The Old English Herbals Part 7

"Musk. Agaynst weyknesse of the brayne smel to musk."

"Struciun. Against lytargye blowe the powdre of the sede in to the nose or elles sethe the sede thereof and juice of rue in stronge vyneygre and rubbe the hynder parte of ye head therwith."

"Artemisia. To make a child mery hange a bondell of mugwort or make smoke thereof under the chylde's bedde for it taketh away annoy for hem."

"Rosemary. For weyknesse of ye brayne. Agaynst weyknesse of the brayne and coldenesse thereof, sethe rosmarin in wyne and lete the pacyent receye the smoke at his nose and kepe his heed warme."

"Southernwood. The fume of it expelleth all serpents out of the house and what so ever there abydeth dyeth."

There are two delicious violet recipes for "Syrope of Vyolettes" and "oyle of vyolettes."

"Syrope of vyolettes i made in this maner--Sethe vyolettes in water and lete it lye all nyght in ye same water. Than poure and streyne out the water, and in the same put sugre and make your syrope.

"Oyle of vyolettes is made thus. Sethe vyolettes in oyle and streyne it. It will be oyle of vyolettes."

It is in this herbal that we find the first avowal of disbelief in the supposed powers of the mandrake.

"There be two maners the male and the female, the female hath sharpe leves. Some say that it is better for medycyne than the male but we use of bothe. Some say that the male hath figure of shape of a man. And the female of a woman but that is fals. For Nature never gaue forme or shape of makynde to an herbe. But it is of troughe that some hath shaped suche fygures by craft as we have fortyme herde say of labourers in the feldes."

The _Grete Herball_ ends thus--

"O ye worthy reders or practicyens to whome this n.o.ble volume is preset. I beseche you take intellygence and beholde ye workes and operacyos of almighty G.o.d which hath endewed his symple creature mankynde with the graces of ye holy goost to have parfyte knowlege and understandynge of the vertue of all manner of herbes and trees in this booke comprehendyed and everyche of them chaptred by hymselfe and in every chaptre dyuers clauses where is shewed dyuers maner of medycunes in one herbe comprehended whiche ought to be notyfyed and marked for the helth of man in whom is repended ye hevenly gyftes by the eternall Kynge to whom be laude and prayse everlastynge. Amen."

The only important books Treveris published besides the _Grete Herball_ were the two English translations of Hieronymus Braunschweig's works (_The n.o.ble experyence of the virtuous Handy-worke of Surgeri_ and _The vertuouse Book of the Dystillacion of the Waters of all maner of Herbes_) and the handsome edition of Trevisa's translation of Higden's _Polychronicon_. _The vertuouse Book of the Dystillacion of the Waters of all maner of Herbes_ is well printed, but the ill.u.s.trations are from the same inferior German cuts as those in the _Grete Herball_. The book was translated into English by Laurence Andrew and, though strictly it does not come within the category of herbals, part of the preface is too beautiful to omit.

"Lerne the hygh and meruelous vertue of herbes. Knowe how inestimable a preservative to the helth of man G.o.d hath provyded growying euery daye at our hande, use the effectes with reverence, and give thankes to the maker celestyall. Beholde how moch it excedeth to use medecyne of efycacye naturall by G.o.d ordeyned then wicked wordes or charmes of efycacye unnaturall by the dyuell enuented, whiche yf thou doste well marke, thou shalt have occasyon to gyue the more louynges and praise to oure sauyour, by redynge this boke and knowlegying his benyfites innumerable. To whose prayse, and helthe of all my crysten bretherne, I have taken upon me this symple translacyon, with all humble reverence ever redy to submit me to the correccion of the lerned reder."

FOOTNOTES:

[38] See Bibliography of English MS. Herbals.

[39] He is sometimes erroneously called Bartholomew de Glanville.

Leland, without citing any authority, called him de Glanville. Bale copied Leland in 1557 and added a list of writings wrongly attributed to Bartholomew. Quetif and Echard give detailed reasons in pointing out Leland's error. The Parmese chronicler, Salimbene, writing in 1283, refers to him as Bartholomaeus Anglicus, and John de Trittenheim, Abbot of Sparheim (end of fifteenth century), speaks of him as "Bartholomeus natione Anglicus." M. Leopold Delisle endeavoured to claim him as a Frenchman, but although he spent the greater part of his life abroad, he was always distinguished as "Bartholomaeus Anglicus." That he was a Minorite "de provincia Francia" is no proof that he was a Frenchman. Batman (1582), on the authority of Bale, describes Bartholomaeus as being "of the n.o.ble familie of the Earles of Suffolk."

[40] John de Trevisa, a Cornishman, was a Fellow of Exeter College, Oxford, and subsequently of Queen's College. He afterwards became chaplain to Lord Berkeley and vicar of Berkeley.

