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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[366:1] This is the general interpretation, but "decking prime" may mean the ornament of spring.
[370:1] This statement has been objected to, but I retain it, because in speaking of a meadow, I mean what is called a meadow in the south of England, a lowland, and often irrigated, pasture. In such a meadow Daisies have no place. In the North the word is more loosely used for any pasture, but in the South the distinction is so closely drawn that hay dealers make a great difference in their prices for "upland" or "meadow hay."
[372:1] "Modern Painters," vol. ii. p. 186.
[374:1] In the "Cornhill Magazine" for January, 1878, is a pleasant paper on "Dissecting a Daisy," treating a little of the Daisy, but still more of the pleasures that a Daisy gives to different people, and the different reasons for the different sorts of pleasure. See also on the same subject the "Cornhill" for June, 1882.
[377:1] Boulger in "Nature," Aug., 1878. The insects are given in Herman Muller's "Befructting der Blumen."
[377:2] "Haven of Health," 1596, p. 83.
APPENDIX II. THE SEASONS OF SHAKESPEARE'S PLAYS. Biron. I like of each thing that in season grows. Love's Labour's Lost, act i, sc. 1.This paper was read to the New Shakespeare Society in June, 1880, and to the Bath Literary Club in the following November. The subject is so closely connected with the "Plant-lore of Shakespeare," that I add it as an Appendix.
IN this paper I do not propose to make any exhaustive inquiry into the seasons of Shakespeare's plays, but (at Mr. Furnivall's suggestion) I have tried to find out whether in any case the season that was in the poet's mind can be discovered by the flowers or fruits, or whether, where the season is otherwise indicated, the flowers and fruits are in accordance. In other words, my inquiry is simply confined to the argument, if any, that may be derived from the flowers and fruits, leaving out of the question all other indications of the seasons.
The first part of the inquiry is, what plants or flowers are mentioned in each play? They are as follows:—
COMEDIES.Tempest. Apple, crab, wheat, rye, barley, vetches, oats, peas, briar, furze, gorse, thorns, broom, cedar, corn, cowslip, nettle, docks, mallow, filbert, heath, ling, grass, nut, ivy, lily, piony, lime, mushrooms, oak, acorn, pignuts, pine, reed, saffron, sedges, stover, vine.
Two Gentlemen of Verona. Lily, roses, sedges.
Merry Wives. Pippins, buttons (?), balm, bilberry, cabbage, carrot, elder, eringoes, figs, flax, hawthorn, oak, pear, plums, prunes, potatoes, pumpion, roses, turnips, walnut.
Twelfth Night. Apple, box, ebony, flax, nettle, olive, squash, peascod, codling, roses, violet, willow, yew.
Measure for Measure. Birch, burs, corn, garlick, medlar, oak, myrtle, peach, prunes, grapes, vine, violet.
Much Ado. Carduus benedictus, honeysuckle, woodbine, oak, orange, rose, sedges, willow.
Midsummer Night's Dream. Crab, apricots, beans, briar, red rose, broom, bur, cherry, corn, cowslip, dewberries, oxlip, violet, woodbine, eglantine, elm, ivy, figs, mulberries, garlick, onions, grass, hawthorn, nuts, hemp, honeysuckle, knot-grass, leek, lily, peas, peas-blossom, oak, acorn, oats, orange, love-in-idleness, primrose, musk-rose buds, musk-roses, rose, thistle, thorns, thyme, grapes, violet, wheat.
Love's Labour's Lost. Apple, pomewater, crab, cedar, lemon, cockle, mint, columbine, corn, daisies, lady-smocks, cuckoo-buds, ebony, elder, grass, lily, nutmeg, oak, osier, oats, peas, plantain, rose, sycamore, thorns, violets, wormwood.
Merchant of Venice. Apple, grass, pines, reed, wheat, willow.
As You Like It. Acorns, hawthorn, brambles, briar, bur, chestnut, cork, nuts, holly, medlar, moss, mustard, oak, olive, palm, peascod, rose, rush, rye, sugar, grape, osier.
All's Well. Briar, date, grass, nut, marjoram, herb of grace, onions, pear, pomegranate, roses, rush, saffron, grapes.
Taming of Shrew. Apple, crab, chestnut, cypress, hazel, oats, onion, love-in-idleness, mustard, parsley, roses, rush, sedges, walnut.
