book xi

.;

and which was more fully stated in the old lines of the Schola Salerni--

"Nobilis est Ruta quia lumina reddit acuta; 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--

"They sayen eke stolen sede is butt the bette."

_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]

"Rewe on my child, that of thyn gentilnesse 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) _Phoebe._

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, sc. 3 (129).

(7) _1st Groom._

More Rushes, more Rushes.

_2nd Henry IV_, act v, sc. 5 (1).

(8) _Eros._

He's walking in the garden--thus; and spurns The Rush that lies before him.

_Antony and Cleopatra_, act iii, sc. 5 (17).

(9) _Othello._

Man but a Rush against Othello's breast, And he retires.

_Othello_, act v, sc. 2 (270).

(10) _Grumio._

Is supper ready, the house trimmed, Rushes strewed, cobwebs swept?

_Taming of the Shrew_, act iv, sc. 1 (47).

(11) _Katherine._

Be it moon or sun, or what you please, And if you please to call it a Rush-candle, Henceforth I vow it shall be so for me.

_Ibid._, act iv, sc. 5 (13).

(12) _Glendower._

She bids you on the wanton Rushes lay you down, And rest your gentle head upon her lap.

_1st Henry IV_, act iii, sc. 1 (214).

(13) _Marcius._

He that depends Upon your favours swims with fins of lead And hews down Oaks with Rushes.

_Coriolanus_, act i, sc. 1 (183).

(14) _Iachimo._

Our Tarquin thus Did softly press the Rushes.

_Cymbeline_, act ii, sc. 2 (12).

(15) _Senator._ Our gates Which yet seem shut, we have but pinn'd with Rushes! They'll open of themselves.

_Coriolanus_, act i, sc. 4 (16).

(16)

And being lighted, by the light he spies Lucretia's glove, wherein her needle sticks; He takes it from the Rushes where it lies.

_Lucrece_ (316).

(17) _See_ REEDS, No. 7.

(18) _Wooer._

Rings she made Of Rushes that grew by, and to 'em spoke The prettiest posies.

_Two Noble Kinsmen_, act iv, sc. 1 (109).

_See also_ FLAG, REED, _and_ BULRUSH.

Like the Reed, the Rush often stands for any water-loving, grassy plant, and, like the Reed, it was the emblem of yielding weakness and of uselessness.[264:1] The three principal Rushes referred to by Shakespeare are the Common Rush (_Juncus communis_), the Bulrush (_Scirpus lacustris_), and the Sweet Rush (_Acorus calamus_).

The Common Rush, though the mark of badly cultivated ground, and the emblem of uselessness, was not without its uses, some of which are referred to in Nos. 1, 3, and 11. In Nos. 3 and 18 reference is made to the Rush-ring, a ring, no doubt, originally meant and used for the purposes of honest betrothal, but afterwards so vilely used for the purposes of mock marriages, that even as early as 1217 Richard Bishop of Salisbury had to issue his edict against the use of "annulum de junco."

The Rush betrothal ring is mentioned by Spenser--

"O thou great shepheard, Lobbin, how great is thy griefe! Where bene the nosegayes that she dight for thee? The coloured chaplets wrought with a chiefe, The knotted Rush-ringes and gilt Rosemarie."

_Shepherd's Calendar--November._

And by Quarles--

"Love-sick swains Compose Rush-rings, and Myrtle-berry chains, And stuck with glorious King-cups in their bonnets, Adorned with Laurel slip, chant true love sonnets."

But the uses of the Rush were not all bad. Newton, in 1587, said of the Rush--"It is a round smooth shoote without joints or knots, having within it a white substance or pith, which being drawn forth showeth like long white, soft, gentle, and round thread, and serveth for many purposes. Heerewith be made manie pretie imagined devises for Bride-ales and other solemnities, as little baskets, hampers, frames, pitchers, dishes, combs, brushes, stooles, chaires, purses with strings, girdles, and manie such other pretie and curious and artificiall conceits, which at such times many do take the paines to make and hang up in their houses, as tokens of good will to the new married Bride; and after the solemnities ended, to bestow abroad for Bride-gifts or presents." It was this "white substance or pith" from which the Rush candle (No. 11) was and still is made: a candle which in early days was probably the universal candle, which, till within a few years, was the night candle of every sick chamber, in which most of us can recollect it as a most ghastly object as it used to stand, "stationed in a basin on the floor, where it glimmered away like a gigantic lighthouse in a particularly small piece of water" (Pickwick), till expelled by the night-lights, and which is still made by Welsh labourers, and, I suppose, in Shakespeare's time was the only candle used by the poor.

