Part 1. The Plant-Lore Of Shakespeare - Vetches, Vines, Violets

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_ PART I. THE PLANT-LORE OF SHAKESPEARE VETCHES, VINES, VIOLETS

VETCHES.

Iris.

Ceres, most bounteous lady, thy rich leas,
Of Wheat, Rye, Barley, Vetches, Oats, and Pease.

--- Tempest, act iv, sc. 1 (60).

The cultivated Vetch (Vicia sativa) is probably not a British plant, and it is not very certain to what country it rightly belongs; but it was very probably introduced into England by the Romans as an excellent and easily-grown fodder-plant. There are several Vetches that are true British plants, and they are among the most beautiful ornaments of our lanes and hedges. Two especially deserve to take a place in the garden for their beauty; but they require watching, or they will scramble into parts where their presence is not desirable; these are V. cracca and V. sylvatica. V. cracca has a very bright pure blue flower, and may be allowed to scramble over low bushes; V. sylvatica is a tall climber, and may be seen in copses and high hedges climbing to the tops of the Hazels and other tall bushes. It is one of the most graceful of our British plants, and perhaps quite the most graceful of our climbers; it bears an abundance of flowers, which are pure white streaked and spotted with pale blue; it is not a very common plant, but I have often seen it in Gloucestershire and Somersetshire, and wherever it is found it is generally in abundance.

The other name for the Vetch is Tares, which is, no doubt, an old English word that has never been satisfactorily explained. The word has an interest from its biblical associations, though modern scholars decide that the Zizania is wrongly translated Tares, and that it is rather a bastard Wheat or Darnel.

 

VINES.

(1) Titania.

Feed him with Apricocks and Dewberries,
With purple Grapes, green Figs, and Mulberries.

--- Midsummer Night's Dream, act iii, sc. 1 (169).

(2) Menenius.

The tartness of his face sours ripe Grapes.

--- Coriolanus, act v, sc. 4 (18).

(3) Song.

Come, thou monarch of the Vine,
Plumpy Bacchus, with pink eyne!
In thy fats our cares be drown'd,
With thy Grapes our hairs be crown'd.

--- Antony and Cleopatra, act ii, sc. 7 (120).

(4) Cleopatra.

Now no more
The juice of Egypt's Grape shall moist this lip.

--- Ibid., act v, sc. 2 (284).

(5) Timon.

Dry up thy Marrows, Vines, and plough-torn leas.

--- Timon of Athens, act iv, sc. 3 (193).

(6) Timon.

Go, suck the subtle blood o' the Grape,
Till the high fever seethe your blood to froth.

--- Ibid. (432).

(7) Touchstone.

The heathen philosopher, when he had a desire to eat a Grape,
would open his lips when he put it into his mouth; meaning
thereby that Grapes were made to eat and lips to open.

--- As You Like It, act v, sc. 1 (36).

(8) Iago.

Blessed Fig's end! the wine she drinks is made of Grapes.

--- Othello, act ii, sc 1 (250).

(9) Lafeu.

O, will you eat no Grapes, my royal fox?
Yes, but you will my noble Grapes, an if
My royal fox could reach them.

--- All's Well that Ends Well, act ii, sc. 1 (73).

(10) Lafeu.

There's one Grape yet.

--- Ibid., act ii, sc. 1 (105).

(11) Pompey.

'Twas in "The Bunch of Grapes," where, indeed, you have a
delight to sit.

--- Measure for Measure, act ii, sc. 1 (133).

(12) Constable.

Let us quit all
And give our Vineyards to a barbarous people.

--- Henry V, act iii, sc. 5 (3).

(13) Burgundy.

Her Vine, the merry cheerer of the heart,
Unpruned, dies. . . .
. . . . . .
Our Vineyards, fallows, meads, and hedges,
Defective in their natures, grow to wildness.

--- Ibid., act v, sc. 2 (41, 54).

(14) Mortimer.