[41] Wynkyn de Worde's real name was Jan van Wynkyn (de Worde being merely a place-name), and in the sacrist's rolls of Westminster Abbey, 1491-1500, he figures as Johannes Wynkyn.

[42] "The rind thereof medled with wine ... gene to them to drink that shall be cut in their body for they should slepe and not fele the sore knitting."

[43] Under "Birch" there is another touch of life in the woods in the Middle Ages. "Wylde men of wodes and forestes useth that sede instede of breede [bread]. And this tree hath moche soure juys and somwhat bytynge. And men useth therfore in spryngynge tyme and in haruest to slyt the ryndes and to gader ye humour that comyth oute therof and drynkyth in stede of wyn. And such drynke quencheth thurste. But it fedyth not nother nourryssheth not, nother makyth men dronke."

[44] In regard to this paper (probably the first made in England for printing) see Bibliography, p. 204.

[45] For dates, full t.i.tles, etc., of all the editions of _Banckes's Herbal_ see Bibliography of English Herbals.

[46] See p. 44.

[47] See Bibliography of English Herbals.

[48] Robert Wyer was one of the most famous printers of the early sixteenth century. He came of a Buckinghamshire family and was probably a near relation of John Wyer, also a printer who lived in Fleet Street, for both of them used the device of St. John the Evangelist. He served his apprenticeship to Richard Pynson, whose printing press was in the rentals of Norwich House near the site of the present Villiers Street, and on Pynson's death succeeded to the business. In both his editions of the herbal there is his well-known device of St. John the Evangelist bareheaded and dressed in a flowing robe, sitting under a tree on an island and writing on a scroll spread over his right knee. At his right hand is an eagle with outstretched wings holding an inkwell in its beak, and in the background are the towers and spires of a great city.

[49] Ames catalogues two other editions of the herbal by "W. C.," one published by Anthony Kitson and the other by Richard Kele, but no known copies of these exist.

[50] Proceedings of the Royal Society of Medicine, 1913.

[51] The popular belief in the power of sweet-smelling herbs to ward off infection of the much-dreaded plague rose to its height in Charles II.'s reign, when bunches of rosemary were sold for six and eightpence. Till recently there were at least two survivals of this belief in herbal scents--the doctor's gold-headed cane (formerly a pomander carried at the end of a cane) and the little bouquets carried by the clergy at the distribution of the Maundy Money in Westminster Abbey.

[52] For dates of later editions see Bibliography of English Herbals.

[53] For fuller bibliographical details of the _Herbarius zu Teutsch_ and the _Ortus Sanitatis_ see Bibliography of Foreign Herbals.

[54] Proceedings of the Royal Society of Medicine.

[55] The ill.u.s.trations in the second and later editions of the _Herbarius zu Teutsch_ are very inferior to those in the first, which are beautiful. _The vertuose boke of Distillacyon of the waters of all maner of Herbes_ (1527), translated by Laurence Andrew from the _Liber de arte distillandi_ by Hieronymus Braunschweig, is ill.u.s.trated with cuts from the same wood-blocks as the _Grete Herball_.

[56] t.i.tles and dates of the subsequent editions issued by Thomas Gibson (1539) and Jhon Kynge (1561) will be found in the Bibliography of English Herbals.

[57] Treveris had his printing office in Southwark, at the sign of the "Wodows."

[58] The use of "mummy" is not only mentioned by all the later herbalists up to the end of the seventeenth century, but is even to be found in MS. still-room books. In the Fairfax still-room book a recipe for wounds said to have been procured from "Rodolphus Goclerius, professor of Phisicke in Wittenburghe," begins thus: "Take of the moss of a strangled man 2 ounces, of the mumia of man's blood, one ounce and a halfe of earth-worms washed in water or wine and dyed," etc.

CHAPTER III

TURNER'S HERBAL AND THE INFLUENCE OF THE FOREIGN HERBALISTS

"In the beginning of winter the Goldfinches use muche to haunte this herbe [teazle] for the sedes sake whereof they are very desyrous."--_Turner's Herbal_, 1551.

Like so many sixteenth-century notabilities, William Turner, commonly known as the father of English botany, was remarkably versatile, for he was a divine, a physician and a botanist. He was a native of Morpeth, Northumberland, and was born in Henry VIII.'s reign: the exact date is unknown. His father is supposed to have been a tanner.

We know nothing of his early education, but he entered what is now Pembroke College,[59] Cambridge, under the patronage of Thomas Lord Wentworth. This he himself tells us in the preface to the second part of his herbal, which is dedicated to Lord Wentworth of the next generation. "And who hath deserved better to have my booke of herbs to be given to him, than he, whose father with his yearly exhibition did helpe me, beying student in Cambridge of Physik and philosophy?

