28 o 
PLANT-LORE OF SHAKESPEARE 
And by Quarles— 
tc Love-sick swains 
Compose Rush-rings, and Myrtle-berry chains, 
And stuck with glorious King-cups in their bonnets, 
Adorned with Laurel slip, chant true love sonnets.” 
But the uses of the Rush were not all bad. Newton, in 
1587, said of the Rush—“It is a round smooth shoote with¬ 
out joints or knots, having within it a white substance or pith, 
which being drawn forth showeth like long white, soft, gentle, 
and round thread, and serveth for many purposes. Heerewith 
be made manie pretie imagined devises for Bride-ales and 
other solemnities, as little baskets, hampers, frames, pitchers, 
dishes, combs, brushes, stooles, chaires, purses with strings, 
girdles, and manie such other pretie and curious and artificial! 
conceits, which at such times many do take the paines to make 
and hang up in their houses, as tokens of good will to the new 
married Bride; and after the solemnities ended, to bestow 
abroad for Bride-gifts or presents.” It was this “white sub¬ 
stance or pith” from which the Rush candle (No. n) was and 
still is made : a candle which in early days was probably the 
universal candle, which, till within a few years, was the night 
candle of every sick chamber, in which most of us can 
recollect it as a most ghastly object as it used to stand, 
“ stationed in a basin on the floor, where it glimmered away 
like a gigantic lighthouse in a particularly small piece of 
water ” (Pickwick), till expelled by the night-lights, and which 
is still made by Welsh labourers, and, I suppose, in Shake¬ 
speare’s time was the only candle used by the poor. 
“ If your influence be quite damm’d up 
With black usurping mists, some gentle taper, 
Though a Rush-candle from the wicker hole 
Of some clay habitation, visit us 
With thy long levell’d rule of streaming light.”— Comns. 
But the chief use of Rushes in those days was to strew the 
floors of houses and churches (Nos. 4, 7, 10, 12, and 14). 
This custom seems to have been universal in all houses of any 
pretence, “William the son of William of Alesbury holds 
