The plant-lore & garden-craft of Shakespeare
"Poisonous Mushrooms groweth where old rusty iron lieth, or rotten
clouts, or neere to serpent's dens or rootes of trees that bring forth
venomous fruit.[170:1]. . . Few of them are good to be eaten, and most
of them do suffocate and strangle the eater. Therefore, I give my advice
unto those that love such strange and new-fangled meates to beware of
licking honey among thornes, lest the sweetnesse of one do not
counteracte the sharpnesse and pricking of the other." This was Gerard's
prudent advice on the eating of "Mushrumes and Toadstooles," but
nowadays we know better. The fungologists tell us that those who refuse
to eat any fungus but the Mushroom (_Agaricus campestris_) are not only
foolish in rejecting most delicate luxuries, but also very wrong in
wasting most excellent and nutritious food. Fungologists are great
enthusiasts, and it may be well to take their prescription _cum grano
salis_; but we may qualify Gerard's advice by the well-known
enthusiastic description of Dr. Badham, who certainly knew much more of
fungology than Gerard, and did not recommend to others what he had not
personally tried himself. After praising the beauty of an English
autumn, even in comparison with Italy, he thus concludes his pleasant
and useful book, "The Esculent Funguses of England": "I have myself
witnessed whole hundredweights of rich, wholesome diet rotting under
trees, woods teeming with food, and not one hand to gather it. . . . I
have, indeed, grieved when I reflected on the straitened conditions of
the lower orders to see pounds innumerable of extempore beefsteaks
growing on our Oaks in the shape of _Fistula hepatica_; _Ag. fusipes_,
to pickle in clusters under them; _Puffballs_, which some of our friends
have not inaptly compared to sweet-bread for the rich delicacy of their
unassisted flavour; _Hydna_, as good as oysters, which they very much
resemble in taste; _Agaricus deliciosus_, reminding us of tender lamb's
kidneys: the beautiful yellow _Chantarelle_, that _kalon kagathon_ of
diet, growing by the bushel, and no basket but our own to pick up a few
specimens in our way; the sweet nutty-flavoured _Boletus_, in vain
calling himself _edulis_ when there was none to believe him; the dainty
_Orcella_; the _Ag. hetherophyllus_, which tastes like the crawfish when
grilled; the _Ag. ruber_ and _Ag. virescens_, to cook in any way, and
equally good in all."
As to the fairy rings (Nos. 1, 2, and 3) a great amount of legendary
lore was connected with them. Browne notices them--
"A pleasant mead
Where fairies often did their measures tread,
Which in the meadows makes such circles green
As if with garlands it had crowned been."
_Britannia's Pastorals._
Cowley said--
"Where once such fairies dance,
No grass does ever grow;"
and in Shakespeare's time the sheep refused to eat the grass on the
fairy rings (1); I believe they now feed on it, but I have not been able
to ascertain this with certainty. Others, besides the sheep, avoided
them. "When the damsels of old gathered may-dew on the grass, which they
made use of to improve their complexions, they left undisturbed such of
it as they perceived on the fairy rings, apprehensive that the fairies
should in revenge destroy their beauty, nor was it reckoned safe to put
the foot within the rings, lest they should be liable to fairies'
power."--DOUCE'S _Illustrations_, p. 180.
FOOTNOTES:
[170:1] Herrick calls them "brownest Toadstones."
MUSK ROSES, _see_ ROSE.
MUSTARD.
(1) _Doll._
They say Poins has a good wit.
_Falstaff._
He a good wit? hang him, baboon! his wit's as thick as
Tewksbury Mustard; there is no more conceit in him than in a
mallet.
_2nd Henry IV_, act ii, sc. 4 (260).
(2) _Titania._
Pease-blossom! Cobweb! Moth! and Mustardseed!
* * * * *
_Bottom._
Your name, I beseech you, sir?
_Mustardseed._
Mustardseed.
_Bottom._
Good Master Mustardseed, I know your patience well; that same
cowardly giant-like ox-beef hath devoured many a gentleman
of your house: I promise you your kindred hath made my eyes
water ere now. I desire your more acquaintance, good Master
Mustardseed.
_Midsummer Night's Dream_, act iii, sc. 1 (165, 194).
(3) _Bottom._
Where's the Mounsieur Mustardseed?
_Mustardseed._
Ready.
_Bottom._
Give me your neaf, Mounsieur Mustardseed. Pray you, leave your
courtesy, good mounsieur.
_Mustardseed._
What's your will?
_Bottom._
Nothing, good mounsieur, but to help Cavalery Cobweb to
scratch.
_Ibid._, act iv, sc. 1 (18).
(4) _Grumio._
What say you to a piece of beef and Mustard?
_Katharine._
A dish that I do love to feed upon.
_Grumio._
Ay, but the Mustard is too hot a little.
_Katharine._
Why then, the beef, and let the Mustard rest.
_Grumio._
Nay, then, I will not; you shall have the Mustard,
Or else you get no beef of Grumio.
_Katharine._
Then both, or one, or anything thou wilt.
_Grumio._
Why then, the Mustard without the beef.
_Taming of the Shrew_, act iv, sc. 3 (23).
(5) _Rosalind._
Where learned you that oath, fool?
