book i
, 1014. (E. E. Text Soc.)
[74:1] "The cup in the centre of the flower is supposed to contain the tears of Narcissus, to which Milton alludes; . . . and Virgil in the following--
'Pars intra septa domorum Narcissi lacrymas . . . ponunt.'"--_Flora Domestica_, 268.
[76:1] The "Quarterly Review," quoting this description, says that "few poets ever lived who could have written a description so simple and original, so vivid and descriptive." Yet it is an unconscious imitation of Homer's account of the Narcissus--
"+narkisson th' . . . thaumaston ganoônta; sebas de te pasin idesthai athanatois te theois êde thnêtois anthrôpois; tou kai apo rizês hekaton kara exepephykei; kêôdei t' odmê pas t' ouranos eurys hyperthen, gaia te pas; egelasse, kai almyron oidma thalassês.+"
_Hymn to Demeter_, 8-14.
DAISIES.
(1) _Song of Spring._
When Daisies pied, and Violets, &c.
_Love's Labour's Lost_, act v, sc. 2 (904). (_See_ CUCKOO-BUDS.)
(2) _Lucius._
Let us Find out the prettiest Daisied plot we can, And make him with our pikes and partizans A grave.
_Cymbeline_, act iv, sc. 2 (397).
(3) _Ophelia._
There's a Daisy.
_Hamlet_, act iv, sc. 5 (183).
(4) _Queen._
There with fantastic garlands did she come Of Crow-flowers, Nettles, Daisies, and Long Purples.
_Ibid._, act iv, sc. 7 (169).
(5)
Without the bed her other faire hand was On the green coverlet; whose perfect white Show'd like an April Daisy on the Grass.
_Lucrece_ (393).
(6)
Daisies smel-lesse, yet most quaint.
_Two Noble Kinsmen_, Introd. song.
_See_ APPENDIX. I., p. 359.
DAMSONS, _see_ PLUMS.
DARNEL.
(1) _Cordelia._
Darnel, and all the idle weeds that grow In our sustaining Corn.
_King Lear_, act iv, sc. 4 (5). (_See_ CUCKOO-FLOWERS.)
(2) _Burgundy._
Her fallow leas, The Darnel, Hemlock, and rank Fumitory Doth root upon.
_Henry V_, act v, sc. 2 (44).
(3) _Pucelle._
Good morrow, Gallants! want ye Corn for bread? I think the Duke of Burgundy will fast, Before he'll buy again at such a rate; 'Twas full of Darnel; do you like the taste?
_1st Henry VI_, act iii, sc. 2 (41).
Virgil, in his Fifth Eclogue, says--
"Grandia sæpe quibus mandavimus hordea solcis Infelix lolium et steriles dominantur avenæ."
Thus translated by Thomas Newton, 1587--
"Sometimes there sproutes abundant store Of baggage, noisome weeds, Burres, Brembles, Darnel, Cockle, Dawke, Wild Oates, and choaking seedes."
And the same is repeated in the first Georgic, and in both places _lolium_ is always translated Darnel, and so by common consent Darnel is identified with the Lolium temulentum or wild Rye Grass. But in Shakespeare's time Darnel, like Cockle (which see), was the general name for any hurtful weed. In the old translation of the Bible, the Zizania, which is now translated Tares, was sometime translated Cockle,[78:1] and Newton, writing in Shakespeare's time, says--"Under the name of Cockle and Darnel is comprehended all vicious, noisom and unprofitable graine, encombring and hindring good corne."--_Herball to the Bible._ The Darnel is not only injurious from choking the corn, but its seeds become mixed with the true Wheat, and so in Dorsetshire--and perhaps in other parts--it has the name of "Cheat" (Barnes' Glossary), from its false likeness to Wheat. It was this false likeness that got for it its bad character. "Darnell or Juray," says Lyte ("Herball," 1578), "is a vitious graine that combereth or anoyeth corne, especially Wheat, and in his knotten straw, blades, or leaves is like unto Wheate." Yet Lindley says that "the noxious qualities of Darnel or Lolium temulentum seem to rest upon no certain proof" ("Vegetable Kingdom," p. 116).
FOOTNOTES:
[78:1] "When men were a sleepe, his enemy came and oversowed Cockle among the wheate, and went his way."--_Rheims Trans._, 1582. For further early references to Cockle or Darnel see note on "Darnelle" in the "Catholicon Anglicum," p. 90, and Britten's "English Plant Names," p. 143.
DATES.
(1) _Clown._
I must have Saffron to colour the Warden pies--Mace--Dates? none; that's out of my note.
_Winter's Tale_, act iv, sc. 3 (48).
(2) _Nurse._
They call for Dates and Quinces in the pastry.
