The plant-lore & garden-craft of Shakespear by Henry Nicholson Ellacombe (top 20 books to read txt) 📖
- Author: Henry Nicholson Ellacombe
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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 quæ defuncta est. Nam in puellarum funeribus hæc fere fieri solent" ("Horticulturæ," cap. vj.).
Its use at weddings is pleasantly told in the old ballad of "The Bride's Good-morrow"—
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 "Pharmacopœia." "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—
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—
Conf. Aman., lib. sept.
a spelling which Shenstone adopted—
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 placeI'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.
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—
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—
Auxilio rutæ, 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—
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]
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) Phœbe. 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,
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