Cowslip. 
(YOUTHFUL BEAUTY.) 
HIS elegant but fragile flower is one of those favourites 
which our olden poets so delighted to honour. The 
“ pale cowslip fit for maidens’ early bier,” is the most appro¬ 
priate emblem for youthful beauty; and, under that typical 
meaning, is frequently found associated in the songs of our 
minstrels with all that is fair and frail. 
Milton takes advantage of the gracefulness of its drooping 
plume of blossoms, waving over their slender stem, to place 
upon the tomb of Lycidas, amid such gentle flowers as sad 
embroidery wear, “ Cowslips wan that hang the pensive head.” 
Our great epicist, in his sylvan masque of “ Comus,” has 
given an exquisite song to Sabrina, in which the airy tread of 
that goddess “ o’er the cowslip’s velvet head ” is most delicately 
expressed: 
“ By the rushy, fringed bank, 
Where grow the willow and the osier dank. 
My sliding chariot stays; 
Thick set with agate and the azure sheen 
Of turkis blue and emerald green, 
That in the channel strays; 
Whilst from off the waters fleet, 
Thus I set my printless feet, 
O’er the cowslip’s velvet head, 
That bends not as I tread. 
Gentle swain, at thy request 
I am here.” 
The cowslip belongs to the same genus as the primrose, and 
is supposed to have received its name from its soft velvety 
texture, resembling that of a lip ; but Yorkshire people call it 
“cowstripling,” which certainly points to another origin. In 
some parts of Kent it is called “ fairy cup,” whilst in the mid¬ 
land and northern portions of Britain this flower of many 
names is known as “ paigle.” 
