About this book

The plant-lore & garden-craft of Shakespeare

Henry Nicholson Ellacombe

always under glass. [191:2] "Bot. Mag.," 6513. [192:1] For an account of the early importation of the fruit see "Promptorium Parvulorum," p. 371, note. OSIER, _see_ WILLOW. OXLIPS. (1) _Perdita._ Bold Oxlips, and The Crown Imperial. _Winter's Tale_, act iv, sc. 4 (125). (2) _Oberon._ I know a bank where the wild Thyme blows, Where Oxlips and the nodding Violet grows. _Midsummer Night's Dream_, act ii, sc. 1 (249). (3) Oxlips in their cradles growing. _Two Noble Kinsmen_, Intro. song. The true Oxlip (_Primula eliator_) is so like both the Primrose and Cowslip that it has been by many supposed to be a hybrid between the two. Sir Joseph Hooker, however, considers it a true species. It is a handsome plant, but it is probably not the "bold Oxlip" of Shakespeare, or the plant which is such a favourite in cottage gardens. The true Oxlip (P. elatior of Jacquin) is an eastern counties' plant; while the common forms of the Oxlip are hybrids between the Cowslip and Primrose. (_See_ COWSLIP and PRIMROSE.) PALM TREE. (1) _Rosalind._ Look here what I found on a Palm tree. _As You Like It_, act iii, sc. 2 (185). (2) _Hamlet._ As love between them like the Palm might flourish. _Hamlet_, act v, sc. 2 (40). (3) _Volumnia._ And bear the Palm for having bravely shed Thy wife and children's blood. _Coriolanus_, act v, sc. 3 (117). (4) _Cassius._ And bear the Palm alone. _Julius Cæsar_, act i, sc. 2 (131). (5) _Painter._ You shall see him a Palm in Athens again, and flourish with the highest. _Timon of Athens_, act v, sc. 1 (12). (6) _The Vision._--Enter, solemnly tripping one after another, six personages, clad in white robes, wearing on their heads garlands of Bays, and golden vizards on their faces, branches of Bays or Palm in their hands. _Henry VIII_, act iv, sc. 2. To these passages may be added the following, in which the Palm tree is certainly alluded to though it is not mentioned by name-- _Sebastian._ That in Arabia There is one tree, the Phoenix' throne; one Phoenix At this hour reigning there. _Tempest_, act iii, sc. 3 (22).[193:1] And from the poem by Shakespeare, published in Chester's "Love's Martyr," 1601. "Let the bird of loudest lay On the sole Arabian tree Herald sad and Trumpet be, To whose sound chaste wings obey." Two very distinct trees are named in these passages. In the last five the reference is to the true Palm of Biblical and classical fame, as the emblem of victory, and the typical representation of life and beauty in the midst of barren waste and deserts. And we are not surprised at the veneration in which the tree was held, when we consider either the wonderful grace of the tree, or its many uses in its native countries, so many, that Pliny says that the Orientals reckoned 360 uses to which the Palm tree could be applied. Turner, in 1548, said: "I never saw any perfit Date tree yet, but onely a little one that never came to perfection;"[194:1] and whether Shakespeare ever saw a living Palm tree is doubtful, but he may have done so. (_See_ DATE.) Now there are a great number grown in the large houses of botanic and other gardens, the Palm-house at Kew showing more and better specimens than can be seen in any other collection in Europe: even the open garden can now boast of a few species that will endure our winters without protection. Chamærops humilis and Fortunei seem to be perfectly hardy, and good specimens may be seen in several gardens; Corypha australis is also said to be quite hardy, and there is little doubt but that the Date Palm (_Phoenix dactylifera_), which has long been naturalized in the South of Europe, would live in Devonshire and Cornwall, and that of the thousand species of Palms growing in so many different parts of the world, some will yet be found that may grow well in the open air in England. But the Palm tree in No. 1 is a totally different tree, and much as Shakespeare has been laughed at for placing a Palm tree in the Forest of Arden, the laugh is easily turned against those who raise such an objection. The Palm tree of the Forest of Arden is the "Satin-shining Palm On Sallows in the windy gleams of March"-- _Idylls of the King_--Vivien. that is, the Early Willow (_Salix caprea_) and I believe it is so called all over England, as it is in Northern Germany, and probably in other northern countries. There is little doubt that the name arose from the custom of using the Willow branches with the pretty golden catkins on Palm Sunday as a substitute for Palm branches. "In Rome upon Palm Sunday they bear true Palms, The Cardinals bow reverently and sing old Psalms; Elsewhere those Psalms are sung 'mid Olive branches, The Holly branch supplies the place among the avalanches; More northern climes must be content with the sad Willow." GOETHE (quoted by Seeman). But besides Willow branches, Yew branches are sometimes used for the same purpose, and so we find Yews called Palms. Evelyn says they were so called in Kent; they are still so called in Ireland, and in the churchwarden's accounts of Woodbury, Devonshire, is the following entry: "Memorandum, 1775. That a Yew or Palm tree was planted in the churchyard, ye south side of the church, in the same place where one was blown down by the wind a few days ago, this 25th of November."