ON THE HONEYSUCKLE 203 



It is not impossible, inasmuch as the old form of the 

 adjective was "lustious," and is derived from lusty. But 

 if Shakespeare used it in the sense of sweet he could hardly 

 have alluded to the Convolvulus. In early times writers 

 referred to several creeping plants as Woodbine. The 

 name was certainly applied to the wild Clematis and the 

 Ivy. On the other hand, note Beaumont and Fletcher's 



" Woodbines of sweet honey full." 



These writers were contemporaries of Shakespeare, and 

 students of their work associate all three of these men of 

 genius in " The Two Noble Kinsmen," which appeared 

 under the names of Beaumont and Fletcher. With the 

 latter the Woodbine and Honeysuckle were the same, and 

 it is not impossible that they were also identical in the 

 mind of Shakespeare. He uses both names in " Much 

 Ado about Nothing," Act iii. scene i. In the first case 

 Hero bids Margaret tell Beatrice 



" Our whole discourse 



Is all of her ; say that thou overheard'st us, 

 And bid her steal into the pleached bower, 

 Where Honeysuckles, ripened by the sun, 

 Forbid the sun to enter." 



In the second Ursula says 



" The pleasant'st angling is to see the fish 

 Cut with her golden oars the silver stream, 

 And greedily devour the treacherous bait ; 

 So angle we for Beatrice : who even now 

 Is couched in the woodbine coverture." 



These two references are only a few lines apart. 



" Woodbine " derives from woeden-binde, which 

 later is wude-binde % and the name is in allusion to the 

 habit of the plant. " Honeysuckle " certainly comes 

 from the rich stores of nectar that .are sucked from 



