The plant-lore & garden-craft of Shakespear, Henry Nicholson Ellacombe [read with me .TXT] 📗
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the plant does not seem to have become established and Shakespeare could only have known the imported drug, for the Rheum was first grown by Parkinson, though it had been described in an uncertain way both by Lyte and Gerard. Lyte said: "Rha, as it is thought, hath great broad leaves;" and then he says: "We have found here in the gardens of certaine diligent herboristes that strange plant which is thought by some to be Rha or Rhabarbum;" but from the figure it is very certain that the plant was not a Rheum. After the time of Parkinson, it was largely grown for the sake of producing the drug, and it is still grown in England to some extent for the same purpose, chiefly in the neighbourhood of Banbury; though it is doubtful whether any of the species now grown in England are the true species that has long produced Turkey Rhubarb. The plant is now grown most extensively as a spring vegetable, though I cannot find when it first began to be so used. Parkinson evidently tried it and thought well of it. "The leaves have a fine acid taste; a syrup, therefore, made with the juice and sugar cannot but be very effectual in dejected appetites." Yet even in 1807 Professor Martyn, the editor of "Millar's Dictionary," in a long article on the Rhubarb, makes no mention of its culinary qualities, but in 1822 Phillips speaks of it as largely cultivated for spring tarts, and forced for the London markets, "medical men recommending it as one of the most cooling and wholesome tarts sent to table."
And a thousand fragrant posies. Merry Wives of Windsor, act iii, sc. 1 (19). (5) Autolycus. Gloves as sweet as Damask Roses. Winter's Tale, act iv, sc. 3 (222). (6) Olivia. Cæsario, by the Roses of the spring,
By maidhood, honour, truth, and everything,
I love thee so. Twelfth Night, act iii, sc. 1 (161). (7) Diana. When you have our Roses,
You barely leave us thorns to prick ourselves
And mock us with our bareness. All's Well that Ends Well, act iv, sc. 2 (18). (8) Lord. Let one attend him with a silver basin
Full of Rose-water and bestrew'd with flowers. Taming of the Shrew, Induction, sc. 1 (55). (9) Petruchio. I'll say she looks as clear
As morning Roses newly wash'd with dew. Ibid., act ii, sc. 1 (173). (10) Tyrrell. Their lips were four red Roses on a stalk,
Which in their summer beauty kiss'd each other. Richard III, act iv, sc. 3 (12). (11) Friar. The Roses in thy lips and cheeks shall fade
To paly ashes. Romeo and Juliet, act iv, sc. 1 (99). (12) Romeo. Remnants of packthread and old cakes of Roses
Were thinly scatter'd, to make up a show. Ibid., act v, sc. 1 (47). (13) Hamlet. With two Provincial Roses on my razed shoes. Hamlet, act iii, sc. 2 (287). (14) Laertes. O Rose of May,
Dear maid, kind sister, sweet Ophelia! Ibid., act iv, sc. 5 (157). (15) Duke. For women are as Roses, whose fair flower
Being once display'd doth fall that very hour. Twelfth Night, act ii, sc. 4 (39). (16) Constance. Of Nature's gifts, thou may'st with Lilies boast,
And with the half-blown Rose. King John, act iii, sc. 1 (153). (17) Queen. But soft, but see, or rather do not see,
My fair Rose wither. Richard II, act v, sc. 1 (7). (18) Hotspur. To put down Richard, that sweet lovely Rose,
And plant this Thorn, this canker, Bolingbroke. 1st Henry IV, act i, sc. 3 (175). (19) Hostess. Your colour, I warrant you, is as red as any Rose. 2nd Henry IV, act ii, sc. 4 (27). (20) York. Then will I raise aloft the milk-white Rose,
With whose sweet smell the air shall be perfumed. 2nd Henry VI, act i, sc. 1 (254). (21) Don John. I had rather be a canker in a hedge than a Rose in his grace. Much Ado About Nothing, act i, sc. 3 (27). (22) Theseus. But earthlier happy is the Rose distill'd
Than that which withering on the virgin Thorn
Grows, lives, and dies in single blessedness.[244:1] Midsummer Night's Dream, act i, sc. 1 (76). (23) Lysander. How now, my love! Why is your cheek so pale?
How chance the Roses there do fade so fast? Midsummer Night's Dream, act i, sc. 1 (128). (24) Titania. The seasons alter: hoary-headed frosts
Fall in the fresh lap of the crimson Rose. Ibid., act ii, sc. 1 (107). (25) Thisbe. Of colour like the red Rose on triumphant Brier. Ibid., act iii, sc. 1 (95). (26) Biron. Why should I joy in any abortive mirth?
