72 
PLANT-LORE OF SHAKESPEARE 
species of the family which have rushy leaves. “ Daffodil ” is 
commonly said to be a corruption of Asphodel (“Daffodil is 
Aa-(j) 6 h\oy, and has capped itself 
with a letter which eight hundred 
years ago did not belong to it.”— 
Cockayne, Spoon and Sparrow , 
19), with which plant it was 
confused (as it is in Lyte’s 
“ Herbal ”), but Lady Wilkinson 
says very positively that “it is 
simply the old English word 
‘ affodyle,’ 1 which signifies { that 
which cometh early.’ ” “ Daffa¬ 
downdilly,” again, is supposed 
to be but a playful corruption 
of “ Daffodil,” but Dr. Prior 
argues (and he is a very safe 
authority) that it is rather a 
corruption of “Saffron Lily.” Daffadowndilly is not used by 
Shakespeare, but it is used by his contemporaries, as by 
Spenser frequently, and by H. Constable, who died in 1604— 
‘ ‘ Diaphenia, like the Daffadowndilly, 
White as the sun, fair as the Lilly, 
Heigh, ho ! how I do love thee ! ” 
But however it derived its pretty names, it was the favourite 
flower of our ancestors as a garden flower, and especially as 
the flower for making garlands, a custom very much more 
common then than it is now. It was the favourite of all 
English poets. Gower describes the Narcissus— 
“ For in the winter fresh and faire 
The flowres ben, which is contraire 
To kind, and so was the folie 
Which fell of his surquedrie”— i.e. of Narcissus. 
Confes. Aman. lib. prim. (1. 121 Faulli). 
1 “ Herbe orijam and Thyme and Violette 
Eke Affodyle and savery thereby sette.” 
Palladius on Husbandries i. 1014. (E. E. Text Soc.) 
