York and Lancaster Roses 



the rose must have been well known and popular. 

 Shakespeare decides this, for he certainly mentions 

 the rose three if not four times : — 



For flesh and blood, sir, white and red, you shall see a 

 rose ; and she were a rose indeed. 



Pericles, Act iv. sc. 6. 



The roses fearfully in thorns did stand. 

 One blushing shame, another white despair ; 

 A third, nor red nor white, had stol'n of both. 

 And to his robbery had annexed thy breath. 



Sonnet xcix. 



I have seen roses damasked, red and white. 

 But no such roses see I in her cheeks. 



Sonnet cxxx. 



More white and red than dove and roses are. 



Venus and Adonis, iv. 



Pericles was probably only written in part by 

 Shakespeare, but whether by him or a contem- 

 porary it matters little to my present purpose — 

 i.e. to fix a date for the introduction of the rose. 

 The sonnets were published in 1 609, but probably 

 written at least ten years earlier.^ 



I may now go to the botanists. The first 

 description of the rose is by Clusius, in 1601. 

 I omit his botanical description that I may find 

 place for Parkinson's, but he tells us that he first 



' To these passages may perhaps be added the whole scene in 

 the Temple Garden, i Henry VI., Act ii. sc. 4. The text will 

 quite bear the interpretation that the dififerent white and red roses 

 were all plucked from the same " thorn " or " briar." 



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