all the kingdoms of the world have not +so many sundry kindes of wine as we in England, and yet _there is +nothing to make of_."--_Breviary of Health_, 1598. + + + + +VIOLETS. + + + (1) _Queen._ + + The Violets, Cowslips, and the Primroses, + Bear to my closet. + + _Cymbeline_, act i, sc. 5 (83). + + + (2) _Angelo._ + + It is I, + That, lying by the Violet in the sun, + Do as the carrion does, not as the flower, + Corrupt with virtuous season. + + _Measure for Measure_, act ii, sc. 2 (165). + + + (3) _Oberon._ + + Where Oxlips and the nodding Violet grows. + + _Midsummer Night's Dream_, act ii, sc. 1 (250). + + + (4) _Salisbury._ + + To gild refined gold, to paint the Lily, + To throw a perfume on the Violet, + To smooth the ice, or add another hue + Unto the rainbow, or with taper-light + To seek the beauteous eye of Heaven to garnish, + Is wasteful and ridiculous excess. + + _King John_, act iv, sc. 2 (11). + + + (5) _K. Henry._ + + I think the king is but a man, as I am; the + Violet smells to him as it doth to me. + + _Henry V_, act iv, sc. 1 (105). + + + (6) _Laertes._ + + A Violet in the youth of primy nature, + Forward, not permanent; sweet, not lasting. + The perfume and suppliance of a minute; + No more. + + _Hamlet_, act i, sc. 3 (7). + + + (7) _Ophelia._ + + I would give you some Violets, but they withered all when my + father died. + + _Ibid._, act iv, sc. 5 (184). + + + (8) _Laertes._ + + Lay her i' the earth, + And from her fair and unpolluted flesh + May Violets spring! + + _Ibid._, act v, sc. 1 (261). + + + (9) _Belarius._ + + They are as gentle + As zephyrs blowing below the Violet, + Not wagging his sweet head. + + _Cymbeline_, act iv, sc. 2 (171). + + + (10) _Duke._ + + That strain again! It had a dying fall: + O, it came o'er my ear like the sweet sound, + That breathes upon a bank of Violets, + Stealing and giving odour! + + _Twelfth Night_, act i, sc. 1 (4). + + + (11) _Song of Spring._ + + When Daisies pied, and Violets blue, &c. + + _Love's Labour's Lost_, act v, sc. 2 (904). + (_See_ CUCKOO-BUDS.) + + + (12) _Perdita._ + + Violets dim, + But sweeter than the lids of Juno's eyes + Or Cytherea's breath. + + _Winter's Tale_, act iv, sc. 4 (120). + + + (13) _Duchess._ + + Welcome, my son; Who are the Violets now, + That strew the green lap of the new-come spring? + + _Richard II_, act v, sc. 2 (46). + + + (14) _Marina._ + + The yellows, blues, + The purple Violets and Marigolds, + Shall as a carpet hang upon thy grave + While summer-days do last. + + _Pericles_, act iv, sc. 1 (16). + + + (15) + + These blue-veined Violets whereon we lean + Never can blab, nor know not what we mean. + + _Venus and Adonis_ (125). + + + (16) + + Who when he lived, his breath and beauty set + Gloss on the Rose, smell to the Violet. + + _Ibid._ (936). + + + (17) + + When I behold the Violet past prime, + And sable curls all silver'd o'er with white, + + * * * * * + + Then of thy beauty do I question make, + That thou among the wastes of time must go, + Since sweets and beauties do themselves forsake + And die as fast as they see others grow. + + _Sonnet_ xii. + + + (18) + + The forward Violet thus did I chide: + "Sweet thief, whence didst thou steal thy sweet that smells, + If not from my love's breath? The purple pride + Which on thy soft cheek for complexion dwells + In my love's veins thou hast too grossly died." + + _Ibid._ xcix. + +There are about a hundred different species of Violets, of which there +are five species in England, and a few sub-species. One of these is the +Viola tricolor, from which is descended the Pansy, or Love-in-Idleness +(_see_ PANSY). But in all the passages in which Shakespeare names the +Violet, he alludes to the purple sweet-scented Violet, of which he was +evidently very fond, and which is said to be very abundant in the +neighbourhood of Stratford-on-Avon. For all the eighteen passages tell +of some point of beauty or sweetness that attracted him. And so it is +with all the poets from Chaucer downwards--the Violet is noticed by all, +and by all with affectation. I need only mention two of the greatest. +Milton gave the Violet a chief place in the beauties of the "Blissful +Bower" of our first parents in Paradise-- + + "Each beauteous flower, + Iris all hues, Roses, and Jessamin + Rear'd high their flourish't heads between, and wrought + Mosaic; underfoot the Violet, + Crocus and Hyacinth with rich inlay + Broidered the ground, more coloured than with stone + Of costliest emblem;" + + _Paradise Lost_, book iv. + +and Sir Walter Scott crowns it as the queen of wild flowers-- + + "The Violet in her greenwood bower, + Where Birchen boughs with Hazels mingle, + May boast itself the fairest flower + In glen, in copse, or forest dingle." + +Yet favourite though it ever has been, it has no English name. Violet is +the diminutive form of the Latin Viola, which again is the Latin form +of the Greek +ion+. In the old Vocabularies Viola frequently occurs, and +with the following various translations:--"Ban-wyrt," _i.e._, Bone-wort +(eleventh century Vocabulary); "Cloefre," _i.e._, Clover (eleventh +century Vocabulary); "Viole, Appel-leaf" (thirteenth century +Vocabulary);[310:1] "Wyolet" (fourteenth century Vocabulary); "Vyolytte" +(fifteenth century Nominale); "Violetta, A{ce}, a Violet" (fifteenth +century Pictorial Vocabulary); and "Viola Cleafre, Ban-vyrt" (Durham +Glossary). It is also mentioned in the Anglo-Saxon translation of the +Herbarium of Apuleius in the tenth century as "the Herb Viola purpurea; +(1) for new wounds and eke for old; (2) for hardness of the maw" +(Cockayne's translation). In this last example it is most probable that +our sweet-scented Violet is the plant meant, but in some of the other +cases it is quite certain that some other plant is meant, and perhaps in +all. For Violet was a name given very loosely to many plants, so that +Laurembergius says: "Vox Violae distinctissimis floribus communis +est. Videntur mihi antiqui suaveolentes quosque flores generatim +Violas appellasse, cujuscunque etiam forent generis quasi vi +oleant."--_Apparat. Plant._, 1632. This confusion seems to have arisen +in a very simple way. Theophrastus described the Leucojum, which was +either the Snowdrop or the spring Snowflake, as the earliest-flowering +plant; Pliny literally translated Leucojum into Alba Viola. All the +earlier writers on natural history were in the habit of taking Pliny for +their guide, and so they translated his Viola by any early-flowering +plant that most took their fancy. Even as late as 1693, Samuel Gilbert, +in "The Florists' Vade Mecum," under the head of Violets, only describes +"the lesser early bulbous Violet, a common flower yet not to be wasted, +because when none other appears that does, though in the snow, whence +called Snowflower or Snowdrop;" and I think that even later instances +may be found. + +When I say that there is no genuine English name for the Violet, I +ought, perhaps, to mention that one name has been attributed to it, but +I do not think that it is more than a clever guess. "The commentators on +Shakespeare have been much puzzled by the epithet 'happy lowlie down,' +applied to the man of humble station in "Henry IV.," and have proposed +to read 'lowly clown,' or to divide the phrase into 'low lie down,' but +the following lines from Browne clearly prove 'lowly down' to be the +correct term, for he uses it in precisely the same sense-- + + 'The humble Violet that lowly down + Salutes the gay nymphs as they trimly pass.' + + _Poet's Pleasaunce._" + +This may prove that Browne called the Violet a Lowly-down, but it +certainly does not prove that name to have been a common name for the +Violet. It was, however, the character of lowliness combined with +sweetness that gave the charm to the Violet in the eyes of the emblem +writers: it was for them the readiest symbol of the meekness of +humility. "Humilitas dat gratiam" is the motto that Camerarius places +over a clump of Violets. "A true widow is, in the church, as a little +March Violet shedding around an exquisite perfume by the fragrance of +her devotion, and always hidden under the ample leaves of her lowliness, +and by her subdued colouring showing the spirit of her mortification, +she seeks untrodden and solitary places," &c.--ST. FRANCIS DE SALES. And +the poets could nowhere find a fitter similitude for a modest maiden +than + + "A Violet by a mossy stone + Half hidden from the eye." + +Violets, like Primroses, must always have had their joyful associations +as coming to tell that the winter is passing away and brighter days are +near, for they are among + + "The first to rise + And smile beneath spring's wakening skies, + The courier of a band + Of coming flowers." + +Yet it is curious to note how, like Primroses, they have been ever +associated with death, especially with the death of the young. I suppose +these ideas must have arisen from a sort of pity for flowers that were +only allowed to see the opening year, and were cut off before the full +beauty of summer had come. This was prettily expressed by H. Vaughan, +the Silurist: + + "So violets, so doth the primrose fall + At once the spring's pride and its funeral, + Such early sweets get off in their still prime, + And stay not here to wear the foil of time; + While coarser flowers, which none would miss, if past, + To scorching summers and cold winters last." + + _Daphnis_, 1678. + +It was from this association that they were looked on as apt emblems of +those who enjoyed the bright springtide of life and no more. This +feeling was constantly expressed, and from very ancient times. We find +it in some pretty lines by Prudentius-- + + "Nos tecta fovebimus ossa + Violis et fronde frequente, + Titulumque et frigida saxa + Liquido spargemus odore." + +Shakespeare expresses the same feeling in the collection of "purple +Violets and Marigolds" which Marina carries to hang "as a carpet on the +grave" (No. 14), and again in Laertes' wish that Violets may spring from +the grave of Ophelia (No. 8), on which Steevens very aptly quotes from +Persius Satires-- + + "e tumulo fortunataque favilla. + Nascentur Violae." + +In the same spirit Milton, gathering for the grave of Lycidas-- + + "Every flower that sad embroidery wears," + +gathers among others "the glowing Violet;" and the same thought is +repeated by many other writers. + +There is a remarkable botanical curiosity in the structure of the Violet +which is worth notice: it produces flowers both in spring and autumn, +but the flowers are very different. In spring they are fully formed and +sweet-scented, but they are mostly barren and produce no seed, while in +autumn they are very small, they have no petals and, I believe, no +scent, but they produce abundance of seed.[313:1] + +I need say nothing to recommend the Violet in all its varieties as a +garden plant. As a useful medicinal plant it was formerly in high +repute-- + + "Vyolet an erbe cowth + Is knowyn in ilke manys mowthe, + As bokys seyn in here language, + It is good to don in potage, + In playstrys to wondrys it is comfortyf, + W{h} oyer erbys sanatyf:" + + _Stockholm MS._ + +and it still holds a place in the Pharmacopoeia, while the chemist +finds the pretty flowers one of the most delicate tests for detecting +the presence of acids and alkalies; but as to the many other virtues of +the Violet I cannot do better than quote Gerard's pleasant and quaint +words: "The Blacke or Purple Violets, or March Violets of the garden, +have a great prerogative above others, not only because the minde +conceiveth a certain pleasure and recreation by smelling and handling of +those most odoriferous flowres, but also for that very many by these +Violets receive ornament and comely grace; for there be made of them +garlands for the head, nosegaies, and poesies, which are delightfull to +looke on and pleasant to smell to, speaking nothing of their appropriate +vertues; yea, gardens themselves receive by these the greatest ornament +of all chiefest beautie and most gallant grace, and the recreation of +the minde which is taken thereby cannot but be very good and honest; for +they admonish and stir up a man to that which is comely and honest, for +flowres through their beautie, variety of colour, and exquisite forme, +do bring to a liberall and greatte many minde the remembrance of +honestie, comelinesse, and all kindes of vertues. For it would be an +unseemely and filthie thing (as a certain wise man saith) for him that +doth looke upon and handle faire and beautifull things, and who +frequenteth and is conversant in faire and beautifull places, to have +his minde not faire but filthie and deformed." With these brave words of +the old gardener I might well close my account of this favourite +flower, but I must add George Herbert's lines penned in the same +spirit-- + + "Farewell, dear flowers, sweetly your time ye spent, + Fit, while ye lived, for smell or ornament, + And after death for cures; + I follow straight without complaint or grief, + Since if my scent be good, I care not if + It be as short as yours." + + _Poems on Life._ + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[310:1] Appel-leaf is given as the English name for Viola in two other +MS. Glossaries quoted by Cockayne, vol. iii. p. 312. + +[313:1] This peculiarity is not confined to the Violet. It is found in +some species of Oxalis, Impatiens, Campanula, Eranthemum, Amphicarpea, +Leeisia, &c. Such plants are technically called Cleistogamous, and are +all self-fertilizing. + + + + +WALNUT. + + + (1) _Petruchio._ + + Why, 'tis a cockle or a Walnut-shell, + A knack, a toy, a trick, a baby's cap. + + _Taming of the Shrew_, act iv, sc. 3 (66). + + + (2) _Ford._ + + Let them say of me, "As jealous as Ford that searched a hollow + Walnut for his wife's leman." + + _Merry Wives of Windsor_, act iv, sc. 2 (170). + +The Walnut is a native of Persia and China, and its foreign origin is +told in all its names. The Greeks called it Persicon, _i.e._, the +Persian tree, and Basilikon, _i.e._, the Royal tree; the Latins gave it +a still higher rank, naming it Juglans, _i.e._, Jove's Nut. "Haec glans, +optima et maxima, ab Jove et glande juglans appellata est."--VARRO. The +English names tell the same story. It was first simply called Nut, as +the Nut _par excellence_. "_Juglantis vel nux_, knutu."--AELFRIC'S +_Vocabulary_. But in the fourteenth century it had obtained the name of +"Ban-nut," from its hardness. So it is named in a metrical Vocabulary of +the fourteenth century-- + + Pomus Pirus Corulus nux Avelanaque Ficus + Appul-tre Peere-tre Hasyl Note Bannenote-tre Fygge; + +and this name it still holds in the West of England. But at the same +time it had also acquired the name of Walnut. "_Hec avelana_, A{ce} +Walnot-tree" (Vocabulary fourteenth century). "_Hec avelana_, a Walnutte +and the Nutte" (Nominate fifteenth century). This name is commonly +supposed to have reference to the hard shell, but it only means that +the nut is of foreign origin. "Wal" is another form of Walshe or Welch, +and so Lyte says that the tree is called "in English the Walnut and +Walshe Nut tree." "The word Welsh (_wilisc_, _woelisc_) meant simply a +foreigner, one who was not of Teutonic race, and was (by the Saxons) +applied especially to nations using the Latin language. In the Middle +Ages the French language, and in fact all those derived from Latin, and +called on that account _linguae Romanae_, were called in German _Welsch_. +France was called by the mediaeval German writers _daz Welsche lant_, and +when they wished to express 'in the whole world,' they said, _in allen +Welschen und in Tiutschen richen_, 'in all Welsh and Teutonic kingdoms.' +In modern German the name _Waelsch_ is used more especially for +Italian."--WRIGHT'S _Celt, Roman, and Saxon_.[315:1] This will at once +explain that Walnut simply means the foreign or non-English Nut. + +It must have been a well-established and common tree in Shakespeare's +time, for all the writers of his day speak of it as a high and large +tree, and I should think it very likely that Walnut trees were even more +extensively planted in his day than in our own. There are many noble +specimens to be seen in different parts of England, especially in the +chalk districts, for "it delights," says Evelyn, "in a dry, sound, rich +land, especially if it incline to a feeding chalk or marl; and where it +may be protected from the cold (though it affects cold rather than +extreme heat), as in great pits, valleys, and highway sides; also in +stony ground, if loamy, and on hills, especially chalky; likewise in +cornfields." The grand specimens that may be seen in the sheltered +villages lying under the chalk downs of Wiltshire and Berkshire bear +witness to the truth of Evelyn's remarks. But the finest English +specimens can bear no comparison with the size of the Walnut trees in +warmer countries, and especially where they are indigenous. There they +"sometimes attain prodigious size and great age. An Italian architect +mentions having seen at St. Nicholas, in Lorraine, a single plank of the +wood of the Walnut, 25ft. wide, upon which the Emperor Frederick III. +had given a sumptuous banquet. In the Baidar Valley, near Balaclava, in +the Crimea, stands a Walnut tree at least 1000 years old. It yields +annually from 80,000 to 100,000 Nuts, and belongs to five Tartar +families, who share its produce equally."--_Gardener's Chronicle._ + +The economic uses of the Walnut are now chiefly confined to the timber, +which is highly prized both for furniture and gun-stocks, and to the +production of oil, which is not much used in Europe, but is highly +valued in the East. "It dries much more slowly than any other distilled +oil, and hence its great value, as it allows the artist as much time as +he requires in order to blend his colours and finish his work. In +conjunction with amber varnish it forms a vehicle which leaves nothing +to be desired, and which doubtless was the vehicle of Van Eyck, and in +many instances of the Venetian masters, and of Correggio."--_Arts of the +Middle Ages_, preface. In mediaeval times a high medicinal value was +attached to the fruit, for the celebrated antidote against poison which +was so firmly believed in, and which was attributed to Mithridates, King +of Pontus, was chiefly composed of Walnuts. "Two Nuttes (he is speaking +of Walnuts) and two Figges, and twenty Rewe leaves, stamped together +with a little salt, and eaten fasting, doth defende a man from poison +and pestilence that day."--BULLEIN, _Governmente of Health_, 1558. + +The Walnut holds an honoured place in heraldry. Two large Walnut trees +overshadow the tomb of the poet Waller in Beaconsfield churchyard, and +"these are connected with a curious piece of family history. The tree +was chosen as the Waller crest after Agincourt, where the head of the +family took the Duke of Orleans prisoner, and took afterwards as his +crest the arms of Orleans hanging by a label in a Walnut tree with this +motto for the device: _Haec fructus virtutis._"--_Gardener's Chronicle_, +Aug., 1878. + +Walnuts are still very popular, but not as poison antidotes; their +popularity now rests on their use as pickles, their excellence as autumn +and winter dessert fruits, and with pseudo-gipsies for the rich olive +hue that the juice will give to the skin. These uses, together with the +beauty in the landscape that is given by an old Walnut tree, will always +secure for it a place among English trees; yet there can be little doubt +that the Walnut is a bad neighbour to other crops, and for that reason +its numbers in England have been much diminished. Phillips said there +was a decided antipathy between Apples and Walnuts, and spoke of the +Apple tree as-- + + "Uneasy, seated by funereal Yew + Or Walnut (whose malignant touch impairs + All generous fruits), or near the bitter dews + Of Cherries." + +And in this he was probably right, though the mischief caused to the +Apple tree more probably arises from the dense shade thrown by the +Walnut tree than by any malarious exhalation emitted from it. + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[315:1] See Earle's "Philology of the English Tongue," p. 23. + + + + +WARDEN, _see_ PEARS. + + + + +WHEAT. + + + (1) _Iris._ + + Ceres, most bounteous lady, thy rich leas + Of Wheat, Rye, Barley, Vetches, Oats, and Pease. + + _Tempest_, act iv, sc. 1 (60). + + + (2) _Helena._ + + More tuneable than lark to shepherd's ear, + When Wheat is green, when Hawthorn-buds appear. + + _Midsummer Night's Dream_, act i, sc. 1 (184). + + + (3) _Bassanio._ + + His reasons are as two grains of Wheat hid in two bushels of + chaff; you shall seek all day ere you find them, and when + you have them, they are not worth the search. + + _Merchant of Venice_, act i, sc. 1 (114). + + + (4) _Hamlet._ + + As peace should still her Wheaten garland wear. + + _Hamlet_, act v, sc. 2 (41). + + + (5) _Pompey._ + + To send measures of Wheat to Rome. + + _Antony and Cleopatra_, act ii, sc. 6 (36). + + + (6) _Edgar._ + + This is the foul fiend Flibbertigibbet. . . . He mildews the + white Wheat, and hurts the poor creatures of earth. + + _King Lear_, act iii, sc. 4 (120). + + + (7) _Pandarus._ + + He that will have a cake out of the Wheat, must needs tarry + the grinding. + + _Troilus and Cressida_, act i, sc. 1 (15). + + + (8) _Davy._ + + And again, sir, shall we sow the headland with Wheat? + + _Shallow._ + + With red Wheat, Davy. + + _2nd Henry IV_, act v, sc. 1 (15). + + + (9) _Theseus._ + + Your Wheaten wreathe + Was then nor threashed nor blasted. + + _Two Noble Kinsmen_, act i, sc. 1 (68). + +I might perhaps content myself with marking these passages only, and +dismiss Shakespeare's Wheat without further comment, for the Wheat of +his day was identical with our own; but there are a few points in +connection with English Wheat which may be interesting. Wheat is not an +English plant, nor is it a European plant; its original home is in +Northern Asia, whence it has spread into all civilized countries.[318:1] +For the cultivation of Wheat is one of the first signs of civilized +life; it marks the end of nomadic life, and implies more or less a +settled habitation. When it reached England, and to what country we are +indebted for it, we do not know; but we know that while we are indebted +to the Romans for so many of our useful trees, and fruits, and +vegetables, we are not indebted to them for the introduction of Wheat. +This we might be almost sure of from the very name, which has no +connection with the Latin names, _triticum_ or _frumentum_, but is a +pure old English word, signifying originally _white_, and so +distinguishing it as the white grain in opposition to the darker grains +of Oats and Rye. But besides the etymological evidence, we have good +historical evidence that Caesar found Wheat growing in England when he +first landed on the shores of Kent. He daily victualled his camp with +British Wheat ("frumentum ex agris quotidie in castra conferebat"); and +it was while his soldiers were reaping the Wheat in the Kentish fields +that they were surrounded and successfully attacked by the British. He +tells us, however, that the cultivation of Wheat was chiefly confined to +Kent, and was not much known inland: "interiores plerique frumenta non +serunt, sed lacte et carne vivunt."--_De Bello Gallico_, v, 14. Roman +Wheat has frequently been found in graves, and strange stories have +been told of the plants that have been raised from these old seeds; but +a more scientific inquiry has proved that there have been mistakes or +deceits, more or less intentional, for "Wheat is said to keep for seven +years at the longest. The statements as to mummy Wheat are wholly devoid +of authenticity, as are those of the Raspberry seeds taken from a Roman +tomb."--HOOKER, "Botany" in _Science Primers_. The oft-repeated stories +about the vitality of mummy Wheat were effectually disposed of when it +was discovered that much of the so-called Wheat was South American +Maize. + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[318:1] Yet Homer considered it to be indigenous in Sicily--Odyss: ix, +109--and Cicero, perhaps on the authority of Homer, says the same: +"Insula Cereris . . . ubi primum fruges inventae esse dicuntur."--_In +Verrem_, v, 38. + + + + +WILLOW. + + + (1) _Viola._ + + Make me a Willow cabin at your gate. + + _Twelfth Night_, act i, sc. 5 (287). + + + (2) _Benedick._ + + Come, will you go with me? + + _Claudio._ + + Whither? + + _Benedick._ + + Even to the next Willow, about your own business. + + _Much Ado About Nothing_, act ii, sc. 1 (192). + + + _Benedick._ + + I offered him my company to a Willow tree, either to make him + a garland, as being forsaken, or to bind him up a rod, as + being worthy to be whipped. + + _Ibid._ (223). + + + (3) _Nathaniel._ + + These thoughts to me were Oaks, to thee like Osiers bow'd. + + _Love's Labour's Lost_, act iv, sc. 2 (112). + + + (4) _Lorenzo._ + + In such a night + Stood Dido, with a Willow in her hand, + Upon the wild sea-banks. + + _Merchant of Venice_, act v, sc. 1 (9). + + + (5) _Bona._ + + Tell him, in hope he'll prove a widower shortly, + I'll wear the Willow garland for his sake. + + _3d Henry VI_, act iii, sc. 3 (227). + + + _Post._ + + [The same words repeated.] + + _Ibid._, act iv, sc. 1 (99). + + + (6) _Queen._ + + There is a Willow grows aslant a brook, + That shows his hoar leaves in the glassy stream. + There on the pendent boughs her coronet weeds + Clambering to hang, an envious sliver broke. + + _Hamlet_, act iv, sc. 7 (167). + + + (7) _Desdemona_ (singing)-- + + The poor soul sat sighing by a Sycamore tree. + Sing all a green Willow; + Her hand on her bosom, her head on her knee, + Sing Willow, Willow, Willow. + The fresh streams ran by her, and murmur'd her moans; + Sing Willow, Willow, Willow. + Her salt tears fell from her and soften'd the stones, + Sing Willow, Willow, Willow. + Sing all a green Willow must be my garland. + + _Othello_, act iv, sc. 3 (41). + + + (8) _Emilia._ + + I will play the swan, + And die in music. [_Singing_] Willow, Willow, Willow. + + _Ibid._, act v, sc. 2 (247). + + + (9) _Wooer._ + + Then she sang + Nothing but Willow, Willow, Willow. + + _Two Noble Kinsmen_, act iv, sc. 1 (100). + + + (10) _Friar._ + + I must up-fill this Willow cage of ours + With baleful Weeds and precious juiced Flowers. + + _Romeo and Juliet_, act ii, sc. 3 (7). + + + (11) _Celia._ + + West of this place, down in the neighbour bottom; + The rank of Osiers by the murmuring stream + Left on your right hand, brings you to the place. + + _As You Like It_, act iv, sc. 3 (79). + + + (12) + + When Cytherea all in love forlorn + A longing tarriance for Adonis made + Under an Osier growing by a brook. + + _Passionate Pilgrim_ vi. + + + (13) + + Though to myself forsworn, to thee I'll constant prove; + Those thoughts, to me like Oaks, to thee like Osiers bow'd. + + _Ibid._ v. + +_See also_ PALM TREE, No. 1, p. 192. + +Willow is an old English word, but the more common and perhaps the older +name for the Willow is Withy, a name which is still in constant use, but +more generally applied to the twigs when cut for basket-making than to +the living tree. "Withe" is found in the oldest vocabularies, but we do +not find "Willow" till we come to the vocabularies of the fifteenth +century, when it occurs as "Haec Salex, A{e} Wyllo-tre;" "Haec Salix-icis, +a Welogh;" "Salix, Welig." Both the names probably referred to the +pliability of the tree, and there was another name for it, the Sallow, +which was either a corruption of the Latin Salix, or was derived from a +common root. It was also called Osier. + +The Willow is a native of Britain. It belongs to a large family +(_Salix_), numbering 160 species, of which we have seventeen distinct +species in Great Britain, besides many sub-species and varieties. So +common a plant, with the peculiar pliability of the shoots that +distinguishes all the family, was sure to be made much use of. Its more +common uses were for basket-making, for coracles, and huts, or +"Willow-cabins" (No. 1), but it had other uses in the elegancies and +even in the romance of life. The flowers of the early Willow (_S. +caprea_) did duty for and were called Palms on Palm Sunday (_see_ PALM), +and not only the flowers but the branches also seem to have been used in +decoration, a use which is now extinct. "The Willow is called _Salix_, +and hath his name _a saliendo_, for that it quicklie groweth up, and +soon becommeth a tree. Heerewith do they in some countries trim up their +parlours and dining roomes in sommer, and sticke fresh greene leaves +thereof about their beds for coolness."