The plant-lore & garden-craft of Shakespeare
pretty custom in use in his day, 1631, at Frankfort: "Is mos apud nos
retinetur, dum cupresso humile, vel rore marino, non solum coronamus
funera jamjam ducenda, sed et iis appendimus ex iisdem herbis litteras
collectas, significatrices nominis ejus quæ defuncta est. Nam in
puellarum funeribus hæc fere fieri solent" ("Horticulturæ," cap. vj.).
Its use at weddings is pleasantly told in the old ballad of "The Bride's
Good-morrow"--
"The house is drest and garnisht for your sake
With flowers gallant and green;
A solemn feast your comely cooks do ready make,
Where all your friends will be seen:
Young men and maids do ready stand
With sweet Rosemary in their hand--
A perfect token of your virgin's life.
To wait upon you they intend
Unto the church to make an end:
And God make thee a joyfull wedded wife."
_Roxburghe Ballads_, vol. i.
It probably is one of the most lasting of evergreens after being
gathered, though we can scarcely credit the statement recorded by
Phillips that "it is the custom in France to put a branch of Rosemary in
the hands of the dead when in the coffin, and we are told by Valmont
Bomare, in his 'Histoire Naturelle,' that when the coffins have been
opened after several years, the plant has been found to have vegetated
so much that the leaves have covered the corpse." These were the
general and popular uses of the Rosemary, but it was of high repute as a
medicine, and still holds a place, though not so high as formerly, in
the "Pharmacopoeia." "Rosemary," says Parkinson, "is almost of as
great use as Bayes, both for inward and outward remedies, and as well
for civill as physicall purposes--inwardly for the head and heart,
outwardly for the sinews and joynts; for civile uses, as all do know, at
weddings, funerals, &c., to bestow among friends; and the physicall are
so many that you might as well be tyred in the reading as I in the
writing, if I should set down all that might be said of it."
With this high character we may well leave this good, old-fashioned
plant, merely noting that the name is popularly but erroneously supposed
to mean the Rose of Mary. It has no connection with either Rose or Mary,
but is the Ros marinus, or Ros Maris (as in Ovid--
"Ros maris, et laurus, nigraque myrtus olent;"
_De Arte Aman._, iii, 390),
the plant that delights in the sea-spray; and so the old spelling was
Rosmarin. Gower says of the Star Alpheta--
"His herbe proper is Rosmarine;"
_Conf. Aman._, lib. sept.
a spelling which Shenstone adopted--
"And here trim Rosmarin that whilom crowned
The daintiest garden of the proudest peer."
It was also sometimes called Guardrobe, being "put into chests and
presses among clothes, to preserve them from mothes and other vermine."
FOOTNOTES:
[256:1] Grace was symbolized by the Rue, or Herb of Grace, and
remembrance by the Rosemary.
RUE.
(1) _Perdita._
For you there's Rosemary and Rue.
_Winter's Tale_, act iv, sc. 4 (74).
(_See_ ROSEMARY, No. 1.)
(2) _Gardener._
Here did she fall a tear; here in this place
I'll set a bank of Rue, sour Herb of Grace:
Rue, even for ruth, here shortly shall beseen,
In the remembrance of a weeping queen.
_Richard II_, act iii, sc. 4 (104).
(3) _Antony._
Grace grow where these drops fall.
_Antony and Cleopatra_, act iv, sc. 2 (38).
(4) _Ophelia._
There's Rue for you; and here's some for me: we may call it
Herb-grace o' Sundays: O, you must wear your Rue with a
difference.
_Hamlet_, act iv, sc. 5 (181).
(5) _Clown._
Indeed, sir, she was the Sweet Marjoram of the salad, or
rather the Herb of Grace.
_Lafeu._
They are not salad-herbs, you knave, they are nose-herbs.
_All's Well that Ends Well_, act iv, sc. 5 (17).
Comparing (2) and (3) together, there is little doubt that the same herb
is alluded to in both; and it is, perhaps, alluded to, though not
exactly named, in the following:
_Friar Laurence._
In man, as well as herbs, grace and rude will.
_Romeo and Juliet_, act ii, sc. 3 (28).
Shakespeare thus gives us the two names for the same plant, Rue and Herb
of Grace, and though at first sight there seems to be little or no
connection between the two names, yet really they are so closely
connected, that the one name was derived from, or rather suggested by,
the other. Rue is the English form of the Greek and Latin _ruta_, a word
which has never been explained, and in its earlier English form of
_rude_ came still nearer to the Latin original. But _ruth_ was the
English word for sorrow and remorse, and _to rue_ was to be sorry for
anything, or to have pity;[260:1] we still say a man will rue a
particular action, _i.e._, be sorry for it; and so it was a natural
thing to say that a plant which was so bitter, and had always borne the
name _Rue_ or _Ruth_, must be connected with repentance. It was,
therefore, the Herb of Repentance, and this was soon transformed into
the Herb of Grace (in 1838 Loudon said, "It is to this day called Ave
Grace in Sussex"), repentance being the chief sign of grace; and it is
not unlikely that this idea was strengthened by the connection of Rue
with the bitter herbs of the Bible, though it is only once mentioned,
and then with no special remark, except as a tithable garden herb,
together with Anise and Cummin.
