ioo SHAKESPEARE'S [ELDER. 



Elder 



The stinking elder. 



CYMBELINE, iv. 2, 59. 



THE Ellern is a little nesh tree, and beareth flowers and 

 fruit twice in one year, and that fruit is black with horrible 

 smell and savour. And this is, therefore, unprofitable to 

 eat. And wonder it is to see in Ellern, for if the middle 

 rind of the stalk, or of the root, be shaven upward, then 

 it purgeth upward, and if it be shaven downward, then it 

 purgeth downward. Bartholomew (Eerthelet\ bk. xvii. 144. 



THE inner bark of Elder applied to any burning takes 

 out the fire immediately. An extract or theriaca may be 

 composed of the berries which is not only efficacious greatly 

 to assist longevity (so famous is the story of Neander), 

 but is a kind of catholicon against all infirmities whatever. 

 And yet when I have said all this, 1 do by no means 

 commend the scent of it, which is very noxious to the air. 

 A certain house in Spain, seated amongst many Elder-trees, 

 diseased and killed almost all the inhabitants, which when 

 at last they were grubbed up became a very wholesome 

 and healthy place. Evglyffs , silva/ , bk> { ch xx lg> 



SHEPHERDS think that pipes made from Elder are more 

 sonorous ; and it is cut when the shrub cannot hear the 

 song of the cock. Its leaves drunk in wine resist the bites 

 of serpents. Hortys Sanitatis ^ bk> L ch> ccccvi> 



Elephant. 



The elephant hath joints, but none for courtesy. 



TROILUS AND CRESSIDA, ii. 3, 113. 



THESE beasts void and flee the mouse. When they be 

 sick, they gather good herbs, and ere they use the herbs, 

 they heave up the head, and look up toward heaven, and 

 pray for help of God in a certain religion. If Elephants 

 see a man coming against them, that is out of the way in 

 wilderness, for they would not affray him, they will draw 

 themself somewhat out of the way, and then they stint 

 [wait], and pass little and little tofore him, and teach 

 him the way. And if a dragon come against him, they 



