60 
FLORAL POESY. 
Ask me why I send to you 
This primrose all bepearled with dew ; 
I straight will whisper in your ears 
The sweets of love are washed with tears. 
Ask me why this flower doth show 
So yellow, green, and sickly too ; 
Ask me why the stalk is weak 
And bending, yet it doth not break ; 
I must tell you, these discover 
What doubts and fears are in a lover.” 
Shakspeare, whose floral symbolism was perfect, in¬ 
ti oduces this delicate blossom into his pathetic drama 
of “ Cymbeline,” as typical of the youthful dead : 
“With fairest flowers, 
Whilst Summer lasts, and I live here, Fidele, 
I’ll sweeten thy sad grave : thou shalt not lack 
The flower that’s like thy face, pale primrose.” 
Again, in the “ Winter’s Tale,” the grand dramatist 
still more exquisitely expresses his knowledge of its 
symbolic character : 
“ The pale primroses, 
That die unmarried ere they can behold 
Bright Phoebus in his strength.” 
Milton also styles this vernal bloom “ the pale prim¬ 
rose.* It was described by Carew as “the firstling of 
spring; ” thus Burns also terms it in “ The Posie,” 
and Linnaeus appropriately named it in his botanical 
system ; whilst in his native Swedish it is known as 
Maj-nychlar, or the “key of May.” Its English ap¬ 
pellation is derived from primus —“the first”—and 
happily expresses one of its charms, and shows why it 
is such a meet emblem of youth. 
This fragile flower is known classically as Parahsos, 