The Rue, like Lavender and Rosemary, is a native of the more barren
parts of the coasts of the Mediterranean, and has been found on Mount
Tabor, but it was one of the earliest occupants of the English Herb
garden. It is very frequently mentioned in the Saxon Leech Books, and
entered so largely into their prescriptions that it must have been very
extensively grown. Its strong aromatic smell,[261:1] and bitter taste,
with the blistering quality of the leaves, soon established its
character as almost a heal-all.
"Rew bitter a worthy gres (herb)
Mekyl of myth and vertu is."
_Stockholm MS._, 1305.
Even beasts were supposed to have discovered its virtues, so that
weasels were gravely said, and this by such men as Pliny, to eat Rue
when they were preparing themselves for a fight with rats and serpents.
Its especial virtue was an eye-salve, a use which Milton did not
overlook--
"To nobler sights
Michael from Adam's eyes the filme removed
Which that false fruit which promised clearer sight
Had bred; then purged with Euphrasie and Rue
The visual nerve, for he had much to see:"
_Paradise Lost_, book xi.;
and which was more fully stated in the old lines of the Schola Salerni--
"Nobilis est Ruta quia lumina reddit acuta;
Auxilio rutæ, vir lippe, videbis acute;
Cruda comesta recens oculos Caligine purgat;
Ruta facit castum, dat lumen, et ingerit astum;
Cocta facit Ruta et de pollicibus loca tuta."
After reading this high moral and physical character of the herb, it is
rather startling to find that "It is believed that if stolen from a
neighbour's garden it would prosper better." It was, however, an old
belief--
"They sayen eke stolen sede is butt the bette."
_Palladius on Husbandrie_ (c. 1420) iv, 269.
"It is a common received opinion that Rue will grow the better if it
bee filtched out of another man's garden."--HOLLAND'S _Pliny_, xix. 7.
As other medicines were introduced the Rue declined in favour, so that
Parkinson spoke of it with qualified praise--"Without doubt it is a most
wholesom herb, although bitter and strong. Some do rip up a bead-rowl of
the virtues of Rue, . . . but beware of the too-frequent or overmuch use
therof." And Dr. Daubeny says of it, "It is a powerful stimulant and
narcotic, but not much used in modern practise."
As a garden plant, the Rue forms a pretty shrub for a rock-work, if
somewhat attended to, so as to prevent its becoming straggling and
untidy. The delicate green and peculiar shape of the leaves give it a
distinctive character, which forms a good contrast to other plants.
FOOTNOTES:
[260:1]
"Rewe on my child, that of thyn gentilnesse
Rewest on every sinful in destresse."
CHAUCER, _The Man of Lawes Tale_.
[261:1] "Ranke-smelling Rue."--SPENSER, _Muiopotmos_.
RUSH.
(1) _Rosalind._
He taught me how to know a man in love; in which cage of
Rushes I am sure you are not prisoner.
_As You Like It_, act iii, sc. 2 (388).
(2) _Phoebe._
Lean but on a Rush,
The cicatrice and capable impressure
Thy palm some moment keeps.
_Ibid._, act iii, sc. 5 (22).
(3) _Clown._
As fit as Tib's Rush for Tom's forefinger.
_All's Well that Ends Well_, act ii, sc. 2 (24).
(4) _Romeo._
Let wantons light of heart
Tickle the senseless Rushes with their heels.
_Romeo and Juliet_, act i, sc. 4 (35).
(5) _Dromio of Syracuse._
Some devils ask but the parings of one's nail,
A Rush, a hair, a drop of blood, a pin,
A Nut, a Cherry-stone.
_Comedy of Errors_, act iv, sc. 3 (72).
(6) _Bastard._
A Rush will be a beam
To hang thee on.
_King John_, act iv, sc. 3 (129).
(7) _1st Groom._
More Rushes, more Rushes.
_2nd Henry IV_, act v, sc. 5 (1).
(8) _Eros._
He's walking in the garden--thus; and spurns
The Rush that lies before him.
_Antony and Cleopatra_, act iii, sc. 5 (17).
(9) _Othello._
Man but a Rush against Othello's breast,
And he retires.
_Othello_, act v, sc. 2 (270).
(10) _Grumio._
Is supper ready, the house trimmed, Rushes strewed, cobwebs
swept?
_Taming of the Shrew_, act iv, sc. 1 (47).
(11) _Katherine._
Be it moon or sun, or what you please,
And if you please to call it a Rush-candle,
Henceforth I vow it shall be so for me.
_Ibid._, act iv, sc. 5 (13).
(12) _Glendower._
She bids you on the wanton Rushes lay you down,
And rest your gentle head upon her lap.
_1st Henry IV_, act iii, sc. 1 (214).
(13) _Marcius._
He that depends
Upon your favours swims with fins of lead
And hews down Oaks with Rushes.
_Coriolanus_, act i, sc. 1 (183).
(14) _Iachimo._
Our Tarquin thus
Did softly press the Rushes.
_Cymbeline_, act ii, sc. 2 (12).
(15) _Senator._
Our gates
Which yet seem shut, we have but pinn'd with Rushes!
They'll open of themselves.
_Coriolanus_, act i, sc. 4 (16).
(16)
And being lighted, by the light he spies
Lucretia's glove, wherein her needle sticks;
He takes it from the Rushes where it lies.