--NEWTON'S _Herball for the +Bible_.[321:1] + +But if we only look at the poetry of the time of Shakespeare, and much +of the poetry before and after him, we should almost conclude that the +sole use of the Willow was to weave garlands for jilted lovers, male and +female. It was probably with reference to this that Shakespeare +represented poor mad Ophelia hanging her flowers on the "Willow tree +aslant the brook" (No. 6), and it is more pointedly referred to in Nos. +2, 4, 5, 7, 8, and 9. The feeling was expressed in a melancholy ditty, +which must have been very popular in the sixteenth century, of which +Desdemona says a few of the first verses (No. 7), and which concludes +thus-- + + "Come all you forsaken and sit down by me, + He that plaineth of his false love, mine's falser than she; + The Willow wreath weare I, since my love did fleet, + A garland for lovers forsaken most meet." + +The ballad is entitled "The Complaint of a Lover Forsaken of His +Love--To a Pleasant New Tune," and is printed in the "Roxburghe +Ballads." This curious connection of the Willow with forsaken or +disappointed lovers stood its ground for a long time. Spenser spoke of +the "Willow worne of forlorne paramoures." Drayton says that-- + + "In love the sad forsaken wight + The Willow garland weareth"-- + + _Muse's Elysium._ + +and though we have long given up the custom of wearing garlands of any +sort, yet many of us can recollect one of the most popular street songs, +that was heard everywhere, and at last passed into a proverb, and which +began-- + + "All round my hat I vears a green Willow + In token," &c. + +It has been suggested by many that this melancholy association with the +Willow arose from its Biblical associations; and this may be so, though +all the references to the Willow that occur in the Bible are, with one +notable exception, connected with joyfulness and fertility. The one +exception is the plaintive wail in the 137th Psalm-- + + "By the streams of Babel, there we sat down, + And we wept when we remembered Zion. + On the Willows among the rivers we hung our harps." + +And this one record has been sufficient to alter the emblematic +character of the Willow--"this one incident has made the Willow an +emblem of the deepest of sorrows, namely, sorrow for sin found out, and +visited with its due punishment. From that time the Willow appears never +again to have been associated with feelings of gladness. Even among +heathen nations, for what reason we know not, it was a tree of evil +omen, and was employed to make the torches carried at funerals. Our own +poets made the Willow the symbol of despairing woe."--JOHNS. This is the +more remarkable because the tree referred to in the Psalms, the Weeping +Willow (_Salix Babylonica_), which by its habit of growth is to us so +suggestive of crushing sorrow, was quite unknown in Europe till a very +recent period. "It grows abundantly on the banks of the Euphrates, and +other parts of Asia, as in Palestine, and also in North Africa;" but it +is said to have been introduced into England during the last century, +and then in a curious way. "Many years ago, the well-known poet, +Alexander Pope, who resided at Twickenham, received a basket of Figs as +a present from Turkey. The basket was made of the supple branches of the +Weeping Willow, the very same species under which the captive Jews sat +when they wept by the waters of Babylon. The poet valued highly the +small and tender twigs associated with so much that was interesting, and +he untwisted the basket, and planted one of the branches in the ground. +It had some tiny buds upon it, and he hoped he might be able to rear it, +as none of this species of Willow was known in England. Happily the +Willow is very quick to take root and grow. The little branch soon +became a tree, and drooped gracefully over the river, in the same manner +that its race had done over the waters of Babylon. From that one branch +all the Weeping Willows in England are descended."--KIRBY'S +_Trees_.[323:1] + +There is probably no tree that contributes so largely to the +conveniences of English life as the Willow. Putting aside its uses in +the manufacture of gunpowder and cricket bats, we may safely say that +the most scantily-furnished house can boast of some article of Willow +manufacture in the shape of baskets. British basket-making is, as far as +we know, the oldest national manufacture; it is the manufacture in +connection with which we have the earliest record of the value placed on +British work. British baskets were exported to Rome, and it would almost +seem as if baskets were unknown in Rome until they were introduced from +Britain, for with the article of import came the name also, and the +British "basket" became the Latin "bascauda." We have curious evidence +of the high value attached to these baskets. Juvenal describes Catullus +in fear of shipwreck throwing overboard his most precious treasures: +"precipitare volens etiam pulcherrima," and among these "pulcherrima" he +mentions "bascaudas." Martial bears a still higher testimony to the +value set on "British baskets," reckoning them among the many rich +gifts distributed at the Saturnalia-- + + "Barbara de pictis veni bascauda Britannis + Sed me jam vult dicere Roma suam."--Book xiv, 99. + +Many of the Willows make handsome shrubs for the garden, for besides +those that grow into large trees, there are many that are low shrubs, +and some so low as to be fairly called carpet plants. Salix Reginae is +one of the most silvery shrubs we have, with very narrow leaves; S. +lanata is almost as silvery, but with larger and woolly leaves, and +makes a very pretty object when grown on rockwork near water; S. +rosmarinifolia is another desirable shrub; and among the lower-growing +species, the following will grow well on rockwork, and completely clothe +the surface: S. alpina, S. Grahami, S. retusa, S. serpyllifolia, and S. +reticulata. They are all easily cultivated and are quite hardy. + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[321:1] In the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries the Willow does not +appear to have had any value for its medical uses. In the present day +salicine and salicylic acid are produced from the bark, and have a high +reputation as antiseptics and in rheumatic cases. + +[323:1] This is the traditional history of the introduction of the +Weeping Willow into England, but it is very doubtful. + + + + +WOODBINE, _see_ HONEYSUCKLE. + + + + +WORMWOOD. + + + (1) _Rosaline._ + + To weed this Wormwood from your fruitful brain. + + _Love's Labour's Lost_, act v, sc. 2 (857). + + + (2) _Nurse._ + + For I had then laid Wormwood to my dug. + + * * * * * + + When it did taste the Wormwood on the nipple + Of my dug, and felt it bitter, pretty fool. + + _Romeo and Juliet_, act i, sc. 3 (26). + + + (3) _Hamlet_ (aside). + + Wormwood, Wormwood. + + _Hamlet_, act iii, sc. 2 (191). + + + (4) + + Thy secret pleasure turns to open shame, + Thy private feasting to a public fast, + Thy smoothing titles to a ragged name, + Thy sugar'd tongue to bitter Wormwood taste. + + _Lucrece_ (890). + +_See also_ DIAN'S BUD. + +Wormwood is the product of many species of Artemisia, a family +consisting of 180 species, of which we have four in England. The whole +family is remarkable for the extreme bitterness of all parts of the +plant, so that "as bitter as Wormwood" is one of the oldest proverbs. +The plant was named Artemisia from Artemis, the Greek name of Diana, and +for this reason: "Verily of these three Worts which we named Artemisia, +it is said that Diana should find them, and delivered their powers and +leechdom to Chiron the Centaur, who first from these Worts set forth a +leechdom, and he named these Worts from the name of Diana, Artemis, that +is, Artemisias."--_Herbarium Apulaei_, Cockayne's translation. The +Wormwood was of very high reputation in medicine, and is thus +recommended in the Stockholm MS.: + + "Lif man or woman, more or lesse + In his head have gret sicknesse + Or gruiance or any werking + Awoyne he take wt. owte lettyng + It is called Sowthernwode also + And hony eteys et spurge stamp yer to + And late hy yis drunk, fastined drinky + And his hed werk away schall synkyn."[325:1] + +But even in Shakespeare's time this high character had somewhat abated, +though it was still used for all medicines in which a strong bitter was +recommended. But its chief use seems to have been as a protection +against insects of all kinds, who might very reasonably be supposed to +avoid such a bitter food. This is Tusser's advice about the plant-- + + "While Wormwood hath seed get a handful or twaine + To save against March, to make flea to refraine: + Where chamber is sweeped and Wormwood is strowne, + No flea, for his life, dare abide to be knowne. + What saver is better (if physick be true), + For places infected than Wormwood and Rue? + It is as a comfort for hart and the braine, + And therefore to have it, it is not in vaine." + + _July's Husbandry._ + +This quality was the origin of the names of Mugwort[326:1] and Wormwood. +Its other name (in the Stockholm MS. referred to), Avoyne or Averoyne is +a corruption of the specific name of one of the species, A. Abrotanum. +Southernwood is the southern Wormwood, _i.e._, the foreign, as +distinguished from the native plant. The modern name for the same +species is Boy's Love, or Old Man. The last name may have come from its +hoary leaves, though different explanations are given: the other name is +given to it, according to Dr. Prior, "from an ointment made with its +ashes being used by young men to promote the growth of a beard." There +is good authority for this derivation, but I think the name may have +been given for other reasons. "Boy's Love" is one of the most favourite +cottage-garden plants, and it enters largely into the rustic language of +flowers. No posy presented by a young man to his lass is complete +without Boy's Love; and it is an emblem of fidelity, at least it was so +once. It is, in fact, a Forget-me-Not, from its strong abiding smell; so +St. Francis de Sales applied it: "To love in the midst of sweets, little +children could do that; but to love in the bitterness of Wormwood is a +sure sign of our affectionate fidelity." Not that the Wormwood was ever +named Forget-me-Not, for that name was given to the Ground Pine (_Ajuga +chamaepitys_) on account of its unpleasant and long-enduring smell, until +it was transferred to the Myosotis (which then lost its old name of +Mouse-ear), and the pretty legend was manufactured to account for the +name. + +In England Wormwood has almost fallen into complete disuse; but in +France it is largely used in the shape of Absinthe. As a garden plant, +Tarragon, which is a species of Wormwood, will claim a place in every +herb garden, and there are a few, such as A. sericea, A. cana, and A. +alpina, which make pretty shrubs for the rockwork. + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[325:1] Wormwood had a still higher reputation among the ancients, as +the following extract shows: + + +Artemisia monoklonos.+ + + +Auei gar kopon audros hodoiporou, hos k'eni chersin + ten monoklonon eche; peri d' au posin herpeta panta + pheugei, hen tis eche en hodo, kai phasmata deina.+ + + _Anonymi Carmen de Herbis, in "Poetae Bucolici."_ + +[326:1] In connection with Mugwort there is a most curious account of +the formation of a plant name given in a note in the "Promptorium +Parvulorum," s.v. Mugworte: "Mugwort, al on as seyn some, Modirwort; +lewed folk that in manye wordes conne no rygt sownyge, but ofte shortyn +wordys, and changyn lettrys and silablys, they coruptyn the _o_ in to +_a_ and _d_ in to _g_, and syncopyn _i_ smytyn a-wey _i_ and _r_ and +seyn mugwort."--_Arundel MS._, 42, f. 35 v. + + + + +YEW. + + + (1) _Song._ + + My shroud of white, stuck all with Yew, + Oh! prepare it. + + _Twelfth Night_, act ii, sc. 4 (56). + + + _(2) 3rd Witch._ + + Gall of goat, and slips of Yew + Sliver'd in the moon's eclipse. + + _Macbeth_, act iv, sc. 1 (27). + + + (3) _Scroop._ + + Thy very beadsmen learn to bend their bows + Of double-fatal Yew against thy state. + + _Richard II_, act iii, sc. 2 (116). + + + (4) _Tamora._ + + But straight they told me they would bind me here + Unto the body of a dismal Yew. + + _Titus Andronicus_, act ii, sc. 3 (106). + + + (5) _Paris._ + + Under yond Yew-trees lay thee all along, + Holding thine ear close to the hollow ground; + So shall no foot upon the churchyard tread + (Being loose, unfirm, with digging up of graves) + But thou shalt hear it. + + _Romeo and Juliet_, act v, sc. 3 (3). + + + (6) _Balthasar._ + + As I did sleep under this Yew tree here,[327:1] + I dreamt my master and another fought, + And that my master slew him. + + _Ibid._ (137). + +_See also_ HEBENON, p. 118. + +The Yew, though undoubtedly an indigenous British plant, has not a +British name. The name is derived from the Latin _Iva_, and "under this +name we find the _Yew_ so inextricably mixed up with the _Ivy_ that, as +dissimilar as are the two trees, there can be no doubt that these names +are in their origin identical." So says Dr. Prior, and he proceeds to +give a long and very interesting account of the origin of the name. The +connection of Yew with _iva_ and _Ivy_ is still shown in the French +_if_, the German _eibe_, and the Portuguese _iva_. _Yew_ seems to be +quite a modern form; in the old vocabularies the word is variously spelt +iw, ewe,[328:1] eugh-tre,[328:2] haw-tre, new-tre, ew, uhe, and iw. + +The connection of the Yew with churchyards and funerals is noticed by +Shakespeare in Nos. 1, 5, and 6, and its celebrated connection with +English bow-making in No. 3, where "double-fatal" may probably refer to +its noxious qualities when living and its use for deadly weapons +afterwards. These noxious qualities, joined to its dismal colour, and to +its constant use in churchyards, caused it to enter into the supposed +charms and incantations of the quacks of the Middle Ages. Yet Gerard +entirely denies its noxious qualities: "They say that the fruit thereof +being eaten is not onely dangerous and deadly unto man, but if birds do +eat thereof it causeth them to cast their feathers and many times to +die--all which I dare boldly affirme is altogether untrue; for when I +was yong and went to schoole, divers of my schoolfellowes, and likewise +my selfe, did eat our fils of the berries of this tree, and have not +only slept under the shadow thereof, but among the branches also, +without any hurt at all, and that not at one time but many times." +Browne says the same in his "Vulgar Errors:" "That Yew and the berries +thereof are harmlesse, we know" (book ii. c. 7). There is no doubt that +the Yew berries are almost if not quite harmless,[328:3] and I find them +forming an element in an Anglo-Saxon recipe, which may be worth quoting +as an example of the medicines to which our forefathers submitted. It is +given in a Leech Book of the tenth century or earlier, and is thus +translated by Cockayne: "If a man is in the water elf disease, then are +the nails of his hand livid, and the eyes tearful, and he will look +downwards. Give him this for a leechdom: Everthroat, cassuck, the +netherward part of fane, a yew berry, lupin, helenium, a head of marsh +mallow, fen, mint, dill, lily, attorlothe, pulegium, marrubium, dock, +elder, fel terrae, wormwood, strawberry leaves, consolida; pour them over +with ale, add holy water, sing this charm over them thrice [here follow +some long charms which I need not extract]; these charms a man may sing +over a wound" ("Leech Book," iii. 63). + +I need say little of the uses of the Yew wood in furniture, nor of the +many grand specimens of the tree which are scattered throughout the +churchyards of England, except to say that "the origin of planting Yew +trees in churchyards is still a subject of considerable perplexity. As +the Yew was of such great importance in war and field sports before the +use of gunpowder was known, perhaps the parsons of parishes were +required to see that the churchyard was capable of supplying bows to the +males of each parish of proper age; but in this case we should scarcely +have been left without some evidence on the matter. Others again state +that the trees in question were intended solely to furnish branches for +use on Palm Sunday"[329:1] (_see_ PALM, p. 195), "while many suppose +that the Yew was naturally selected for planting around churches on +account of its emblematic character, as expressive of the solemnity of +death, while, from its perennial verdure and long duration, it might be +regarded as a pattern of immortality."--_Penny Magazine_, 1843. + +A good list of the largest and oldest Yews in England will be found in +Loudon's "Arboretum." + + * * * * * + +The "dismal Yew" concludes the list of Shakespeare's plants and the +first part of my proposed subject; and while I hope that those readers +who may have gone with me so far have met with some things to interest +them, I hope also they will agree with me that gardening and the love of +flowers is not altogether the modern accomplishment that many of our +gardeners now fancy it to be. Here are two hundred names of plants in +one writer, and that writer not at all writing on horticulture, but only +mentioning plants and flowers in the most incidental manner as they +happened naturally to fall in his way. I should doubt if there is any +similar instance in any modern English writer, and feel very sure that +there is no such instance in any modern English dramatist. It shows how +familiar gardens and flowers were to Shakespeare, and that he must have +had frequent opportunities for observing his favourites (for most surely +he was fond of flowers), not only in their wild and native homes, but in +the gardens of farmhouses and parsonages, country houses, and noblemen's +stately pleasaunces. The quotations that I have been able to make from +the early writers in the ninth and tenth centuries, down to gossiping +old Gerard, the learned Lord Chancellor Bacon, and that excellent old +gardiner Parkinson, all show the same thing, that the love of flowers is +no new thing in England, still less a foreign fashion, but that it is +innate in us, a real instinct, that showed itself as strongly in our +forefathers as in ourselves; and when we find that such men as +Shakespeare and Lord Bacon (to mention no others) were almost proud to +show their knowledge of plants and love of flowers, we can say that such +love and knowledge is thoroughly manly and English. + +In the inquiry into Shakespeare's plants I have entered somewhat largely +into the etymological history of the names. I have been tempted into +this by the personal interest I feel in the history of plant names, and +I hope it may not have been uninteresting to my readers; but I do not +think this part of the subject could have been passed by, for I agree +with Johnston: "That there is more interest and as much utility in +settling the nomenclature of our pastoral bards as that of all +herbalists and dry-as-dust botanists" ("Botany of the Eastern Border"). +I have also at times entered into the botany and physiology of the +plants; this may have seemed needless to some, but I have thought that +such notices were often necessary to the right understanding of the +plants named, and again I shelter myself under the authority of a +favourite old author: "Consider (gentle readers) what shiftes he shall +be put unto, and how rawe he must needs be in explanation of metaphors, +resemblances, and comparisons, that is ignorant of the nature of herbs +and plants from whence their similitudes be taken, for the inlightening +and garnishing of sentences."--NEWTON'S _Herball for the Bible_. + +I have said that my subject naturally divides itself into two parts, +first, The Plants and Flowers named by Shakespeare; second, His +Knowledge of Gardens and Gardening. The first part is now concluded, and +I go to the second part, which will be very much shorter, and which may +be entitled "The Garden-craft of Shakespeare." + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[327:1] The reading of the folio is "young tree," for "Yew tree." + +[328:1] + + "An Eu tre (Ewetre); taxus, taximus."--_Catholicon Anglicum._ + +[328:2] + + "The eugh obedient to the bender's will."--SPENSER, _F. Q._, i. 9. + + + "So far as eughen bow a shaft may send."--_F. Q._, ii. 11-19. + +[328:3] There are, however, well-recorded instances of death from Yew +berries. The poisonous quality, such as it is, resides in the hard seed, +and not in the red mucilaginous skin, which is the part eaten by +children. (_See_ HEBENON.) + +[329:1] "For eucheson we have non Olyfe that bereth grene leves we takon +in stede of hit Hew and Palmes wyth, and beroth abowte in procession and +so this day we callyn palme sonnenday."--_Sermon for "Dominica in ramis +palmarum," Cotton MSS._ + + + + +PART II. + +_THE GARDEN-CRAFT OF SHAKESPEARE._ + + + "The flowers are sweet, the colours fresh and trim." + + _Venus and Adonis._ + + + "Retired Leisure + That in trim Gardens takes his pleasure." + + MILTON, _Il Penseroso_. + + + + +GARDEN-CRAFT. + + +Any account of the "Plant-lore of Shakespeare" would be very incomplete +if it did not include his "Garden-craft." There are a great many +passages scattered throughout his works, some of them among the most +beautiful that he ever wrote, in which no particular tree, herb, or +flower is mentioned by name, but which show his intimate knowledge of +plants and gardening, and his great affection for them. It is from these +passages, even more than from the passages I have already quoted, in +which particular flowers are named, that we learn how thoroughly his +early country life had influenced and marked his character, and how his +whole spirit was most naturally coloured by it. Numberless allusions to +flowers and their culture prove that his boyhood and early manhood were +spent in the country, and that as he passed through the parks, fields, +and lanes of his native county, or spent pleasant days in the gardens +and orchards of the manor-houses and farm-houses of the neighbourhood, +his eyes and ears were open to all the sights and sounds of a healthy +country life, and he was, perhaps unconsciously, laying up in his memory +a goodly store of pleasant pictures and homely country talk, to be +introduced in his own wonderful way in tragedies and comedies, which, +while often professedly treating of very different times and countries, +have really given us some of the most faithful pictures of the country +life of the Englishman of Queen Elizabeth's time, drawn with all the +freshness and simplicity that can only come from a real love of the +subject. + +"Flowers I noted," is his own account of himself (Sonnet xcix.), and +with what love he noted them, and with what carefulness and faithfulness +he wrote of them, is shown in every play he published, and almost in +every act and every scene. And what I said of his notices of particular +flowers is still more true of his general descriptions--that they are +never laboured, or introduced as for a purpose, but that each passage is +the simple utterance of his ingrained love of the country, the natural +outcome of a keen, observant eye, joined to a great power of faithful +description, and an unlimited command of the fittest language. It is +this vividness and freshness that gives such a reality to all +Shakespeare's notices of country life, and which make them such pleasant +reading to all lovers of plants and gardening. + +These notices of the "Garden-craft of Shakespeare" I now proceed to +quote; but my quotations in this part will be made on a different plan +to that which I adopted in the account of his "Plant-lore." I shall not +here think it necessary to quote all the passages in which he mentions +different objects of country life, but I shall content myself with such +passages as throw light on his knowledge of horticulture, and which to +some extent illustrate the horticulture of his day, and these passages I +must arrange under a few general heads. In this way the second part of +my subject will be very much shorter than my first, but I have good +reasons for hoping that those who have been interested in the long +account of the "Plant-lore of Shakespeare" will be equally interested in +the shorter account of his "Garden-craft," and will acknowledge that the +one would be incomplete without the other. I commence with those +passages which treat generally of-- + + +I.