INTRODUCTION 
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true of the plants and flowers we meet with in the plays; they 
are thoroughly English plants that (with very few exceptions) 
he saw in the hedgerows and woods of Warwickshire , 1 or in 
his own or his friends’ gardens. The descriptions are thus 
thoroughly fresh and real; they tell of the country and of the 
outdoor life he loved, and they never smell of the study lamp. 
In this respect he differs largely from Milton, whose descrip¬ 
tions (with very few exceptions) recall the classic and Italian 
writers. He differs, too, from his contemporary Spenser, who 
has certainly some very sweet descriptions of flowers, which 
show that he knew and loved them, but are chiefly allusions to 
classical flowers, which he names in such a way as to show 
that he often did not fully know what they were, but named 
them because it was the right thing for a classical poet so to 
do. Shakespeare never names a flower or plant unnecessarily; 
they all come before us, when they do come, in the most 
natural way, as if the particular flower named was the only one 
that could be named on that occasion. We have nothing in 
his writings, for instance, like the long list of trees described 
(and in the most interesting way) in the first canto of the First 
Book of the “Faerie Queene,” and indeed he is curiously dis¬ 
tinct from all his contemporaries. Chaucer, before him, spoke 
much of flowers and plants, and drew them as from the life. 
In the century after him Herrick may be named as another 
who sung of flowers as he saw them; but the real contem¬ 
poraries of Shakespeare are, with few exceptions , 2 very silent 
on the subject. One instance will suffice. Sir Thomas Wyatt’s 
1 ‘‘The country around Stratford presents the perfection of quiet 
English scenery; it is remarkable for its wealth of lovely wild flowers, 
for its deep meadows on each side of the tranquil Avon, and for its rich, 
sweet woodlands.”—E. Dowden’s Shakespeare, in Literature Primers , 
1877. 
2 The two chief exceptions are Ben Jonson (1574-1637) and William 
Browne (1590-1645). Jonson, though born in London, and living there 
the greatest part of his life, was evidently a real lover of flowers, and fre¬ 
quently shows a practical knowledge of them. Browne was also a keen 
observer of nature, and I have made several quotations from his “Britannia’s 
Pastorals.” 
