176 
PLANT-LORE OF SHAKESPEARE 
/lEmlberaes. 
(1) Feed him with Apricocks and Dewberries, 
With purple Grapes, green Figs, and Mulberries. 
Midsummer Night's Dream, iii. 1, 169. 
(2) Thy stout heart, 
Now humble as the ripest Mulberry 
That will not bear the handling. — Coriolanus , iii. 2, 78. 
(3) Thisby tarrying in Mulberry shade. 
Midsummer Night's Dream, v. 1, 149. 
(4) Palamon is gone, 
Is gone to the wood to gather Mulberries. 
Two Noble Kinsmen , iv. r, 87. 
(5) The birds would bring him Mulberries and ripe-red Cherries. 
Venus and Adonis (1103). (See Cherries. ) 
We do not know when the Mulberry, which is an Eastern 
tree, was introduced into England, but probably very early. 
We find in Archbishop FElfric’s “Vocabulary,” “morns vel 
rubus, mor-beam,” but it is doubtful whether that applies to 
the Mulberry or Blackberry, as in the same catalogue Black¬ 
berries are mentioned as “flavi vel mori, blace-berian.” There 
is no doubt that Morum was a Blackberry as well as a Mulberry 
in classical times. Our Mulberry is probably the fruit 
mentioned by Horace— 
“Ille salubres 
^Estates peraget, qui nigris prandia Moris 
Finiet ante gravem quoe legerit arbore solem.”— Sat. ii. 4, 24. 
And it certainly is the fruit mentioned by Ovid— 
“ In duris huerentia mora rubetis.”— Met am. , i. 105. 
In the Dictionarius of John de Garlande (thirteenth century) 1 
we find, “ Hec sunt nomina silvestrium arborum, qui sunt in 
luco magistri Johannis; quercus cum fago, pinus cum lauro, 
1 The Dictionarius of John de Garlande is published in Wright’s 
“Vocabularies.” His garden was probably in the neighbourhood of Paris, 
but he was a thorough Englishman, and there is little doubt that his descrip¬ 
tion of a garden was drawn as much from his English as from his French 
experience. 
