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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Love's Labour's Lost. The general tone of the play points to the full summer, the very time when we should expect to find Boyet thinking "to close his eyes some half an hour under the cool shade of a sycamore" (act v, sc. 2).
All's Well that Ends Well. There is a pleasant note of the season in—
When briars will have leaves as well as thorns,
And be as sweet as sharp" (act iv, sc. 4);
but probably that is only a proverbial expression of hopefulness, and cannot be pushed further.
Winter's Tale. There seems some little confusion in the season of the fourth act—the feast for the sheep-shearing, which is in the very beginning of summer—yet Perdita dates the season as "the year growing ancient"—
Of trembling winter"—
and gives Camillo the "flowers of middle summer." The flowers named are all summer flowers; carnations or gilliflowers, lavender, mints, savory, marjoram, and marigold.
Richard II. There are several marked and well-known dates in this play, but they are not much marked by the flowers. The intended combat was on St. Lambert's day (17th Sept.), but there is no allusion to autumn flowers. In act iii, sc. 3, which we know must be placed in August, there is, besides the mention of the summer dust, King Richard's sad strain—
and in the same act we have the gardener's orders to trim the rank summer growth of the "dangling apricocks," while in the last act, which must be some months later, we have the Duke of York speaking of "this new spring of time," and the Duchess asking—
That strew the green lap of the new-come spring?"
and though in both cases the words may be used proverbially, yet it seems also probable that they may have been suggested by the time of year.
2nd Henry IV. There is one flower-note in act ii, sc. 4, where the Hostess says to Falstaff, "Fare thee well! I have known thee these twenty-five years come peascod time," of which it can only be said that it must have been spoken at some other time than the summer.
Henry V. The exact season of act v, sc. 1, is fixed by St. David's day (March 1) and the leek.
1st Henry VI. The scene in the Temple gardens (act ii, sc. 4), where all turned on the colour of the roses, must have been at the season when the roses were in full bloom, say June.
Richard III. Here too the season of act ii, sc. 4, is fixed by the ripe strawberries brought by the Bishop of Ely to Richard. The exact date is known to be June 13, 1483.
Timon of Athens. An approximate season for act iv, sc. 3, might be guessed from the medlar offered by Apemantus to Timon. Our medlars are ripe in November.
Antony and Cleopatra. The figs and fig-leaves brought to Cleopatra give a slight indication of the season of act v.[388:1]
Cymbeline. Here there is a more distinct plant-note of the season of act i, sc. 3. The queen and her ladies, "whiles yet the dew's on ground, gather flowers," which at the end of the scene we are told are violets, cowslips, and primroses, the flowers of the spring. In the fourth act Lucius gives orders to "find out the prettiest daisied plot we can," to make a grave for Cloten; but daisies are too long in flower to let us attempt to fix a date by them.
Hamlet. In this play the season intended is very distinctly marked by the flowers. The first act must certainly be some time in the winter, though it may be the end of winter or early spring—"The air bites shrewdly, it is very cold." Then comes an interval of two months or more, and Ophelia's madness must be placed in the early summer, i.e., in the end of May or the beginning of June; no other time will all the flowers mentioned fit, but for that time they are exact. The violets were "all withered;" but she could pick fennel and columbines, daisies and pansies in abundance, while the evergreen rosemary and rue ("which we may call Herb of Grace on Sundays") would be always ready. It was the time of year when trees were in their full leafage, and so the "willow growing aslant the brook would show its hoar leaves in the glassy stream," while its "slivers," would help her in making "fantastic garlands" "of crow-flowers, nettles, daisies, and long purples," or "dead men's fingers," all of which she would then be able to pick in abundance in the meadows, but which in a few weeks would be all gone. Perhaps the time of year may have suggested to Laertes that pretty but sad address to his sister,
Dear maid, kind sister, sweet Ophelia!"
Titus Andronicus. There is a plant-note in act ii, sc. 2—
O'ercome with moss and baleful mistletoe."
Romeo and Juliet. A slight plant-note of the season may be detected in the nightly singing of the nightingale in the pomegranate tree in the third act.
King Lear. The plants named point to one season only, the spring. At no other time could the poor mad king have gone singing aloud,
With harlock, hemlocks, nettles, cuckoo-flowers,
And darnel."
I think this would also be the time for gathering the fresh shoots of the samphire; but I do not know this for certain.[389:1]
Two Noble Kinsmen. Here the season is distinctly stated for us by the poet. The scene is laid in May, and the flowers named are all in accordance—daffodils, daisies, marigolds, oxlips, primrose, roses, and thyme.
I cannot claim any great literary results from this inquiry into the seasons of Shakespeare as indicated by the flowers named; on the contrary, I must confess that the results are exceedingly small—I might almost say, none at all—still I do not regret the time and trouble that the inquiry has demanded of me. In every literary inquiry the value of the research is not to be measured by the visible results. It is something even to find out that there are no results, and so save trouble to future inquirers. But in this case the research has not been altogether in vain. Every addition, however small, to the critical study of our great Poet has its value; and to myself, as a student of the Natural History of Shakespeare, the inquiry has been a very pleasant one, because it has confirmed my previous opinion, that even in such common matters as the names of the most familiar every-day plants he does not write in a careless hap-hazard way, naming just the plant that comes uppermost in his thoughts, but that they are all named in the most careful and correct manner, exactly fitting into the scenes in which they are placed, and so giving to each passage a brightness and a reality which would be entirely wanting if the plants were set down in the ignorance of guess-work. Shakespeare knew the plants well; and though his knowledge is never paraded, by its very thoroughness it cannot be hid.
