CHAPTER XIV 



JOAN SILVER-PIN 



" Being of many variable colours, and of great beautie, although 

 of evill smell, our gentlewomen doe call them Jone Silver-pin." 



JOHN GERARDE, Herball, 1596. 



ARDEN Poppies were the Joan 

 Silver-pin of Gerarde, stigma- 

 tized also by Parkinson as 

 "Jone Silver-pinne, subauditur ; 

 faire without and foule within." 

 In Elizabeth's day Poppies met 

 universal distrust and aversion, 

 being the source of the 



as 



dreaded opium. Spenser called the flower "dead- 

 sleeping " Poppy ; Morris " the black heart, amorous 

 Poppy" which might refer to the black spots in 

 the flower's heart. 



Clare, in his Shepherd's Calendar also asperses 

 them : 



" Corn-poppies, that in crimson dwell, 



Called Head-aches from their sickly smell." 



Forby adds this testimony : " Any one by smelling 

 of it for a very short time may convince himself of 

 the propriety of the name." Some fancied that the 

 dazzle of color caused headaches that vivid scarlet, 



309 



