"THE SWEET O' THE YEAR" 109 



II 



"Daffodils that Come Before the Swallow Dares" 

 DAFFODIL (Narcissus pseudo-narcissus}. 



When daffodils begin to peer, 



With heigh ! the doxy over the dale, 



Why then comes in the sweet o' the year; 

 For the red blood reigns in the winter's pale. 



Is the opening verse that Autolycus sings so gaily 

 in "The Winter's Tale." J The daffodil was "care- 

 fully nourished up" in Elizabethan gardens, as the 

 saying went. Before Shakespeare's time a great 

 number of daffodils had been introduced into Eng- 

 land from various parts of the Continent. Gerard 

 describes twenty- four different species, "all and 

 every one of them in great abundance in our London 

 gardens." 



There were many varieties both rare and ordi- 

 nary. Parkinson particularly distinguishes the true 

 daffodils, or narcissus, from the "Bastard Daffo- 

 dils," or pseudo narcissus; and he gives their differ- 

 ences as follows: 



"It consisteth only in the flower and chiefly in 

 the middle cup, or chalice; for that we do, in a 



1 Act IV, Scene II. 