Winter's Tale. Briars, carnations, gillyflower, cork, oxlips, crown imperial, currants, daffodils, dates, saffron, flax, lilies, flower-de-luce, garlick, ivy, lavender, mints, savory, marjoram, marigold, nettle, oak, warden, squash, pines, prunes, primrose, damask-roses, rice, raisins, rosemary, rue, thorns, violets.
Comedy of Errors. Balsam, ivy, briar, moss, rush, nut, cherrystone, elm, vine, grass, saffron.
HISTORIES.King John. Plum, cherry, fig, lily, rose, violet, rush, thorns.
Richard II. Apricots, balm, bay, corn, grass, nettles, pines, rose, rue, thorns, violets, yew.
1st Henry IV. Apple-john, pease, beans, blackberries, camomile, fernseed, garlick, ginger, moss, nettle, oats, prunes, pomegranate, radish, raisins, reeds, rose, rush, sedges, speargrass, thorns.
2nd Henry IV. Aconite, apple-john, leathercoats, aspen, balm, carraways, corn, ebony, elm, fennel, fig, gooseberries, hemp, honeysuckle, mandrake, olive, peach, peascod, pippins, prunes, radish, rose, rush, wheat.
Henry V. Apple, balm, docks, elder, fig, flower-de-luce, grass, hemp, leek, nettle, fumitory, kecksies, burs, cowslips, burnet, clover, darnel, strawberry, thistles, vine, violet, hemlock.
1st Henry VI. Briar, white and red rose, corn, flower-de-luce, vine.
2nd Henry VI. Crab, cedar, corn, cypress, fig, flax, flower-de-luce, grass, hemp, laurel, mandrake, pine, plums, damsons, primrose, thorns.
3d Henry VI. Balm, cedar, corn, hawthorn, oaks, olive, laurel, thorns.
Richard III. Balm, cedar, roses, strawberry, vines.
Henry VIII. Apple, crab, bays, palms, broom, cherry, cedar, corn, lily, vine.
TRAGEDIES.Troilus and Cressida. Almond, balm, blackberry, burs, date, nut, laurels, lily, toadstool, nettle, oak, pine, plantain, potato, wheat.
Timon of Athens. Balm, balsam, oaks, briars, grass, medlar, moss, olive, palm, rose, grape.
Coriolanus. Crab, ash, briars, cedar, cockle, corn, cypress, garlick, mulberry, nettle, oak, orange, palm, rush, grape.
Macbeth. Balm, chestnut, corn, hemlock, insane root, lily, primrose, rhubarb, senna (cyme), yew.
Julius Cæsar. Oak, palm.
Antony and Cleopatra. Balm, figs, flag, laurel, mandragora, myrtle, olive, onions, pine, reeds, rose, rue, rush, grapes, wheat, vine.
Cymbeline. Cedar, violet, cowslip, primrose, daisies, harebell, eglantine, elder, lily, marybuds, moss, oak, acorn, pine, reed, rushes, vine.
Titus Andronicus. Aspen, briars, cedar, honeystalks, corn, elder, grass, laurel, lily, moss, mistletoe, nettles, yew.
Pericles. Rosemary, bay, roses, cherry, corn, violets, marigolds, rose, thorns.
Romeo and Juliet. Bitter-sweeting, dates, hazel, mandrake, medlar, nuts, popering pear, pink, plantain, pomegranate, quince, roses, rosemary, rush, sycamore, thorn, willow, wormwood, yew.
King Lear. Apple, balm, burdock, cork, corn, crab, fumiter, hemlock, harlock, nettles, cuckoo-flowers, darnel, flax, hawthorn, lily, marjoram, oak, oats, peascod, rosemary, vines, wheat, samphire.
Hamlet. Fennel, columbine, crow-flower, nettles, daisies, long purples or dead-men's-fingers, flax, grass, hebenon, nut, palm, pansies, plum-tree, primrose, rose, rosemary, rue, herb of grace, thorns, violets, wheat, willow, wormwood.
Othello. Locusts, coloquintida, figs, nettles, lettuce, hyssop, thyme, poppy, mandragora, oak, rose, rue, rush, strawberries, sycamore, grapes, willow.
Two Noble Kinsmen. Apricot, bulrush, cedar, plane, cherry, corn, currant, daffodils, daisies, flax, lark's heels, marigolds, narcissus, nettles, oak, oxlips, plantain, reed, primrose, rose, thyme, rush.
