The plant-lore & garden-craft of Shakespeare Part 60

_As You Like It_, act i, sc. 2 (65).

The following pa.s.sage from Coles, in 1657, will ill.u.s.trate No. 1: "In Gloucestershire about Teuxbury they grind Mustard and make it into b.a.l.l.s which are brought to London and other remote places as being the best that the world affords." These Mustard b.a.l.l.s were the form in which Mustard was usually sold, until Mrs. Clements, of Durham, in the last century, invented the method of dressing mustard-flour, like wheat-flour, and made her fortune with Durham Mustard; and it has been supposed that this was the only form in which Mustard was sold in Shakespeare's time, and that it was eaten dry as we eat pepper. But the following from an Anglo-Saxon Leech-book seems to speak of it as used exactly in the modern fashion. After mentioning several ingredients in a recipe for want of appet.i.te for meat, it says: "Triturate all together--eke out with vinegar as may seem fit to thee, so that it may be wrought into the form in which Mustard is tempered for flavouring, put it then into a gla.s.s vessel, and then with bread, or with whatever meat thou choose, lap it with a spoon, that will help" ("Leech Book,"

ii. 5, c.o.c.kayne's translation). And Parkinson's account is to the same effect: "The seeds hereof, ground between two stones, fitted for the purpose, and called a quern, with some good vinegar added to it to make it liquid and running, is that kind of Mustard that is usually made of all sorts to serve as sauce both for fish and flesh." And to the same effect the "Boke of Nurture"--

"Yet make moche of Mustard, and put it not away, For with every dische he is dewest who so l.u.s.t to a.s.say."

(L. 853).

MYRTLE.

(1) _Euphronius._

I was of late as petty to his ends As is the morn-dew on the Myrtle-leaf To his grand sea.

_Antony and Cleopatra_, act iii, sc. 12 (8).

(2) _Isabella._

Merciful Heaven, Thou rather with thy sharp and sulphurous bolt Split'st the unwedgeable and gnarled Oak Than the soft Myrtle.

_Measure for Measure_, act ii, sc. 2 (114).

(3)

Venus, with young Adonis sitting by her, Under a Myrtle shade began to woo him.

_Pa.s.sionate Pilgrim_ (143).

(4)

Then sad she hasteth to a Myrtle grove.

_Venus and Adonis_ (865).

Myrtle is of course the English form of _myrtus_; but the older English name was Gale, a name which is still applied to the bog-myrtle.[174:1]

Though a most abundant shrub in the South of Europe, and probably introduced into England before the time of Shakespeare, the myrtle was only grown in a very few places, and was kept alive with difficulty, so that it was looked upon not only as a delicate and an elegant rarity, but as the established emblem of refined beauty. In the Bible it is always a.s.sociated with visions and representations of peacefulness and plenty, and Milton most fitly uses it in the description of our first parents' "blissful bower"--

"The roofe Of thickest covert was inwoven shade, Laurel and Mirtle, and what higher grew Of firm and fragrant leaf."

_Paradise Lost_, iv.

In heathen times the Myrtle was dedicated to Venus, and from this arose the custom in mediaeval times of using the flowers for bridal garlands, which thus took the place of Orange blossoms in our time.

"The lover with the Myrtle sprays Adorns his crisped cresses."

DRAYTON, _Muse's Elysium_.

"And I will make thee beds of Roses, And a thousand fragrant posies, A cap of flowers, and a kirtle Embroidered o'er with leaves of Myrtle."

_Roxburghe Ballads._

As a garden shrub every one will grow the Myrtle that can induce it to grow. There is no difficulty in its cultivation, provided only that the climate suits it, and the climate that suits it best is the neighbourhood of the sea. Virgil describes the Myrtles as "amantes littora myrtos," and those who have seen the Myrtle as it grows on the Devonshire and Cornish coasts will recognise the truth of his description.

FOOTNOTES:

[174:1] "Gayle; mirtus."--_Catholicon Anglic.u.m_, p. 147, with note.

NARCISSUS.

_Emilia._

This garden has a world of pleasures in't, What flowre is this?

_Servant._

'Tis called Narcissus, madam.

_Emilia._

That was a faire boy certaine, but a foole, To love himselfe; were there not maides enough?

_Two n.o.ble Kinsmen_, act ii, sc. 2 (130).

_See_ DAFFODILS, p. 73.

NETTLES.

(1) _Cordelia._

Crown'd with rank Fumiter and Furrow-weeds, With Burdocks, Hemlock, Nettles, Cuckoo-flowers.

_King Lear_, act iv, sc. 4. (3).