And pithless arms, like to a wither'd Vine
That droops his sapless branches to the ground.

--- 1st Henry VI, act ii, sc. 5 (11).

(15) Cranmer.

In her days every man shall eat in safety,
Under his own Vine, what he plants; and sing
The merry songs of peace to all his neighbours.

--- Henry VIII, act v, sc. 5 (34).

(16) Cranmer.

Peace, plenty, love, truth, terror,
That were the servants to this chosen infant,
Shall then be his, and like a Vine grow to him.

--- Ibid. (48).

(17) Lear.

Now, our joy,
Although the last, not least; to whose young love
The Vines of France and milk of Burgundy
Strive to be interess'd.

--- King Lear, act i, sc. 1 (84).

(18) Arviragus.

And let the stinking Elder, grief, untwine
His perishing root with the increasing Vine!

--- Cymbeline, act iv, sc. 2 (59).

(19) Adriana.

Thou art an Elm, my husband, I a Vine,
Whose weakness married to thy stronger state
Makes me with thy strength to communicate.

--- Comedy of Errors, act ii, sc. 2 (176).

(20) Gonzalo.

Bound of land, tilth, Vineyard, none.

--- Tempest, act ii, sc. 1 (152).

(21) Iris.

Thy pole-clipt Vineyard.

--- Ibid., act iv, sc. 1 (68).

(22) Ceres.

Vines with clustering bunches growing,
Plants with goodly burthen bowing.

--- Ibid. (112).

(23) Richmond.

The usurping boar,
That spoil'd your summer fields and fruitful Vines.

--- Richard III, act v, sc. 2 (7).

(24) Isabella.

He hath a garden circummured with brick,
Whose western side is with a Vineyard back'd;
And to that Vineyard is a planched gate,
That makes his opening with this bigger key:
This other doth command a little door,
Which from the Vineyard to the garden leads.

--- Measure for Measure, act iv, sc. 1 (28).

(25)

The Vine shall grow, but we shall never see it.

--- Two Noble Kinsmen, act ii, sc. 2 (47).

(26)

Even as poor birds, deceived with painted Grapes,
Do forfeit by the eye and pine the maw.

--- Venus and Adonis (601).

(27)

For one sweet Grape, who will the Vine destroy?

--- Lucrece (215).

Besides these different references to the Grape Vine, some of its various products are mentioned, as Raisins, wine, aquavitae or brandy, claret (the "thin potations" forsworn by Falstaff), sherris-sack or sherry, and malmsey. But none of these passages gives us much insight into the culture of the Vine in England, the whole history of which is curious and interesting.

The Vine is not even a native of Europe, but of the East, whence it was very early introduced into Europe; so early, indeed, that it has recently been found "fossil in a tufaceous deposit in the South of France."--DARWIN. It was no doubt brought into England by the Romans. Tacitus, describing England in the first century after Christ, says expressly that the Vine did not, and, as he evidently thought, could not grow there. "Solum, praeter oleam vitemque et caetera calidioribus terris oriri sueta, patiens frugum, faecundum." Yet Bede, writing in the eighth century, describes England as "opima frugibus atque arboribus insula, et alendis apta pecoribus et jumentis Vineas etiam quibusdam in locis germinans."[301:1]

From that time till the time of Shakespeare there is abundant proof not only of the growth of the Vine as we now grow it in gardens, but in large Vineyards. In Anglo-Saxon times "a Vineyard" is not unfrequently mentioned in various documents. "Edgar gives the Vineyard situated at Wecet, with the Vine-dressers."--TURNER'S Anglo-Saxons. "'Domesday Book' contained thirty-eight entries of valuable Vineyards; one in Essex consisted of six acres, and yielded twenty hogsheads of wine in a good year. There was another of the same extent at Ware."--H. EVERSHED, in Gardener's Chronicle. So in the Norman times, "Giraldus Cambrensis, speaking of the Castle of Manorbeer (his birthplace), near Pembroke, said that it had under its walls, besides a fishpond, a beautiful garden, enclosed on one side by a Vineyard and on the other by a wood, remarkable for the projection of its rocks and the height of its Hazel trees. In the twelfth century Vineyards were not uncommon in England."--WRIGHT. Neckam, writing in that century, refers to the usefulness of the Vine when trained against the wall-front: "Pampinus latitudine sua excipit aeris insultus, cum res ita desiderat, et fenestra clementiam caloris solaris admittat."--HUDSON TURNER.

