62 FLORA. HISTORICA. 



Shakspeare compares the soft strains of plaintive 

 music to the perfume of Violets — 



That strain again ; it had a dying fall : 

 O, it came o'er my ear like the sweet south, 

 That hreathes upon a bank of Violets, 

 Stealing, and giving odour. 



Twelfth Night. 



In the soliloquy which the same bard gives us 

 through Belisarius, in Cymbeline, he is scarce less 

 happy— 



O, thou goddess, 



Thou divine Nature, how thyself thou blazon' st 



In these two princely boys ! They are as gentle 



As zephyrs, blowing below the Violet, 



Not wagging his sweet head. 



That the Violet was a favourite with Shakspeare 

 is most evident, by the beautiful simile he makes 

 Perdita deliver in the Winter's Tale — 



Violets dim, 



But sweeter than the lids of Juno's eyes, 

 Or Cytherea's breath. 



Mr. Barry Cornwall places the Violet even before 

 the Rose, and we agree with him, in a moral point 

 of view, that modesty is more desirable than beauty, 

 but as florists we must always acknowledge the 

 Rose as the Queen of flowers. Of the Violet, he 

 says — 