--FLOWERS, BLOSSOMS, AND BUDS. + + (1) _Quickly._ + + Fairies use flowers for their charactery. + + _Merry Wives of Windsor_, act v, sc. 5 (77). + + + (2) _Oberon._ + + She his hairy temples then had rounded + With coronet of fresh and fragrant flowers; + And that same dew, which sometime in the buds + Was wont to swell like round and orient pearls, + Stood now within the pretty flowerets' eyes, + Like tears that did their own disgrace bewail. + + _Midsummer Night's Dream_, act iv, sc. 1 (56). + + + (3) _Gaunt._ + + Suppose the singing birds musicians, + The grass whereon thou tread'st the presence strew'd, + The flowers fair ladies. + + _Richard II_, act i, sc. 3 (288). + + + (4) _Katharine._ + + When I am dead, good wench, + Let me be used with honour; strew me over + With maiden flowers, that all the world may know + I was a chaste wife to my grave. + + _Henry VIII_, act iv, sc. 2 (167). + + + (5) _Ophelia_ (sings). + + White his shroud as the mountain snow + Larded with sweet flowers, + Which bewept to the grave did go + With true-love showers. + + _Hamlet_, act iv, sc. 5 (35). + + + (6) _Queen._ + + Whiles yet the dew's on ground, gather those flowers. + + _Cymbeline_, act i, sc. 5 (1). + + + (7) _Song._ + + Hark! hark! the lark at Heaven's gate sings, + And Phoebus 'gins to rise, + His steeds to water at those springs + On chaliced flowers that lies. + + _Ibid._, act ii, sc. 3 (21). + + + (8) _Arviragus._ + + With fairest flowers, + While summer lasts and I live here, Fidele, + I'll sweeten thy sad grave. + + _Ibid._, act iv, sc. 2 (218). + + + (9) _Belarius._ + + Here's a few flowers; but 'bout midnight, more; + The herbs that have on them cold dew o' the night + Are strewings fitt'st for graves. Upon their faces. + You were as flowers, now withered; even so + These herblets shall, which we upon you strew. + + _Ibid._ (283). + + + (10) _Juliet._ + + This bud of love, by summer's ripening breath, + May prove a beauteous flower when next we meet. + + _Romeo and Juliet_, act ii, sc. 2 (121). + + + (11) _Titania._ + + An odorous chaplet of sweet summer-buds. + + _Midsummer Night's Dream_, act ii, sc. 1 (110). + + + (12) _Friar Laurence._ + + I must up-fill this osier cage of ours + With baleful weeds, and precious-juiced flowers. + The earth that's Nature's mother is her tomb; + What is her burying grave that is her womb, + And from her womb children of divers kind + We sucking on her natural bosom find, + Many for many virtues excellent, + None but for some and yet all different. + O, mickle is the powerful grace that lies + In herbs, plants, stones, and their true qualities: + For nought so vile that on the earth doth live + But to the earth some special good doth give, + Nor aught so good but strain'd from that fair use + Revolts from true birth, stumbling on abuse: + Virtue itself turns vice, being misapplied; + And vice sometimes by action dignified. + Within the infant rind of this small flower + Poison hath residence and medicine power: + For this, being smelt, with that part cheers each part; + Being tasted, slays all senses with the heart. + Two such opposed kings encamp them still + In man as well as herbs, grace and rude will; + And where the worser is predominant, + Full soon the canker death eats up that plant. + + _Romeo and Juliet_, act ii, sc. 3 (7). + + + (13) _Iago._ + + Though other things grow fair against the sun, + Yet fruits that blossom first will first be ripe. + + _Othello_, act ii, sc. 3 (382). + + + (14) _Dumain._ + + Love, whose month is ever May, + Spied a blossom, passing fair + Playing in the wanton air; + Through the velvet leaves the wind, + All unseen, can passage find. + + _Love's Labour's Lost_, act iv, sc. 3 (102). + + + (15) + + Fair flowers that are not gathered in their prime + Rot and consume themselves in little time. + + _Venus and Adonis_ (131). + + + (16) + + The flowers are sweet, the colours fresh and trim, + But true-sweet beauty lived and died with him. + + _Venus and Adonis_ (1079). + + + (17) + + Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May. + + _Sonnet_ xviii. + + + (18) + + With April's first-born flowers, and all things rare, + That Heaven's air in this huge rondure hems. + + _Ibid._ xxi. + + + (19) + + The summer's flower is to the summer sweet, + Though to itself it only live and die; + But if that flower with base infection meet, + The basest weed outbraves his dignity: + For sweetest things turn sourest by their deeds; + Lilies that fester smell far worse than weeds. + + _Ibid._ xciv. + + + (20) + + Yet nor the lays of birds nor the sweet smell + Of different flowers in odour and in hue + Could make me any summer's story tell, + Or from their proud lap pluck them where they grew. + + _Ibid._ xcviii. + +"Of all the vain assumptions of these coxcombical times, that which +arrogates the pre-eminence in the true science of gardening is the +vainest. True, our conservatories are full of the choicest plants from +every clime: we ripen the Grape and the Pine-apple with an art unknown +before, and even the Mango, the Mangosteen, and the Guava are made to +yield their matured fruits; but the real beauty and poetry of a garden +are lost in our efforts after rarity, and strangeness, and variety." So, +nearly forty years ago, wrote the author of "The Poetry of Gardening," a +pleasant, though somewhat fantastic essay, first published in the +"Carthusian," and afterwards re-published in Murray's "Reading for the +Rail," in company with an excellent article from the "Quarterly" by the +same author under the title of "The Flower Garden;" and I quote it +because this "vain assumption" is probably stronger and more widespread +now than when that article was written. We often hear and read accounts +of modern gardening in which it is coolly assumed, and almost taken for +granted, that the science of horticulture, and almost the love of +flowers, is a product of the nineteenth century. But the love of flowers +is no new taste in Englishmen, and the science of horticulture is in no +way a modern science. We have made large progress in botanical science +during the present century, and our easy communications with the whole +habitable globe have brought to us thousands of new and beautiful plants +in endless varieties; and we have many helps in gardening that were +quite unknown to our forefathers. Yet there were brave old gardeners in +our forefathers' times, and a very little acquaintance with the +literature of the sixteenth century will show that in Shakespeare's time +there was a most healthy and manly love of flowers for their own sake, +and great industry and much practical skill in gardening. We might, +indeed, go much further back than the fifteenth century, and still find +the same love and the same skill. We have long lists of plants grown in +times before the Conquest, with treatises on gardening, in which there +is much that is absurd, but which show a practical experience in the +art, and which show also that the gardens of those days were by no means +ill-furnished either with fruit or flowers. Coming a little later, +Chaucer takes every opportunity to speak with a most loving affection +for flowers, both wild and cultivated, and for well-kept gardens; and +Spenser's poems show a familiar acquaintance with them, and a warm +admiration for them. Then in Shakespeare's time we have full records of +the gardens and gardening which must have often met his eye; and we find +that they were not confined to a few fine places here and there, but +that good gardens were the necessary adjunct to every country house, and +that they were cultivated with a zeal and a skill that would be a credit +to any gardener of our own day. In Harrison's description of "England in +Shakespeare's Youth," recently published by the new Shakespeare Society, +we find that Harrison himself, though only a poor country parson, "took +pains with his garden, in which, though its area covered but 300ft. of +ground, there was 'a simple' for each foot of ground, no one of them +being common or usually to be had." About the same time Gerard's +Catalogues show that he grew in his London garden more than a thousand +species of hardy plants; and Lord Bacon's famous "Essay on Gardens" not +only shows what a grand idea of gardening he had himself, but also that +this idea was not Utopian, but one that sprang from personal +acquaintance with stately gardens, and from an innate love of gardens +and flowers. Almost at the same time, but a little later, we come to the +celebrated "John Parkinson, Apothecary of London, the King's Herbarist," +whose "Paradisus Terrestris," first published in 1629, is indeed "a +choise garden of all sorts of rarest flowers." His collection of plants +would even now be considered an excellent collection, if it could be +brought together, while his descriptions and cultural advice show him to +have been a thorough practical gardener, who spoke of plants and gardens +from the experience of long-continued hard work amongst them. And +contemporary with him was Milton, whose numerous descriptions of flowers +are nearly all of cultivated plants, as he must have often seen them in +English gardens. + +And so we are brought to the conclusion that in the passages quoted +above in which Shakespeare speaks so lovingly and tenderly of his +favourite flowers, these expressions are not to be put down to the fancy +of the poet, but that he was faithfully describing what he daily saw or +might have seen, and what no doubt he watched with that carefulness and +exactness which could only exist in conjunction with a real affection +for the objects on which he gazed, "the fresh and fragrant flowers," +"the pretty flow'rets," "the sweet flowers," "the beauteous flowers," +"the sweet summer buds," "the blossoms passing fair," "the darling buds +of May." + + +II.--GARDENS. + + (1) _King_ (reads). + + It standeth north-north-east and by east from the west corner + of thy curious-knotted Garden. + + _Loves Labour's Lost_, act i, sc. 1 (248). + + + (2) _Isabella._ + + He hath a Garden circummured with brick, + Whose western side is with a Vineyard back'd; + And to that Vineyard is a planched gate + That makes his opening with this bigger key: + The other doth command a little door + Which from the Vineyard to the garden leads. + + _Measure for Measure_, act iv, sc. 1 (28). + + + (3) _Antonio._ + + The Prince and Count Claudio, walking in a thick-pleached + alley in my orchard, were thus much overheard by a man of + mine. + + _Much Ado About Nothing_, act i, sc. 2 (9). + + + (4) _Iago._ + + Our bodies are our Gardens, &c. + + (_See_ HYSSOP.) _Othello_, act i, sc. 3 (323). + + + (5) _1st Servant._ + + Why should we, in the compass of a pale, + Keep law and form and due proportion, + Showing as in a model our firm estate, + When our sea-walled Garden, the whole land, + Is full of weeds, her fairest flowers choked up, + Her fruit-trees all unpruned, her hedges ruin'd, + Her knots disorder'd and her wholesome herbs + Swarming with caterpillars? + + _Richard II_, act iii, sc. 4 (40). + +The flower-gardens of Shakespeare's time were very different to the +flower-gardens of our day; but we have so many good descriptions of them +in books and pictures that we have no difficulty in realizing them both +in their general form and arrangement. I am now speaking only of the +flower-gardens; the kitchen-gardens and orchards were very much like our +own, except in the one important difference, that they had necessarily +much less glass than our modern gardens can command. In the +flower-garden the grand leading principle was uniformity and formality +carried out into very minute details. "The garden is best to be square," +was Lord Bacon's rule; "the form that men like in general is a square, +though roundness be _forma perfectissima_," was Lawson's rule; and this +form was chosen because the garden was considered to be a purtenance and +continuation of the house, designed so as strictly to harmonize with the +architecture of the building. And Parkinson's advice was to the same +effect: "The orbicular or round form is held in its own proper existence +to be the most absolute form, containing within it all other forms +whatsoever; but few, I think, will chuse such a proportion to be joyned +to their habitation. The triangular or three-square form is such a form +also as is seldom chosen by any that may make another choise. The +four-square form is the most usually accepted with all, and doth best +agree with any man's dwelling." + +This was the shape of the ideal garden-- + + "And whan I had a while goon, + I saugh a gardyn right anoon, + Full long and broad; and every delle + Enclosed was, and walled welle + With high walles embatailled. + + * * * * * + + I felle fast in a waymenting + By which art, or by what engyne + I might come into that gardyne; + But way I couthe fynd noon + Into that gardyne for to goon. + + * * * * * + + Tho' gan I go a fulle grete pas, + Environyng evene in compas, + The closing of the square walle, + Tyl that I fonde a wiket smalle + So shett that I ne'er myght in gon, + And other entre was ther noon." + + _Romaunt of the Rose._ + +This square enclosure was bounded either by a high wall--"circummured +with brick," "with high walles embatailled,"--or with a thick high +hedge--"encompassed on all the four sides with a stately arched hedge." +These hedges were made chiefly of Holly or Hornbeam, and we can judge of +their size by Evelyn's description of his "impregnable hedge of about +400ft. in length, 9ft. high, and 5ft. in diameter." Many of these hedges +still remain in our old gardens. Within this enclosure the garden was +accurately laid out in formal shapes,[343:1] with paths either quite +straight or in some strictly mathematical figures-- + + "And all without were walkes and alleyes dight + With divers trees enrang'd in even rankes; + And here and there were pleasant arbors pight, + And shadie seats, and sundry flowring bankes, + To sit and rest the walkers' wearie shankes." + + _F. Q._, iv, x, 25. + +The main walks were not, as with us, bounded with the turf, but they +were bounded with trees, which were wrought into hedges, more or less +open at the sides, and arched over at the top. These formed the "close +alleys," "coven alleys," or "thick-pleached alleys," of which we read in +Shakespeare and others writers of that time. Many kinds of trees and +shrubs were used for this purpose; "every one taketh what liketh him +best, as either Privit alone, or Sweet Bryer and White Thorn interlaced +together, and Roses of one, two, or more sorts placed here and there +amongst them. Some also take Lavender, Rosemary, Sage, Southernwood, +Lavender Cotton, or some such other thing. Some again plant Cornel +trees, and plash them or keep them low to form them into a hedge; and +some again take a low prickly shrub that abideth always green, called in +Latin Pyracantha" (Parkinson). It was on these hedges and their adjuncts +that the chief labour of the garden was spent. They were cut and +tortured into every imaginable shape, for nothing came amiss to the +fancy of the topiarist. When this topiary art first came into fashion in +England I do not know, but it was probably more or less the fashion in +all gardens of any pretence from very early times, and it reached its +highest point in the sixteenth century, and held its ground as the +perfection of gardening till it was driven out of the field in the last +century by the "picturesque style," though many specimens still remain +in England, as at Levens[344:1] and Hardwicke on a large scale, and in +the gardens of many ancient English mansions and old farmhouses on a +smaller scale. It was doomed as soon as landscape gardeners aimed at the +natural, for even when it was still at its height Addison described it +thus: "Our British gardeners, instead of humouring Nature, love to +deviate from it as much as possible. Our trees rise in cones, globes, +and pyramids; we see the mark of the scissors upon every plant and +bush." + +But this is a digression: I must return to the Elizabethan garden, which +I have hitherto only described as a great square, surrounded by wide, +covered, shady walks, and with other similar walks dividing the central +square into four or more compartments. But all this was introductory to +the great feature of the Elizabethan garden, the formation of the +"curious-knotted garden." Each of the large compartments was divided +into a complication of "knots," by which was meant beds arranged in +quaint patterns, formed by rule and compass with mathematical precision, +and so numerous that it was a necessary part of the system that the +whole square should be fully occupied by them. Lawn there was none; the +whole area was nothing but the beds and the paths that divided them. +There was Grass in other parts of the pleasure grounds, and apparently +well kept, for Lord Bacon has given his opinion that "nothing is more +pleasant to the eye than green Grass kept finely shorn," but it was +apparently to be found only in the orchard, the bowling-green, or the +"wilderness;" in the flower-garden proper it had no place. The "knots" +were generally raised above the surface of the paths, the earth being +kept in its place by borders of lead, or tiles, or wood, or even bones; +but sometimes the beds and paths were on the same level, and then there +were the same edgings that we now use, as Thrift, Box, Ivy, flints, &c. +The paths were made of gravel, sand, spar, &c., and sometimes with +coloured earths: but against this Lord Bacon made a vigorous protest: +"As to the making of knots or figures with divers coloured earths, that +they may lie under the windows of the house on that side on which the +garden stands they be but toys; you may see as good sights many times in +tarts." + +The old gardening books are full of designs for these knots; indeed, no +gardening book of the date seems to have been considered complete if it +did not give the "latest designs," and they seem to have much tried the +wit and ingenuity of the gardeners, as they must have also sorely tried +their patience to keep them in order; and I doubt not that the +efficiency of an Elizabethan gardener was as much tested by his skill +and experience in "knot-work," as the efficiency of a modern gardener is +tested by his skill in "bedding-out," which is the lineal descendant of +"knot-work." In one most essential point, however, the two systems very +much differed. In "bedding-out" the whole force of the system is spent +in producing masses of colours, the individual flowers being of no +importance, except so far as each flower contributes its little share of +colour to the general mass; and it is for this reason that so many of us +dislike the system, not only because of its monotony, but more +especially because it has a tendency "to teach us to think too little +about the plants individually, and to look at them chiefly as an +assemblage of beautiful colours. It is difficult in those blooming +masses to separate one from another; all produce so much the same sort +of impression. The consequence is people see the flowers on the beds +without caring to know anything about them or even to ask their names. +It was different in the older gardens, because there was just variety +there; the plants strongly contrasted with each other, and we were ever +passing from the beautiful to the curious. Now we get little of +quaintness or mystery, or of the strange delicious thought of being lost +or embosomed in a tall rich wood of flowers. All is clear, definite, and +classical, the work of a too narrow and exclusive taste."--FORBES +WATSON. The old "knot-work" was not open to this censure, though no +doubt it led the way which ended in "bedding-out." The beginning of the +system crept in very shortly after Shakespeare's time. Parkinson spoke +of an arrangement of spring flowers which, when "all planted in some +proportion as near one unto another as is fit for them will give such a +grace to the garden that the place will seem like a piece of tapestry of +many glorious colours, to encrease every one's delight." And again--"The +Tulipas may be so matched, one colour answering and setting off another, +that the place where they stand may resemble a piece of curious +needlework or piece of painting." But these plants were all perennial, +and remained where they were once planted, and with this one exception +named by Parkinson, the planting of knot-work was as different as +possible from the modern planting of carpet-beds. The beds were planted +inside their thick margins with a great variety of plants, and +apparently set as thick as possible, like Harrison's garden quoted +above, with its 300 separate plants in as many square feet. These were +nearly all hardy perennials,[347:1] with the addition of a few hardy +annuals, and the great object seems to have been to have had something +of interest or beauty in these gardens at all times of the year. The +principle of the old gardeners was that "Nature abhors a vacuum," and, +as far as their gardens went, they did their best to prevent a vacuum +occurring at any time. In this way I think they surpassed us in their +practical gardening, for, even if they did not always succeed, it was +surely something for them to aim (in Lord Bacon's happy words), "to have +_ver perpetuum_ as the place affords." + +Where the space would allow of it, the garden was further decorated with +statues, fountains, "fair mounts," labyrinths, mazes,[347:2] arbours and +alcoves, rocks, "great Turkey jars," and "in some corner (or more) a +true Dial or Clock, and some Antick works" (Lawson). These things were +fitting ornaments in such formal gardens, but the best judges saw that +they were not necessaries, and that the garden was complete without +them. "They be pretty things to look on, but nothing for health or +sweetness." "Such things are for state and magnificence, but nothing to +the true pleasure of a garden." + +Such was the Elizabethan garden in its general outlines; the sort of +garden which Shakespeare must have often seen both in Warwickshire and +in London. According to our present ideas such a garden would be far too +formal and artificial, and we may consider that the present fashion of +our gardens is more according to Milton's idea of Eden, in which there +grew-- + + "Flowers worthy of Paradise, which not nice art + In beds and curious knots, but Nature boon + Poured forth profuse on hill and dale and plaine." + + _Paradise Lost_, book iv. + +None of us probably would now wish to exchange the straight walks and +level terraces of the sixteenth century for our winding walks and +undulating lawns, in the laying out of which the motto has been "ars est +celare artem"-- + + "That which all faire workes doth most aggrace, + The art, which all that wrought, appeareth in no place." + + _F. Q._, ii, xii, 58. + +Yet it is pleasant to look back upon these old gardens, and to see how +they were cherished and beloved by some of the greatest and noblest of +Englishmen. Spenser has left on record his judgment on the gardens of +his day-- + + "To the gay gardens his unstaid desire + Him wholly carried, to refresh his sprights; + There lavish Nature, in her best attire, + Poures forth sweete odors and alluring sights: + And Arte, with her contending, doth aspire + To excell the naturall with made delights; + And all, that faire or pleasant may be found, + In riotous excesse doth there abound. + + * * * * * + + There he arriving around about doth flie, + From bed to bed, from one to other border; + And takes survey, with curious busie eye, + Of every flowre and herbe there set in order." + + _Muiopotmos._ + +Clearly in Spenser's eyes the formalities of an Elizabethan garden (for +we must suppose he had such in his thoughts) did not exclude nature or +beauty. + +It was also with such formal gardens in his mind and before his eyes +that Lord Bacon wrote his "Essay on Gardens," and commenced it with the +well-known sentence (for I must quote him once again for the last time), +"God Almighty first planted a garden, and indeed it is the purest of all +human pleasures; it is the greatest refreshment to the spirits of man, +without which buildings and palaces are but gross handiworks; and a man +shall ever see, that when ages grow to civility and elegance, men come +to build stately sooner than to garden finely, as if gardening were the +greater perfection." And, indeed, in spite of their stiffness and +unnaturalness, there must have been a great charm in those gardens, and +though it would be antiquarian affectation to attempt or wish to +restore them, yet there must have been a stateliness about them which +our gardens have not, and they must have had many points of real comfort +which it seems a pity to have lost. Those long shady "covert alleys," +with their "thick-pleached" sides and roof, must have been very pleasant +places to walk in, giving shelter in winter, and in summer deep shade, +with the pleasant smell of Sweet Brier and Roses. They must have been +the very places for a thoughtful student, who desired quiet and +retirement for his thoughts-- + + "And adde to these retired leisure + That in trim gardens takes his pleasure"-- + + _Il Penseroso._ + +and they must have been also "pretty retiring places for conference" for +friends in council. The whole fashion of the Elizabethan garden has +passed away, and will probably never be revived; but before we condemn +it as a ridiculous fashion, unworthy of the science of gardening, we may +remember that it held its ground in England for nearly two hundred +years, and that during that time the gardens of England and the flowers +they bore won not the cold admiration, but the warm affection of the +greatest names in English history, the affection of such a queen as +Elizabeth,[349:1] of such a grave and wise philosopher as Bacon, of such +a grand hero as Raleigh, of such poets as Spenser and Shakespeare. + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[343:1] These beds (as we should now call them) were called "tables" or +"plots"-- + + "Mark out the tables, ichon by hem selve + Sixe foote in brede, and xii in length is beste + To clense and make on evey side honest." + + _Palladius on Husbandrie_, i. 116. + +"Note this generally that all plots are square."--LAWSON'S _New +Orchard_, p. 60. + +[344:1] For an account of Levens, with a plate of the Topiarian garden, +see "Archaeological Journal," vol. xxvi. + +[347:1] Including shrubs-- + + "'Tis another's lot + To light upon some gard'ner's curious knot, + Where she upon her breast (love's sweet repose), + Doth bring the Queen of flowers, the English Rose." + + BROWNE'S _Brit. Past._, i, 2. + +[347:2] For a good account of mazes and labyrinths see "Archaeological +Journal," xiv. 216. + +[349:1] Queen Elizabeth's love of gardening and her botanical knowledge +were celebrated in a Latin poem by an Italian who visited England in +1586, and wrote a long poem under the name of "Melissus."--See +_Archaeologia_, vol. vii. 120. + + +III.