_Touchstone._
Of a certain knight that swore by his honour they were good
pancakes, and swore by his honour the mustard was naught;
now I'll stand to it, the pancakes were naught, and the
Mustard was good, yet was the knight not forsworn. . . . .
You are not forsworn; no more was this knight swearing by
his honour, for he never had any; or if he had, he had sworn
it away before he ever saw those cakes or that Mustard.
_As You Like It_, act i, sc. 2 (65).
The following passage from Coles, in 1657, will illustrate No. 1: "In
Gloucestershire about Teuxbury they grind Mustard and make it into balls
which are brought to London and other remote places as being the best
that the world affords." These Mustard balls were the form in which
Mustard was usually sold, until Mrs. Clements, of Durham, in the last
century, invented the method of dressing mustard-flour, like
wheat-flour, and made her fortune with Durham Mustard; and it has been
supposed that this was the only form in which Mustard was sold in
Shakespeare's time, and that it was eaten dry as we eat pepper. But the
following from an Anglo-Saxon Leech-book seems to speak of it as used
exactly in the modern fashion. After mentioning several ingredients in a
recipe for want of appetite for meat, it says: "Triturate all
together--eke out with vinegar as may seem fit to thee, so that it may
be wrought into the form in which Mustard is tempered for flavouring,
put it then into a glass vessel, and then with bread, or with whatever
meat thou choose, lap it with a spoon, that will help" ("Leech Book,"
ii. 5, Cockayne's translation). And Parkinson's account is to the same
effect: "The seeds hereof, ground between two stones, fitted for the
purpose, and called a quern, with some good vinegar added to it to make
it liquid and running, is that kind of Mustard that is usually made of
all sorts to serve as sauce both for fish and flesh." And to the same
effect the "Boke of Nurture"--
"Yet make moche of Mustard, and put it not away,
For with every dische he is dewest who so lust to assay."
(L. 853).
MYRTLE.
(1) _Euphronius._
I was of late as petty to his ends
As is the morn-dew on the Myrtle-leaf
To his grand sea.
_Antony and Cleopatra_, act iii, sc. 12 (8).
(2) _Isabella._
Merciful Heaven,
Thou rather with thy sharp and sulphurous bolt
Split'st the unwedgeable and gnarled Oak
Than the soft Myrtle.
_Measure for Measure_, act ii, sc. 2 (114).
(3)
Venus, with young Adonis sitting by her,
Under a Myrtle shade began to woo him.
_Passionate Pilgrim_ (143).
(4)
Then sad she hasteth to a Myrtle grove.
_Venus and Adonis_ (865).
Myrtle is of course the English form of _myrtus_; but the older English
name was Gale, a name which is still applied to the bog-myrtle.[174:1]
Though a most abundant shrub in the South of Europe, and probably
introduced into England before the time of Shakespeare, the myrtle was
only grown in a very few places, and was kept alive with difficulty, so
that it was looked upon not only as a delicate and an elegant rarity,
but as the established emblem of refined beauty. In the Bible it is
always associated with visions and representations of peacefulness and
plenty, and Milton most fitly uses it in the description of our first
parents' "blissful bower"--
"The roofe
Of thickest covert was inwoven shade,
Laurel and Mirtle, and what higher grew
Of firm and fragrant leaf."
_Paradise Lost_, iv.
In heathen times the Myrtle was dedicated to Venus, and from this arose
the custom in mediæval times of using the flowers for bridal garlands,
which thus took the place of Orange blossoms in our time.
"The lover with the Myrtle sprays
Adorns his crisped cresses."
DRAYTON, _Muse's Elysium_.
"And I will make thee beds of Roses,
And a thousand fragrant posies,
A cap of flowers, and a kirtle
Embroidered o'er with leaves of Myrtle."
_Roxburghe Ballads._
As a garden shrub every one will grow the Myrtle that can induce it to
grow. There is no difficulty in its cultivation, provided only that the
climate suits it, and the climate that suits it best is the
neighbourhood of the sea. Virgil describes the Myrtles as "amantes
littora myrtos," and those who have seen the Myrtle as it grows on the
Devonshire and Cornish coasts will recognise the truth of his
description.
FOOTNOTES:
[174:1] "Gayle; mirtus."--_Catholicon Anglicum_, p. 147, with note.
NARCISSUS.
_Emilia._
This garden has a world of pleasures in't,
What flowre is this?
_Servant._
'Tis called Narcissus, madam.
_Emilia._
That was a faire boy certaine, but a foole,
To love himselfe; were there not maides enough?
_Two Noble Kinsmen_, act ii, sc. 2 (130).
_See_ DAFFODILS, p. 73.
NETTLES.
(1) _Cordelia._
Crown'd with rank Fumiter and Furrow-weeds,
With Burdocks, Hemlock, Nettles, Cuckoo-flowers.
_King Lear_, act iv, sc. 4. (3).
(2) _Queen._
Crow-flowers, Nettles, Daisies, and Long Purples.
_Hamlet_, act iv, sc. 7 (170).
(_See_ CROW-FLOWERS.)
(3) _Antonio._
He'd sow't with Nettle-seed.
_Tempest_, act ii, sc. 1 (145).
(4) _Saturninus._
Look for thy reward
Among the Nettles at the Elder Tree.
_Titus Andronicus_, act ii, sc. 3 (271).
(5) _Sir Toby._