124 THE SHAKESPEARE GARDEN 



Shelley held the same idea that the delicious 

 perfume of flowers is like the softest melody: 



The snowdrop and then the violet 

 Arose from the ground with warm rain wet; 

 And there was mixed with fresh color, sent 

 From the turf like the voice and the instrument. 



And the hyacinth, purple and white and blue, 

 Which flung from its bells a sweet peal anew 

 Of music, so delicate, soft and intense 

 It was felt like an odor within the sense. 



Ophelia laments that she has no violets to give 

 to the court ladies and lords, for "they withered" 

 when her father died, she tells us. Shakespeare 

 also associates violets with melancholy occasions. 

 Marina enters in "Pericles" with a basket of flowers 



on her arm, saying : * 



The yellows, blues, 

 The purple violets and marigolds 

 Shall as a carpet hang upon thy grave 

 While summer days do last. 



On another occasion, with a broad sweeping ges- 

 ture, Shakespeare mentions 



The violets that strew 

 The green lap of the new-come Spring. 



1 Act IV, Scene II. 



