PLANT-LORE OF SHAKESPEARE 
Si 
2)taiVa J8u&* 
Be, as thou wast wont to be 
(touching her eyes with an herb), 
See, as thou wast wont to see; 
Dian’s Bud o’er Cupid’s flower 
Hath such force and blessed power. 
Midsummer Night's Dream, iv. i, 76. 
The same herb is mentioned in iii. 2, 366— 
Then crush this herb into Lysander’s eye, 
Whose liquor hath this virtuous property, 
To take from thence all error, with his might, 
And make his eyeballs roll with wonted sight. 
But except in these two passages I believe the herb is not 
mentioned by any author. It can be nothing but Shake¬ 
speare’s translation of Artemisia, the herb of Artemis or Diana, 
a herb of wonderful virtue according to the writers before 
Shakespeare’s day. (See Wormwood.) 
Docks. 
(1) And nothing teems 
But hateful Docks, rough Thistles, Kecksies, Burs. 
Henry V, v. 2, 51. 
(2) Antonio. He’d sow it with Nettle seed, 
Sebastian. Or Docks, or Mallows.— Tempest , ii. 1, 145. 
The Dock may be dismissed with little note or comment, 
merely remarking that the name is an old one, and is variously 
spelled as dokke, dokar, doken, &c. An old name for the 
plant was “Patience”; the “bitter patience” of Spenser, 
which is supposed by Dr. Prior to be a corruption of Passions. 
G 
