The plant-lore & garden-craft of Shakespeare Part 110

_Romeo and Juliet_, act i, sc. 3 (26).

(3) _Hamlet_ (aside).

Wormwood, Wormwood.

_Hamlet_, act iii, sc. 2 (191).

(4)

Thy secret pleasure turns to open shame, Thy private feasting to a public fast, Thy smoothing t.i.tles to a ragged name, Thy sugar'd tongue to bitter Wormwood taste.

_Lucrece_ (890).

_See also_ DIAN'S BUD.

Wormwood is the product of many species of Artemisia, a family consisting of 180 species, of which we have four in England. The whole family is remarkable for the extreme bitterness of all parts of the plant, so that "as bitter as Wormwood" is one of the oldest proverbs.

The plant was named Artemisia from Artemis, the Greek name of Diana, and for this reason: "Verily of these three Worts which we named Artemisia, it is said that Diana should find them, and delivered their powers and leechdom to Chiron the Centaur, who first from these Worts set forth a leechdom, and he named these Worts from the name of Diana, Artemis, that is, Artemisias."--_Herbarium Apulaei_, c.o.c.kayne's translation. The Wormwood was of very high reputation in medicine, and is thus recommended in the Stockholm MS.:

"Lif man or woman, more or lesse In his head have gret sicknesse Or gruiance or any werking Awoyne he take wt. owte lettyng It is called Sowthernwode also And hony eteys et spurge stamp yer to And late hy yis drunk, fastined drinky And his hed werk away schall synkyn."[325:1]

But even in Shakespeare's time this high character had somewhat abated, though it was still used for all medicines in which a strong bitter was recommended. But its chief use seems to have been as a protection against insects of all kinds, who might very reasonably be supposed to avoid such a bitter food. This is Tusser's advice about the plant--

"While Wormwood hath seed get a handful or twaine To save against March, to make flea to refraine: Where chamber is sweeped and Wormwood is strowne, No flea, for his life, dare abide to be knowne.

What saver is better (if physick be true), For places infected than Wormwood and Rue?

It is as a comfort for hart and the braine, And therefore to have it, it is not in vaine."

_July's Husbandry._

This quality was the origin of the names of Mugwort[326:1] and Wormwood.

Its other name (in the Stockholm MS. referred to), Avoyne or Averoyne is a corruption of the specific name of one of the species, A. Abrotanum.

Southernwood is the southern Wormwood, _i.e._, the foreign, as distinguished from the native plant. The modern name for the same species is Boy's Love, or Old Man. The last name may have come from its h.o.a.ry leaves, though different explanations are given: the other name is given to it, according to Dr. Prior, "from an ointment made with its ashes being used by young men to promote the growth of a beard." There is good authority for this derivation, but I think the name may have been given for other reasons. "Boy's Love" is one of the most favourite cottage-garden plants, and it enters largely into the rustic language of flowers. No posy presented by a young man to his la.s.s is complete without Boy's Love; and it is an emblem of fidelity, at least it was so once. It is, in fact, a Forget-me-Not, from its strong abiding smell; so St. Francis de Sales applied it: "To love in the midst of sweets, little children could do that; but to love in the bitterness of Wormwood is a sure sign of our affectionate fidelity." Not that the Wormwood was ever named Forget-me-Not, for that name was given to the Ground Pine (_Ajuga chamaepitys_) on account of its unpleasant and long-enduring smell, until it was transferred to the Myosotis (which then lost its old name of Mouse-ear), and the pretty legend was manufactured to account for the name.

In England Wormwood has almost fallen into complete disuse; but in France it is largely used in the shape of Absinthe. As a garden plant, Tarragon, which is a species of Wormwood, will claim a place in every herb garden, and there are a few, such as A. sericea, A. cana, and A.

alpina, which make pretty shrubs for the rockwork.

FOOTNOTES:

[325:1] Wormwood had a still higher reputation among the ancients, as the following extract shows:

??te?s?a ?????????.

??e? ??? ??p?? ??d??? ?d??p????, ?? ?? ??? ???s??

t?? ????????? ??? pe?? d? ?? p?s?? ??peta p??ta fe??e?, ?? t?? ??? ?? ?d?, ??? f?sata de???.

_Anonymi Carmen de Herbis, in "Poetae Bucolici."_

[326:1] In connection with Mugwort there is a most curious account of the formation of a plant name given in a note in the "Promptorium Parvulorum," s.v. Mugworte: "Mugwort, al on as seyn some, Modirwort; lewed folk that in manye wordes conne no rygt sownyge, but ofte shortyn wordys, and changyn lettrys and silablys, they coruptyn the _o_ in to _a_ and _d_ in to _g_, and syncopyn _i_ smytyn a-wey _i_ and _r_ and seyn mugwort."--_Arundel MS._, 42, f. 35 v.

YEW.

(1) _Song._

My shroud of white, stuck all with Yew, Oh! prepare it.

_Twelfth Night_, act ii, sc. 4 (56).

_(2) 3rd Witch._

Gall of goat, and slips of Yew Sliver'd in the moon's eclipse.

_Macbeth_, act iv, sc. 1 (27).

(3) _Scroop._

Thy very beadsmen learn to bend their bows Of double-fatal Yew against thy state.

_Richard II_, act iii, sc. 2 (116).

(4) _Tamora._

But straight they told me they would bind me here Unto the body of a dismal Yew.

_t.i.tus Andronicus_, act ii, sc. 3 (106).

(5) _Paris._

Under yond Yew-trees lay thee all along, Holding thine ear close to the hollow ground; So shall no foot upon the churchyard tread (Being loose, unfirm, with digging up of graves) But thou shalt hear it.

_Romeo and Juliet_, act v, sc. 3 (3).

(6) _Balthasar._

As I did sleep under this Yew tree here,[327:1]

I dreamt my master and another fought, And that my master slew him.

_Ibid._ (137).