The plant-lore & garden-craft of Shakespeare Part 13

And thy Broom groves, Whose shadow the dismissed bachelor loves, Being la.s.s-lorn.

_Tempest_, act iv, sc. 1 (66).

(2) _Puck._

I am sent with Broom before To sweep the dust behind the door.

_Midsummer Night's Dream_, act v, sc. 1 (396).

(3) _Man._

I made good my place; at length they came to the Broomstaff with me.

_Henry VIII_, act v, sc. 4 (56).

The Broom was one of the most popular plants of the Middle Ages. Its modern Latin name is _Cytisus scoparius_, but under its then Latin name of _Planta genista_ it gave its name to the Plantagenet family, either in the time of Henry II., as generally reported, or probably still earlier. As the favourite badge of the family it appears on their monuments and portraits, and was embroidered on their clothes and imitated in their jewels. Nor was it only in England that the plant was held in such high favour; it was the special flower of the Scotch, and it was highly esteemed in many countries on the Continent, especially in Brittany. Yet, in spite of all this, there are only these three notices of the plant in Shakespeare, and of those three, two (2 and 3) refer to its uses when dead; and the third (1), though it speaks of it as living, yet has nothing to say of the remarkable beauties of this favourite British flower. Yet it has great beauties which cannot easily be overlooked. Its large, yellow flowers, its graceful habit of growth, and its fragrance--

"Sweet is the Broome-flowre, but yet sowre enough"--

SPENSER, _Sonnet_ xxvi.

at once arrest the attention of the most careless observer of Nature. We are almost driven to the conclusion that Shakespeare could not have had much real acquaintance with the Broom, or he would not have sent his "dismissed bachelor" to "Broom-groves."[42:1] I should very much doubt that the Broom could ever attain to the dimensions of a grove, though Steevens has a note on the pa.s.sage that "near Gamlingay, in Cambridgeshire, it grows high enough to conceal the tallest cattle as they pa.s.s through it; and in places where it is cultivated still higher." Chaucer speaks of the Broom, but does not make it so much of a tree--

"Amid the Broom he basked in the sun."

And other poets have spoken of the Broom in the same way--thus Collins--

"When Dan Sol to slope his wheels began Amid the Broom he basked him on the ground."

_Castle of Indolence_, canto i.

And a Russian poet speaks of the Broom as a tree--

"See there upon the Broom tree's bough The young grey eagle flapping now."

_Flora Domestica_, p. 68.

As a garden plant it is perhaps seen to best advantage when mixed with other shrubs, as when grown quite by itself it often has an untidy look.

There is a pure white variety which is very beautiful, but it is very liable to flower so abundantly as to flower itself to death. There are a few other sorts, but none more beautiful than the British.

FOOTNOTES:

[42:1] Yet Bromsgrove must be a corruption of Broom-grove, and there are other places in England named from the Broom.

BULRUSH.

_Wooer._

Her careless tresses A wreake of Bulrush rounded.

_Two n.o.ble Kinsmen_, act iv, sc. 1 (104).

_See_ RUSH, p. 262.

BURDOCK AND BURS.

(1) _Celia._

They are but Burs, cousin, thrown upon thee in holiday foolery; if we walk not in the trodden paths our very petticoats will catch them.

_Rosalind._

I could shake them off my coat; these Burs are in my heart.

_As You Like It_, act i, sc. 3 (13).

(2) _Lucio._

Nay, friar, I am a kind of Bur; I shall stick.

_Measure for Measure_, act iv, sc. 3 (149).

(3) _Lysander._

Hang oft, thou cat, thou Burr.

_Midsummer Night's Dream_, act iii, sc. 2 (260).

(4) _Pandarus._

They are Burs, I can tell you; they'll stick where they are thrown.

_Troilus and Cressida_, act iii, sc. 2 (118).