The plant-lore & garden-craft of Shakespear, Henry Nicholson Ellacombe [read with me .TXT] 📗
- Author: Henry Nicholson Ellacombe
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Or Walnut (whose malignant touch impairs
All generous fruits), or near the bitter dews
Of Cherries."
And in this he was probably right, though the mischief caused to the Apple tree more probably arises from the dense shade thrown by the Walnut tree than by any malarious exhalation emitted from it.
FOOTNOTES:[315:1] See Earle's "Philology of the English Tongue," p. 23.
WARDEN, see Pears. WHEAT. (1) Iris. Ceres, most bounteous lady, thy rich leasOf Wheat, Rye, Barley, Vetches, Oats, and Pease. Tempest, act iv, sc. 1 (60). (2) Helena. More tuneable than lark to shepherd's ear,
When Wheat is green, when Hawthorn-buds appear. Midsummer Night's Dream, act i, sc. 1 (184). (3) Bassanio. His reasons are as two grains of Wheat hid in two bushels of chaff; you shall seek all day ere you find them, and when you have them, they are not worth the search. Merchant of Venice, act i, sc. 1 (114). (4) Hamlet. As peace should still her Wheaten garland wear. Hamlet, act v, sc. 2 (41). (5) Pompey. To send measures of Wheat to Rome. Antony and Cleopatra, act ii, sc. 6 (36). (6) Edgar. This is the foul fiend Flibbertigibbet. . . . He mildews the white Wheat, and hurts the poor creatures of earth. King Lear, act iii, sc. 4 (120). (7) Pandarus. He that will have a cake out of the Wheat, must needs tarry the grinding. Troilus and Cressida, act i, sc. 1 (15). (8) Davy. And again, sir, shall we sow the headland with Wheat? Shallow. With red Wheat, Davy. 2nd Henry IV, act v, sc. 1 (15). (9) Theseus. Your Wheaten wreathe
Was then nor threashed nor blasted. Two Noble Kinsmen, act i, sc. 1 (68).
I might perhaps content myself with marking these passages only, and dismiss Shakespeare's Wheat without further comment, for the Wheat of his day was identical with our own; but there are a few points in connection with English Wheat which may be interesting. Wheat is not an English plant, nor is it a European plant; its original home is in Northern Asia, whence it has spread into all civilized countries.[318:1] For the cultivation of Wheat is one of the first signs of civilized life; it marks the end of nomadic life, and implies more or less a settled habitation. When it reached England, and to what country we are indebted for it, we do not know; but we know that while we are indebted to the Romans for so many of our useful trees, and fruits, and vegetables, we are not indebted to them for the introduction of Wheat. This we might be almost sure of from the very name, which has no connection with the Latin names, triticum or frumentum, but is a pure old English word, signifying originally white, and so distinguishing it as the white grain in opposition to the darker grains of Oats and Rye. But besides the etymological evidence, we have good historical evidence that Cæsar found Wheat growing in England when he first landed on the shores of Kent. He daily victualled his camp with British Wheat ("frumentum ex agris quotidie in castra conferebat"); and it was while his soldiers were reaping the Wheat in the Kentish fields that they were surrounded and successfully attacked by the British. He tells us, however, that the cultivation of Wheat was chiefly confined to Kent, and was not much known inland: "interiores plerique frumenta non serunt, sed lacte et carne vivunt."—De Bello Gallico, v, 14. Roman Wheat has frequently been found in graves, and strange stories have been told of the plants that have been raised from these old seeds; but a more scientific inquiry has proved that there have been mistakes or deceits, more or less intentional, for "Wheat is said to keep for seven years at the longest. The statements as to mummy Wheat are wholly devoid of authenticity, as are those of the Raspberry seeds taken from a Roman tomb."—Hooker, "Botany" in Science Primers. The oft-repeated stories about the vitality of mummy Wheat were effectually disposed of when it was discovered that much of the so-called Wheat was South American Maize.
FOOTNOTES:[318:1] Yet Homer considered it to be indigenous in Sicily—Odyss: ix, 109—and Cicero, perhaps on the authority of Homer, says the same: "Insula Cereris . . . ubi primum fruges inventæ esse dicuntur."—In Verrem, v, 38.
WILLOW. (1) Viola. Make me a Willow cabin at your gate. Twelfth Night, act i, sc. 5 (287). (2) Benedick. Come, will you go with me? Claudio. Whither? Benedick. Even to the next Willow, about your own business. Much Ado About Nothing, act ii, sc. 1 (192). Benedick. I offered him my company to a Willow tree, either to make him a garland, as being forsaken, or to bind him up a rod, as being worthy to be whipped. Ibid. (223). (3) Nathaniel. These thoughts to me were Oaks, to thee like Osiers bow'd. Love's Labour's Lost, act iv, sc. 2 (112). (4) Lorenzo. In such a nightStood Dido, with a Willow in her hand,
Upon the wild sea-banks. Merchant of Venice, act v, sc. 1 (9). (5) Bona. Tell him, in hope he'll prove a widower shortly,
I'll wear the Willow garland for his sake. 3d Henry VI, act iii, sc. 3 (227). Post. [The same words repeated.] Ibid., act iv, sc. 1 (99). (6) Queen. There is a Willow grows aslant a brook,
That shows his hoar leaves in the glassy stream.
