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PLANT-LORE OF SHAKESPEARE 
Spenser’s “ Heben ” certainly were; and though it will satisfy 
some of the requirements of the plant named by Shakespeare, 
it will not satisfy all. 1 
It might have been supposed that the difficulty would at once 
have been cleared up by reference to the accounts of the death 
of Hamlet’s father, as given by Saxo Grammaticus, and the old 
“ Hystorie of Hamblet,” but neither of these writers attribute 
his death to poison. 2 
The question has lately been very much narrowed and 
satisfactorily settled (for the present, certainly, and probably 
altogether) by Dr. Nicholson and the Rev. W. A. Harrison. 
These gentlemen have decided that the true reading is Hebona, 
and that Hebona is the Yew. Their views are stated at full 
length in two exhaustive papers contributed to the New 
Shakspere Society, and published in their “Transactions.” 3 
The full argument is too long for insertion here, and my 
readers will thank me for referring them to the papers in the 
“ Transactions.” The main arguments are based on three 
facts : i. That in nearly all the northern nations (including, of 
course, Denmark) the name of the Yew is more or less like 
Heben. 2. That all the effects attributed by Shakespeare to 
the action of Hebona are described as arising from Yew- 
1 Mr. Beisley suggests Enoron, i. e. Nightshade, which Mr. Dyce 
describes as “a villainous conjecture.’ , In my first edition I expressed my 
belief that Hebenon was either Henbane or a general term for a deadly 
poisonous plant; but I had not then seen Dr. Nicholson’s and Mr. 
Harrison’s papers. 
2 Saxo Grammaticus : “ Ubi datus parricidio locus, cruenta manu mentis 
libidinem satiavit; trucidati quoque fratris uxore potitus, incestum parricidio 
adjecit .”—Historic Danorum, lib. iii. fob xxvii. Ed. 1514. 
“The Historye of Hamblet, Prince of Denmark:” Fergon “having 
secretly assembled certain men and perceiving himself strong enough to 
execute his enterprise, Horvendile, his brother, being at a banquet with his 
friends, sodainely set upon him, where he slewe him as treacherously, as 
cunningly he purged himself, of so detestable a murder to his subjects.”— 
Collier’s Shakespeare s Library. 
3 “Hamlet’s Cursed Hebenon,” by Dr. R. B. Nicholson, M.D. (read 
Nov. 14, 1879). “Hamlet’s Juice of Cursed Hebona,” by Rev. W. A. 
Harrison, M.A. (read May 12, 1882). Both the papers are published in 
the “Transactions” of the Society, 
