The plant-lore & garden-craft of Shakespeare Part 25

"In the Arundel MS. 42 may be found an alphabet of plants. . . . The author mentions his garden 'by Stebenhythe by syde London,' and relates that he brought a bough of Cypress with its Apples from Bristol 'into Estbritzlond,' fresh in September, to show that it might be propagated by slips."--_Promptorium Parvulorum_, app. 67.

The Cypress is an ornamental evergreen, but stiff in its growth till it becomes of a good age; and for garden purposes the European plant is becoming replaced by the richer forms from Asia and North America, such as C. Lawsoniana, macrocarpa, Lambertiana, and others.

FOOTNOTES:

[71:1] Cypress, or Cyprus (for the word is spelt differently in the different editions), is also mentioned by Shakespeare in the following--

(1) _Clown._

In sad Cypress let me be laid.

_Twelfth Night_, act ii, sc. 4.

(2) _Olivia._

To one of your receiving Enough is shown; and Cyprus, not a bosom, Hides my poor heart.

_Ibid._, act iii, sc. 1.

(3) _Autolycus._

Lawn as white as driven snow, Cyprus, black as e'er was crow.

_Winter's Tale_, act iv, sc. 3.

But in all these cases the Cypress is not the name of the plant, but is the fabric which we now call c.r.a.pe, the "sable stole of Cypre's lawn" of Milton's "Penseroso."

DAFFODILS.[73:1]

(1) _Autolycus._

When Daffodils begin to peer, With heigh! the doxy o'er the dale, Why, then comes in the sweet o' the year.

_Winter's Tale_, act iv, sc. 3 (1).

(2) _Perdita._

Daffodils That come before the swallow dares, and take The winds of March with beauty.

_Ibid._, act iv, sc. 4 (118).

(3) _Wooer._

With chaplets on their heads of Daffodillies.

_Two n.o.ble Kinsmen_, act iv, sc. 1 (94).

_See also_ NARCISSUS, p. 175.

Of all English plants there have been none in such constant favour as the Daffodil, whether known by its cla.s.sical name of Narcissus, or by its more popular names of Daffodil, or Daffadowndilly, and Jonquil. The name of Narcissus it gets from being supposed to be the same as the plant so named by the Greeks first and the Romans afterwards. It is a question whether the plants are the same, and I believe most authors think they are not; but I have never been able to see very good reasons for their doubts. The name Jonquil comes corrupted through the French, from _juncifolius_ or "rush-leaf," and is properly restricted to those species of the family which have rushy leaves. "Daffodil" is commonly said to be a corruption of Asphodel ("Daffodil is ?sf?de???, and has capped itself with a letter which eight hundred years ago did not belong to it."--c.o.c.kAYNE, _Spoon and Sparrow_, 19), with which plant it was confused (as it is in Lyte's "Herbal"), but Lady Wilkinson says very positively that "it is simply the old English word 'affodyle,'[73:2]

which signifies 'that which cometh early.'" "Daffadowndilly," again is supposed to be but a playful corruption of "Daffodil," but Dr. Prior argues (and he is a very safe authority) that it is rather a corruption of "Saffron Lily." Daffadowndilly is not used by Shakespeare, but it is used by his contemporaries, as by Spenser frequently, and by H.

Constable, who died in 1604--

"Diaphenia, like the Daffadowndilly, White as the sun, fair as the Lilly, Heigh, ho! how I do love thee!"

But however it derived its pretty names, it was the favourite flower of our ancestors as a garden flower, and especially as the flower for making garlands, a custom very much more common then than it is now. It was the favourite of all English poets. Gower describes the Narcissus--

"For in the winter fresh and faire The flowres ben, which is contraire To kind, and so was the folie Which fell of his surquedrie"--_i.e._, of Narcissus.

_Confes. Aman._ lib. prim. (1. 121 Paulli).

