TURNER'S HERBAL 85 



myddes of hys enemyes, both gyuyng and takyng blowes, then 

 he that, whilse other men feight, standeth in the top of a tre 

 iudging how other men do, he beynge without the danger of 

 gonne shot himself." 



To those who may object that it is too small, he explains 

 that he will write more fully when he has " travelled diverse 

 shyres in England to learn more of the herbs that grow there." 

 Others may condemn him for writing in English, " for now (say 

 they) every man without any study of necessary artes unto the 

 knowledge of Phisick will become a Phisician . . . euery man 

 nay euery old wyfe will presume, not without the mordre of 

 many, to practyse Phisick." To these he succinctly replies, 

 " How many surgianes and apothecaries are there in England 

 which can understand Plini in Latin or Galen and Dioscorides ? ' 

 The English physicians, he says, rely on the apothecaries, and 

 they in turn on the old wives who gather the herbs. Moreover, 

 since the physicians are not present when their prescriptions 

 are made up, " many a good ma by ignorance is put in jeopardy 

 of his life, or good medecine is marred to the great dishonesty 

 both of the Phisician and of Goddes worthy creatures." All 

 this can be avoided by having a herbal written in English. 

 Dioscorides and Galen, he points out, wrote in their native 

 tongue, Greek. " Dyd Dioscorides and Galen give occasion for 

 every old wyfe to take in had the practise of Phisick? Did 

 they giue any iust occasion of murther? If they gaue no 

 occasyon unto every old wyfe to practise physike then give 

 I none. If they gave no occasion of murther then gyue I 

 none . . . then am I no hynderer wryting unto the English 

 my countremen an English herball." 



The second part of Turner's Herbal is dedicated to his old 

 patron, Thomas Lord Wentworth, and the complete work, 

 including the third part, to Queen Elizabeth. 1 In the preface 



1 Queen Elizabeth's love of gardening and her botanical knowledge were 

 celebrated in a long Latin poem by an Italian who visited England in 1586 

 and wrote under the name of Melissus (see Archceologia, VII. 120). 



