The plant-lore & garden-craft of Shakespeare Part 114

_Paradise Lost_, book iv.

None of us probably would now wish to exchange the straight walks and level terraces of the sixteenth century for our winding walks and undulating lawns, in the laying out of which the motto has been "ars est celare artem"--

"That which all faire workes doth most aggrace, The art, which all that wrought, appeareth in no place."

_F. Q._, ii, xii, 58.

Yet it is pleasant to look back upon these old gardens, and to see how they were cherished and beloved by some of the greatest and n.o.blest of Englishmen. Spenser has left on record his judgment on the gardens of his day--

"To the gay gardens his unstaid desire Him wholly carried, to refresh his sprights; There lavish Nature, in her best attire, Poures forth sweete odors and alluring sights: And Arte, with her contending, doth aspire To excell the naturall with made delights; And all, that faire or pleasant may be found, In riotous excesse doth there abound.

There he arriving around about doth flie, From bed to bed, from one to other border; And takes survey, with curious busie eye, Of every flowre and herbe there set in order."

_Muiopotmos._

Clearly in Spenser's eyes the formalities of an Elizabethan garden (for we must suppose he had such in his thoughts) did not exclude nature or beauty.

It was also with such formal gardens in his mind and before his eyes that Lord Bacon wrote his "Essay on Gardens," and commenced it with the well-known sentence (for I must quote him once again for the last time), "G.o.d Almighty first planted a garden, and indeed it is the purest of all human pleasures; it is the greatest refreshment to the spirits of man, without which buildings and palaces are but gross handiworks; and a man shall ever see, that when ages grow to civility and elegance, men come to build stately sooner than to garden finely, as if gardening were the greater perfection." And, indeed, in spite of their stiffness and unnaturalness, there must have been a great charm in those gardens, and though it would be antiquarian affectation to attempt or wish to restore them, yet there must have been a stateliness about them which our gardens have not, and they must have had many points of real comfort which it seems a pity to have lost. Those long shady "covert alleys,"

with their "thick-pleached" sides and roof, must have been very pleasant places to walk in, giving shelter in winter, and in summer deep shade, with the pleasant smell of Sweet Brier and Roses. They must have been the very places for a thoughtful student, who desired quiet and retirement for his thoughts--

"And adde to these retired leisure That in trim gardens takes his pleasure"--

_Il Penseroso._

and they must have been also "pretty retiring places for conference" for friends in council. The whole fashion of the Elizabethan garden has pa.s.sed away, and will probably never be revived; but before we condemn it as a ridiculous fashion, unworthy of the science of gardening, we may remember that it held its ground in England for nearly two hundred years, and that during that time the gardens of England and the flowers they bore won not the cold admiration, but the warm affection of the greatest names in English history, the affection of such a queen as Elizabeth,[349:1] of such a grave and wise philosopher as Bacon, of such a grand hero as Raleigh, of such poets as Spenser and Shakespeare.

FOOTNOTES:

[343:1] These beds (as we should now call them) were called "tables" or "plots"--

"Mark out the tables, ichon by hem selve Sixe foote in brede, and xii in length is beste To clense and make on evey side honest."

_Palladius on Husbandrie_, i. 116.

"Note this generally that all plots are square."--LAWSON'S _New Orchard_, p. 60.

[344:1] For an account of Levens, with a plate of the Topiarian garden, see "Archaeological Journal," vol. xxvi.

[347:1] Including shrubs--

"'Tis another's lot To light upon some gard'ner's curious knot, Where she upon her breast (love's sweet repose), Doth bring the Queen of flowers, the English Rose."

BROWNE'S _Brit. Past._, i, 2.

[347:2] For a good account of mazes and labyrinths see "Archaeological Journal," xiv. 216.

[349:1] Queen Elizabeth's love of gardening and her botanical knowledge were celebrated in a Latin poem by an Italian who visited England in 1586, and wrote a long poem under the name of "Melissus."--See _Archaeologia_, vol. vii. 120.

III.--GARDENERS.

(1) _Queen._

But stay, here come the gardeners; Let's step into the shadow of these trees.

Thou, old Adam's likeness, set to dress this garden, How dares thy harsh rude tongue sound this unpleasing news?

What Eve, what serpent, hath suggested thee To make a second fall of cursed man?

Why dost thou say King Richard is deposed?

Darest thou, thou little better thing than earth, Divine his downfal?

_Richard II_, act iii, sc. 4 (24, 72).

(2) _Clown._

Come, my spade. There is no ancient gentlemen but gardeners, ditchers, and grave-makers; they hold up Adam's profession.

_Hamlet_, act v, sc. 1 (34).

Very little is recorded of the gardeners of the sixteenth century, by which we can judge either of their skill or their social position.

Gerard frequently mentions the names of different persons from whom he obtained plants, but without telling us whether they were professional or amateur gardeners or nurserymen; and Hakluyt has recorded the name of Master Wolfe as gardener to Henry VIII. Certainly Richard II.'s Queen did not speak with much respect to her gardener, reproving him for his "harsh rude tongue," and addressing him as a "little better thing than earth"--but her angry grief may account for that. Parkinson also has not much to say in favour of the gardeners of his day, but considers it his duty to warn his readers against them: "Our English gardeners are all, or the most of them, utterly ignorant in the ordering of their outlandish (_i.e._, exotic) flowers as not being trained to know them. . . . And I do wish all gentlemen and gentlewomen, whom it may concern for their own good, to be as careful whom they trust with the planting and replanting of their fine flowers, as they would be with so many jewels, for the roots of many of them being small and of great value may soon be conveyed away, and a clean tale fair told, that such a root is rotten or perished in the ground if none be seen where it should be, or else that the flower hath changed his colour when it hath been taken away, or a counterfeit one hath been put in the place thereof; and thus many have been deceived of their daintiest flowers, without remedy or true knowledge of the defect." And again, "idle and ignorant gardeners who get names by stealth as they do many other things." This is not a pleasant picture either of the skill or honesty of the sixteenth-century gardeners, but there must have been skilled gardeners to keep those curious-knotted gardens in order, so as to have a "_ver perpetuum_ all the year." And there must have been men also who had a love for their craft; and if some stole the rare plants committed to their charge, we must hope that there were some honest men amongst them, and that they were not all like old Andrew Fairservice, in "Rob Roy,"

who wished to find a place where he "wad hear pure doctrine, and hae a free cow's gra.s.s, and a cot and a yard, and mair than ten punds of annual fee," but added also, "and where there's nae leddy about the town to count the Apples."

IV.--GARDENING OPERATIONS.

A. PRUNING, ETC.

(1) _Orlando._

But, poor old man, thou prunest a rotten tree, That cannot so much as a blossom yield In lieu of all thy pains and industry.

_As you Like It_, act ii, sc. 3 (63).

(2) _Gardener._

Go, bind thou up yon dangling Apric.o.c.ks, Which, like unruly children, make their sire Stoop with oppression of their prodigal weight: Give some supportance to the bending twigs.

Go thou, and like an executioner, Cut off the heads of too-fast growing sprays, That look too lofty in our commonwealth: All must be even in our government.

You thus employ'd, I would go root away The noisome weeds, which without profit suck The soil's fertility from wholesome flowers.