PLANT-LORE OF SHAKESPEARE 63 
But in “Lycidas” he associates it with more melancholy 
ideas— 
‘•'With Cowslips wan that hang the pensive head, 
And every flower that sad embroidery wears.” 
This association of sadness with the Cowslip is copied by 
Mrs. Hemans, who speaks of “ Pale Cowslips, meet for maiden’s 
early bier;” but these are exceptions. All the other poets 
who have written of the Cowslip (and they are very numerous) 
tell of its joyousness, and brightness, and tender beauty, and 
its “bland, yet luscious, meadow-breathing scent.” 
The names of the plant are a puzzle; botanically it is a 
Primrose, but it is never so called. It has many names, but 
its most common are Paigle and Cowslip. Paigle has never 
been satisfactorily explained, nor has Cowslip. Our great 
etymologists, Cockayne and Dr. Prior and Wedgwood, are 
all at variance on the name; and Dr. Prior assures us that it 
has nothing to do with either “cows” or “lips,” though the 
derivation, if untrue, is at least as old as Ben Jonson, who 
speaks of “Bright Dayes-eyes and the lips of Cowes.” But we 
all believe it has, and, without inquiring too closely into the 
etymology, we connect the flower with the rich pastures and 
meadows of which it forms so pretty a spring ornament, while 
its fine scent recalls the sweet breath of the cow—“just such a 
sweet, healthy odour is what we find in cows; an odour which 
breathes around them as they sit at rest on the pasture, and is 
believed by many, perhaps with truth, to be actually curative of 
disease ” (Forbes Watson). 
Botanically, the Cowslip is a very interesting plant. In all 
essential points the Primrose, Cowslip, and Oxlip are identical ; 
the Primrose, however, choosing woods and copses and the 
shelter of the hedgerows, the Cowslip choosing the open 
meadows, while the Oxlip is found in either. The garden 
“Polyanthus of unnumbered dyes” (Thomson’s “Seasons:” 
Spring) is only another form produced by cultivation, and is 
one of the most favourite plants in cottage gardens. It may, 
however, well be grown in gardens of more pretension; it is 
