_ PART I. THE PLANT-LORE OF SHAKESPEARE
CLOVER, CLOVES, COCKLE
CLOVER.
(1) Burgundy.
The even mead, that erst brought sweetly forth
The freckled Cowslip, Burnet, and green Clover.
--- Henry V, act v, sc. 2 (48).
(2) Tamora.
I will enchant the old Andronicus
With words more sweet, and yet more dangerous,
Than baits to fish, or Honey-stalks to sheep,
When, as the one is wounded with the bait,
The other rotted with delicious food.
--- Titus Andronicus, act iv, sc. 4 (89).
"Honey-stalks" are supposed to be the flower of the Clover. This seems very probable, but I believe the name is no longer applied. Of the Clover there are two points of interest that are worth notice. The Clover is one of the plants that claim to be the Shamrock of St. Patrick. This is not a settled point, and at the present day the Woodsorrel is supposed to have the better claim to the honour. But it is certain that the Clover is the "clubs" of the pack of cards. "Clover" is a corruption of "Clava," a club. In England we paint the Clover on our cards and call it "clubs," while in France they have the same figure, but call it "trefle."
CLOVES.
Biron.
A Lemon.
Longaville.
Stuck with Cloves.
--- Love's Labour's Lost, act v, sc. 2 (633).[56:1]
As a mention of a vegetable product, I could not omit this passage, but the reference is only to the imported spice and not to the tree from which then, as now, the Clove was gathered. The Clove of commerce is the unexpanded flower of the Caryophyllus aromaticus, and the history of its discovery and cultivation by the Dutch in Amboyna, with the vain attempts they made to keep the monopoly of the profitable spice, is perhaps the saddest chapter in all the history of commerce. See a full account with description and plate of the plant in "Bot. Mag.," vol. 54, No. 2749.
FOOTNOTES:
[56:1] "But then 'tis as full of drollery as ever it can hold; 'tis like an orange stuck with Cloves as for conceipt."--
The Rehearsal, 1671, act iii, sc. 1.
COCKLE.
(1) Biron.
Allons! allons! sowed Cockle reap'd no Corn.
--- Love's Labour's Lost, act iv, sc. 3 (383).
(2) Coriolanus.
We nourish 'gainst our senate
The Cockle of rebellion, insolence, sedition,
Which we ourselves have plough'd for, sow'd, and scatter'd,
By mingling them with us.
--- Coriolanus, act iii, sc. 1 (69).
In Shakespeare's time the word "Cockle" was becoming restricted to the Corn-cockle (
Lychnis githago), but both in his time, and certainly in that of the writers before him, it was used generally for any noxious weed that grew in corn-fields, and was usually connected with the Darnel and Tares.[57:1] So Gower--
"To sowe Cockel with the Corn
So that the tilthe is nigh forlorn,
Which Crist sew first his owne hond--
Now stant the Cockel in the lond
Where stood whilom the gode greine,
For the prelats now, as men sain,
For slouthen that they shoulden tille."
---
Confessio Amantis, lib. quintus (2-190, Paulli).
Latimer has exactly the same idea: "Oh, that our prelates would bee as diligent to sowe the corne of goode doctrine as Sathan is to sow Cockel and Darnel." . . . "There was never such a preacher in England as he (the devil) is. Who is able to tel his dylygent preaching? which every daye and every houre laboreth to sowe Cockel and Darnel" (Latimer's Fourth Sermon). And to the same effect Spenser--
"And thus of all my harvest-hope I have
Nought reaped but a weedie crop of care,
Which when I thought have thresht in swelling sheave,
Cockle for corn, and chaff for barley bare."
The Cockle or Campion is said to do mischief among the Wheat, not only, as the Poppy and other weeds, by occupying room meant for the better plant, but because the seed gets mixed with the corn, and then "what hurt it doth among corne, the spoyle unto bread, as well in colour, taste, and unwholsomness is better known than desired." So says Gerard, but I do not know how far modern experience confirms him. It is a pity the plant has so bad a character, for it is a very handsome weed, with a fine blue flower, and the seeds are very curious objects under the microscope, being described as exactly like a hedgehog rolled up.[58:1]
FOOTNOTES:
[57:1] "Cokylle--quaedam aborigo, zazannia."--
Catholicon Anglicum. [58:1] In Dorsetshire the Cockle is the bur of the Burdock. Barnes' Glossary of Dorset. _