34 
PLANT-LORE OF SHAKESPEARE 
If Shakespeare had only written these two passages they 
would sufficiently have told of his love for simple flowers. 
None but a dear lover of such 
flowers could have written these 
lines. There can be no doubt 
that the Eglantine in his time 
was the Sweet Brier—his notice 
of the sweet leaf makes this 
certain. 1 Gerard so calls it, but 
makes some confusion—which it 
is not easy to explain—by saying 
that the flowers are white, where¬ 
as the flowers of the true Sweet 
Brier are pink. In the earlier 
poets the name seems to have 
been given to any wild Rose, 
and Milton certainly did not 
the Sweet Brier to be identical. 
“ Through the Sweet Briar or the Vine, 
Or the twisted Eglantine.” 
But Milton’s knowledge of flowers was very limited. Herrick 
has some pretty lines on the flower, in which it seems most 
probable that he was referring to the Sweet Brier— 
“From this bleeding hand of mine 
Take this sprig of Eglantine, 
Which, though sweet unto your smell, 
Yet the fretful Briar will tell, 
He who plucks the sweets shall prove 
Many Thorns to be in love.” 
It was thus the emblem of pleasure mixed with pain— 
“ Sweet is the Eglantine, but pricketh nere.” 
Spenser, Sonnet xxvi. 
And so its names pronounced it to be; it was either the Sweet 
Brier, or it was Eglantine, the thorny plant (Fr., aiglentier ). 
There was also an older name for the plant, of which I can 
1 “ Anglantine—an Eglantine or Sweet-brier.”— Cotgrave . 
