The plant-lore & garden-craft of Shakespeare Part 54

_Two n.o.ble Kinsmen_, Introd. song.

(5)

Great princes' favourites their fair leaves spread But as the Marigolds at the sun's eye.

_Sonnet_ xxv.

(6)

Her eyes, like Marigolds, had sheathed their light, And canopied in darkness sweetly lay, Till they might open to adorn the day.

_Lucrece_ (397).

There are at least three plants which claim to be the old Marigold. 1.

The Marsh Marigold (_Caltha pal.u.s.tris_). This is a well-known golden flower--

"The wild Marsh Marigold shines like fire in swamps and hollows gray."

TENNYSON.

And there is this in favour of its being the flower meant, that the name signifies the golden blossom of the marish or marsh; but, on the other hand, the Caltha does not fulfil the conditions of Shakespeare's Marigold--it does not open and close its flowers with the sun. 2. The Corn Marigold (_Chrysanthemum segetum_), a very handsome but mischievous weed in Corn-fields, not very common in England and said not to be a true native, but more common in Scotland, where it is called Goulands. I do not think this is the flower, because there is no proof, as far as I know, that it was called Marigold in Shakespeare's time. 3. The Garden Marigold or Ruddes (_Calendula officinalis_). I have little doubt this is the flower meant; it was always a great favourite in our forefathers'

gardens, and it is hard to give any reason why it should not be so in ours. Yet it has been almost completely banished, and is now seldom found but in the gardens of cottages and old farmhouses, where it is still prized for its bright and almost everlasting flowers (looking very like a Gazania) and evergreen tuft of leaves, while the careful housewife still picks and carefully stores the petals of the flowers, and uses them in broths and soups, believing them to be of great efficacy, as Gerard said they were, "to strengthen and comfort the heart;" though scarcely perhaps rating them as high as Fuller: "we all know the many and sovereign vertues . . . in your leaves, the Herb Generall in all pottage" ("Antheologie," 1655, p. 52).

The two properties of the Marigold--that it was always in flower, and that it turned its flowers to the sun and followed his guidance in their opening and shutting--made it a very favourite flower with the poets and emblem writers. T. Forster, in the "Circle of the Seasons," 1828, says that "this plant received the name of Calendula, because it was in flower on the calends of nearly every month. It has been called Marigold for a similar reason, being more or less in blow at the times of all the festivals of the Blessed Virgin Mary, the word gold having reference to its golden rays, likened to the rays of light around the head of the Blessed Virgin." This is ingenious, and, as he adds, "thus say the old writers," it is worth quoting, though he does not say what old writer gave this derivation, which I am very sure is not the true one. The old name is simply _goldes_. Gower, describing the burning of Leucothoe, says--

"She sp.r.o.ng up out of the molde Into a flour, was named Golde, Which stant governed of the Sonne."

_Conf. Aman._, lib. quint.

Chaucer spoke of the "yellow Goldes;"[157:1] in the "Promptorium Parvulorum" we have "Goolde, herbe, solsequium, quia sequitur solem, elitropium, calendula;" and Spenser says--

"And if I her like ought on earth might read I would her liken to a crowne of Lillies, Upon a virgin brydes adorned head, With Roses dight and Goolds and Daffodillies."

_Colin Clout._

But it was its other quality of opening or shutting its flowers at the sun's bidding that made the Marigold such a favourite with the old writers, especially those who wrote on religious emblems. It was to them the emblem of constancy in affection,[157:2] and sympathy in joy and sorrow, though it was also the emblem of the fawning courtier, who can only shine when everything is bright. As the emblem of constancy, it was to the old writers what the Sunflower was to Moore--

"The Sunflower turns on her G.o.d when he sets The same look which she did when he rose."

It was the Heliotrope or Solsequium or Turnesol of our forefathers, and is the flower often alluded to under that name.[158:1] "All yellow flowers," says St. Francis de Sales, "and, above all, those that the Greeks call Heliotrope, and we call Sunflower, not only rejoice at the sight of the sun, but follow with loving fidelity the attraction of its rays, gazing at the sun, and turning towards it from its rising to its setting" ("Divine Love," Mulholland's translation).

Of this higher and more religious use of the emblematic flower there are frequent examples. I will only give one from G. Withers, a contemporary of Shakespeare's later life--

"When with a serious musing I behold The grateful and obsequious Marigold, How duly every morning she displays Her open breast when Phbus spreads his rays; How she observes him in his daily walk, Still bending towards him her small slender stalk; How when he down declines she droops and mourns, Bedewed, as 'twere, with tears till he returns; And how she veils her flowers when he is gone.

When this I meditate, methinks the flowers Have spirits far more generous than ours, And give us fair examples to despise The servile fawnings and idolatries Wherewith we court these earthly things below, Which merit not the service we bestow."

From the time of Withers the poets treated the Marigold very much as the gardeners did--they pa.s.sed it by altogether as beneath their notice.

FOOTNOTES:

[157:1]

"That werud of yolo Guldes a garland."

_The Knightes Tale._

[157:2]

"You the Sun to her must play, She to you the Marigold, To none but you her leaves unfold."

MIDDLETON AND ROWLEY, _The Spanish Gipsy_.

See also Thynne's "Emblems," No. 18; and Cutwode's "Caltha Poetarum,"

1599, st. 18, 19.

[158:1] "Solsequium vel heliotropium; Solsece vel sigel-hwerfe" (_i.e._, sun-seeker or sun-turner).--aeLFRIC'S _Vocabulary_.

"Marigolde; solsequium, sponsa solis."--_Catholicon Anglic.u.m._

In a note Mr. Herttage says, "the oldest name for the plant was _ymbglidegold_, that which moves round with the sun."

MARJORAM.

(1) _Perdita._

Here's flowers for you; Hot Lavender, Mints, Savory, Marjoram.

_Winter's Tale_, act iv, sc. 4 (103).

(2) _Lear._

Give the word.

_Edgar._

Sweet Marjoram.

_Lear._ Pa.s.s.

_King Lear_, act iv, sc. 6 (93).