192 PLANTAGE. 



And elsewhere 



" So turtles pair that never mean to part." 



Winters Tale, Act iv. Sc. 3. 

 Again 



" As true as steel, as plantage to the moon, 

 As sun to day, as turtle to her mate." 



Troilus and Cressida, Act iii. Sc. 2. 



An inquiry into the meaning of the word plantage 

 leads to some curious information. Archdeacon Nares 

 observes * that " plantage " is probably for anything that 

 is planted. Plants were supposed to improve as the 

 moon increased, and from an old book entitled "The 

 Profitable Art of Gardening," by Thos. Hill, the third 

 edition of which was printed in 1579, we learn that 

 neither sowing, planting, nor grafting was ever under- 

 taken without a scrupulous attention to the increase 

 or waning of the moon. Dryden does not appear 

 to have understood the above passage, and has accord- 

 ingly altered it to " As true as flowing tides are to 

 the moon." But the meaning of the original words seem 

 sufficiently clear, and may be fully illustrated by the 

 following quotation from Scott's " Discoverie of Witch- 

 craft " : " The poore husband man perceiveth that the 

 increase of the moone maketh plants frutiful, so as in the 

 full moone they are in the best strength ; decaieing in 



* " Glossary," 410. Lond. 1822. 



