FLOEAL CEREMONIES. 119 



the Elizabethan era, makes this playful allusion 

 in his Epithalamium : 



" Now busie maydens, strew sweet flowres, 

 Much like our bride in virgin state, 

 Now fresh, then prest, soone dying; 

 The death is sweet, and must be yours, 

 Time goes on crutches till that date, 

 Birds fledged must needes be flying." 



CHRISTOPHER BROOKE. 



Then again, in the play of " the Two Noble 

 Kinsmen," we find a very sweet bridal-song, 

 beginning thus : 



" Koses, their sharp spines being gone, 

 Not royal in their smells alone, 



But in their hue ; 

 Maiden-pinks, of odors faint, 

 Daisies, smell-less, yet most quaint, 



And sweet thyme true. 



" Primrose, first-born child of ver, 

 Merry spring-time's harbinger, 



With her bells dim; 

 Oxlips, in their cradles growing, 

 Marigolds on death-beds blowing, 

 Lark-heels trim. 



