The plant-lore & garden-craft of Shakespeare
Walnuts are still very popular, but not as poison antidotes; their
popularity now rests on their use as pickles, their excellence as autumn
and winter dessert fruits, and with pseudo-gipsies for the rich olive
hue that the juice will give to the skin. These uses, together with the
beauty in the landscape that is given by an old Walnut tree, will always
secure for it a place among English trees; yet there can be little doubt
that the Walnut is a bad neighbour to other crops, and for that reason
its numbers in England have been much diminished. Phillips said there
was a decided antipathy between Apples and Walnuts, and spoke of the
Apple tree as--
"Uneasy, seated by funereal Yew
Or Walnut (whose malignant touch impairs
All generous fruits), or near the bitter dews
Of Cherries."
And in this he was probably right, though the mischief caused to the
Apple tree more probably arises from the dense shade thrown by the
Walnut tree than by any malarious exhalation emitted from it.
FOOTNOTES:
[315:1] See Earle's "Philology of the English Tongue," p. 23.
WARDEN, _see_ PEARS.
WHEAT.
(1) _Iris._
Ceres, most bounteous lady, thy rich leas
Of Wheat, Rye, Barley, Vetches, Oats, and Pease.
_Tempest_, act iv, sc. 1 (60).
(2) _Helena._
More tuneable than lark to shepherd's ear,
When Wheat is green, when Hawthorn-buds appear.
_Midsummer Night's Dream_, act i, sc. 1 (184).
(3) _Bassanio._
His reasons are as two grains of Wheat hid in two bushels of
chaff; you shall seek all day ere you find them, and when
you have them, they are not worth the search.
_Merchant of Venice_, act i, sc. 1 (114).
(4) _Hamlet._
As peace should still her Wheaten garland wear.
_Hamlet_, act v, sc. 2 (41).
(5) _Pompey._
To send measures of Wheat to Rome.
_Antony and Cleopatra_, act ii, sc. 6 (36).
(6) _Edgar._
This is the foul fiend Flibbertigibbet. . . . He mildews the
white Wheat, and hurts the poor creatures of earth.
_King Lear_, act iii, sc. 4 (120).
(7) _Pandarus._
He that will have a cake out of the Wheat, must needs tarry
the grinding.
_Troilus and Cressida_, act i, sc. 1 (15).
(8) _Davy._
And again, sir, shall we sow the headland with Wheat?
_Shallow._
With red Wheat, Davy.
_2nd Henry IV_, act v, sc. 1 (15).
(9) _Theseus._
Your Wheaten wreathe
Was then nor threashed nor blasted.
_Two Noble Kinsmen_, act i, sc. 1 (68).
I might perhaps content myself with marking these passages only, and
dismiss Shakespeare's Wheat without further comment, for the Wheat of
his day was identical with our own; but there are a few points in
connection with English Wheat which may be interesting. Wheat is not an
English plant, nor is it a European plant; its original home is in
Northern Asia, whence it has spread into all civilized countries.[318:1]
For the cultivation of Wheat is one of the first signs of civilized
life; it marks the end of nomadic life, and implies more or less a
settled habitation. When it reached England, and to what country we are
indebted for it, we do not know; but we know that while we are indebted
to the Romans for so many of our useful trees, and fruits, and
vegetables, we are not indebted to them for the introduction of Wheat.
This we might be almost sure of from the very name, which has no
connection with the Latin names, _triticum_ or _frumentum_, but is a
pure old English word, signifying originally _white_, and so
distinguishing it as the white grain in opposition to the darker grains
of Oats and Rye. But besides the etymological evidence, we have good
historical evidence that Cæsar found Wheat growing in England when he
first landed on the shores of Kent. He daily victualled his camp with
British Wheat ("frumentum ex agris quotidie in castra conferebat"); and
it was while his soldiers were reaping the Wheat in the Kentish fields
that they were surrounded and successfully attacked by the British. He
tells us, however, that the cultivation of Wheat was chiefly confined to
Kent, and was not much known inland: "interiores plerique frumenta non
serunt, sed lacte et carne vivunt."--_De Bello Gallico_, v, 14. Roman
Wheat has frequently been found in graves, and strange stories have
been told of the plants that have been raised from these old seeds; but
a more scientific inquiry has proved that there have been mistakes or
deceits, more or less intentional, for "Wheat is said to keep for seven
years at the longest. The statements as to mummy Wheat are wholly devoid
of authenticity, as are those of the Raspberry seeds taken from a Roman
tomb."--HOOKER, "Botany" in _Science Primers_. The oft-repeated stories
about the vitality of mummy Wheat were effectually disposed of when it
was discovered that much of the so-called Wheat was South American
Maize.
FOOTNOTES:
[318:1] Yet Homer considered it to be indigenous in Sicily--Odyss: ix,
109--and Cicero, perhaps on the authority of Homer, says the same:
"Insula Cereris . . . ubi primum fruges inventæ esse dicuntur."--_In
Verrem_, v, 38.
WILLOW.
(1) _Viola._
Make me a Willow cabin at your gate.
_Twelfth Night_, act i, sc. 5 (287).
(2) _Benedick._
Come, will you go with me?
_Claudio._
Whither?
_Benedick._
Even to the next Willow, about your own business.
