458 pfant boi*©, ISiQ^enpf, dnR iDvjr'icf, 



following lines, when introducing the Narcissus under its old 

 English name of Daffodil : — 



" Bid Amaranthus all his beauty shed, 

 And Daffodillies fill their cups with tears, 

 To strew the laureat hearse where Lycid lies." 



The Daffodil is supposed to be one of the flowers which Proserpine 

 was gathering when she was seized and carried ofT by Pluto (Dis). 

 The Earth, at the instigation of Jupiter, had brought forth the 

 lovely blossom for a lure to the unsuspecfting maid. An old Greek 

 hymn contains the tale: — 



" In Sicilia's ever-blooming shade. 

 When playful Proserpine from Ceres strayed, 

 Led with unwary step, the virgin train 

 O'er /Etna's steeps and Enna's flow'ry plain 

 Pluck'd with fair hand the silver-blossom'd bower, 

 And purpled mead, — herself a fairer flower; 

 Sudden, unseen, amidst the twilight glade, 

 Rushed gloomy Dis, and seized the trembling maid." 



Shakspeare, in ' A Winter's Tale,' alludes to the same story: — 



" O Proserpina, 

 For the flowers now that, frightened, thou let'st fall, 

 From Dis's waggon ! Daffodils 

 That come before the swallow dares, and take 

 The winds of March with beauty." 



Other accounts of a similar legend, slightly varied, state that it 

 was at the instigation of Venus that Pluto employed the Narcissus 

 to entice Proserpine to the lower world. Ancient writers re- 

 ferred to the Narcissus as the flower of deceit, on account of its 

 narcotic properties; for although, as Homer assures us, it delights 

 heaven and earth by its odour and beauty, yet, at the same time, 

 it produces stupor, madness, and even death. It was conse- 

 crated both to Ceres and Proserpine, on which account Sophocles 

 poetically alludes to it as the garland of the great goddesses. 

 "And ever, day by day, the Narcissus, with its beauteous clusters, 

 the ancient coronet of the ' mighty goddesses,' bursts into bloom 



by heaven's dew" {CEdipus Coloiieus). The Fates wore wreaths of 



the Narcissus, and the Greeks twined the white stars of the odorous 

 blossoms among the tangled locks of the Eumenides. A crown 

 composed of these flowers was wont to be woven in honour of the 

 infernal gods, and placed upon the heads of the dead. The Nar- 

 cissus is essentially the flower of Lent ; but when mixed with the 

 Yew, which is symbolical of the Resurrecftion, it becomes a suitable 

 decoration for Easter: — 



" See that there be stores of Lilies, 



Called by shepherds Daffodillies." — Drayton. 



Herrick, Shakspeare, Milton, Wordsworth, all sing the praises of 

 the Narcissus, or Lent Lily, the Daffodil and Daffadowndily of our 

 forefathers, — names which they formed from the still older one of 

 Affodilly, a corruption of Asphodelus. 