Whereby with some further help and study am commed to this pore knowledge of herbes and other simples that I have. Wherefore I dedicate unto you this my litle boke, desyring you to defende it against the envious evil speakers, which can alow nothing but that they do themselves: and the same I give unto your Lordship, beseeching to take it in the stede of a better thyng, and for a token of my good will toward you, and all your father's houshold, which thing if ye do, as sonne as I shall have convenient lesure, ye shall have the third and last parte of my herball also. Almighty G.o.d kepe you and all youres. Amen."

At Cambridge Turner was intimate with Nicholas Ridley (afterwards the famous Bishop of London), and though it is interesting to know that Ridley instructed him in Greek, it is even more attractive to learn that the future bishop also initiated him into the mysteries of tennis and archery. Turner did well at the university, for he was elected Junior Fellow of his college in 1531 and Joint Treasurer in 1532, and he had a t.i.tle for Orders in 1537. Throughout his life he was a staunch Protestant and at Cambridge he used to attend the preachings of Hugh Latimer. We do not know how long Turner held his fellowship, possibly till his marriage with Jane, daughter of George Ander, Alderman of Cambridge. He left Cambridge in 1540 and travelled about, preaching in various places. In Wood's _Athenae Oxonienses_ we read, "In his rambles he settled for a time in Oxon among several of his countrymen that he found there, purposely for the conversation of men and books.... At the same time and after, following his old trade of preaching without a call, he was imprisoned for a considerable time."[60] On his release he left England and travelled in Italy, Germany and Holland. He tells us in his herbal that he visited Cremona, Como, Milan, Venice and Chiavenna, and at Bologna[61] he studied botany under Luca Ghini. Either there or at Ferrara he took his M.D. degree. From Italy he went to Zurich, where he formed his intimate and lifelong friendship with Conrad Gesner,[62] the famous Swiss naturalist.

He subsequently visited Basle and Cologne, and it was in these two cities that his small religious books upholding the Protestant cause were printed. They were very popular in England, so much so that in the last year of Henry VIII.'s reign they were prohibited. Turner spent some time botanising in the Rhine country: in his herbal he speaks of different plants which he collected at Bonn, Basel, Bingen, Cologne, "Erenffelde" and "Sieburg." Then he went to Holland and East Friesland--the latter he frequently mentions--and became physician to the "Erle of Emden." It was probably at this time that he explored the islands off the mainland. He was in correspondence with "Maister Riche and maister Morgan, Apotecaries of London," two names which, it is interesting to note, occur also in de l'Obel's works and in Gerard's Herbal.

Turner wrote the first part of his Herbal when he was abroad, but he delayed publication until the conclusion of his wanderings. On his return to England he became chaplain and physician to the Duke of Somerset, and it is generally believed that he sat in the House of Commons.[63] He was promised the prebend of Botevant in York, and in a letter written to thank Cecil for the promise we find the remark, "My chylder have bene fed so long with hope that they are very leane, i wold fayne have the fatter if it were possible."

Turner held this appointment for little more than two years, and after failing to obtain either the provostship of Oriel College, Oxford, or the presidency of Magdalen, he seems to have become despondent. He wanted a house "where i may studie in and have su place to lay my bookes in," and in another letter he complains of "being pened up in a chamber with all my ho[use] holde seruantes and children as shepe in a pyndfolde.... i can not go to my booke for ye crying of childer and noyse yt is made in my chamber." Finally he begged leave to go abroad, "where I will also finishe my great herball and my bookes of fishes, stones and metalles if G.o.d send me lyfe and helthe." He was subsequently made Dean of Wells, but he lost this office on the accession of Mary, and, like so many of the Protestant divines, he went abroad. He stayed at Bonn, Frankfort, Freiburg, Lauterburg [?

Lauenburg], Mainz, Rodekirche, Strasburg, Speyer, Worms, Cologne and Weissenburg. At Cologne and Weissenburg he had gardens, and it was from Cologne that he published the second part of his Herbal. His works were proclaimed heretical for the second time in 1555, and the Wardens of every Company had to give notice of any copy they had in order that they might be destroyed. It is not surprising that Turner's works are rare!

On the accession of Elizabeth he returned to England and was reinstated in the deanery of Wells.[64] His diocesan seems to have found him troublesome, for in 1559 the Bishop of Bath and Wells wrote:

"I am much encombred with mr. Doctor Turner Deane of Welles for his indiscreete behavior in the pulpit where he medleth w{th} all matters.... I have advertised him by wrytynges and have admonished secretly by his owne frendes: notwithstanding he persisteth still in his follie: he conteneth all Bishopps and calleth the white coats, typpett gentleme, with other wordes of reproche [mu]che more unsemlie and asketh 'who gave them autoritie more ouer me then I ouer them'?