PLANT-LORE OF SHAKESPEARE 
229 
and among these forms are two which are exactly like a double 
green Rose, and have been cultivated as the Rose Plantain for 
many years. They were grown by Gerard, who speaks of “ the 
beauty which is in the plant,” and compared it to “a fine 
double Rose of a hoary or rusty greene colour.” Parkinson 
also grew it and valued it highly. 
plums, with Damsons and prunes. 
(1) Give grandam kingdom, and it grandam will 
Give it a Plum, a Cherry, and a Fig. —King fohn, ii. 1, 161. 
(2) The satirical rogue says here that old men have grey beards, that their 
faces are wrinkled, their eyes purging thick amber and Plum-tree 
gum .—Hamlet^ ii. 2, 198. 
(3) Simpcox. A fall off a tree. 
Wife. A Plum-tree, master. 
Gloucester. Mass, thou lovedst Plums well that wouldst venture so. 
Simpcox . Alas ! good master, my wife desired some Damsons, 
And made me climb with danger of my life. 
2 nd Henry V! f ii. i, 196. 
( 4 ) 
( 5 ) 
( 6 ) 
I will dance and eat Plums at your wedding. 
Merry Wives of Windsor, v. 5. 1 
The mellow Plum doth fall, the green sticks fast, 
Or, being early pluck’d, is sour to taste. 
Venus and Adonis , 527, 
Like a green Plum that hangs upon a tree, 
And falls, through wind, before the fall should be. 
Passionate Pilgrim, 135. 
( 7 ) 
Three veneys for a dish of stewed Primes. 
Merry Wives of Windsor, i. 1, 295. 
(8) There’s no more faith in thee than in a stewed Prune.— 1 st Henry 
IV, iii. 3, 127. 
1 Omitted in the Globe edition. 
