The plant-lore & garden-craft of Shakespear by Henry Nicholson Ellacombe (top romance novels .TXT) 📕
[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
Read free book «The plant-lore & garden-craft of Shakespear by Henry Nicholson Ellacombe (top romance novels .TXT) 📕» - read online or download for free at americanlibrarybooks.com
- Author: Henry Nicholson Ellacombe
- Performer: -
Read book online «The plant-lore & garden-craft of Shakespear by Henry Nicholson Ellacombe (top romance novels .TXT) 📕». Author - Henry Nicholson Ellacombe
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—"Magnâ curâ 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]
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—
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—
θαυμαστὸν γανόωντα; σέβας δέ τε πᾶσιν ἰδέσθαι
ἀθανάτοις τε θεοῖς ἠδὲ θνητοῖς ἀνθρώποις;
τοῦ καὶ ἀπὸ ῥίζης ἑκατὸν κάρα ἐξεπεφύκει;
κηώδει τ' ὀδμῆ πᾶς τ' οὐρανὸς εὐρὺς ὕπερθεν,
γαῖά τε πᾶσ' ἐγέλασσε, καὶ ἁλμυρὸν οἶδμα θαλάσσης."
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 usFind 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 growIn 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—
Infelix lolium et steriles dominantur avenæ."
Thus translated by Thomas Newton, 1587—
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 (Phœnix 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, δακτυλοι 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 cæsius) 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)—
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.
Comments (0)