238 THE SHAKESPEARE GARDEN 



LAFEN. They are not sallet-herbs, you knave, they are 



nose-herbs. 



CLOWN. I am no great Nebuchadnezzar; sir, I have not 

 much skill in grass. 1 



Parkinson writes: 



"The common Sweet Marjoram (Marierome) is 

 a low herb, little above a foot high, full of branches 

 and small whitish, soft, roundish leaves, smelling 

 very sweet. At the tops of the branches stand divers 

 small, scaly heads, like unto knots, of a whitish 

 green color, out of which come, here and there, small, 

 white flowers, and afterward small reddish seed. 

 Called Mariorama in Latin, it is taken of most 

 writers to be the Amaracus, or Sampsuchum, of 

 Dioscorides, Theophrastus and Pliny." 



According to the Greek myth a young man named 

 Amarakos was employed in the household of the 

 King of Cyprus. One day when he was carrying a 

 vase of perfumes he dropped it, and he was so much 

 humiliated by his carelessness that he fell and lost 

 consciousness. The gods then changed him into 

 the sweet herb amarakos, or amaracus, which is the 

 Greek name for this plant. Rapin thought it owed 

 its existence to Venus : 



And tho' Sweet Marjoram will your garden paint 

 With no gay colors, yet preserve the plant, 

 'Act IV, Scene V. 



