The resemblance of a fine complexion to the glowing hues of the rose is sufficiently striking ; but the 
poets are less happy in the comparisons by which they would illustrate the contrast between the ruddiest 
part of the cheek, and its paler boundary ; for the latter by no means resembles the colourless surface of the 
lily. The flush of health is a very different tint from snow or milk ; and Virgil,, when he describes the 
appearance of Venus to iEneas, gives us among the first signs by which she betrayed her divinity the reful- 
gence of her rosy neck. 
However, we must take the poets as we find them ; and if they are not strictly accurate, where perfect 
accuracy was perhaps impossible, it must be owned that their errors are very agreeable. 
The effect of a blush on the cheek of Lavinia is thus described by Virgil : 
Indum sanguineo veluti violaverit ostro 
Si quis ebur ; vel mixta rubent ubi lilia multa 
Alba rosa : tales virgo dabat ore colores. 
jEneid XII. 67. 
“ As when the Indian ivory is stained with ruddy purple ; or as white lilies grow red when mingled 
with the frequent rose : such were the colours suffused over the maiden’s face.” 
When Anacreon gives a description of his absent mistress to a painter (whom, by-the-by, he calls 
“prince of tine rosy art”) he desires him to paint her complexion, “mingling roses with milk.” 
In the celebrated description of Alcina, whose smiles opened a Paradise on earth, Ariosto says 
Spargeasi per la guancia delicata 
Misto color di rose, e di ligustri. | “ The mingled colour of roses and of privet spread itself over her cheek.” 
Sometimes again the freshness of the flower affords the chief point of comparison : — 
she looks as clear 
As morning roses newly washed with dew. Taming of the Shrew. Act ii. Scene 1. 
And Thomson says of his Lavinia, 
Her form was fresher than the morning rose, 
When the dew wets its leaves. 
The Germans, besides the ordinary names of the months borrowed from the Latin language, have 
other more expressive ones derived from their own. Thus October is called Weinmonat or Wine-month, 
and the name of Rosenmonat, or month of roses, has been given to May and June. 
Spring and summer are, of course the chief seasons for the rose : — 
No gradual bloom is wanting ; from the bud 
First-born of Spring, to Summer’s musky tribes ; 
Nor hyacinths, of purest virgin white, 
Low-bent and blushing inward; nor jonquils, 
Of potent fragrance; nor narcissus fair, 
As o’er the fabled fountain hanging still ; 
Nor broad carnations, nor gay-spotted pinks ; 
Nor showered from every bush, the damask rose. 
Thomson’s Seasons. — Spring. 
Half in a blush of clustering roses lost, | There on the verdant turf, or flowery bed, 
Dew-dropping Coolness to the shade retires ; j By gelid founts and careless rills to muse. Summer. 
Yet thanks to culture, the duration of this delightful flower is prolonged for many months ; and the hot- 
house has made roses and frost less irreconcilable than they were in Shakespeare’s time : — 
And thorough this distemperature we see I And on old Hyems’ chin, and icy crown, 
The seasons alter ; hoary-headed frosts An odorous chaplet of sweet summer buds 
Fall in the fresh lap of the crimson rose; | Is, as in mockery, set. 
Midsummer Night's Dream. Act. ii. Scene 2. 
At Christmas I no more desire a rose, 
Than wish a snow in May’s new-fangled show 
But like of each thing, that in season grows. 
Love s Labour’s Lost. Act i. Scene 1. 
We may observe that although roses prefer a genial temperature, and abound most in the South, yet 
the coldest climates, even Lapland itself, are not entirely deprived of them : — 
And fringed with roses Tenglio rolls his stream. Thomson’s Seasons. Winter. 
As the rose is the most favourite illustration of female beauty, so it is used with great propriety to 
depict infant loveliness. 
O thus, quoth Dighton, lay the gentle babes, I Their lips were four red roses on a stalk, 
Thus, thus, quoth Forrest, girdling one another Which, in their summer beauty, kissed each other. 
Within their alabaster innocent arms : | King Richard III. Act iv. Scene 3. 
Sometimes, but more rarely, the term is applied to men in the vigour of life ; as, for instance to 
Richard II. who was murdered in the 34th year of his age : — 
That men of your nobility and power, I- To put down Richard, that sweet lovely rose, 
Did ’gage them both in an unjust behalf, And plant this thorn, this canker, Bolingbroke ? 
As both of you, God pardon it ! have done, | First Part of Henry IV. Act i. Scene 3 . 
Ophelia, too, calls Hamlet 
The expectancy and rose of the fair state. Hamlet. Act iii. Scene 1. 
The Moss Rose is the emblem of pleasure without alloy. 
