PLANT-LORE OF SHAKESPEARE 
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(24) He hath a garden circummured with brick, 
Whose western side is with a Vineyard back’d; 
And to that Vineyard is a planched gate, 
That makes his opening with this bigger key : 
This other doth command a little door, 
Which froln the Vineyard to the garden leads. 
Measure for Measure , iv. 1, 28, 
(25) The Vine shall grow, but we shall never see it. 
Two Noble Kinsmen , ii. 2, 47. 
(26) Even as poor birds, deceived with painted Grapes, 
Do forfeit by the eye and pine the maw. 
Venus and Adonis , 601. 
(27) For one sweet Grape, who will the Vine destroy? 
Lticrece , 215. 
Besides these different references to the Grape Vine, some 
of its various products are mentioned, as Raisins, wine, aqua- 
vitse or brandy, claret (the “thin 
potations” forsworn by Falstaff), 
sherris-sack or sherry, and malm¬ 
sey. But none of these passages 
gives us much insight into the 
culture of the Vine in England, 
the whole history of which is 
curious and interesting. 
The Vine is not even a native 
of Europe, but of the East, 
whence it was very early intro¬ 
duced into Europe; so early, 
indeed, that it has recently been 
found “fossil in a tufaceous de¬ 
posit in the South of France.”— 
Darwin . 1 It was no doubt brought into England by the 
Romans. Tacitus, describing England in the first century 
after Christ, says expressly that the Vine did not, and, as he 
evidently thought, could not grow there. “ Solum, prseter 
oleam vitemque et csetera calidioribus terris oriri sueta, patiens 
1 See Decandolle, “Origin of Cultivated Plants,” s. v. Vine. 
Y 
