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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[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 leasOf 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 SquashโDramatis personรฆ 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 Turnerโ
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 Jonsonโ
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 quotedโ
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. 10โ"ne codd, ne hlaf, ne feo on heora gyrdlumโ'not a bag, not a loaf, not (fee) money in their girdles.'"โCockayne, 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."โLindley. 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 linesโ
Et piper, et quidquid chartis amicitur ineptis."
Epistolรฆ 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 Chaucerโ
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"โa 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 Italyโ
On the steep's lofty vergeโhow 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."โStones 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
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