:ne 2, CHAPTER II. THE TEMPEST. of the JHE plants named in this play are-Long heath (Calluna vulgaris), Brown furze (Ulex europæus), Petty whin (Genista anglica), Ivy (Hedera Helix), Crab (Pyrus Malus), Pig-nut (Bunium flexuosum), Broom (Cytisus Scoparius), Cowslip (Primula veris), Lime (Tilia europæa). In Act i. Scene 1 (on a ship at sea), Gonsalo, in his distress, says :— Now would I give a thousand furlongs of sea for an acre of barren ground, long heath, brown furze, anything. The wills above be done! but I would fain die a dry death. Long heath (Calluna vulgaris), called in many places ling, heth, and heather. Dr. William Turner,† * First printed in the folio of 1623. † Dr. Turner is noticed by William Bulleyn, in his 'Dialogue between two Men, the one called Soreness, and the other Chirurgi,' printed in 1579, as follows:- Who shall forget the most worthy Doctor William Turner, whose learned acts I leave to the witty in his 'Herbal' (date 1562), says: The highest heth that ever I saw groweth in Northumberland, which is so high that a man may hide himself in it.' It grows abundantly on heaths and moors, and flowers in July and August. Its branches are used in making brooms, called heath brooms, and from this use the Greek word calluna has been given to the plant. Brown furze (Ulex europæus), called also gorse or goss. The flowers are bright yellow, and continue the greater part of the year; it grows on dry exposed commons, and is very characteristic of English scenery. These plants grow on poor soils.* In Act iv. Scene 1, Ariel names toothed briars, sharp furzes, pricking goss, and thorns. The term toothed, as applied to briars, is most appropriate, for what we commonly call the thorns are, in fact, tooth-shaped. The plant here called pricking goss is the Genista anglica, petty whin, called goss in and previously to the time of Shakspere. In the 15th Henry VI. (1436), Humfrey, commendations and immortal praise of Conradus Gesnerus. Yet his Booke of Herbes will always grow greene, and never wither as iong as Dioscorides is had in mynde among us mortall wightes' (fol. 4). * Sir Thomas Hanmer reads ling, heath, broom furze, but I believe Shakspere wrote long heath and brown furze, because ling and heath or heth are names for one and the same plant, and Shakspere would not have called this plant by two different common names. ghest rland, in it.' and used from en to gorse Iconin dry ic of soils.* riars, most horns called whin, Shak frey, Yet his as long ol. 4). e, but use ling Shakmmon Duke of Gloster, had licence to enclose 200 acres of land-' pasture, wode, hethe, virses, and gorste, bruere et jampnorum'-and to form thereof a park at Greenwich. (Rot. Parl. iv. 498.) From this it appears that furze and gorse were then treated as distinct plants, and Shakspere so considered them. In Act i. Scene 2 (the island), Prospero speaking to Miranda of his brother's ingratitude, says: That now he was The ivy which had hid my princely trunk, And suck'd my verdure out on't. Ivy (Hedera Helix), common ivy. An evergreen climbing plant which attaches its branches to trees, often covering them with its foliage, and injuring them by compression; it flowers in October and November, and is the only British species. In the Midsummer Night's Dream, Act iv. Scene 1, the Queen says to the Clown: * The female ivy so Inrings the barky fingers of the elm. In the Comedy of Errors, Act ii. Scene 2, the ivy is called by Adriana usurping ivy. It was commonly believed by husbandmen, in the time of Shakspere, that ivy injured the trees around which it grew by drawing the sap, or mois * Pliny notices male and female ivy in his 'Natural History.', ture, from them. In Tusser's Points of Good Husbandry' for the month of May, he tells us : From May till October leave cropping, for why? Kill ivy; else tree will addle no more. In the 16th Book of P. Holland's translation of Pliny's 'Natural History,' it is stated 'that the green ivy groweth most of all others in length; the white killeth trees, for by sucking and soaking all the sap and moisture from them it thriveth and feedeth so well itself that it becometh in the end as big as a tree.' William Bulleyn, in his 'Book of Simples,' written in 1562 (p. 39, ed. 1597), says of the ivy: This is a very evil neighbour, for whereas it doth grow on any tree, the tree decayeth, although the ivy do flourish still green.' In Act ii. Scene 2 (part of the island), Caliban says to Trinculo : I prithee let me bring thee where crabs grow, Young seamels from the rock. Wilt thou go with me? Crab (Pyrus Malus). The crab tree is a small spreading tree; the fruit is very acid, and used in making verjuice. Crabs are often collected by poor people, and eaten raw or roasted. Staves for defence were made of the wood of this tree, and are alluded to in Henry VIII. Act v. Scene 2. The crab is noticed in the Song of Winter (Love's Labour's lost, Act v. Scene 2) : When all aloud the wind doth blow And coughing drowns the parson's saw, And Marian's nose looks red and raw; Also in Midsummer Night's Dream, Act ii. Scene 1, And sometimes lurk I in a gossip's bowl, In very likeness of a roasted crab; The roasted crab in the bowl refers to its use in the wassail cup, or bowl, or gossip's bowl, on Newyear's eve, it being customary for families, after supper, to partake of ale in which roasted crabs or apples were put with nutmeg and sugar, and drink to each other's good health. In one of the first drinking songs in our language, written by John Hill about the middle of the 16th century, are the following lines: |