The plant-lore & garden-craft of Shakespeare
(Lindley), so that a full study of the Grasses may almost be said to be
the work of a lifetime. But Shakespeare was certainly no such student of
Grasses: in all these passages Grass is only mentioned in a generic
manner, without any reference to any particular Grass. The passages in
which hay is mentioned, I have not thought necessary to quote.
HAREBELL.
_Arviragus._
Thou shalt not lack
The flower that's like thy face, pale Primrose, nor
The azured Harebell, like thy veins.
_Cymbeline_, act iv, sc. 2 (220).
(_See_ EGLANTINE.)
The Harebell of Shakespeare is undoubtedly the Wild Hyacinth (_Scilla
nutans_), the "sanguine flower inscribed with woe" of Milton's
"Lycidas," though we must bear in mind that the name is applied
differently in various parts of the island; thus "the Harebell of Scotch
writers is the Campanula, and the Bluebell, so celebrated in Scottish
song, is the Wild Hyacinth or Scilla; while in England the same names
are used conversely, the Campanula being the Bluebell and the Wild
Hyacinth the Harebell" ("Poets' Pleasaunce")--but this will only apply
in poetry; in ordinary language, at least in the South of England, the
Wild Hyacinth is the Bluebell, and is the plant referred to by
Shakespeare as the Harebell.
It is one of the chief ornaments of our woods,[109:1] growing in
profusion wherever it establishes itself, and being found of various
colours--pink, white, and blue. As a garden flower it may well be
introduced into shrubberies, but as a border plant it cannot compete
with its rival relation, the Hyacinthus orientalis, which is the parent
of all the fine double and many coloured Hyacinths in which the florists
have delighted for the last two centuries.
FOOTNOTES:
[109:1] "'Dust of sapphire,' writes my friend Dr. John Brown to me of
the wood Hyacinths of Scotland in the spring; yes, that is so--each bud
more beautiful itself than perfectest jewel."--RUSKIN, _Proserpina_, p.
73.
HARLOCKS.
_Cordelia._
Crown'd with rank Fumiter and Furrow-weeds,
With Harlocks, Hemlock, Nettles, Cuckoo-flowers.
_King Lear_, act iv, sc. 4 (3).
(_See_ CUCKOO-FLOWERS.)
I cannot do better than follow Dr. Prior on this word: "Harlock, as
usually printed in 'King Lear' and in Drayton, ecl. 4--
'The Honeysuckle, the Harlocke,
The Lily and the Lady-smocke,'
is a word that does not occur in the Herbals, and which the commentators
have supposed to be a misprint for Charlock. There can be little doubt
that Hardock is the correct reading, and that the plant meant is the one
now called Burdock." Schmidt also adopts Burdock as the right
interpretation.
HAWTHORNS.
(1) _Rosalind._
There's a man hangs odes upon Hawthorns and elegies on
Brambles.
_As You Like It_, act iii, sc. 2 (379).
(2) _Quince._
This green plot shall be our stage, this Hawthorn-brake our
tiring house.
_Midsummer Night's Dream_, act iii, sc. 1 (3).
(3) _Helena._
Your tongue's sweet air,
More tuneable than lark to shepherd's ear,
When Wheat is green, when Hawthorn-buds appear.
_Ibid._, act i, sc. 1 (183).
(4) _Falstaff._
I cannot cog and say thou art this and that, like a many of
these lisping Hawthorn-buds.
_Merry Wives_, act iii, sc. 3 (76).
(5) _K. Henry._
Gives not the Hawthorn-bush a sweeter shade
To shepherds looking on their silly sheep,
Than doth a rich embroider'd canopy
To kings that fear their subjects' treachery?
O yes, it doth; a thousand-fold it doth.
_3rd Henry VI_, act ii, sc. 5 (42).
(6) _Edgar._
Through the sharp Hawthorn blows the cold wind (_bis_).
_King Lear_, act iii, sc. 4 (47 and 102).
(7) _Arcite._
Againe betake you to yon Hawthorne house.
_Two Noble Kinsmen_, act iii, sc. 1 (90).
Under its many names of Albespeine, Whitethorn, Haythorn or Hawthorn,
May, and Quickset, this tree has ever been a favourite with all lovers
of the country.
"Among the many buds proclaiming May,
Decking the field in holiday array,
Striving who shall surpass in braverie,
Mark the faire blooming of the Hawthorn tree,
Who, finely cloathed in a robe of white,
Fills full the wanton eye with May's delight.
Yet for the braverie that she is in
Doth neither handle card nor wheel to spin,
Nor changeth robes but twice; is never seen
In other colours but in white or green."
such is Browne's advice in his "Britannia's Pastorals" (ii. 2). He, like
the other early poets, clearly loved the tree for its beauty; and in
picturesque beauty the Hawthorn yields to none, when it can be seen in
some sheltered valley growing with others of its kind, and allowed to
grow unpruned, for then in the early summer it is literally a sheet of
white, yet beautifully relieved by the tender green of the young leaves,
and by the bright crimson of the anthers, and loaded with a scent that
is most delicate and refreshing. But not only for its beauty is the
Hawthorn a favourite tree, but also for its many pleasant
associations--it is essentially the May tree, the tree that tells that
winter is really past, and that summer has fairly begun. Hear Spenser--
"Thilke same season, when all is yclade
With pleasaunce; the ground with Grasse, the woods
With greene leaves, the bushes with blooming buds,
Youngthes folke now flocken in everywhere
To gather May-baskets and smelling Brere;
And home they hasten the postes to dight,
And all the kirk-pillours eare day-light,
With Hawthorne-buds, and sweet Eglantine,
And girlondes of Roses, and soppes-in-wine."
