The plant-lore & garden-craft of Shakespeare
A{e} Safurroun;" and in a Pictorial Vocabulary of the fourteenth
century, "Hic Crocus, An{ce} Safryn;" so that I think the plant must
have been in cultivation in England at that time. The usual statement,
made by one writer after another, is that it was introduced by Sir
Thomas Smith into the neighbourhood of Walden in the time of Edward
III., but the original authority for this statement is unknown. The most
authentic account is that by Hakluyt in 1582, and though it is rather
long, it is worth extracting in full. It occurs in some instructions in
"Remembrances for Master S.," who was going into Turkey, giving him
hints what to observe in his travels: "Saffron, the best of the
universall world, groweth in this realme. . . . It is a spice that is
cordiall, and may be used in meats, and that is excellent in dying of
yellow silks. This commodity of Saffron groweth fifty miles from
Tripoli, in Syria, on an high hyll, called in those parts Gasian, so as
there you may learn at that part of Tripoli the value of the pound, the
goodnesse of it, and the places of the vent. But it is said that from
that hyll there passeth yerely of that commodity fifteen moiles laden,
and that those regions notwithstanding lacke sufficiency of that
commodity. But if a vent might be found, men would in Essex (about
Saffron Walden), and in Cambridgeshire, revive the trade for the benefit
of the setting of the poore on worke. So would they do in Herefordshire
by Wales, where the best of all England is, in which place the soil
yields the wilde Saffron commonly, which showeth the natural inclination
of the same soile to the bearing of the right Saffron, if the soile be
manured and that way employed. . . It is reported at Saffron Walden that
a pilgrim, proposing to do good to his countrey, stole a head of
Saffron, and hid the same in his Palmer's staffe, which he had made
hollow before of purpose, and so he brought the root into this realme
with venture of his life, for if he had bene taken, by the law of the
countrey from whence it came, he had died for the fact."--_English
Voiages, &c._, vol. ii. From this account it seems clear that even in
Hakluyt's time Saffron had been so long introduced that the history of
its introduction was lost; and I think it very probable that, as was
suggested by Coles in his "Adam in Eden" (1657), we are indebted to the
Romans for this, as for so many of our useful plants. But it is not a
Roman or Italian plant. Spenser wrote of it as--
"Saffron sought for in Cilician soyle--"[270:1]
and Browne--
"Saffron confected in Cilicia"--_Brit. Past._, i, 2;
which information they derived from Pliny. It is supposed to be a native
of Asia Minor, but so altered by long cultivation that it never produces
seed either in England or in other parts of Europe.[270:2] This fact led
M. Chappellier, of Paris, who has for many years studied the history of
the plant, to the belief that it was a hybrid; but finding that when
fertilized with the pollen of a Crocus found wild in Greece, and known
as C. sativus var. Græcus (_Orphanidis_), it produces seed abundantly,
he concludes that it is a variety of that species, which it very much
resembles, but altered and rendered sterile by cultivation. It is not
now much cultivated in England, but we have abundant authority from
Tusser, Gerard, Parkinson, Camden, and many other writers, that it was
largely cultivated before and after Shakespeare's time, and that the
quality of the English Saffron was very superior.[271:1] The importance
of the crop is shown by its giving its name to Saffron Walden in
Essex,[271:2] and to Saffron Hill in London, which "was formerly a part
of Ely Gardens" (of which we shall hear again when we come to speak of
Strawberries), "and derives its name from the crops of Saffron which it
bore."--CUNNINGHAM. The plant has in the same way given its name to
Zaffarano, a village in Sicily, near Mount Etna, and to Zafaranboly,
"ville située près Inobole en Anatolie, au sud-est de l'ancienne
Héraclée."--CHAPPELLIER. The plant is largely cultivated in many parts
of Europe, but the chief centres of cultivation are in the
arrondissement of Pithiviers in France, and the province of Arragon in
Spain; and the chief consumers are the Germans. It has also been largely
cultivated in China for a great many years, and the bulbs now imported
from China are found to be, in many points, superior to the
European--"l'invasion Tartare aurait porté le Safran en Chine, et de
leur côté les croisés l'auraient importé en Europe."--CHAPPELLIER.
I need scarcely say that the parts of the plant that produce the Saffron
are the sweet-scented stigmata, the "Crocei odores" of Virgil; but the
use of Saffron has now so gone out of fashion, that it may be well to
say something of its uses in the time of Shakespeare, as a medicine, a
dye, and a confection. On all three points its virtues were so many that
there is a complete literature on Crocus. I need not name all the books
on the subject, but the title page of one (a duodecimo of nearly three
hundred pages) may be quoted as an example: "Crocologia seu curiosa
Croci Regis Vegetabilium enucleatio continens Illius etymologiam,
differencias, tempus quo viret et floret, culturam, collectionem, usum
mechanicum, Pharmaceuticum, Chemico medicum, omnibus pene humani
corporis partibus destinatum additis diversis observationibus et
questionibus Crocum concernentibus ad normam et formam S. R. I. Academiæ
Naturæ curiosorum congesta a Dan: Ferdinando Hertodt, Phys. et Med.
