BAY. 63 



was preceded by the same phenomenon. The Laurel had 

 so great a reputation for clearing the air and resisting con- 

 tagion, that during a raging pestilence Claudius was ad- 

 vised by his physicians to remove his court to Laurentium 

 on that account. It was also supposed to resist lightning, 

 of which Tiberius was very fearful, and it is said, that to 

 avoid it he would creep under his bed, and shade his head 

 with the boughs. 



Mr. L. Hunt alludes to this power in the Bay, in his 

 Descent of Liberty : 



ff Long have you my laurels worn, 



And though some under leaves be torn 

 Here and there, yet what remains 

 Still its pointed green retains, 

 And still an easy shade supplies 

 To your calm-kept watchful eyes. 

 Only would you keep it brightening, 

 And its power to shake the lightning, 

 Harmless down its glossy ears, 

 Suffer not so many years 

 To try what they can bend and spoil, 

 But oftener in its native soil 

 Let the returning slip renew 

 Its upward sap and equal hue ; 

 And wear it then with glory shaded 

 Till the spent earth itself be faded." 



In the induction to four plays in one, the poet says : 



" Low at your sacred feet our poor Muse lays 

 Her, and her thunder-fearless verdant bays." 



BEAUMONT AND FLETCHER, vol. ii. p. 14. 



W. Browne tells us also, that " Baies being the mate- 

 rials of poets 1 ghirlands, are supposed not subject to any 

 hurt of Jupiter's thunderbolts, as other trees are." (See 

 note to page 8, vol. i.) 



" Where bayes still grow (by thunder not struck down), 

 The victor's garland and the poet's crown." 



(See W. BROWNE'S POEMS, vol. iii.) 



