The plant-lore & garden-craft of Shakespeare Part 6

[21:2] Juliet describes leave-taking in almost the same words--"Parting is such _sweet sorrow_."

[22:1] "Voyages," 1580, p. 466.

APRICOTS.

(1) _t.i.tania._

Be kind and courteous to this gentleman; Hop in his walks, and gambol in his eyes; Feed him with Apric.o.c.ks and Dewberries, With purple Grapes, green Figs, and Mulberries.

_Midsummer Night's Dream_, act iii, sc. 1 (167).

(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.

_Richard II_, act iii, sc. 4 (29).

(3) _Palamon._

Would I were, For all the fortunes of my life hereafter, Yon little tree, yon blooming Apric.o.c.ke; How I would spread and fling my wanton armes In at her window! I would bring her fruit Fit for the G.o.ds to feed on.

_Two n.o.ble Kinsmen_, act ii, sc. 2 (291).

Shakespeare's spelling of the word "Apric.o.c.ks" takes us at once to its derivation. It is derived undoubtedly from the Latin _praec.o.x or praecoquus_, under which name it is referred to by Pliny and Martial; but, before it became the English Apricot it was much changed by Italians, Spaniards, French, and Arabians. The history of the name is very curious and interesting, but too long to give fully here; a very good account of it may be found in Miller and in "Notes and Queries,"

vol. ii. p. 420 (1850). It will be sufficient to say here that it acquired its name of "the precocious tree," because it flowered and fruited earlier than the Peach, as explained in Lyte's "Herbal," 1578: "There be two kinds of Peaches, whereof the one kinde is late ripe, . . . the other kinds are soner ripe, wherefore they be called Abrec.o.x or Aprec.o.x." Of its introduction into England we have no very certain account. It was certainly grown in England before Turner's time (1548), though he says, "We have very few of these trees as yet;"[23:1] but the only account of its introduction is by Hakluyt, who states that it was brought from Italy by one Wolf, gardener to King Henry the Eighth. If that be its true history, Shakespeare was in error in putting it into the garden of the queen of Richard the Second, nearly a hundred years before its introduction.[24:1]

In Shakespeare's time the Apricot seems to have been grown as a standard; I gather this from the description in Nos. 2 (see the entire pa.s.sage s.v. "Pruning" in Part II.) and 3, and from the following in Browne's "Britannia's Pastorals"--

"Or if from where he is[24:2] he do espy Some Apricot upon a bough thereby Which overhangs the tree on which he stands, Climbs up, and strives to take them with his hands."

Book ii. Song 4.

FOOTNOTES:

[23:1] "Names of Herbes," s.v. Malus Armeniaca.

[24:1] The Apricot has usually been supposed to have come from Armenia, but there is now little doubt that its original country is the Himalaya (M. Lavaillee).

[24:2] On a Cherry tree in an orchard.

ASH.

_Aufidius._

Let me twine Mine arms about that body, where against My grained Ash an hundred times hath broke, And starr'd the moon with splinters.

_Coriola.n.u.s_, act iv, sc. 5 (112).

Warwickshire is more celebrated for its Oaks and Elms than for its Ash trees. Yet considering how common a tree the Ash is, and in what high estimation it was held by our ancestors, it is strange that it is only mentioned in this one pa.s.sage. Spenser spoke of it as "the Ash for nothing ill;" it was "the husbandman's tree," from which he got the wood for his agricultural implements; and there was connected with it a great amount of mystic folk-lore, which was carried to its extreme limit in the Yggdrasil, or legendary Ash of Scandinavia, which was almost looked upon as the parent of Creation: a full account of this may be found in Mallet's "Northern Antiquities" and other works on Scandinavia. It is an English native tree,[24:3] and it adds much to the beauty of any English landscape in which it is allowed to grow. It gives its name to many places, especially in the South, as Ashdown, Ashstead, Ashford, &c.; but to see it in its full beauty it must be seen in our northern counties, though the finest in England is said to be at Woburn.

"The Oak, the Ash, and the Ivy tree, O, they flourished best at hame, in the north countrie."

_Old Ballad._

In the dales of Yorkshire it is especially beautiful, and any one who sees the fine old trees in Wharfdale and Wensleydale will confess that, though it may not have the rich luxuriance of the Oaks and Elms of the southern and midland counties, yet it has a grace and beauty that are all its own, so that we scarcely wonder that Gilpin called it "the Venus of the woods."

FOOTNOTES:

[24:3] It is called in the "Promptorium Parvulorum" "Esche," and the seed vessels "Esche key."

ASPEN.

(1) _Marcus._

O, had the monster seen those lily hands Tremble, like Aspen leaves, upon a lute.

_t.i.tus Andronicus_, act 2, sc. 4 (44).

(2) _Hostess._

Feel, masters, how I shake. . . . . Yea, in very truth do I an 'twere an Aspen leaf.

_2nd Henry IV_, act ii, sc. 4 (114).

The Aspen or Aspe[25:1] (_Populus tremula_) is one of our three native Poplars, and has ever been the emblem of enforced restlessness, on account of which it had in Anglo-Saxon times the expressive name of quick-beam. How this perpetual motion in the "light quivering Aspen" is produced has not been quite satisfactorily explained; and the mediaeval legend that it supplied the wood of the Cross, and has never since ceased to tremble, is still told as a sufficient reason both in Scotland and England.

"Oh! a cause more deep, More solemn far the rustic doth a.s.sign, To the strange restlessness of those wan leaves; The cross, he deems, the blessed cross, whereon The meek Redeemer bowed His head to death, Was formed of Aspen wood; and since that hour Through all its race the pale tree hath sent down A thrilling consciousness, a secret awe, Making them tremulous, when not a breeze Disturbs the airy thistle-down, or shakes The light lines of the shining gossamer."

MRS. HEMANS.

The Aspen has an interesting botanical history, as being undoubtedly, like the Scotch fir, one of the primaeval trees of Europe; while its grey bark and leaves and its pleasant rustling sound make the tree acceptable in our hedgerows, but otherwise it is not a tree of much use. In Spenser's time it was considered "good for staves;" and before his time the tree must have been more valued than it is now, for in the reign of Henry V. an Act of Parliament was pa.s.sed (4 Henry V. c. 3) to prevent the consumption of Aspe, otherwise than for the making of arrows, with a penalty of an Hundred Shillings if used for making pattens or clogs.