Folk-lore of Shakespeare Part 46

On the other hand, Spenser separates the lilies from the flower-de-luces in his "Shepherd's Calendar;" and Ben Jonson mentions "rich carnations, flower-de-luces, lilies."

The fleur-de-lis was not always confined to royalty as a badge. Thus, in the square of La Pucelle, in Rouen, there is a statue of Jeanne D'Arc with fleurs-de-lis sculptured upon it, and an inscription as follows:

"The maiden's sword protects the royal crown; Beneath the maiden's sword the lilies safely blow."

St. Louis conferred upon the Chateaubriands the device of a fleur-de-lis, and the motto, "Mon sang teint les banniers de France."

When Edward III. claimed the crown of France, in the year 1340, he quartered the ancient shield of France with the lions of England. It disappeared, however, from the English shield in the first year of the present century.

_Gillyflower._ This was the old name for the whole cla.s.s of carnations, pinks, and sweet-williams, from the French _girofle_, which is itself corrupted from the Latin _caryophyllum_.[505] The streaked gillyflowers, says Mr. Beisly,[506] noticed by Perdita in "Winter's Tale" (iv. 4)-

"the fairest flowers o' the season Are our carnations and streak'd gillyvors, Which some call nature's b.a.s.t.a.r.ds"-

"are produced by the flowers of one kind being impregnated by the pollen of another kind, and this art (or law) in nature Shakespeare alludes to in the delicate language used by Perdita, as well as to the practice of increasing the plants by slips." Tusser, in his "Five Hundred Points of Good Husbandry," says:

"The gilloflower also the skilful doe know, Doth look to be covered in frost and in snow."

[505] "Nares's Glossary," vol. i. p. 363.

[506] "Shakespeare's Garden," p. 82; see Dyce's "Glossary," p. 184.

_Harebell._ This flower, mentioned in "Cymbeline" (iv. 2), is no doubt another name for the wild hyacinth.

Arviragus says of Imogen:

"thou shalt not lack The flower that's like thy face, pale primrose; nor The azured harebell, like thy veins."

_Hemlock._ In consequence of its bad and poisonous character, this plant was considered an appropriate ingredient for witches' broth. In "Macbeth" (iv. 1) we read of

"Root of hemlock, digged i' the dark."

Its scientific name, _conium_, is from the Greek word meaning cone or top, whose whirling motion resembles the giddiness produced on the const.i.tution by its poisonous juice. It is by most persons supposed to be the death-drink of the Greeks, and the one by which Socrates was put to death.

_Herb of Grace_ or _Herb Grace_. A popular name in days gone by for rue.

The origin of the term is uncertain. Most probably it arose from the extreme bitterness of the plant, which, as it had always borne the name _rue_ (to be sorry for anything), was not unnaturally a.s.sociated with repentance. It was, therefore, the herb of repentance,[507] "and this was soon changed into 'herb of grace,' repentance being the chief sign of grace." The expression is several times used by Shakespeare. In "Richard II." (iii. 4) the gardener narrates:

"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 be seen, In the remembrance of a weeping queen."

[507] Ellacombe's "Plant-Lore of Shakespeare," p. 204; Prior's "Popular Names of British Plants," 1870, p. 111.

In "Hamlet" (iv. 5), Ophelia, when addressing the queen, says, "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."[508]

[508] Cf. "All's Well that Ends Well," iv. 5; "Antony and Cleopatra," iv. 2; "Romeo and Juliet," ii. 3, where Friar Laurence says:

"In man as well as herbs, grace and rude will."

Malone observes that there is no ground for supposing that rue was called "herb of grace" from its being used in exorcisms in churches on Sunday, a notion entertained by Jeremy Taylor, who says, referring to the _Flagellum Daemonum_, "First, they (the Romish exorcisers) are to try the devil by holy water, incense, sulphur, rue, which from thence, as we suppose, came to be called 'herb of grace.'"[509] Rue was also a common subject of puns, from being the same word which signified sorrow or pity (see "Richard II.," iii. 4, cited above).

