"HERBS OF GRACE" 247 



mentioned under its poetic name by Shakespeare in 

 "A Midsummer Night's Dream" when Oberon bids 

 Puck find him the "little purple flower called Love 

 in Idleness," the juice of which placed on sleeping 

 eyelids would make man, or woman, madly dote on 

 the first object beheld on awakening, and with which 

 he intended to anoint the eyelids of the sleeping 

 Titania. He also told the mischievous sprite that 

 the charm could be removed with another herb 

 Dian's bud, the flower sacred to the goddess Diana. 

 Later in the play, touching the eyes of the spell- 

 bound fairy with this second herb, Oberon pro- 

 nounces the following incantation: 



Be as thou was wont to be, 

 See as thou was wont to see; 

 Dian's bud on Cupid's flower 

 Hath such force and blessed power. 



From the earliest times absinthe was associated 

 with sorcery and was used for incantations. Pliny 

 says the traveler who carried it about him would 

 never grow weary and that it would drive away any 

 lurking devils and counteract the evil eye. Ovid 

 calls it absinthium and speaks of its bitterness. 



The Greeks also called it artemesia after the god- 

 dess Artemis, or Diana, and made it a moon-plant. 