"If your influence be quite damm'd up With black usurping mists, some gentle taper, Though a Rush-candle from the wicker hole Of some clay habitation, visit us With thy long levell'd rule of streaming light."--_Comus._

But the chief use of Rushes in those days was to strew the floors of houses and churches (Nos. 4, 7, 10, 12, and 14). This custom seems to have been universal in all houses of any pretence. "William the son of William of Alesbury holds three roods of land of the Lord the King in Alesbury in Com. Buck by the service of finding straw for the bed of the Lord the King, and to strew his chamber, and also of finding for the King when he comes to Alesbury straw for his bed, and besides this Grass or Rushes to make his chamber pleasant."--BLUNT'S _Tenures_. The custom went on even to our own day in Norwich Cathedral, and the "picturesque custom still lingers in the West of strewing the floors of the churches on Whit Sunday with Rushes freshly pulled from the meadows. This custom attains its highest perfection in the church of St. Mary Redcliffe at Bristol. On 'Rush Sunday' the floor is strewn with Rushes. All the merchants throw open their conservatories for the vicar to take his choice of their flowers, and the pulpit, the lectern, the choir, and the communion rails and table present a scene of great beauty."--_The Garden_, May, 1877.

For this purpose the Sweet-scented Rush was always used where it could be procured, and when first laid down it must have made a pleasant carpet; but it was a sadly dirty arrangement, and gives us a very poor idea of the cleanliness of even the best houses, though it probably was not the custom all through the year, as Newton says, speaking of Sedges, but evidently confusing the Sedge with the Sweet-scented Rush, "with the which many in this countrie do use in sommer time to straw their parlours and churches, as well for cooleness as for pleasant smell."[266:1] This Rush (_Acorus calamus_) is a British plant, with broad leaves, which have a strong cinnamon-like smell, which obtained for the plant the old Saxon name of Beewort. Another (so-called) Rush, the Flowering Rush (_Butomus umbellatus_), is one of the very handsomest of the British plants, bearing on a long straight stem a large umbel of very handsome pink flowers. Wherever there is a pond in a garden, these fine Rushes should have a place, though they may be grown in the open border where the ground is not too dry.

There is a story told by Sir John Mandeville in connection with Rushes which is not easy to understand. According to his account, our Saviour's crown of thorns was made of Rushes! "And zif alle it be so that men seyn that this Croune is of Thornes, zee shall undirstande that it was of Jonkes of the See, that is to sey, Russhes of the See, that prykken als scharpely as Thornes. For I have seen and beholden many times that of Parys and that of Constantynoble, for thei were bothe on, made of Russches of the See. But men have departed hem in two parties, of the which on part is at Parys, and the other part is at Constantynoble--and I have on of the precyouse Thornes, that semethe licke a white Thorn, and that was zoven to me for great specyaltee. . . . The Jewes setten him in a chayere and clad him in a mantelle, and then made thei the Croune of Jonkes of the See."--_Voiage and Travaile,_ c. 2.

I have no certainty to what Rush the pleasant old traveller can here refer. I can only guess that as Rushes and Sedges were almost interchangeable names, he may have meant the Sea Holly, formerly called the Holly-sedge, of which there is a very appropriate account given in an old Saxon runelay thus translated by Cockayne: "Hollysedge hath its dwelling oftenest in a marsh, it waxeth in water, woundeth fearfully, burneth with blood (_i.e._, draws blood and pains) every one of men who to it offers any handling."[267:1]

FOOTNOTES:

[264:1]

"Around the islet at its lowest edge, Lo, there beneath, where breaks th' encircling wave, The yielding mud is thick with Rushes crowned. No other flower with frond or leafy growth Or hardened fibre there can life sustain, For none bend safely to the watery shock."

DANTE, _Purgatorio_, canto i. (Johnston).

[266:1] "In the South of Europe Juniper branches were used for this purpose, as they still are in Sweden."--_Flora Domestica_, p. 213.

"As I have seen upon a bridal day, Full many maids clad in their best array, In honour of the bride, come with their flaskets Filled full of flowers, other in wicker baskets Bring from the Marish Rushes, to overspread The ground whereon to Church the lovers tread."

BROWNE'S _Brit. Past._, i, 2.

[267:1] I leave this as I first wrote it, but I have to thank Mr. Britten for the very probable suggestion that Sir John Mandeville was right. Not only does the _Juncus acutus_ "prykken als scharpely as Thornes," but "what is shown in Paris at the present day as the crown of Thorns is certainly, as Sir John says, made of rushes; the curious may consult M. Rohault de Fleury's sumptuous 'Mémoire sur les Instruments de la Passion,' for a full description of it."

RYE.

