Proserpina Volume II Part 3

Flora Danica, 1329. Linnaeus, No. 13, "Caulibus erectis, foliis cordato-lanceolatis, floribus serioribus apetalis," _i.e._, on erect stems, with leaves long heart-shape, and its later flowers without petals--not a word said of its earlier flowers which have got those unimportant appendages! In the plate of the Flora it is a very perfect transitional form between violet and pansy, with beautifully firm and well-curved leaves, but the colour of blossom very pale. "In subalpinis Norvegiae pa.s.sim," all that we are told of it, means I suppose, in the lower Alpine pastures of Norway; in the Flora Suecica, p. 306, habitat in Lapponica, juxta Alpes.

38. VI. VIOLA MIRABILIS. Flora Danica, 1045. A small and exquisitely formed flower in the balanced cinquefoil intermediate between violet and pansy, but with large and superbly curved and pointed leaves. It is a mountain violet, but belonging rather to the mountain woods than meadows. "In sylvaticis in Toten, Norvegiae."

Loudon, 3056, "Broad-leaved: Germany."

Linnaeus, Flora Suecica, 789, says that the flowers of it which have perfect corolla and full scent often bear no seed, but that the later 'cauline'

blossoms, without petals, are fertile. "Caulini vero apetali fertiles sunt, et seriores. Habitat pa.s.sim Upsaliae."

I find this, and a plurality of other species, indicated by Linnaeus as having triangular stalks, "caule triquetro," meaning, I suppose, the kind sketched in Figure 1 above.

39. VII. VIOLA ARVENSIS. Field Violet. Flora Danica, 1748. A coa.r.s.e running weed; nearly like Viola Cornuta, but feebly lilac and yellow in colour. In dry fields, and with corn.

Flora Suecica, 791; under t.i.tles of Viola 'tricolor' and 'bicolor arvensis,' and Herba Trinitatis. Habitat ubique in _sterilibus_ arvis: "Planta vix datur in qua evidentius perspicitur generationis opus, quam in hujus cavo apertoque stigmate."

It is quite undeterminable, among present botanical instructors, how far this plant is only a rampant and over-indulged condition of the true pansy (Viola Psyche); but my own scholars are to remember that the true pansy is full purple and blue with golden centre; and that the disorderly field varieties of it, if indeed not scientifically distinguishable, are entirely separate from the wild flower by their scattered form and faded or altered colour. I follow the Flora Danica in giving them as a distinct species.

40. VIII. VIOLA PAl.u.s.tRIS. Marsh Violet. Flora Danica, 83. As there drawn, the most finished and delicate in form of all the violet tribe; warm white, streaked with red; and as pure in outline as an oxalis, both in flower and leaf: it is like a violet imitating oxalis and anagallis.

In the Flora Suecica, the petal-markings are said to be black; in 'Viola lactea' a connected species, (Sowerby, 45,) purple. Sowerby's plate of it under the name 'pal.u.s.tris' is pale purple veined with darker; and the spur is said to be 'honey-bearing,' which is the first mention I find of honey in the violet. The habitat given, sandy and turfy heaths. It is said to grow plentifully near Croydon.

Probably, therefore, a violet belonging to the chalk, on which nearly all herbs that grow wild--from the gra.s.s to the bluebell--are singularly sweet and pure. I hope some of my botanical scholars will take up this question of the effect of different rocks on vegetation, not so much in bearing different species of plants, as different characters of each species.[7]

41. IX. VIOLA SECLUSA. Monk's Violet. "Hirta," Flora Danica, 618, "In fruticetis raro." A true wood violet, full but dim in purple. Sowerby, 894, makes it paler. The leaves very pure and severe in the Danish one;--longer in the English. "Clothed on both sides with short, dense, h.o.a.ry hairs."

Also belongs to chalk or limestone only (Sowerby).

X. VIOLA CANINA. Dog Violet. I have taken it for a.n.a.lysis in my two plates, because its grace of form is too much despised, and we owe much more of the beauty of spring to it, in English mountain ground, than to the Regina.

