The plant-lore & garden-craft of Shakespeare Part 50

(17) _Kent._

A Lily-livered, action-taking knave.

_King Lear_, act ii, sc. 2 (18).

(18) _Macbeth_

Thou Lily-liver'd boy.

_Macbeth_, act v, sc. 3 (15).

(19)

For sweetest things turn sourest by their deeds; Lilies that fester smell far worse than weeds.

_Sonnet_ xciv.

(20)

Nor did I wonder at the Lily's white, Nor praise the deep vermilion of the Rose.

_Ibid._ xcviii.

(21)

The Lily I condemned for thy hand.

_Ibid._ xcix.

(22)

Their silent war of Lilies and of Roses Which Tarquin view'd in her fair face's field.

_Lucrece_ (71).

(23)

Her Lily hand her rosy cheek lies under, Cozening the pillow of a lawful kiss.

_Ibid._ (386).

(24)

The colour in thy face That even for anger makes the Lily pale, And the red Rose blush at her own disgrace.

_Ibid._ (477).

(25)

A Lily pale with damask die to grace her.

_Pa.s.sionate Pilgrim_ (89).

(26)

Full gently now she takes him by the hand, A Lily prison'd in a jail of snow.

_Venus and Adonis_ (361).

(27)

She locks her Lily fingers one in one.

_Ibid._ (228).

(28)

Whose wonted Lily white With purple tears, that his wound wept, was drench'd.

_Ibid._ (1053).

Which is the queen of flowers? There are two rival candidates for the honour--the Lily and the Rose; and as we look on the one or the other, our allegiance is divided, and we vote the crown first to one and then to the other. We should have no difficulty "were t'other fair charmer away," but with two such candidates, both equally worthy of the honour, we vote for a diarchy instead of a monarchy, and crown them both.[142:1]

Yet there are many that would at once choose the Lily for the queen, and that without hesitation, and they would have good authority for their choice. "O Lord, that bearest rule," says Esdras, "of the whole world, Thou hast chosen Thee of all the flowers thereof one Lily."

Spenser addresses the Lily as--

"The Lily, lady of the flow'ring field"--_F. Q._, ii, 6, 16,

which is the same as Shakespeare's "mistress of the field," (8), and many a poet since his time has given the same vote in many a pretty verse, which, however, it would take too much s.p.a.ce to quote at length; so that I will content myself with these few lines by Alexander Montgomery (coeval with Shakespeare)--

"I love the Lily as the first of flowers Whose stately stalk so straight up is and stay; To whom th' lave ay lowly louts and cowers As bound so brave a beauty to obey."

Montgomery here has clearly in his mind's eye the Lily now so called; but the name was not so restricted in the earlier writers. "Lilium, cojus vox generali et licentiosa usurpatione adscribitur omni flori commendabili" (Laurembergius, 1632). This was certainly the case with the Greek and Roman writers, and it is so in our English Bible in most of the cases where the word is used, but perhaps not universally so. It is so used by Gower, describing Tarquin cutting off the tall flowers, by some said to be Poppies and by others Lilies--

"And in the garden as they gone, The Lilie croppes one and one, Where that they were sp.r.o.ngen out, He smote off, as they stood about."

_Conf. Ama._ lib. sept.