_Romeo and Juliet_, act iv, sc. 4 (2).
(3) _Parolles._
Your Date is better in your pie and your porridge than in your cheek.
_All's Well that Ends Well_, act i, sc. 1 (172).
(4) _Pandarus._
Do you know what a man is? Is not birth, beauty, good shape, discourse, manhood, learning, gentleness, virtue, youth, liberality, and such like, the spice and salt that season a man?
_Cressida._
Ay, a minced man; and then to be baked with no Date in the pye; for then the man's date's out.
_Troilus and Cressida_, act i, sc. 2 (274).
The Date is the well-known fruit of the Date Palm (_Phoenix dactylifera_), the most northern of the Palms. The Date Palm grows over the whole of Southern Europe, North Africa, and South-eastern Asia; but it is not probable that Shakespeare ever saw the tree, though Neckam speaks of it in the twelfth century, and Lyte describes it, and Gerard made many efforts to grow it; he tried to grow plants from the seed, "the which I have planted many times in my garden, and have grown to the height of three foot, but the first frost hath nipped them in such sort that they perished, notwithstanding mine industrie by covering them, or what else I could do for their succour." The fruit, however, was imported into England in very early times, and was called by the Anglo-Saxons Finger-Apples, a curious name, but easily explained as the translation of the Greek name for the fruit, +daktyloi+ which was also the origin of the word date, of which the olden form was dactylle.[80:1]
FOOTNOTES:
[80:1] "A dactylle frute dactilis."--_Catholicon Anglicum._
DEAD MEN'S FINGERS.
_Queen._
Our cold maids do Dead Men's Fingers call them.
_Hamlet_, act iv, sc. 7 (172).
_See_ LONG PURPLES, p. 148.
DEWBERRIES.
_Titania._
Feed him with Apricocks and Dewberries.
_Midsummer Night's Dream_, act iii, sc. 1 (169).
The Dewberry (_Rubus cæsius_) is a handsome fruit, very like the Blackberry, but coming earlier. It has a peculiar sub-acid flavour, which is much admired by some, as it must have been by Titania, who joins it with such fruits as Apricots, Grapes, Figs, and Mulberries. It may be readily distinguished from the Blackberry by the fruit being composed of a few larger drupes, and being covered with a glaucous bloom.
DIAN'S BUD.
_Oberon._
Be, as thou wast wont to be (touching her eyes with an herb), See, as thou wast wont to see; Dian's Bud o'er Cupid's flower Hath such force and blessed power.
_Midsummer Night's Dream_, act iv, sc. 1 (76).
The same herb is mentioned in act iii, sc. 2 (366)--
Then crush this herb into Lysander's eye, Whose liquor hath this virtuous property, To take from thence all error, with his might, And make his eyeballs roll with wonted sight.
But except in these two passages I believe the herb is not mentioned by any author. It can be nothing but Shakespeare's translation of Artemisia, the herb of Artemis or Diana, a herb of wonderful virtue according to the writers before Shakespeare's day. (_See_ WORMWOOD.)
DOCKS.
(1) _Burgundy._
And nothing teems But hateful Docks, rough Thistles, Kecksies, Burs.
_Henry V_, act v, sc. 2 (51).
(2) _Antonio._
He'd sow it with Nettle seed,
_Sebastian._
Or Docks, or Mallows.
_Tempest_, act ii, sc. 1 (145).
The Dock may be dismissed with little note or comment, merely remarking that the name is an old one, and is variously spelled as dokke, dokar, doken, &c. An old name for the plant was "Patience;" the "bitter patience" of Spenser, which is supposed by Dr. Prior to be a corruption of Passions.
DOGBERRY.
(_Dramatis personæ_ in _Much Ado About Nothing._)
The Dogberry is the fruit either of the Cornus sanguinea or of the Euonymus Europæus. Parkinson limits the name to the Cornus, and says: "We for the most part call it the _Dogge berry tree_, because the berries are not fit to be eaten, or to be given to a dogge." The plant is only named by Shakespeare as a man's name, but it could scarcely be omitted, as I agree with Mr. Milner that it was "probable that our dramatist had the tree in his mind when he gave a name to that fine fellow for a 'sixth and lastly,' Constable, Dogberry of the Watch" ("Country Pleasures," p. 229).
EBONY.
(1) _King._
The Ebon-coloured ink.
_Love's Labour's Lost_, act i, sc. 1 (245).
(2) _King._
By heaven, thy love is black as Ebony.
_Biron._
Is Ebony like her? O wood divine! A wife of such wood were felicity.
_Ibid._, act iv, sc. 3 (247).
(3) _Clown._
The clearstores towards the south north are as lustrous as Ebony.
_Twelfth Night_, act iv, sc. 2 (41).