In the time of Shakespeare I suppose that most of the Vines in England were grown in Vineyards of more or less extent, trained to poles. These formed the "pole-clipt Vineyards" of No. 21, and are thus described by Gerard: "The Vine is held up with poles and frames of wood, and by that means it spreadeth all about and climbeth aloft; it joyneth itselfe unto trees, or whatsoever standeth next unto it"--in other words, the Vine was then chiefly grown as a standard in the open ground.

There are numberless notices in the records and chronicles of extensive vineyards in England, which it is needless to quote; but it is worth noticing that the memory of these Vineyards remains not only in the chronicles and in the treatises which teach of Vine-culture, but also in the names of streets, &c., which are occasionally met with. There is "Vineyard Holm," in the Hampshire Downs, and many other places in Hampshire; the "Vineyard Hills," at Godalming; the "Vines," at Rochester and Sevenoaks; the "Vineyards," at Bath and Ludlow; the "Vine Fields," near the Abbey at Bury St. Edmunds;[302:1] the "Vineyard Walk" in Clerkenwell; and "near Basingstoke the 'Vine' or 'Vine House,' in a richly wooded spot, where, as is said, the Romans grew the first Vine in Britain, the memory of which now only survives in the Vine Hounds;"[303:1] and probably a closer search among the names of fields in other parts would bring to light many similar instances.[303:2]

Among the English Vineyards those of Gloucestershire stood pre-eminent. William of Malmesbury, writing of Gloucestershire in the twelfth century, says: "This county is planted thicker with Vineyards than any other in England, more plentiful in crops, and more pleasant in flavour. For the wines do not offend the mouth with sharpness, since they do not yield to the French in sweetness" ("De Gestis Pontif.," book iv.) Of these Vineyards the tradition still remains in the county. The Cotswold Hills are in many places curiously marked with a succession of steps or narrow terraces, called "litchets" or "lynches;" these are traditionally the sites of the old Vineyards, but the tradition cannot be fully depended on, and the formation of the terraces has been variously accounted for. By some they are supposed to be natural formations, but wherever I have seen them they appear to me too regular and artificial; nor, as far as I am aware, does the oolite, on which formation these terraces mostly occur, take the form of a succession of narrow terraces. It seems certain that the ground was artificially formed into these terraces with very little labour, and that they were utilized for some special cultivation, and as likely for Vines as for any other.[303:3] It is also certain that as the Gloucestershire Vineyards were among the most ancient and the best in England, so they held their ground till within a very recent period. I cannot find the exact date, but some time during the last century there is "satisfactory testimony of the full success of a plantation in Cromhall Park, from which ten hogsheads of wine were made in the year. The Vine plantation was discontinued or destroyed in consequence of a dispute with the Rector on a claim of the tythes."--RUDGE'S History of Gloucestershire. This, however, is not quite the latest notice I have met with, for Phillips, writing in 1820, says: "There are several flourishing Vineyards at this time in Somersetshire; the late Sir William Basset, in that county, annually made some hogsheads of wine, which was palatable and well-bodied. The idea that we cannot make good wine from our own Grapes is erroneous; I have tasted it quite equal to the Grave wines, and in some instances, when kept for eight or ten years, it has been drunk as hock by the nicest judges."--Pomarium Britannicum. It would have been more satisfactory if Mr. Phillips had told us the exact locality of any of these "flourishing Vineyards," for I can nowhere else find any account of them, except that in a map of five miles round Bath in 1801 a Vineyard is marked at Claverton, formerly in the possession of the Bassets, and the Vines are distinctly shown.[304:1] At present the experiment is again being tried by the Marquis of Bute, at Castle Coch, near Cardiff, to establish a Vineyard, not to produce fruit for the market, but to produce wine; and as both soil and climate seem very suitable, there can be little doubt that wine will be produced of a very fair character. Whether it will be a commercial success is more doubtful, but probably that is not of much consequence.

