The plant-lore & garden-craft of Shakespeare Part 57

(2) _Tamora._

The trees, though summer, yet forlorn and lean, O'ercome with Moss and baleful Mistletoe.

_t.i.tus Andronicus_, act ii, sc. 3 (94).

(3) _Apemantus._

These Moss'd trees That have outlived the eagle.

_Timon of Athens_, act iv, sc. 3 (223).

(4) _Hotspur._

Steeples and Moss-grown towers.

_1st Henry IV_, act iii, sc. 1 (33).

(5) _Oliver._

Under an Oak whose boughs were Moss'd with age, And high top bald with dry antiquity.

_As You Like It_, act iv, sc. 3 (105).

(6) _Arviragus._

The ruddock would, With charitable bill,

bring thee all this; Yea, and furr'd Moss besides, when flowers are none, To winter-ground thy corse.

_Cymbeline_, act iv, sc. 2 (224).[164:1]

If it were not for the pretty notice of Moss in the last pa.s.sage (6), we should be inclined to say that Shakespeare had as little regard for "idle Moss" as for the "baleful Mistletoe." In his day Moss included all the low-growing and apparently flowerless carpet plants which are now divided into the many families of Mosses, Lichens, Club Mosses, Hepaticae, Jungermanniae, &c., &c. And these plants, though holding no rank in the eyes of a florist, are yet deeply interesting, perhaps no family of plants more so, to those who have time and patience to study them. The Club Mosses, indeed, may claim a place in the garden if they can only be induced to grow, but that is a difficult task, and the tenderer Lycopodiums are always favourites when well grown among greenhouse Ferns; but for the most part, the Mosses must be studied in their native haunts, and when so studied, they are found to be full of beauty and of wonderful construction. Nor are they without use, and it is rather strange that Shakespeare should have so markedly called them "idle," or useless, considering that in his day many medical virtues were attributed to them. This reputation for medical virtues they have now all lost, except the Iceland Moss, which is still in use for invalids; but the Mosses have other uses. The Reindeer Moss (_Cladonia rangiferina_) and Roch-hair (_Alectoria jubata_) are indispensable to the Laplander as food for his reindeer, and Usnea florida is used in North America as food for cattle; the Iceland Moss (_Cetraria Islandica_) is equally indispensable as an article of food to all the inhabitants of the extreme North; and the Tripe de la Roche (_Gyrophora cylindrica_) has furnished food to the Arctic explorers when no other food could be obtained; while many dyes are produced from the Lichens, especially the Cudbear (a most discordant corruption of the name of the discoverer, Mr. Cuthbert), which is the produce of the Rock Moss (_Lecanora tartarea_). So that even to us the Mosses have their uses, even if they do not reach the uses that they have in North Sweden, where, according to Miss Bremer, "the forest, which is the countryman's workshop, is his storehouse, too. With the various Lichens that grow upon the trees and rocks, he cures the virulent diseases with which he is sometimes afflicted, dyes the articles of clothes which he wears, and poisons the noxious and dangerous animals which annoy him."

As to the beauty of Mosses and Lichens we have only to ask any artist or go into any exhibition of pictures. Their great beauty has been so lovingly described by Ruskin ("Modern Painters"), that no one can venture to do more than quote his description. It is well known to many, but none will regret having it called to their remembrance--"placuit semel--decies repet.i.ta placebit"--s.p.a.ce, however, will oblige me somewhat to curtail it. "Meek creatures! the first mercy of the earth, veiling with hushed softness its dentless rocks: creatures full of pity, covering with strange and tender honour the sacred disgrace of ruin, laying quiet fingers on the trembling stones to teach them rest. No words that I know of will say what these Mosses are; none are delicate enough, none perfect enough, none rich enough.. . . . They will not be gathered like the flowers for chaplet or love token; but of these the wild bird will make its nest and the wearied child its pillow, and as the earth's first mercy so they are its last gift to us. When all other service is vain from plant and tree, the soft Mosses and grey Lichens take up their watch by the headstone. The woods, the blossoms, the gift-bearing Gra.s.ses have done their parts for a time, but these do service for ever. Trees for the builder's yard, flowers for the bride's chamber, Corn for the granary, Moss for the grave."

FOOTNOTES:

[164:1] There may be special appropriateness in the selection of the "furr'd Moss" to "winter-ground thy corse." "The final duty of Mosses is to die; the main work of other leaves is in their life, but these have to form the earth, out of which other leaves are to grow."--RUSKIN, _Proserpina_, p. 20.

MULBERRIES.

(1) _t.i.tania._

Feed him with Apric.o.c.ks and Dewberries, With purple Grapes, green Figs, and Mulberries.

_Midsummer Night's Dream_, act iii, sc. 1 (169).

(2) _Volumnia._

Thy stout heart, Now humble as the ripest Mulberry That will not bear the handling.

_Coriola.n.u.s_, act iii, sc. 2 (78).

(3) _Prologue._

Thisby tarrying in Mulberry shade.

_Midsummer Night's Dream_, act v, sc. 1 (149).

(4) _Wooer._

Palamon is gone Is gone to the wood to gather Mulberries.

_Two n.o.ble Kinsmen_, act iv, sc. 1 (87).

(5)

The birds would bring him Mulberries and ripe-red Cherries.

_Venus and Adonis_ (1103).

(_See_ CHERRIES.)

We do not know when the Mulberry, which is an Eastern tree, was introduced into England, but probably very early. We find in Archbishop aelfric's "Vocabulary," "morus vel rubus, mor-beam," but it is doubtful whether that applies to the Mulberry or Blackberry, as in the same catalogue Blackberries are mentioned as "flavi vel mori, blace-berian."

There is no doubt that Morum was a Blackberry as well as a Mulberry in cla.s.sical times. Our Mulberry is probably the fruit mentioned by Horace--

"Ille salubres aestates peraget, qui nigris prandia Moris Finiet ante gravem quae legerit arbore solem."

_Sat._ ii, 4, 24.

And it certainly is the fruit mentioned by Ovid--

"In duris haerentia mora rubetis."