1 68 SHAKESPEARE'S [IVY. 



Ivy. 



MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM, iv. I, 48. 



IVY multiplieth milk in goats that eat thereof. The 

 root thereof pierceth things that be full hard ; and is cold 

 of kind, and tokeneth that the ground is of cold kind that 

 it groweth in. And of Ivy is double kind, white and black, 

 male and female ; the male is harder in leaves and more 

 fat and greater. The white Ivy hath white fruit, and the 

 black hath black. The shadow thereof is noyful and 

 grievous, and strong enemy to cold, and most loved of 

 serpents, and breaketh walls and graves. Also the kind 

 of Ivy is full wonderful in knowledge and assaying of 

 wine. For it is certain, that if wine meddled with water 

 be in a vessel of Ivy, the wine fleeth over the brink, and 

 the water abideth. Bartholomew (Bertkelet\ bk. xvii. 53. 



THE gum of Ivy killeth lice and nits, and being laid to 

 it taketh away hair. It is unwholesome to sleep under the 

 Ivy or in an Ivy-bush. It maketh the head light and 



QlZZy. Batman on Bartholomew, ut supra. 



ALTHOUGH Ivy be cut asunder in many places, yet it 

 continueth and liveth still. 



Holland's Pliny, bk. xvi. ch. 34. 



THE liquor issuing out of Ivy is depilatory ; but as it 

 taketh away hair, so it riddeth lice and vermin. The 

 berries of Ivy colour the hair black. The juice of the 

 Ivy-root, drawn with vinegar and taken in drink, is singular 

 against the poison of the venomous spiders Phalangia. 



Ibid., bk. xxiv. ch. 10. 



BOARS cure their ailments with Ivy. A man crowned 

 with Ivy cannot get drunk. 



Hortus Sanitatis, bk. i. 172. 



CATO saith that a cup of Ivy will hold no wine at all. 

 I have made some vessels of the same wood, which refuse 

 no kind of liquor ; and yet I deny not but the Ivy of 

 Greece or Italy may have such a property. 



Holimhed, "Description of England," p. 239. 