I have dwelt at some length on the subject of the English Vineyards, because the cultivation of the Vine in Vineyards, like the cultivation of the Saffron, is a curious instance of an industry foreign to the soil introduced, and apparently for many years successful,[304:2] and then entirely, or almost, given up. The reasons for the cessation of the English Vineyards are not far to seek. Some have attributed it to a change in the seasons, and have supposed that our summers were formerly hotter than they are now, bringing as a proof the Vineyards and English-made wine of other days. This was Parkinson's idea. "Our yeares in these times do not fall out to be so kindly and hot to ripen the Grape to make any good wine as formerly they have done." But this is a mere assertion, and I believe it not to be true. I have little doubt that quite as good wine could now be made in England as ever was made, and wine is still made every year in many old-fashioned farmhouses. But foreign wines can now be produced much better and much cheaper, and that has caused the cessation of the English Vineyards. It is true that French and Spanish wines were introduced into England very early, but it must have been in limited quantities, and at a high price. When the quantities increased and the price was lowered, it was well to give up the cultivation of the Vine for some more certain crop better suited to the soil and the climate, for it must always have been a capricious and uncertain crop. Hakluyt was one who was very anxious that England should supply herself with all the necessaries of life without dependence on foreign countries, yet, writing in Shakespeare's time, he says: "It is sayd that since we traded to Zante, that the plant that beareth the Coren is also broughte into this realme from thence, and although it bring not fruit to perfection, yet it may serve for pleasure, and for some use, like as our Vines doe which we cannot well spare, although the climat so colde will not permit us to have good wines of them" ("Voiages, &c.," vol. ii. p. 166). Parkinson says to the same effect: "Many have adventured to make Vineyards in England, not only in these later days but in ancient times, as may well witness the sundry places in this land, entituled by the name of Vineyards, and I have read that many monasteries in this kingdom having Vineyards had as much wine made therefrom as sufficed their convents year by year, but long since they have been destroyed, and the knowledge how to order a Vineyard is also utterly perished with them. For although divers both nobles and gentlemen have in these later times endeavoured to plant and make Vineyards, and to that purpose have caused Frenchmen, being skilfull in keeping and dressing Vines, to be brought over to perform it, yet either their skill faileth them or their Vines were not good, or (the most likely) the soil was not fitting, for they could never make any wine that was worth the drinking, being so small and heartlesse, that they soon gave over their practise."

There is no need to say anything of the modern culture of the Vine, or its many excellent varieties. Even in Virgil's time the varieties cultivated were so many that he said--

"Sed neque quam multae species, nec nomina quae sint
Est numerus; neque enim numero comprendere refert;
Quem qui scire velit, Lybici velit aequoris idem
Discere quam multae Zephyro turbentur arenae;
Aut ubi navigiis violentior incidit Eurus
Nosse quot Ionii veniant ad littora fluctus."

--- Georgica, ii, 103.