XI. VIOLA CORNUTA. Cow Violet. Enough described already.

XII. VIOLA RUPESTRIS. Crag Violet. On the high limestone moors of Yorkshire, perhaps only an English form of Viola Aurea, but so much larger, and so different in habit--growing on dry breezy downs, instead of in dripping caves--that I allow it, for the present, separate name and number.[8]

42. 'For the present,' I say all this work in 'Proserpina' being merely tentative, much to be modified by future students, and therefore quite different from that of 'Deucalion,' which is authoritative as far as it reaches, and will stand out like a quartz d.y.k.e, as the sandy speculations of modern gossiping geologists get washed away.

But in the meantime, I must again solemnly warn my girl-readers against all study of floral genesis and digestion. How far flowers invite, or require, flies to interfere in their family affairs--which of them are carnivorous--and what forms of pestilence or infection are most favourable to some vegetable and animal growths,--let them leave the people to settle who like, as Toinette says of the Doctor in the 'Malade Imaginaire'--"y mettre le nez." I observe a paper in the last 'Contemporary Review,'

announcing for a discovery patent to all mankind that the colours of flowers were made "to attract insects"![9] They will next hear that the rose was made for the canker, and the body of man for the worm.

43. What the colours of flowers, or of birds, or of precious stones, or of the sea and air, and the blue mountains, and the evening and the morning, and the clouds of Heaven, were given for--they only know who can see them and can feel, and who pray that the sight and the love of them may be prolonged, where cheeks will not fade, nor sunsets die.

44. And now, to close, let me give you some fuller account of the reasons for the naming of the order to which the violet belongs, 'Cytherides.'

You see that the Uranides, are, as far as I could so gather them, of the pure blue of the sky; but the Cytherides of altered blue;--the first, Viola, typically purple; the second, Veronica, pale blue with a peculiar light; the third, Giulietta, deep blue, pa.s.sing strangely into a subdued green before and after the full life of the flower.

All these three flowers have great strangenesses in them, and weaknesses; the Veronica most wonderful in its connection with the poisonous tribe of the foxgloves; the Giulietta, alone among flowers in the action of the shielding leaves; and the Viola, grotesque and inexplicable in its hidden structure, but the most sacred of all flowers to earthly and daily Love, both in its scent and glow.

Now, therefore, let us look completely for the meaning of the two leading lines,--

"Sweeter than the lids of Juno's eyes, Or Cytherea's breath."

45. Since, in my present writings, I hope to bring into one focus the pieces of study fragmentarily given during past life, I may refer my readers to the first chapter of the 'Queen of the Air' for the explanation of the way in which all great myths are founded, partly on physical, partly on moral fact,--so that it is not possible for persons who neither know the aspect of nature, nor the const.i.tution of the human soul, to understand a word of them. Naming the Greek G.o.ds, therefore, you have first to think of the physical power they represent. When Horace calls Vulcan 'Avidus,' he thinks of him as the power of Fire; when he speaks of Jupiter's red right hand, he thinks of him as the power of rain with lightning; and when Homer speaks of Juno's dark eyes, you have to remember that she is the softer form of the rain power, and to think of the fringes of the rain-cloud across the light of the horizon. Gradually the idea becomes personal and human in the "Dove's eyes within thy locks,"[10] and "Dove's eyes by the river of waters" of the Song of Solomon.

46. "Or Cytherea's breath,"--the two thoughts of softest glance, and softest kiss, being thus together a.s.sociated with the flower: but note especially that the Island of Cythera was dedicated to Venus because it was the chief, if not the only Greek island, in which the purple fishery of Tyre was established; and in our own minds should be marked not only as the most southern fragment of true Greece, but the virtual continuation of the chain of mountains which separate the Spartan from the Argive territories, and are the natural home of the brightest Spartan and Argive beauty which is symbolized in Helen.

47. And, lastly, in accepting for the order this name of Cytherides, you are to remember the names of Viola and Giulietta, its two limiting families, as those of Shakspeare's two most loving maids--the two who love simply, and to the death: as distinguished from the greater natures in whom earthly Love has its due part, and no more; and farther still from the greatest, in whom the earthly love is quiescent, or subdued, beneath the thoughts of duty and immortality.

