92 



"If that fair elm, he cried, alone should stand, 

 No grapes with gold would glow and tempt the hand : 

 Or if that vine without her elm should glow, 

 'Twould creep a poor neglected shrub below." 



Dryden. 



[ Note. — The same custom is alluded to by Milton in narrating the 



occupation of Adam and Eve in Paradise : 



" They led the vine 

 To wed the elm ; she, spoused, about him twines 

 Her marriageable arms ; and with her brings 

 Her dower, the adopted clusters, to adorn 

 His barren leaves." 



And Shakspere, in the " Comedy of Errors," where Adriana is repulsed 



by Antipholus her husband, as she believes, makes her say with sweet 



entreaty to him : 



" Come I will fasten on this .'sleeve of thine : 

 Thou art an elm, my husband, I a vine, 

 Whose weakness married to my stronger state 

 Makes me with thy strength to communicate. 

 If aught possess thee from me, it is dross ; 

 Usurping ivy, briar, or idle moss, 

 Who all for want of pruning with intrusion 

 Infect thy sap and live on thy confusion." — Act 2, Sc. 2. 



It was a case of mistaken identity— the lawyers par excellence ! — her 



husband's twin brother. ] 



Spencer, in his "Faerie Queen," speaks of 



"The Vine-propp Elme." 



Wordsworth, in his "Pillar of Trajan," again revives its use: 



" So, pleased with purple clusters to entwine 

 Some lofty elm tree, mounts the daring vine." 



And so too does Rogers in his poem on Italy (on Naples) : 



" Here the vines 

 Wed each her Elm, and o'er the golden grain 

 Hang their luxuriant clusters, chequering 

 The sunshine." 



And numerous other poetical allusions, ancient and modern, to the same custom 

 might be given. The real practical application is shewn by PUny, who says — 

 "That elm is a poor spouse that does not support three vines." 



The Greeks and Romans considered aU trees that did not produce food 

 fit for human use as funereal trees. Homer alludes to this in making Achillea 

 raise a monument to the father of Andromache in the midst of a grove of elms. 

 . " TTipl Sk irreK'tag itpvTivaav 

 vvfKfiai opiOTiadeg, Kovpai Aibg aiyioxoio." 



Iliad-Uh. vi., 419 420. 



"Jove's sylvan daughters bade their elms bestow * 



A barren shade, and in his honour grow." 



Pope. 



And whether from this classic origin of the idea, from the shade they produce, 



from the open space afforded, or from the homely domestic feeling with regard 



to the tree, the Elm has ever been frequently planted in churchyards. 