And now the number must far exceed those of Virgil's time. "The cultivated varieties are extremely numerous; Count Odart says that he will not deny that there may exist throughout the world 700 or 800, perhaps even 1,000 varieties; but not a third of these have any value."--DARWIN. These are the Grapes that are grown in our hothouses; some also of a fine quality are produced in favourable years out-of-doors. There are also a few which are grown as ornamental shrubs. The Parsley-leaved Vine (Vitis laciniosa) is one that has been grown in England, certainly since the time of Shakespeare, for its pretty foliage, its fruit being small and few; but it makes a pretty covering to a wall or trellis. The small Variegated Vine (Vitis or Cissus heterophyllus variegatus) is another very pretty Vine, forming a small bush that may be either trained to a wall or grown as a low rockwork bush; it bears a few Grapes of no value, and is perfectly hardy. Besides these there are several North American species, which have handsome foliage, and are very hardy, of which the Vitis riparia or Vigne des Battures is a desirable tree, as "the flowers have an exquisitely fine smell, somewhat resembling that of Mignonnette."--DON. I mention this particularly, because in all the old authors great stress is laid on the sweetness of the Vine in all its parts, a point of excellence in it which is now generally overlooked. Lord Bacon reckons "Vine flowers" among the "things of beauty in season" in May and June, and reckons among the most sweet-scented flowers, next to Musk Roses and Strawberry leaves dying, "the flower of the Vines; it is a little dust, like the dust of a bent, which grows among the duster in the first coming forth." And Chaucer says: "Scorners faren like the foul toode, that may noughte endure the soote smel of the Vine roote when it flourisheth."--The Persones Tale.

Nor must we dismiss the Vine without a few words respecting its sacred associations, for it is very much owing to these associations that it has been so endeared to our forefathers and ourselves. Having its native home in the East, it enters largely into the history and imagery of the Bible. There is no plant so often mentioned in the Bible, and always with honour, till the honour culminates in the great similitude, in which our Lord chose the Vine as the one only plant to which He condescended to compare Himself--"I am the true Vine!" No wonder that a plant so honoured should ever have been the symbol of joy and plenty, of national peace and domestic happiness.

FOOTNOTES:

[301:1] According to Vopiscus, England is indebted to the Emperor Probus (A.D. 276-282) for the Vine: "Gallis omnibus et Britannis et Hispanis hinc permisit ut vites haberent, et Vinum conficerent."

[302:1] At Stonehouse "there are two arpens of Vineyard."--Domesday Book, quoted by Rudder. Also "the Vineyard" was the residence of the Abbots of Gloucester. It was at St. Mary de Lode near Gloucester, and "the Vineyard and Park were given to the Bishopric of Gloucester at its foundation and again confirmed 6th Edward VI."--RUDDER.

[303:1] "Edinburgh Review," April, 1860.

[303:2] See Preface to "Palladius on Husbandrie," p. viii. (Early English Text Society), for a further account of old English Vineyards.

[303:3] For a very interesting account of the formation of lynches, and their connection with the ancient communal cultivation of the soil see Seebohm's "English Village Community," p. 5.

[304:1] On this Vineyard Mr. Skrine, the present owner of Claverton, has kindly informed me that it was sold in 1701 by Mr. Richard Holder for L21,367, of which L28 was for "four hogsheads of wine of the Vineyards of Claverton."

[304:2] Andrew Boorde was evidently a lover of good wine, and his account is: "This I do say that all the kingdoms of the world have not so many sundry kindes of wine as we in England, and yet there is nothing to make of."--Breviary of Health, 1598.

 

VIOLETS.

(1) Queen.

The Violets, Cowslips, and the Primroses,
Bear to my closet.

--- Cymbeline, act i, sc. 5 (83).

(2) Angelo.

It is I,
That, lying by the Violet in the sun,
Do as the carrion does, not as the flower,
Corrupt with virtuous season.

--- Measure for Measure, act ii, sc. 2 (165).

(3) Oberon.

Where Oxlips and the nodding Violet grows.

--- Midsummer Night's Dream, act ii, sc. 1 (250).

(4) Salisbury.

To gild refined gold, to paint the Lily,
To throw a perfume on the Violet,
To smooth the ice, or add another hue
Unto the rainbow, or with taper-light
To seek the beauteous eye of Heaven to garnish,
Is wasteful and ridiculous excess.