(4) _Pistol._
Rouse up revenge from Ebon den.
_2nd Henry IV_, act v, sc. 5 (39).
(5) Death's Ebon dart, to strike him dead.
_Venus and Adonis_ (948).
The Ebony as a tree was unknown in England in the time of Shakespeare. The wood was introduced, and was the typical emblem of darkness. The timber is the produce of more than one species, but comes chiefly from Diospyros Ebenum, Ebenaster, Melanoxylon, Mabola, &c. (Lindley), all natives of the East.
EGLANTINE.
(1) _Oberon._
I know a bank where the wild Thyme blows, Where Oxlips and the nodding Violet grows; Quite over-canopied with luscious Woodbine, With sweet Musk-Roses and with Eglantine.
_Midsummer Night's Dream_, act ii, sc. 1 (249).
(2) _Arviragus._
Thou shalt not lack The flower that's like thy face, pale Primrose, nor The azured Harebell, like thy veins, no, nor The leaf of Eglantine, whom not to slander, Out-sweeten'd not thy breath.
_Cymbeline_, act iv, sc. 2 (220).
If Shakespeare had only written these two passages they would sufficiently have told of his love for simple flowers. None but a dear lover of such flowers could have written these lines. There can be no doubt that the Eglantine in his time was the Sweet Brier--his notice of the sweet leaf makes this certain. Gerard so calls it, but makes some confusion--which it is not easy to explain--by saying that the flowers are white, whereas the flowers of the true Sweet Brier are pink. In the earlier poets the name seems to have been given to any wild Rose, and Milton certainly did not consider the Eglantine and the Sweet Brier to be identical. He says ("L'Allegro")--
"Through the Sweet Briar or the Vine, Or the twisted Eglantine."
But Milton's knowledge of flowers was very limited. Herrick has some pretty lines on the flower, in which it seems most probable that he was referring to the Sweet Brier--
"From this bleeding hand of mine Take this sprig of Eglantine, Which, though sweet unto your smell, Yet the fretful Briar will tell, He who plucks the sweets shall prove Many Thorns to be in love."
It was thus the emblem of pleasure mixed with pain--
"Sweet is the Eglantine, but pricketh nere."
SPENSER, _Sonnet_ xxvi.
And so its names pronounced it to be; it was either the Sweet Brier, or it was Eglantine, the thorny plant (Fr., _aiglentier_). There was also an older name for the plant, of which I can give no explanation. It was called Bedagar. "Bedagar dicitur gallice aiglentier" (John de Gerlande). "_Bedagrage_, spina alba, wit-thorn" (Harl. MS., No. 978 in "Reliquiæ Antiquæ," i, 36).[84:1] The name still exists, though not in common use; but only as the name of a drug made from "the excrescences on the branches of the Rose, and particularly on those of the wild varieties" (Parsons on the Rose).
It is a native of Britain, but not very common, being chiefly confined to the South of England. I have found it on Maidenhead Thicket. As a garden plant it is desirable for the extremely delicate scent of its leaves, but the flower is not equal to others of the family. There is, however, a double-flowered variety, which is handsome. The fruit of the single flowered tree is large, and of a deep red colour, and is said to be sometimes made into a preserve. In modern times this is seldom done, but it may have been common in Shakespeare's time, for Gerard says quaintly: "The fruit when it is ripe maketh most pleasant meats and banqueting dishes, as tarts and such like, the making whereof I commit to the cunning cooke, and teeth to eat them in the rich man's mouth." And Drayton says--
"They'll fetch you conserve from the hip, And lay it softly on your lip."
_Nymphal II._
Eglantine has a further interest in being one of the many thorny trees from which the sacred crown of thorns was supposed to be made--"And afterwards he was led into a garden of Cayphas, and there he was crowned with Eglantine" (Sir John Mandeville).
FOOTNOTES:
[84:1] "Est et cynosrodos, rosa camina, ung eglantier, folia myrti habens, sed paulo majora; recta assurgens in mediam altitudinem inter arborem et fruticem; fert spongiolas, quibus utuntur medici, ad malefica capitis ulcera, la malle tigne, vocatur antem vulgo in officinis pharmacopolarum, bedegar."--_Stephani de re Hortensi Libellus_, p. 17, 1536.
ELDER.
(1) _Arviragus._
And let the stinking Elder, grief, untwine His perishing root with the increasing Vine!
_Cymbeline_, act iv, sc. 2 (59).
(2) _Host._
What says my Æsculapius? my Galen? my heart of Elder?
_Merry Wives_, act ii, sc. 3 (29).
(3) _Saturninus._
Look for thy reward Among the Nettles at the Elder tree,
* * * * *
This is the pit and this the Elder tree.
