"THE SWEET O' THE YEAR" 103 



Ford. "There have been knights and lords and 

 gentlemen with their coaches, letter after letter, 

 gift after gift; smelling so sweetly (all musk) and 

 so nishling, I warrant you in silk and gold ; and yet 

 there has been earls, and, what is more, pensioners!" 

 Shakespeare also speaks of "the freckled cowslip" 

 in "Henry V," 1 when the Duke of Burgundy refers 



to 



The even mead, that erst brought sweetly forth 

 The freckled cowslip. 



All poets love the flower. 



In the language wherewith spring 

 Letters cowslips on the hill, 



writes Tennyson a charming fancy! 



Sydney Dobell has a quaint flower song contain- 

 ing this verse : 



Then came the cowslip 



Like a dancer in the fair, 



She spread her little mat of green 



And on it danced she, 



With a fillet bound about her brow, 



A fillet round her happy brow, 



A golden fillet round her brow, 



And rubies in her hair. 



Never mind if country dancers rarely wear rubies ; 

 the idea is pretty and on Shakespeare's authority 



*Act V, Scene II. 



