_ PART I. THE PLANT-LORE OF SHAKESPEARE
CEDAR, CHERRY, CHESTNUTS
CEDAR.
(1) Prospero.
And by the spurs pluck'd up
The Pine and Cedar.
--- Tempest, act v, sc. 1 (47).
(2) Dumain.
As upright as the Cedar.
--- Love's Labour's Lost, act iv, sc. 3 (89).
(3) Warwick.
As on a mountain top the Cedar shows,
That keeps his leaves in spite of any storm.
--- 2nd Henry VI, act v, sc. 1 (205).
(4) Warwick.
Thus yields the Cedar to the axe's edge,
Whose arms gave shelter to the princely eagle,
Under whose shade the ramping lion slept,
Whose top-branch o'erpeered Jove's spreading tree,
And kept low shrubs from winter's powerful wind.
--- 3rd Henry VI, act v, sc. 2 (11).
(5) Cranmer.
He shall flourish,
And, like a mountain Cedar, reach his branches
To all the plains about him.
--- Henry VIII, act v, sc. 5 (215).
(6) Posthumus.
When from a stately Cedar shall be lopped branches, which,
being dead many years, shall after revive.
--- Cymbeline, act v, sc. 4 (140); and act v, sc. 5 (457).
(7) Soothsayer.
The lofty Cedar, royal Cymbeline,
Personates thee. Thy lopp'd branches
. . . . . are now revived,
To the majestic Cedar join'd.
--- Ibid., act v, sc. 5 (453).
(8) Gloucester.
But I was born so high,
Our aery buildeth in the Cedar's top,
And dallies with the wind and scorns the sun.
--- Richard III, act i, sc. 3 (263).
(9) Coriolanus.
Let the mutinous winds
Strike the proud Cedars 'gainst the fiery sun.
--- Coriolanus, act v, sc. 3 (59).
(10) Titus.
Marcus, we are but shrubs, no Cedars we.
--- Titus Andronicus, act iv, sc. 3 (45).
(11) Daughter.
I have sent him where a Cedar,
Higher than all the rest, spreads like a Plane
Fast by a brook.
--- Two Noble Kinsmen, act ii, sc. 6 (4).
(12)
The sun ariseth in his majesty;
Who doth the world so gloriously behold
That Cedar-tops and hills seem burnished gold.
--- Venus and Adonis (856).
(13)
The Cedar stoops not to the base shrub's foot,
But low shrubs wither at the Cedar's root.
--- Lucrece (664).
The Cedar is the classical type of majesty and grandeur, and superiority to everything that is petty and mean. So Shakespeare uses it, and only in this way; for it is very certain he never saw a living specimen of the Cedar of Lebanon. But many travellers in the East had seen it and minutely described it, and from their descriptions he derived his knowledge of the tree; but not only, and probably not chiefly from travellers, for he was well acquainted with his Bible, and there he would meet with many a passage that dwelt on the glories of the Cedar, and told how it was the king of trees, so that "the Fir trees were not like his boughs, and the Chestnut trees were not like his branches, nor any tree in the garden of God was like unto him in his beauty, fair by the multitude of his branches, so that all the trees of Eden that were in the garden of God envied him" (Ezekiel xxxi. 8, 9). It was such descriptions as these that supplied Shakespeare with his imagery, and which made our ancestors try to introduce the tree into England. But there seems to have been much difficulty in establishing it. Evelyn tried to introduce it, but did not succeed at first, and the tree is not mentioned in his "Sylva" of 1664. It was, however, certainly introduced in 1676, when it appears, from the gardeners' accounts, to have been planted at Bretby Park, Derbyshire ("Gardener's Chronicle," January, 1877). I believe this is the oldest certain record of the planting of the Cedar in England, the next oldest being the trees in Chelsea Botanic Gardens, which were certainly planted in 1683. Since that time the tree has proved so suitable to the English soil that it is grown everywhere, and everywhere asserts itself as the king of evergreen trees, whether grown as a single tree on a lawn, or mixed in large numbers with other trees, as at Highclere Park, in Hampshire (Lord Carnarvon's). Among English Cedar trees there are probably none that surpass the fine specimens at Warwick Castle, which owe, however, much of their beauty to their position on the narrow strip of land between the Castle and the river. I mention these to call attention to the pleasant coincidence (for it is nothing more) that the most striking descriptions of the Cedar are given by Shakespeare to the then owner of the princely Castle of Warwick (Nos. 3 and 4).
The mediaeval belief about the Cedar was that its wood was imperishable. "Haec Cedrus, A{e} sydyretre, et est talis nature quod nunquam putrescet in aqua nec in terra" (English Vocabulary--15th cent.); but as a timber tree the English-grown Cedar has not answered to its old reputation, so that Dr. Lindley called it "the worthless though magnificent Cedar of Lebanon."
