'^"i] Nicholas Culpeper 219 



Culpeper describes certain herbs as being under the 

 dominion of the sun, the moon, or a planet, and others 

 as under a planet and also one of the constellations of 

 the Zodiac. His reasons for connecting a particular herb 

 with a particular heavenly body are curiously inconsequent. 

 He states, for example, that "Wormwood is an Herb of 

 Mars,... I prove it thus; What delights in Martial places, 

 is a Martial Herb ; but Wormwood delights in Martial 

 places (for about Forges and Iron Works you may gather 

 a Cart load of it) £r£-o it is a Martial Herb." 



The author explains that each disease is caused by a 

 planet. One way of curing the ailment is by the use of 

 herbs belonging to an opposing planet — e.g. diseases pro- 

 duced by Jupiter are healed by the herbs of Mercury. On 

 the other hand, the illness may be cured " by sympathy," 

 that is by the use of herbs belonging to the planet which 

 is responsible for the disease. 



Culpeper indulges in a strange maze of similar reasons 

 to justify the use of Wormwood for affections of the eyes. 

 "The Eyes are under the Luminaries; the right Eye of a 

 Man, and the left Eye of a Woman the Sun claims Dominion 

 over : The left Eye of a Man, and the right Eye of a 

 Woman, are the priviledg of the Moon, Wormwood an 

 Herb of Mars cures both'; what belongs to the Sun by 

 Sympathy, because he is exalted in his House; but what 

 belongs to the Moon by Antipathy, becaus he hath his 

 Fal in hers." 



It is somewhat surprising to find that, in his preface, 

 Culpeper claims that he surpasses all his predecessors in 

 being alone guided by reason, whereas all previous writers 

 are " as full of nonsense and contradictions as an Egg is 

 ful of meat." 



Culpeper met with considerable opposition and criticism 

 from his contemporaries. Shortly after his death, William 

 Cole in his 'Art of Simpling' wrote scornfully of astrological 

 botanists, " Amongst which Master Culpeper (a man now 

 dead, and therefore I shall speak of him as modestly as I can, 

 for were he alive I should be more plain with him) was a 

 great Stickler ; And he, forsooth, judgeth all men unfit to 



1 Printed "both" in the edition of 1653 from which these quotations are 

 taken. 