(1) _Iris._

Ceres, most bounteous lady, thy rich leas Of Wheat, Rye, Barley, Vetches, Oats, and Pease.

_Tempest_, act iv, sc. 1 (60).

(2) _Iris._

You sunburnt sicklemen, of August weary, Come hither from the furrow and be merry; Make holiday; your Rye-straw hats put on.

_Ibid._, act iv, sc. 1 (135).

(3) _Song._

Between the acres of the Rye These pretty country folks would lye.

_As You Like It_, act v, sc. 3 (23).

The Rye of Shakespeare's time was identical with our own (_Secale cereale_). It is not a British plant, and its native country is not exactly known; but it seems probable that both the plant and the name came from the region of the Caucasus.

As a food-plant Rye was not in good repute in Shakespeare's time. Gerard said of it, "It is harder to digest than Wheat, yet to rusticke bodies that can well digest it, it yields good nourishment." But "recent investigations by Professor Wanklyn and Mr. Cooper appear to give the first place to Rye as the most nutritious of all our cereals. Rye contains more gluten, and is pronounced by them one-third richer than Wheat. Rye, moreover, is capable of thriving in almost any soil."--_Gardener's Chronicle_, 1877.

SAFFRON.

(1) _Ceres._

Who (_i.e._, Iris), with thy Saffron wings upon my flowers, Diffusest honeydrops, refreshing showers.

_Tempest_, act iv, sc. 1 (78).

(2) _Antipholus of Ephesus._

Did this companion with the Saffron face Revel and feast it at my house to day?

_Comedy of Errors_, act iv, sc. 4 (64).

(3) _Clown._

I must have Saffron to colour the Warden pies.

_Winter's Tale_, act iv, sc. 3 (48).

(4) _Lafeu._

No, no, no, your son was misled with a snipt-taffeta fellow there, whose villanous Saffron would have made all the unbaked and doughy youth of a nation in his colour.

_All's Well that Ends Well_, act iv, sc. 5 (1).

Saffron (from its Arabic name, _al zahafaran_) was not, in Shakespeare's time, limited to the drug or to the Saffron-bearing Crocus (_C. sativus_), but it was the general name for all the Croci, and was even extended to the Colchicums, which were called Meadow Saffrons.[268:1] We have no Crocus really a native of Britain, but a few species (C. vernus, C. nudiflorus, C. aureus, and C. biflorus) have been so naturalized in certain parts as to be admitted, though very doubtfully, into the British flora; but the Saffron Crocus can in no way be considered a native, and the history of its introduction into England is very obscure. It is mentioned several times in the Anglo-Saxon Leech Books: "When he bathes, let him smear himself with oil; mingle it with Saffron."--_Tenth Century Leech Book_, ii. 37. "For dimness of eyes, thus one must heal it: take Celandine one spoonful, and Aloes, and Crocus (Saffron in French)."--_Schools of Medicine_, tenth century, c. 22. In these instances it may be only the imported drug; but the name occurs in an English Vocabulary among the Nomina herbarum: "Hic Crocus, A{e} Safurroun;" and in a Pictorial Vocabulary of the fourteenth century, "Hic Crocus, An{ce} Safryn;" so that I think the plant must have been in cultivation in England at that time. The usual statement, made by one writer after another, is that it was introduced by Sir Thomas Smith into the neighbourhood of Walden in the time of Edward III., but the original authority for this statement is unknown. The most authentic account is that by Hakluyt in 1582, and though it is rather long, it is worth extracting in full. It occurs in some instructions in "Remembrances for Master S.," who was going into Turkey, giving him hints what to observe in his travels: "Saffron, the best of the universall world, groweth in this realme. . . . It is a spice that is cordiall, and may be used in meats, and that is excellent in dying of yellow silks. This commodity of Saffron groweth fifty miles from Tripoli, in Syria, on an high hyll, called in those parts Gasian, so as there you may learn at that part of Tripoli the value of the pound, the goodnesse of it, and the places of the vent. But it is said that from that hyll there passeth yerely of that commodity fifteen moiles laden, and that those regions notwithstanding lacke sufficiency of that commodity. But if a vent might be found, men would in Essex (about Saffron Walden), and in Cambridgeshire, revive the trade for the benefit of the setting of the poore on worke. So would they do in Herefordshire by Wales, where the best of all England is, in which place the soil yields the wilde Saffron commonly, which showeth the natural inclination of the same soile to the bearing of the right Saffron, if the soile be manured and that way employed. . . It is reported at Saffron Walden that a pilgrim, proposing to do good to his countrey, stole a head of Saffron, and hid the same in his Palmer's staffe, which he had made hollow before of purpose, and so he brought the root into this realme with venture of his life, for if he had bene taken, by the law of the countrey from whence it came, he had died for the fact."--_English Voiages, &c._, vol. ii. From this account it seems clear that even in Hakluyt's time Saffron had been so long introduced that the history of its introduction was lost; and I think it very probable that, as was suggested by Coles in his "Adam in Eden" (1657), we are indebted to the Romans for this, as for so many of our useful plants. But it is not a Roman or Italian plant. Spenser wrote of it as--