--GARDENERS. + + (1) _Queen._ + + But stay, here come the gardeners; + Let's step into the shadow of these trees. + + * * * * * + + Thou, old Adam's likeness, set to dress this garden, + How dares thy harsh rude tongue sound this unpleasing news? + What Eve, what serpent, hath suggested thee + To make a second fall of cursed man? + Why dost thou say King Richard is deposed? + Darest thou, thou little better thing than earth, + Divine his downfal? + + _Richard II_, act iii, sc. 4 (24, 72). + + + (2) _Clown._ + + Come, my spade. There is no ancient gentlemen but gardeners, + ditchers, and grave-makers; they hold up Adam's profession. + + _Hamlet_, act v, sc. 1 (34). + +Very little is recorded of the gardeners of the sixteenth century, by +which we can judge either of their skill or their social position. +Gerard frequently mentions the names of different persons from whom he +obtained plants, but without telling us whether they were professional +or amateur gardeners or nurserymen; and Hakluyt has recorded the name of +Master Wolfe as gardener to Henry VIII. Certainly Richard II.'s Queen +did not speak with much respect to her gardener, reproving him for his +"harsh rude tongue," and addressing him as a "little better thing than +earth"--but her angry grief may account for that. Parkinson also has not +much to say in favour of the gardeners of his day, but considers it his +duty to warn his readers against them: "Our English gardeners are all, +or the most of them, utterly ignorant in the ordering of their +outlandish (_i.e._, exotic) flowers as not being trained to know +them. . . . And I do wish all gentlemen and gentlewomen, whom it may +concern for their own good, to be as careful whom they trust with the +planting and replanting of their fine flowers, as they would be with so +many jewels, for the roots of many of them being small and of great +value may soon be conveyed away, and a clean tale fair told, that such a +root is rotten or perished in the ground if none be seen where it should +be, or else that the flower hath changed his colour when it hath been +taken away, or a counterfeit one hath been put in the place thereof; and +thus many have been deceived of their daintiest flowers, without remedy +or true knowledge of the defect." And again, "idle and ignorant +gardeners who get names by stealth as they do many other things." This +is not a pleasant picture either of the skill or honesty of the +sixteenth-century gardeners, but there must have been skilled gardeners +to keep those curious-knotted gardens in order, so as to have a "_ver +perpetuum_ all the year." And there must have been men also who had a +love for their craft; and if some stole the rare plants committed to +their charge, we must hope that there were some honest men amongst them, +and that they were not all like old Andrew Fairservice, in "Rob Roy," +who wished to find a place where he "wad hear pure doctrine, and hae a +free cow's grass, and a cot and a yard, and mair than ten punds of +annual fee," but added also, "and where there's nae leddy about the town +to count the Apples." + + +IV.--GARDENING OPERATIONS. + + +A. PRUNING, ETC. + + (1) _Orlando._ + + But, poor old man, thou prunest a rotten tree, + That cannot so much as a blossom yield + In lieu of all thy pains and industry. + + _As you Like It_, act ii, sc. 3 (63). + + + (2) _Gardener._ + + Go, bind thou up yon dangling Apricocks, + Which, like unruly children, make their sire + Stoop with oppression of their prodigal weight: + Give some supportance to the bending twigs. + Go thou, and like an executioner, + Cut off the heads of too-fast growing sprays, + That look too lofty in our commonwealth: + All must be even in our government. + You thus employ'd, I would go root away + The noisome weeds, which without profit suck + The soil's fertility from wholesome flowers. + + * * * * * + + O, what pity is it, + That he had not so trimm'd and dress'd his land + As we this garden! We at time of year + Do wound the bark, the skin of our fruit-trees, + Lest, being over-proud in sap and blood, + With too much riches it confound itself: + Had he done so to great and growing men, + They might have lived to bear and he to taste + Their fruits of duty; superfluous branches + We lop away, that bearing boughs may live: + Had he done so, himself had borne the crown + Which waste of idle hours hath quite thrown down. + + _Richard II_, act iii, sc. 4 (29). + +This most interesting passage would almost tempt us to say that +Shakespeare was a gardener by profession; certainly no other passages +that have been brought to prove his real profession are more minute than +this. It proves him to have had practical experience in the work, and I +think we may safely say that he was no mere 'prentice hand in the use of +the pruning knife. + +The art of pruning in his day was probably exactly like our own, as far +as regarded fruit trees and ordinary garden work, but in one important +particular the pruner's art of that day was a for more laborious art +than it is now. The topiary art must have been the triumph of pruning, +and when gardens were full of castles, monsters, beasts, birds, fishes, +and men, all cut out of Box and Yew, and kept so exact that they boasted +of being the "living representations" and "counterfeit presentments" of +these various objects, the hands and head of the pruner could seldom +have been idle; the pruning knife and scissors must have been in +constant demand from the first day of the year to the last. The pruner +of that day was, in fact, a sculptor, who carved his images out of Box +and Yew instead of marble, so that in an amusing article in the +"Guardian" for 1713 (No. 173), said to have been written by Pope, is a +list of such sculptured objects for sale, and we are told that the +"eminent town gardener had arrived to such perfection that he cuts +family pieces of men, women, and children. Any ladies that please may +have their own effigies in Myrtle, or their husbands in Hornbeam. He is +a Puritan wag, and never fails when he shows his garden to repeat that +passage in the Psalms, 'Thy wife shall be as the fruitful Vine, and thy +children as Olive branches about thy table.'" + + +B. MANURING, ETC. + + _Constable._ + + And you shall find his vanities forespent + Were but the outside of the Roman Brutus, + Covering discretion with a coat of folly; + As gardeners do with ordure hide those roots + That shall first spring and be most delicate. + + _Henry V_, act ii, sc. 4 (36). + +The only point that needs notice under this head is that the word +"manure" in Shakespeare's time was not limited to its present modern +meaning. In his day "manured land" generally meant cultured land in +opposition to wild and barren land.[353:1] So Falstaff uses the word-- + + Hereof comes it that Prince Harry is valiant; for the cold + blood he did naturally inherit of his father, he hath, like + lean, sterile and bare land, manured, husbanded, and tilled + with excellent endeavour of drinking good and good store of + fertile sherris, that he is become very hot and valiant. + + _2nd Henry IV_, act iv, sc. 3 (126). + +And in the same way Iago says-- + + Either to have it (a garden) sterile with idleness or manured + with industry. + + _Othello_, act i, sc. 3 (296). + +Milton and many other writers used the word in this its original sense; +and Johnson explains it "to cultivate by manual labour," according to +its literal derivation. In one passage Shakespeare uses the word +somewhat in the modern sense-- + + _Carlisle._ The blood of English shall manure the ground. + + _Richard II_, act iv, sc. 1 (137). + +But generally he and the writers of that and the next century expressed +the operation more simply and plainly, as "covering with ordure," or as +in the English Bible, "I shall dig about it and dung it." + + +C. GRAFTING. + + (1) _Buckingham._ + + Her royal stock graft with ignoble plants. + + _Richard III_, act iii, sc. 7 (127). + + + (2) _Dauphin._ + + O Dieu vivant! shall a few sprays of us, + The emptying of our fathers' luxury, + Our scions, put in wild and savage stock, + Spirt up so suddenly into the clouds, + And overlook their grafters? + + _Henry V_, act iii, sc. 5 (5). + + + (3) _King._ + + His plausive words + He scatter'd not in ears, but grafted them, + To grow there and to bear. + + _All's Well that Ends Well_, act i, sc. 2 (53). + + + (4) _Perdita._ + + The fairest flowers o' the season + Are our Carnations and streak'd Gillyvors, + Which some call nature's bastards: of that kind + Our rustic garden's barren; I care not + To get slips of them. + + _Polixenes._ + + Wherefore, gentle maiden, + Do you neglect them? + + _Perdita._ + For I have heard it said + There is an art which in their piedness shares + With great creating Nature. + + _Polixenes._ + + Say there be; + Yet Nature is made better by no mean, + But Nature makes that mean: so, over that art + Which you say adds to Nature, is an art + That Nature makes. You see, sweet maid, we marry + A gentle scion to the wildest stock, + And make conceive a bark of baser kind + By bud of nobler race: this is an art + Which does mend nature, change it rather, but + The art itself is nature. + + _Perdita._ + + So it is. + + _Polixenes._ + + Then make your garden rich in Gillyvors, + And do not call them bastards. + + _Perdita._ + + I'll not put + The dibble in the earth to set one slip of them. + + _Winter's Tale_, act iv, sc. 4 (81). + +The various ways of propagating plants by grafts, cuttings, slips, and +artificial impregnation (all mentioned in the above passages), as used +in Shakespeare's day, seem to have been exactly like those of our own +time, and so they need no further comment. + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[353:1] The Act 31 Eliz. c. 7, enacts that "noe person shall within this +Realme of England make buylde or erect any Buyldinge or Howsinge . . . . +as a Cottage for habitation . . . . unlesse the same person do assigne +and laye to the same Cottage or Buyldinge fower acres of Grounde at the +least . . . to be contynuallie occupied and manured therewith." Gerard's +Chapter on Vines is headed, "Of the manured Vine." + + +V.--GARDEN ENEMIES. + + +A. WEEDS. + + (1) _Hamlet._ + + How weary, stale, flat, and unprofitable + Seem to me all the uses of this world! + Fye on it, ah fye! 'tis an unweeded garden + That grows to seed; things rank and gross in nature + Possess it merely. + + _Hamlet_, act i, sc. 2 (133). + + + (2) _Titus._ + + Such withered herbs as these + Are meet for plucking up. + + _Titus Andronicus_, act iii, sc. 1 (178). + + + (3) _York._ + + Grandam, one night, as we did sit at supper, + My Uncle Rivers talk'd how I did grow + More than my brother. "Ay," quoth my Uncle Glo'ster, + "Small herbs have grace, great weeds do grow apace;" + And since, methinks, I would not grow so fast, + Because sweet flowers are slow and weeds make haste. + + _Richard III_, act ii, sc. 4 (10). + + + (4) _Queen._ + + Now 'tis the spring, and weeds are shallow-rooted; + Suffer them now, and they'll o'ergrow the garden, + And choke the herbs for want of husbandry. + + _2nd Henry VI_, act iii, sc. 1 (31). + + + (5) + + Unruly blasts wait on the tender spring, + Unwholesome weeds take root with precious flowers. + + _Lucrece_ (869). + + + (6) _K. Henry._ + + Most subject is the fattest soil to weeds. + + _2nd Henry IV_, act iv, sc. 4 (54). + +The weeds of Shakespeare need no remark; they were the same as ours; +and, in spite of our improved cultivation, our fields and gardens are +probably as full of weeds as they were three centuries ago. + + +B. BLIGHTS, FROSTS, ETC. + + (1) _York._ + + Thus are my blossoms blasted in the bud, + And caterpillars eat my leaves away. + + _2nd Henry VI_, act iii, sc. 1 (89). + + + (2) _Montague._ + + But he, his own affection's counsellor, + Is to himself--I will not say, how true-- + But to himself so sweet and close, + So far from sounding and discovery, + As is the bud bit with an envious worm, + Ere he can spread his sweet leaves to the air, + Or dedicate his beauty to the sun. + + _Romeo and Juliet_, act i, sc. 1 (153). + + + (3) _Imogene._ + + Comes in my father, + And like the tyrannous breathing of the north + Shakes all our buds from growing. + + _Cymbeline_, act i, sc. 3 (35). + + + (4) _Bardolph._ + + A cause on foot + Lives so in hope as in an early spring + We see the appearing buds--which to prove fruit, + Hope gives not so much warrant as despair + That frost will bite them. + + _2nd Henry IV_, act i, sc. 3 (37). + + + (5) _Violet._ + + She never told her love, + But let concealment, like a worm i' the bud, + Feed on her damask cheek. + + _Twelfth Night_, act ii, sc. 4 (113). + + + (6) _Proteus._ + + Yet writers say, as in the sweetest bud + The eating canker dwells, so eating love + Inhabits in the finest wits of all. + + _Valentine._ + + And writers say as the most forward bud + Is eaten by the canker ere it blow, + Even so by love the young and tender wit + Is turn'd to folly, blasting in the bud, + Losing his verdure even in the prime + And all the fair effects of future hopes. + + _Two Gentlemen of Verona_, act i, sc. 1 (42). + + + (7) _Capulet._ + + Death lies on her like an untimely frost + Upon the sweetest flower of the field. + + _Romeo and Juliet_, act iv, sc. 5 (28). + + + (8) _Lysimachus._ + + O sir, a courtesy + Which if we should deny, the most just gods + For every graff would send a caterpillar, + And so afflict our province. + + _Pericles_, act v, sc. 1 (58). + + + (9) _Wolsey._ + + This is the state of man: to-day he puts forth + The tender leaves of hopes, to-morrow blossoms, + And bears his blushing honours thick upon him: + The third day comes a frost, a killing frost, + And, when he thinks, good easy man, full surely + His greatness is a-ripening, nips his root, + And then he falls, as I do. + + _Henry VIII_, act iii, sc. 2 (352). + + + (10) _Saturninus._ + + These tidings nip me, and I hang the head + As Flowers with frost, or Grass beat down with storms. + + _Titus Andronicus_, act iv, sc. 4 (70). + + + (11) + + No man inveigh against the withered flower, + But chide rough winter that the flower hath kill'd; + Not that devour'd, but that which doth devour, + Is worthy blame. + + _Lucrece_ (1254). + + + (12) + + For never-resting time leads summer on + To hideous winter, and confounds him there; + Sap check'd with frost and lusty leaves quite gone, + Beauty o'ersnow'd, and bareness everywhere; + Then, were not summer's distillation left, + A liquid prisoner pent in walls of glass, + Beauty's effect with beauty were bereft, + Nor it, nor no remembrance what it was; + But flowers distill'd, though they with winter meet, + Leese but their show; their substance still lives sweet.[357:1] + + _Sonnet_ v. + +With this beautiful description of the winter-life of hardy perennial +plants, I may well close the "Plant-lore and Garden-craft of +Shakespeare." The subject has stretched to a much greater extent than I +at all anticipated when I commenced it, but this only shows how large +and interesting a task I undertook, for I can truly say that my +difficulty has been in the necessity for condensing my matter, which I +soon found might be made to cover a much larger space than I have given +to it; for my object was in no case to give an exhaustive account of the +flowers, but only to give such an account of each plant as might +illustrate its special use by Shakespeare. + +Having often quoted my favourite authority in gardening matters, old +"John Parkinson, Apothecary, of London," I will again make use of him to +help me to say my last words: "Herein I have spent my time, pains, and +charge, which, if well accepted, I shall think well employed. And thus I +have finished this work, and have furnished it with whatsoever could +bring delight to those that take pleasure in those things, which how +well or ill done I must abide every one's censure; the judicious and +courteous I only respect; and so Farewell." + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[357:1] + + "Flowers depart + To see their mother-root, when they have blown; + Where they together, + All the hard weather + Dead to the world, keep house unknown." + + G. HERBERT, _The Flower_. + + + + +APPENDIX I. + +_THE DAISY:_ + +_ITS HISTORY, POETRY, AND BOTANY._ + + There's a Daisy.--_Ophelia._ + + + Daisies smel-lesse, yet most quaint. + + _Two Noble Kinsmen_, Introd. song. + + +The following Paper on the Daisy was written for the Bath Natural +History and Antiquarian Field Club, and read at their meeting, January +14th, 1874. It was then published in "The Garden," and a few copies were +reprinted for private circulation. I now publish it as an Appendix to +the "Plant-lore of Shakespeare," with very few alterations from its +original form, preferring thus to reprint it _in extenso_ than to make +an abstract of it for the illustration of Shakespeare's Daisies. + + + + +THE DAISY. + + +I almost feel that I ought to apologize to the Field Club for asking +them to listen to a paper on so small a subject as the Daisy. But, +indeed, I have selected that subject because I think it is one +especially suited to a Naturalists' Field Club. The members of such a +club, as I think, should take notice of everything. Nothing should be +beneath their notice. It should be their province to note a multitude of +little facts unnoticed by others; they should be "minute philosophers," +and they might almost take as their motto the wise words which Milton +put into the mouth of Adam, after he had been instructed to "be lowlie +wise" (especially in the study of the endless wonders of sea, and earth, +and sky that surrounded him)-- + + "To know + That which before us lies in daily life, + Is the prime wisdom."--_Paradise Lost_, viii. (192). + +I do not apologize for the lowness and humbleness of my subject, but, +with "no delay of preface" (Milton), I take you at once to it. In +speaking of the Daisy, I mean to confine myself to the Daisy, commonly +so-called, merely reminding you that there are also the Great or Ox-eye, +or Moon Daisy (_Chrysanthemum leucanthemum_), the Michaelmas Daisy +(_Aster_), and the Blue Daisy of the South of Europe (_Globularia_). +The name has been also given to a few other plants, but none of them are +true Daisies. + +I begin with its name. Of this there can be little doubt; it is the +"Day's-eye," the bright little eye that only opens by day, and goes to +sleep at night. This, whether the true derivation or not, is no modern +fancy. It is, at least, as old as Chaucer, and probably much older. Here +are Chaucer's well-known words-- + + "Men by reason well it calle may + The Daisie, or else the Eye of Day, + The Empresse and the flowre of flowres all." + +And Ben Jonson boldly spoke of them as "bright Daye's-eyes." + +There is, however, another derivation. Dr. Prior says: "Skinner derives +it from dais or canopy, and Gavin Douglas seems to have understood it in +the sense of a small canopy in the line: + + "The Daisie did unbraid her crounall small. + +"Had we not the A.-S. daeges-eage, we could hardly refuse to admit that +this last is a far more obvious and probable explanation of the word +than the pretty poetical thought conveyed in Day's-eye." This was Dr. +Prior's opinion in his first edition of his valuable "Popular Names of +British Plants;" but it is withdrawn in his second edition, and he now +is content with the Day's-eye derivation. Dr. Prior has kindly informed +me that he rejected it because he can find no old authority for +Skinner's derivation, and because it is doubtful whether the Daisy in +Gavin Douglas's line does not mean a Marigold, and not what we call a +Daisy. The derivation, however, seemed worth a passing notice. Its other +English names are Dog Daisy, to distinguish it from the large Ox-eyed +Daisy; Banwort, "because it helpeth bones[362:1] to knit agayne" +(Turner); Bruisewort, for the same reason; Herb Margaret, from its +French name; and in the North, Bairnwort, from its associations with +childhood. As to its other names, the plant seems to have been unknown +to the Greeks, and has no Greek name, but is fortunate in having as +pretty a name in Latin as it has in English. Its modern botanical name +is Bellis, and it has had the name from the time of Pliny. Bellis must +certainly come from _bellus_ (pretty), and so it is at once stamped as +the pretty one even by botanists--though another derivation has been +given to the name, of which I will speak soon. The French call it +Marguerite, no doubt for its pearly look, or Pasquerette, to mark it as +the spring flower; the German name for it is very different, and not +easy to explain--Gaenseblume, _i.e._, Goose-flower; the Danish name is +Tusinfryd (thousand joys); and the Welsh, Sensigl (trembling star). + +As Pliny is the first that mentions the plant, his account is worth +quoting. "As touching a Daisy," he says (I quote from Holland's +translation, 1601), "a yellow cup it hath also, and the same is crowned, +as it were, with a garland, consisting of five and fifty little leaves, +set round about it in manner of fine pales. These be flowers of the +meadow, and most of such are of no use at all, no marvile, therefore, if +they be namelesse; howbeit, some give them one tearme and some another" +(book xxi. cap. 8). And again, "There is a hearbe growing commonly in +medows, called the Daisie, with a white floure, and partly inclining to +red, which, if it is joined with Mugwort in an ointment, is thought to +make the medicine farre more effectual for the King's evil" (book xxvi. +cap. 5). + +We have no less than three legends of the origin of the flower. In one +legend, not older, I believe, than the fourteenth century (the legend is +given at full length by Chaucer in his "Legende of Goode Women"), +Alcestis was turned into a Daisy. Another legend records that "this +plant is called Bellis, because it owes its origin to Belides, a +granddaughter to Danaus, and one of the nymphs called Dryads, that +presided over the meadows and pastures in ancient times. Belides is said +to have encouraged the suit of Ephigeus, but whilst dancing on the grass +with this rural deity she attracted the admiration of Vertumnus, who, +just as he was about to seize her in his embrace, saw her transformed +into the humble plant that now bears her name." This legend I have only +seen in Phillips's "Flora Historica." I need scarcely tell you that +neither Belides or Ephigeus are classical names--they are mediaeval +inventions. The next legend is a Celtic one; I find it recorded both by +Lady Wilkinson and Mrs. Lankester. I should like to know its origin; but +with that grand contempt for giving authorities which lady-authors too +often show, neither of these ladies tells us whence she got the legend. +The legend says that "the virgins of Morven, to soothe the grief of +Malvina, who had lost her infant son, sang to her, 'We have seen, O! +Malvina, we have seen the infant you regret, reclining on a light mist; +it approached us, and shed on our fields a harvest of new flowers. Look, +O! Malvina. Among these flowers we distinguish one with a golden disk +surrounded by silver leaves; a sweet tinge of crimson adorns its +delicate rays; waved by a gentle wind, we might call it a little infant +playing in a green meadow; and the flower of thy bosom has given a new +flower to the hills of Cromla.'" Since that day the daughters of Morven +have consecrated the Daisy to infancy. "It is," said they, "the flower +of innocence, the flower of the newborn." Besides these legends, the +Daisy is also connected with the legendary history of St. Margaret. The +legend is given by Chaucer, but I will tell it to you in the words of a +more modern poet-- + + "There is a double flouret, white and rede, + That our lasses call Herb Margaret + In honour of Cortona's penitent; + Whose contrite soul with red remorse was rent. + While on her penitence kind Heaven did throwe + The white of puritie surpassing snowe; + So white and rede in this faire floure entwine, + Which maids are wont to scatter on her shrine." + + _Catholic Florist_, Feb. 22, St. Margaret's Day. + +Yet, in spite of the general association of Daisies with St. Margaret, +Mrs. Jameson says that she has seen one, and only one, picture of St. +Margaret with Daisies. + +The poetry or poetical history of the Daisy is very curious. It begins +with Chaucer, whose love of the flower might almost be called an +idolatry. But, as it begins with Chaucer, so, for a time, it almost ends +with him. Spenser, Shakespeare, and Milton scarcely mention it. It holds +almost no place in the poetry of the seventeenth and eighteenth +centuries; but, at the close of the eighteenth century, it has the good +luck to be uprooted by Burns's plough, and he at once sings its dirge +and its beauties; and then the flower at once becomes a celebrity. +Wordsworth sings of it in many a beautiful verse; and I think it is +scarcely too much to say that since his time not an English poet has +failed to pay his homage to the humble beauty of the Daisy. I do not +purpose to take you through all these poets--time and knowledge would +fail me to introduce you to them all. I shall but select some of those +which I consider best worth selection. I begin, of course, with Chaucer, +and even with him I must content myself with a selection-- + + "Of all the floures in the mede, + Then love I most those floures white and redde; + Such that men callen Daisies in our town. + To them I have so great affection, + As I said erst when comen is the Maye, + That in my bedde there dawneth me no daie, + That I n'am up and walking in the mede + To see this floure against the sunne sprede. + When it upriseth early by the morrow, + That blessed sight softeneth all my sorrow. + So glad am I, when that I have presence + Of it, to done it all reverence-- + As she that is of all floures the floure, + Fulfilled of all virtue and honoure; + And ever ylike fair and fresh of hue, + And ever I love it, and ever ylike new, + And ever shall, till that mine heart die, + All swear I not, of this I will not lye. + There loved no wight hotter in his life, + And when that it is eve, I run blithe, + As soon as ever the sun gaineth west, + To see this floure, how it will go to rest. + For fear of night, so hateth she darkness, + Her cheer is plainly spread in the brightness + Of the sunne, for there it will unclose; + Alas, that I ne had English rhyme or prose + Suffisaunt this floure to praise aright." + +I could give you several other quotations from Chaucer, but I will +content myself with this, for I think unbounded admiration of a flower +can scarcely go further than the lines I have read to you. + +In an early poem published by Ritson is the following-- + + "Lenten ys come with love to toune + With blosmen ant with briddes roune + That al thys blisse bryngeth; + Dayeseyes in this dales, + Notes suete of nyghtegales + Vch foul song singeth." + + _Ancient Songs and Ballads_, vol. i, p. 63. + +Stephen Hawes, who lived in the time of Henry VII., wrote a poem called +the "Temple of Glass." In that temple he tells us-- + + "I saw depycted upon a wall, + From est to west, fol many a fayre image + Of sundry lovers. . . . ." + +And among these lovers-- + + "And Alder next was the freshe quene, + I mean Alceste, the noble true wife, + And for Admete howe she lost her life, + And for her trouthe, if I shall not lye, + How she was turned into a Daysye." + +We next come to Spenser. In the "Muiopotmos," he gives a list of flowers +that the butterfly frequents, with most descriptive epithets to each +flower most happily chosen. Among the flowers are-- + + "The Roses raigning in the pride of May, + Sharp Isope good for greene woundes' remedies, + Faire Marigoldes, and bees-alluring Thyme, + Sweet Marjoram, and Daysies decking prime." + +By "decking prime" he means they are the ornament of the morning.