At Christmas I no more desire a Rose
Than wish a snow in May's new-fangled mirth,
But like of each thing that in season grows.[245:1] Love's Labour's Lost, act i, sc. 1 (105). (27) King (reads). So sweet a kiss the golden sun gives not
To those fresh morning drops upon the Rose. Ibid., act iv, sc. 3 (26). (28) Boyet. Blow like sweet Roses in this summer air. Princess. How blow? how blow? Speak to be understood. Boyet. Fair ladies mask'd are Roses in their bud;
Dismask'd, their damask sweet commixture shown,
Are angels veiling clouds, or Roses blown. Ibid., act v, sc. 2 (293). (29) Touchstone. He that sweetest Rose will find,
Must find Love's prick and Rosalind. As You Like It, act iii, sc. 2 (117). (30) Countess. This Thorn
Doth to our Rose of youth rightly belong. All's Well that Ends Well, act i, sc. 3 (135). (31) Bastard. My face so thin,
That in mine ear I durst not stick a Rose. King John, act i, sc. 1 (141). (32) Antony. Tell him he wears the Rose
Of youth upon him. Antony and Cleopatra, act iii, sc. 13 (20). (33) Cleopatra. Against the blown Rose may they stop their nose
That kneel'd unto the buds. Ibid. (39). (34) Boult. For flesh and blood, sir, white and red, you shall see a Rose; and she were a Rose indeed! Pericles, act iv, sc. 6 (37). (35) Gower. Even her art sisters the natural Roses. Ibid., act v, chorus (7). (See Cherry, No. 5.) (36) Juliet. What's in a name? That which we call a Rose
By any other name would smell as sweet. Romeo and Juliet, act ii, sc. 2 (43). (37) Ophelia. The expectancy and Rose of the fair state. Hamlet, act iii, sc. 1 (160). (38) Hamlet. Such an act . . . takes off the Rose
From the fair forehead of an innocent love,
And sets a blister there. Ibid., act iii, sc. 4 (40). (39) Othello. When I have pluck'd the Rose,
I cannot give it vital growth again,
It needs must wither. I'll smell it on the tree. Othello, act v, sc. 2 (13). (40) Timon. Rose-cheeked youth. Timon of Athens, act iv, sc. 3 (86). (41) Othello. Thou young and Rose-lipp'd cherubim. Othello, act iv, sc. 2 (63). (42) Roses, their sharp spines being gone,
Not royall in their smells alone
But in their hue. Two Noble Kinsmen, Introd. song. (43) Emilia. Of all flowres
Methinks a Rose is best. Woman. Why, gentle madam?
Emilia. It is the very Embleme of a maide.
For when the west wind courts her gently,
How modestly she blows, and paints the Sun
With her chaste blushes? When the north winds neere her,
Rude and impatient, then, like Chastity,
Shee locks her beauties in her bud againe,
And leaves him to base Briers. Ibid., act ii, sc. 2 (160). (44) Wooer. With cherry lips and cheekes of Damaske Roses. Ibid., act iv, sc. 2 (95). (45) See Nettles, No. 13. (46) Roses have thorns and silver fountains mud,
And loathsome canker lives in sweetest bud. Sonnet xxxv. (47) The Rose looks fair, but fairer we it deem
For that sweet odour that doth in it live.
The canker-blooms have full as deep a dye
As the perfumed tincture of the Roses,
Hang on such thorns, and play as wantonly
When summer's breath their masked buds discloses;
But, for their virtue only is their show,
They live unwoo'd and unrespected fade;
Die to themselves—sweet Roses do not so;
Of their sweet deaths are sweetest odours made. Sonnet liv. (48) Why should poor beauty indirectly seek
Roses of shadow, since his Rose is true? Ibid. lxvii. (49) Shame, like a canker in the fragrant Rose,
Doth spot the beauty of thy budding name.
As a garden plant the Rhubarb is highly ornamental, though it is seldom seen out of the kitchen garden, but where room can be given to them, Rheum palmatum or Rheum officinale, will always be admired as some of the handsomest of foliage plants. The finest species of the family is the Himalayan Rheum nobile, but it is exceedingly difficult to grow. Botanically the Rhubarb is allied to the Dock and Sorrel, and all the species are herbaceous.
FOOTNOTES:[241:1] Quoted in Furnival's forewords to Boorde's "Introduction to Knowledge," p. 56.
