The plant-lore & garden-craft of Shakespeare
1588.
[271:2] The arms of the borough of Saffron Walden are "three Saffron
flowers walled in."
SAMPHIRE.
_Edgar._
Half-way down
Hangs one that gathers Samphire, dreadful trade!
Methinks he seems no bigger than his head.
_King Lear_, act iv, sc. 6 (14).
Being found only on rocks, the Samphire was naturally associated with
St. Peter, and so it was called in Italian Herba di San Pietro, in
English Sampire and Rock Sampier[274:1]--in other words, Samphire is
simply a corruption of Saint Peter. The plant grows round all the coasts
of Great Britain and Ireland, wherever there are suitable rocks on which
it can grow, and on all the coasts of Europe, except the northern
coasts; and it is a plant very easily recognized, if not by its
pale-green, fleshy leaves, yet certainly by its taste, or its "smell
delightful and pleasant." The leaves form the pickle, "the pleasantest
sauce, most familiar, and best agreeing with man's body," but now much
out of fashion. In Shakespeare's time the gathering of Samphire was a
regular trade, and Steevens quotes from Smith's "History of Waterford"
to show the danger attending the trade: "It is terrible to see how
people gather it, hanging by a rope several fathoms from the top of the
impending rocks, as it were in the air." In our own time the quantity
required could be easily got without much danger, for it grows in places
perfectly accessible in sufficient quantity for the present
requirements, for in some parts it grows away from the cliffs, so that
"the fields about Porth Gwylan, in Carnarvonshire, are covered with
it." It may even be grown in the garden, especially in gardens near the
sea, and makes a pretty plant for rockwork.
There is a story connected with the Samphire which shows how botanical
knowledge, like all other knowledge, may be of great service, even where
least expected. Many years ago a ship was wrecked on the Sussex coast,
and a small party were left on a rock not far from land. To their horror
they found the sea rising higher and higher, and threatening before long
to cover their place of refuge. Some of them proposed to try and swim
for land, and would have done so, but just as they were preparing for it
an officer saw a plant of Samphire growing on the rock, and told them
they might stay and trust to that little plant that the sea would rise
no further, for that the Samphire, though always growing within the
spray of the sea, never grows where the sea could actually touch it.
They believed him and were saved.
FOOTNOTES:
[274:1] Dr. Prior.
SAVORY.
_Perdita._
Here's flowers for you;
Hot Lavender, Mints, Savory, Marjoram.
_Winter's Tale_, act iv, sc. 4. (103).
Savory might be supposed to get its name as being a plant of special
savour, but the name comes from its Latin name _Saturcia_, through the
Italian _Savoreggia_. It is a native of the South of Europe, probably
introduced into England by the Romans, for it is mentioned in the
Anglo-Saxon recipes under the imported name of Savorie. It was a very
favourite plant in the old herb gardens, and both kinds, the Winter and
Summer Savory, were reckoned "among the farsing or farseting herbes, as
they call them" (Parkinson), _i.e._, herbs used for stuffing.[275:1]
Both kinds are still grown in herb gardens, but are very little used.
FOOTNOTES:
[275:1]
"His typet was ay farsud ful of knyfes
And pynnes, for to give fair wyves."
_Canterbury Tale_, Prologue.
"The farced title running before the King."
_Henry V_, act iv, sc. 1 (431).
The word still exists as "forced;" _e.g._, "a forced leg of mutton,"
"forced meat balls."
SEDGE.
(1) _2nd Servant._
And Cytherea all in Sedges hid,
Which seem to move and wanton with her breath,
Even as the waving Sedges play with wind.
_Taming of the Shrew_, Induction, sc. 2. (53).
(2) _Iris._
You nymphs, called Naiads, of the winding brooks,
With your Sedged crowns and ever-harmless looks.
_Tempest_, act iv, sc. 1 (128).
(3) _Julia._
The current that with gentle murmur glides,
Thou knowest, being stopped, impatiently doth rage;
But when his fair course is not hindered,
He makes sweet music with the enamell'd stones,
Giving a gentle kiss to every Sedge
He overtaketh in his pilgrimage;
And so by many winding nooks he strays
With willing sport to the wild ocean.
_Two Gentlemen of Verona_, act ii, sc. 7 (25).
(4) _Benedick._
Alas, poor hurt fowl! now will he creep into Sedges.
_Much Ado About Nothing_, act ii, sc. 1 (209).
(5) _Hotspur._
The gentle Severn's Sedgy bank.
_1st Henry IV_, act i, sc. 3 (98).
(6) _See_ REEDS, No. 7.
Sedge is from the Anglo-Saxon Secg, and meant almost any waterside
plant. Thus we read of the Moor Secg, and the Red Secg, and the Sea
Holly (_Eryngium maritimum_) is called the Holly Sedge. And so it was
doubtless used by Shakespeare. In our day Sedge is confined to the genus
Carex, a family growing in almost all parts of the world, and containing
about 1000 species, of which we have fifty-eight in Great Britain; they
are most graceful ornaments both of our brooks and ditches; and some of
them will make handsome garden plants. One very handsome
species--perhaps the handsomest--is C. pendula, with long tassel-like
flower-spikes hanging down in a very beautiful form, which is not
uncommon as a wild plant, and can easily be grown in the garden, and
the flower-spikes will be found very handsome additions to tall
nosegays. There is another North American species, C. Fraseri, which is
a good plant for the north side of a rock-work: it is a small plant, but
the flower is a spike of the purest white, and is very curious, and
unlike any other flower.
