GARDENS OF CELEBRITIES 



" Sy sterna Horticultural," published in 1677, was one of the 

 earliest manuals for the guidance of those laying out and culti- 

 vating a garden ; this is a rash statement, for we have only to 

 refer to Shakespeare again, to disprove it. 



In The Winter's Tale, Perdita, in the Shepherd's Cottage, 

 bestows upon her foster-father's guests, flowers cottage-grown to 

 suit all ages : of " Carnations and streak'd gillyflowers," she says, 

 " our rustic garden's barren," but adds, " Here's flowers for you " 

 (addressing the Greybeards) : 



" Hot lavender, mints, savory, marjoram, 

 The marigold that goes to bed wi' the sun 

 And with him rises weeping, these are flowers 

 Of middle summer, and I think they are given 

 To men of middle age 



Then turning to Florizel (and others present), she says : 



" I would I had some flowers o' the Spring that might 

 Become your time of day, and yours, and yours 



Oh. Proserpina, 



For the flowers now that frighted thou let'st fall 

 From Dis's waggon ! daffodils, 

 That come before the swallow dares, and take 

 The winds of March with beauty, violets dim. 

 But sweeter than the lids of Juno's eyes 

 Or Cytherea's breath ; pale primroses. 

 That die unmarried, ere they can behold 

 Bright Phoebus in his strength a inalady 

 Most incident to maids ; bold oxlips and 

 The crown imperial, lilies of all kinds, 

 The flower-de-luce being one ! " 



It is clear that Perdita describes here flowers that in their 

 season must have been blowing in her cottage garden ready to 

 her hand ; and that Shakespeare loved such flowers well, because 

 they were of English growth, for he knew nothing of foreign flora, 

 there being no shadow of evidence that he ever crossed the Channel, 

 or even went nearer to it than Dover. There, as everybody knows, 

 is a cliff which bears his name, but since Edgar in King Lear 

 exaggerates its height in his description of it, it is questionable 

 whether Shakespeare ever actually beheld it, whether he is but 

 giving hearsay evidence. He was an islander, and moreover 

 a lowlander, and whether he placed his dramatis personce in 



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