152 THE CUCKOO. 



I. 



'< When daisies pied,* and violets blue, 



And lady-smocks f all silver white, 

 And cuckoo-budsj of yellow hue, 



Do paint the meadows with delight ; 

 The cuckoo then, on every tree, 

 Mocks married men, for thus sings he, 

 Cuckoo ; 



Cuckoo, cuckoo, O word of fear, 



Unpleasing to a married ear. 



* Pied, that is parti-coloured, of different hues. So in The Merchant of Venice, 

 Act i. Sc. 3 : — 



" That all the yeanlings [i.e. young lambs) which were streaked and pied." 



And in The Tempest, Caliban, alluding to the parti-coloured dress which Trin- 

 culo, as a jester, wore, says : — 



' ' What a pied ninny 's this." 



Milton, in " L' allegro,' speaks of "meadows trim with daisies /<a2." 

 f "Lady-smocks" (Cardamine praiensis), a common meadow plant appearing 

 early in the spring, and bearing white flowers. Sir J. E. Smith says they cover the 

 meadows as with linen bleaching, whence the name of "ladysmocks " is supposed 

 to come. Some authors say it first flowers about Ladytide, or the Feast of the 

 Annunciation, hence its name. 



J Botanists are not agreed as to the particular plant intended by ' ' cuckoo-buds." 

 Miller, in his "Gardener's Dictionary," says the flower here alluded to is the 

 Ranunculus bulbosus. One commentator on this passage has mistaken the Lychnis 

 ftos cuculi, or "cuckoo-flower' for "cuckoo-buds." Another writer says, 

 " cuckoo-flower" must be wrong, and believes "cowslip-buds" the true reading, 

 but this is clearly a mistake. Walley, the editor of Ben Jonson's Works, 

 proposes to read "crocus-buds," which is likewise incorrect. Sidney Beisley, 

 the author of "Shakespeare's Garden," thinks that Shakespeare referred 

 to the lesser celandine, or pilewort (Ranunculus ficaria), as this flower appears 

 early in Spring, and is in bloom at the same time as the other flowers named 

 in the song. 



