PLANT-LORE OF SHAKESPEARE 
3H 
AElfric’s “Vocabulary,” “Pollegia, hyl-wyrt,” which may per¬ 
haps be the Thyme, though it is generally supposed to be the 
Pennyroyal; we have in a Vocabulary of the thirteenth century, 
“ Epitime, epithimum, fordboh,” which also may be the Wild 
Thyme; we have in a Vocabulary of the fifteenth century, 
“ PIoc sirpillum, A ce petergrys and in a Pictorial Vocabulary 
of the same date, “ Hoc cirpillum, A ce a pellek ” (which word 
is probably a misprint, for in the “ Promptorium Parvulorum,” 
c. 1440, it is “ Peletyr, herbe, sepillum piretrum ), both of which 
are almost certainly the Wild Thyme; while in an Anglo-Saxon 
Vocabulary of the tenth or eleventh century we have “ serpulum, 
crop-leac,” i. e. the Onion, which must certainly be a mistake 
of the compiler. So that not even in its Latin form does the 
name occur, except in the “Promptorium Parvulorum,” where 
it is “Tyme, herbe, Tima , Timum —Tyme, floure, Timus; ” 
and in the “ Catholicon Anglicum,” where it is “ Tyme ; timum 
epitimum ; flos ejus est .” It is thus a puzzle how it can have 
got naturalized among us, for in Shakespeare’s time it was 
completely naturalized. 
I have already quoted Bacon’s account of it under Burnet, 
but I must quote it again here : “Those flowers which perfume 
the air most delightfully, not passed by as the rest, but being 
trodden upon and crushed, are three—that is Burnet, Wild 
Thyme, and Water Mints ; therefore you are to set whole alleys 
of them, to have the pleasure when you walk or tread ; ” and 
again in his pleasant description of the heath or wild garden, 
which he would have in every “prince-like garden,” and 
“framed as much as may be to a natural wildness,” he says, 
“ I like also little heaps, in the nature of mole-hills (such as 
are in wild heaths) to be set some with Wild Thyme, some 
with Pinks, some with Germander.” Yet the name may have 
been used sometimes as a general name for any wild, strong- 
scented plant. It can only be in this sense that Milton 
used it— 
“Thee, shepherd ! thee the woods and desert caves, 
With Wild Thyme and the gadding Vine o’ergrown, 
And all their echoes mourn.”— Lycidas; 
