The Cowslip 



they are fragrant, and the fragrance 

 shapes the ambiguous suggestion, so that 

 we can view them with unmixed pleasure. 

 And it is the same with the glands be- 

 neath the leaves of many plants, as, for 

 instance, those of the common black cur- 

 rant. In themselves they can scarcely 

 be considered as beautiful, but the eye 

 takes delight in them from the moment 

 we discover that they are scented. There 

 is something of the same sort again in 

 the Primrose. That flower may justly be 

 described as pale, as if from long lingering 

 beneath the shadows of the woods, shut 

 out from light and air ; and at this Shake- 

 speare has gently and delicately hinted 

 in the lines which compare it to a girl 

 not as yet consumptive, but gifted with 

 that too early loveliness which will even- 

 tually ripen into the disease 



"Pale primroses, 



Which die unmarried ere they may behold 

 Bright Phoebus in his strength, a malady 

 Most incident to maids." 



Yet we cannot call even the Primrose 

 "wan." That would mean that it had a 

 sickly expression, a thing which is at all 

 times painful and revolting, and would 

 be especially so in a flower. And the 

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