“ The name given it by the Italians is flammola, the little flame ; — at least, this is an appellation with 
which I have met, and it is quite in the taste of that ardent people. The French are perfectly aimable with 
theirs : — they call it pensee, a thought, from which comes our word Pansy. 
“ There’s rosemary,” says poor Ophelia ; “that’s for remembrance ; — pray you, love, remember, — and 
there is pansies, — that’s for thoughts.” Drayton, in his world of luxuries, the Muse’s Elysium, where he 
fairly stifles you with sweets, has given, under this name of it, a very brilliant image of its effect in a wreath 
of flowers ; — the nymph says, 
‘ Here damask roses, white and red, 
Out of my lap first take I, 
Which still shall run along the thread ; 
My chiefest flow’r this make I. 
Amongst these roses in a row, 
Next place I pinks in plenty, 
These double-daisies then for show ; 
And will not this be dainty ? 
The pretty pansy then I’ll tye, 
Like stones some chain enchasing ; 
The next to them, their near ally, 
The purple violet placing.” Nymphal, 5th. 
“ Milton, in his fine way, gives us a picture in a word, 
• “ the pansy freak'd with jet.” 
“ Another of its names is Love-in-idleness, under which it has been again celebrated by Shakspear, to 
whom we must always return, for any thing and for every thing ; — his fairies make potent use of it in the 
Midsummer-Night’s Dream. The whole passage is full of such exquisite fancies, mixed with such noble 
expressions and fine suggestions of sentiment, that I will indulge myself, and lay it before the reader at 
once, that he may not interrupt himself in his chair : — 
Oberon. My gentle Puck, come hither : — thou rememberest, 
Since once I sat upon a promontory, 
And heard a mermaid, on a dolphin’s back, 
Uttering such dulcet and harmonious breath, 
That the rude sea grew civil at her song, 
And certain stars shot madly from their spheres 
To hear the sea maid’s music ? 
Puck. I remember. 
Oberon. That very time I saw (but thou couldst not,) 
Flying betwixt the cold earth and the moon, 
Cupid all arm’d : — a certain aim he took 
At a fair vestal, throned by the west, 
And loosed his love-shaft smartly from his bow, 
As it should pierce a hundred thousand hearts : 
But I might see young Cupid’s fiery shaft 
Quench’d in the chaste beams of the watery moon ; 
And the imperial votaress pass’d on, 
In maiden meditation, fancy free. 
Yet mark’d I where the bolt of Cupid fell : 
It fell upon a little western flower, — 
Before, milk-white, — now purple with love’s wound, — 
And maidens call it Love-in-idleness. 
Fetch me that flower, — the herb I show’d thee once : 
The juice of it, on sleeping eyelids laid, 
Will make or man or woman madly dote 
Upon the next live creature that it sees. 
Fetch me that herb ; and be thou here again 
Ere the leviathan can swim a league. 
Puck. I’ll put a girdle round about the earth 
In forty minutes. Act II. Sc. 2.” 
It has already been observed, that only the larger kinds have any scent ; thus many persons judging 
from the smaller, have thought them all scentless. The difference of opinion on this point may be seen in 
several of the above quotations. 
Dryden, in his translation of a passage in Virgil’s Pastorals where the poet speaks of sweet herbs in 
general, introduces the Pansy ; but expressly to distinguish it from a fragrant plant : 
“ Pansies to please the sight, and cassia sweet tb smell.” 
There is a species of Heart’s-ease called the Great Flowering — a native of Switzerland, Dauphiny, 
Silesia, and the Pyrenees — which is very similar to the common kind, but that it has more yellow in it ; 
and another, called the Yellow Mountain Heart’s-ease, of British growth, which, notwithstanding the name 
it bears, is as often purple and yellow, or even purple alone, as all yellow. 
It would be an impertinence to attempt to describe the Heart’s-ease ; therefore let us proceed at once 
to the treatment of this little favourite. The roots may be purchased so cheaply, and the flowers of these 
will be so much finer than any that are sown at home, that this will be much the best way of procuring 
them. At a nursery, or at Covent-Garden flower-market, six or more may be had for a shilling, all of 
them covered with flowers and buds. They love the sun, but must be liberally watered every evening to 
replenish the moisture, which they will consume. 
Phillips observes that the most brilliant purples of the artist appear dull when compared to that of the 
pansy ; our richest satins and velvets coarse and unsightly by a comparison of texture ; and, as to delicacy 
of shading, it is scarcely surpassed by the bow of Iris itself. 
Pansies are among the flowery gifts of the simple shepherds to the metamorphosed nymph Sabrina. 
The shepherds at their festivals 
Carol her good,deeds loud in rustic lays, 
And throw sweet garland wreaths into her stream, 
Of pansies, pinks, and gaudy daffodils. Comus. 
In the language of flowers the heart’s-ease signifies think of me. 
