_ PART I. THE PLANT-LORE OF SHAKESPEARE
DOCKS, DOGBERRY, EBONY, EGLANTINE
DOCKS.
(1) Burgundy.
And nothing teems
But hateful Docks, rough Thistles, Kecksies, Burs.
--- Henry V, act v, sc. 2 (51).
(2) Antonio.
He'd sow it with Nettle seed,
Sebastian.
Or Docks, or Mallows.
--- Tempest, act ii, sc. 1 (145).
The Dock may be dismissed with little note or comment, merely remarking that the name is an old one, and is variously spelled as dokke, dokar, doken, &c. An old name for the plant was "Patience;" the "bitter patience" of Spenser, which is supposed by Dr. Prior to be a corruption of Passions.
DOGBERRY. (
Dramatis personae in
Much Ado About Nothing.)
The Dogberry is the fruit either of the Cornus sanguinea or of the Euonymus Europaeus. Parkinson limits the name to the Cornus, and says: "We for the most part call it the
Dogge berry tree, because the berries are not fit to be eaten, or to be given to a dogge." The plant is only named by Shakespeare as a man's name, but it could scarcely be omitted, as I agree with Mr. Milner that it was "probable that our dramatist had the tree in his mind when he gave a name to that fine fellow for a 'sixth and lastly,' Constable, Dogberry of the Watch" ("Country Pleasures," p. 229).
EBONY.
(1) King.
The Ebon-coloured ink.
--- Love's Labour's Lost, act i, sc. 1 (245).
(2) King.
By heaven, thy love is black as Ebony.
Biron.
Is Ebony like her? O wood divine!
A wife of such wood were felicity.
--- Ibid., act iv, sc. 3 (247).
(3) Clown.
The clearstores towards the south north are as lustrous as
Ebony.
--- Twelfth Night, act iv, sc. 2 (41).
(4) Pistol.
Rouse up revenge from Ebon den.
--- 2nd Henry IV, act v, sc. 5 (39).
(5) Death's Ebon dart, to strike him dead.
--- Venus and Adonis (948).
The Ebony as a tree was unknown in England in the time of Shakespeare. The wood was introduced, and was the typical emblem of darkness. The timber is the produce of more than one species, but comes chiefly from Diospyros Ebenum, Ebenaster, Melanoxylon, Mabola, &c. (Lindley), all natives of the East.
EGLANTINE.
(1) Oberon.
I know a bank where the wild Thyme blows,
Where Oxlips and the nodding Violet grows;
Quite over-canopied with luscious Woodbine,
With sweet Musk-Roses and with Eglantine.
--- Midsummer Night's Dream, act ii, sc. 1 (249).
(2) Arviragus.
Thou shalt not lack
The flower that's like thy face, pale Primrose, nor
The azured Harebell, like thy veins, no, nor
The leaf of Eglantine, whom not to slander,
Out-sweeten'd not thy breath.
Cymbeline, act iv, sc. 2 (220).
If Shakespeare had only written these two passages they would sufficiently have told of his love for simple flowers. None but a dear lover of such flowers could have written these lines. There can be no doubt that the Eglantine in his time was the Sweet Brier--his notice of the sweet leaf makes this certain. Gerard so calls it, but makes some confusion--which it is not easy to explain--by saying that the flowers are white, whereas the flowers of the true Sweet Brier are pink. In the earlier poets the name seems to have been given to any wild Rose, and Milton certainly did not consider the Eglantine and the Sweet Brier to be identical. He says ("L'Allegro")--
"Through the Sweet Briar or the Vine,
Or the twisted Eglantine."
But Milton's knowledge of flowers was very limited. Herrick has some pretty lines on the flower, in which it seems most probable that he was referring to the Sweet Brier--
"From this bleeding hand of mine
Take this sprig of Eglantine,
Which, though sweet unto your smell,
Yet the fretful Briar will tell,
He who plucks the sweets shall prove
Many Thorns to be in love."
It was thus the emblem of pleasure mixed with pain--
"Sweet is the Eglantine, but pricketh nere."
--- SPENSER,
Sonnet xxvi.
And so its names pronounced it to be; it was either the Sweet Brier, or it was Eglantine, the thorny plant (Fr.,
aiglentier). There was also an older name for the plant, of which I can give no explanation. It was called Bedagar. "Bedagar dicitur gallice aiglentier" (John de Gerlande). "
Bedagrage, spina alba, wit-thorn" (Harl. MS., No. 978 in "Reliquiae Antiquae," i, 36).[84:1] The name still exists, though not in common use; but only as the name of a drug made from "the excrescences on the branches of the Rose, and particularly on those of the wild varieties" (Parsons on the Rose).
It is a native of Britain, but not very common, being chiefly confined to the South of England. I have found it on Maidenhead Thicket. As a garden plant it is desirable for the extremely delicate scent of its leaves, but the flower is not equal to others of the family. There is, however, a double-flowered variety, which is handsome. The fruit of the single flowered tree is large, and of a deep red colour, and is said to be sometimes made into a preserve. In modern times this is seldom done, but it may have been common in Shakespeare's time, for Gerard says quaintly: "The fruit when it is ripe maketh most pleasant meats and banqueting dishes, as tarts and such like, the making whereof I commit to the cunning cooke, and teeth to eat them in the rich man's mouth." And Drayton says--
"They'll fetch you conserve from the hip,
And lay it softly on your lip."
---
Nymphal II. Eglantine has a further interest in being one of the many thorny trees from which the sacred crown of thorns was supposed to be made--"And afterwards he was led into a garden of Cayphas, and there he was crowned with Eglantine" (Sir John Mandeville).
FOOTNOTES:
[84:1] "Est et cynosrodos, rosa camina, ung eglantier, folia myrti habens, sed paulo majora; recta assurgens in mediam altitudinem inter arborem et fruticem; fert spongiolas, quibus utuntur medici, ad malefica capitis ulcera, la malle tigne, vocatur antem vulgo in officinis pharmacopolarum, bedegar."--
Stephani de re Hortensi Libellus, p. 17, 1536. _