CHAPTER XX.

TIMON OF ATHENS.

IN this play are noticed Oak Mast and
Scarlet hips.

In Act iv. Scene 3, Timon addresse

the thieves, and they answer :

We are not thieves, but men that much do want.
Timon. Your greatest want is you want much of meat
Why should you want? Behold the earth hath roots;
Within this mile break forth a hundred springs;
The oaks bear mast, the briars scarlet hips;

The bounteous housewife, nature on each bush,
Lays her full mess before you. Want? Why want?

Oak mast is the acorn, or fruit of the oak, which in Shakspere's time was called 'mast,' as the frui of the beech was called 'beech mast.' In England during the Saxon era, acorns were of considerabl importance, being the principal food of swine About the middle of the 11th century mast is par

*First printed in the folio of 1623.

tand

dresses

ant

of meat.

Foots;

want?

which

he fruit

ngland,

derable swine.

is par

ticularly mentioned in a donation of Edward the
Confessor, and it appears by Domesday Book,'
that the value of woods was reckoned by the mast
or pannage they afforded for hogs; and a scarcity
of mast was often one of the causes of the famines
which then happened. In the account given in the
'Saxon Chronicle' of the calamitous year 1116, the
scarcity of mast is particularly noticed; and that
none was to be heard of in the land, or in Wales.
Strabo states that the inhabitants of the mountainous
parts of Spain ground acorns into meal for food ;
and Pliny says that in his time acorns in Spain were
brought to table for dessert.

Thomas Newton, in his 'Herbal to the Bible,'
speaking of oak and other trees that bear mast,
'Men well enough know the beech, elm, ash,
says:
and other mast trees, which, in the old time (before
the invention of tillage and the use of corn) fur-
nished competent food and nourishment, whereupon
afterward grew a proverb-It is mere folly when
when we have corn, to eat acorns.'

William Coles, 'Adam in Eden,' speaking of the
oak, says: Though the acorns were formerly used
for food, yet our age being able to subsist without
them, I shall leave them for the hogs to feed upon.'

In a Scripture Herbal,' by W. Westmacott,
Med. Prof.,1695, he says: 'Men heretofore (nay,
Jupiter himself) fed on acorns till their luxurious

palates were debauched; and when the Romans second course at table was served up of mast, the men had hearts of oak, i. e. living naturally, stron and healthful, by feeding on things easie parab and plain.'

In Sir Thomas North's translation of Plutarch Lives,' he tells us that the Arcadians, by the oracl of Apollo, were in old time called 'eaters of ake horns,' and that the oak was thought, among othe trees, to bring forth a profitable fruit. Moreove men at the first did eat akehorns for their bread and the oak did feed their beasts.

Scarlet hips. The fruit of the common dog ro (Rosa canina), or wild briar, which blossoms June and July; its flowers are of a pale pink colou and have a delicious fragrance. The fruit w commonly called 'hips' or 'heps,' and is often use with sugar to make a pleasant conserve.

mans' , then

strong Darable

tarch's

e oracle

of ake

g other

Dreover,

bread,

dog rose

ssoms in

colour, Fruit was

ften used

CHAPTER XXI.

CORIOLANUS.*

THE plants named in this play are the Cockle (Lolium temulentum) and the Mulberry (Morus nigra).

In Act iii. Scene 1, Coriolanus addressing the

Now as I live, I will,-my nobler friends,

I crave their pardon :

For the mutable, rank-scented many

Let them regard me as I do not flatter,

And therein behold themselves: I say again,

In soothing them 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, the honoured number;
Who lack not virtue, no nor power, but that
Which they have given to beggars.

The cockle of modern botanists (Lychnis Githago) is a tall handsome plant with purplish flowers, growing mostly in corn fields, the seeds of which

*First printed in the folio of 1623.

K

are black. Mr. Knight, in a note on the above passage, in his edition of Shakspere, says: 'Cockle, a weed among the corn.' Steevens, in his note on this flower, says: Cockle is a weed which grows up with the corn.' It is difficult to know what plant is meant by them; but the plant meant by Shakspere is the Lolium temulentum, in his time called darnel, as well as cockle and cockle weed. (See ante, Henry V.)

Sir Thos. North, in his translation of 'Plutarch's Life of Coriolanus,' speaking of the fact related by Shakspere, tells us that they nourished against themselves the naughty seed and cockle of insolency and sedition, which had been sowed and scattered abroad among the people.

6

In Newton's Herbal to the Bible,' Chap. xlvi., we find Darnel, therefore cockle (and drawke), being noisome enemies to good corn, specially unto wheat, are reckoned among the cheefe weeds and baggage that require to be plucked up. It groweth among other corne and hath a narrow small leaf, and many small ears growing upon the sides at the top of the strawe, in the which small ears the seede is contained. The seed thereof, being ground with other corn and baked into bread, causeth head-ache and dimness of sight.'

In Sylvester's translation of 'Du Bartas,' p. 258, are the following lines On the earth bringing forth