_Much Ado About Nothing_, act ii, sc. 1 (192).
_Benedick._
I offered him my company to a Willow tree, either to make him
a garland, as being forsaken, or to bind him up a rod, as
being worthy to be whipped.
_Ibid._ (223).
(3) _Nathaniel._
These thoughts to me were Oaks, to thee like Osiers bow'd.
_Love's Labour's Lost_, act iv, sc. 2 (112).
(4) _Lorenzo._
In such a night
Stood Dido, with a Willow in her hand,
Upon the wild sea-banks.
_Merchant of Venice_, act v, sc. 1 (9).
(5) _Bona._
Tell him, in hope he'll prove a widower shortly,
I'll wear the Willow garland for his sake.
_3d Henry VI_, act iii, sc. 3 (227).
_Post._
[The same words repeated.]
_Ibid._, act iv, sc. 1 (99).
(6) _Queen._
There is a Willow grows aslant a brook,
That shows his hoar leaves in the glassy stream.
There on the pendent boughs her coronet weeds
Clambering to hang, an envious sliver broke.
_Hamlet_, act iv, sc. 7 (167).
(7) _Desdemona_ (singing)--
The poor soul sat sighing by a Sycamore tree.
Sing all a green Willow;
Her hand on her bosom, her head on her knee,
Sing Willow, Willow, Willow.
The fresh streams ran by her, and murmur'd her moans;
Sing Willow, Willow, Willow.
Her salt tears fell from her and soften'd the stones,
Sing Willow, Willow, Willow.
Sing all a green Willow must be my garland.
_Othello_, act iv, sc. 3 (41).
(8) _Emilia._
I will play the swan,
And die in music. [_Singing_] Willow, Willow, Willow.
_Ibid._, act v, sc. 2 (247).
(9) _Wooer._
Then she sang
Nothing but Willow, Willow, Willow.
_Two Noble Kinsmen_, act iv, sc. 1 (100).
(10) _Friar._
I must up-fill this Willow cage of ours
With baleful Weeds and precious juiced Flowers.
_Romeo and Juliet_, act ii, sc. 3 (7).
(11) _Celia._
West of this place, down in the neighbour bottom;
The rank of Osiers by the murmuring stream
Left on your right hand, brings you to the place.
_As You Like It_, act iv, sc. 3 (79).
(12)
When Cytherea all in love forlorn
A longing tarriance for Adonis made
Under an Osier growing by a brook.
_Passionate Pilgrim_ vi.
(13)
Though to myself forsworn, to thee I'll constant prove;
Those thoughts, to me like Oaks, to thee like Osiers bow'd.
_Ibid._ v.
_See also_ PALM TREE, No. 1, p. 192.
Willow is an old English word, but the more common and perhaps the older
name for the Willow is Withy, a name which is still in constant use, but
more generally applied to the twigs when cut for basket-making than to
the living tree. "Withe" is found in the oldest vocabularies, but we do
not find "Willow" till we come to the vocabularies of the fifteenth
century, when it occurs as "Hæc Salex, A{e} Wyllo-tre;" "Hæc Salix-icis,
a Welogh;" "Salix, Welig." Both the names probably referred to the
pliability of the tree, and there was another name for it, the Sallow,
which was either a corruption of the Latin Salix, or was derived from a
common root. It was also called Osier.
The Willow is a native of Britain. It belongs to a large family
(_Salix_), numbering 160 species, of which we have seventeen distinct
species in Great Britain, besides many sub-species and varieties. So
common a plant, with the peculiar pliability of the shoots that
distinguishes all the family, was sure to be made much use of. Its more
common uses were for basket-making, for coracles, and huts, or
"Willow-cabins" (No. 1), but it had other uses in the elegancies and
even in the romance of life. The flowers of the early Willow (_S.
caprea_) did duty for and were called Palms on Palm Sunday (_see_ PALM),
and not only the flowers but the branches also seem to have been used in
decoration, a use which is now extinct. "The Willow is called _Salix_,
and hath his name _à saliendo_, for that it quicklie groweth up, and
soon becommeth a tree. Heerewith do they in some countries trim up their
parlours and dining roomes in sommer, and sticke fresh greene leaves
thereof about their beds for coolness."--NEWTON'S _Herball for the
Bible_.[321:1]
But if we only look at the poetry of the time of Shakespeare, and much
of the poetry before and after him, we should almost conclude that the
sole use of the Willow was to weave garlands for jilted lovers, male and
female. It was probably with reference to this that Shakespeare
represented poor mad Ophelia hanging her flowers on the "Willow tree
aslant the brook" (No. 6), and it is more pointedly referred to in Nos.
2, 4, 5, 7, 8, and 9. The feeling was expressed in a melancholy ditty,
which must have been very popular in the sixteenth century, of which
Desdemona says a few of the first verses (No. 7), and which concludes
thus--
"Come all you forsaken and sit down by me,
He that plaineth of his false love, mine's falser than she;
The Willow wreath weare I, since my love did fleet,
A garland for lovers forsaken most meet."
The ballad is entitled "The Complaint of a Lover Forsaken of His
Love--To a Pleasant New Tune," and is printed in the "Roxburghe
Ballads." This curious connection of the Willow with forsaken or
disappointed lovers stood its ground for a long time. Spenser spoke of