--- King John, act iv, sc. 2 (11).

(5) K. Henry.

I think the king is but a man, as I am; the
Violet smells to him as it doth to me.

--- Henry V, act iv, sc. 1 (105).

(6) Laertes.

A Violet in the youth of primy nature,
Forward, not permanent; sweet, not lasting.
The perfume and suppliance of a minute;
No more.

--- Hamlet, act i, sc. 3 (7).

(7) Ophelia.

I would give you some Violets, but they withered all when my
father died.

--- Ibid., act iv, sc. 5 (184).

(8) Laertes.

Lay her i' the earth,
And from her fair and unpolluted flesh
May Violets spring!

--- Ibid., act v, sc. 1 (261).

(9) Belarius.

They are as gentle
As zephyrs blowing below the Violet,
Not wagging his sweet head.

--- Cymbeline, act iv, sc. 2 (171).

(10) Duke.

That strain again! It had a dying fall:
O, it came o'er my ear like the sweet sound,
That breathes upon a bank of Violets,
Stealing and giving odour!

--- Twelfth Night, act i, sc. 1 (4).

(11) Song of Spring.

When Daisies pied, and Violets blue, &c.

--- Love's Labour's Lost, act v, sc. 2 (904).
(See CUCKOO-BUDS.)

(12) Perdita.

Violets dim,
But sweeter than the lids of Juno's eyes
Or Cytherea's breath.

--- Winter's Tale, act iv, sc. 4 (120).

(13) Duchess.

Welcome, my son; Who are the Violets now,
That strew the green lap of the new-come spring?

--- Richard II, act v, sc. 2 (46).

(14) Marina.

The yellows, blues,
The purple Violets and Marigolds,
Shall as a carpet hang upon thy grave
While summer-days do last.

--- Pericles, act iv, sc. 1 (16).

(15)

These blue-veined Violets whereon we lean
Never can blab, nor know not what we mean.

--- Venus and Adonis (125).

(16)

Who when he lived, his breath and beauty set
Gloss on the Rose, smell to the Violet.

--- Ibid. (936).

(17)

When I behold the Violet past prime,
And sable curls all silver'd o'er with white,

* * * * *

Then of thy beauty do I question make,
That thou among the wastes of time must go,
Since sweets and beauties do themselves forsake
And die as fast as they see others grow.

--- Sonnet xii.

(18)

The forward Violet thus did I chide:
"Sweet thief, whence didst thou steal thy sweet that smells,
If not from my love's breath? The purple pride
Which on thy soft cheek for complexion dwells
In my love's veins thou hast too grossly died."

--- Ibid. xcix.

There are about a hundred different species of Violets, of which there are five species in England, and a few sub-species. One of these is the Viola tricolor, from which is descended the Pansy, or Love-in-Idleness (see PANSY). But in all the passages in which Shakespeare names the Violet, he alludes to the purple sweet-scented Violet, of which he was evidently very fond, and which is said to be very abundant in the neighbourhood of Stratford-on-Avon. For all the eighteen passages tell of some point of beauty or sweetness that attracted him. And so it is with all the poets from Chaucer downwards--the Violet is noticed by all, and by all with affectation. I need only mention two of the greatest. Milton gave the Violet a chief place in the beauties of the "Blissful Bower" of our first parents in Paradise--

"Each beauteous flower,
Iris all hues, Roses, and Jessamin
Rear'd high their flourish't heads between, and wrought
Mosaic; underfoot the Violet,
Crocus and Hyacinth with rich inlay
Broidered the ground, more coloured than with stone
Of costliest emblem;"

--- Paradise Lost, book iv.

and Sir Walter Scott crowns it as the queen of wild flowers--

"The Violet in her greenwood bower,
Where Birchen boughs with Hazels mingle,
May boast itself the fairest flower
In glen, in copse, or forest dingle."