SENNA.
_Macbeth._
What Rhubarb, Senna, or what purgative drug
Would scour these English hence?[277:1]
_Macbeth_, act v, sc. 3 (55).
Even in the time of Shakespeare several attempts were made to grow the
Senna in England, but without success; so that he probably only knew it
as an important "purgative drug." The Senna of commerce is made from the
leaves of Cassia lanceolata and Cassia Senna, both natives of Africa,
and so unfitted for open-air cultivation in England. The Cassias are a
large family, mostly with handsome yellow flowers, some of which are
very ornamental greenhouse plants; and one from North America, Cassia
Marylandica, may be considered hardy in the South of England.
FOOTNOTES:
[277:1] In this passage the old reading for "Senna" is "Cyme," and this
is the reading of the Globe Shakespeare; but I quote the passage with
"Senna" because it is so printed in many editions.
SPEARGRASS.
_Peto._
He persuaded us to do the like.
_Bardolph._
Yea, and to tickle our noses with Speargrass to make them
bleed, and then to beslubber our garments with it and swear
it was the blood of true men.
_1st Henry IV_, act ii, sc. 4 (339).
Except in this passage I can only find Speargrass mentioned in Lupton's
"Notable Things," and there without any description, only as part of a
medical recipe: "Whosoever is tormented with sciatica or the hip gout,
let them take an herb called Speargrass, and stamp it and lay a little
thereof upon the grief." The plant is not mentioned by Lyte, Gerard,
Parkinson, or the other old herbalists, and so it is somewhat of a
puzzle. Steevens quotes from an old play, "Victories of Henry the
Fifth": "Every day I went into the field, I would take a straw and
thrust it into my nose, and make my nose bleed;" but a straw was never
called Speargrass. Asparagus was called Speerage, and the young shoots
might have been used for the purpose, but I have never heard of such a
use; Ranunculus flammula was called Spearwort, from its lanceolate
leaves, and so (according to Cockayne) was Carex acuta, still called
Spiesgrass in German. Mr. Beisly suggests the Yarrow or Millfoil; and we
know from several authorities (Lyte, Hollybush, Gerard, Phillip, Cole,
Skinner, and Lindley) that the Yarrow was called Nosebleed; but there
seems no reason to suppose that it was ever called Speargrass, or could
have been called a Grass at all, though the term Grass was often used in
the most general way. Dr. Prior suggests the Common Reed, which is
probable. I have been rather inclined to suppose it to be one of the
Horse-tails (Equiseta).[278:1] They are very sharp and spearlike, and
their rough surfaces would soon draw blood; and as a decoction of
Horse-tail was a remedy for stopping bleeding of the nose, I have
thought it very probable that such a supposed virtue could only have
arisen when remedies were sought for on the principle of "similia
similibus curantur;" so that a plant, which in one form produced
nose-bleeding, would, when otherwise administered, be the natural
remedy. But I now think that all these suggested plants must give way in
favour of the common Couch-grass (_Triticum repens_). In the eastern
counties, this is still called Speargrass; and the sharp underground
stolons might easily draw blood, when the nose is tickled with them. The
old emigrants from the eastern counties took the name with them to
America, but applied it to a Poa (Webster's "Dictionary," s.v.
Speargrass).
FOOTNOTES:
[278:1] "Hippurus Anglice dicitur sharynge gyrs."--TURNER'S _Libellus_,
1538.
SQUASH, _see_ PEAS.
STOVER.
_Iris._
Thy turfy mountains, where live nibbling sheep,
And flat meads thatch'd with Stover, them to keep.
_Tempest_, act iv, sc. 1 (62).
In this passage, Stover is probably the bent or dried Grass still
remaining on the land, but it is the common word for hay or straw, or
for "fodder and provision for all sorts of cattle; from _Estovers_, law
term, which is so explained in the law dictionaries. Both are derived
from _Estouvier_ in the old French, defined by Roquefort--'Convenance,
nécessité, provision de tout ce qui est nécessaire.'"--NARES. The word
is of frequent occurrence in the writers of the time of Shakespeare. One
quotation from Tusser will be sufficient--
"Keepe dry thy straw--
"If house-roome will serve thee, lay Stover up drie,
And everie sort by it selfe for to lie.
Or stack it for litter if roome be too poore,
And thatch out the residue, noieng thy door."
_November's Husbandry._
STRAWBERRY.
(1) _Iago._
Have you not sometimes seen a handkerchief
Spotted with Strawberries in your wife's hand?[279:1]
_Othello_, act iii, sc. 3 (434).
(2) _Ely._
The Strawberry grows underneath the Nettle,
And wholesome berries thrive and ripen best
Neighbour'd by fruit of baser quality;
And so the prince obscured his contemplation
Under the veil of wildness.
_Henry V_, act i, sc. 1 (60).
(3) _Gloster._
My Lord of Ely, when I was last in Holborn,
I saw good Strawberries in your garden there;
I do beseech you send for some of them.
_Ely._
Marry, and will, my Lord, with all my heart.
* * * * *
Where is my lord Protector? I have sent