f 



The Botany of Shakespeare 225 



reputation borne by a single species. A curious illustra- 

 tion is found in what Shakespeare has to say about the 

 mandrake : 



"Give me to drink mandragora. 



Why, madam I 

 That I might sleep out this great gap of time. ' ' 



Antony and Cleopatra, i: v, 4. 

 And again : 



"Not poppy, nor mandragora, 

 Nor all the drowsy syrups of the world, 

 Shall ever medicine thee to that sweet sleep 

 Which thou owedst yesterday. " 



OtheUo, iii:iii, 330. 



Juliet, reflecting on her proposed entombment in the 

 dark grave of the Capulets, exclaims : 



"Alack, alack! is it not like that I, 

 So early waking, what with loathsome smells, 

 And shrieks like mandrake 's torn out of the earth, 

 That living mortals, hearing them, run mad; 

 Or, if I wake, shall I not be distraught, 

 Environed with all these hideous fears?" 



Eomeo and Juliet, iv: iii, 45. 



The mandrake Atropa officinalis belongs to the Solan- 

 acece, and, like others of the family, has narcotic prop- 

 erties. This was doubtless known to Shakespeare, as in 

 the passage cited he compares the mandrake with the 

 poppy. The groaning and shrieking are, of course, the 

 purest superstition. The root of the mandrake was sup- 

 posed to resemble the human form. The favorite habitat 

 assigned to the plant was the foot of the gallows, and 

 men believed that in some way the bodies of criminals 