Yet favourite though it ever has been, it has no English name. Violet is the diminutive form of the Latin Viola, which again is the Latin form of the Greek +ion+. In the old Vocabularies Viola frequently occurs, and with the following various translations:--"Ban-wyrt," i.e., Bone-wort (eleventh century Vocabulary); "Cloefre," i.e., Clover (eleventh century Vocabulary); "Viole, Appel-leaf" (thirteenth century Vocabulary);[310:1] "Wyolet" (fourteenth century Vocabulary); "Vyolytte" (fifteenth century Nominale); "Violetta, A{ce}, a Violet" (fifteenth century Pictorial Vocabulary); and "Viola Cleafre, Ban-vyrt" (Durham Glossary). It is also mentioned in the Anglo-Saxon translation of the Herbarium of Apuleius in the tenth century as "the Herb Viola purpurea; (1) for new wounds and eke for old; (2) for hardness of the maw" (Cockayne's translation). In this last example it is most probable that our sweet-scented Violet is the plant meant, but in some of the other cases it is quite certain that some other plant is meant, and perhaps in all. For Violet was a name given very loosely to many plants, so that Laurembergius says: "Vox Violae distinctissimis floribus communis est. Videntur mihi antiqui suaveolentes quosque flores generatim Violas appellasse, cujuscunque etiam forent generis quasi vi oleant."--Apparat. Plant., 1632. This confusion seems to have arisen in a very simple way. Theophrastus described the Leucojum, which was either the Snowdrop or the spring Snowflake, as the earliest-flowering plant; Pliny literally translated Leucojum into Alba Viola. All the earlier writers on natural history were in the habit of taking Pliny for their guide, and so they translated his Viola by any early-flowering plant that most took their fancy. Even as late as 1693, Samuel Gilbert, in "The Florists' Vade Mecum," under the head of Violets, only describes "the lesser early bulbous Violet, a common flower yet not to be wasted, because when none other appears that does, though in the snow, whence called Snowflower or Snowdrop;" and I think that even later instances may be found.

When I say that there is no genuine English name for the Violet, I ought, perhaps, to mention that one name has been attributed to it, but I do not think that it is more than a clever guess. "The commentators on Shakespeare have been much puzzled by the epithet 'happy lowlie down,' applied to the man of humble station in "Henry IV.," and have proposed to read 'lowly clown,' or to divide the phrase into 'low lie down,' but the following lines from Browne clearly prove 'lowly down' to be the correct term, for he uses it in precisely the same sense--

'The humble Violet that lowly down
Salutes the gay nymphs as they trimly pass.'

--- Poet's Pleasaunce."

This may prove that Browne called the Violet a Lowly-down, but it certainly does not prove that name to have been a common name for the Violet. It was, however, the character of lowliness combined with sweetness that gave the charm to the Violet in the eyes of the emblem writers: it was for them the readiest symbol of the meekness of humility. "Humilitas dat gratiam" is the motto that Camerarius places over a clump of Violets. "A true widow is, in the church, as a little March Violet shedding around an exquisite perfume by the fragrance of her devotion, and always hidden under the ample leaves of her lowliness, and by her subdued colouring showing the spirit of her mortification, she seeks untrodden and solitary places," &c.--ST. FRANCIS DE SALES. And the poets could nowhere find a fitter similitude for a modest maiden than

"A Violet by a mossy stone
Half hidden from the eye."

Violets, like Primroses, must always have had their joyful associations as coming to tell that the winter is passing away and brighter days are near, for they are among

"The first to rise
And smile beneath spring's wakening skies,
The courier of a band
Of coming flowers."

Yet it is curious to note how, like Primroses, they have been ever associated with death, especially with the death of the young. I suppose these ideas must have arisen from a sort of pity for flowers that were only allowed to see the opening year, and were cut off before the full beauty of summer had come. This was prettily expressed by H. Vaughan, the Silurist:

"So violets, so doth the primrose fall
At once the spring's pride and its funeral,
Such early sweets get off in their still prime,
And stay not here to wear the foil of time;
While coarser flowers, which none would miss, if past,
To scorching summers and cold winters last."