[366:1] +Again he introduces the Daisy in a stanza of much beauty, that commences +the June Eclogue of the "Shepherd's Calendar." + + "Lo! Colin, here the place whose pleasaunt syte + From other shades hath weand my wandring minde. + Tell me, what wants me here to work delyte? + The simple ayre, the gentle warbling winde, + So calm, so cool, as no where else I finde; + The Grassie ground, with daintie Daysies dight; + The Bramble bush, where byrdes of every kinde + To the waters' fall their tunes attemper right." + +From Spenser we come to Shakespeare, and when we remember the vast +acquaintance with flowers of every kind that he shows, and especially +when we remember how often he almost seems to go out of his way to tell +of the simple wild flowers of England, it is surprising that the Daisy +is almost passed over entirely by him. Here are the passages in which he +names the flowers. First, in the poem of the "Rape of Lucrece," he has a +very pretty picture of Lucrece as she lay asleep-- + + "Without the bed her other faire hand was + On the green coverlet, whose perfect white + Showed like an April Daisy on the Grass." + +In "Love's Labour's Lost" is the song of Spring, beginning-- + + "When Daisies pied, and Violets blue; + And Lady-smocks all silver-white, + And Cuckoo-buds of yellow hue + Do paint the meadows with delight." + +In "Hamlet" Daisies are twice mentioned in connection with Ophelia in +her madness. "There's a Daisy!" she said, as she distributed her +flowers; but she made no comment on the Daisy as she did on her other +flowers. And, in the description of her death, the Queen tells us that-- + + "There with fantastick garlands did she come + Of Crow-flowers, Nettles, Daisies, and Long Purples." + +And in "Cymbeline" the General Lucius gives directions for the burial of +Cloten-- + + "Let us + Find out the prettiest Daisied plot we can, + And make him with our pikes and partisans + A grave." + +And in the introductory song to the "Two Noble Kinsmen," which is +claimed by some as Shakespeare's, we find among the other flowers of +spring-- + + "Daisies smel-lesse, yet most quaint." + +These are the only places in which the Daisy is mentioned in +Shakespeare's plays, and it is a little startling to find that of these +six one is in a song for clowns, and two others are connected with the +poor mad princess. I hope that you will not use Shakespeare's authority +against me, that to talk of Daisies is only fit for clowns and madmen. + +Contemporary with Shakespeare was Cutwode, who in the "Caltha Poetarum," +published in 1599, thus describes the Daisy-- + + "On her attends the Daisie dearly dight + that pretty Primula of Lady Ver + As handmaid to her Mistresse day and night + so doth she watch, so waiteth she on her, + With double diligence, and dares not stir, + A fairer flower perfumes not forth in May + Then is this Daisie or this Primula. + + About her neck she wears a rich wrought ruffe, + with double sets most brave and broad bespread, + Resembling lovely Lawn or Cambrick stuffe + pind up and prickt upon her yealow head, + Wearing her haire on both sides of her shead; + And with her countenance she hath acast + Wagging the w[=a]ton with each wynd and blast." + + Stanza 21, 22. + +Drayton, in the "Polyolbion," 15th Song, represents the Naiads engaged +in twining garlands for the marriage of Tame and Isis, and considering +that he-- + + "Should not be dressed with flowers to garden that belong + (His bride that better fitteth), but only such as spring + From the replenisht meads and fruitful pasture neere," + +they collect among other wild flowers-- + + "The Daysie over all those sundry sweets so thick + As nature doth herself, to imitate her right; + Who seems in that her pearle so greatly to delight + That every plaine therewith she powdereth to beholde." + +And to the same effect, in his "Description of Elysium"-- + + "There Daisies damask every place, + Nor once their beauties lose, + That when proud Phoebus turns his face, + Themselves they scorn to close." + +Browne, contemporary with Shakespeare, has these pretty lines on the +Daisy-- + + "The Daisy scattered on each mead and down, + A golden tuft within a silver crown; + (Fair fall that dainty flower! and may there be + No shepherd graced that doth not honour thee!)." + + _Brit. Past._, ii. 3. + +And the following must be about the same date-- + + "The pretty Daisy which doth show + Her love to Phoebus, bred her woe; + (Who joys to see his cheareful face, + And mournes when he is not in place)-- + 'Alacke! alacke! alacke!' quoth she, + 'There's none that ever loves like me.'" + + _The Deceased Maiden's Lover_--Roxburghe Ballads, i, 341. + +I am not surprised to find that Milton barely mentions the Daisy. His +knowledge of plants was very small compared to Shakespeare's, and seems +to have been, for the most part, derived from books. His descriptions of +plants all savour more of study than the open air. I only know of two +places in which he mentions the Daisy. In the "l'Allegro" he speaks of +"Meadows trim with Daisies pied," and in another place he speaks of +"Daisies trim." But I am surprised to find the Daisy overlooked by two +such poets as Robert Herrick and George Herbert. Herrick sang of flowers +most sweetly, few if any English poets have sung of them more sweetly, +but he has little to say of the Daisy. He has one poem, indeed, +addressed specially to a Daisy, but he simply uses the little flower, +and not very successfully, as a peg on which to hang the praises of his +mistress. He uses it more happily in describing the pleasures of a +country life-- + + "Come live with me and thou shalt see + The pleasures I'll prepare for thee, + What sweets the country can afford, + Shall bless thy bed and bless thy board. + . . . Thou shalt eat + The paste of Filberts for thy bread, + With cream of Cowslips buttered; + Thy feasting tables shall be hills, + With Daisies spread and Daffodils." + +And again-- + + "Young men and maids meet, + To exercise their dancing feet, + Tripping the comely country round, + With Daffodils and Daisies crowned." + +George Herbert had a deep love for flowers, and a still deeper love for +finding good Christian lessons in the commonest things about him. He +delights in being able to say-- + + "Yet can I mark how herbs below + Grow green and gay;" + +but I believe he never mentions the Daisy. + +Of the poets of the seventeenth century I need only make one short +quotation from Dryden-- + + "And then the band of flutes began to play, + To which a lady sang a tirelay: + And still at every close she would repeat + The burden of the song--'The Daisy is so sweet, + The Daisy is so sweet'--when she began + The troops of knights and dames continued on + The consort; and the voice so charmed my ear + And soothed my soul that it was heaven to hear." + +I need not dwell on the other poets of the seventeenth century. In most +of them a casual allusion to the Daisy may be found, but little more. +Nor need I dwell at all on the poets of the eighteenth century. In the +so-called Augustan age of poetry, the Daisy could not hope to attract +any attention. It was the correct thing if they had to speak of the +country to speak of the "Daisied" or "Daisy-spangled" meads, but they +could not condescend to any nearer approach to the little flower. If +they had they would have found that they had chosen their epithet very +badly. I never yet saw a "Daisy-spangled" meadow.[370:1] The flowers may +be there, but the long Grasses effectually hide them. And so I come _per +saltum_ to the end of the eighteenth century, and at once to Burns, who +brought the Daisy again into notice. He thus regrets the uprooting of +the Daisy by his plough-- + + "Wee, modest, crimson-tipped flower, + Thou'st met me in an evil hour; + For I must crush amongst the stour + Thy slender stem. + To spare thee now is past my power, + Thou bonny gem. + + Cold blew the bitter, biting north, + Upon thy humble birth, + Yet cheerfully thou venturest forth + Amid the storm, + Scarce reared above the Parent-earth + Thy tender form. + + The flaunting flowers our gardens yield + High sheltering woods and walks must shield; + But thou, between the random bield + Of clod or stone, + Adorn'st the rugged stubble field, + Unseen, alone. + + There, in thy scanty mantle clad, + Thy snowy bosom sunward spread, + Thou lift'st thy unassuming head + In humble guise; + But now the share uptears thy bed, + And low thou lies!" + +With Burns we may well join Clare, another peasant poet from +Northamptonshire, whose poems are not so much known as they deserve to +be. His allusions to wild flowers always mark his real observation of +them, and his allusions to the Daisy are frequent; thus-- + + "Smiling on the sunny plain + The lovely Daisies blow, + Unconscious of the careless feet + That lay their beauties low." + +Again, alluding to his own obscurity-- + + "Green turfs allowed forgotten heap, + Is all that I shall have, + Save that the little Daisies creep + To deck my humble grave." + +Again, in his description of evening, he does not omit to notice the +closing of the Daisy at sunset-- + + "Now the blue fog creeps along, + And the birds forget their song; + Flowers now sleep within their hoods, + Daisies button into buds." + +And so we come to Wordsworth, whose love of the Daisy almost equalled +Chaucer's. His allusions and addresses to the Daisy are numerous, but I +have only space for a small selection. First, are two stanzas from a +long poem specially to the Daisy-- + + "When soothed awhile by milder airs, + Thee Winter in the garland wears, + That thinly shades his few gray hairs, + Spring cannot shun thee. + While Summer fields are thine by right, + And Autumn, melancholy wight, + Doth in thy crimson head delight + When rains are on thee. + + Child of the year that round dost run + Thy course, bold lover of the sun, + And cheerful when thy day's begun + As morning leveret. + Thy long-lost praise thou shalt regain, + Dear shalt thou be to future men, + As in old time, thou not in vain + Art nature's favourite." + +The other poem from Wordsworth that I shall read to you is one that has +received the highest praise from all readers, and by Ruskin (no mean +critic, and certainly not always given to praises) is described as "two +delicious stanzas, followed by one of heavenly imagination."[372:1] The +poem is "An Address to the Daisy"-- + + "A nun demure--of holy port; + A sprightly maiden--of love's court, + In thy simplicity the sport + Of all temptations. + A queen in crown of rubies drest, + A starveling in a scanty vest, + Are all, as seems to suit thee best, + Thy appellations. + + I see thee glittering from afar, + And then thou art a pretty star, + Not quite so fair as many are + In heaven above thee. + Yet like a star with glittering crest, + Self-poised in air thou seem'st to rest; + Let peace come never to his rest + Who shall reprove thee. + + Sweet flower, for by that name at last, + When all my reveries are past, + I call thee, and to that cleave fast. + Sweet silent creature, + That breath'st with me in sun and air; + Do thou, as thou art wont, repair + My heart with gladness, and a share + Of thy meek nature." + +With these beautiful lines I might well conclude my notices of the +poetical history of the Daisy, but, to bring it down more closely to our +own times, I will remind you of a poem by Tennyson, entitled "The +Daisy." It is a pleasant description of a southern tour brought to his +memory by finding a dried Daisy in a book. He says-- + + "We took our last adieu, + And up the snowy Splugen drew, + But ere we reached the highest summit, + I plucked a Daisy, I gave it you, + It told of England then to me, + And now it tells of Italy." + +Thus I have picked several pretty flowers of poetry for you from the +time of Chaucer to our own. I could have made the posy fifty-fold +larger, but I could, probably, have found no flowers for the posy more +beautiful, or more curious, than these few. + +I now come to the botany of the Daisy. The Daisy belongs to the immense +family of the Compositae, a family which contains one-tenth of the +flowering plants of the world, and of which nearly 10,000 species are +recorded. In England the order is very familiar, as it contains three of +our commonest kinds, the Daisy, the Dandelion, and the Groundsel. It may +give some idea of the large range of the family when we find that there +are some 600 recorded species of the Groundsel alone, of which eleven +are in England. I shall not weary you with a strictly scientific +description of the Daisy, but I will give you instead Rousseau's +well-known description. It is fairly accurate, though not strictly +scientific: "Take," he says, "one of those little flowers, which cover +all the pastures, and which every one knows by the name of Daisy. Look +at it well, for I am sure you would never have guessed from its +appearance that this flower, which is so small and delicate, is really +composed of between two and three hundred other flowers, all of them +perfect, that is, each of them having its corolla, stamens, pistil, and +fruit; in a word, as perfect in its species as a flower of the Hyacinth +or Lily. Every one of these leaves, which are white above and red +underneath, and form a kind of crown round the flower, appearing to be +nothing more than little petals, are in reality so many true flowers; +and every one of those tiny yellow things also which you see in the +centre, and which at first you have perhaps taken for nothing but +stamens, are real flowers. . . . Pull out one of the white leaves of the +flower; you will think at first that it is flat from one end to the +other, but look carefully at the end by which it was fastened to the +flower, and you will see that this end is not flat, but round and hollow +in the form of a tube, and that a little thread ending in two horns +issues from the tube. This thread is the forked style of the flower, +which, as you now see, is flat only at top. Next look at the little +yellow things in the middle of the flower, and which, as I have told +you, are all so many flowers; if the flower is sufficiently advanced, +you will see some of them open in the middle and even cut into several +parts. These are the monopetalous corollas. . . . . This is enough to +show you by the eye the possibility that all these small affairs, both +white and yellow, may be so many distinct flowers, and this is a +constant fact" (Quoted in Lindley's "Ladies' Botany," vol. i.)[374:1] + +But Rousseau does not mention one feature which I wish to describe to +you, as I know few points in botany more beautiful than the arrangement +by which the Daisy is fertilized. In the centre of each little flower is +the style surrounded closely by the anthers. The end of the style is +divided, but, as long as it remains below among the anthers, the two +lips are closed. The anthers are covered, more or less, with pollen; the +style has its outside surface bristling with stiff hairs. In this +condition it would be impossible for the pollen to reach the interior +(stigmatic) surfaces of the divided style, but the style rises, and as +it rises it brushes off the pollen from the anthers around it. Its lips +are closed till it has risen well above the whole flower, and left the +anthers below; then it opens, showing its broad stigmatic surface to +receive pollen from other flowers, and distribute the pollen it has +brushed off, not to itself (which it could not do), but to other flowers +around it. By this provision no flower fertilizes itself, and those of +you who are acquainted with Darwin's writings will know how necessary +this provision may be in perpetuating flowers. The Daisy not only +produces double flowers, but also the curious proliferous flower called +Hen and Chickens, or Childing Daisies, or Jackanapes on Horseback. These +are botanically very interesting flowers, and though I, on another +occasion, drew your attention to the peculiarity, I cannot pass it over +in a paper specially devoted to the Daisy. The botanical interest is +this: It is a well-known fact in botany, that all the parts of a +plant--root, stem, flowers and their parts, thorns, fruits, and even the +seeds, are only different forms of leaves, and are all interchangeable, +and the Hen and Chickens Daisy is a good proof of it. Underneath the +flowerhead of the Daisy is a green cushion, composed of bracts; in the +Hen and Chickens Daisy some of these bracts assume the form of flowers, +and are the chickens. If the plant is neglected, or does not like its +soil, the chickens again become bracts. + +The only other point in the botany of the Daisy that occurs to me is its +geographical range. The old books are not far wrong when they say "it +groweth everywhere." It does not, however, grow in the Tropics. In +Europe it is everywhere, from Iceland to the extreme south, though not +abundant in the south-easterly parts. It is found in North America very +sparingly, and not at all in the United States. It is also by no means +fastidious in its choice of position--by the river-side or on the +mountain-top it seems equally at home, though it somewhat varies +according to its situation, but its most chosen habitat seems to be a +well-kept lawn. There it luxuriates, and defies the scythe and the +mowing machine. It has been asserted that it disappears when the ground +is fed by sheep, and again appears when the sheep are removed, but this +requires confirmation. Yet it does not lend itself readily to gardening +purposes. It is one of those-- + + "Flowers, worthy of Paradise, which not nice art + In beds and curious knots, but Nature's boon + Pour'd forth profuse on hill, and dale, and plain, + Both where the morning sun first warmly smote + The open field, and where the unpierc'd shade + Imbrown'd the noontide bowers." + + _Paradise Lost_, iv, 240. + +Under cultivation it becomes capricious; the sorts degenerate and +require much care to keep them true. As to its time of flowering it is +commonly considered a spring and summer flower; but I think one of its +chief charms is that there is scarcely a day in the whole year in which +you might not find a Daisy in flower. + +I have now gone through something of the history, poetry, and botany of +the Daisy, but there are still some few points which I could not well +range under either of these three heads, yet which must not be passed +over. In painting, the Daisy was a favourite with the early Italian and +Flemish painters, its bright star coming in very effectively in their +foregrounds. Some of you will recollect that it is largely used in the +foreground of Van Eyck's grand picture of the "Adoration of the Lamb," +now at St. Bavon's, in Ghent. In sculpture it was not so much used, its +small size making it unfit for that purpose. Yet you will sometimes see +it, both in the stone and wood carvings of our old churches. In heraldry +it is not unknown. When Philip the Bold, Duke of Burgundy, was about to +marry Margaret of Flanders, he instituted an order of Daisies; and in +Chifflet's Lilium Francicum (1658) is a plate of his arms, France and +Flanders quarterly surrounded by a collar of Daisies. A family named +Daisy bear three Daisies on their coat of arms. In an old picture of +Chaucer, a Daisy takes the place in the corner usually allotted to the +coat of arms in mediaeval paintings. It was assumed as an heraldic +cognizance by St. Louis of France in honour of his wife Margaret; by the +good Margaret of Valois, Queen of Navarre; by Margaret of Anjou, the +unfortunate wife of our Henry VI.; while our Margaret, Countess of +Richmond, mother of our Henry VII., and dear to Oxford and Cambridge as +the foundress of the Margaret Professorships, and of Christ College in +Cambridge, bore three Daisies on a green turf. + +To entomologists the Daisy is interesting as an attractive flower to +insects; for "it is visited by nine hymenoptera, thirteen diptera, three +coleoptera, and two lepidoptera--namely, the least meadow-brown and the +common blue butterflies."[377:1] + +In medicine, I am afraid, the Daisy has so lost its virtues that it has +no place in the modern pharmacopoeia: but in old days it was not so. +Coghan says "of Deysies, they are used to be given in potions in +fractures of the head and deep wounds of the breast. And this experience +I have of them, that the juyce of the leaves and rootes of Deysies being +put into the nosethrils purgeth the brain; they are good to be used in +pottage."[377:2] Gerard says, "the Daisies do mitigate all kinds of +paines, especially in the joints, and gout proceeding from a hot or dry +humoure, if they be stamped with new butter, unsalted, and applied upon +the pained place." Nor was this all. In those days, doctors prescribed +according to the so-called "doctrines of signatures," _i.e._, it was +supposed that Nature had shown, by special marks, for what special +disease each plant was useful; and so in the humble growth of the little +low-growing Daisy the doctors read its uses, and here they are. "It is +said that the roots thereof being boyled in milk, and given to little +puppies, will not suffer them to grow great."--COLE'S _Adam in Eden_. +One more virtue. Miss Pratt says that "an author, writing in 1696, tells +us that they who wish to have pleasant dreams of the loved and absent, +should put 'Dazy roots under their pillow.'" + +On the English language, the Daisy has had little influence, though some +have derived "lackadaisy" and "lackadaisical" from the Daisy, but there +is, certainly, no connection between the words. Daisy, however, was +(and, perhaps, still is) a provincial adjective in the eastern counties. +A writer in "Notes and Queries" (2nd Series, ix. 261) says that Samuel +Parkis, in a letter to George Chalmers, dated February 16, 1799, notices +the following provincialisms: "Daisy: remarkable, extraordinary +excellent, as 'She's a Daisy lass to work,' _i.e._, 'She is a good +working girl.' 'I'm a Daisy body for pudding,' _i.e._, 'I eat a great +deal of pudding.'" + +And I must not leave the Daisy without noticing one special charm, that +it is peculiarly the flower of childhood. The Daisy is one of the few +flowers of which the child may pick any quantity without fear of +scolding from the surliest gardener. It is to the child the herald of +spring, when it can set its little foot on six at once, and it readily +lends itself to the delightful manufacture of Daisy chains. + + "In the spring and play-time of the year, + . . . . the little ones, a sportive team, + Gather king-cups in the yellow mead, + And prank their hair with Daisies."--COWPER. + +It is then the special flower of childhood, but we cannot entirely give +it up to our children. And I have tried to show you that the humble +Daisy has been the delight of many noble minds, and may be a fit subject +of study even for those children of a larger growth who form the "Bath +Field Club." + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[362:1] "In the curious Treatise of the Virtues of Herbs, Royal MS. 18, +a. vi, fol. 72 b, is mentioned: 'Brysewort, or Bonwort, or Daysye, +_consolida minor_, good to breke bocches.'"--_Promptorium Parvulorum_, +p. 52, note. See also a good note on the same word in "Babee's Book," p. +185. + +[366:1] This is the general interpretation, but "decking prime" may mean +the ornament of spring. + +[370:1] This statement has been objected to, but I retain it, because in +speaking of a meadow, I mean what is called a meadow in the south of +England, a lowland, and often irrigated, pasture. In such a meadow +Daisies have no place. In the North the word is more loosely used for +any pasture, but in the South the distinction is so closely drawn that +hay dealers make a great difference in their prices for "upland" or +"meadow hay." + +[372:1] "Modern Painters," vol. ii. p. 186. + +[374:1] In the "Cornhill Magazine" for January, 1878, is a pleasant +paper on "Dissecting a Daisy," treating a little of the Daisy, but still +more of the pleasures that a Daisy gives to different people, and the +different reasons for the different sorts of pleasure. See also on the +same subject the "Cornhill" for June, 1882. + +[377:1] Boulger in "Nature," Aug., 1878. The insects are given in Herman +Muller's "Befructting der Blumen." + +[377:2] "Haven of Health," 1596, p. 83. + + + + +APPENDIX II. + +_THE SEASONS OF SHAKESPEARE'S PLAYS._ + + _Biron._ I like of each thing that in season grows. + + _Love's Labour's Lost_, act i, sc. 1. + + +This paper was read to the New Shakespeare Society in June, 1880, and +to the Bath Literary Club in the following November. The subject is so +closely connected with the "Plant-lore of Shakespeare," that I add it as +an Appendix. + + + + +THE SEASONS OF SHAKESPEARE'S PLAYS. + + +In this paper I do not propose to make any exhaustive inquiry into the +seasons of Shakespeare's plays, but (at Mr. Furnivall's suggestion) I +have tried to find out whether in any case the season that was in the +poet's mind can be discovered by the flowers or fruits, or whether, +where the season is otherwise indicated, the flowers and fruits are in +accordance. In other words, my inquiry is simply confined to the +argument, if any, that may be derived from the flowers and fruits, +leaving out of the question all other indications of the seasons. + +The first part of the inquiry is, what plants or flowers are mentioned +in each play? They are as follows:-- + + +COMEDIES. + +_Tempest._ Apple, crab, wheat, rye, barley, vetches, oats, peas, briar, +furze, gorse, thorns, broom, cedar, corn, cowslip, nettle, docks, +mallow, filbert, heath, ling, grass, nut, ivy, lily, piony, lime, +mushrooms, oak, acorn, pignuts, pine, reed, saffron, sedges, stover, +vine. + +_Two Gentlemen of Verona._ Lily, roses, sedges. + +_Merry Wives._ Pippins, buttons (?), balm, bilberry, cabbage, carrot, +elder, eringoes, figs, flax, hawthorn, oak, pear, plums, prunes, +potatoes, pumpion, roses, turnips, walnut. + +_Twelfth Night._ Apple, box, ebony, flax, nettle, olive, squash, +peascod, codling, roses, violet, willow, yew. + +_Measure for Measure._ Birch, burs, corn, garlick, medlar, oak, myrtle, +peach, prunes, grapes, vine, violet. + +_Much Ado._ Carduus benedictus, honeysuckle, woodbine, oak, orange, +rose, sedges, willow. + +_Midsummer Night's Dream._ Crab, apricots, beans, briar, red rose, +broom, bur, cherry, corn, cowslip, dewberries, oxlip, violet, woodbine, +eglantine, elm, ivy, figs, mulberries, garlick, onions, grass, hawthorn, +nuts, hemp, honeysuckle, knot-grass, leek, lily, peas, peas-blossom, +oak, acorn, oats, orange, love-in-idleness, primrose, musk-rose buds, +musk-roses, rose, thistle, thorns, thyme, grapes, violet, wheat. + +_Love's Labour's Lost._ Apple, pomewater, crab, cedar, lemon, cockle, +mint, columbine, corn, daisies, lady-smocks, cuckoo-buds, ebony, elder, +grass, lily, nutmeg, oak, osier, oats, peas, plantain, rose, sycamore, +thorns, violets, wormwood. + +_Merchant of Venice._ Apple, grass, pines, reed, wheat, willow. + +_As You Like It._ Acorns, hawthorn, brambles, briar, bur, chestnut, +cork, nuts, holly, medlar, moss, mustard, oak, olive, palm, peascod, +rose, rush, rye, sugar, grape, osier. + +_All's Well._ Briar, date, grass, nut, marjoram, herb of grace, onions, +pear, pomegranate, roses, rush, saffron, grapes. + +_Taming of Shrew._ Apple, crab, chestnut, cypress, hazel, oats, onion, +love-in-idleness, mustard, parsley, roses, rush, sedges, walnut. + +_Winter's Tale._ Briars, carnations, gillyflower, cork, oxlips, crown +imperial, currants, daffodils, dates, saffron, flax, lilies, +flower-de-luce, garlick, ivy, lavender, mints, savory, marjoram, +marigold, nettle, oak, warden, squash, pines, prunes, primrose, +damask-roses, rice, raisins, rosemary, rue, thorns, violets. + +_Comedy of Errors._ Balsam, ivy, briar, moss, rush, nut, cherrystone, +elm, vine, grass, saffron. + + +HISTORIES. + +_King John._ Plum, cherry, fig, lily, rose, violet, rush, thorns. + +_Richard II._ Apricots, balm, bay, corn, grass, nettles, pines, rose, +rue, thorns, violets, yew. + +_1st Henry IV._ Apple-john, pease, beans, blackberries, camomile, +fernseed, garlick, ginger, moss, nettle, oats, prunes, pomegranate, +radish, raisins, reeds, rose, rush, sedges, speargrass, thorns. + +_2nd Henry IV._ Aconite, apple-john, leathercoats, aspen, balm, +carraways, corn, ebony, elm, fennel, fig, gooseberries, hemp, +honeysuckle, mandrake, olive, peach, peascod, pippins, prunes, radish, +rose, rush, wheat. + +_Henry V._ Apple, balm, docks, elder, fig, flower-de-luce, grass, hemp, +leek, nettle, fumitory, kecksies, burs, cowslips, burnet, clover, +darnel, strawberry, thistles, vine, violet, hemlock. + +_1st Henry VI._ Briar, white and red rose, corn, flower-de-luce, vine. + +_2nd Henry VI._ Crab, cedar, corn, cypress, fig, flax, flower-de-luce, +grass, hemp, laurel, mandrake, pine, plums, damsons, primrose, thorns. + +_3d Henry VI._ Balm, cedar, corn, hawthorn, oaks, olive, laurel, thorns. + +_Richard III._ Balm, cedar, roses, strawberry, vines. + +_Henry VIII._ Apple, crab, bays, palms, broom, cherry, cedar, corn, +lily, vine. + + +TRAGEDIES. + +_Troilus and Cressida._ Almond, balm, blackberry, burs, date, nut, +laurels, lily, toadstool, nettle, oak, pine, plantain, potato, wheat. + +_Timon of Athens._ Balm, balsam, oaks, briars, grass, medlar, moss, +olive, palm, rose, grape. + +_Coriolanus._ Crab, ash, briars, cedar, cockle, corn, cypress, garlick, +mulberry, nettle, oak, orange, palm, rush, grape. + +_Macbeth._ Balm, chestnut, corn, hemlock, insane root, lily, primrose, +rhubarb, senna (cyme), yew. + +_Julius Caesar._ Oak, palm. + +_Antony and Cleopatra._ Balm, figs, flag, laurel, mandragora, myrtle, +olive, onions, pine, reeds, rose, rue, rush, grapes, wheat, vine. + +_Cymbeline._ Cedar, violet, cowslip, primrose, daisies, harebell, +eglantine, elder, lily, marybuds, moss, oak, acorn, pine, reed, rushes, +vine. + +_Titus Andronicus._ Aspen, briars, cedar, honeystalks, corn, elder, +grass, laurel, lily, moss, mistletoe, nettles, yew. + +_Pericles._ Rosemary, bay, roses, cherry, corn, violets, marigolds, +rose, thorns. + +_Romeo and Juliet._ Bitter-sweeting, dates, hazel, mandrake, medlar, +nuts, popering pear, pink, plantain, pomegranate, quince, roses, +rosemary, rush, sycamore, thorn, willow, wormwood, yew. + +_King Lear._ Apple, balm, burdock, cork, corn, crab, fumiter, hemlock, +harlock, nettles, cuckoo-flowers, darnel, flax, hawthorn, lily, +marjoram, oak, oats, peascod, rosemary, vines, wheat, samphire. + +_Hamlet._ Fennel, columbine, crow-flower, nettles, daisies, long purples +or dead-men's-fingers, flax, grass, hebenon, nut, palm, pansies, +plum-tree, primrose, rose, rosemary, rue, herb of grace, thorns, +violets, wheat, willow, wormwood. + +_Othello._ Locusts, coloquintida, figs, nettles, lettuce, hyssop, thyme, +poppy, mandragora, oak, rose, rue, rush, strawberries, sycamore, grapes, +willow. + +_Two Noble Kinsmen._ Apricot, bulrush, cedar, plane, cherry, corn, +currant, daffodils, daisies, flax, lark's heels, marigolds, narcissus, +nettles, oak, oxlips, plantain, reed, primrose, rose, thyme, rush. + +This I believe to be a complete list of the flowers of Shakespeare +arranged according to the plays, and they are mentioned in one of three +ways--first, adjectively, as "flaxen was his pole," "hawthorn-brake," +"barley-broth," "thou honeysuckle villain," "onion-eyed," +"cowslip-cheeks," but the instances of this use by Shakespeare are not +many; second, proverbially or comparatively, as "tremble like aspen," +"we grew together like to a double cherry seeming parted," "the stinking +elder, grief," "thou art an elm, my husband, I a vine," "not worth a +gooseberry." There are numberless instances of this use of the names of +flowers, fruits, and trees, but neither of these uses give any +indication of the seasons; and in one or other of these ways they are +used (and only in these ways) in the following plays:--_Tempest_, _Two +Gentlemen of Verona_, _Measure for Measure_, _Merchant of Venice_, _As +You Like It_, _Taming of the Shrew_, _Comedy of Errors_, _Macbeth_, +_King John_, _1st Henry IV._, _2nd Henry VI._, _3rd Henry VI._, _Henry +VIII._, _Troilus and Cressida_, _Coriolanus_, _Julius Caesar_, +_Pericles_, _Othello_. These therefore may be dismissed at once. There +remain the following plays in which indications of the seasons intended +either in the whole play or in the particular act may be traced. In some +cases the traces are exceedingly slight (almost none at all); in others +they are so strongly marked that there is little doubt that Shakespeare +used them of set purpose and carefully:--_Merry Wives_, _Twelfth Night_, +_Much Ado_, _Midsummer Night's Dream_, _Love's Labour's Lost_, _As You +Like It_, _All's Well_, _Winter's Tale_, _Richard II._, _1st Henry IV._, +_Henry V._, _2nd Henry VI._, _Richard III._, _Timon of Athens_, _Antony +and Cleopatra_, _Cymbeline_, _Titus Andronicus_, _Romeo and Juliet_, +_King Lear_, _Hamlet_, and _Two Noble Kinsmen_. + +_Merry Wives._ Herne's oak gives the season intended-- + + "Herne the hunter, + Sometime a keeper here in Windsor forest, + Doth _all the winter time_ at still midnight + Walk round about an oak with ragged horns." + +If Shakespeare really meant to place the scene in mid-winter, there may +be a fitness in Mrs. Quickly's looking forward to "a posset at night, at +the latter end of a sea-coal fire," for it was a "raw rheumatick day" +(act iii, sc. 1), in Pistol's-- + + "Take heed, ere summer comes, or cuckoo birds do sing," + +in Ford's "birding" and "hawking," and in the concluding words-- + + "Let us every one go home, + And laugh this sport o'er by a country fire" (act v, sc. 5); + +but it is not in accordance with the literature of the day to have +fairies dancing at midnight in the depth of winter. + +_Twelfth Night._ We know that the whole of this play occupies but a few +days, and is chiefly "matter for a May morning." This gives emphasis to +Olivia's oath, "By the roses of the Spring . . . I love thee so" (act +ii, sc. 4). + +_Much Ado._ The season must be summer. There is the sitting out of doors +in the "still evening, hushed on purpose to grace harmony;" and it is +the time of year for the full leafage when Beatrice might + + "Steal into the pleached bower, + Where honeysuckles, ripen'd by the sun, + Forbid the sun to enter" (act iii, sc. 1). + +_Midsummer Night's Dream._ The name marks the season, and there is a +profusion of flowers to mark it too. It may seem strange to us to have +"Apricocks" at the end of June, but in speaking of the seasons of +Shakespeare and others it should be remembered that their days were +twelve days later than ours of the same names; and if to this is added +the variation of a fortnight or three weeks, which may occur in any +season in the ripening of a fruit, "apricocks" might well be sometimes +gathered on their Midsummer day. But I do not think even this elasticity +will allow for the ripening of mulberries and purple grapes at that +time, and scarcely of figs. The scene, however, being laid in Athens and +in fairyland, must not be too minutely criticized in this respect. But +with the English plants the time is more accurately observed. There is +the "_green_ corn;" the "dewberries," which in a forward season may be +gathered early in July; the "lush woodbine" in the fulness of its +lushness at that time; the pansies, or "love-in-idleness," which (says +Gerard) "flower not onely in the spring, but for the most part all +sommer thorowe, even untill autumne;" the "sweet musk-roses and the +eglantine," also in flower then, though the musk-roses, being rather +late bloomers, would show more of the "musk-rose buds" in which Titania +bid the elves "kill cankers" than of the full-blown flower; while the +thistle would be exactly in the state for "Mounsieur Cobweb" to "kill a +good red-hipped humble bee on the top of it" to "bring the honey-bag" to +Bottom. Besides these there are the flowers on the "bank where the wild +thyme blows; where oxlips and the nodding violet grows," and I think the +distinction worth noting between the "_blowing_" of the wild thyme, +which would then be at its fullest, and the "_growing_" of the oxlips +and the violet, which had passed their time of blowing, but the living +plants continued "growing."[386:1] + +_Love's Labour's Lost._ The general tone of the play points to the full +summer, the very time when we should expect to find Boyet thinking "to +close his eyes some half an hour under the cool shade of a sycamore" +(act v, sc. 2). + +_All's Well that Ends Well._ There is a pleasant note of the season in-- + + "The time will bring on summer, + When briars will have leaves as well as thorns, + And be as sweet as sharp" (act iv, sc. 4); + +but probably that is only a proverbial expression of hopefulness, and +cannot be pushed further. + +_Winter's Tale._ There seems some little confusion in the season of the +fourth act--the feast for the sheep-shearing, which is in the very +beginning of summer--yet Perdita dates the season as "the year growing +ancient"-- + + "Nor yet on summer's death, nor on the birth + Of trembling winter"-- + +and gives Camillo the "flowers of middle summer." The flowers named are +all summer flowers; carnations or gilliflowers, lavender, mints, savory, +marjoram, and marigold. + +_Richard II._ There are several marked and well-known dates in this +play, but they are not much marked by the flowers. The intended combat +was on St. Lambert's day (17th Sept.), but there is no allusion to +autumn flowers. In act iii, sc. 3, which we know must be placed in +August, there is, besides the mention of the summer dust, King Richard's +sad strain-- + + "Our sighs, and they (tears) shall lodge the summer corn," + +and in the same act we have the gardener's orders to trim the rank +summer growth of the "dangling apricocks," while in the last act, which +must be some months later, we have the Duke of York speaking of "this +new spring of time," and the Duchess asking-- + + "Who are the violets now + That strew the green lap of the new-come spring?" + +and though in both cases the words may be used proverbially, yet it +seems also probable that they may have been suggested by the time of +year. + +_2nd Henry IV._ There is one flower-note in act ii, sc. 4, where the +Hostess says to Falstaff, "Fare thee well! I have known thee these +twenty-five years come peascod time," of which it can only be said that +it must have been spoken at some other time than the summer. + +_Henry V._ The exact season of act v, sc. 1, is fixed by St. David's day +(March 1) and the leek. + +_1st Henry VI._ The scene in the Temple gardens (act ii, sc. 4), where +all turned on the colour of the roses, must have been at the season when +the roses were in full bloom, say June. + +_Richard III._ Here too the season of act ii, sc. 4, is fixed by the +ripe strawberries brought by the Bishop of Ely to Richard. The exact +date is known to be June 13, 1483. + +_Timon of Athens._ An approximate season for act iv, sc. 3, might be +guessed from the medlar offered by Apemantus to Timon. Our medlars are +ripe in November. + +_Antony and Cleopatra._ The figs and fig-leaves brought to Cleopatra +give a slight indication of the season of act v.[388:1] + +_Cymbeline._ Here there is a more distinct plant-note of the season of +act i, sc. 3. The queen and her ladies, "whiles yet the dew's on ground, +gather flowers," which at the end of the scene we are told are violets, +cowslips, and primroses, the flowers of the spring. In the fourth act +Lucius gives orders to "find out the prettiest daisied plot we can," to +make a grave for Cloten; but daisies are too long in flower to let us +attempt to fix a date by them. + +_Hamlet._ In this play the season intended is very distinctly marked by +the flowers. The first act must certainly be some time in the winter, +though it may be the end of winter or early spring--"The air bites +shrewdly, it is very cold." Then comes an interval of two months or +more, and Ophelia's madness must be placed in the early summer, _i.e._, +in the end of May or the beginning of June; no other time will all the +flowers mentioned fit, but for that time they are exact. The violets +were "all withered;" but she could pick fennel and columbines, daisies +and pansies in abundance, while the evergreen rosemary and rue ("which +we may call Herb of Grace on Sundays") would be always ready. It was the +time of year when trees were in their full leafage, and so the "willow +growing aslant the brook would show its hoar leaves in the glassy +stream," while its "slivers," would help her in making "fantastic +garlands" "of crow-flowers, nettles, daisies, and long purples," or +"dead men's fingers," all of which she would then be able to pick in +abundance in the meadows, but which in a few weeks would be all gone. +Perhaps the time of year may have suggested to Laertes that pretty but +sad address to his sister, + + "O Rose of May! + Dear maid, kind sister, sweet Ophelia!" + +_Titus Andronicus._ There is a plant-note in act ii, sc. 2-- + + "The trees, though summer, yet forlorn and lean, + O'ercome with moss and baleful mistletoe." + +_Romeo and Juliet._ A slight plant-note of the season may be detected in +the nightly singing of the nightingale in the pomegranate tree in the +third act. + +_King Lear._ The plants named point to one season only, the spring. At +no other time could the poor mad king have gone singing aloud, + + "Crowned with rank fumiter and furrow-weeds, + With harlock, hemlocks, nettles, cuckoo-flowers, + And darnel." + +I think this would also be the time for gathering the fresh shoots of +the samphire; but I do not know this for certain.[389:1] + +_Two Noble Kinsmen._ Here the season is distinctly stated for us by the +poet. The scene is laid in May, and the flowers named are all in +accordance--daffodils, daisies, marigolds, oxlips, primrose, roses, and +thyme. + +I cannot claim any great literary results from this inquiry into the +seasons of Shakespeare as indicated by the flowers named; on the +contrary, I must confess that the results are exceedingly small--I might +almost say, none at all--still I do not regret the time and trouble that +the inquiry has demanded of me. In every literary inquiry the value of +the research is not to be measured by the visible results. It is +something even to find out that there are no results, and so save +trouble to future inquirers. But in this case the research has not been +altogether in vain. Every addition, however small, to the critical study +of our great Poet has its value; and to myself, as a student of the +Natural History of Shakespeare, the inquiry has been a very pleasant +one, because it has confirmed my previous opinion, that even in such +common matters as the names of the most familiar every-day plants he +does not write in a careless hap-hazard way, naming just the plant that +comes uppermost in his thoughts, but that they are all named in the most +careful and correct manner, exactly fitting into the scenes in which +they are placed, and so giving to each passage a brightness and a +reality which would be entirely wanting if the plants were set down in +the ignorance of guess-work. Shakespeare knew the plants well; and +though his knowledge is never paraded, by its very thoroughness it +cannot be hid. + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[386:1] If "the rite of May" (act iv, sc. 1) is to be strictly limited +to May-Day, the title of a "_Midsummer_ Night's Dream" does not apply. +The difficulty can only be met by supposing the scene to be laid at any +night in May, even in the last night, which would coincide with our 12th +of June. + +[388:1] "The Alexandrine figs are of the black kind having a white rift +or Chanifre, and are surnamed Delicate. . . . Certain figs there be, +which are both early and also lateward; . . . . they are ripe first in +harvest, and afterwards in time of vintage; . . . . also some there be +which beare thrice a year" (Pliny, _Nat. Hist._ b. xv., c. 18, P. +Holland's translation, 1601). + +[389:1] The objection to fixing the date of the play in spring is that +Cordelia bids search to be made for Lear "in every acre of the +high-grown field." If this can only refer to a field of corn at its full +growth, there is a confusion of seasons. But if the larger meaning is +given to "field," which it bears in "flowers of the field," "beasts of +the field," the confusion is avoided. The words would then refer to the +wild overgrowth of an open country. + + + + +APPENDIX III. + +_NAMES OF PLANTS._ + + _Juliet._ + + What's in a name? That which we call a Rose + By any other name would smell as sweet. + + _Romeo and Juliet_, act ii, sc. 2. + + + + +NAMES OF PLANTS. + + +Finding that many are interested in the old names of the plants named by +Shakespeare, I give in this appendix the names of the plants, showing at +one view how they were written and explained by different writers in the +fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. The list might have been very largely +increased, especially by giving the forms used at an earlier date, but +my object is to show the forms of the names in which they were (or might +have been) familiar to Shakespeare. The authors quoted are these: + + 1440. "Promptorium Parvulorum." + 1483. "Catholicon Anglicum." + 1548. Turner's "Names of Herbes," and "Herbal," 1568. + 1597. Gerard's "Herbal." + 1611. Cotgrave's "Dictionarie."[393:1] + + +ACONITUM. + +_Turner._ Aconitum. + +_Gerard._ Of Wolfes-banes and Monkeshoods. + +_Cotgrave._ Aconit; Aconitum, _A most venemous hearbe, of two principall +kindes_; viz., _Libbard's-bane, and Wolfe-bane_. + + +ACORN. + +_Promptorium._ Accorne, or archarde, frute of the oke; _Glans_. + +_Catholicon._ An Acorne; _haec glans dis, hec glandicula_. + +_Cotgrave._ Gland; _An Acorne_; _Mast of Oakes or other trees_. + + +ALMOND. + +_Promptorium._ Almaund, frute; _Amigdalum_. + +_Catholicon._ An Almond tre; _amigdalus_. + +_Turner._ The Almon tree. + +_Gerard._ The Almond tree. + +_Cotgrave._ Amygdales; _Almonds_. + + +ALOES. + +_Turner._ Aloe. + +_Gerard._ Of Herbe Aloe, or Sea Houseleeke. + +_Cotgrave._ Aloes; _The hearbe Aloes_, _Sea Houseleeke_, _Sea aigreen_. + + +APPLE. + +_Promptorium._ Appule, frute; _Pomum_, _malum_. + +_Catholicon._ An Appylle; _pomum_, _malum_, _pomulum_. + +_Turner._ Apple tree. + +_Gerard._ The Apple tree. + +_Cotgrave._ Pomme; _An Apple_. + + +APRICOTS. + +_Turner._ Abricok. + +_Gerard._ The Aprecocke or Abrecocke tree. + +_Cotgrave._ Abricot; _The Abricot, or Apricocke Plum_. + + +ASH. + +_Promptorium._ Asche tre; _Fraxinus_. + +_Turner._ Ashe tree. + +_Gerard._ The Ash tree. + +_Cotgrave._ Fraisne; _An Ash tree_. + + +ASPEN. + +_Promptorium._ Aspe tre; _Tremulus_. + +_Turner._ Asp tree. + +_Gerard._ The Aspen tree. + +_Cotgrave._ Tremble; _An Aspe or Aspen tree_. + + +BALM AND BALSAM. + +_Promptorium._ Bawme, herbe or tre; _Balsamus_, _melissa_, _melago_. + +_Catholicon._ Balme; _balsamum_, _colo balsamum_, _filo balsamum_, +_opobalsamum_. + +_Turner._ Baume. + +_Gerard._ Balme or Balsam tree. + +_Cotgrave._ Basme; _Balme_, _balsamum, or more properly the balsamum +tree, from which distils our Balme_. + + +BARLEY. + +_Promptorium._ Barlycorne; _Ordeum_, _triticum_. + +_Catholicon._ Barly; _Ordeum_, _ordeolum_. + +_Turner._ Barley. + +_Gerard._ Of Barley. + +_Cotgrave._ Orge; _Barlie_. + + +BARNACLE. + +_Catholicon._ A Barnakylle; avis est. + +_Gerard._ Of the Goose tree, Barnacle tree, or the tree bearing geese. + +_Cotgrave._ Bernaque; _The foule called a Barnacle_. + + +BAY. + +_Promptorium._ Bay, frute; _Bacca_. + +_Catholicon._ A Bay; _bacca, est fructus lauri et olive_. + +_Turner._ Bay tree. + +_Gerard._ Of the Bay or Laurel tree. + +_Cotgrave._ Laurier; _A Laurell or Bay tree_. + + +BEANS. + +_Promptorium._ Bene corne; _Faba_. + +_Catholicon._ A Bene; _faba_, _fabella_. + +_Turner._ Beane. + +_Gerard._ Beane and his kinds. + +_Cotgrave._ Febue; _A Beane_. + + +BILBERRY. + +_Catholicon._ A Blabery. + +_Cotgrave._ Hurelles; _Whoortle berries_, _wyn-berries_, _Bill-berries_, +_Bull-berries_. + + +BIRCH. + +_Promptorium._ Byrche tre; _Lentiscus_, _cinus_. + +_Catholicon._ Byrke; _Lentiscus_. + +_Turner._ Birch tree; Birke tree. + +_Gerard._ Of the Birch tree. + +_Cotgrave._ Bouleau; _Birche_. + + +BLACKBERRIES. + +_Turner._ Blake bery bush. + +_Gerard._ Blacke-berry. + +_Cotgrave._ Meuron; _A blacke, or bramble berrie_. + + +BOX. + +_Promptorium._ Box tre; _Buxus_. + +_Catholicon._ A Box tre; _buxus buxum_. + +_Turner._ Box. + +_Gerard._ Of the Box tree. + +_Cotgrave._ Blanc bois; _Box_, _&c._ + + +BRAMBLE. + +_Promptorium._ Brymbyll. + +_Turner._ Bramble bushe. + +_Gerard._ Of the Bramble or blacke-berry bush. + +_Cotgrave._ Ronce; _A Bramble or Brier_. + + +BRIER. + +_Promptorium._ Brere or Brymmeylle; _Tribulus_, _vepris_. + +_Catholicon._ A Brere; _carduus_, _tribulus_, _vepres_, _veprecula_. + +_Turner._ Brier tree. + +_Gerard._ The Brier or Hep tree. + +_Cotgrave._ See BRAMBLE. + + +BROOM. + +_Promptorium._ Brome, brusche; _Genesta_, _mirica_. + +_Catholicon._ Brune; _genesta_, _merica_, _tramarica_. + +_Turner._ Broume. + +_Gerard._ Broome. + +_Cotgrave._ Genest; _Broome_. + + +BULRUSH. + +_Promptorium._ Holrysche or Bulrysche; _Papirus_. + +_Cotgrave._ Jonc; _A Rush, or Bulrush_. + + +BURS AND BURDOCK. + +_Catholicon._ A Burre; _bardona_, _glis_, _lappa_, _paliurus_. + +_Turner._ Clote Bur. + +_Gerard._ Clote Burre, or Burre Docke. + +_Cotgrave._ Bardane la grande; _The burre-dock_, _clote_, _bur_, _great +burre_. + + +BURNET. + +_Turner._ Burnet. + +_Gerard._ Burnet. + +_Cotgrave._ Pimpinelle; _Burnet_. + + +CABBAGE. + +_Turner._ Colewurtes. + +_Gerard._ Cabbage or Colewort. + +_Cotgrave._ Chou Cabu; _Cabbage_, _White Colewort_, _headed Colewort_, +_leafed Cabbage_, _round Cabbage Cole_. + + +CAMOMILE. + +_Promptorium._ _Camamilla._ + +_Catholicon._ Camomelle; _Camomillum_. + +_Turner._ Camomyle. + +_Gerard._ Of Cammomill. + +_Cotgrave._ Camomille; _The hearbe Camamell or Camomill_. + + +CARNATIONS. + +_Gerard._ Some are called Carnations. + + +CARRAWAYS. + +_Promptorium._ Caraway herbe; _Carwy, sic scribitur in campo florum_. + +_Turner._ Caruways. + +_Gerard._ Of Caruwaies. + +_Cotgrave._ Carvi; _Caroways, or Caroway seed_. + + +CARROT. + +_Turner._ Carot. + +_Gerard._ Of Carrots. + +_Cotgrave._ Carote; _The Carrot (root or hearbe)_. + + +CEDAR. + +_Promptorium._ Cedyr tree; _Cedrus_. + +_Catholicon._ A Cedir tre; _Cedrus_, _Cedra_; _Cedrinus_. + +_Gerard._ Of the Cedar tree. + +_Cotgrave._ Cedre; _The Cedar tree_. + + +CHERRY. + +_Promptorium._ Chery, or Chery frute; _Cerasum_. + +_Catholicon._ A Chery; _Cerasum_. + +_Gerard._ The Cherry tree. + +_Cotgrave._ Cerise; _A Cherrie_. + + +CHESTNUTS. + +_Promptorium._ Castany, frute or tre; _idem_, _Castanea_. + +_Catholicon._ A Chestan; _balanus_, _Castanea_. + +_Turner._ Chesnut tree. + +_Gerard._ The Chestnut tree. + +_Cotgrave._ Chastaignier; _A Chessen, or Chestnut, tree_. + + +CLOVER. + +_Turner._ Claver. + +_Gerard._ Three-leaved grass; Claver. + +_Cotgrave._ Treffle; _Trefoil_, _Clover_, _Three-leaved Grasse_. + + +CLOVES. + +_Promptorium._ Clowe, spyce; _Gariofolus_. + +_Catholicon._ A Clowe; _garifolus, species est_. + +_Gerard._ The Clove tree. + +_Cotgrave._ Girofle, cloux de Girofle; _Cloves_. + + +COCKLE. + +_Promptorium._ Cokylle, wede; _Nigella_, _lollium_, _zizania_. + +_Catholicon._ Cokylle; _quaedam aborigo_, _zazannia_. + +_Turner._ Cockel. + +_Gerard._ Cockle. + + +COLOQUINTIDA. + +_Turner._ Coloquintida. + +_Gerard._ The wilde Citrull, or Coloquintida. + +_Cotgrave._ Coloquinthe; _The wilde and fleme-purging Citrull +Coloquintida_. + + +COLUMBINE. + +_Promptorium._ Columbyne, herbe; _Columbina_. + +_Catholicon._ Columbyne; _Columbina_. + +_Gerard._ Columbine. + +_Cotgrave._ Colombin; _The hearbe Colombine_. + + +CORK. + +_Promptorium._ Corkbarke; _Cortex_. + +_Catholicon._ Corke. + +_Gerard._ The Corke Oke. + +_Cotgrave._ Liege; _Corke_. + + +CORN. + +_Promptorium._ Corne; _Granum_, _gramen_. + +_Catholicon._ Corn; _Granum_, _bladum_, _annona_, _seges_. + +_Gerard._ Corne. + +_Cotgrave._ Grain; _Graine_, _Corne_. + + +COWSLIP. + +_Promptorium._ Cowslope, herbe; _Herba petri_, _herba paralysis_, +_ligustra_. + +_Catholicon._ A Cowslope; _ligustrum_, _vaccinium_. + +_Turner._ Cowslop, Cowslip. + +_Gerard._ Cowslips. + +_Cotgrave._ Prime-vere; . . . _a Cowslip_. + + +CRABS. + +_Promptorium._ Crabbe, appule or frute; _Macianum_. + +_Catholicon._ A Crab of ye wod; _acroma ab acritudine dictum_. + +_Gerard._ The wilding or Crabtree. + +_Cotgrave._ Pommier Sauvage; _A Crab Tree_. + + +CROW-FLOWERS. + +_Promptorium._ Crowefote, herbe; _amarusca vel amarusca emeroydarum, pes +corvi_. + +_Turner._ Crowfote. + +_Gerard._ Crowfloures or Wilde Williams. + +_Cotgrave._ Hyacinthe; _The blew, or purple Jacint, or Hyacinth flower; +we call it also, Crow-toes_. + + +CROWN IMPERIAL. + +_Gerard._ The Crowne Imperiall. + +_Cotgrave._ Couronne Imperiale; _The Imperial Crowne; (a goodlie +flower)_. + + +CUCKOO-FLOWERS. + +_Gerard._ Wild Water Cresses or Cuckow-floures. + +_Cotgrave._ See LADY-SMOCKS. + + +CURRANTS. + +_Catholicon._ Rasyns of Coran; _uvapassa_. + +_Turner._ Rasin tree. + +_Gerard._ Corans or Currans, or rather Raisins of Corinth. + +_Cotgrave._ Raisins de Corinthe; _Currans, or small Raisins_. + + +CYPRESS. + +_Promptorium._ Cypresse, tre; _Cipressus_. + +_Catholicon._ A Cipirtre; _cipressus_, _cipressimus_. + +_Turner._ Cypresse tree. + +_Gerard._ The Cypresse tree. + +_Cotgrave._ Cypres; _The Cyprus Tree_; _or Cyprus wood_. + + +DAFFODILS. + +_Promptorium._ Affodylle herbe; _Affodillus_, _albucea_. + +_Catholicon._ An Affodylle; _Affodillus, harba est_. + +_Turner._ Affodill, Daffadyll. + +_Gerard._ Daffodils. + +_Cotgrave._ Asphodile; _The Daffadill, Affodill, or Asphodell Flower_. + + +DAISIES. + +_Promptorium._ Daysy, floure; _Consolida minor et major dicitur +Confery_. + +_Catholicon._ A Daysy; _Consolidum_. + +_Turner._ Dasie. + +_Gerard._ Little Daisies. + +_Cotgrave._ Marguerite; _A Daisie_. + + +DAMSONS. + +_Promptorium._ Damasyn', frute; _Prunum Damascenum_, _Coquinella_. + +_Catholicon._ A Damysyn tre; _damiscenus, nixa pro arbore and fructu, +conquinella_. + +_Gerard._ The Plum or Damson tree. + +_Cotgrave._ Prune de Damas; _A Damson or Damask Plumme_. + + +DARNEL. + +_Promptorium._ Dernel, a wede; _Zizania_. + +_Catholicon._ Darnelle; _Zizannia_. + +_Turner._ Darnel. + +_Gerard._ Darnell. + +_Cotgrave._ Yvraye; _The vicious graine called Ray, or Darnell_. + + +DATES. + +_Promptorium._ Date, frute; _Dactilus_. + +_Catholicon._ A Date; _dactulus_, _dactilicus_. + +_Turner._ Date tre. + +_Gerard._ The Date tree. + +_Cotgrave._ Dacte; _A Date_. + + +DOCKS. + +_Promptorium._ Dockeweede; _Padella_. + +_Catholicon._ A Dokan; _paradilla_, _emula_, _farella_. + +_Turner._ Docke. + +_Gerard._ Docks. + +_Cotgrave._ Parelle; _The hearbe Dockes_. + + +DOGBERRY. + +_Turner._ Dog tree. + +_Gerard._ The female Cornell or Dog-berry tree. + +_Cotgrave._ Cornillier femelle; _Hounds-tree_, _Dog-berrie tree_, +_Prick-tymber tree_; _Gaten, or Gater, tree_. + + + +EBONY. + +_Promptorium._ Eban' tre; _Ebanus_. + +_Cotgrave_. Ebene; _The blacke wood called Heben, or Eboine_. + + +EGLANTINE. + +_Turner._ Egl[=e]tyne or swete brere. + +_Gerard._ The Eglantine or Sweet Brier. + +_Cotgrave._ Rose sauvage; _The Eglantine or Sweet brier Rose_. + + +ELDER. + +_Promptorium._ Eldyr or hyldr or hillerne tre; _Sambucus_. + +_Catholicon._ A Bur tre; _Sambucus_. + +_Turner._ Elder tree. + +_Gerard._ The Elder tree. + +_Cotgrave._ Sureau; _An Elder Tree_. + + +ELM. + +_Promptorium._ Elm, tre; _Ulmus_. + +_Turner._ Elme tree. + +_Gerard._ The Elme tree. + +_Cotgrave._ Orme; _an Elme tree_. + + +ERINGOES. + +_Turner._ Sea holly, or Sea Hulver. + +_Gerard._ Sea Holly. + +_Cotgrave._ Chardon marin; _The Sea Thistle_, _Sea Holly_, _Eringus_. + + +FENNEL. + +_Promptorium._ Fenkylle or fenelle; _Feniculum vel feniculus_. + +_Catholicon._ Fennelle or fenkelle; _feniculum_, _maratrum_. + +_Turner._ Fenel. + +_Gerard_. Fennell. + +_Cotgrave._ Fenouil; _The hearbe Fennell_. + + +FERN. + +_Promptorium._ Brake, herbe or ferne; _Filix_. + +_Catholicon._ Ferne; _polipodium_, &c.; _ubi_ brak[=a]n (a Brak[=a]n; +filix). + +_Turner._ Ferne or brake. + +_Gerard._ Ferne. + +_Cotgrave._ Feuchiere; _Fearne_, _brakes_. + + +FIGS. + +_Promptorium._ Fygge or fyge tre; _Ficus_. + +_Catholicon._ A dry Fige; _ficus_ -_i_, _ficus_ -_us_, _ficulus_. + +_Turner._ Fig tree. + +_Gerard._ The Fig tree. + +_Cotgrave._ Figue; _A Fig_. + + +FILBERTS. + +_Promptorium._ Fylberde, notte; _Fillum_. + +_Catholicon._ A Filbert; _Fillium vel fillum_. + +_Gerard._ The Fillberd Nutt. + +_Cotgrave._ Avelaine; _A Filbeard_. + + +FLAGS. + +_Gerard._ Water Flags. + + +FLAX. + +_Promptorium._ Flax; _Linum_. + +_Catholicon._ Lyne; _linum_. + +_Turner._ Flax. + +_Gerard._ Garden Flaxe. + +_Cotgrave._ Lin; _Line_, _flax_. + + +FLOWER-DE-LUCE. + +_Turner._ Flour de luce. + +_Gerard._ The Floure de-luce. + +_Cotgrave._ Iris; _The rainbow_; _also a Flower de luce_. + + +FUMITER. + +_Promptorium._ Fumeter, herbe; _Fumus terrae_. + +_Turner._ Fumitarie. + +_Gerard._ Fumitorie. + +_Cotgrave._ Fume-terre; _The hearbe Fumitorie_. + + +FURZE. + +_Promptorium._ Fyrrys, or qwyce tre, or gorstys tre; _Ruscus_. + +_Gerard._ Furze, Gorsse, Whin, or prickley Broome. + +_Cotgrave._ Genest espineux; _Furres_, _whinnes_, _gorse_, _Thorn +broome_. + + +GARLICK. + +_Promptorium._ Garlekke; _Allium_. + +_Catholicon._ Garleke; _Alleum_. + +_Turner._ Garlike. + +_Gerard._ Garlicke. + +_Cotgrave._ Ail; _Garlicke_, _poore-man's Treacle_. + + +GILLIFLOWERS. + +_Promptorium._ Gyllofre, herbe; _Gariophyllus_. + +_Turner._ Gelover, Gelefloure. + +_Gerard._ Clove Gillofloures. + +_Cotgrave._ Giroflee; _A gilloflower, and most properly, the Clove +Gilloflower_. + + +GINGER. + +_Promptorium._ Gyngere; _Zinziber_. + +_Catholicon._ Ginger; _zinziber_, _zinzebrum_. + +_Gerard._ Ginger. + +_Cotgrave._ Gingembre; _Ginger_. + + +GOOSEBERRIES. + +_Turner._ Goosebery bush. + +_Gerard._ Goose-berrie or Fea-berry Bush. + +_Cotgrave._ Groselles; _Gooseberries_. + + +GORSE. + +_Promptorium._ See FURZE. + +_Gerard._ See FURZE. + +_Cotgrave._ See FURZE. + + +GOURD. + +_Promptorium._ Goord; _Cucumer_, _cucurbita_, _colloquintida_. + +_Catholicon._ A Gourde; _Cucumer vel cucumis_. + +_Turner._ Gourde. + +_Gerard._ Gourds. + +_Cotgrave._ Courge; _The fruit called a Gourd_. + + +GRAPES. + +_Promptorium._ Grape; _Uva_. + +_Catholicon._ A Grape; _Apiana_, _botrus_, _passus_, _uva_. + +_Turner._ Grapes. + +_Gerard._ Grapes. + +_Cotgrave._ Raisin; _A Grape, also a Raisin_. + + +GRASS. + +_Promptorium._ Gresse, herbe; _Herba_, _gramen_. + +_Catholicon._ A Gresse; _gramen_, _herba_, _herbala_. + +_Turner._ Grasse. + +_Gerard._ Grasse. + +_Cotgrave._ Herbe; . . . _also Grasse_. + + +HAREBELL. + +_Gerard._ Hare-bells. + + +HAWTHORN. + +_Promptorium._ Hawe thorne; _ramnus_. + +_Catholicon._ An Hawe tre; _sinus_, _rampnus_. + +_Turner._ Hawthorne tree. + +_Gerard._ The White Thorne or Hawthorne tree. + +_Cotgrave._ Aubespin; _The White-thorne or Hawthorne_. + + +HAZEL. + +_Promptorium._ Hesyl tre; _Colurus_, _Colurnus_. + +_Catholicon._ An Heselle; _corulus_. + +_Turner._ Hasyle tree. + +_Gerard._ The Hasell tree. + +_Cotgrave._ Noisiller; _A Hasel, or small nut tree_. + + +HEATH. + +_Promptorium._ Hethe; _Bruera_, _bruare_. + +_Turner._ Heth. + +_Gerard._ Heath, Hather, or Linge. + +_Cotgrave._ Bruyere; _Heath_, _ling_, _hather_. + + +HEBONA. + + +HEMLOCK. + +_Promptorium._ Humlok, herbe; _Sicuta_, _lingua canis_. + +_Catholicon._ An Hemlok; _cicuta_, _harba benedicta_, _intubus_. + +_Turner._ Hemlocke. + +_Gerard._ Homlocks or herb Bennet. + +_Cotgrave._ Cigne; _Hemlocke_, _Homlocke_, _hearbe Bennet_, _Kex_. + + +HEMP. + +_Promptorium._ Hempe; _Canabum_. + +_Catholicon._ Hempe; _Canabus_, _canabum_. + +_Turner._ Hemp. + +_Gerard._ Hempe. + +_Cotgrave._ Chanure; _Hempe_. + + +HOLLY. + +_Promptorium._ Holme or holy; _Ulmus_, _hussus_. + +_Catholicon._ An Holynge; _hussus_. + +_Gerard._ The Holme, Holly, or Hulver tree. + +_Cotgrave._ Houx; _The Hollie, Holme, or Hulver tree_. + + +HOLY THISTLE. + +_Turner._ Cardo benedictus. + +_Gerard._ The Blessed Thistle. + +_Cotgrave._ Chardon benoict; _Holy Thistle_, _blessed Thistle_. Carduus +benedictus. + + +HONEYSUCKLE. + +_Promptorium._ Hony Socle; _Abiago_. + +_Turner._ Honysuccles. + +_Gerard._ Woodbinde or Honisuckles. + +_Cotgrave._ Chevre-fueille; _The Woodbind or Honie-suckle_. + + +HYSSOP. + +_Promptorium._ Isope, herbe; _Isopus_. + +_Catholicon._ Isope; _ysopus_. + +_Turner._ Hysope. + +_Gerard._ Hyssope. + +_Cotgrave._ Hyssope; _Hisop_. + + +INSANE ROOT. + +_Promptorium._ Henbane, herbe; _Jusquiamus_, _simphonica_, _insana_. + +_Gerard._ Insana (s.v. HENBANE). + + +IVY. + +_Promptorium._ Ivy; _Edera_. + +_Catholicon._ An Iv[=e]n; _edera_. + +_Gerard._ Ivy. + +_Cotgrave._ Lierre; _Ivie_. + + +KECKSIES. + +_Promptorium._ Kyx, or bunne, or drye weed; _Calamus_. + +_Gerard._ Kexe. + +_Cotgrave._ _See_ HEMLOCK. + + +KNOT-GRASS. + +_Turner._ Knot grasse. + +_Gerard._ Knot-grasses. + +_Cotgrave._ Centidoine; _Centinodie_, _Knotgrassa_, _Waygrasse_, &c. + + +LADY-SMOCKS. + +_Gerard._ Lady-smockes. + +_Cotgrave._ Passerage Sauvage; _Cuckoe flowers_, _Ladies-smockes_, _the +lesse Water Cresse_. + + +LARK'S HEELS. + +_Gerard._ Larks heele or Larks claw. + +_Cotgrave._ Herbe moniale; _Wilde Larkes-heele_, _purple Monkes-flower_. + + +LAUREL. + +_Promptorium._ Lauryol, herbe; _Laureola_. + +_Catholicon._ Larielle; _laurus_. + +_Turner._ Laurel tree. + +_Gerard._ The Bay or Laurel tree. + +_Cotgrave._ Laureole; _Lowrie_, _Lauriell_, _Spurge Laurell_, _little +Laurell_. + + +LAVENDER. + +_Promptorium._ Lavendere, herbe; _Lavendula_. + +_Turner._ Lauender. + +_Gerard._ Lavander Spike. + +_Cotgrave._ Lavande; _Lavender_, _Spike_. + + +LEEK. + +_Promptorium._ Leek or garleke; _Alleum_. + +_Catholicon._ A Leke; _porrum_. + +_Turner._ Leke. + +_Gerard._ Leekes. + +_Cotgrave._ Porreau; _A Leeke_. + + +LEMON. + +_Turner._ Limones. + +_Gerard._ The Limon tree. + +_Cotgrave._ Limon; _A Lemmon_. + + +LETTUCE. + +_Promptorium._ Letuce, herbe; _Lactuca_. + +_Catholicon._ Letuse; _lactuca_. + +_Turner._ Lettis. + +_Gerard._ Lettuce. + +_Cotgrave._ Laictue; _Lettuce_. + + +LILY. + +_Promptorium._ Lyly, herbe; _Lilium_. + +_Catholicon._ A Lylly; _lilium_, _librellum_. + +_Turner._ Lily. + +_Gerard._ White Lillies. + +_Cotgrave._ Lis; _A Lillie_. + + +LIME. + +_Promptorium._ Lynde tre; _Filia_. + +_Catholicon. A_ Linde tre; _tilia_. + +_Turner._ Linden tre. + +_Gerard._ The Line or Linden tree. + +_Cotgrave._ Til; _The Line, Linden, or Teylet tree_. + + +LING. + +_Promptorium._ Lynge of the hethe; _Bruera vel brueria_. + +_Turner._ Ling. + +_Gerard._ Heath, Hather, or Linge. + +_Cotgrave._ Bruyere; _Heath_, _ling_, _hather_. + + +LOCUST. + +_Turner._ Carobbeanes. + +_Gerard._ The Carob tree or St. John's Bread. + + +LONG PURPLES. + +_Turner._ Hand Satyrion. + + +LOVE-IN-IDLENESS. + +_Gerard._ Live in idlenesse. + +_Cotgrave._ Herbe clavelee; _Paunsie. . . . Love or live in idleness_. + + +MACE. + +_Promptorium._ Macys, spyce; _Macie in plur_. + +_Catholicon._ Mace; _Macia_. + +_Gerard._ Mace. + +_Cotgrave._ Macis; _The spice called Mace_. + + +MALLOWS. + +_Promptorium._ Malwe, herbe, _Malva_. + +_Catholicon._ A Malve; _Altea_, _malva_. + +_Turner._ Mallowe. + +_Gerard._ The wilde Mallowes. + +_Cotgrave._ Maulve; _The hearbe Mallow_. + + +MANDRAKES. + +_Promptorium._ Mandragge, herbe; _Mandragora_. + +_Turner._ Mandrage. + +_Gerard._ Mandrake. + +_Cotgrave._ Mandragore; _Mandrake_, _Mandrage_, _Mandragon_. + + +MARIGOLD. + +_Promptorium._ Golde, heabe; _Solsequium, quia sequitur solem_, &c. + +_Catholicon._ Marigolde; _Solsequium, sponsa solis, herba est_. + +_Turner._ Marygoulde. + +_Gerard._ Marigolds. + +_Cotgrave._ Soulsi; _the Marigold_, _Ruds_. + + +MARJORAM. + +_Promptorium._ Mageraem, herbe; _Majorona_. + +_Catholicon._ Marioron; _herba Maiorana_. + +_Turner._ Margerum. + +_Gerard._ Marjerome. + +_Cotgrave._ Marjolaine; _Marierome_, _sweet Marierome_, _fine +Marierome_, _Marierome gentle_. + + +MEDLAR. + +_Turner._ Medler tre. + +_Gerard._ The Medlar tree. + +_Cotgrave._ Neffle; _a Medler_. + + +MINT. + +_Promptorium._ Mynte, herbe; _Minta_. + +_Catholicon._ Minte; _Menta, herba est_. + +_Turner._ Mint. + +_Gerard._ Mints. + +_Cotgrave._ Mente; _the hearbe Mint, or Mints_. + + +MISTLETOE. + +_Turner._ Misceldin, or Miscelto. + +_Gerard._ Misseltoe or Misteltoe. + +_Cotgrave._ Guy; _Misseltoe, or Misseldine_. + + +MOSS. + +_Promptorium._ Mosse, growynge a-mongys stonys; _Muscus_. + +_Catholicon._ Mosse; _muscus_, _ivena_. + +_Gerard._ Ground Mosse. + +_Cotgrave._ Mousse; _Mosse_. + + +MULBERRY. + +_Promptorium._ Mulbery; _Morum_. + +_Catholicon._ A Mulbery; _Morum_. + +_Turner._ Mulbery tree. + +_Gerard._ The Mulberrie tree. + +_Cotgrave._ Meure; _A Mulberrie_. + + +MUSHROOM. + +_Promptorium._ Muscher[=o]n toodys hatte; _Boletus_, _fungus_. + +_Gerard._ Mushrumes or Toadstooles. + +_Cotgrave._ Champignon; _A Mushrum_, _Toadstoole_, _Paddock-stoole_. + + +MUSTARD. + +_Promptorium._ Mustard or Warlok or senvyne, herbe; _Sinapis_. + +_Catholicon._ Musterde; _Sinapium_. + +_Turner._ Mustarde. + +_Gerard._ Mustard. + +_Cotgrave._ Moustarde; _Mustard_. + + +MYRTLE. + +_Turner._ Myrtle or Myrt tree. + +_Gerard._ The Myrtle tree. + +_Cotgrave._ Myrte: _The Mirtle tree or Shrub_. + + +NETTLES. + +_Promptorium._ Netyl, herbe; _Urtica_. + +_Catholicon._ A Nettylle; _Urtica_. + +_Turner._ Nettle. + +_Gerard._ Stinging Nettle. + +_Cotgrave._ Ortie; _A Nettle, the Common Nettle_. + + +NUT. + +_Promptorium._ Note, frute; _Nux_. + +_Catholicon._ A Nutte; _nux_, _nucula_, _nucicula_. + +_Gerard._ Wilde hedge-Nut. + +_Cotgrave._ Noisette; _A small Nut, or Hasel Nut_. + + +NUTMEG. + +_Promptorium._ Notemygge; _Nux muscata_. + +_Catholicon._ A Nut muge; _nux muscata_. + +_Gerard._ The Nutmeg tree. + +_Cotgrave._ Noix Muscade; _A Nutmeg_. + + +OAK. + +_Promptorium._ Oke, tee; _Quercus_, _ylex_. + +_Catholicon._ An Oke; _quarcus_, &c.; _ubi_ An Ake. + +_Turner._ Oke. + +_Gerard._ The Oke. + +_Cotgrave._ Chesne; _An Oake_. + + +OATS. + +_Promptorium._ Ote or havur Corne; _Avena_. + +_Catholicon._ Otys; _ubi_ haver (_Havyr_; _avena_, _avenula_). + +_Turner._ Otes. + +_Gerard._ Otes. + +_Cotgrave._ Avoyne; _Oats_. + + +OLIVE. + +_Promptorium._ Olyve, tre; _Oliva_. + +_Catholicon._ An Olyve tre; _olea_, _oleaster_, _oliva_; _olivaris_. + +_Turner._ Olyve tree. + +_Gerard._ The Olive tree. + +_Cotgrave._ Olivier; _An Olive tree_. + + +ONIONS. + +_Promptorium._ Onyone; _Sepe_. + +_Catholicon._ Ony[=o]n; _bilbus_, _cepa_, _cepe_. + +_Turner._ Onyon. + +_Gerard._ Onions. + +_Cotgrave._ Oignon; _An Onyon_. + + +ORANGE. + +_Promptorium._ Oronge, fruete; _Pomum citrinum_, _citrum_. + +_Turner._ Orenge tree. + +_Gerard._ The Orange tree. + +_Cotgrave._ Orange; _An Orange_. + + +OSIER. + +_Promptorium._ Osyere; _Vimen_. + +_Turner._ Osyer tree. + +_Gerard._ The Oziar or Water Willow. + +_Cotgrave._ Osier; _The Ozier_, _red Withie_, _water Willow tree_. + + +OXLIP. + +_Gerard._ Field Oxlips. + +_Cotgrave._ Arthetiques; _Cowslips or Oxlips_. + + +PALM. + +_Promptorium._ Palme; _Palma_. + +_Catholicon._ A Palme tre; _palma_, _palmula_. + +_Gerard._ The Date tree. + +_Cotgrave._ Palmier; _The Palme, or Date tree_. + + +PANSIES. + +_Turner._ Panses. + +_Gerard._ Hearts-ease or Pansies. + +_Cotgrave._ Pensee; _The flower Paunsie_. + + +PARSLEY. + +_Promptorium._ Persley, herbe; _Petrocillum_. + +_Catholicon._ Parcelle; _Petrocillum, herba est_. + +_Turner._ Persely. + +_Gerard._ Parsley. + +_Cotgrave._ Persil; _Parsely_. + + +PEACH. + +_Promptorium._ Peche, or peske, frute: _Pesca_, _pomum Persicum_. + +_Turner._ Peche tree. + +_Gerard._ The Peach tree. + +_Cotgrave._ Pesche; _A Peach_. + + +PEAR. + +_Promptorium._ Pere, tre; _Pirus_. + +_Catholicon._ A Pere tre; _Pirus_. + +_Turner._ Peare tree. + +_Gerard._ The Peare tree. + +_Cotgrave._ Poire; _A Peare_. + + +PEAS. + +_Promptorium._ Pese, frute of corne; _Pisa_. + +_Catholicon._ A Peise; _Pisa_. + +_Turner._ A Pease. + +_Gerard._ Peason. + +_Cotgrave._ Pois; _A Peas or Peason_. + + +PEPPER. + +_Promptorium._ Pepyr; _Piper_. + +_Catholicon._ Pepyr; _Piper_. + +_Turner._ Indishe Peper. + +_Gerard._ The Pepper plant. + +_Cotgrave._ Poyvre; _Pepper_. + + +PIGNUTS. + +_Turner._ Ernutte. + +_Gerard._ Earth-Nut, Earth Chestnut, or Kippernut. + +_Cotgrave._ Faverottes; _Earth-nuts_, _Kipper-nuts_, _Earth-Chestnuts_. + + +PINE. + +_Promptorium._ Pynot, tre; _Pinus_. + +_Catholicon._ A Pyne tree; _pinus_. + +_Turner._ Pyne tre. + +_Gerard._ The Pine tree. + +_Cotgrave._ Pin; _A Pine tree_. + + +PINKS. + +_Gerard._ Pinks or wilde Gillofloures. + +_Cotgrave._ Oeillet; _A Gilliflower; also, a Pinke_. + + +PIONY. + +_Promptorium._ Pyany, herbe; _Pionia_. + +_Catholicon._ A Pyon; _pionia, herba est_. + +_Turner._ Pyony. + +_Gerard._ Peionie. + +_Cotgrave._ Pion; _A certaine great, round, and Bulbus-rooted flower, of +one whole colour_. + + +PLANE. + +_Promptorium._ Plane, tre; _Platanus_. + +_Catholicon._ A Playne tre; _platanus_. + +_Turner._ Playne tree. + +_Gerard._ The Plane tree. + +_Cotgrave._ Platane; _The right Plane tree (a stranger in England)_. + + +PLANTAIN. + +_Promptorium._ Planteyne, or plawnteyn, herbe; _Plantago_. + +_Turner._ Plantaine. + +_Gerard._ Land Plantaine. + +_Cotgrave._ Plantain; _Plantaine_, _Way-bred_. + + +PLUMS. + +_Promptorium._ Plowme; _Prunum_. + +_Catholicon._ A Plowmbe; _prunum_. + +_Turner._ Plum tree. + +_Gerard._ The Plum tree. + +_Cotgrave._ Prune; _A Plumme_. + + +POMEGRANATE. + +_Promptorium._ Pomegarnet, frute; _Pomum granatum_, _vel malum +granatum_. + +_Catholicon._ A Pomgarnett; _Malogranatum_, _Malumpunicum_. + +_Turner._ Pomgranat tree. + +_Gerard._ The Pomegranat tree. + +_Cotgrave._ Grenarde; _a Pomegranet_. + + +POPPY. + +_Promptorium._ Popy, weed; _Papaver_, _Codia_. + +_Turner._ Poppy. + +_Gerard._ Poppy. + +_Cotgrave._ Pavot; _Poppie_, _Cheesbowls_. + + +POTATO. + +_Gerard._ Potatus, or Potato's. + + +PRIMROSE. + +_Promptorium._ Prymerose; _Primula_, _calendula_, _liqustrum_. + +_Catholicon._ A Prymerose; _primarosa_, _primula veris_. + +_Turner._ Primrose. + +_Gerard._ Primrose. + +_Cotgrave._ Primevere; _The Primrose_. + + +PUMPION. + +_Gerard._ Melons, or Pumpions. + +_Cotgrave._ Pompon; _A Pompion or Melon_. + + +QUINCE. + +_Promptorium._ Quence, frute; _Coctonum_, _Scitonum_. + +_Turner._ Quince tree. + +_Gerard._ The Quince tree. + +_Cotgrave._ Coignier; _A Quince tree_. + + +RADISH. + +_Catholicon._ Radcolle; _Raphanus, herba est_. + +_Turner._ Radice or Radishe. + +_Gerard._ Radish. + +_Cotgrave._ Radis; _A Raddish root_. + + +RAISIN. + +_Promptorium._ Reysone, or reysynge, frute; _Uva passa_, _carica_. + +_Catholicon._ A Rasyn; _passa_, _racemus_. + +_Turner._ Rasin. + +_Gerard._ Raisins. + +_Cotgrave._ Raisin; _A Grape, also a Raisin_. + + +REEDS. + +_Promptorium._ Reed, of the fenne; _Arundo_, _canna_. + +_Catholicon._ A Rede; _Arundo_, _canna_, _canula_. + +_Turner._ Reed. + +_Gerard._ Reeds. + +_Cotgrave._ Roseau; _A Reed_, _a Cane_. + + +RHUBARB. + +_Gerard._ Rubarb. + +_Cotgrave._ Reubarbe; _The root called Rewbarb, or Rewbarb of the +Levant_. + + +RICE. + +_Promptorium._ Ryce, frute; _Risia, vel risi_. + +_Catholicon._ Ryse; _risi judeclinabile_. + +_Turner._ Ryse. + +_Gerard._ Rice. + +_Cotgrave._ Ris; _The graine called Rice_. + + +ROSE. + +_Promptorium._ Rose, floure; _Rosa_. + +_Catholicon._ A Rose; _rosa-sula_, _rosella_. + +_Turner._ Rose. + +_Gerard._ Roses. + +_Cotgrave._ Rose; _A Rose_. + + +ROSEMARY. + +_Promptorium._ Rose Mary, herbe; _Ros marinus_, _rosa marina_. + +_Catholicon._ Rosemary; _Dendrolibanum, herba est_. + +_Turner._ Rosemary. + +_Gerard._ Rosemary. + +_Cotgrave._ Rosmarin; _Rosemarie_. + + +RUE. + +_Promptorium._ Ruwe, herbe; _Ruta_. + +_Catholicon._ Rewe; _ruta, herba est_. + +_Turner._ Rue. + +_Gerard._ Rue or Herb Grace. + +_Cotgrave._ Rue; _Rue_, _Hearbe Grace_. + + +RUSH. + +_Promptorium._ Rysche, or rusche; _Cirpus_, _juncus_. + +_Catholicon._ A Rysche; _ubi_ a Sefe (a Seyfe, _juncus_, _biblus_, +_cirpus_). + +_Gerard._ Rushes. + +_Cotgrave._ Jonc; _A rush, or bulrush_. + + +RYE. + +_Promptorium._ Rye, corn; _Siligo_. + +_Catholicon._ Ry; _Sagalum_. + +_Turner._ Rye. + +_Gerard._ Rie. + +_Cotgrave._ Seigle; _Rye_. + + +SAFFRON. + +_Promptorium._ Safrun; _Crocum_. + +_Catholicon._ Saferon; _Crocus_, _crocum_. + +_Turner._ Safforne, Saffron. + +_Gerard._ Saffron. + +_Cotgrave._ Saffron; _Saffron_. + + +SAMPHIRE. + +_Turner._ Sampere. + +_Gerard._ Sampier. + +_Cotgrave._ Creste marine; _Sampier_, _Sea Fennell_, _Crestmarine_. + + +SAVORY. + +_Promptorium._ Saverey, herbe; _Satureia_. + +_Catholicon._ Saferay; _Satureia, herba est_. + +_Turner._ Saueray or Sauery. + +_Gerard._ Savorie. + + +SEDGE. + +_Promptorium._ Segge, of fenne, or wyld gladon; _Acorus_. + +_Catholicon._ A Segg; _Carex_. + +_Turner._ Sege or Sheregres. + +_Cotgrave._ Glayeul bastard; _Sedge_, _wild flags_, _&c._ + + +SENNA. + +_Turner._ Sene. + +_Gerard._ Sene. + +_Cotgrave._ Senne; _The purging plant Sene_. + + +SPEARGRASS. + + +STOVER. + + +STRAWBERRY. + +_Promptorium._ Strawbery; _Fragum_. + +_Catholicon._ A Strabery; _Fragum_. + +_Turner._ Strawbery. + +_Gerard._ Straw-berries. + +_Cotgrave._ Fraise; _A strawberrie_. + + +SYCAMORE. + +_Promptorium._ Sycomoure, tree; _Sicomorus_, _celsa_. + +_Gerard._ The Sycomore tree. + +_Cotgrave._ Sycomore; _The Sycomore_. + + +THISTLES. + +_Promptorium._ Thystylle; _Cardo_, _Carduus_. + +_Catholicon._ A Thystelle; _Cardo_. + +_Turner._ Thistle. + +_Gerard._ Thistles. + +_Cotgrave._ Chardon; _A Thistle_. + + +THORN. + +_Promptorium._ Thorne; _Spina_, _sentis_, _sentix_. + +_Catholicon._ A Thorne; _Spina_, _spinula_, _sentis_. + +_Turner._ Whyte Thorne. + +_Gerard._ White Thorne. + +_Cotgrave._ Espine; _A thorne_. + + +THYME. + +_Promptorium._ Tyme, herbe; _Tima_, _timum_. + +_Catholicon._ Tyme; _timum_, _epitimum_. + +_Turner._ Wild Thyme. + +_Gerard._ Wilde Time. + +_Cotgrave._ Thym; _The hearbe Time_. + + +TOADSTOOLS. + +_Catholicon._ A Paddockstole; _boletus_, _fungus_, _tuber_, _&c._ + +_Gerard._ Toadstooles. + +_Cotgrave._ Champignon; _A Mushrum_, _Toadstoole_, _Paddockstoole_. + + +TURNIPS. + +_Turner._ Rape or Turnepe. + +_Gerard._ Turneps. + +_Cotgrave._ Naveau blanc de Jardin; _Th' ordinarie Rape, or Turneps_. + + +VETCHES. + +_Promptorium._ Fetche, corne, or tare; _Vicia_. + +_Turner._ Fyche. + +_Gerard._ The Vetch or Fetch. + +_Cotgrave._ Vesce; _The pulse called Fitch, or Vetch_. + + +VINES. + +_Promptorium._ Vyny or Vyne; _Vitis_. + +_Catholicon._ A Vyne tree; _argitis_, _propago_, _vitis_. + +_Turner._ Wild Vine. + +_Gerard._ The manured Vine. + +_Cotgrave._ Vigne; _A Vine_, _the plant that beareth Grapes_. + + +VIOLET. + +_Promptorium._ Vyalett, or vyolet, herbe; _Viola_. + +_Catholicon._ A Violett; _Viola_. + +_Turner._ Violet. + +_Gerard._ Violets. + +_Cotgrave._ Violette; _A Violet_. + + +WALNUT. + +_Promptorium._ Walnote; _Avelana_. + +_Catholicon._ A Walnotte; _Avellanus_, _Avellanum_. + +_Turner._ Walnut tree. + +_Gerard._ The Wall-nut tree. + +_Cotgrave._ Noix; _A Wallnut_. + + +WARDEN. + +_Promptorium._ Wardone, peere; _Volemum_. + +_Catholicon._ A Wardon; _Volemum_, _crustunum_. + +_Cotgrave._ Poure de garde; _A Warden, or Winter Peare_. + + +WHEAT. + +_Promptorium._ Whete, Corne; _Triticum_, _frumentum_. + +_Catholicon._ Whete; _Ceres_, _frumentum_, _triticum_. + +_Turner._ Wheate. + +_Gerard._ Wheate. + +_Cotgrave._ Froment; _Wheat_. + + +WILLOW. + +_Promptorium._ Wylowe, tree; _Salix_. + +_Catholicon._ A Wylght; _Salix_. + +_Turner._ Wylow tree. + +_Gerard._ The Willow tree. + +_Cotgrave._ Saule; _A Sallow, Willow, or Withie tree_. + + +WOODBINE. + +_Promptorium._ Woode Bynde; _Caprifolium_, _vicicella_. + +_Catholicon._ Wodde bynde; _terebinthus_. + +_Turner._ Wodbynde. + +_Gerard._ Wood-bind or Honeysuckle. + +_Cotgrave._ Chevre-fueille; _The wood-bind or honie-suckle_. + + +WORMWOOD. + +_Promptorium._ Wyrmwode, herbe; _Absinthum_. + +_Catholicon._ Wormede; _absinthum_. + +_Turner._ Mugwort, Wormwod. + +_Gerard._ Wormewood. + +_Cotgrave._ Absynthe; _Wormewood_. + + +YEW. + +_Promptorium._ V tree; _Taxus_. + +_Catholicon._ An Eu tre; _taxus_. + +_Turner._ Yewtree. + +_Gerard._ The Yew tree. + +_Cotgrave._ If; _An Yew or Yew tree_. + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[393:1] Where any of these five are omitted, that author does not name +the plant. In many cases the same plant is given under different names; +but I have not thought it necessary to quote more than one. In the +quotations from Turner the preference is given to the "Names of Herbes," +where the plant is mentioned in both works. + + + + +_INDEXES._ + + + + +INDEX OF PLAYS, + +_SHOWING HOW THE PLANTS ARE DISTRIBUTED THROUGH THE DIFFERENT PLAYS_ + + +COMEDIES. + + +_Tempest_-- + + Act I., sc. 1. Furze, Heath, Ling, Nut. + sc. 2. Acorn, Ivy, Oak, Pine, Reed. + + Act II., sc. 1. Apple, Corn, Docks, Grass, Wallows, Nettle. + sc. 2. Crab, Filbert, Pignuts. + + Act IV., sc. 1. Barley, Barnacles, Brier, Broom, Furze, + Gorse, Grass, Lime, Oats, Peas, Piony, + Rye, Saffron, Sedge, Stover, Thorns, + Vetches, Wheat. + + Act V., sc. 1. Cedar, Cowslips, Lime, Mushrooms, Oak, Pine, Reed. + + +_Two Gentlemen of Verona_-- + + Act I., sc. 2. Ginger. + + Act II., sc. 3. Lily. + sc. 7. Sedge. + + Act IV., sc. 4. Lily, rose. + + +_Merry Wives_-- + + Act I., sc. 1. Cabbage, Prunes. + sc. 2. Pippins. + sc. 3. Figs. + + Act II., sc. 3. Elder. + + Act III., sc. 1. Roses. + sc. 3. Hawthorn, Pumpion. + sc. 4. Turnips. + sc. 5. Pepper. + + Act IV., sc. 1. Carrot. + sc. 2. Walnut. + sc. 4. Oak. + sc. 5. Pear. + sc. 6. Oak. + + Act V., sc. 1. Oak. + sc. 3. Oak. + sc. 5. Balm, Bilberry, Eringoes, Flax, Oak, Plums, + Potatoes. + + +_Twelfth Night_-- + + Act I., sc. 1. Violets. + sc. 3. Flax. + sc. 5. Apple, Codling, Olive, Peascod, Squash, Willow. + + Act II., sc. 3. Ginger. + sc. 4. Roses. + sc. 5. Box, Nettle, Yew. + + Act III., sc. 1. Roses. + + Act IV., sc. 2. Ebony, Pepper. + + Act V., sc. 1. Apple. + + +_Measure for Measure_-- + + Act I., sc. 3. Birch. + + Act II., sc. 1. Prunes, Grapes. + sc. 2. Myrtle, Oak, Violet. + sc. 3. Ginger. + + Act III., sc. 2. Garlick. + + Act IV., sc. 1. Corn. + sc. 3. Burs, Medlar, Peach. + + +_Much Ado About Nothing_-- + + Dramatis Personae. Dogberry. + + Act I., sc. 3. Rose. + + Act II., sc. 1. Oak, Orange, Sedge, Willow. + + Act III., sc. 1. Honeysuckle, Woodbine. + sc. 4. Carduus Benedictus, Holy Thistle. + + +_Midsummer Night's Dream_-- + + Act I., sc. 1. Grass, Hawthorn, Musk Roses, Primrose, Rose, + Wheat. + sc. 2. Orange. + + Act II., sc. 1. Acorn, Beans, Brier, Corn, Cowslip, Crab, + Eglantine, Love-in-idleness, Musk Rose, + Oxlip, Thyme, Violet, Woodbine. + + Act III., sc. 1. Acorn, Apricot, Brier, Dewberries, Figs, + Grapes, Hawthorn, Hemp, Knot-grass, + Lily, Mulberries, Orange, Rose, Thorns. + sc. 2. Acorn, Brier, Burs, Cherry, Thorns. + + Act IV., sc. 1. Elm, Honeysuckle, Ivy, Nuts, Oats, Peas, + Thistle, Woodbine. + sc. 2. Garlick, Onions. + + Act V., sc. 1. Brier, Broom, Cowslip, Leek, Lily, Thorns. + + +_Love's Labour's Lost_-- + + Act I., sc. 1. Corn, Ebony, Rose. + + Act III., sc. 1. Plantain. + + Act IV., sc. 2. Crab, Oak, Osier, Pomewater. + sc. 3. Cedar, Cockle, Corn, Rose, Thorns. + + Act V., sc. 1. Ginger. + sc. 2. Columbine, Cloves, Crabs, Cuckoo-buds, + Daisies, Grass, Lady-smocks, Lemon, + Lily, Mint, Nutmeg, Oats, Peas, Rose, + Sugar, Sycamore, Violets, Wormwood. + + +_Merchant of Venice_-- + + Act I., sc. 1. Grass, Wheat. + sc. 3. Apple. + + Act III., sc. 1. Ginger, Sugar. + sc. 4. Reed. + + Act IV., sc. 1. Pine. + + Act V., sc. 1. Willow. + + +_As You Like It_-- + + Act I., sc. 2. Mustard. + sc. 3. Briers, Burs. + + Act II., sc. 1. Oak. + sc. 4. Peascod. + sc. 7. Holly. + + Act III., sc. 2. Brambles, Cork, Hawthorn, Medlar, Nut, Rose, Rush. + sc. 3. Sugar. + sc. 4. Chestnut, Nut. + sc. 5. Rush. + + Act IV., sc. 3. Moss, Oak, Osier. + + Act V., sc. 1. Grape. + sc. 3. Rye. + + +_All's Well that Ends Well_-- + + Act I., sc. 1. Date, Pear. + sc. 3. Rose. + + Act II., sc. 1. Grapes. + sc. 2. Rush. + sc. 3. Pomegranate. + sc. 5. Nut. + + Act IV., sc. 2. Roses. + sc. 4. Briers. + sc. 5. Grass, Marjoram, Herb of Grace, Saffron. + + Act V., sc. 3. Onion. + + +_Taming of the Shrew_-- + + Induction. Onions, Rose, Sedge. + + Act I., sc. 1. Apple, Love-in-idleness. + sc. 2. Chestnut. + + Act II., sc. 1. Crab, Cypress, Hazel. + + Act III., sc. 2. Oats. + + Act IV., sc. 1. Rushes. + sc. 3. Apple, Mustard, Walnut. + sc. 4. Parsley. + + +_Winter's Tale_-- + + Act I., sc. 2. Flax, Nettles, Squash, Thorns. + + Act II., sc. 1. Pines. + sc. 3. Oak. + + Act III., sc. 3. Cork. + + Act IV., sc. 4. Brier, Carnations, Crown Imperial, Daffodils, + Flower-de-luce, Garlick, Gillyflowers, + Lavender, Lilies, Marigold, Marjoram, + Mint, Oxlips, Primroses, Rosemary, Rue, + Savory, Thorns, Violets. + + +_Comedy of Errors_-- + + Act II., sc. 2. Ivy, Brier, Moss, Elm, Vine, Grass. + + Act IV., sc. 1. Balsamum, Cherry, Rush, Nut. + sc. 4. Saffron. + + +HISTORIES. + + +_King John_-- + + Act I., sc. 1. Rose. + + Act II., sc. 1. Cherry, Fig, Plum. + + Act III., sc. 1. Lily Rose. + + Act IV., sc. 2. Lily, Violet. + sc. 3. Rush, Thorns. + + +_Richard II._-- + + Act II., sc. 3. Sugar. + sc. 4. Bay. + + Act III., sc. 2. Balm, Nettles, Pine, Yew. + sc. 3. Corn, Grass. + sc. 4. Apricots. + + Act IV., sc. 1. Balm, Thorns. + + Act V., sc. 1. Rose. + sc. 2. Violets. + + +_1st Henry IV._-- + + Act I., sc. 3. Reeds, Rose, Sedge, Thorn. + + Act II., sc. 