Doc., &c., &c. Jenæ. 1671." After this we may content ourselves with
Gerard's summary of its virtues: "The moderate use of it is good for the
head, and maketh sences more quicke and lively, shaketh off heavy and
drowsie sleep and maketh a man mery." For its use in confections this
will suffice from the "Apparatus Plantarum" of Laurembergius, 1632: "In
re familiari vix ullus est telluris habitatus angulus ubi non sit Croci
quotodiana usurpatio, aspersi vel incocti cibis." And as to its uses as
a dye, its penetrating powers were proverbial, of which Luther's Sermons
will supply an instance: "As the Saffron bag that hath bene ful of
Saffron, or hath had Saffron in it, doth ever after savour and smel of
the swete Saffron that it contayneth; so our blessed Ladye which
conceived and bare Christe in her wombe, dyd ever after resemble the
maners and vertues of that precious babe which she bare" ("Fourth
Sermon," 1548). One of the uses to which Saffron was applied in the
Middle Ages was for the manufacture of the beautiful gold colour used in
the illumination of missals, &c., where the actual gold was not used.
This is the recipe from the work of Theophilus in the eleventh century:
"If ye wish to decorate your work in some manner take tin pure and
finely scraped; melt it and wash it like gold, and apply it with the
same glue upon letters or other places which you wish to ornament with
gold or silver; and when you have polished it with a tooth, take Saffron
with which silk is colored, moistening it with clear of egg without
water, and when it has stood a night, on the following day cover with a
pencil the places which you wish to gild, the rest holding the place of
silver" (Book i, c. 23, Hendrie's translation).
Though the chief fame of the Saffron Crocus is as a field plant, yet it
is also a very handsome flower; but it is a most capricious one, which
may account for the area of cultivation being so limited. In some places
it entirely refuses to flower, as it does in my own garden, where I have
cultivated it for many years but never saw a flower, while in a
neighbour's garden, under apparently the very same conditions of soil
and climate, it flowers every autumn. But if we cannot succeed with the
Saffron Crocus, there are many other Croci which were known in the time
of Shakespeare, and grown not "for any other use than in regard of
their beautiful flowers of several varieties, as they have been
carefully sought out and preserved by divers to furnish a garden of
dainty curiosity." Gerard had in his garden only six species; Parkinson
had or described thirty-one different sorts, and after his time new
kinds were not so much sought after till Dean Herbert collected and
studied them. His monograph of the Crocus, in 1847, contained the
account of forty-one species, besides many varieties. The latest
arrangement of the family by Mr. George Maw, of Broseley, contains
sixty-eight species, besides varieties; of these all are not yet in
cultivation, but every year sees some fresh addition to the number,
chiefly by the unwearied exertions in finding them in their native
habitats, and the liberal distribution of them when found, of Mr. Maw,
to whom all the lovers of the Crocus are deeply indebted. And the Croci
are so beautiful that we cannot have too many of them; they are, for the
most part, perfectly hardy, though some few require a little protection
in winter; they are of an infinite variety of colour, and some flower in
the spring and some in the autumn. Most of us call the Crocus a spring
flower, yet there are more autumnal than vernal species, but it is as a
spring flower that we most value it. The common yellow Crocus is almost
as much "the first-born of the year's delight" as the Snowdrop. No one
can tell its native country, but it has been the brightest ornament of
our gardens, not only in spring, but even in winter, for many years. It
was probably first introduced during Shakespeare's life. "It hath
floures," says Gerard, "of a most perfect shining yellow colour, seeming
afar off to be a hot glowing coal of fire. That pleasant plant was sent
unto me from Robinus, of Paris, that painful and most curious searcher
of simples." From that beginning perhaps it has found its way into every
garden, for it increases rapidly, is very hardy, and its brightness
commends it to all. It is the "most gladsome of the early flowers. None
gives more glowing welcome to the season, or strikes on our first
glance with a ray of keener pleasure, when, with some bright morning's
warmth, the solitary golden fringes have kindled into knots of
thick-clustered yellow bloom on the borders of the cottage garden. At a
distance the eye is caught by that glowing patch, its warm heart open to
the sun, and dear to the honey-gathering bees which hum around the
chalices."--FORBES WATSON.
With this pretty picture I may well close the account of the Crocus, but
not because the subject is exhausted, for it is very tempting to go much
further, and to speak of the beauties of the many species, and of the
endless forms and colours of the grand Dutch varieties; and whatever
admiration may be expressed for the common yellow Dutch Crocus, the same
I would also give to almost every member of this lovely and cheerful
family.
FOOTNOTES:
[268:1] Fuller says of the crocodile--"He hath his name of
+chrocho-deilos+, or the Saffron-fearer, knowing himself to be all
poison, and it all antidote."--_Worthies of England_, i, 336, ed. 1811.
[270:1] "Cilician," or "Corycean," were the established classical
epithets to use when speaking of the Saffron. Cowley quotes--
"Corycii pressura Croci"--LUCAN;
"Ultima Corycio quæ cadit aura Croco"--MARTIAL;
and adds the note--"Omnes Poetæ hoc quasi solenni quodam Epitheto
utuntur. Corycus nomen urbis et montis in Cilicia, ubi laudatissimus
Crocus nascebatur."--_Plantarum_, lib. i, 49.
[270:2] "Saffron is . . . a native of Cashmere, . . . and the . . .
Saffron Crocus and the Hemp plant have followed their (the Aryans)
migrations together throughout the temperate zone of the
globe."--BIRDWOOD, _Handbook to the Indian Court_, p. 23.
[271:1] "Our English hony and Safron is better than any that commeth
from any strange or foregn land."--BULLEIN, _Government of Health_,