--- Daphnis, 1678.

It was from this association that they were looked on as apt emblems of those who enjoyed the bright springtide of life and no more. This feeling was constantly expressed, and from very ancient times. We find it in some pretty lines by Prudentius--

"Nos tecta fovebimus ossa
Violis et fronde frequente,
Titulumque et frigida saxa
Liquido spargemus odore."

Shakespeare expresses the same feeling in the collection of "purple Violets and Marigolds" which Marina carries to hang "as a carpet on the grave" (No. 14), and again in Laertes' wish that Violets may spring from the grave of Ophelia (No. 8), on which Steevens very aptly quotes from Persius Satires--

"e tumulo fortunataque favilla.
Nascentur Violae."

In the same spirit Milton, gathering for the grave of Lycidas--

"Every flower that sad embroidery wears,"

gathers among others "the glowing Violet;" and the same thought is repeated by many other writers.

There is a remarkable botanical curiosity in the structure of the Violet which is worth notice: it produces flowers both in spring and autumn, but the flowers are very different. In spring they are fully formed and sweet-scented, but they are mostly barren and produce no seed, while in autumn they are very small, they have no petals and, I believe, no scent, but they produce abundance of seed.[313:1]

I need say nothing to recommend the Violet in all its varieties as a garden plant. As a useful medicinal plant it was formerly in high repute--

"Vyolet an erbe cowth
Is knowyn in ilke manys mowthe,
As bokys seyn in here language,
It is good to don in potage,
In playstrys to wondrys it is comfortyf,
W{h} oyer erbys sanatyf:"

--- Stockholm MS.

and it still holds a place in the Pharmacopoeia, while the chemist finds the pretty flowers one of the most delicate tests for detecting the presence of acids and alkalies; but as to the many other virtues of the Violet I cannot do better than quote Gerard's pleasant and quaint words: "The Blacke or Purple Violets, or March Violets of the garden, have a great prerogative above others, not only because the minde conceiveth a certain pleasure and recreation by smelling and handling of those most odoriferous flowres, but also for that very many by these Violets receive ornament and comely grace; for there be made of them garlands for the head, nosegaies, and poesies, which are delightfull to looke on and pleasant to smell to, speaking nothing of their appropriate vertues; yea, gardens themselves receive by these the greatest ornament of all chiefest beautie and most gallant grace, and the recreation of the minde which is taken thereby cannot but be very good and honest; for they admonish and stir up a man to that which is comely and honest, for flowres through their beautie, variety of colour, and exquisite forme, do bring to a liberall and greatte many minde the remembrance of honestie, comelinesse, and all kindes of vertues. For it would be an unseemely and filthie thing (as a certain wise man saith) for him that doth looke upon and handle faire and beautifull things, and who frequenteth and is conversant in faire and beautifull places, to have his minde not faire but filthie and deformed." With these brave words of the old gardener I might well close my account of this favourite flower, but I must add George Herbert's lines penned in the same spirit--

"Farewell, dear flowers, sweetly your time ye spent,
Fit, while ye lived, for smell or ornament,
And after death for cures;
I follow straight without complaint or grief,
Since if my scent be good, I care not if
It be as short as yours."

--- Poems on Life.

FOOTNOTES:

[310:1] Appel-leaf is given as the English name for Viola in two other MS. Glossaries quoted by Cockayne, vol. iii. p. 312.

[313:1] This peculiarity is not confined to the Violet. It is found in some species of Oxalis, Impatiens, Campanula, Eranthemum, Amphicarpea, Leeisia, &c. Such plants are technically called Cleistogamous, and are all self-fertilizing. _

Read next: Part 1. The Plant-Lore Of Shakespeare: Walnut, Wheat, Willow

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