_Shepherd's Calendar--May._
Yet in spite of its pretty name, and in spite of the poets, the Hawthorn
now seldom flowers till June, and I should suppose it is never in flower
on May Day, except perhaps in Devonshire and Cornwall; and it is very
doubtful if it ever were so found, except in these southern counties,
though some fancy that the times of flowering of several of our flowers
are changed, and in some instances largely changed. But "it was an old
custom in Suffolk, in most of the farmhouses, that any servant who could
bring in a branch of Hawthorn in full blossom on the 1st of May was
entitled to a dish of cream for breakfast. This custom is now disused,
not so much from the reluctance of the masters to give the reward, as
from the inability of the servants to find the Whitethorn in
flower."--BRAND'S _Antiquities_.[112:1] Even those who might not see the
beauty of an old Thorn tree, have found its uses as one of the very few
trees that will grow thick in the most exposed places, and so give
pleasant shade and shelter in places where otherwise but little shade
and shelter could be found.
"Every shepherd tells his tale
Under the Hawthorn in the dale."--MILTON.
And "at Hesket, in Cumberland, yearly on St. Barnabas' Day, by the
highway side under a Thorn tree is kept the court for the whole forest
of Englewood."--_History of Westmoreland._
The Thorn may well be admitted as a garden shrub either in its ordinary
state, or in its beautiful double white, red, and pink varieties, and
those who like to grow curious trees should not omit the Glastonbury
Thorn, which flowers at the ordinary time, and bears fruit, but also
buds and flowers again in winter, showing at the same time the new
flowers and the older fruit.
Nor must we omit to mention that the Whitethorn is one of the trees that
claims to have been used for the sacred Crown of Thorns. It is most
improbable that it was so, in fact almost certain that it was not; but
it was a mediæval belief, as Sir John Mandeville witnesses: "Then was
our Lord yled into a gardyn, and there the Jewes scorned hym, and maden
hym a crowne of the branches of the Albiespyne, that is Whitethorn, that
grew in the same gardyn, and setten yt upon hys heved. And therefore
hath the Whitethorn many virtues. For he that beareth a branch on hym
thereof, no thundre, ne no maner of tempest may dere hym, ne in the
howse that it is ynne may non evil ghost enter."
And we may finish the Hawthorn with a short account of its name, which
is interesting:--"Haw," or "hay," is the same word as "hedge" ("sepes,
id est, _haies_," John de Garlande), and so shows the great antiquity of
this plant as used for English hedges. In the north, "haws" are still
called "haigs;" but whether Hawthorn was first applied to the fruit or
the hedge, whether the hedge was so called because it was made of the
Thorn tree that bears the haws, or whether the fruit was so named
because it was borne on the hedge tree, is a point on which etymologists
differ.
FOOTNOTES:
[112:1] "Gilbert White in his 'Naturalists' Calendar' as the result of
observations taken from 1768 to 1793 puts down the flowering of the
Hawthorn as occurring in different years upon dates so widely apart as
the twentieth of April and the eleventh of June."--MILNER'S _Country
Pleasures_, p. 83.
HAZEL.
(1) _Mercutio._
Her [Queen Mab's] chariot is an empty Hazel-nut
Made by the joiner squirrel or old grub,
Time out o' mind the fairies' coachmakers.
_Romeo and Juliet_, act i, sc. 4 (67).
(2) _Petruchio._
Kate like the Hazel twig
Is straight and slender and as brown in hue
As Hazel-nuts and sweeter than the kernels.
_Taming of the Shrew_, act ii, sc. 1 (255).
(3) _Caliban._
I'll bring thee to clustering Filberts.
_Tempest_, act ii, sc. 2 (174).
(4) _Touchstone._
Sweetest Nut hath sourest rind,
Such a Nut is Rosalind.
_As You Like It_, act iii, sc. 2 (115).
(5) _Celia._
For his verity in love I do think him as concave as a covered
goblet or a worm-eaten Nut.
_Ibid._, act iii, sc. 4 (25).
(6) _Lafeu._
Believe this of me, there can be no kernel in this light Nut.
_All's Well that Ends Well_, act ii, sc. 5 (46).
(7) _Mercutio._
Thou wilt quarrel with a man for cracking Nuts, having no
other reason but because thou hast Hazel eyes.
_Romeo and Juliet_, act iii, sc. 1 (20).
(8) _Thersites._
Hector shall have a great catch, if he knock out either of
your brains; a' were as good crack a fusty Nut with no
kernel.
_Troilus and Cressida_, act ii, sc. 1 (109).
(9) _Gonzalo._
I'll warrant him for drowning; though the ship were no
stronger than a Nut-shell.
_Tempest_, act i, sc. 1 (49).
(10) _Titania._
I have a venturous fairy that shall seek
The squirrel's hoard, and fetch thee new Nuts.
_Midsummer Night's Dream_, act iv, sc. 1 (40).
(11) _Hamlet._
O God, I could be bounded in a Nut-shell and count myself a
king of infinite space, were it not that I have bad dreams.
_Hamlet_, act ii, sc. 2 (260).
(12) _Dromio of Syracuse._