312 PLANT-LORE OF SHAKESPEARE 
(13) A Thornier piece of ground.— Pericles , iv. 6, 153. 
(14) Which being spotted 
Is goads, Thorns, Nettles, tails of wasps. 
Winter''s Tale , i. 2, 328. 
(15) But O, the Thorns we stand upon !— Ibid. , iv. 4, 596. 
(16) Do not, as some ungracious pastors do, 
Shew me the steep and Thorny path to Heaven. 
Hamlet , i. 3, 47. 
(17) Leave her to Heaven, 
And to those Thoms that in her bosom lodge, 
To prick and sting her.— Ibid. , i. 5, 86. 
(18) I am amazed, methinks, and lose my way 
Among the Thorns and dangers of this world. 
King John, iv. 3, 40. 
(19) I know what Thorns the growing rose defend.— Lucrece, 492. 
(20) And whiles against a Thorn thou bearst thy part.— Ibid. , 1135. 
(21) Roses have Thorns and silver fountains mud.— Sonnet xxxv. 
(22) The canker*blooms . . . hang on such thorns.— Ibid.,W\. 
(23) The roses fearfully on Thorns did stand.— Ibid., xcix. 
(24) Thy hand hath sworn 
Never to pluck thee from thy Thorn.— Pass. Pil., 17, 12. 
(25) She lean’d her breast up till a Thorn.— Ibid. , 21, 10. 
(26) The Thorny bramble and embracing bushes. 
Venus and Adonis, 629. 
See also Rose, Nos. 7, 18, 22, 30, the scene in the Temple Gardens; and 
Brier, No. ii. 
Thorns and Thistles are the typical emblems of desolation 
and trouble, and so Shakespeare uses them; and had he 
spoken of Thorns in this sense only, I should have been 
doubtful as to admitting them among his other plants, but as 
in some of the passages they stand for the Hawthorn tree and 
the Rose bush, I could not pass them by altogether. They 
might need no further comment beyond referring for further 