RICE. Clown. Let me see; what am I to buy for our sheep-shearing feast? Three pound of sugar, five pound of Currants, Rice——What will this sister of mine do with Rice?[242:1] Winter's Tale, act iv, sc. 3 (38).Shakespeare may have had no more acquaintance with Rice than his knowledge of the imported grain, which seems to have been long ago introduced into England, for in a Nominale of the fifteenth century we have "Hoc risi, indeclinabile, Ryse." And in the "Promptorium Parvulorum," "Ryce, frute. Risia, vel risi, n. indecl. secundum quosdam, vel risium, vel risorum granum (rizi vel granum Indicum)." Turner was acquainted with it: "Ryse groweth plentuously in watery myddowes between Myllane and Pavia."[242:2] And Shakespeare may have seen the plant, for Gerard grew it in his London garden, though "the floure did not show itselfe by reason of the injurie of our unseasonable yeare 1596." It is a native of Africa, and was soon transferred to Europe as a nourishing and wholesome grain, especially for invalids—"sume hoc ptisanarium oryzæ," says the doctor to his patient in Horace, and it is mentioned both by Dioscorides and Theophrastus. It has been occasionally grown in England as a curiosity, but seldom comes to any perfection out-of-doors, as it requires a mixture of moisture and heat that we cannot easily give it. There are said to be species in the North of China growing in dry places, which would perhaps be hardy in England and easier of cultivation, but I am not aware that they have ever been introduced.
FOOTNOTES:[242:1] In 1468 the price of rice was 3d. a pound = 3s. of our money ("Babee's Book," xxx.).
[242:2] "Names of Herbes," s.v. Oryza.
ROSES. (1) Titania. Some to kill cankers in the Musk-rose buds. Midsummer Night's Dream, act ii, sc. 3 (3). (2) Titania. And stick Musk-Roses in thy sleek, smooth head. Ibid., act iv, sc. 1 (3). (3) Julia. The air hath starved the Roses in her cheeks. Two Gentlemen of Verona, act iv, sc. 4 (159). (4) Song. There will we make our beds of RosesAnd a thousand fragrant posies. Merry Wives of Windsor, act iii, sc. 1 (19). (5) Autolycus. Gloves as sweet as Damask Roses. Winter's Tale, act iv, sc. 3 (222). (6) Olivia. Cæsario, by the Roses of the spring,
By maidhood, honour, truth, and everything,
I love thee so. Twelfth Night, act iii, sc. 1 (161). (7) Diana. When you have our Roses,
You barely leave us thorns to prick ourselves
And mock us with our bareness. All's Well that Ends Well, act iv, sc. 2 (18). (8) Lord. Let one attend him with a silver basin
Full of Rose-water and bestrew'd with flowers. Taming of the Shrew, Induction, sc. 1 (55). (9) Petruchio. I'll say she looks as clear
As morning Roses newly wash'd with dew. Ibid., act ii, sc. 1 (173). (10) Tyrrell. Their lips were four red Roses on a stalk,
Which in their summer beauty kiss'd each other. Richard III, act iv, sc. 3 (12). (11) Friar. The Roses in thy lips and cheeks shall fade
To paly ashes. Romeo and Juliet, act iv, sc. 1 (99). (12) Romeo. Remnants of packthread and old cakes of Roses
Were thinly scatter'd, to make up a show. Ibid., act v, sc. 1 (47). (13) Hamlet. With two Provincial Roses on my razed shoes. Hamlet, act iii, sc. 2 (287). (14) Laertes. O Rose of May,
Dear maid, kind sister, sweet Ophelia! Ibid., act iv, sc. 5 (157). (15) Duke. For women are as Roses, whose fair flower
Being once display'd doth fall that very hour. Twelfth Night, act ii, sc. 4 (39). (16) Constance. Of Nature's gifts, thou may'st with Lilies boast,
And with the half-blown Rose. King John, act iii, sc. 1 (153). (17) Queen. But soft, but see, or rather do not see,
My fair Rose wither. Richard II, act v, sc. 1 (7). (18) Hotspur. To put down Richard, that sweet lovely Rose,
And plant this Thorn, this canker, Bolingbroke. 1st Henry IV, act i, sc. 3 (175). (19) Hostess. Your colour, I warrant you, is as red as any Rose. 2nd Henry IV, act ii, sc. 4 (27). (20) York. Then will I raise aloft the milk-white Rose,
With whose sweet smell the air shall be perfumed. 2nd Henry VI, act i, sc. 1 (254). (21) Don John. I had rather be a canker in a hedge than a Rose in his grace. Much Ado About Nothing, act i, sc. 3 (27). (22) Theseus. But earthlier happy is the Rose distill'd
Than that which withering on the virgin Thorn
Grows, lives, and dies in single blessedness.[244:1] Midsummer Night's Dream, act i, sc. 1 (76). (23) Lysander. How now, my love! Why is your cheek so pale?