FOOTNOTES:[386:1] If "the rite of May" (act iv, sc. 1) is to be strictly limited to May-Day, the title of a "Midsummer Night's Dream" does not apply. The difficulty can only be met by supposing the scene to be laid at any night in May, even in the last night, which would coincide with our 12th of June.
[388:1] "The Alexandrine figs are of the black kind having a white rift or Chanifre, and are surnamed Delicate. . . . Certain figs there be, which are both early and also lateward; . . . . they are ripe first in harvest, and afterwards in time of vintage; . . . . also some there be which beare thrice a year" (Pliny, Nat. Hist. b. xv., c. 18, P. Holland's translation, 1601).
[389:1] The objection to fixing the date of the play in spring is that Cordelia bids search to be made for Lear "in every acre of the high-grown field." If this can only refer to a field of corn at its full growth, there is a confusion of seasons. But if the larger meaning is given to "field," which it bears in "flowers of the field," "beasts of the field," the confusion is avoided. The words would then refer to the wild overgrowth of an open country.
APPENDIX III. NAMES OF PLANTS. Juliet. What's in a name? That which we call a RoseBy any other name would smell as sweet. Romeo and Juliet, act ii, sc. 2.
FINDING that many are interested in the old names of the plants named by Shakespeare, I give in this appendix the names of the plants, showing at one view how they were written and explained by different writers in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. The list might have been very largely increased, especially by giving the forms used at an earlier date, but my object is to show the forms of the names in which they were (or might have been) familiar to Shakespeare. The authors quoted are these:
1440. "Promptorium Parvulorum." 1483. "Catholicon Anglicum." 1548. Turner's "Names of Herbes," and "Herbal," 1568. 1597. Gerard's "Herbal." 1611. Cotgrave's "Dictionarie."[393:1] Aconitum.Turner. Aconitum.
Gerard. Of Wolfes-banes and Monkeshoods.
Cotgrave. Aconit; Aconitum, A most venemous hearbe, of two principall kindes; viz., Libbard's-bane, and Wolfe-bane.
Acorn.Promptorium. Accorne, or archarde, frute of the oke; Glans.
Catholicon. An Acorne; hæc glans dis, hec glandicula.
Cotgrave. Gland; An Acorne; Mast of Oakes or other trees.
Almond.Promptorium. Almaund, frute; Amigdalum.
Catholicon. An Almond tre; amigdalus.
Turner. The Almon tree.
Gerard. The Almond tree.
Cotgrave. Amygdales; Almonds.
Aloes.Turner. Aloe.
Gerard. Of Herbe Aloe, or Sea Houseleeke.
Cotgrave. Aloës; The hearbe Aloes, Sea Houseleeke, Sea aigreen.
Apple.Promptorium. Appule, frute; Pomum, malum.
Catholicon. An Appylle; pomum, malum, pomulum.
Turner. Apple tree.
Gerard. The Apple tree.
Cotgrave. Pomme; An Apple.
Apricots.Turner. Abricok.
Gerard. The Aprecocke or Abrecocke tree.
Cotgrave. Abricot; The Abricot, or Apricocke Plum.
Ash.Promptorium. Asche tre; Fraxinus.
Turner. Ashe tree.
Gerard. The Ash tree.
Cotgrave. Fraisne; An Ash tree.
Aspen.Promptorium. Aspe tre; Tremulus.
Turner. Asp tree.
Gerard. The Aspen tree.
Cotgrave. Tremble; An Aspe or Aspen tree.
Balm and Balsam.Promptorium. Bawme, herbe or tre; Balsamus, melissa, melago.
Catholicon. Balme; balsamum, colo balsamum, filo balsamum, opobalsamum.
Turner. Baume.
Gerard. Balme or Balsam tree.
Cotgrave. Basme; Balme, balsamum, or more properly the balsamum tree, from which distils our Balme.
Barley.Promptorium. Barlycorne; Ordeum, triticum.
Catholicon. Barly; Ordeum, ordeolum.
Turner. Barley.
Gerard. Of Barley.
Cotgrave. Orge; Barlie.
Barnacle.Catholicon. A Barnakylle; avis est.
Gerard. Of the Goose tree, Barnacle tree, or the tree bearing geese.
Cotgrave. Bernaque; The foule called a Barnacle.
Bay.Promptorium. Bay, frute; Bacca.
Catholicon. A Bay; bacca, est fructus lauri et olive.
Turner. Bay tree.
Gerard. Of the Bay or Laurel tree.
Cotgrave. Laurier; A Laurell or Bay tree.
Beans.Promptorium. Bene corne; Faba.
Catholicon. A Bene; faba, fabella.
Turner. Beane.
Gerard. Beane and his kinds.
Cotgrave. Febue; A Beane.
Bilberry.Catholicon. A Blabery.
Cotgrave. Hurelles; Whoortle berries, wyn-berries, Bill-berries, Bull-berries.
Birch.Promptorium. Byrche tre; Lentiscus, cinus.
Catholicon. Byrke; Lentiscus.
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