TALL BEARDED IRIS 



(Fleur-de-lis) 



Flower of Song The Iris has long; been a flower of song. 

 Ever since the early days we find it in the poets' lays. 



"Can bulrushes but by the river grow? 

 Can Flags there flourish where no waters flow?" 



Job VIII, 11, versified by G. Sandys. 



"Heil fairer than the Flour-de-lys." 



Furnival: Hymn to the Virgin. 



"A Friar there was, a wantowne and a merye, 



* * * * 



His nekke whit was as a Flour delys." 



Chaucer: Canterbury Tales. 



"Lo! that spotless creature of grace, 

 so gentle, so small, so winsomely lithe, 

 riseth up in her royal array 

 a precious thing with pearls bedight. 

 Favored mortals there might see 

 choicest pearls of sovereign price, 

 when all as fresh as a Fleur-de-lys 

 she came adown that bank." 



Anon.: Pearl. (14th Century.) 



"Behold, O man, that toilsome pains dost take, 



The flow'rs, the fields, and all that pleasant grows, 



* * * * 



The lily, lady of the flow'ring field, 

 The Flower-de-luce, her lovely paramour, 

 Bid thee to them thy fruitless labors yield, 

 And soon leave off this toilsome weary stoure." 

 Spenser: Fairy Queen. 



The garden like a lady fair was cut, 

 That lay as if she slumbered in delight, 

 And to the open skies her eyes did shut; 

 The azure fields of heaven were 'sembled right 

 In a large round set with flow'rs of light; 

 The Flowers-de-Luce and the round sparks of dew 

 That hung upon their azure leaves, did show 

 Like twinkling stars that sparkle in the ev'ning blue." 

 Fletcher. 