CHERRY.
(1) Helena.
So we grew together,
Like to a double Cherry, seeming parted,
But yet a union in partition;
Two lovely berries moulded on one stem.
--- Midsummer Night's Dream, act iii, sc. 2 (208).
(2) Demetrius.
O, how ripe in show
Thy lips, those kissing Cherries, tempting grow!
--- Ibid., act iii, sc. 2 (139).
(3) Constance.
And it' grandam will
Give it a Plum, a Cherry, and a Fig.
--- King John, act ii, sc. 1 (161).
(4) Lady.
'Tis as like you
As Cherry is to Cherry.
--- Henry VIII, act v, sc. 1 (170).
(5) Gower.
She with her neeld composes
Nature's own shape of bud, bird, branch, or berry;
That even her art sisters the natural Roses,
Her inkle, silk, twin with the rubied Cherry.
--- Pericles, act v, chorus (5).
(6) Dromio of Syracuse.
Some devils ask but the paring of one's nail,
A Rush, a hair, a drop of blood, a pin,
A Nut, a Cherry-stone.
--- Comedy of Errors, act iv, sc. 3 (72).
(7) Queen.
Oh, when
The twyning Cherries shall their sweetness fall
Upon thy tasteful lips.
--- Two Noble Kinsmen, act i, sc. 1 (198).
(8)
When he was by, the birds such pleasure took,
That some would sing, some other in their bills
Would bring him Mulberries and ripe-red Cherries.
He fed them with his sight, they him with berries.
--- Venus and Adonis (1101).
Besides these, there is mention of "cherry lips"[54:1] and "cherry-nose,"[54:2] and the game of "cherry-pit."[54:3] We have the authority of Pliny that the Cherry (
Prunus Cerasus) was introduced into Italy from Pontus, and by the Romans was introduced into Britain. It is not, then, a true native, but it has now become completely naturalized in our woods and hedgerows, while the cultivated trees are everywhere favourites for the beauty of their flowers, and their rich and handsome fruit. In Shakespeare's time there were almost as many, and probably as good varieties, as there are now.
FOOTNOTES:
[54:1]
Midsummer Night's Dream, act v, sc. 1;
Richard III, act i, sc. 1;
Two Noble Kinsmen, act iv, sc. 1.
[54:2]
Midsummer Night's Dream, act v, sc. 1.
[54:3]
Twelfth Night, act iii, sc. 4.
CHESTNUTS.
(1) Witch.
A sailor's wife had Chestnuts in her lap,
And munch'd, and munch'd, and munch'd.
--- Macbeth, act i, sc. 3 (4).
(2) Petruchio.
And do you tell me of a woman's tongue
That gives not half so great a blow to hear
As will a Chestnut in farmer's fire?
--- Taming of the Shrew, act i, sc. 2 (208).
(3) Rosalind.
I' faith, his hair is of a good colour.
Celia.
An excellent colour; your Chestnut was ever the only colour.
--- As You Like It, act iii, sc. 4 (11).
This is the Spanish or Sweet Chestnut, a fruit which seems to have been held in high esteem in Shakespeare's time, for Lyte, in 1578, says of it, "Amongst all kindes of wilde fruites the Chestnut is best and meetest for to be eaten." The tree cannot be regarded as a true native, but it has been so long introduced, probably by the Romans, that grand specimens are to be found in all parts of England; the oldest known specimen being at Tortworth, in Gloucestershire, which was spoken of as an old tree in the time of King Stephen; while the tree that is said to be the oldest and the largest in Europe is the Spanish Chestnut tree on Mount Etna, the famous Castagni du Centu Cavalli, which measures near the root 160 feet in circumference. It is one of our handsomest trees, and very useful for timber, and at one time it was supposed that many of our oldest buildings were roofed with Chestnut. This was the current report of the grand roof at Westminster Hall, but it is now discovered to be of Oak, and it is very doubtful whether the Chestnut timber is as lasting as it has long been supposed to be.
The Horse Chestnut was probably unknown to Shakespeare. It is an Eastern tree, and in no way related to the true Chestnut, and though the name has probably no connection with horses or their food, yet it is curious that the petiole has (especially when dry) a marked resemblance to a horse's leg and foot, and that both on the parent stem and the petiole may be found a very correct representation of a horseshoe with its nails.[55:1]
FOOTNOTES:
[55:1] For an excellent description of the great differences between the Spanish and Horse Chestnut, see "Gardener's Chronicle," Oct. 29, 1881. _