[509] "A Dissuasive from Popery," pt. i. chap. ii. sec. 9; see Dyce's "Glossary," p. 371.

_Holy Thistle._ The Carduus Benedictus, called also "blessed thistle,"

was so named, like other plants which bear the specific name of "blessed," from its supposed power of counteracting the effect of poison.[510] Cogan, in his "Haven of Health," 1595, says, "This herbe may worthily be called _Benedictus_, or _Omnimorbia_, that is, a salve for every sore, not known to physitians of old time, but lately revealed by the special providence of Almighty G.o.d." It is alluded to in "Much Ado About Nothing" (iii. 4):

"_Margaret._ Get you some of this distilled Carduus Benedictus, and lay it to your heart; it is the only thing for a qualm.

_Hero._ There thou p.r.i.c.kest her with a thistle.

_Beatrice._ Benedictus! why Benedictus? you have some moral in this Benedictus.

_Margaret._ Moral? no, by my troth, I have no moral meaning. I meant, plain holy-thistle."

[510] Nares's "Glossary," vol. i. p. 464.

_Insane Root._ There is much doubt as to what plant is meant by Banquo in "Macbeth" (i. 3):

"have we eaten on the insane root That takes the reason prisoner?"

The origin of this pa.s.sage is probably to be found in North's "Plutarch," 1579 ("Life of Antony," p. 990), where mention is made of a plant which "made them out of their wits." Several plants have been suggested-the hemlock, belladonna, mandrake, henbane, etc. Douce supports the last, and cites the following pa.s.sage:[511] "Henbane ... is called insana, mad, for the use thereof is perillous; for if it be eate or dronke, it breedeth madness, or slow lykenesse of sleepe." Nares[512]

quotes from Ben Jonson ("Seja.n.u.s," iii. 2), in support of hemlock:

"well, read my charms, And may they lay that hold upon thy senses As thou hadst snufft up hemlock."

[511] Batman's "Upon Bartholomaeus de Proprietate Rerum," lib.

xvii. chap. 87.

[512] "Glossary," vol. i. p. 465.

_Ivy._ It was formerly the general custom in England, as it is still in France and the Netherlands, to hang a bush of ivy at the door of a vintner.[513] Hence the allusion in "As You Like It" (v. 4, Epilogue), where Rosalind wittily remarks: "If it be true that good wine needs no bush, 'tis true that a good play needs no epilogue." This custom is often referred to by our old writers, as, for instance, in Nash's "Summer's Last Will and Testament," 1600:

"Green ivy bushes at the vintner's doors."

And in the "Rival Friends," 1632:

"'Tis like the ivy bush unto a tavern."

[513] See Hotten's "History of Sign Boards."

This plant was no doubt chosen from its being sacred to Bacchus. The practice was observed at statute hirings, wakes, etc., by people who sold ale at no other time. The manner, says Mr. Singer,[514] in which they were decorated appears from a pa.s.sage in Florio's "Italian Dictionary," in _voce tremola_, "Gold foile, or thin leaves of gold or silver, namely, thinne plate, as our vintners adorn their bushes with."

We may compare the old sign of "An owl in an ivy bush," which perhaps denoted the union of wisdom or prudence with conviviality, with the phrase "be merry and wise."

[514] "Shakespeare," vol. iii. p. 112.

_Kecksies._ These are the dry, hollow stalks of hemlock. In "Henry V."

(v. 2) Burgundy makes use of the word:

"and nothing teems, But hateful docks, rough thistles, kecksies, burs, Losing both beauty and utility."

It has been suggested[515] that kecksies may be a mistaken form of the plural kex; and that kex may have been formed from keck, something so dry that the eater would keck at it, or be unable to swallow it. The word is probably derived from the Welsh "cecys," which is applied to several plants of the umbelliferous kind. Dr. Prior,[516] however, says that kecksies is from an old English word keek, or kike, retained in the northern counties in the sense of "peep" or "spy."