The same habit of this flower is also noticed by
Browne's Pastorals,' Book i. s. 5, 1613-

But, maiden, see the day is waxen old,

And 'gins to shut in with the marigold.

Sylvester's 'Du Bartas,' 7th day of 1st week, has
the following lines on the marigold:-

Canst thou the secret sympathy behold
Betwixt the bright sun and the marigold,
And not consider that we must no less
Follow in life the Sun of Righteousness?

Primroses (Primula vulgaris, common prim-
rose). These flowers grow on hedge banks,
in woods, and in meadows. They blossom early
in Spring, and are mostly sulphur-coloured, but
some are occasionally found of paler hue, ap-
proaching to white. The pale primrose has a
sweeter fragrance than the yellow, and the leaves
are of a darker green: it might be properly called
the sweet pale primrose.

The pale primroses that die unmarried, must, I consider, be those which do not arrive at maturity by producing seed. This expression has puzzled many of the commentators on Shakspere. There is a note in Todd's edition of 'Milton,' on the primrose that forsaken dies,' in 'Lycidas, and he, referring to Shakspere, asks: Why does the primrose die unmarried?' and answers, 'Not because it blooms and decays before the appearance of other flowers,

G

M

as in a state of solitude and without society. Shakspere's reason why it dies unmarried is unintelligible. The true reason is because it grows in the shade, uncherished or unseen by the sun, which was supposed to be in love with some sorts of flowers.' Thus, in Drayton, Ecl. 9, vol. iv. p. 8:

Than roses richer to behold
That trim up lovers' bours:
The pansie and the marigold,
Tho' Phoebus paramours.

The pale primrose does not grow in the shade more than other primroses.

Carnations and Gillovors, or gilloflowers, belong to the genus Dianthus, and were well known in the time of Shakspere. Parkinson, in his 'Garden of all sorts of Pleasant Flowers,' dedicated to the Queen of Charles I., and published in 1629, says that 'carnations and gilloflowers be the chiefest flowers of account in all our English gardens;' and he calls them the pride of our English gardens, and the queen of delight and of flowers, and adds: They flower not until the heat of the year, which is in July, and continue flowering until the colds of the Autumn check them, or until they have wholly outspent themselves; and these fair flowers are usually increased by slips.' He also distinguishes them from the gilloflower called stock gillovor.

Gerarde, in his 'Herball,' describing the carnation

gillofloure, says: "On the top of the stalks do grow
very fair flowers, of an excellent sweet smell, and
pleasant carnation colour, whereof it took his

name.'

Tusser, in Five Hundred Points of Good Husbandry,' notices gilloflowers red, white and carnation, as distinct from wall gilloflowers, and stock gilloflowers, and adds:

The gilloflower also the skilful doe know,

Doth look to be covered in frost and in snow.

Spencer, in 'Hobbinol's Dittie,' has the following:

Bring hither the pink and purple cullumbine,

With gillyflowers.

Bring sweet carnations, and sops in wine,
Worn of paramours.

Sir W. J. Hooker's British Flora,' vol. i. p. 177, under Dianthus Caryophyllus (clove-pink carnation, or clove gillyflower), says: Few persons, on seeing this plant, as it grows on old walls, would suppose it was the origin of one of the "fairest flowers of the season:

-

The curious choice clove July flower,

or carnation of our gardens, with its endless diversity
of colour and form, yet such it is always considered
to be.'

The streaked gillovors, noticed by Perdita, are
produced by the flowers of one kind being im-

G 2

pregnated by the pollen of another kind, and this art (or law) in nature, Shakspere alludes to in the delicate language used by Perdita, as well as to the practice of increasing the plants by slips.

Perdita names Crown imperial, lilies of all kinds, the flower-de-lis being one, as flowers of the Spring. The Crown imperial (Corona imperialis), Parkinson says: "For his stately beautifulness deserveth the first place in this our garden of delight, to be entreated of before all other lilies, well known to most persons, being everywhere common.'

Fleur-de-lis. Some of the editions of Shakspere have fleur-de-luce,' and some 'fleur-de-lis.'

I think the flower meant by the poet is the white lily (Lilium album).

Bailey's 'Dictionary' has 'flower-de-luce [fleurde-lis] i. e. the flower of light.' It is supposed to be the lily: the Lys is an emblem of the Trinity, by reason of its three branches, which also signify wisdom, faith and prowess; and he says the lily is the emblem of candour.

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CHAPTER XIII.

MACBETH.

IN Act i. Scene 1, Banquo, in reply to
Macbeth after the disappearance of the
Witches, says :-

Were such things here as we do speak about?

Or have we eaten on the insane root,

That takes the reason prisoner?

It is difficult to decide what plant Shakspere meant by the insane root. Mr. Knight, in his edition of 'Shakspere,' says: 'Henbane is referred to, and that it is called insana in an old book of medicine, which Shakspere might have consulted;' but he does not give the name of it. There is an old book, 'Bartholomæus de Proprietatibus rerum,'† printed

* First printed in the folio of 1623.

† The following is Mr. Douce's notice of this work (Illustrations of Shakspere) :

:

'It is a general history of nature, composed in Latin by Bartholomew Glanville, an English Minorite or Franciscan, of the family of the Earls of Suffolk. He flourished about the year 1360, and appears to have been the Pliny of his time. It was several