"ICICLES HANG BY THE WALL" 259 



Ivy was the crown of the Greek and Roman poets, 

 whose myths proclaimed the plant sacred to Bacchus. 

 Indeed the plant took its name from Bacchus 

 (kissos) for it was said that the child was hidden 

 under ivy when abandoned by his mother, Semele. 

 The ivy was mingled with the grape in the crown of 

 Bacchus and it enwreathed his thyrsus. Ivy berries 

 eaten before wine was swallowed prevented intoxi- 

 cation, so Pliny says. Perhaps because of its asso- 

 ciation with Bacchus ivy was hung at the vintners' 

 doors in England as well as on the Continent, and a 

 reference to this custom is contained in N ash's 

 "Summer's Last Will and Testament" (1600). 



In Shakespeare's time ivy was considered a 

 remedy against plague, which gave another reason 

 for veneration. 



England would almost cease to be England with- 

 out the ivy that so luxuriantly covers the walls of 

 old buildings and adds its soft beauty to the crumb- 

 ling ruins. Everybody loves it strangers as well 

 as natives; and every one loves the poem that 

 Dickens inserted into "The Pickwick Papers" : 



Oh, a dainty plant is the Ivy green, 



That creepeth o'er ruins old! 

 On right choice food are his meals, I ween, 



In his cell so lone and cold. 



