The Botany of Shakespeare 221 



press which Nature could exercise on this the foremost 

 man of all the world, the harmony between Nature and 

 Nature's child. All the plants in the last quotation are 

 wild flowers, except the musk-roses, and these are so 

 common in England as to be almost wild. The eglantine 

 was the sweetbrier, said to be wild in all the southern 

 part of the island and popular in the literature of all re- 

 corded centuries. Canon Ellacombe here cites Gerarde 

 describing as follows: "The leaves are glittering, of 

 beautiful green color, of smell most pleasant. . . The 

 fruit when it is ripe maketh most pleasant meats, and 

 banqueting dishes, as tarts and such like, the making 

 whereof I commit to the cunning cook, and teeth to eat 

 them in the rich man's mouth." 



The sweetness of the leaf of the eglantine is referred 

 to by Shakespeare in another passage which I venture to 

 quote now for another purpose, to show the accuracy of 

 his description as applied to simple flowers. The lines 

 kre from the scene quoted before. Arviragus and Gui- 

 derius would bury the swooning Imogen. They think her 

 dead: 



"I'll sweeten thy sad grave: thou shalt not lack 

 The flower that's like thy face, pale primrose; nor 

 The azured harebell, like thy veins; no, nor 

 The leaf of eglantine, whom not to slander, 

 Out-sweetened not thy breath." Cymbeline, iv: ii, 220. 



Primroses when pale are the palest of all withering 

 plants. The flowers change color with maturity, especial- 

 ly after fertilization. The paleness of the primrose is 

 the pallor of decay. But the azure harebell behold it 



