The plant-lore & garden-craft of Shakespeare
classical, and which can never be omitted, and which will bear
repetition, however well we know them. Milton says, "The Daffodillies
fill their cups with tears."[74:1] There are Herrick's well-known
lines--
"Fair Daffodils, we weep to see
You haste away so soon,
As yet the early-rising sun
Has not attained his noon;
Stay, stay,
Until the hastening day
Has run
But to the even-song;
And having prayed together, we
Will go with you along.
We have short time to stay as you,
We have as short a spring,
As quick a growth to meet decay,
As you or anything.
We die,
As your hours do, and dry
Away,
Like to the summer's rain,
Or as the pearls of morning dew,
Ne'er to be found again."
And there are Keats' and Shelley's well-known and beautiful lines which
bring down the praises of the Daffodil to our own day. Keats says--
"A thing of beauty is a joy for ever,
Its loveliness increases, it will never
Pass into nothingness. . . . . .
. . . . . In spite of all
Some shape of beauty moves away the pale
From our dark spirits. Such the sun, the moon,
Trees old and young, sprouting a shady boon
For simple sheep; and such are Daffodils
With the green world they live in."
Shelley is still warmer in his praise--
"Narcissus, the fairest among them all,
Who gaze on their eyes in the stream's recess,
Till they die of their own dear loveliness."
_The Sensitive Plant_, p. 1.
Nor must Wordsworth be left out when speaking of the poetry of
Daffodils. His stanzas are well known, while his sister's prose
description of them is the most poetical of all: "They grew among the
mossy stones; . . . some rested their heads on these stones as on a
pillow, the rest tossed and reeled and danced, and seemed as if they
verily laughed with the wind, they looked so gay and glancing."[76:1]
But it is time to come to prose. The Daffodil of Shakespeare is the Wild
Daffodil (_Narcissus pseudo-Narcissus_) that is found in abundance in
many parts of England. This is the true English Daffodil, and there is
only one other species that is truly native--the N. biflorus, chiefly
found in Devonshire. But long before Shakespeare's time a vast number
had been introduced from different parts of Europe, so that Gerard was
able to describe twenty-four different species, and had "them all and
every of them in our London gardens in great abundance." The family, as
at present arranged by Mr. J. G. Baker, of the Kew Herbarium, consists
of twenty-one species, with several sub-species and varieties; all of
which should be grown. They are all, with the exception of the Algerian
species, which almost defy cultivation in England, most easy of
cultivation--"Magnâ curâ non indigent Narcissi." They only require after
the first planting to be let alone, and then they will give us their
graceful flowers in varied beauty from February to May. The first will
usually be the grand N. maximus, which may be called the King of
Daffodils, though some authors have given to it a still more illustrious
name. The "Rose of Sharon" was the large yellow Narcissus, common in
Palestine and the East generally, of which Mahomet said: "He that has
two cakes of bread, let him sell one of them for some flower of the
Narcissus, for bread is the food of the body, but Narcissus is the food
of the soul." From these grand leaders of the tribe we shall be led
through the Hoop-petticoats, the many-flowered Tazettas, and the sweet
Jonquils, till we end the Narcissus season with the Poets' Narcissus
(Ben Jonson's "chequ'd and purple-ringed Daffodilly"), certainly one of
the most graceful flowers that grows, and of a peculiar fragrance that
no other flower has; so beautiful is it, that even Dr. Forbes Watson's
description of it is scarcely too glowing: "In its general expression
the Poets' Narcissus seems a type of maiden purity and beauty, yet
warmed by a love-breathing fragrance; and yet what innocence in the
large soft eye, which few can rival amongst the whole tribe of flowers.
The narrow, yet vivid fringe of red, so clearly seen amidst the
whiteness, suggests again the idea of purity, gushing passion--purity
with a heart which can kindle into fire."
FOOTNOTES:
[73:1] This account of the Daffodil, and the accounts of some other
flowers, I have taken from a paper by myself on the common English names
of plants read to the Bath Field Club in 1870, and published in the
"Transactions" of the Club, and afterwards privately printed.--H. N. E.
[73:2]
"Herbe orijam and Thyme and Violette
Eke Affodyle and savery thereby sette."
_Palladius on Husbandrie_, 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._