[195:1] How Willow or Yew branches could ever have been substituted for such a very different branch as a Palm it is hard to say, but in lack of a better explanation, I think it not unlikely that it might have arisen from the direction for the Feast of Tabernacles in Leviticus xxiii. 40: "Ye shall take you on the first day the boughs of goodly trees, the branches of Palm trees, and the boughs of thick trees, and Willows of the brook." But from whatever cause the name and the custom was derived, the Willow was so named in very early times, and in Shakespeare's time the name was very common. Here is one instance among many-- "Lambs frisk and play, the shepherds pipe all day, The Palms and May make country houses gay, And we hear aye birds tune this merry lay-- Cuckoo, jug-jug, pee-we, to-witta-woo." T. NASH. 1567-1601. FOOTNOTES: [193:1] I do not include among "Palms" the passage in _Hamlet_, act i, sc. 1: "In the most high and palmy state of Rome," because I bow to Archdeacon Nares' judgment that "palmy" here means "grown to full height, in allusion to the palms of the stag's horns, when they have attained to their utmost growth." He does not, however, decide this with certainty, and the question may be still an open one. [194:1] "Names of Herbes," s.v. Palma. [195:1] In connection with this, Turner's account of the Palm in 1538 is worth quoting: "Palm[=a] arborem in anglia nunq' me vidisse memini. Indie tamen ramis palmar[=u] (ut illi loq[=u]ntur) soepius sacerdot[=e] dicent[=e] andivi. Bendic eti[=a] et hos palmar[=u] ramos, qu[=u] proeter salignas frondes nihil omnino vider[=e] ego, quid alii viderint nescio. Si nobis palmarum frondes non suppeterent; proestaret me judice mutare lectionem et dicere. Benedic hos salic[=u] ramos q' falso et mendaciter salicum frondes palmarum frondes vocare."--LIBELLUS, _De re Herbaria_, s.v. Palma. PANSIES. (1) _Ophelia._ And there is Pansies--that's for thoughts. _Hamlet_, act iv, sc. 5 (176). (2) _Lucentio._ But see, while idly I stood looking on, I found the effect of Love-in-idleness. _Taming of the Shrew_, act i, sc. 1 (155). (3) _Oberon._ Yet mark'd I where the bolt of Cupid fell: It fell upon a little western flower, Before milk-white, now purple with love's wound, And maidens call it Love-in-idleness. Fetch me that flower; the herb I show'd thee once; The juice of it on sleeping eye-lids laid Will make or man or woman madly dote Upon the next live creature that it sees. _Midsummer Night's Dream_, act ii, sc. 1 (165). (4) _Oberon._ Dian's Bud o'er Cupid's flower Hath such free and blessed power. _Ibid._, act iv, sc. 1 (78). The Pansy is one of the oldest favourites in English gardens, and the affection for it is shown in the many names that were given to it. The Anglo-Saxon name was Banwort or Bonewort, though why such a name was given to it we cannot now say. Nor can we satisfactorily explain its common names of Pansy or Pawnce (from the French, _pensées_--"that is, for thoughts," says Ophelia), or Heart's-ease,[196:1] which name was originally given to the Wallflower. The name Cupid's flower seems to be peculiar to Shakespeare, but the other name, Love-in-idle, or idleness, is said to be still in use in Warwickshire, and signifies love in vain, or to no purpose, as in Chaucer: "The prophet David saith; If God ne kepe not the citee, in ydel waketh he that keptit it."[196:2] And in Tyndale's translation of the New Testament, "I have prechid to you, if ye holden, if ye hav not bileved ideli" (1 Cor. xv. 2). "Beynge plenteuous in werk of the Lord evermore, witynge that youre traveil is not idel in the Lord" (1 Cor. xv. 58). But beside these more common names, Dr. Prior mentions the following: "Herb Trinity, Three faces under a hood, Fancy, Flamy,[197:1] Kiss me, Cull me or Cuddle me to you, Tickle my fancy, Kiss me ere I rise, Jump up and kiss me, Kiss me at the garden gate, Pink of my John, and several more of the same amatory character." Spenser gives the flower a place in his "Royal aray" for Elisa-- "Strowe me the grounde with Daffadowndillies, And Cowslips, and Kingcups, and loved Lillies, The pretie Pawnce, And the Chevisaunce Shall match with the fayre Flower Delice." And in another place he speaks of the "Paunces trim"--_F. Q._, iii. 1. Milton places it in Eve's couch-- "Flowers were the couch, Pansies, and Violets, and Asphodel, And Hyacinth, earth's freshest, softest lap." He names it also as part of the wreath of Sabrina-- "Pansies, Pinks, and gaudy Daffadils;" and as one of the flowers to strew the hearse of Lycidas-- "The White Pink and the Pansie streaked with jet, The glowing Violet." FOOTNOTES: [196:1] "The Pansie Heart's ease Maiden's call."--DRAYTON _Ed._, ix. [196:2] And again-- "The other heste of hym is this, Take not in ydel my name or amys." _Pardeners Tale._ "Eterne God, that through thy purveance Ledest this world by certein governance, In idel, as men sein, ye nothinge make." _The Frankelynes Tale._ [197:1] "Flamy, because its colours are seen in the flame of wood."--_Flora Domestica_, 166. PARSLEY. _Biondello._ I knew a wench married in an afternoon as she went to the garden for Parsley to stuff a rabbit.