It may be well quickly to mark for you the levels of loving temper in Shakspeare's maids and wives, from the greatest to the least.

48. 1. Isabel. All earthly love, and the possibilities of it, held in absolute subjection to the laws of G.o.d, and the judgments of His will. She is Shakspeare's only 'Saint.' Queen Catherine, whom you might next think of, is only an ordinary woman of trained religious temper:--her maid of honour gives Wolsey a more Christian epitaph.

2. Cordelia. The earthly love consisting in diffused compa.s.sion of the universal spirit; not in any conquering, personally fixed, feeling.

"Mine enemy's dog, Though he had bit me, should have stood that night Against my fire."

These lines are spoken in her hour of openest direct expression; and are _all_ Cordelia.

Shakspeare clearly does not mean her to have been supremely beautiful in person; it is only her true lover who calls her 'fair' and 'fairest'--and even that, I believe, partly in courtesy, after having the instant before offered her to his subordinate duke; and it is only _his_ scorn of her which makes France fully care for her.

"G.o.ds, G.o.ds, 'tis strange that from their cold neglect My love should kindle to inflamed respect!"

Had she been entirely beautiful, he would have honoured her as a lover should, even before he saw her despised; nor would she ever have been so despised--or by her father, misunderstood. Shakspeare himself does not pretend to know where her girl-heart was,--but I should like to hear how a great actress would say the "Peace be with Burgundy!"

3. Portia. The maidenly pa.s.sion now becoming great, and chiefly divine in its humility, is still held absolutely subordinate to duty; no thought of disobedience to her dead father's intention is entertained for an instant, though the temptation is marked as pa.s.sing, for that instant, before her crystal strength. Instantly, in her own peace, she thinks chiefly of her lover's;--she is a perfect Christian wife in a moment, coming to her husband with the gift of perfect Peace,--

"Never shall you lie by Portia's side With an unquiet soul."

She is highest in intellect of all Shakspeare's women, and this is the root of her modesty; her 'unlettered girl' is like Newton's simile of the child on the sea-sh.o.r.e. Her perfect wit and stern judgment are never disturbed for an instant by her happiness: and the final key to her character is given in her silent and slow return from Venice, where she stops at every wayside shrine to pray.

4. Hermione. Fort.i.tude and Justice personified, with unwearying affection.

She is Penelope, tried by her husband's fault as well as error.

5. Virgilia. Perfect type of wife and mother, but without definiteness of character, nor quite strength of intellect enough entirely to hold her husband's heart. Else, she had saved him: he would have left Rome in his wrath--but not her. Therefore, it is his mother only who bends him: but she cannot save.

6. Imogen. The ideal of grace and gentleness; but weak; enduring too mildly, and forgiving too easily. But the piece is rather a pantomime than play, and it is impossible to judge of the feelings of St. Columba, when she must leave the stage in half a minute after mistaking the headless clown for headless Arlecchino.

7. Desdemona, Ophelia, Rosalind. They are under different conditions from all the rest, in having entirely heroic and faultless persons to love. I can't cla.s.s them, therefore,--fate is too strong, and leaves them no free will.

8. Perdita, Miranda. Rather mythic visions of maiden beauty than mere girls.

9. Viola and Juliet. Love the ruling power in the entire character: wholly virginal and pure, but quite earthly, and recognizing no other life than his own. Viola is, however, far the n.o.blest. Juliet will die unless Romeo loves _her_: "If he be wed, the grave is like to be my wedding bed;" but Viola is ready to die for the happiness of the man who does _not_ love her; faithfully doing his messages to her rival, whom she examines strictly for his sake. It is not in envy that she says, "Excellently done,--if G.o.d did all." The key to her character is given in the least selfish of all lover's songs, the one to which the Duke bids her listen:

"Mark it, Cesario,--it is old and plain, The spinsters and the knitters in the sun, And the free maids, that _weave their thread with bones_, Do use to chaunt it."

(They, the unconscious Fates, weaving the fair vanity of life with death); and the burden of it is--

"My part of Death, no one so true Did share it."

Therefore she says, in the great first scene, "Was not _this_ love indeed?"

and in the less heeded closing one, her heart then happy with the knitters in the _sun_,