The plant-lore & garden-craft of Shakespeare Part 33

In some of the other quotations the reference is simply to the proverbial likeness of a Fig to a matter of the least importance.[94:1]

But in the others the dainty fruit, the green Fig, is noticed.

The Fig tree, celebrated from the earliest times for the beauty of its foliage and for its "sweetness and good fruit" (Judges ix. 11), is said to have been introduced into England by the Romans; but the more reliable accounts attribute its introduction to Cardinal Pole, who is said to have planted the Fig tree still living at Lambeth Palace.

Botanically, the Fig is of especial interest. The Fig, as we eat it, is neither fruit nor flower, though partaking of both, being really the hollow, fleshy receptacle enclosing a mult.i.tude of flowers, which never see the light, yet come to full perfection and ripen their seed. The Fig stands alone in this peculiar arrangement of its flowers, but there are other plants of which we eat the unopened or undeveloped flowers, as the Artichoke, the Cauliflower, the Caper, the Clove, and the Pine Apple.

FOOTNOTES:

[94:1] This proverbial worthlessness of the Fig is of ancient date.

Theocritus speaks of s?????? a?d?e?, useless men; Horace, "Olim truncus eram ficulnus, inutile lignum;" and Juvenal, "Sterilis mala robora ficus."

FILBERTS.

_Caliban._

I'll bring thee to cl.u.s.tering Filberds.

_Tempest_, act ii, sc. 2(174).

(_See_ HAZEL.)

FLAGS.

_Caesar._

This common body Like to a vagabond Flag upon the stream Goes to and back, lackeying the varying tide, To rot itself with motion.

_Antony and Cleopatra_, act i, sc. 4 (44).

We now commonly call the Iris a Flag, and in Shakespeare's time the Iris pseudoacorus was called the Water Flag, and so this pa.s.sage might, perhaps, have been placed under Flower-de-luce. But I do not think that the Flower-de-luce proper was ever called a Flag at that time, whereas we know that many plants, especially the Reeds and Bulrushes, were called in a general way Flags. This is the case in the Bible, the language of which is always a safe guide in the interpretation of contemporary literature. The mother of Moses having placed the infant in the ark of Bulrushes, "laid it in the Flags by the river's brink," and the daughter of Pharaoh "saw the ark among the Flags." Job asks, "Can the Flag grow without water?" and Isaiah draws the picture of desolation when "the brooks of defence shall be emptied and dried up, and the Reeds and the Flags shall wither." But in these pa.s.sages, not only is the original word very loosely translated, but the original word itself was so loosely used that long ago Jerome had said it might mean any marsh plant, _quidquid in palude virens nascitur_. And in the same way I conclude that when Shakespeare named the Flag he meant any long-leaved waterside plant that is swayed to and fro by the stream, and that therefore this pa.s.sage might very properly have been placed under Rushes.

FLAX.

(1) _Ford._

What, a hodge-pudding? a bag of Flax?

_Merry Wives_, act v, sc. 5 (159).

(2) _Clifford._

Beauty that the tyrant oft reclaims Shall to my flaming wrath be oil and Flax.

_2nd Henry VI_, act v, sc. 2 (54).

(3) _Sir Toby._

Excellent; it hangs like Flax in a distaff.

_Twelfth Night_, act i, sc. 3 (108).

(4) _3rd Servant._

Go thou: I'll fetch some Flax and white of eggs To apply to his bleeding face.[95:1]

_King Lear_, act iii, sc. 7 (106).

(5) _Ophelia._

His beard was as white as snow, All Flaxen was his poll.

_Hamlet_, act iv, sc. 5 (195).

(6) _Leontes._

My wife deserves a name As rank as any Flax-wench.

_Winter's Tale_, act i, sc. 2 (276).

(7) _Emilia._

It could No more be hid in him, than fire in Flax.

_Two n.o.ble Kinsmen_, act v, sc. 3 (113).

The Flax of commerce (_Linum usitatissimum_) is not a true native, though Turner said: "I have seen flax or lynt growyng wilde in Sommerset shyre" ("Herbal," part ii. p. 39); but it takes kindly to the soil, and soon becomes naturalized in the neighbourhood of any Flax field or mill.

We have, however, three native Flaxes in England, of which the smallest, the Fairy Flax (_L. cathartic.u.m_), is one of the most graceful ornaments of our higher downs and hills.[96:1] The Flax of commerce, which is the plant referred to by Shakespeare, is supposed to be a native of Egypt, and we have early notice of it in the Book of Exodus; and the microscope has shown that the cere-cloths of the most ancient Egyptian mummies are made of linen. It was very early introduced into England, and the spinning of Flax was the regular occupation of the women of every household, from the mistress downwards, so that even queens are represented in the old illuminations in the act of spinning, and "the spinning-wheel was a necessary implement in every household, from the palace to the cottage."--WRIGHT, _Domestic Manners_. The occupation is now almost gone, driven out by machinery, but it has left its mark on our language, at least on our legal language, which acknowledges as the only designation of an unmarried woman that she is "a spinster."

A crop of Flax is one of the most beautiful, from the rich colour of the flowers resting on their dainty stalks. But it is also most useful; from it we get linen, linseed oil, oilcake, and linseed-meal; nor do its virtues end there, for "Sir John Herschel tells us the surprising fact that old linen rags will, when treated with sulphuric acid, yield more than their own weight of sugar. It is something even to have lived in days when our worn-out napkins may possibly reappear on our tables in the form of sugar."--LADY WILKINSON.

As garden plants the Flaxes are all ornamental. There are about eighty species, some herbaceous and some shrubby, and of almost all colours, and in most of the species the colours are remarkably bright and clear.

There is no finer blue than in L. usitatissimum, no finer yellow than in L. trigynum, or finer scarlet than in L. grandiflorum.