_Titus Andronicus_, act ii, sc. 3 (271).
(4) _Williams._
That's a perilous shot out of an Elder gun, that a poor and private displeasure can do against a monarch.
_Henry V_, act iv, sc. 1 (200).
(5) _Holofernes._
Begin, sir, you are my Elder.
_Biron._
Well followed; Judas was hanged on an Elder.
_Love's Labour's Lost_, act v, sc. 2 (608).
There is, perhaps, no tree round which so much of contradictory folk-lore has gathered as the Elder tree.[85:1] With many it was simply "the stinking Elder," of which nothing but evil could be spoken. Biron (No. 5) only spoke the common mediæval notion that "Judas was hanged on an Elder;" and so firm was this belief that Sir John Mandeville was shown the identical tree at Jerusalem, "and faste by is zit, the Tree of Eldre that Judas henge himself upon, for despeyr that he hadde, when he solde and betrayed oure Lord." This was enough to give the tree a bad fame, which other things helped to confirm--the evil smell of its leaves, the heavy narcotic smell of its flowers, its hard and heartless wood,[85:2] and the ugly drooping black fungus that is almost exclusively found on it (though it occurs also on the Elm), which was vulgarly called the Ear of Judas (_Hirneola auricula Judæ_). This was the bad character; but, on the other hand, there were many who could tell of its many virtues, so that in 1644 appeared a book entirely devoted to its praises. This was "The Anatomie of the Elder, translated from the Latin of Dr. Martin Blockwich by C. de Iryngio" (_i.e._, Christ. Irvine), a book that, in its Latin and English form, went through several editions. And this favourable estimate of the tree is still very common in several parts of the Continent. In the South of Germany it is believed to drive away evil spirits, and the name "'Holderstock' (Elder Stock) is a term of endearment given by a lover to his beloved, and is connected with Hulda, the old goddess of love, to whom the Elder tree was considered sacred." In Denmark and Norway it is held in like esteem, and in the Tyrol an "Elder bush, trained into the form of a cross, is planted on the new-made grave, and if it blossoms the soul of the person lying beneath it is happy." And this use of the Elder for funeral purposes was, perhaps, also an old English custom; for Spenser, speaking of Death, says--
"The Muses that were wont greene Baies to weare, Now bringen bittre Eldre braunches seare."
_Shepherd's Calendar--November._
Nor must we pass by the high value that was placed on the wood both by the Jews and Greeks. It was the wood chiefly used for musical instruments, so that the name Sambuke was applied to several very different instruments, from the fact that they were all made of Elder wood. The "sackbut," "dulcimer," and "pipe" of Daniel iii. are all connected together in this manner.
As a garden plant the common Elder is not admissible, though it forms a striking ornament in the wild hedgerows and copses, while its flowers yield the highly perfumed Elder-flower water, and its fruits give the Elder wine; but the tree runs into many varieties, several of which are very ornamental, the leaves being often very finely divided and jagged, and variegated both with golden and silver blotches. There is a handsome species from Canada (Sambucus Canadensis), which is worth growing in shrubberies, as it produces its pure white flowers in autumn.
FOOTNOTES:
[85:1] Called also Eldern in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, and still earlier, Eller or Ellyr ("Catholicon Anglicum"). "The Ellern is a tree with long bowes, ful sounde and sad wythout, and ful holowe within, and ful of certayne nesshe pyth."--_Clanvil de prop._
[85:2] From the facility with which the hard wood can be hollowed out, the tree was from very ancient times called the Bore-tree. See "Catholicon Anglicum," s.v. Bur-tre.
ELM.
(1) _Adriana._
Thou art an Elm, my husband, I a Vine, Whose weakness married to thy stronger state Makes me with thy strength to communicate.
_Comedy of Errors_, act ii, sc. 2 (176).
(2) _Titania._
The female Ivy so Enrings the barky fingers of the Elm.
_Midsummer Night's Dream_, act iv, sc. 1 (48).
(3) _Poins._
Answer, thou dead Elm, answer![87:1]
_2nd Henry IV_, act ii, sc, 4 (358).
Though Vineyards were more common in England in the sixteenth century than now, yet I can nowhere find that the Vines were ever trained, in the Italian fashion, to Elms or Poplars. Yet Shakespeare does not stand alone in thus speaking of the Elm in its connection with the Vine. Spenser speaks of "the Vine-prop Elme," and Milton--
"They led the Vine To wed her Elm; she spoused, about him twines Her marriageable arms, and with her brings Her dower, the adopted clusters, to adorn His barren leaves."
And Browne--
"She, whose inclination Bent all her course to him-wards, let him know He was the Elm, whereby her Vine did grow."
_Britannia's Pastorals_,