This I believe to be a complete list of the flowers of Shakespeare arranged according to the plays, and they are mentioned in one of three ways—first, adjectively, as "flaxen was his pole," "hawthorn-brake," "barley-broth," "thou honeysuckle villain," "onion-eyed," "cowslip-cheeks," but the instances of this use by Shakespeare are not many; second, proverbially or comparatively, as "tremble like aspen," "we grew together like to a double cherry seeming parted," "the stinking elder, grief," "thou art an elm, my husband, I a vine," "not worth a gooseberry." There are numberless instances of this use of the names of flowers, fruits, and trees, but neither of these uses give any indication of the seasons; and in one or other of these ways they are used (and only in these ways) in the following plays:—Tempest, Two Gentlemen of Verona, Measure for Measure, Merchant of Venice, As You Like It, Taming of the Shrew, Comedy of Errors, Macbeth, King John, 1st Henry IV., 2nd Henry VI., 3rd Henry VI., Henry VIII., Troilus and Cressida, Coriolanus, Julius Cæsar, Pericles, Othello. These therefore may be dismissed at once. There remain the following plays in which indications of the seasons intended either in the whole play or in the particular act may be traced. In some cases the traces are exceedingly slight (almost none at all); in others they are so strongly marked that there is little doubt that Shakespeare used them of set purpose and carefully:—Merry Wives, Twelfth Night, Much Ado, Midsummer Night's Dream, Love's Labour's Lost, As You Like It, All's Well, Winter's Tale, Richard II., 1st Henry IV., Henry V., 2nd Henry VI., Richard III., Timon of Athens, Antony and Cleopatra, Cymbeline, Titus Andronicus, Romeo and Juliet, King Lear, Hamlet, and Two Noble Kinsmen.
Merry Wives. Herne's oak gives the season intended—
Sometime a keeper here in Windsor forest,
Doth all the winter time at still midnight
Walk round about an oak with ragged horns."
If Shakespeare really meant to place the scene in mid-winter, there may be a fitness in Mrs. Quickly's looking forward to "a posset at night, at the latter end of a sea-coal fire," for it was a "raw rheumatick day" (act iii, sc. 1), in Pistol's—
in Ford's "birding" and "hawking," and in the concluding words—
And laugh this sport o'er by a country fire" (act v, sc. 5);
but it is not in accordance with the literature of the day to have fairies dancing at midnight in the depth of winter.
Twelfth Night. We know that the whole of this play occupies but a few days, and is chiefly "matter for a May morning." This gives emphasis to Olivia's oath, "By the roses of the Spring . . . I love thee so" (act ii, sc. 4).
Much Ado. The season must be summer. There is the sitting out of doors in the "still evening, hushed on purpose to grace harmony;" and it is the time of year for the full leafage when Beatrice might
Where honeysuckles, ripen'd by the sun,
Forbid the sun to enter" (act iii, sc. 1).
Midsummer Night's Dream. The name marks the season, and there is a profusion of flowers to mark it too. It may seem strange to us to have "Apricocks" at the end of June, but in speaking of the seasons of Shakespeare and others it should be remembered that their days were twelve days later than ours of the same names; and if to this is added the variation of a fortnight or three weeks, which may occur in any season in the ripening of a fruit, "apricocks" might well be sometimes gathered on their Midsummer day. But I do not think even this elasticity will allow for the ripening of mulberries and purple grapes at that time, and scarcely of figs. The scene, however, being laid in Athens and in fairyland, must not be too minutely criticized in this respect. But with the English plants the time is more accurately observed. There is the "green corn;" the "dewberries," which in a forward season may be gathered early in July; the "lush woodbine" in the fulness of its lushness at that time; the pansies, or "love-in-idleness," which (says Gerard) "flower not onely in the spring, but for the most part all sommer thorowe, even untill autumne;" the "sweet musk-roses and the eglantine," also in flower then, though the musk-roses, being rather late bloomers, would show more of the "musk-rose buds" in which Titania bid the elves "kill cankers" than of the full-blown flower; while the thistle would be exactly in the state for "Mounsieur Cobweb" to "kill a good red-hipped humble bee on the top of it" to "bring the honey-bag" to Bottom. Besides these there are the flowers on the "bank where the wild thyme blows; where oxlips and the nodding violet grows," and I think the distinction worth noting between
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