Shakespeare must have had a special affection for it, for in all his descriptions there is none prettier or more suggestive than Perdita's short but charming description of the Daffodil (No. 2). A small volume might be filled with the many poetical descriptions of this "delectable and sweet-smelling flower," but there are some which are almost cla.s.sical, and which can never be omitted, and which will bear repet.i.tion, however well we know them. Milton says, "The Daffodillies fill their cups with tears."[74:1] There are Herrick's well-known lines--

"Fair Daffodils, we weep to see You haste away so soon, As yet the early-rising sun Has not attained his noon; Stay, stay, Until the hastening day Has run But to the even-song; And having prayed together, we Will go with you along.

We have short time to stay as you, We have as short a spring, As quick a growth to meet decay, As you or anything.

We die, As your hours do, and dry Away, Like to the summer's rain, Or as the pearls of morning dew, Ne'er to be found again."

And there are Keats' and Sh.e.l.ley's well-known and beautiful lines which bring down the praises of the Daffodil to our own day. Keats says--

"A thing of beauty is a joy for ever, Its loveliness increases, it will never Pa.s.s into nothingness. . . . . .

. . . . . In spite of all Some shape of beauty moves away the pale From our dark spirits. Such the sun, the moon, Trees old and young, sprouting a shady boon For simple sheep; and such are Daffodils With the green world they live in."

Sh.e.l.ley is still warmer in his praise--

"Narcissus, the fairest among them all, Who gaze on their eyes in the stream's recess, Till they die of their own dear loveliness."

_The Sensitive Plant_, p. 1.

Nor must Wordsworth be left out when speaking of the poetry of Daffodils. His stanzas are well known, while his sister's prose description of them is the most poetical of all: "They grew among the mossy stones; . . . some rested their heads on these stones as on a pillow, the rest tossed and reeled and danced, and seemed as if they verily laughed with the wind, they looked so gay and glancing."[76:1]

But it is time to come to prose. The Daffodil of Shakespeare is the Wild Daffodil (_Narcissus pseudo-Narcissus_) that is found in abundance in many parts of England. This is the true English Daffodil, and there is only one other species that is truly native--the N. biflorus, chiefly found in Devons.h.i.+re. But long before Shakespeare's time a vast number had been introduced from different parts of Europe, so that Gerard was able to describe twenty-four different species, and had "them all and every of them in our London gardens in great abundance." The family, as at present arranged by Mr. J. G. Baker, of the Kew Herbarium, consists of twenty-one species, with several sub-species and varieties; all of which should be grown. They are all, with the exception of the Algerian species, which almost defy cultivation in England, most easy of cultivation--"Magna cura non indigent Narcissi." They only require after the first planting to be let alone, and then they will give us their graceful flowers in varied beauty from February to May. The first will usually be the grand N. maximus, which may be called the King of Daffodils, though some authors have given to it a still more ill.u.s.trious name. The "Rose of Sharon" was the large yellow Narcissus, common in Palestine and the East generally, of which Mahomet said: "He that has two cakes of bread, let him sell one of them for some flower of the Narcissus, for bread is the food of the body, but Narcissus is the food of the soul." From these grand leaders of the tribe we shall be led through the Hoop-petticoats, the many-flowered Tazettas, and the sweet Jonquils, till we end the Narcissus season with the Poets' Narcissus (Ben Jonson's "chequ'd and purple-ringed Daffodilly"), certainly one of the most graceful flowers that grows, and of a peculiar fragrance that no other flower has; so beautiful is it, that even Dr. Forbes Watson's description of it is scarcely too glowing: "In its general expression the Poets' Narcissus seems a type of maiden purity and beauty, yet warmed by a love-breathing fragrance; and yet what innocence in the large soft eye, which few can rival amongst the whole tribe of flowers.

The narrow, yet vivid fringe of red, so clearly seen amidst the whiteness, suggests again the idea of purity, gus.h.i.+ng pa.s.sion--purity with a heart which can kindle into fire."

FOOTNOTES:

[73:1] This account of the Daffodil, and the accounts of some other flowers, I have taken from a paper by myself on the common English names of plants read to the Bath Field Club in 1870, and published in the "Transactions" of the Club, and afterwards privately printed.--H. N. E.