1. Beans, Fern, Ginger, Oats, Peas. + sc. 3. Nettle. + sc. 4. Blackberries, Camomile, Pomegranate, + Radish, Raisins, Speargrass, Sugar. + + Act III., sc. 1. Garlick, Ginger, Moss, Rushes. + sc. 3. Apple-john, Prunes, Sugar. + + +_2nd Henry IV._-- + + Act I., sc. 2. Gooseberries, Mandrake. + + Act II., sc. 1. Hemp, Honeysuckle. + sc. 2. Peach. + sc. 4. Apple-john, Aspen, Elm, Fennel, Mustard, + Peascod, Prunes, Rose. + + Act III., sc. 2. Radish. + + Act IV., sc. 1. Corn. + sc. 4. Aconitum, Olive. + sc. 5. Balm, Ebony. + + Act V., sc. 1. Wheat. + sc. 2. Sugar. + sc. 3. Carraways, Fig, Leathercoats, Pippins. + sc. 5. Rushes. + + +_Henry V._-- + + Act I., sc. 1. Grass, Nettle, Strawberry. + + Act III., Chorus. Hemp. + sc. 3. Barley. + sc. 6. Fig, Hemp. + sc. 7. Nutmeg, Ginger. + + Act IV., sc. 1. Balm, Elder, Fig, Leek, Violet. + sc. 2. Grass. + sc. 7. Leek. + + Act V., sc. 1. Leek. + sc. 2. Burnet, Burs, Clover, Cowslip, Darnel, + Docks, Flower-de-luce, Fumitory, Hemlock, + Kecksies, Thistles, Vines. + + +_1st Henry VI._-- + + Act I., sc. 1. Flower-de-luce. + + Act II., sc. 4. Brier, Red and White Rose. + sc. 5. Vine. + + Act III., sc. 2. Corn. + sc. 3. Sugar. + + Act IV., sc. 1. Rose. + + +_2nd Henry VI._-- + + Act I., sc. 2. Corn. + + Act II., sc. 1. Damsons, Plums. + sc. 3. Fig, Pine. + + Act III., sc. 1. Thorns. + sc. 2. Corn, Crab, Cypress, Darnel, Grass, Mandrake, + Primrose, Sugar. + + Act IV., sc. 2. Grass. + sc. 7. Hemp. + sc. 10. Grass. + + Act V., sc. 1. Cedar, Flower-de-luce. + sc. 2. Flax. + + +_3rd Henry VI._-- + + Act II., sc. 1. Oak. + sc. 5. Hawthorn. + + Act III., sc. 1. Balm. + sc. 2. Thorns. + + Act IV., sc. 6. Laurel, Olive. + sc. 8. Balm. + + Act V., sc. 2. Cedar. + sc. 4. Thorns. + sc. 5. Thorns. + sc. 7. Corn. + + +_Richard III._-- + + Act I., sc. 2. Balm. + sc. 3. Cedar, Sugar. + + Act III., sc. 1. Sugar. + sc. 4. Strawberries. + + Act IV., sc. 3. Rose. + + Act V., sc. 2. Vine. + + +_Henry VIII._-- + + Act III., sc. 1. Lily. + + Act IV., sc. 2. Bays, Palms. + + Act V., sc. 1. Cherry, Corn. + sc. 4. Apple, Crab, Broom. + sc. 5. Corn, Lily, Vine. + + +TRAGEDIES. + + +_Troilus and Cressida_-- + + Act I., sc. 1. Balm, Wheat. + sc. 2. Date, Nettle. + sc. 3. Laurel, Oak, Pine. + + Act II., sc. 1. Nut, Toadstool. + + Act III., sc. 2. Burs, Lily, Plantain (?). + + Act V., sc. 2. Almond, Potato. + sc. 4. Blackberry. + + +_Timon of Athens_-- + + Act III., sc. 5. Balsam. + + Act IV., sc. 3. Briers, Grape, Grass, Masts, Medlar, Moss, + Oak, Rose, Sugar, Vines. + + Act V., sc. 1. Palm. + sc. 4. Balm, Olive. + + +_Coriolanus_-- + + Act I., sc. 1. Corn, Oak, Rush. + sc. 3. Oak. + sc. 10. Cypress. + + Act II., sc. 1. Crabs, Nettle, Oak, Orange. + sc. 2. Oak. + sc. 3. Corn. + + Act III., sc. 1. Cockle, Corn. + sc. 2. Mulberry. + sc. 3. Briers. + + Act IV., sc. 5. Ash. + sc. 6. Garlick. + + Act V., sc. 2. Oak. + sc. 3. Cedar, Oak, Palm. + + +_Macbeth_-- + + Act I., sc. 1. Chestnuts, Insane Root. + + Act II., sc. 2. Balm. + sc. 3. Primrose. + + Act IV., sc. 1. Corn, Hemlock, Yew. + + Act V., sc. 3. Lily, Rhubarb, Senna, or Cyme. + + +_Julius Caesar_-- + + Act I., sc. 2. Palm. + sc. 3. Oak. + + +_Antony and Cleopatra_-- + + Act I., sc. 2. Fig, Onion. + sc. 3. Laurel. + sc. 4. Flag. + sc. 5. Mandragora. + + Act II., sc. 6. Wheat. + sc. 7. Grapes, Reeds, Vine. + + Act III., sc. 3. Rose. + sc. 5. Rush. + sc. 12. Myrtle. + + Act IV., sc. 2. Grace (Rue). + sc. 6. Olive. + sc. 12. Pine. + + Act V., sc. 2. Balm, Figs. + + +_Cymbeline_-- + + Act I., sc. 5. Cowslip, Primrose, Violet. + + Act II., sc. 1. Cowslip. + sc. 2. Lily, Rushes. + sc. 3. Marybuds. + sc. 5. Acorn. + + Act IV., sc. 2. Daisy, Eglantine, Elder, Harebell, Moss, + Oak, Pine, Primrose, Reed, Vine. + + Act V., sc. 4. Cedar. + sc. 5. Cedar. + + +_Titus Andronicus_-- + + Act I., sc. 1. Laurel. + + Act II., sc. 3. Corn, Elder, Mistletoe, Moss, Nettles, Yew. + sc. 4. Aspen, Briers, Lily. + + Act IV., sc. 3. Cedar, Corn. + sc. 4. Grass, Honeystalks. + + +_Pericles_-- + + Act I., sc. 4. Corn. + + Act III., sc. 3. Corn. + + Act IV., sc. 1. Marigold, Rose, Violet. + sc. 6. Bays, Rose, Rosemary, Thorn. + + Act V., Chorus. Cherry, Rose. + + +_Romeo and Juliet_-- + + Act I., sc. 1. Sycamore. + sc. 2. Plantain. + sc. 3. Wormwood. + sc. 4. Hazel, Rush, Thorn. + + Act II., sc. 1. Medlar, Poperin Pear. + sc. 2. Rose. + sc. 3. Willow. + sc. 4. Bitter Sweet, Pink, Rosemary. + + Act III., sc. 1. Nuts, Pepper. + sc. 5. Pomegranate. + + Act IV., sc. 1. Rose. + sc. 3. Mandrake. + sc. 4. Date, Quince. + + Act V., sc. 1. Rose. + sc. 3. Yew. + + +_King Lear_-- + + Act I., sc. 1. Balm, Vine. + sc. 4. Peascod. + sc. 5. Crab. + + Act II., sc. 2. Lily. + sc. 3. Rosemary. + + Act III., sc. 2. Oak. + sc. 4. Hawthorn. + sc. 6. Corn. + sc. 7. Cork, Flax. + + Act IV., sc. 4. Burdock, Corn, Cuckoo-flowers, Darnel, + Fumiter, Harlocks, Hemlock, Nettles. + sc. 6. Marjoram, Samphire. + + Act V., sc. 3. Oats. + + +_Hamlet_-- + + Act I., sc. 3. Primrose, Thorn, Violet. + sc. 5. Hebenon or Hebona. + + Act II., sc. 2. Nut, Plum. + + Act III., sc. 1. Rose, Sugar. + sc. 2. Grass, Rose, Wormwood. + + Act IV., sc. 5. Columbine, Daisy, Fennel, Flax, Grass, + Herb of Grace, Rose, Rosemary, Rue, + Violet. + sc. 7. Corn-flower, Daisy, Dead-men's-fingers, Long + Purples, Nettles, Violet, Willow. + + Act V., sc. 1. Violet. + sc. 2. Palm, Wheat. + + +_Othello_-- + + Act I., sc. 3. Coloquintida, Hyssop, Lettuce, Locusts, + Nettle, Thyme, Sugar. + + Act II., sc. 1. Fig, Oak, Grapes. + + Act III., sc. 3. Mandragora, Oak, Poppy, Strawberries. + + Act IV., sc. 2. Rose. + sc. 3. Sycamore, Willow. + + Act V., sc. 2. Rush, Willow. + + +_Two Noble Kinsmen_-- + + Introductory Song. Daisies, Lark's-heels, Marigolds, Oxlips, + Pinks, Primrose, Rose, Thyme. + + Act I., sc. 1. Cherries, Currant, Wheat. + sc. 2. Plantain. + + Act II., sc. 2. Apricot, Narcissus, Rose, Vine. + sc. 3. Corn. + sc. 6. Cedar, Plane. + + Act III., sc. 1. Hawthorn. + + Act IV., sc. 1. Bulrush, Daffodils, Mulberries, Reeds, + Rushes, Willow. + sc. 2. Cherry, Damask Rose, Ivy, Oak. + + Act V., sc. 1. Nettles, Roses. + sc. 3. Flax. + + +_Venus and Adonis_-- + + Balm, 27. + Brambles, 629. + Cedar, 856. + Cherries, 1103. + Ebony, 948. + Lily, 228, 361, 1053. + Mulberries, 1103. + Myrtle, 865. + Plum, 527. + Primrose, 151. + Rose, 3, 10, 574, 584, 935. + Vine, 601. + Violet, 125, 936. + + +_Lucrece_-- + + Balm, 1466. + Cedar, 664. + Corn, 281. + Daisy, 393. + Grape, 215. + Lily, 71, 386, 477. + Marigold, 397. + Oak, 950. + Pine, 1167. + Reed, 1437. + Rose, 71, 257, 386, 477, 492. + Rush, 316. + Sugar, 893. + Vine, 215. + Wormwood, 893. + + +_Sonnets_-- + + Apple, 93. + Balm, 107. + Lily, 94, 98, 99. + Marigold, 25. + Marjoram, 99. + Olive, 107. + Rose, 1, 35, 54, 67, 95, 98, 99, 109, 116, 130. + Violet, 12, 99. + + +_A Lover's Complaint_-- + + Aloes, 39. + + +_The Passionate Pilgrim_-- + + Lily, 89. + Myrtle, 143. + Oak, 5. + Osier, 5, 6. + Plum, 135. + Rose, 131. + + + + +GENERAL INDEX. + + + Acaena, 44. + + Aconitum, 9. + + Acorn, 11, 180. + + Acorus calamus, 266. + + Addison, 92. + + AElfric's "Vocabulary," 126, 155, 158, 167, 199. + + Almond, 11. + + Aloes, 13. + + Anemone, 14. + + Apple, 17. + + ---- for fruit generally, 19, 208. + + Apple-john, 22. + + Apricot, 23. + + Aquilegia, 60. + + Artichoke, 88. + + Arundo donax, 240. + + Ash, 24. + + Aspen, 25. + + Avoyne, 326. + + + "Babee's Book," 33, 50, 104, 175, 198. + + Bachelor's Buttons, 27. + + Bacon on Gardens, &c., 39, 44, 98, 163, 295, 348. + + Badham's Fungi, 170. + + Baker on Narcissus, 76. + + ---- Iris, 99. + + Balm, 28. + + Balsam, 28. + + Bannotte, 314. + + Barley, 30. + + Barnacles, 30. + + Barnes' Glossary, 79. + + Baskets, 323. + + Bay, 31, 136. + + Bean, 33. + + Bedding-out, 346. + + Bedegar, 84. + + Beer, 30, 36. + + Beisley's "Shakespeare's Garden," 5, 119. + + Bilberry, 35. + + Bion, 14. + + Birch, 35. + + Bird's-eye Primrose, 232. + + Bird's-nest (Carrot), 51. + + Birdwood, Sir G., 122. + + Bitter-sweet, 21. + + Blackberry, 37, 167. + + Blackthorn, 218. + + Blights, 355. + + Bluebell, 109. + + Boehmeria, 178. + + Boorde, Andrew, 241, 304. + + Box, 38. + + Boy's Love, 326. + + Bramble, 37. + + Brasbridge, T., 125. + + Bretby Park, 53. + + Briers, 39. + + Britten, J. C, 267. + + Bromsgrove, 42. + + Broom, 41. + + Brown's "Religio Medici," 91. + + Browne's "Britannia's Pastorals," 3, 24, 32, 87, 92, 111, 163, 171, + 203, 227, 266, 270, 282, 290, 347, 369. + + Buckingham Palace, 168. + + Bullas, 218. + + Bullein, 88, 103, 122, 127, 143, 161, 316. + + Bulrush, 43. + + Burdock, 43, 110. + + Burnet, 44. + + Burns, 371. + + Burs, 43. + + Butter, 90, 217. + + Butomus umbellatus, 266. + + Buttercups, 67, 70. + + Buttons (buds), 27. + + + Cabbage, 45. + + Cabbage Rose, 250. + + Calcott, Lady, 220. + + Calluna, 117. + + Camerarius, 14, 208, 213, 311. + + Camomile, 46. + + Campbell on Nettles, 177. + + Canker, 250. + + Carat, 148. + + Cardamine pratensis, 134. + + Carduus benedictus, 124. + + Carex, 276. + + Carnations, 47. + + Carob, 147. + + Carraways, 22, 49. + + Carrot, 50. + + Cassia, 277. + + Castle Coch, 304. + + "Catholicon Anglicum," 10, 393 to 418, and quoted throughout. + + Cedar, 51. + + Chaucer's Flowers, 3, 13, 21, 37, 42, 60, 87, 98, 103, 108, 127, + 131, 136, 139, 146, 160, 161, 179, 196, 204, 215, 223, 229, + 260, 288, 365. + + Cherry, 53. + + Chester's "Love's Martyr," 160, 193, 244. + + Chestnuts, 55. + + Cistus, 16. + + Clare, 149, 371. + + Cleistogamous plants, 313. + + Clove, 48, 56. + + Clover, 56. + + Clubs (of cards), 56. + + Cockayne, "Leechdoms," &c., 10, 32, 66, 73, 90, 126, 185, 202, 215, + 267, 325, 328. + + Cockle, 57, 78. + + Codlings, 22. + + Coghan, 4, 177, 188, 286, 377. + + Colchicum, 268. + + Coles, 290, 377. + + Collins, 42. + + Collinson, 240. + + Coloquintida, 58. + + Columbyne, 59. + + Columella, 154. + + Constable, H., 74. + + Cooke, M. C., 154. + + Cork, 61. + + Corn, 62. + + Cornish Heath, 117. + + Corydalis, 100. + + Cotgrave's Dictionary, 393 to 418. + + Cotton, 153. + + Cottongrass, 147. + + Cowley, 91, 171, 272. + + Cowper, 142, 378. + + Cowslip, 64. + + Crab, 20. + + Crabwake, 20. + + Crape, 71. + + Crocus, 269. + + Crossberry, 105. + + Crow-flowers, 67. + + Crown of Thorns, 84, 113, 266. + + Crown Imperial, 68. + + Cuckoo-buds, 70. + + Cucumbers, 233. + + Culverkeys, 134. + + Currants, 70. + + Cutwode's "Caltha," 211, 368. + + Cypress, 71. + + Cypripedia, 151. + + + Daffodils, 73. + + Daisy, 77, 361. + + Damask Rose, 251. + + Damson, 216. + + Dante, 264. + + Darnel, 78. + + Darwin, 150, 231, 236, 301. + + Dates, 79. + + Daubeny, Dr., 154, 189, 262. + + Dead Men's Fingers, 80, 149. + + Dering, 49. + + Deux ans Apple, 22. + + Devil's lingels, 133. + + Dewberries, 80. + + Dian's bud, 80. + + Dianthus, 48. + + Dielytra, 100. + + Dillenius, 101. + + Divining rod, 116. + + Docks, 81. + + Doddington Park, 117. + + Dogberry, 81. + + Dog-rose, 14. + + Douce, 93, 171. + + Dove-plant, 60. + + Dowden, 2. + + Drayton, 45, 59, 65, 84, 98, 110, 134, 174, 223, 368. + + Dryden, 370. + + Dunbar, 249. + + Durham Mustard, 173. + + + Ebony, 82, 119. + + Eglantine, 82, 254. + + Elder, 84. + + Elm, 87. + + Elizabethan Gardens, 342. + + Elizabeth, Queen, 349. + + Elwes, H. J., 145. + + Eringoes, 88. + + Etna, Chestnut on, 55. + + Evelyn, 52, 116, 124, 315. + + Evershed on bay, 33. + + + Fairy rings, 170. + + Falaise, 48. + + Farsing Herbs, 275. + + Feaberry, 105. + + Fennel, 88. + + Fern, 90. + + Ferule, 89. + + Fig, 93. + + Fig Mulberry, 288. + + Fig Pudding, 239. + + Filbert, 94. + + Fir, 207. + + Flags, 94. + + Flax, 95, 97. + + Fletcher, 99, 231. + + "Flora Domestica," 12, 197, 266. + + Flower-de-luce, 97. + + Forget-me-not, 4. + + Foxglove, 4. + + Fremontia Californica, 153. + + Frizen Hill, 106. + + Fuller, Thos., 156. + + Fumitory, 100. + + Furze, 100. + + + Gale, 174. + + Gardens, 340, 342. + + Gardeners, 349. + + Garlande, John de, 167. + + Garlick, 102. + + Gay, 162. + + Gerard, 5, 393 to 418, and quoted throughout. + + Gilliflower, 48. + + Gilpin, 91. + + Ginger, 103. + + Gladstone, W. E., 16. + + Glossaries, 10, 393. + + Goethe, 195. + + Goldes, 157. + + Golding's Ovid, 15. + + Gooseberries, 105. + + Gorse, 106. + + Gourd, 106, 232. + + Gower, 21, 57, 74, 89, 114, 118, 143, 157, 223, 229, 259. + + Grafting, 353. + + Granada, Arms of, 220. + + Grapes, 299. + + Grass, 107. + + Greene, 128. + + Grindon, Leo H., 5, 17. + + Gundulph, 49. + + Gwillim, 297. + + + Hakluyt, 22, 23, 237, 269, 305. + + Hanham Hall, 186. + + Harebell, 109. + + Harlocks, 110, 121. + + Harrison, W. A., 119. + + Harrison's "England," 340. + + Harting, 30. + + Haver, 184. + + Hawes, 366. + + Hawthorn, 110. + + Hazel, 113. + + Heath, 116. + + Hebenon, 118. + + Hedges, 113, 334. + + Helmet-flower, 10. + + Hemans, Mrs., 26, 66. + + Hemlock, 121. + + Hemp, 121. + + Henbane, 119, 129. + + Herbert, G., 68, 190, 255, 314, 357, 370. + + Herb of Grace, 122, 259. + + Herodotus, 102, 250. + + Herrick's Flowers, 74, 83, 250, 258, 369. + + Herschel, Sir J., 97. + + Hibiscus, 153. + + Highclere Park, 53. + + Holderstock, 86. + + Holly, 122, 130. + + Hollyhock, 152. + + Holy Thistle, 124. + + Homer, 76, 188, 318. + + Honeystalks, 56. + + Honeysuckle, 125. + + Hooker, Sir J., 192, 319. + + Horace, 90, 94, 102, 130, 152, 204, 236, 243. + + Horse Chestnut, 55. + + Hyssop, 128. + + + Insane root, 129. + + Ivy, 129, 327. + + + Jervis, S., Dictionary, 70. + + Joan Silverpin, 222. + + Johns on Trees, 289. + + John's, St., Bread, 148. + + Johnston, 121, 133, 205, 289, 330. + + Jonquil, 73. + + Jonson, Ben, 3, 4, 11, 15, 21, 66, 77, 95, 98, 121, 152. + + Josephus, 154. + + Judas, 85. + + Juvenal, 13, 94, 138, 204. + + + Keats, 75, 132. + + Kecksies, 132. + + Kemble, F., 279. + + Kew, 92, 194. + + Kirby on Trees, 323. + + Knot-grass, 133. + + Knots, 345. + + + Lady-smocks, 134. + + Lark's heels, 135. + + Latimer, 57, 272. + + Laurel, 135. + + Laurembergius, 143, 258, 310. + + Lavaillee, 24, 178. + + Lavender, 137. + + Lawson, 46, 105, 140, 178, 342, 343, 347. + + Leathercoat, 22. + + Lebanon, Cedar of, 52. + + Leek, 138. + + Lee's "Sea Fables," 30. + + Lemon, 140. + + Lettuce, 140. + + Levens Hall, 237, 344. + + "Libaeus Diaconus," 90. + + Lily, 140. + + ---- of the Field, 145. + + ---- of the Valley, 4. + + Lily's "Euphues," 46, 128. + + Lime, 146. + + Lind, 146. + + Lindley, Dr., 53, 79, 109, 152, 204, 284. + + Ling, 116, 147. + + Linnaeus, 116, 147. + + Locusts, 147. + + Longfellow, 89, 214. + + Long Purples, 148. + + Loosestrife, 149. + + Love-in-idleness, 309. + + Lupton, 237. + + Lyte, 23, 47, 79, 91, 129, 136, 148, 159, 167, 190, 241. + + + Mace, 151. + + Mallows, 152. + + Mandeville, Sir John, 20, 31, 72, 84, 85, 113, 255, 266. + + Mandrake, 153, 226. + + Manuring, 352. + + Maple, 288. + + Marathon, 89. + + Margaret, St., 364. + + Marigold, 155. + + Marjoram, 159. + + Marlowe, 118. + + Marsh, J. F., 27, 89. + + Marvel, A., 190. + + Marybuds, 155. + + Masters, Dr., 216. + + Masts, 159. + + Maw, G., 273. + + Medlar, 160. + + Melittis melissophyllum, 29. + + Miller, 34, 191. + + Milner's "Country Pleasures," 82. + + Milton's Flowers, 65, 74, 83, 87, 109, 126, 133, 174, 197, 224, + 230, 241, 261, 295, 347, 309, 369. + + Mint, 161. + + Mistletoe, 162. + + Mohammed on Garlick, 102. + + Monk's-hood, 10. + + Montgomery, A., 143. + + More, Sir T., 257. + + Morat, 167. + + Moss, 164. + + Mulberries, 166. + + Mushrooms, 169. + + Musk Roses, 252. + + Mustard, 172. + + Myrtle, 174. + + + Names of Plants, 393. + + Narcissus, 73, 175. + + Nash, T., 195. + + Neckam, A., 12, 79. + + Neckweed, 122. + + Nettles, 175. + + ---- of India, 178. + + Newton, Thos., 78, 264, 321, 330. + + Nicholson, Dr., 119. + + Nightshades, 225. + + Nut, 114. + + Nutmeg, 179. + + + Oak, 180. + + Oats, 183. + + Oil from Walnuts, 316. + + Olive, 184. + + Onions, 187. + + Opium, 223. + + Orange, 188. + + Orchids, 149. + + Oreodaphne Californica, 32. + + Osier, 192, 320. + + Ovid, 15. + + Oxlip, 66, 192. + + + Paigle, 66. + + Palladius, 73, 140, 261, 303, 343. + + Palm, 79, 192, 321, 329. + + Pansies, 196, 309. + + Parkinson--quoted throughout. + + Parsley, 197. + + Parsnip, 50. + + Pasque flower, 17. + + Patience (Docks), 81. + + Pawnce, 196. + + Peach, 161, 198. + + Pear, 199. + + Peas, 201. + + Pensioners, 65. + + Pepper, 203. + + Pepys, 177. + + Phillips, 34, 316. + + Picotee, 48. + + Pignuts, 205. + + Pine, 205. + + Pine Apples, 208. + + Pink, 48, 209. + + Piony, 211. + + Pippins, 21. + + Planche on fleur-de-lis, 97. + + Plane, 213. + + Plantagenet, 41. + + Plantain, 214. + + Platt, Sir H., 163, 281. + + Pliny, 13, 16, 48, 72. + + Plum, 216. + + Plutarch, 12. + + Poetry of Gardening, 339. + + Poet's Narcissus, 77. + + "Poets' Pleasaunce," 109, 311. + + Polyanthus, 66. + + Pomatum, 20. + + Pomegranate, 219. + + Pomewater, 21. + + Popering Pear, 201. + + Poppy, 222. + + Potato, 224. + + Primrose, 66, 226. + + Prior, Dr., 16, 47, 60, 66, 70, 74, 81, 105, 110, 114, 133, 163, + 197, 227. + + "Promptorium Parvulorum," 10, 393 to 418, and quoted throughout. + + Provencal Rose, 250. + + Prudentius, 312. + + Prunes, 216. + + Pruning, 351. + + Pumpion, 232. + + Purple colour, 16. + + Pythagoras, 154. + + + Quarles, 264. + + Quince, 234. + + + Radish, 236. + + Ragged Robin, 67. + + Raisins, 238. + + Raspberry, 283. + + Redoute's "Liliacae," 99. + + Reeds, 239. + + "Remedie of Love," 13. + + Rest-harrow, 133. + + Rhubarb, 241. + + Rice, 242. + + Rochester Castle, 49. + + "Romaunt of the Rose," 12, 27, 139, 179, 221, 238, 343. + + Rose, 243. + + ---- of Sharon, 76. + + Rosebery, Arms, 232. + + Rosemary, 256. + + Ross, Alex., 16. + + Rousseau, 374. + + Roxburghe Ballads, 41, 62. + + Ruddes, 156. + + Rue, 259. + + Rush, 262. + + Ruskin, 109, 165, 166, 186, 206, 223, 292. + + Rye, 267. + + + Saffron, 268. + + Sales, St. Francis de, 98, 158, 284, 311, 326. + + Samphire, 274. + + Savory, 275. + + Saxo Grammaticus, 119. + + Schmidt, 70, 210. + + "Schola Salernae," 261. + + "Schoole-House of Women," 26. + + Scotch Fir, 207. + + ---- Thistle, 291. + + Scott, Sir W., 207, 309. + + Sea Holly, 88, 267. + + Sedge, 276. + + Senna, 277. + + Shakespeare, Books on the flowers of, 5. + + ---- Books on his occupations, 1. + + ---- Seasons of, 381. + + Shamrock, 56. + + Shelley, 75. + + Shenstone, 259. + + Sibthorp, "Flora Graeca," 154. + + Skelton, 60. + + Sleepwort, 140. + + Sloes, 218. + + Smith, on Ferns, 92. + + Snowdrops, 4. + + Sops-in-wine, 48. + + Speargrass, 277. + + Spenser's Flowers, 3, 12, 15, 32, 38, 47, 58, 60, 81, 83, 86, 87, + 98, 106, 112, 118, 128, 131, 136, 140, 143, 157, 167, 197, 223, + 228, 230, 264, 270, 280, 282, 348, 366. + + Spinsters, 96. + + Squash, 202. + + Stockholm MS., 100, 261, 325. + + Stover, 279. + + Strawberries, 279. + + Sugar, 284. + + Sweet Brier, 83, 254. + + Sweet Marjoram, 159. + + Sycamore, 287. + + + Tannahill, 67. + + "Tatler," 92. + + Tares, 299. + + Tarragon, 326. + + Tennyson, 149, 191, 194, 207, 373. + + Thaun's "Bestiary," 154. + + Theocritus, 14, 90, 94, 126, 130. + + Thistle, 124, 289. + + Thorns, 292. + + Thyme, 294. + + Thynne's "Emblems," 157. + + Toadstools, 170. + + Tobacco, 4. + + Topiary art, 39, 344, 352. + + Tortworth Park, 55. + + Treacle, 103. + + Turner's "Herbal," 4, 13, 23, 35, 105, 194, 195, 198, 202, 213. + + Turnips, 297. + + Tusser, 228, 232, 279, 281, 290, 325. + + Tyndale, 41. + + + Vaughan, H., 33, 312. + + Vegetable Marrow, 233. + + Vetches, 298. + + Vines, 87, 299. + + Vineyards, English, 301. + + Violets, 307. + + Virgil, 10, 189. + + Vocabularies, 10. + + + Wallace, 101. + + Waller, 225. + + Walnut, 314. + + Walton, Izaak, 134, 137, 143, 280. + + Warden Pears, 200. + + Warwick Castle, 53. + + Waterton, 37. + + Watson, Forbes, 66, 77, 229, 273, 346. + + Waybred, 214. + + Weeds, 354. + + Westminster Hall, 55. + + Wheat, 317. + + White Thorn, 112. + + Wickliffe, 41. + + Wilkinson, Lady, 60, 73, 97, 292. + + Willow, 319. + + Wilson, G. F., 145. + + Windflower, 16. + + Wines, English, 303. + + Winter Aconite, 10. + + Wistman's Wood, 183. + + Withers, G., 158. + + Withy, 320. + + Wolf's-bane, 10. + + Woodbine, 126. + + Woodbury, 195. + + Wordsworth, 75, 206, 372. + + Wormwood, 81, 324. + + Wright's "Vocabularies," 10. + + ---- "Domestic Manners," 96, 218. + + Wyatt's Poems, 3. + + Wych Elm, 88. + + + Yew, 119, 327. + + Yggdrasil, 24. + + York and Lancaster Rose, 253. + + +UNWIN BROTHERS, THE GRESHAM PRESS, CHILWORTH AND LONDON. + + + + +SOLD BY SIMPKIN, MARSHALL & Co. + + +_Crown 8vo. Price: paper cover, 1s.: cloth, 2s._ + +=ON THE ART OF GARDENING:= A Plea for English Gardens of the Future, +with Practical Hints for Planting Them. By Mrs. J. FRANCIS FOSTER. + +Press Notices. + +"In this pleasant and original little book the authoress not only enters +a vigorous protest against the bedding-out system and the so-called +'natural' style of gardening, but gives very good practical advice for +gardens of a different sort."--_Gardener's Chronicle._ + +"This little book proceeds from a true lover of flowers and +will be welcome to all who take an interest in their care and +culture."--_Civilian._ + +"A pleasant and unpretending little volume."--_Saturday Review._ + +"The charm consists in its author's evident love of her subject. Like a +true lover she has gone far and wide in her search for old plants and +old plant lore. We agree with Mrs. Foster that the most perfect +herbaceous border is one that has an old wall behind it. 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Price 4s. 6d._ + +=LIFE'S PATHWAY.= By THOMAS LEECH, Constable in the Metropolitan Police. + +"A man of much literary ability and considerable poetical +fancy."--_Notes and Queries._ + + +_Imp. 16mo, elegant cover. Price 3s._ + +=ROUND A POSADA FIRE.= By Mrs. S. G. C. MIDDLEMORE. With 21 Illustrations +by Miss E. D. Hale. + + +_Imp. 16mo, elegant cover, gilt. Price 3s._ + +=TUSCAN FAIRY TALES.= Taken down from the Mouths of the People. By +VERNON LEE. + + +_Crown 8vo, cloth. Price 8s._ + +=BELCARO:= Essays on AEsthetics. By VERNON LEE. + + +_Royal 8vo, cloth. Price 14s._ + +=STUDIES OF THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY IN ITALY.= By VERNON LEE. + + + + +TRANSCRIBER'S NOTES: + + +Ellipses in the text match the original. Ellipses in the poetry +quotations are represented by a row of asterisks. + +The following words use an oe ligature in the original: + + Cloefre foetid Phoebe + coelo foetidissima Phoebus + coeloque foetu Phoenix + coerule foetus proestaret + coerulea noep proeter + Foeniculum Pharmacopoeia soepius + foenum pharmacopoeia + +The index entry "Butter" may have been intended to read "Butler". + +The following corrections have been made to the text: + + Page 37: _1st Henry[original has Henrv] IV_, act ii, sc. 4 + (263). + + Page 40: _Winter's Tale_, act[original has extraneous period] + iv, sc. 4 (436). + + Page 43: _Troilus[original has Triolus] and Cressida_ + + Page 60: garter coat of William Grey of Vitten"[quotation mark + missing in original] + + Page 76: "Rose of Sharon"[quotation mark missing in original] + was the large + + Page 86: to whom the Elder tree was considered + sacred."[quotation mark missing in original] + + Page 104: but[original has bnt] probably by the Romans + + Page 105: _2nd Henry IV_, act i,[original has period] sc. 2 + (194). + + Page 114: _Troilus[original has Trolius] and Cressida_, act + ii, sc. 1 (109). + + Page 163: Rots-curing hyphear, and the Mistletoe."[quotation + mark missing in original] + + Page 199: A.D. 1275, 4 Edw: 1--[original has extraneous + quotation mark] + + Page 205: quite equal to Chestnuts.[period missing in + original] + + Page 230: but in [original has extraneous word an] another + place + + Page 244: (22) _Theseus._[original has Thesus] + + Page 245: _All's Well that Ends Well_, act i[original has 1], + sc. 3 (135). + + Page 266: in connection with Rushes which is[original has it] + not easy to understand + + Page 282: ("Household Words," vol. xviii.).[closing + parenthesis and period missing in original] + + Page 282: as it proves so, praise it.[original has extraneous + single quote]" + + Page 286: (11) _Polonius._[original has Polonis] + + Page 292: its shadow be past away.[original has hyphen] + + Page 292: the bee well knows that the darkness[original has + period at the end of the line after "dark" and "ness" + beginning the next line] + + Page 294: (3)[number 3 and parentheses missing in original] + And sweet Time true. + + Page 295: "Peletyr, herbe, _serpillum piretrum_"[quotation + mark missing in original] + + Page 311: into 'low lie down,'[original has double quote] + + Page 339: _Sonnet_[original has _Ibid._] xviii. + + Page 383: flower-[hyphen missing in original]de-luce + + Page 414: (a Seyfe, _juncus_, _biblus_, _cirpus_)[closing + parenthesis missing in original] + + Page 424: Flower-de-luce[original has duce] + + Page 431: Aconitum, 9.[original has 10] + + Page 431: Bacon on Gardens, &c., 39[original has 38] + + Page 431: Boehmeria[original has Boehmeria] + + Page 431: Bretby Park, 53[original has 52] + + Page 432: Cassia, 277[original has 177] + + Page 432: Cedar, 51[original has 50] + + Page 432: under "Chaucer's Flowers", 179[original has 171] + + Page 432: Cockayne, "Leechdoms," &c., 10[original has 9]--reference + to page 175 removed + + Page 432: Cowley, 91, 171, 272[original has 271]. + + Page 432: Crow-flowers, 67.[original has 61] + + Page 433: Dowden, 3[original has 2] + + Page 433: Durham Mustard, 173[original has 175] + + Page 433: Ebony, 82[original has 61] + + Page 433: Farsing Herbs, 275[original has 216] + + Page 433: Fig Mulberry, 288[original has 228] + + Page 433: Flower-de-luce, 97[original has 94] + + Page 433: Gerard, 5, 393[original has 394] to 418 + + Page 433: Glossaries, 10, 393[original has 394] + + Page 434: Grindon, Leo H., 5[original has 6], 17 + + Page 434: Hemans, Mrs., 26[original has 24], 66. + + Page 434: Hemlock, 121[original has 131] + + Page 434: Herbert, G., 68, 190, 255[original has 225], 314, + 357, 370. + + Page 434: Horace, 90, 94, 102, 130, 152, 204, 236, 243[original + has 242]. + + Page 435: More[original has Moore], Sir T., 257 + + Page 435: Neckam[original has Neekham], A., 12, 79. + + Page 435: Onions, 187[original has 77, 186] + + Page 435: Oxlip, 66, 192[original has 191] + + Page 436: Planche[original has Planche] on fleur-de-lis, 97. + + Page 436: Rice, 242[original has 243]. + + Page 436: "Romaunt of the Rose," 12, 27, 139, 179, 221, 238, + 343[original has 243]. + + Page 436: Rose, 243[original has 242]. + + Page 436: Rousseau, 374[original has 373]. + + Page 436: Ruskin, 109, 165[original has 164], 166, 186, 206, + 223, 292. + + Page 437: Watson, Forbes, 66[original has 65], 77, 229, 273, + 346. + + Page 437: Wright's "Vocabularies," 10[original has 9]. + + Footnote [13:1] Numbers xxiv. 6;[original has colon] + + Footnote [169:1] the punning motto "[original has single + quote]Memento Mori." + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The plant-lore & garden-craft of +Shakespeare, by Henry Nicholson Ellacombe + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK PLANT-LORE OF SHAKESPEARE *** + +***** This file should be named 28407.txt or 28407.zip ***** +This and all associated 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