427 
Introduction of Silkworms . 
reigns of Elizabeth and James, induced many silk- 
weavers to leave that country and to bring their families 
and their trade to England. In the Harleian Miscellany 
(vol. ii. p. 218), there is a reprint of some instructions, 
published in 1609, for planting mulberry-trees in all the 
English counties, together with a letter from King 
James I. to the lord lieutenants of the various shires, 
commanding each of them to buy and distribute ten 
thousand mulberry plants, at the rate of three farthings 
the plant, or six shillings the hundred. For those who 
found the process of planting inconvenient, a good 
quantity of mulberry seeds were to be distributed, also 
at a cheap rate, with complete instructions as to breeding 
and rearing the silkworms. This appears to have been 
the first attempt on an extensive scale to introduce this 
manufacture into England, but some few private in¬ 
dividuals had already imported both trees and insects. 
Shakspeare has many references to the use of silk in 
costume. He is guilty of a slight anachronism in 
mentioning this fabric as worn by the ancient Britons at 
the time of Augustus Caesar :— 
“ 0, this life 
Is nobler than attending for a check, 
Prouder than rustling in unpaid-for silk.” 
( Cymbeline , iii. 3, 21.) 
When Othello demands from Desdemona the handkerchief,, 
his first gift of love, he declares that it is endowed with 
supernatural virtues:— 
“ ’Tis true: there's magic in the web of it: 
A sibyl, that had number’d in the world 
The sun to course two hundred compasses, 
In her prophetic fury sew’d the work; 
The worms were hallow’d that did breed the silk; 
And it was dyed in mummy which the skilful 
Conserved of maidens’ hearts.” 
( Othello , iii. 4, 69.)' 
