PLANT-LORE OF SHAKESPEARE 
73 
Shakespeare must have had a special affection for it, for in 
all his descriptions there is none prettier or more suggestive 
than Perdita’s short but charming description of the Daffodil 
(No. 2). A small volume might be filled with the many 
poetical descriptions of this “ delectable and sweet-smelling 
flower,” but there are some which are almost classical, and 
which can never be omitted, and which will bear repetition, how¬ 
ever well we know them. Milton says, “ The Daffodillies fill 
their cups with tears .” 1 There are Herrick’s well-known lines— 
“Fair Daffodils, we weep to see 
Yon haste away so soon, 
As yet the early-rising sun 
Has not attained his noon ; 
Stay, stay, 
Until the hastening day 
Has run 
But to the even-song ; 
And having prayed together, we 
Will go with you along. 
We have short time to stay as you, 
We have as short a spring, 
As quick a growth to meet decay, 
As you or anything. 
We die, 
As your hours do, and dry 
Away, 
Like to the summer’s rain, 
Or as the pearls of morning dew, 
Ne’er to be found again.” 
And there are Keats’ and Shelley’s well-known and beautiful 
lines which bring down the praises of the Daffodil to our own 
day. Keats says— 
“ A thing of beauty is a joy for ever, 
Its loveliness increases, it will never 
1 “The cup in the centre of the flower is supposed to contain the tears 
of Narcissus, to which Milton alludes ; . . . and Virgil in the following— 
‘ Pars intra septa domorum 
Narcissi lacrymas . . . ponunt .’”—Flora Domestica, 268. 
