XXX Introduction. 



respect to Shakespeare, it is probably valueless. When King 

 Lear appears, in Act iv. sc. 4 — 



" Crowned with rank fumiter and furrow-weeds, 

 With hor-docks, hemlock, nettles, cuckoo-flowers, 

 Darnel, and all the idle weeds that grow 

 Itt our sustaining corn " — 



I cannot help being reminded of Fitzherbert's list of weeds 

 in sect. 20 (p. 29), in which he includes haudoddes, i.e. corn 

 blue-bottles, as is obvious from his description ; see also 

 Britten and Holland's English Plant-names. It is certainly- 

 remarkable that the Jiaudod is precisely one of " the idle 

 weeds that grow in corn," and that its bright colour would 

 be particularly attractive to the gatherer of a wild garland. 

 We must not, however, overlook the form hardhake, which 

 Mr. Wright has found in a MS. herbal as a name for the 

 knapweed ; see his note upon the passage. The two results 

 do not, however, greatly differ, and it is conceivable that the 

 same name could be applied at different times to both these 

 flowers, the latter being Centaiirea nigra, and the former 

 Centaiirea Cyanns. We also find the term hardewes, occur- 

 ring as a name for the wild succory ; see Hawdod in the 

 Glossarial Index, p. 156. In any case, the proposal of Dr. 

 Prior to explain hordock by the burdock {Arctium lappd)^ 

 merely because he thinks the burs were sometimes en- 

 tangled with flax, and so formed lumps in it called hards, is 

 a wild guess that should be rejected. Hards are simply 

 the coarse parts of flax, without any reference to burdocks 

 whatever. 



The wood-cut on the title-page is copied from the edition 

 of 1598. The longer handle of the plough is on the left. 

 See the description on p. 128. 



