The plant-lore & garden-craft of Shakespear by Henry Nicholson Ellacombe (top romance novels .TXT) ๐
[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
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Everi man shulde be seke,
And though they die, they settle not a Leke."
And by Chaucerโ
Prologue of the Chanoune's Tale.
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 ฮแฟถฮปฯ , in "Anonymi Carmen de Herbis" in the "Poetรฆ 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.
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 honourโthe 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 asโ
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)โ
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 Liliesโ
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 Littรฉraire 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:โ"Le lis blanc, surnommรฉ la fleur des fleurs, les dรฉlices de Venus, la Rose de Junon, qu'Anguillara dรฉsigna sous le nom d'Ambrosia, probablement ร cause de son parfum suivant, et pent รชtre aussi de sa soidisante divine origine, se place tout naturellement ร le tรชte de ce groupe splendide." "C'est le Lis classique, par excellence, et en mรชme 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
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