"THE SWEET O' THE YEAR" 127 



coloring, showing the spirit of her mortification. 

 She seeks untrodden and solitary places." 



The violet's qualities of lowliness, humility, and 

 sweetness have always appealed to poets. The vio- 

 let is also beloved because it is one of the earliest 

 spring flowers. Violets are, like primroses and cow- 

 slips, 



The first to rise 



And smile beneath Spring's wakening skies, 

 The courier of a band of coming flowers. 



The violet was also an emblem of constancy. At 

 the floral games, instituted by Clemence Isaure at 

 Toulouse in the Fourteenth Century, the prize was 

 a golden violet, because the poetess had once sent 

 a violet to her Knight as a token of faithfulness. 

 With the Troubadours the violet was a symbol of 

 constancy. In "A Handful of Pleasant Delights," a 

 popular song-book published in Elizabeth's reign in 

 1566, there is a poem called "A Nosegay always 

 Sweet for Lovers to send Tokens of Love at New 

 Year's tide, or for Fairings, as they in their minds 

 shall be disposed to write." This poem contains a 

 verse to the violet: 



Violet is for faithfulness 



Which in me shall abide; 

 Hoping likewise that from your heart 



You will not let it slide, 