There on the pendent boughs her coronet weeds
Clambering to hang, an envious sliver broke. Hamlet, act iv, sc. 7 (167). (7) Desdemona (singing)— The poor soul sat sighing by a Sycamore tree.
Sing all a green Willow;
Her hand on her bosom, her head on her knee,
Sing Willow, Willow, Willow.
The fresh streams ran by her, and murmur'd her moans;
Sing Willow, Willow, Willow.
Her salt tears fell from her and soften'd the stones,
Sing Willow, Willow, Willow.
Sing all a green Willow must be my garland. Othello, act iv, sc. 3 (41). (8) Emilia. I will play the swan,
And die in music. [Singing] Willow, Willow, Willow. Ibid., act v, sc. 2 (247). (9) Wooer. Then she sang
Nothing but Willow, Willow, Willow. Two Noble Kinsmen, act iv, sc. 1 (100). (10) Friar. I must up-fill this Willow cage of ours
With baleful Weeds and precious juiced Flowers. Romeo and Juliet, act ii, sc. 3 (7). (11) Celia. West of this place, down in the neighbour bottom;
The rank of Osiers by the murmuring stream
Left on your right hand, brings you to the place. As You Like It, act iv, sc. 3 (79). (12) When Cytherea all in love forlorn
A longing tarriance for Adonis made
Under an Osier growing by a brook. Passionate Pilgrim vi. (13) Though to myself forsworn, to thee I'll constant prove; Those thoughts, to me like Oaks, to thee like Osiers bow'd. Ibid. v.
See also Palm Tree, No. 1, p. 192.
Willow is an old English word, but the more common and perhaps the older name for the Willow is Withy, a name which is still in constant use, but more generally applied to the twigs when cut for basket-making than to the living tree. "Withe" is found in the oldest vocabularies, but we do not find "Willow" till we come to the vocabularies of the fifteenth century, when it occurs as "Hæc Salex, Ae Wyllo-tre;" "Hæc Salix-icis, a Welogh;" "Salix, Welig." Both the names probably referred to the pliability of the tree, and there was another name for it, the Sallow, which was either a corruption of the Latin Salix, or was derived from a common root. It was also called Osier.
The Willow is a native of Britain. It belongs to a large family (Salix), numbering 160 species, of which we have seventeen distinct species in Great Britain, besides many sub-species and varieties. So common a plant, with the peculiar pliability of the shoots that distinguishes all the family, was sure to be made much use of. Its more common uses were for basket-making, for coracles, and huts, or "Willow-cabins" (No. 1), but it had other uses in the elegancies and even in the romance of life. The flowers of the early Willow (S. caprea) did duty for and were called Palms on Palm Sunday (see Palm), and not only the flowers but the branches also seem to have been used in decoration, a use which is now extinct. "The Willow is called Salix, and hath his name à saliendo, for that it quicklie groweth up, and soon becommeth a tree. Heerewith do they in some countries trim up their parlours and dining roomes in sommer, and sticke fresh greene leaves thereof about their beds for coolness."—Newton's Herball for the Bible.[321:1]
But if we only look at the poetry of the time of Shakespeare, and much of the poetry before and after him, we should almost conclude that the sole use of the Willow was to weave garlands for jilted lovers, male and female. It was probably with reference to this that Shakespeare represented poor mad Ophelia hanging her flowers on the "Willow tree aslant the brook" (No. 6), and it is more pointedly referred to in Nos. 2, 4, 5, 7, 8, and 9. The feeling was expressed in a melancholy ditty, which must have been very popular in the sixteenth century, of which Desdemona says a few of the first verses (No. 7), and which concludes thus—
He that plaineth of his false love, mine's falser than she;
The Willow wreath weare I, since my love did fleet,
A garland for lovers forsaken most meet."
The ballad is entitled "The Complaint of a Lover Forsaken of His Love—To a Pleasant New Tune," and is printed in the "Roxburghe Ballads." This curious connection of the Willow with forsaken or disappointed lovers stood its ground for a long time. Spenser spoke of the "Willow worne of forlorne paramoures." Drayton says that—
The Willow garland weareth"—
Muse's Elysium.
and though we have long given up the custom of wearing garlands of any sort, yet many of us can recollect one of the most popular street songs, that was heard everywhere, and at last passed into a proverb, and which began—
In token," &c.
It has been suggested by many that this melancholy association with the Willow
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