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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[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—
Arbuteos fœtus montanaque fraga legebant."—Metam., i, 105.
[282:1] "Quæ 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]
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 lipsParted 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—
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 Ælfric's Vocabulary in the tenth century it is given to the Aspen—"Sicomorus vel celsa æps." Chaucer gives the name to some hedge shrub, but he probably used it for any thick shrub, without any very special distinction—
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
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