22 SHAKESPEARE'S [BALM. 



BABOONS are a kind of apes, whose heads are like dogs, 

 and their other parts like a man's. Some are much given 

 to fishing ; again, there are some which abhor fishes. Some 

 there are which are able to write, and naturally to discern 

 letters. They will eat venison, which they by reason of 

 their swiftness take easily, and having taken it tear it 

 to pieces, and roast it in the sun. 



Topsell, "Four-footed Beasts," pp. 8, 9. 



Balm. 



Pierced to the soul with slander's venom'd spear, 

 The which no balm can cure but his heart-blood. 



KING RICHARD II., i. I, 171-2. 



My pity hath been balm to heal their wounds. 



3 KING HENRY VI., iv. 8, 41. 



BALM drunk in wine is good against the bitings of 

 venomous beasts, comforts the heart, and driveth away all 

 melancholy and sadness. The juice thereof glueth together 

 green wounds, being put into oil, unguent or Balm for 

 that purpose, and maketh it of greater efficacy. 



Gerard's " Herbal," s.v. 



THIS Balm groweth in no place, but only there [/'.., 

 beside Cairo]. And though that men bring of the plants 

 for to plant in other countries, they grow well and fair, 

 but they bring forth no fructuous thing. And men cut the 

 branches with a sharp flintstone or with a sharp bone, 

 when men will go to cut them : for whoso cut them with 

 iron, it would destroy his virtue and his nature. And men 

 make always that Balm to be tilled of the Christian men 

 or else it would not fructify, as the Saracens say them- 

 selves: for it hath been often time proved. 



Sir John Mandeville, ch. v. 



[He gives elaborate directions for distinguishing the true from 

 the counterfeit balm.] 





Balsam, Balsamum [i.e. Balm]. 



TIMON OF ATHENS, iii. 5, no. 

 COMEDY OF ERRORS, iv. I,. 88. 



BALSAMUM is set tofore all other smells, and was some- 

 time granted but to one land among all lands, that is to 

 wit Judea. And was not had nor found but in two 

 gardens of the King's. Bartholomew (Berthelet\ bk. xvii. 18. 



