340 THE SHAKESPEARE GARDEN 



hints derived from the greater poet. 'Some thickets,' 

 says Bacon, 'I would have made only in sweetbriar 

 (eglantine) and honeysuckle (woodbine) ; and the 

 ground set with violets and primroses (oxlips) ; for 

 these be sweet and prosper in the shade/ This has 

 been done: and with wild thyme many square 

 yards of it added, and also musk-roses a few pro- 

 cured with great difficulty, so unaccountably 

 neglected are they in our too-pretentious modern 

 gardens they will form here, in effect, Titania's 

 Bower 



"I know a bank whereon the wild thyme blows, 

 Where oxlips and the nodding violet grows, 

 Quite over-canopied with luscious woodbine, 

 With sweet musk-roses and with eglantine. 

 There sleeps Titania some time of the night, 

 Lull'd in these flowers, with dances and delight. 



"Bacon, of course, often witnessed the perform- 

 ances of Shakespeare's plays at Court, as well as 

 in the public theaters ; and reminiscent echoes of that 

 beautiful passage were probably ringing in his ears 

 when he penned the sentences quoted above. 



"With passages in plays other than The Dream/ 

 Bacon has also parallels. His essay happens to have 

 been published exactly twelve months after the pro- 

 duction of 'A Winter's Tale' at Court, and in his 



