44 THE SHAKESPEARE GARDEN 



ethereal and mysterious music. For example, the 

 elegant Duke in "Twelfth Night," reclining on his 

 divan and listening to music, commands: 



That strain again! It had a dying fall. 

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

 That breathes upon a bank of violets 

 Stealing and giving odor. 



Lord Bacon also associated the scent of delicate 

 flowers with music. He writes: "And because the 

 breath of flowers is far sweeter in the air (whence 

 it comes and goes like the warbling of music) than 

 in the hand, therefore nothing is more fit for de- 

 light than to know what be the flowers and plants 

 that do best perfume the air. Roses, damask, and 

 red, are fast flowers of their smells, so that you may 

 walk by a whole row of them and find nothing of 

 their sweetness, yea though it be in a morning's dew. 

 Bays, likewise, yield no smell as they grow, rose- 

 mary little, nor sweet marjoram. That which above 

 all others yields the sweetest smell in the air is the 

 violet, especially the white double violet, which 

 comes twice a year about the middle of April and 

 about Bartholomew-tide. Next to that is the musk- 

 rose, then the strawberry leaves dying, which yield 

 a most excellent cordial smell, then the flower of 

 the vines, it is a little dust, like the dust of a bent, 



