2i 4 SHAKESPEARE'S [NETTLE. 



Nettle. 



i. KING HENRY IV., ii. 3, 10. 



IT is a remedy against the venomous qualities of hem- 

 lock, mushrooms and quicksilver, and a counterpoison for 

 henbane, serpents and scorpions. The oil of it takes away 

 the stinging which the Nettle itself maketh. 



Gerard's " Herbal," s.v. 



CAST the water of any sick person newly made at night 

 on red Nettles, and if the Nettles be withered and dead 

 in the morning after, then the sick party is like to die of 

 that disease, if they be green still, then he is like to live. 



Lupton, "Notable Things," bk. iv. 71. 



THE virtue of Nettles is to force a woman that waters 

 them to be as peevish for a whole day, and as waspish, as 

 if she had been stung in the brow with a hornet. 



Greene, " Quip f r an Upstart Courtier." 



Now are they plagued in purgatory, and he whips them 

 with Nettles. Tarleton, " News out of Purgatory." 



His hate to woman made Eupolis eat Nettle-pottage. 



" Lady Alimony," i. 2. 



HE who holds this herb in his hand with yarrow is 

 secure from every fear and vfrom every phantasy. And if it 

 be put with the juice of house - leek, and the hand be 

 anointed therewith, and the residue be put in water where 

 are fishes, they will collect about his hand, and also about 

 his net. And if the hand be taken out, forthwith they re- 

 turn to their own places where they were before. 



Albertus Magnus^ "Of the Virtues of Herbs." 



Newt. 



MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM, iii. 2, n. 



THIS is a little black Lizard of the water ; the poison 

 hereof is like the poison of vipers. This serpent is bred 

 in fat waters and soils, and sometimes in the ruins of old 

 walls. There is nothing in nature that so much offendeth 

 it as salt. Being moved to anger, it standeth upon the 