How chance the Roses there do fade so fast? Midsummer Night's Dream, act i, sc. 1 (128). (24) Titania. The seasons alter: hoary-headed frosts
Fall in the fresh lap of the crimson Rose. Ibid., act ii, sc. 1 (107). (25) Thisbe. Of colour like the red Rose on triumphant Brier. Ibid., act iii, sc. 1 (95). (26) Biron. Why should I joy in any abortive mirth?
At Christmas I no more desire a Rose
Than wish a snow in May's new-fangled mirth,
But like of each thing that in season grows.[245:1] Love's Labour's Lost, act i, sc. 1 (105). (27) King (reads). So sweet a kiss the golden sun gives not
To those fresh morning drops upon the Rose. Ibid., act iv, sc. 3 (26). (28) Boyet. Blow like sweet Roses in this summer air. Princess. How blow? how blow? Speak to be understood. Boyet. Fair ladies mask'd are Roses in their bud;
Dismask'd, their damask sweet commixture shown,
Are angels veiling clouds, or Roses blown. Ibid., act v, sc. 2 (293). (29) Touchstone. He that sweetest Rose will find,
Must find Love's prick and Rosalind. As You Like It, act iii, sc. 2 (117). (30) Countess. This Thorn
Doth to our Rose of youth rightly belong. All's Well that Ends Well, act i, sc. 3 (135). (31) Bastard. My face so thin,
That in mine ear I durst not stick a Rose. King John, act i, sc. 1 (141). (32) Antony. Tell him he wears the Rose
Of youth upon him. Antony and Cleopatra, act iii, sc. 13 (20). (33) Cleopatra. Against the blown Rose may they stop their nose
That kneel'd unto the buds. Ibid. (39). (34) Boult. For flesh and blood, sir, white and red, you shall see a Rose; and she were a Rose indeed! Pericles, act iv, sc. 6 (37). (35) Gower. Even her art sisters the natural Roses. Ibid., act v, chorus (7). (See Cherry, No. 5.) (36) Juliet. What's in a name? That which we call a Rose
By any other name would smell as sweet. Romeo and Juliet, act ii, sc. 2 (43). (37) Ophelia. The expectancy and Rose of the fair state. Hamlet, act iii, sc. 1 (160). (38) Hamlet. Such an act . . . takes off the Rose
From the fair forehead of an innocent love,
And sets a blister there. Ibid., act iii, sc. 4 (40). (39) Othello. When I have pluck'd the Rose,
I cannot give it vital growth again,
It needs must wither. I'll smell it on the tree. Othello, act v, sc. 2 (13). (40) Timon. Rose-cheeked youth. Timon of Athens, act iv, sc. 3 (86). (41) Othello. Thou young and Rose-lipp'd cherubim. Othello, act iv, sc. 2 (63). (42) Roses, their sharp spines being gone,
Not royall in their smells alone
But in their hue. Two Noble Kinsmen, Introd. song. (43) Emilia. Of all flowres
Methinks a Rose is best. Woman. Why, gentle madam?
Emilia. It is the very Embleme of a maide.
For when the west wind courts her gently,
How modestly she blows, and paints the Sun
With her chaste blushes? When the north winds neere her,
Rude and impatient, then, like Chastity,
Shee locks her beauties in her bud againe,
And leaves him to base Briers. Ibid., act ii, sc. 2 (160). (44) Wooer. With cherry lips and cheekes of Damaske Roses. Ibid., act iv, sc. 2 (95). (45) See Nettles, No. 13. (46) Roses have thorns and silver fountains mud,
And loathsome canker lives in sweetest bud. Sonnet xxxv. (47) The Rose looks fair, but fairer we it deem
For that sweet odour that doth in it live.
The canker-blooms have full as deep a dye
As the perfumed tincture of the Roses,
Hang on such thorns, and play as wantonly
When summer's breath their masked buds discloses;
But, for their virtue only is their show,
They live unwoo'd and unrespected fade;
Die to themselves—sweet Roses do not so;
Of their sweet deaths are sweetest odours made. Sonnet liv. (48) Why should poor beauty indirectly seek
Roses of shadow, since his Rose is true? Ibid. lxvii. (49) Shame, like a canker in the fragrant Rose,
Doth spot the beauty of thy budding name.
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