PLANT-LORE OF SHAKESPEARE 
151 
which is the same as Shakespeare’s “ mistress of the field ” (8), 
and many a poet since his time has given the same vote in 
many a pretty verse, which, however, it would take too much 
space to quote at length; so that I will content myself with 
these few lines by Alexander Montgomery (coeval with 
Shakespeare)—■ 
“ I love the Lily as the first of flowers 
Whose stately stalk so straight up is and stay; 
To whom th’ lave ay lowly louts and cowers 
As bound so brave a beauty to obey .’ 3 
Montgomery here has clearly in his mind’s eye the Lily now 
so called; but the name was not so restricted in the earlier 
writers. “ Lilium, cujus vox generali et licentiosa usurpatione 
adscribitur omni flori commendabili” (Laurembergius, 1632). 
This was certainly the case with the Greek and Roman writers, 
and it is so in our English Bible in most of the cases where 
the word is used, but perhaps not universally so. It is so used 
by Gower, describing Tar quin cutting off the tall flowers, by 
some said to be Poppies and by others Lilies— 
“ And in the garden as they gone, 
The Lilie croppes one and one, 
Where that they were sprongen out, 
He smote off, as they stood about.” 
Conf Aman lib. sept. 
It is used in the same way by Bullein when speaking of the 
flower of the Honeysuckle (see Honeysuckle), and it must 
have been used in the same sense by Izaak Walton, when he 
saw a boy gathering u Lilies and Lady-smocks ” in the meadows. 
We have still many records of this loose way of speaking of 
the Lily, in the Water Lily, the Lily of the Valley, the Lent 
Lily, St. Bruno’s Lily, the Scarborough lily, the Belladonna 
Lily, and several others, none of which are true Lilies. 
But it is time to come to Shakespeare’s Lilies. In all the 
twenty-eight passages the greater portion simply recall the Lily 
as the type of elegance and beauty, without any special refer¬ 
ence to the flower, and in many the word is only used to 
express a colour, Lily-white. But in the others he doubtless 