"Saffron sought for in Cilician soyle--"[270:1]

and Browne--

"Saffron confected in Cilicia"--_Brit. Past._, i, 2;

which information they derived from Pliny. It is supposed to be a native of Asia Minor, but so altered by long cultivation that it never produces seed either in England or in other parts of Europe.[270:2] This fact led M. Chappellier, of Paris, who has for many years studied the history of the plant, to the belief that it was a hybrid; but finding that when fertilized with the pollen of a Crocus found wild in Greece, and known as C. sativus var. Græcus (_Orphanidis_), it produces seed abundantly, he concludes that it is a variety of that species, which it very much resembles, but altered and rendered sterile by cultivation. It is not now much cultivated in England, but we have abundant authority from Tusser, Gerard, Parkinson, Camden, and many other writers, that it was largely cultivated before and after Shakespeare's time, and that the quality of the English Saffron was very superior.[271:1] The importance of the crop is shown by its giving its name to Saffron Walden in Essex,[271:2] and to Saffron Hill in London, which "was formerly a part of Ely Gardens" (of which we shall hear again when we come to speak of Strawberries), "and derives its name from the crops of Saffron which it bore."--CUNNINGHAM. The plant has in the same way given its name to Zaffarano, a village in Sicily, near Mount Etna, and to Zafaranboly, "ville située près Inobole en Anatolie, au sud-est de l'ancienne Héraclée."--CHAPPELLIER. The plant is largely cultivated in many parts of Europe, but the chief centres of cultivation are in the arrondissement of Pithiviers in France, and the province of Arragon in Spain; and the chief consumers are the Germans. It has also been largely cultivated in China for a great many years, and the bulbs now imported from China are found to be, in many points, superior to the European--"l'invasion Tartare aurait porté le Safran en Chine, et de leur côté les croisés l'auraient importé en Europe."--CHAPPELLIER.

I need scarcely say that the parts of the plant that produce the Saffron are the sweet-scented stigmata, the "Crocei odores" of Virgil; but the use of Saffron has now so gone out of fashion, that it may be well to say something of its uses in the time of Shakespeare, as a medicine, a dye, and a confection. On all three points its virtues were so many that there is a complete literature on Crocus. I need not name all the books on the subject, but the title page of one (a duodecimo of nearly three hundred pages) may be quoted as an example: "Crocologia seu curiosa Croci Regis Vegetabilium enucleatio continens Illius etymologiam, differencias, tempus quo viret et floret, culturam, collectionem, usum mechanicum, Pharmaceuticum, Chemico medicum, omnibus pene humani corporis partibus destinatum additis diversis observationibus et questionibus Crocum concernentibus ad normam et formam S. R. I. Academiæ Naturæ curiosorum congesta a Dan: Ferdinando Hertodt, Phys. et Med. Doc., &c., &c. Jenæ. 1671." After this we may content ourselves with Gerard's summary of its virtues: "The moderate use of it is good for the head, and maketh sences more quicke and lively, shaketh off heavy and drowsie sleep and maketh a man mery." For its use in confections this will suffice from the "Apparatus Plantarum" of Laurembergius, 1632: "In re familiari vix ullus est telluris habitatus angulus ubi non sit Croci quotodiana usurpatio, aspersi vel incocti cibis." And as to its uses as a dye, its penetrating powers were proverbial, of which Luther's Sermons will supply an instance: "As the Saffron bag that hath bene ful of Saffron, or hath had Saffron in it, doth ever after savour and smel of the swete Saffron that it contayneth; so our blessed Ladye which conceived and bare Christe in her wombe, dyd ever after resemble the maners and vertues of that precious babe which she bare" ("Fourth Sermon," 1548). One of the uses to which Saffron was applied in the Middle Ages was for the manufacture of the beautiful gold colour used in the illumination of missals, &c., where the actual gold was not used. This is the recipe from the work of Theophilus in the eleventh century: "If ye wish to decorate your work in some manner take tin pure and finely scraped; melt it and wash it like gold, and apply it with the same glue upon letters or other places which you wish to ornament with gold or silver; and when you have polished it with a tooth, take Saffron with which silk is colored, moistening it with clear of egg without water, and when it has stood a night, on the following day cover with a pencil the places which you wish to gild, the rest holding the place of silver" (