The plant-lore & garden-craft of Shakespeare
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